Neon Genesis Evangelion Fan Fiction ❯ Neon Genesis Evangelion: The Demon Saga ❯ Every Man Has His Demons ( Chapter 1 )

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Neon Genesis Evangelion: The Demon Saga

Chapter 1: Every Man Has His Demons

 

He began to choke her...and he didn't know why. Maybe it was to see if she was real. Maybe it was from the stress of everything that had just happened. Maybe he was just crazy...but then she touched him. And he felt his senses come back to him. Shinji slowly released his grip on Asuka. After he completely regained himself, it hit him as to what he almost did... and he broke down. "What a disgusting feeling..." he wasn't sure what she meant by that.

Asuka let him sit there and cry for a while. She either didn't want to disturb him or couldn't muster enough strength to get him off of her. Finally, a few moments later, Shinji regained his composure and moved off of her to sit next to her. She didn't move. If he hadn't of known better, he would have sworn she was dead. He let her lay there, as they were both very mentally and physically exhausted. He pulled his knees up to his chest, put his arms on them, and his head on those. He wasn't sure when, but he eventually fell asleep. It wasn't a very comfortable sleep, but it had nothing to do with his posturing. The uncomfortable point was that he wasn't dreaming. Nothingness had taken over his sleep...until the very end.

"Shinji...are you ready...for what comes next?" he didn't know who's voice it was. Maybe he'd never met them before. Yet it sounded so familiar.

Shinji suddenly woke up, but was not on the beach anymore. He looked around the white room, and it took a while for him to realize that he was in a hospital bed. He tried to move but found that he was very weak, like he had been lying there for years.

The door opened and a thin, young doctor entered. He saw that Shinji was up and smiled a little. "Ah, so you're finally awake...You've been out for a couple days."

"Only a couple days...It feels like it's been longer. I feel like I can barely move."

"Well, you were in pretty bad shape when we found you. Luckily, your friend was able to get you help before it was too late," he said as he scanned his clipboard. "I'd like to keep you for just a little while longer, to make sure there's nothing seriously wrong with you. If everything checks out, I may let you go sometime tomorrow morning. That okay with you?"

Shinji nodded, even though he was fairly positive there was nothing "seriously wrong" with him...at least physically anyway.

The door flew open again. The person entering the room this time was all too familiar. She welcomed Shinji back to the land of the moving with a smack across the face. "Shinji, if you ever worry me like that again, I'll....I'll..." Asuka then did the unthinkable. She hugged him. "Just...don't do that again...ever."

The doctor stood there for a few minutes, letting them embrace. Then he cleared his throat to get Asuka's attention. "Miss Soryu, Shinji needs his rest. He may look it, but he's not 100% yet. Also, could you please refrain from hitting him? At least for now, anyway..." The doctor then turned and left. As he did, Asuka let him go and turned towards the door.

"I'll talk to you later, Shinji..." She left, and he was left alone in the room again. He put his head back on his pillow and stared at the ceiling. You'd think that if someone just woke up from a concussion or a coma or whatever he was in, that the last thing they'd want to do is sleep. But his body gave way and Shinji fell asleep again. One more comforting than the previous episode. He dreamed this time. For some reason, the dream felt more like a memory. A happy one. But it couldn't be one of his. Shinji didn't have many happy memories as a child. All the people in the dream seemed familiar, yet he didn't know who they were.

He awoke the next day to a knock on the door. It was the same young doctor from the other day. He began some tests and everything turned out alright. Asuka was waiting for him in the lobby. "Finally! I thought I'd be waiting all day in this waiting room for little Shinji to get his beauty rest," she said, greeting me in a more Asuka-like tone. She gave Shinji a half smile to show she was messing with him. He couldn't help but notice that she wasn't really herself lately, even when she tried to be. They left the hospital and headed in the direction of the apartment. There didn't seem to be any damage to the city, and this confused him. The city was in ruins when they were lying on the beach.

"Asuka...what happened? After I fell asleep, what happened here?"

She looked over at him as she walked, confused. "Well, I went back to the apartment to check on Pen-Pen and then I came back to the hospital. Why does any of that matter?"

"No. I meant when we were on the beach. What happened after that? And why did you bring me to a hospital."

