Broken heroes

A/N: Man did it take me a while to get this chapter out! I was always busy with school and stuff that I never had time to write and it took even longer than usual because it's the Finale!

Oh well, the important thing is that it's here now. I hope you enjoy and that you had a fun ride reading my story.

Reviews are welcome, but enough talking from me, have a fun read.

Chapter 28:

So you walk eternally through the shadow realms, standing against evil where all others falter.

May your thirst for retribution never quench, may the blood on your sword never dry

and may we never need you again.

Corrax tablets 7:17

Final part

Apotheosis

I've always been here

"{Ugh… where am I? Did VEGA eat me? Am I dead?...

No, that can't be it, I felt no pain, but that attack looked like it would have hurt a lot, plus there was also the Slayer getting out my eye and then nothing else… }

"I think that we are in another dimension Lilith"

Rei said as she walked closer to her.

"{Wait, how did you free yourself from me?

The embryo should have kept you locked in there}"

"My only assumption is that the embryo is not in this dimension or that it has been separated from its user"

"{Okay… have you been able to find the others? And how long have I been here?}"

"We entered this dimension around one minute ago, you and I were separated right in that moment, I have looked around us, but I haven't seen the others for now, there is only an infinitely large black plain"

Suddenly they heard something from all around them, hiding in the dark as it began giggling.

Then, hundreds of red eyes opened up, revealing an entire army of Lilith clones that were looking at them.

"Lilith?"

"{I am not doing this, it seems to be the dimension that is causing the clones to be here}"

"Yes, but why would that be?"

"{Look, a text is appearing over them}"

As she said this, the Lilith pointed towards the large blue square floating in the dark sky as it was filled with words:

"Only the ones with a complete soul can enter my temple, please choose your partner.

Choosing the wrong one will unfortunately bring tremendous amounts of pain, something that I have tested myself.

If you choose by following your heart though, you will be rewarded not only with access to my temple, but also with a piece of the broken soul.

-A.B."

"A.B.? Do you know what such an acronym means?"

"{No and look, a group of Mari clones is here too}"

A thunderous "Nya!" echoed through the void.

The two of them looked at each other and with a small nod, they began their search.

Lilith approached her clones and after a quick look, she grabbed the hand of the one in front of her.

The pain was immediate and it felt like a knife had just gone through her heart, then the clone disappeared and the others moved to close the gap.

Seeing this Rei began growing tense as she approached the pink plug suit wearing girls while they welcomed her with different reactions.

Some of them tried hugging her, others looked at her with hate on their faces, others were making silly faces and so on.

Unfortunately for her, there were just too many versions of Mari to choose from, but then she decided the remember what the text had said:

"Follow your heart…"

She took a deep breath and closed her eyes, trying to reflect on the statement.

That's when she suddenly felt a small flame light up inside of her, longing for another one that could keep it alive.

Rei focused on this feeling of warmth and suddenly, she began feeling the warmth coming from somewhere else, from inside of the crowd.

She began walking forward, following her instincts to the best of her capabilities.

Lilith noticed this too and after growing tired of feeling like having her heart pierced she tried to copy what Rei had just done.

Instead of a single point of warmth though, she felt like she was inside of an oven, with a small shard of ice inside of her trying to find the cold wind that could keep it standing.

And so her search began too, diving into the sea of clones in an attempt to find that single cold point.

And I'm sorry that I wasn't there for you

Asuka found herself on top of a large red platform and under her a group of Shinji's were shouting compliments at her, all of them giving her their full attention.

Then they began to run at the platform, but they weren't able to climb up to it, so they always fell down and hurt themselves.

She enjoyed the scene for a moment, even striking done poses as she had fun with the copies of her boyfriend, that's until a pedestal rose up in front of her.

On it, a red letter had been opened and Asuka read the message on it:

"Only the ones with a healthy relationship can enter my temple and gain a piece of the broken soul.

They might give you all of their attention, but they are hurting themselves to get to you, they are denying their own problems to try to get closer to you.

All of these iterations come from different realities, all of them love you, yet only one of them is your Shinji,the only one who can make you feel happy.

Each other Shinji has another Asuka with another relationship, but love is there anyway.

Good luck Asuka, I believe in you to make the right choice.

-A.B."

"I don't know who the hell is this AB, but if what she's saying is true then…

All of you! Stop talking and moving!"

The Shinji's followed her command, but she was surprised when some of them ducked and covered their heads before shouting:

"Please don't hurt me! I know I am pathetic!"

That last word made her shiver as the memories the Father had given her earlier about the other timelines resurfaced.

She remembered the living room during instrumentality, being choked, Shinji's actions in the hospital and how she treated him on the Wunder.

She understood how in all of these occasions, they had acted like that because they were running from each other, they weren't honest with themselves and simply scared of having a relationship.

And that was the case for most of the other Shinji's there even if they came from different realities.

It seemed as if the two of them were fated to meet in whatever circumstances the world put them in and every time they were destined to fall in love.

So, she began trying to figure out a way to find her baka.

But now I'm glad that we are together

Shinji had been walking around the void for a while now, growing increasingly tense and anxious the longer he was left alone.

Until suddenly a small dot of orange light appeared and then another and then thousands more. When it stopped, Shinji felt like he was floating in open space, surrounded by hot stars that tried to blind him at every occasion.

Then, a smaller and less bright version of the sun appeared and Shinji was immediately attracted to its surface by its gravity, screaming in fear of suffering a very hot death.

He closed his eyes and prepared for his doom, but it never came, instead he began slowing down the closer he got to the surface and strangely he wasn't burning up, just feeling a bit warm.

Under him a sort of glass platform appeared where he landed right in the middle of it.

On one side of the platform there was a. Glass door with a broken glass bridge behind it, leading to the hot plasma below.

A message appeared on the door in front of the boy and it read:

"Only the ones who know how to communicate can enter my temple and get a piece of the broken soul.

Your Asuka is waiting for you at the pole of the star Shinji, but the path will be arduous and dangerous, with the chance of being showered by plasma at any moment.

The path will not be shown to you, but if you follow your heart, then you will be able to reach the girl who is longing for your comfort.

You can do it Shinji, only you know the way to her heart.

-A.B."

The door opened and Shinji began walking forward.

He was immediately greeted by a piece of plasma passing a meter in front of him and as he reflected on the words of the text, the bridge extended forward, but it turned invisible after a couple of meters.

Still, he kept walking forward and soon came to an intersection, where a vision of Asuka appeared in front of him.

She was wearing the same dress she had when they had first met on the carrier and she was standing in the same way too, then she asked the same question she had already done once:

"Tell me Shinji, do you know anything about my father?"

He took a deep breath and feeling like he wanted to change something, he answered:

"I do.

I know that he cheated on your mother while she was ill and that you never had a good relationship with him.

I know that you don't hate him to the core, as he still is your father, even though your relationship is long gone by now.

And I know that now you just want someone to take care of you, because both of them failed to do so"

She turned around and smiled at him with tears in her eyes and then she said:

"Well done baka, go to the right to move forward"

And then she disappeared, leaving behind her a small red rock which flew into Shinji's hands.

He kept it safe and proceeded.

And that I can finally spend some time with you

Mari woke up on the grey floor with no one around her and after grabbing her glasses from the ground, she started walking around to try and find someone.

After a couple of meters Rei appeared in front of her and she ran towards her for a hug, with her plug suit squeaking as she moved.

But, as soon as she touched her girlfriend, her body disappeared, making her almost fall to the ground.

In her place a piece of paper with a message had appeared.

"Only the ones who are not obsessive can enter my temple and gain a piece of the broken soul.

You just have to hug her Mari, without making her uncomfortable, let's see if you can do it

-A.B."

"Well A.B." Mari said "That's basically going completely against my character, but I'll try nonetheless"

And then Rei appeared again.

She approached her slowly, discovering that she wasn't able to communicate with her except for touching and looking at each other.

When Mari was in front of her once again, she slowly opened her arms and tried hugging her, but she disappeared once again.

"Dammit"

So just rest for now, you don't have to fight

Ramiel, Leliel and Zeruel looked around at the dark void around them, unsure of what they had to do.

Their Father was gone and after seeing him turn into that abomination they weren't sure they wanted to stay with him anymore, especially Ramiel.

When they were walking through the ruined planet and then inside of his mind there was one detail that had shocked him more than anything else, all the broken angel cores lying around next to human bodies and skeletons.

He was scared of that because it meant that the Father not only could kill angels and so him, but that he had already done it many times.

"Ramiel?

Ramiel!"

"Uh uh! Oh Leliel, sorry I had zoned out a bit…"

He turned silent again, but just before Leliel could reply, two differently colored portals opened in front of the group with a message between them.

"Only the ones who know what is better for themselves can enter my temple and gain a piece of the broken soul and that is what you three will have to do.

By entering the blue portal, you will accept VEGA as your father, by entering the white one, you will refuse him as your father, returning to Adam's custody.

The choice is yours, but I warn you that your decision might be essential in getting him back to normal.

Good luck you three.

-A.B."

Immediately both Leliel and Zeruel approached the blue portal, but when they saw that Ramiel hadn't moved, they both stopped and Zeruel asked his brother while getting closer to him:

"Are you okay Ramiel? Come on, we have to go through that portal an-"

"But I don't want to"

"What?"

"I don't want to have VEGA as my father anymore! He scares me! I'm scared of him!

How can I be sure that he won't hurt me after seeing what he has done?

He has killed thousands of our species or even millions! What are we to him if -"

"Hey! Stop thinking like that"

Zeruel said, stopping Ramiel's rambling, then he continued:

"Look, I've been with him for the least amount of time out of us three, but I can see why he hasn't hurt us like that…

Because he cares about us, nothing more, nothing less.

We have given him a second chance to be a father, a chance to get away from those exact things he has done and to start again.

I mean where would we be without him right now?

You would have been killed probably, then without you Leliel wouldn't have stopped her attack and either won or killed one of the pilots and when I came in, I would have either finished things up or died and left the rest to our brothers and sisters.

The only reason we are all alive is because of him Ramiel, after the incident in the ship it would have been easy for everyone to say you were a dangerous target and get rid of you, instead he went against everyone, all of NERV and even the Slayer and Samuel just to adopt you, did you think about that?"

"I… no I never actually considered it…"

"And from then onwards how many times has he played with us, how careful has he been with us during other fights?"

Then Leliel added:

"Think also about how he didn't tell us about Lilith to shield us from the pain"

And Zeruel said:

"Exactly! And he's the one who gave us more power over the black moon!

I eavesdropped on a conversation between Kaji and the Slayer and they knew that it was him who controlled the Argent.

He knew that we couldn't survive getting hit by the Lances so he almost revealed himself just to let us live!...

…

…

Look, Ramiel… he just wanted us to be happy, he never wanted to show anyone… that entire dimension, but it happened.

This does not mean that he is worse as a Father because of what he has done, remember what Samuel said in the memory? He was crying during the impact.

But, even though I'm your older brother, I can't force this decision upon you. You have grown enough to do it on your own.

Me and Leliel are staying with him, since returning to Adam would just cause us more pain than before…

I'll leave the rest to you Ramiel"

And so he gave his younger brother a hug, then both him and his sister approached the blue portal again, but just as they were about to turn around and check on Ramiel, he crashed into them so hard that they all flew into the portal.

Zeruel hugged both of them and while looking at Ramiel he said:

"I'm proud of you, never forget that"

The blue angel giggled as they got back up and looked around once more.

They were in an enclosed circular area with at the centre of it a floating piece of the Father's life sphere, which in their case was the small bright circular flame that stayed inside.

Near them, behind the white glowing fences, various other enclosed areas were present, forming a semi-circular pattern in the middle of the void.

In front of them, the Father's dark hole-like life sphere was floating, with a small altar under it.

Finally behind all of this, two giant white doors were waiting to be opened.

Then suddenly, Yui and Gendo appeared in the far left, holding a small left wing while on the far right Kyoko, Maria and Misato, holding the right wing.

So as the two groups looked at each other, Leliel said:

"I guess that we just have to wait for the others then"

Just relax, unwind your battle worn body

Lilith had been searching for a while now, as well as Rei, both of them failing numerous times, but now, they were feeling like they were closer than ever to their soulmate.

Then they saw them,on Lilith's side, a flock of silver hair, standing out from the rest as they sent chills in her body and moved around, searching for something.

While on Rei's side, a pair of red glasses on a soul that radiated more heat than any other kind of connection she had ever felt.

The moment Adam and Lilith's hands touched, they immediately looked at each other's eyes as if it was the first time they had met.

A similar thing happened on the other side, just with Rei jumping on Mari and bringing her to the ground while they held each other like two young traumatized kids.

Both of the groups disappeared through a blue portal and reached the main area, yet Rei didn't find Mari next to her, unlike Lilith and Adam, who were now holding the bottom of the life sphere.