Asuka stopped walking to look at Shinji even closer. "Are you feeling okay? You're not hallucinating are you?"

"What do you mean?" Shinji then wished that he hadn't asked that question. It only lead to confusion.

"Do you know what happened? Do you remember anything before you ejected?"

He stared at her confused. "...Ejected?"

"We found your plug on a beach. The LCL fluid had been drained and the hatch was opened, but you appeared to be alright, just unconcious. So we took you to the emergency room."

"We?"

"NERV. Who else? Well, I guess we're not NERV anymore. But the survivors of the infiltration." All this lead to more confusion.

"How are we not NERV anymore?"

Asuka started to walk again and Shinji followed. She was trying to think of a way to explain this to him. Like it would matter...he'd still be confused either way. "Well, several of the NERV heads are missing. Only a handful of them are left. Plus, without the Angels around anymore, there's no need for NERV really."

"Who's missing?" Asuka bit her lip. She didn't want to tell him. In fear of upsetting him.

"Well, we haven't heard any word from Commander Ikari. And Dr. Akagi is also missing. We also haven't heard anything from Misato." Asuka continued a list of other personnel who were missing, but they fell on deaf ears. All Shinji could think about was the last time he saw Misato. She kissed him...with an "adult kiss."

'Did she know she was about to die? Is that why she kissed me? Is that why she made that promise?' Shinji wondered.

His attention returned when Asuka mentioned that Kaji was missing, but he'd been missing before the attack as well.

"What about the Evangelions?"

She continued walking, but he could see the disappointment on her face. "EVA Unit-02 was completely destroyed. There's no way of fixing it. And we can't find Unit-01. We tried to do a search and we found your pod."

So far, her story seemed accurate. Unit-02 was destroyed. "Asuka, do you remember what happened to you during Third Impact?"

She gave him another confused look. "Maybe we should go back to the hospital."

"Just tell me what happened alright!" She looked at him stunned for a few seconds, and then broke the news to him.

"Shinji, Third Impact never happened. If it did, we wouldn't be here right now."

"Then what happened?"

"I don't know. The last thing I remember was fighting the Eva Series in Unit-02 and it went silent. I guess you beat the rest of the Eva Series and you saved me. Although, I still don't know why you ejected."

"No..." He wanted to tell her the truth. That the Eva Series disembowled her. That he didn't save her. He was too late to save her. That...he couldn't do anything. But he didn't get the chance. The next thing he knew, Shinji was on his back, looking up at the sky. 'Am I on the beach again? ...No.' Asuka was leaning over him shouting something at him. Shinji couldn't make out her words and he felt a trickle on his forehead. He put his hand to it and examined it. He was bleeding, but not a whole lot. After a moment, he could hear again. He hadn't noticed at first, but he couldn't hear anything. All his senses came back after that, and he was able to sit up.

"Shinji, are you alright?" Asuka asked worriedly. Shinji nodded.

"What hit me?" The question was as much to Asuka as it was to himself, but neither of them knew the answer. He looked down and saw a pebble. That was the culprit. He was surprised it didn't go right through his head with how hard it hit him. He looked to where the "shot" came from and saw a young man. The man was older than Shinji, about 19 by the looks of him. He was wearing baggy black jeans with a black button up shirt. He didn't button any of the buttons and they exposed his white shirt underneath. His hair was white and was short and spikey. Around his neck, he wore a small cross made out of silver.

As Shinji stared at him and examined him, the stranger gave a short chuckle. "So this is the infamous Shinji Ikari, the boy that saved the world from Third Impact. Funny...I thought you'd be stronger. But knowing what I know, I should have known otherwise."

Asuka got to her feet and started walking to him. "Hey you jerk. Why'd you do that to Shinji? That's not a great way to show gratitude to the guy who, as you put it, saved the earth."

He looked Asuka up and down. "Asuka Langley Soryu. Former Eva pilot. Complete bitch. But as least you're good looking. Maybe that's why the few people who you keep around you can stand to actually BE around you." At that point, Asuka tried to slap him. He caught her hand effortlessly and pulled her in close. And then...he kissed her. Shinji stared in shock. Asuka didn't look to be struggling. As he watched, he got to his feet. The man pulled himself from her and through her back to Shinji, who braced himself and was able to catch her. Asuka was in shock as well. When she regained her senses, Shinji had to hold her back from trying to attack this myserious stranger again.