You have fought many battles and always come out in top, every time, in every place

Asuka had been trying for a while to find her Shinji and she had managed to get the obvious ones and others out of the equation, leaving only two of them to interrogate, but the differences between them were so minimal that they really felt like clones of one another.

Both of them had met the Slayer, both of them had stopped the near third impact in the same way, both of them had saved her from Mount Asama without a scratch.

Letting out a sigh, her mind tried to form new questions, but she was almost out of things to ask.

Suddenly though, a light bulb turned on in her head and after looking at both of them she said:

"Alright, final question.

When I ran away during my date under the rain, what did you do?"

The first Shinji replied:

"I ran for ten minutes under the rain to go get you and then I brought you home"

The second one replied:

"Because of the sadness from the anniversary of my mother's death I was too unmotivated to go and get you and I fell asleep before you came home by yourself"

And so Asuka smiled as she said:

"Well, I've made my decision, goodbye second Shinji"

"Goodbye Asuka, I love you" and then the boy disappeared,leaving the girl to hug the last Shinji left, her Shinji.

Suddenly though, the Slayer's figure appeared in the distance, waving at her as she hugged Shinji.

Asuka then shouted at him given how far he was as she said

"Wait, Slayer? I thought that only Shinjis from other realities were-"

As she blinked he disappeared, leaving nothing behind.

"-supposed to be in here"

Finishing the sentence she thought:

"Could it be that the letter didn't mean just Shinjis… but also other people like Shinji?

No, that can't be true, the Slayer is nothing like him,plus he would need to have a partner like me to-...

Wait a second… Mari told me once about a certain Sarah…"

While she was elaborating the problem in her head, Shinji planted a soft kiss on her hair as she was brought to the main area by a portal slightly left of centre and holding in her hands the left middle half of the life sphere.

After a while, Mari appeared too in Rei's area, at the right and symmetric to Lilith's, just with half of her plugsuit pulled down.

Seeing how the others were looking at her, she dressed up again and said:

"Hey! It's not my fault that I had to strip naked to make Rei comfortable!"

A small giggle came out of the blue haired girl as she took the top of the life sphere in her hands.

Now only Shinji was missing, much to Asuka's annoyance.

So sleep,let me take care of the rest

Shinji had finally managed to reach the pole of the star, after taking various turns, each time answering questions and reliving his closest moments with Asuka and after each time, the projections had turned into a piece of red stone which attached themselves together to form a heart shaped ruby.

He waved goodbye at the last projection as it went on to complete the gem in his hands, making it shine off the light of the star underneath.

He smiled and proceeded forward, finding himself at the end of the glass bridge, with a round platform in front of him.

At the centre of the platform, a posing marble statue of Asuka waited for him, with a heart shaped hole in get chest and a confident yet immobile face.

He got closer to her and put the ruby inside of the hole, where it fit perfectly.

Suddenly cracks appeared all around the statue and a moment later, it broke, making Asuka's tired body fall on him.

He stopped her from falling and as they looked at each other in the eyes, she gave him a soft kiss on the lips before disappearing and opening a portal under him.

He came out inside of the last free enclosed area, the one symmetrical to Asuka's and as soon as the piece of the life sphere was in his hands, all of the walls fell and glowing white lines told them to go towards the altar under the black hole.

They did so and once there Misato asked:

"So, I guess that we have to put it together, who has the bottom?"

"{We, do}"

And so Lilith placed the base of the sphere into the pedestal which activated and brought to their place all the other pieces automatically.

Finally, once the life sphere was complete, it started levitating, before flying straight into the black hole and disappearing from sight.

Two heartbeats followed, then on the third one, the black hole burst open, launching out the Father in the direction of the white doors.

He hit the ground hard and did a couple of flips before stopping with his face in contact with the grey surface.

He moved his hands, feeling a sharp pain all over his body as electricity flowed from his life sphere to the ground in small groups of lightning.

He began getting up, coughing out a bit of material from the black hole that had remained on his system after his rebirth and with some difficulties, he finally managed to stand again as he felt his powers returning to acceptable levels.

He still hadn't noticed the group, which is why he got so tense when he heard:

"Dad? Are you okay?"

He slowly turned around to look at Ramiel, trying to form an answer for his question, but this led him to discover everyone else looking at him.

The words died inside of him as a strange sense of embarrassment overcame him as he thought:

"Right, I almost killed all of them a couple of minutes ago…"

"Uhm… hi.

I'm fine now and… I mean… sorry for trying to kill you all?

I don't know if I can be forgiven for losing control like that, but I had just lost Samuel so I hope that you understand ho- oof!"

The Father couldn't end his speech that Ramiel rammed him into his chest as he brought him to the ground again, then he hugged him with his AT field and said:

"Yay you're back to normal dad!"

The Father hugged him back as he said:

"I'm glad that someone is happy of having me around"

"Hey! Who said that we weren't happy too?"

Zeruel said, making the Father raise his head from the ground as he saw the others get closer to him.

He got back up, letting go of Ramiel who said:

"You know? It feels funny to touch you"

"Uhm...Thanks?"

"hehe"

Then Maria told him:

"I know a couple of things about that Mr don't worry I'm not God"

"At least I tried hiding it from you, imagine the chaos it would have caused if you were aware of my nature.

Anyway do you know where we are?

I've never seen a place like this"

And so Gendo asked:

"If you don't know what makes you think that we know? You're God right?"

"Well… as you have seen I'm not a perfect God" he replied while showing how one of his hands could turn black like before.

"And that includes my mind too, sorry again for the way I acted before, I didn't hurt you too much Lilith right?"

"{Not really, Keel took most of the pain}"

"That's a relief…

I say that we go and check out those doors over there, since there doesn't seem to be anything else that we can do here"

The others agreed and so they began walking closer, with everyone trying from time to time to touch VEGA's body.

He didn't mind it though, remembering what he was, so instead he focused on the two giant doors in front of him and placed his hands on them, then he pushed.

They moved away without much resistance, but once they were fully open, none in the group moved as two long purple wings were presented in front of them.

"It's nice seeing all of you again,you too dad"

The Father didn't think about it twice and ran towards his son, hugging him by the waist since he was as tall as a human at the moment. The angels followed him too

"H-how did you survive?" the Father asked almost on the verge of tears, noticing the small piece of burnt skin where one of his wings had been cut off.

Samuel replied:

"I guess that we have to thank Daisy, it was her who jumped in at the last moment and teleported me here. Don't ask me how, she just did"

The Father let out a small sigh of relief, knowing that his son wasn't in the original dimension and didn't see him lose control.

"After that she healed me and opened a sort of window on the universe, from where I saw and heard what was happening… especially on that mountain…

Why did you never tell me? About all of those things"

The Father let go of him as he said:

"I… I didn't want to make you sad about it, I didn't know how you would have reacted upon learning those things and given how… important they were, I made the foolish decision to keep them from you, just so that you wouldn't have been hurt by learning about them"

Samuel then placed a hand on his shoulder and said:

"You are my dad, how could I have reacted badly to that?"

"You know how those thoughts work, they obscure your mind until you forget the truth and form a new one"

"I guess that it's true… At least I saw what you look like when you get angry. It's kind of cool having a dad that can crack open a planet because someone hurt you.

Oh look, Daisy is here, I guess that she wants to show us something"

As he said that, everyone turned to look at the small brown bunny waiting for them in front of a new door that had just appeared, with some words arching over it and the Slayer's symbol floating under them.

"Per me si va ne la città dolente, per me si va ne l'etterno dolore, per me si va tra la perduta gente.

Giustizia mosse il mio alto fattore; fecemi la divina podestate, la somma sapïenza e 'l primo amore.

Dinanzi a me non fuor cose create

se non etterne, e io etterno duro.

Lasciate ogne speranza, voi ch'intrate'"

Ramiel asked after looking at them:

"What do they say? I can't understand them"

And the Father replied:

"It's medieval italian, around thirteenth century, the first verses of Dante Alighieri's third chant, Divine Comedy.

The same words are written on top of the door to hell in his poem, right before he enters…

And I never noticed how many coincidences there are with the Slayer's life, to be fair I don't know that much about him as a human, though I believe that's what you want to show us, right Daisy?"

The bunny nodded and ran towards the door, which opened up into a dark abyss with an intimidating aura accompanied by various demonic screams coming out of it.

"{It's the same door that I saw when visiting his memories inside of Leliel}"

Lilith added and the Father said:

"Well, it's necessary that we go through, but don't worry the demons won't hurt you in there, they are just memories after all"

And so he began walking towards the doors, followed by the angels as well.

He didn't check for Samuel, since he didn't want to disturb his reunion with Kyoko even though they were just holding hands as she analyzed his Maykr body.

Still, the two of them followed him inside and so did the rest of the group shortly after.

"So, this is going to show me the memories of my arch nemesis? Perfect, I'll know what to target to gain an advantage then… but I still need to follow them from a distance, I was lucky enough that the Father didn't detect me when I woke up in here.

Maybe his powers are reduced here? I've been feeling a bit weaker too, hmm. I'll have to be careful"

And so Davoth entered the portal after revealing himself.

Act 1, Knee deep in the dead

The bunny stopped jumping into the darkness and next to it a small torch appeared and once it was lit on fire, it illuminated the void around them, showing that they were on Phobos, next to the base where a desperate marine had just entered.

Then suddenly, a female voice was heard:

"Our story starts here, the Slayer has just entered the hangar of the Phobos base, wondering what has happened to his unresponsive comrades.

He walks inside the base and after picking up some armor...he finds the first dead body"

The scene suddenly changed to Doomguy standing beside the other soldier's corpse, a member of his unit who he had never gotten to know too deeply, but he was planning to as he seemed to be a nice guy.

After closing his still open eyes, he grabs a couple of his magazines, figuring that he wouldn't need them anymore.

Then he stands up beside the door and takes a deep breath, then right before he opens it, he steals a final look at the body as he says:

"I'll find out who did this to you and I'll kill every last one of them and if they are behind this door, may they be ready for what's about to happen"

He opened the door.

Once the humming of the electrical mechanisms that pulled the door upwards stopped he could not believe his eyes.

Two humanoid figures were standing right in front of him holding rifles, but… they were as far from humans as something could be.

Their skin was full of bloody spots, their armor was broken, with bullet holes in it.

Their eyes were glowing red, almost as if someone had put small light bulbs behind them and their hair was an identical light green.

Doomguy heard them grunt as their locked eyes with him and before he could do anything, the beasts in front of him pulled out their rifles and took aim, he immediately fired at one in the head, managing to bring him down, while the second one managed to get a bullet off, missing him by just a couple of centimeters.

And even though their weapons were fully automatic, it seemed that they only had the mental capacity to calculate and fire only one bullet at a time.

Doomguy didn't complain about it as he took out the second soldier as well and he was about to go loot their corpses when suddenly a group of similar beasts appeared from the corridor further away in the room.

He quickly started running as he heard the shells dropping to the ground and at one point one of them actually managed to hit him with a pretty decent shot, but he was saved by his combat armor and managed to reach the rifle from the soldiers he had killed before.

Then thanks to his extensive training and field experience he was able to take all of them out, but he was now out of bullets, so, he grabbed one of their shotguns and some ammo before counting his exploration of the facility.

"He would end up defeating the demons on Phobos and then on Deimos and finally he would descend into hell itself, each encounter worsening his mental health as he sometimes lingered on the brink of death for hours on end.

After he finally managed to fight through the hordes of hell on Mars, a portal brought him back to Earth, which had been invaded the moment he entered that first base.

He would end up freeing Earth, but during the last battle, he would find… this"

And so the scene changed again, bringing them to the room where his wife and daughter's bodies had been placed.

"Those two are what remained… of his family… this is what Arael made him remember…

In fact, the following actions were basically mirrored in the Atlan"

As his wife kissed him one final time, the mothers in the group almost puked from the sadness and it only got worse when the floor opened up under him and made him face the icon of Sin.

The Father in the background was feeling the guilt of not having down anything rise in him, but suddenly the female voice said:

"Don't worry VEGA, he doesn't blame you, he knows that you were recovering from the fight against Davoth during that period, as well as for being absent during the regime, you were in the middle of a war after all"

"Oh...the regime… I wish I could have done something about it"

"What kind of regime are you talking about?" Gendo asked and the Father replied:

"The Slayer is a descendant of a very important family, the ones who were able to overthrow the nazi regime after it had taken over the world, his grandfather is the one who did it, his name was B.J. Blaskowitz"

"The Nazis had taken over… the world?" Kyoko asked and so the voice replied:

"Yes, but in the end their empire fell and society returned to normal… with him being born a couple of decades after the liberation, in 1993.

Anyway, he managed to free Earth from the hell invasion, but that had come at a cost, he had lost everything, his house, his friends, his family and there was no therapist on the planet that could help him, causing him to go down a self destructive spiral as he tried to find happiness again.