"Just who are you anyway," Shinji asked. "And how do you know so much about us."

"Oh, excuse me for not introducing myself," he replied cynically while giving them a bow. "The name's Rain. Rain Sujimoto. And I know so much about you...cause I know everything. While humanity was one during Third Impact and the following gathering of all life forms into one being, all their knowledge was combined. Everything anyone had experienced or knew, was put together within that one entity. But when you decided that you wanted a world with AT Fields, Shinji, you split everyone back up. But that combined knowledge had to go somewhere...and it came to me. Everything anyone has experience or knew...is now within me. Even you, Shinji. Your memories were combined with everyone elses, right before you made your decision. That's why your dreams and the people around you seem familiar. However, you have changed some people's memories of the events of Third Impact. And I'm here to give them their memories back." Suddenly his position changed. Shinji couldn't tell what he was doing, but everyone around the three of them stopped moving. Some people screamed, some collapsed, some did both. Shinji looked at Asuka. At first, he wasn't sure if it was affecting her. Then, she clutched her eye and fell backwards. A few seconds went by and she then began to clutch at her stomach. She began to reach toward the sky and mumble something, but then she let out a loud scream and fell silent.

"STOP THIS!!!" Shinji said, turning back towards Rain, who had a huge maniacal smile on his face. "Stop this right now!"

"Hmm...You're not enjoying seeing you're friend relive her memories. Then maybe she'll enjoy this memory." Asuka stopped clutching herself. She got up and stared blankly for several minutes. Shinji turned to Rain, confused by what he was showing her. "If you want to know Shinji...maybe you should ask her yourself...you dirty boy..." He winked and then disappeared. He didn't walk away...he just disappeared. Shinji turned back to Asuka who was staring at him with a look of shock and disgust and then Shinji had realized what Rain had shown her.

Asuka began to run down the street before Shinji could say anything. "ASUKA!!" he shouted to her and she turned around, still with that look of disgust on her face.

"Stay away from me, Ikari." She then turned back and ran full steam towards her destination. Shinji decided to wait until she was out of view to begin walking towards the apartment. The people who were suffering from getting their memories back slowly got back up, and then preceeded as if nothing had happened.

Shinji arrived home late in the afternoon. He let himself in and went to Asuka's door. He couldn't tell if she was in there or not. It was hard to tell if anyone had lived in this apartment for the past few months with the way it looked. He contemplated knocking. Deep down, Shinji knew he should give her space until she gets over it, but he had to know if she made it back or not. He gave a light knock on the door and there was no answer. He wasn't sure if it was that she just didn't want to answer him or if she just wasn't in there. "Please Asuka. I understand if you don't want to talk to me, but I have to know if you're okay." He waited a while and was about to give up when she finally spoke up.

"Why?"

Shinji rushed back to her door. "It's because...you're the only one I have left in this world."

"No...Why? Why did you do that to me? How could you do that?"

He sat there for a while. Nothing he could say could ever make her trust him again. "I don't know."

Her door burst open and there she was, staring at him with pure hatred. "You don't know?! How do you not know? You were there!" She took a pause to see if he was going to respond. "Is that how I make you feel, Ikari. Do you want me? Do you want to fuck me." They weren't really questions. Just accusations.

"No...it's not--"

"Then why would you do that? Why would you jerk off to me? And over my comatose body no less!"

"Cause I couldn't be alone anymore!" She stopped. She didn't respond. She waited til he was ready to continue. It was his turn to cry. "I couldn't pilot the EVA by myself. I might have been good, but to do it all alone...It was just too hard. And then you went comatose. And I wanted you to come back. I wanted you to be yourself again. Not that lifeless puppet. I wanted you to insult me, hit me, do anything as long as you woke back up. And when I tried to wake you up, your shirt opened. And...I don't know why I did it..." Shinji expected her to call him a pervert, or hit him, or something. Instead, she grabbed him by the shoulders and put her lips to his. She pushed him back against the wall and kept her lips firmly in place. It wasn't like the first time she had kissed him, but this time, it was much better. She finally let him go and looked him straight in the eyes.