Before that it had been easy for him, his wife and daughter were all that he needed to keep his anger issues away, but with them gone, not even the most powerful drugs were able to help him.

In the following years, the demons attacked again, during the Plutonia experiment, the TNT Evolution project, all of these were attempts by humanity to either stop the demons from invading or mastering teleportation technology.

Finally, the demons appeared for one last time on Mars and as if he was their demon removal service, the governments of Earth sent him there to deal with it, uncaring of his mental or physical state.

Still, he managed to beat them, but when the final portal opened itself in front of him, he was too broken from years of depression and drug abuse to leave the work incomplete, so he entered and began his suicide mission by destroying the portal behind him.

Act 2 On the shores of hell

"Before all of this, though, he was already a man with many problems by himself.

He had diagnosed PTSD and a strong depression, which was stopped only by his wife and daughter.

You see, earlier I said that the Nazis had taken over the planet and even though they had been able to crush their regime, small groups remained active all around the planet, wishing vengeance against the descendents of the man who had ruined everything for them.

So they continuously organized attacks against Doomguy's family and he was always forced to run, for most of his teenage years until early adulthood.

He had seen his relatives die in front of him, at the hands of those terrorists and when he searched for help from the government, he truly understood how rotten that world actually was.

They didn't do anything with him, corruption and silence stopping any chance for him to have a quiet life, all except for one person.

He was in Italy at the time, hiding away by himself, given that the last member of his family had been killed just a couple of days before and ironically, the only place where he found some protection was in one of the most corrupt ones in the world.

The mafia helped him, but he had to constantly go on missions for them and kill many people or do horrible things just to survive.

That's until one day he met her in the most unlikely of places, a psychologist's waiting room"

And so the void changed again, showing various chairs and closed doors, with many people sitting around, none of them looking very healthy.

Finally there was Doomguy who was holding his head up with his hands, making the people around him very uncomfortable.

At the moment he was trying to keep himself from having one of his attacks of rage, waiting for his turn to get inside.

Suddenly a loud slap was heard coming from the doctor's door and he immediately turned towards it, while everyone else in the room kept ignoring everything.

A moment later a well known local arabian thug came out of the door and after him a woman so beautiful that for the first time in so many years, Doomguy's heart seemed to be beating again.

She had long blonde hair and deep blue eyes, her body was well built and her blue dress seemed to freeze the air around it as it moved around along with her body.

In Doomguy's eyes, she was perfect, except for a not so small detail on her face,the red skin of her cheek where the guy had just slapped her.

Suddenly blood began flowing towards his eyes as the strange sensation inside of him that he had since birth came up again.

His vision was tinted red now and he couldn't get his eyes off the brute man who had just hurt the woman next to him.

And as he slowly began getting up, he listened to the man shout at the woman while they both got outside, not caring about the psychologist calling his name.

"Why won't you marry me Sarah! Our parents agree on this! You'll have everything you need with my money!

Cars, dresses, a large house, everything!

So marry me you bitch!"

The man shouted with an accent that was a heavy combination of arabic and english.

"Vaffanculo! I hate you! You won't ever bring me happiness!"

The woman replied with what seemed to Doomguy an almost angelic voice mixed with a light italian accent, showing how the woman was already better at talking in other languages than the other man.

The brute brought up his fist and was about to hit her when suddenly his arm got stuck on an immovable object.

"Don't hurt her" Doomguy said,holding his entire arm while blood flowed inside of him at insane speeds.

"Who the fuck are you! Are you searching for trouble!? Well you found it!"

And so he pulled out a knife from his pocket with the other hand and went in to stab him.

Doomguy took it, all the twenty centimeters of the knife right in his guts, but before the brute could strike again, he twisted his arm and suddenly the man's face was met by an unstoppable force, Doomguy's punch.

The man fainted on the spot and fell to the ground, scaring the woman who immediately stared back at the wall of muscles in front of her.

He looked back at her and for a moment a spark flew between them, with the feeling of having already seen each other much earlier forming in both of their minds.

As the woman noticed the weird looks that other people were giving them though, she felt her body shatter as her PTSD kicked in.

She immediately ran away from there, in such a hurry that her wallet fell out of her bag, leaving it on the ground where Doomguy picked it up.

As he did so though, he was able to notice just how much blood the knife had made him lose, in fact he fainted moments later, while an ambulance was already on its way.

"He would wake up in the local hospital a while later, with the wallet next to him and thanks to the cards inside of it, he was able to find the woman's home after he recovered"

The female voice said as the scene changed again to the front of a big white house in the outskirts of the city, right in the middle of a big storm.

Doomguy approached the house, holding the wallet in his hand as he checked if he had gotten the right address.

Once he was sure, he walked towards the front door and rang the doorbell, then he waited.

After a while he heard some light steps coming down and the door opened, but no one was there to meet him.

He leaned inside to check for any activity, when suddenly he felt a silencer touch the left side of his head.

"Don't move or I shoot!" she said, holding the grip harder.

Then after a while Doomguy talked:

"I wanted to give you your wallet back, if you wouldn't mind"

"That's your reaction to having a gun pointed at your head!?"

"It's not the first time it has happened unfortunately, anyway I don't want to hurt you, I just want to give you your wallet back, Sarah"

As he said this he moved a hand to his pocket and grabbed the leather coated wallet, then he handed it to her. She took it, checking if there was still everything and at first glance, he hadn't stolen anything.

So she lowered the gun and he moved to a more comfortable position, then he said:

"Well, I better go now, I believe I've caused you too much trouble already"

But immediately she replied:

"Wait, you don't have an umbrella… And where did you park? I didn't hear a car coming"

"I walked here, unfortunately the weather forecast seemed to lie to me today"

And as the realization settled in, Sarah got closer to him as she said:

"Wait, you just walked twenty kilometers from the city to give me back my wallet!?

You can't go back now, at least wait here until it stops raining"

"I don't want to cause any trouble to anyone so-"

"Ah that's not a problem, I live alone, my family is… not there anymore"

"Oh. I'm sorry to hear that… I'm in your same situation so….

May I come in?"

"Sure, I'll go make you some coffee, it's the least I can do after you came all the way here and took a knife in your chest for me"

He smiled at her and came in and for a second time, that spark between them warmed their hearts just by sharing a look.

But before her blush could become visible, Sarah turned around and walked into the kitchen, then from there she said:

"You can go dry up yourself next to the fireplace, I'll get you a hairdresser when the coffee is done"

"Thanks" he said as he walked away.

Meanwhile Sarah was standing in front of her coffee machine and her mind was exploding with questions like:

"Who is he? Why did he help me? Why the hell did he walk so far to get to me?

Does he want to hurt me? Does he want to get to know me? How can a man have so many muscles and why is he hot as fu-"

*Ding*

"But most of all… why do I feel like we met already? I've never seen him before…"

She left her kitchen and brought the two cups of coffee in the main room, where he was standing in front of the fire drying up his clothes, then she went to her bathroom and took the hairdresser.

When she was back, he still hadn't touched the coffee, so she said with a smile:

"Hey, your coffee is going to get cold if you don't drink it soon enough"

"Oh? Sorry I had spaced out a bit, I was trying to remember something…

Anyway I can't thank you enough for asking me to stay in here, look it's raining even harder now"

"You would have probably caught a cold all things considered and given the kindness you have shown by coming here and for defending me I thought I could repay you in some way"

"You don't have to"

"... But I want to.

Now come here, I'll dry you up"

"Really? Now come on I can do by myself, it feels embarrassing to have you do it"

"I still got that gun and I won't feel happy until I give your kindness back to you"

"I like how you make compromises"

"J-Just come here!" she said while her blush was hidden by a sudden lightning.

He did so and as the hot stream of air flowed along his skin and clothes, he relaxed for a moment, feeling a strange warmth that wasn't coming from the hairdresser itself.

She had placed a hand on his back to dry his shirt better, but what she really wanted to do was touch his defined muscles for around a couple of hours or so.

Doing this though, she noticed a small bump in his skin near his right shoulder, there the skin was a bit harder, dryer and it followed a sort of precise pattern… of numbers.

She used her hand to try and feel out the shape of the numbers and began forming the code inside her head:

"6…

6…

6…

6…

6.

Five sixes… A pentagon of sixes… the pentagram program… my mother worked on it… the test subjects...they all had this same number…

There was a boy among them… with brown eyes… and he had his code near… his right shoulder… and and and… we loved each other!

C-c-could he be him? The only one who hasn't judged me in my entire life…"

"Uhm Sarah, are you okay there? You've been drying up the same spot for a while now"

She stopped the airflow and after putting the machine down, she said:

"I… I need to go do something important"

And then she ran out of the room, with Doomguy looking at her confused.

Then he passed a hand on his back to check how his shirt had been dried up, but when he got to his right shoulder, he felt that special part of his skin get irritated a bit, meaning that someone had touched it recently.

"Crap she figured it out!"

He immediately walked in the direction Sarah had gone and after crossing the door, he saw an open one in the distance which led to a basement with the lights turned on.

Once he was down there, he found Sarah, holding a large old black coat that had a swastika on one of the sleeves along with various decorations.

"You knew didn't you?" She asked as soon as he got at the bottom of the stairs while pointing her gun at him.

"I read your full name on your wallet, from there it was easy to connect the dots.

Who would have guessed that this random woman I met was the daughter of the nazi general Monika Taggart"

"What do you want from me?!"

She said as her finger moved over the trigger.

"I won't hurt you, don't worry, you had no idea what was happening back then in that camp"

"But I was still there… I -I"

"I haven't forgotten you, the things you did for me Sarah, how you helped me and my family…

And I haven't forgotten my first kiss"

"I'm -I - I I can't believe you're alive" Sarah said as she fell to the ground crying after tossing away her mother's uniform.

He went close to her and got on one knee, then he slowly caressed her face as he moved away her tears with one of his fingers.

She suddenly jumped on him and hugged him as she cried her heart out.

"Hey… hey, calm down Sarah… I'm happy to see you again too"

"H-how did you survive the incident?… When that… strange machine exploded"

He breathed for a moment and then he replied:

"I still don't know, honestly I've stopped thinking about it also because I thought that you were gone…"

"I… had just gotten out of the room remember? My mother didn't want for me to distract her… heh, at least that bitch is gone now"

"That bitch?"

"I… it always felt like my mother hated me. She constantly judged everything that I did and if I didn't live up to her standards she usually punished me… With a belt…

It's why I ran away from you when you took out that guy… There was a big crowd around us and… and I feared that they would have judged me for what I did.

Thankfully... My father was much better,you probably don't remember his name, but it was Andrea and even though he was in that program too…

I don't know, but his heart was just too pure to be in a place like that, maybe he remained just because I was there…

It was also thanks to him that I was able to get out of my room, you see…

Back then at the camp... You and your family were my escape, I liked helping you because you didn't judge me for who I was or for what I did and and and…

When you said that loved me I-I-"

She began sobbing and tightened her grip around him as she released almost fifteen years of sadness onto his shoulder, fifteen years of feeling cold at night and fifteen years of missed comfort.

He simply stood there, taking all of her tears, happy that he finally got back the love of his life.

After a while, the stream stopped and she moved away from his shoulder to look at his face.

They locked eyes with each other and both of them understood what the other person wanted, but Sarah suddenly stopped him when he tried to kiss her.

Then she said:

"I… I know both of us want this… but… but I don't want to run too much, we just met after so many years and I don't want us to hurt each other by skipping steps... If you get what I mean"

"Sorry, I guess that the passion in the air simply overtook me, but yes, I don't want to hurt you either…

Say, do you think that coffee has gotten cold by now?"

She let out a small laugh and said:

"No, I don't think so, I left it in front of the fire after all…

But my legs don't want to cooperate at the moment, if only there was a strong man with big arms and a golden heart to bring me there"

"Well, sorry to disappoint, but you'll have to deal with this piece of junk right now"

"I think that it would be acceptable, but that has to be put to test"

They both laughed a little and she got on his back while he took her legs and carried her back to the living room.

After the coffee and the small talk had finished, Doomguy looked at the time and said:

"Shit, I have to go back home, I ordered takeout for tonight and I have to be there when it arrives"

"Oh. Well later I have some important people coming over too, so yeah I think that you should go, I can drive you back home if you want since it's still raining"

"I'd love that, thanks"

And so a small trip later, he got out of her car in front of the building where his flat was and as the two of them waved each other goodbye he said:

"Hey, I have a small pet bunny living with me, would you like to see him in the future?"

"Aww! I love bunnies, of course! Anyway I have to go now, see you tomorrow F-:!)_:(:"

"See you too Sarah, I'll be thinking about you tonight"

"Same here… same here"

"Did she say a name? It looks like something hid it" the Father thought while the scene kept playing out.

And then she drove away, with Doomguy staring at her car for as long as he could.