"Next time, think of that instead." She then left back to her room. She shut the door behind her and locked it. Shinji slid down the wall and sat there. He looked back down the hall and there was Pen-Pen. The young penguin stood there staring at what had just happened, gave a little flutter of his wings, almost in a slight applause, and then continued on his way.

Eventually, Shinji got back to his feet and went to his room. He laid on his bed and tried to fall asleep, but he kept thinking of Asuka. Until he remembered why that whole thing started. Rain. 'Who was he? Do I really have other people's memories inside me? Just what the hell is going on?' He fell asleep to these questions.

In his dream, he saw Rain, but it was a different Rain. He was happy. 'Was this another memory? And just whose was it?'

Shinji didn't plan on sleeping so long, but he woke up to someone knocking on his door. It was Asuka. At first, he thought that maybe she'd want breakfast, but she had other news.

"I think it's time you went back to NERV."

"Why?"

"Well, with all that happened yesterday, I'm sure they'd want to find out what happened to Unit-01. Plus, they're probably worried about you." They got dressed and headed for NERV Central Command. It'd seemed like an eternity since Shinji had been there. They were met on the bridge by Vice-Commander Fuyutsuki.

"Hello, Shinji. And how are you doing?" the Fuyutsuki asked as he entered.

"I'm pretty good, sir."

"Excellent. Now I have some questions to ask you. They involve the whereabouts of Unit 01." Fuyutsuki's tone changed from friendly to serious in an instant. Apparently, this was important, but Shinji didn't know why. The Angels were gone. All of them were. "What happened to you inside Unit 01? We know now that our souls were combined with Lilith, but up until that point, and our resulting replacement on Earth, we have no idea. How and where did you come back?"

"I'm not sure. I don't remember coming back to Earth." He stared down at the ground, trying to search through his memory to see if there was anything that might explain what happened.

"Perhaps, I can explain." That voice! It was him again. Rain. He was standing on the computer in front of Maya. No one had even seen him come in. But from what Shinji had seen before, maybe he hadn't entered through conventional means.

Vice-Commander Fuyutsuki stared at the young man, analyzing him. "Who are you? And how'd you get here?"

Rain smiled his evil smile. "Let's just say I'm the man with all the answers. As for the who am I part, Shinji can fill you in on all that later. As for the whereabouts of Evangelion, that I can tell you myself."

The Vice-Commander was a little warry of this new arrival, but he chose to hear him out. "I'm listening." He said, folding his arms across his chest.

"If you want to get the Evangelion back, I suggest you find yourself a giant ship. One that's really fast. Cause it's on the other side of the galaxy." He waited as everyone displayed looks of shock. "Shinji, do you know what the EVA is...truly?" He shook his head no. He searched his memories and the memories of others to see if anyone knew. A few knew little. That it was based off of Adam, the First Angel. But there wasn't much else beyond that. "Well, the EVAs are really just empty shells. They're almost soulless. Basically, they're puppets. However, they can be infused with the souls of people. The soul of 00 was that of Naoko Akagi. After she committed suicide, her soul became connected with that of 00. Unit-02's soul was that of Kyoko Zeppelin Soryu, Asuka's mother. Her soul was combined with 02's when she tried to synchronize with it. Because the EVA had no soul, it took hers, but left her mentally unstable. She later killed herself...right Asuka?"

Asuka was on the verge of tears, but she refused to let them fall. It was obvious that she hated this guy. He was cocky and a show off, but most of what she hated was that he was right.

Rain then continued. "Unit-01's soul was that of Yui Ikari. The "accident" that everyone says she died during was actually her attempt to synchronize with the EVA. You see, Shinji. Your mother was an exceptional pilot, and she was originally going to pilot 01. However, because the EVA didn't have a soul at the time, it took your mother's. She wasn't as lucky as Asuka's mother, but maybe, for you, it was for the best." He grinned again, this time at Shinji. But Shinji didn't react. "The reason I'm telling you this, is so that you understand why Unit-01 did what it did. After you decided to return everyone to Earth, you would have been returned to the cockpit of the EVA unit. However, the EVA's destination was to go into deep space, meaning that you would have died. Your mother's last act as the EVA was to eject you towards Earth. But now her soul is no longer with the unit. As everyone returned to the planet, it was seen that there was no more use for the EVAs and her soul was put to rest."