Suddenly though a voice called him from behind as a man said:

"Looks like you finally attracted someone with those muscles and damn is she hot"

"Shut up Giacomo, you know that it's deeper than that with me right?"

"Si, si. I know, as long as it's not a problem with your jobs and stuff then you can drill her all you want"

"It's not going to be a problem, but you better shut your mouth before the boss has to ask why you don't have it anymore"

As he said this he stared at the man leaning against the door and nearly made him piss his pants.

Giacomo said before almost running away:

"Yeah, s-sorry, I'll leave you alone n-now"

And with that, Doomguy got back to his apartment and once inside, he got closer to Daisy's cage as he said:

"You know… I think that my life is going to get better from now on"

And then the scenery faded into darkness as the void took over once again.

The female voice echoed again:

"Later they would marry and have a child… unfortunately Sarah and their daughter Elizabeth will be killed during the demon invasion, as we saw earlier.

They were even so cute together…"

As the voice faded, some of the members in the group broke down crying, overwhelmed by their emotions while others like Samuel and VEGA were busy piecing together his past with his attitude in the future and after a while the Father said:

"I have a question though… what happened with that experiment performed on his mother?"

And the voice this time waited a bit before replying:

"I'll show you"

Act 3: Inferno

This time the scenery changed to an underground facility, looking very much like a room someone would find inside of NERV

The chamber was very large, with a strange machine placed over a large void while a platform extended towards it, leaving a gap of around five meters.

At the end of this platform, two children and two adults were standing, Doomguy's mother, Sarah's Father and the two of them.

The woman was dressed in a white suit which greatly resembled Yui's one during the contact test with unit 01 and as she kissed her son's head, the man told her:

"I'm sorry that you have to do this… I wish I could have done something but my wife is unmovable"

"Don't worry Andrea, as long as my son isn't hurt by this then it's okay, just cover his eyes if anything happens okay?"

"I will Annie, I will"

"Thank you, let's hope that our children end up together in the future"

She said as she attached herself to the mechanism which would have brought her closer to the machine.

Then Andrea turned around and said to the two kids:

"Sarah, you have to go down to the bunker now, we are about to begin.

You unfortunately have to remain here, but don't worry, nothing is going to happen, I trust my wife's work"

"Okay dad, see you two later" Sarah said as she gave the young Doomguy a quick peck on his right cheek before running outside.

Annie laughed a bit, making her four year old son blush as Andrea took his hand and brought him closer.

Suddenly a voice echoed through the room:

"Andrea do you really want to stay down there you idiot!? Make yourself useful and leave those two alone! They aren't important!"

"We already discussed about this dear, I'm staying here"

"Alright Taggart, whatever, activate the machine!"

As she gave her order the technicians pulled the switches which made electricity reach the unknown creation.

When yellow lightning began flowing around it, the Father finally realized what it was as he said:

"Wait a minute… those parts… they come from the ship that landed on Earth with the Slayer's soul! How were they able to make them work again after they were destroyed when the ship crashed!?"

And the female voice replied sounding a bit different:

"They didn't, it's what happens when some egotistical ill minded fuckers try to use unknown technology for their own evil ends. And since they hadn't repaired them, this experiment was destined to end badly"

Suddenly alarms fired all throughout the room as sparks began flying around while the machine got brighter and brighter.

Shouting and fear were heard as everyone freaked out and in a desperate move Andrea tried to get Anna back on the platform, but the cables seemed stuck, almost as if the machine itself was pulling them.

And then the last sentence anyone wanted to hear echoed from the speakers:

"The gravitational field of the machine is getting stronger! We can't turn it off now! Everyone run!"

And that's when a single black point was created at the centre of the machine and it immediately grew in size as it began attracting everything towards it.

The protective glass shattered as everyone from the command room was brought into the growing black sphere while on the platform Andrea and the young Doomguy were trying to get his mother out of there,but the resistance was too strong and soon it would have pulled them in too.

As more and more pieces of the room fell into the sphere however, it began pulsating harder and harder.

A moment later Andrea got a realization as he said:

"The sphere is going to collapse! If it takes any more material it will destabilize and disappear!"

Unfortunately, as he said this the area around which the sphere was pulling material began to slow down, up until no more matter was being attracted except for the cables that were holding Annie to it.

Seeing this, Andrea took a deep breath and said:

"Hey little guy, listen to me…

Right now I want you to hold these wires with as much force as you can, I'll put them around this - Aaah! Corner, so that it will be easier…

You see, I'm going to jump in there and destabilize the sphere, so that you two can survive…

When you see my daughter again… promise me that you will keep her happy okay little guy?

Goodbye now, it was an honor to get to know both of you"

And so he jumped, letting gravity pull him into the black sphere as his body dissolved before he could even feel it.

The sphere began pulsating as it was on the verge of exploding, like a balloon that had been filled with too much air ready to burst from just a slight touch.

Unfortunately Andrea's body was not enough.

Annie realized this and as she saw her son struggling to hold the cables she said:

"Honey… I'm sorry for what I'm about to ask you… but I want to make sure you survive so… please my dear… let me go"

"No mom I won't! I can't lose you mom!"

"Please, my dear, you won't survive if you keep holding on… it's… it's the only way.

I want you to live a happy life my son, and don't worry it won't hurt… I'll be looking after you everyday, I… simply won't be there.

But that doesn't matter… I want you to be happy and with Sarah you can…

I can see that there is something that unites the both of you past a simple friendship, so I want you to stay with her… I've already lived a long enough life"

"Mom please I don't want you to go! Please!"

*clang*

One of the cables snapped and this made Doomguy lose balance, almost falling over and being sucked in.

Still he held on, but as the metal started sliding from his hands, the situation finally clicked in his head and so he asked while looking at his mother:

"Do you promise me that you will be always looking upon me mom?"

"I do my dear… it's the least I could do to repay you for what is about to happen…

I'm so very sorry…but… I don't want you to cry okay? I want you to be strong for me, for our relatives… for Andrea, for Sarah…

Can you do that, even if I'm not there anymore?"

"I… I…"

Suddenly the Slayer's adult voice was heard:

"I can mom"

And so the boy let go of the cables, watching his mother disappear in front of him with pure happiness on her face.

After her body dissolved, the black sphere stopped pulsating as it suddenly emitted a bright light which teleported both Doomguy and the group to a nearby mountain on the surface from where the hill under which the camp had been built was very visible.

The ground cracked and moments later the entire hill exploded, with the black sphere rising in the air above the clouds where it finally exploded with so much force that the entire sky had been cleared of any clouds in a range of around one thousand kilometers.