"Interesting story," Fuyutsuki responded.

"Oh, I'm just getting started," Rain replied, with his maniacal smile. "You see, the decision was premature. The role of the Angels were to keep something far more sinister locked inside the Earth. As long as the seal was not broken, and at least one Angel remained on Earth, these beasts could not reawaken. Behold..." He raised his arms and as he did, the radars began to pick up something in the water.

"What is that?" Fuyutsuki asked. "What's the reading?"

Makoto, Maya, and Shingeru all turned to their computers and got to work. Makoto was able to get the analysis of the entity done. He took a look at the read out and was stunned.

"What's the report?" Fuyutsuki asked, growing impatient.

"It's not an Angel. But this thing....It's enormous," Makoto finally responded.

"How big?" Fuyutsuki's question was answered when the radar showed that the beast was five times the size of Tokyo-3 itself. "Oh my God..."

Rain gave a short laugh. "Allow me to introduce you to your demise...Leviathan! The first of several Demons. However, I won't allow Shinji the chance to defeat it." He prepared a lunge at Shinji, but as he readied himself, the wall beside him was destroyed, and he was met with a large armored fist. The fist hit Rain in just about all of his left side, as it was almost as big as he was. Rain flew across the bridge and hit hard into the other wall. He fell out of the hole he had created, and hit the floor hard. It was almost certain that the young man was dead, or at least knocked out, but he began to move after a few seconds and returned to his feet. He looked to where the new threat had come from and was surprised at who his attacker was... EVA Unit-01! "01! But how?" He thought over how this could have happened, but then smiled. "No matter. It's a surprise, but a welcomed one. Shinji, I'll see you later." He disappeared before anyone could even think about capturing him.

Fuyutsuki was in shock. How did the EVA return to Earth? Was what that boy said true? He snapped out of his thoughts. "Shinji, get into your plug suit. We'll ready a pod for you."

Shinji took a moment to realize what was happening. He was being called to pilot the EVA again. Only this time, he would have to do it alone. "Come on, Shinji. Snap out of it," Asuka called to him. He ran to the locker room to change. He changed and then returned to the bridge about fifteen minutes later, most of which were spent on trying to get to the locker room. As Fuyutsuki had said, they had a pod waiting for him. He climbed inside and the EVA turned on. However, it felt different from the last time he had piloted the thing. He heard Fuyutsuki on the communicator once he had gained control of the EVA.

"Shinji, this Leviathon thing is on a straight path towards Tokyo-3. It'll arrive in 30 minutes. We don't have much in ways of weaponry, but we'll give you what we got. Take the EVA out the same way it came and then head towards your position on the beach. We'll air lift you a gun. We'll try to find some reinforcements as well. Until then, you're basically on your own. So be careful." With that, 01 turned and began to climb up the hole it had just created.

Suddenly, Shingeru had a thought. "Hey, why didn't we get a notice on that thing when it came crushing through the wall. Shouldn't we have picked something up on the radar?"

Makoto looked back down at the monitor. "For some reason, the data on the EVA Unit-01 has been changed. Either it's an error, or there's something different about it."

"Any ideas on what it could be?" Maya asked. Makoto shook his head no, and the three returned their attention towards their monitors. "His synch level is lower than it usually is. It's barely stabilizing at 73%." From that information, everyone gathered exactly what was different about the EVA Unit-01.

Fuyutsuki was the first one to ask the question on everyone's mind. "If that's not Shinji's mother's soul...then who's is it?"

 

TO BE CONTINUED...

 

Now it's time for the typical begging and pleading, by me, of you the reader to take pity and review this tripe of a fic. Okay, honestly, this is one of the greatest things I've ever written, though it may seem subpar to you. But we can work on that. Just tell me what you think of it. If it needs work, let me know. I'm open to constructive criticism, even a couple flames. So please review.