During the explosion, the Doors of Guf opened for a moment, before those too collapsed and left behind the Father's symbol in the middle of the sky.

After a bit it disappeared and so the crying kid ran back towards the destroyed hill.

Everything faded to black once again, leaving only Daisy in the middle of the void along with the rest of the group.

"What the hell happened there? Samuel? VEGA? Did you two understand?"

Maria asked and the Father replied:

"I recognized the pieces that they had used, there were parts from both the hyperdrive and the energy core, meaning that they were trying to create a portal to say the least"

Then Samuel added:

"It seems like that, but as I've learned with the UAC, dealing with alterations to the structure of the universe is a very delicate process.

Though this has got to be the strongest explosion caused by a faulty portal I've ever seen, even the fact that the Doors of Guf appeared is surprising by itself"

"Let's analyze what could have happened for a moment…

So the portal's external structure fails and converges into itself as a sort of black hole.

By doing this, the portal has effectively broken the space-time continuum and it begins sucking in everything that it can until the difference in air pressure pushes it up into the sky.

Meanwhile the spatial disturbances around it cause the Slayer to be moved away, then, after it has reached a high enough altitude, the walls holding it together aren't strong enough anymore and it implodes, causing an explosion and sending everything that had been absorbed outside of the physical realm, not being affected by the laws of the universe,effectively creating something that lives outside of time and space…

And that can materialize anywhere at any time, given enough energy…"

He suddenly looked at Daisy and made a step towards the animal, while his hand began to glow a bit, with lightning flowing through it.

At the second step though the bunny disappeared and the entire void turned white, leaving only the silhouette of a woman and the baby cot her son was sleeping in.

Play:[Mother is the first other] The End of Evangelion ost

"Don't make too much noise please, otherwise he's going to wake up"

The woman said as she gently rocked the cot back and forth.

So, they quietly approached her and as Annie turned around to face them she said:

"I'm sorry that I had to make you go through those trials when you first arrived here, but one can only exist in this place for a prolonged time only if their soul is complete, which is why I'm the only survivor of the incident"

And then Kyoko asked:

"Wait so those letters were yours? The abbreviations contain your name right?"

"Exactly, my full name is Annie Blaskowitz, one of BJ's daughters and the last descendant of the family, except for my son that is"

Then VEGA came forward as he said:

"So, it's you who fixed my soul and who saved Samuel right?"

"Yes, after you stay long enough in ere you understand how to manipulate som-"

Her phrase was cut short by the Father blocking her in a hug, to which she replied by hugging him back.

"Is… is there any way I can repay you for this?"

"Hmm… actually, make on step backwards and close your eyes"

The Father did so and a moment later a powerful slap was heard as Annie hit him with as much force as she could.

He looked back at her, but before he could say any words the glowing fist of the Slayer appeared right beside him as he was hit with enough force to send him away flying.

Once the Father landed he got up and cracked his neck for a moment as Annie said:

"That was for all of the shit we went through!

Did that damned life sphere have to really choose my son out of everyone on Earth?!

I mean wh-"

She immediately stopped her rant as she felt a glowing hand on her shoulder calm her down.

Then, turning to look at the glowing body of his son, she detached his helmet and got to see his normal face, the she said smiling:

"You and your grandpa have always looked exactly the same, hehe"

She then embraced him in a gentle hug and he did the same, with pure happiness radiating from his face.

Then he said:

"I guess that you were the bunny that has followed me for so many years, right?"

"I'm your mother dear, I made you a promise and I'm keeping it"

"… I'm so happy I can see you again mom"

"Me too… me too.

I can still remember the days when I held you in my arms even if it was so long ago… and look at you now, a grown man that strikes fear into hell itself…

I don't know how a mother can be any more proud than this, especially after everything I've seen you go through"

"Don't worry mom, it will all be over soon… I… learned how to live without you, but… now that I'm here…

I don't understand how I was able to do that…"

The two of them kept their hug in silence as everyone else watched, slowly making contact with their partner as well.

There was peace for a moment, no interdimensional wars, no demons, no evangelions, just the warmth of the ones you cared about in the air around you.

The Father was about to join the group, when he was suddenly thrown to the ground and blocked to stand only on his knees.

Everyone, even Davoth, turned around surprised as Annie said:

"What's happening!? That wasn't me!"

The Father tried getting out of the restraints, but he felt as if all of his forces were being sucked away by whatever was holding him, making him weaker and weaker by the second.

Then, the demonic crucible appeared right in front of him as he said:

"You? What the hell are you doing here!?"

And so the Wraiths replied as they revealed themselves:

"It's true that we had made a deal, but did you honestly think that one dimension just for us was enough?

We were never on your side, we simply used you as a tool to get what we wanted, it was us after all that didn't stop the laser which almost killed Samuel"

"You bastards! Do you have any idea what I'll do to you!?"

The Father shouted as his skin changed color again for a moment, but then they replied:

"Here? Absolutely nothing.

We aren't in the physical universe, we are outside of there, not even time flows in here.

And right now we are blocking with Argent the Slayer's life sphere from the rest of the universe, thus limiting you as well"

"What the hell do you want then?"

The Father said without stopping to struggle for his freedom and so three beings turned around and locked down everyone else except for Annie and the Slayer, who immediately locked eyes with them as the Doom blade came forward.

A beam of energy exploded towards the two of them and he got ready to block it, but at the last moment it evaded them and instead aimed to a place where there seemed to be nothing at all, until Davoth's sword appeared out of nowhere as his skin returned to its normal colors, uncloaking him.

Unfortunately for Davoth, he hadn't been quick enough and due to having blocked the beam at a bad angle, it soon slipped away as he was hit right in the chest, becoming paralized for a moment.

Then, the beam of energy moved him and placed him on his knees right next to the Father.

Finally, the Wraiths turned once more to the Slayer as they said:

"We are offering you a choice Slayer, it doesn't matter to us if you take it or not, since we'll win anyway"

As they said this he put his helmet back on as his eyes seemed to shine blue for a moment, then, he saw the demonic crucible activating in the middle of the two restrained gods.

"For billions and billions of years the universe has been their playground, they have caused the death of so many living creatures that it is impossible to count them all.

On one side, you have Davoth, the leader of the demons who you have sworn to kill, the reason why your wife and daughter were eviscerated and your hopes of seeing them ever again were crushed into bits.

On the other side, you have the Father, who in his negligence of killing him has let him gain power and he is also the one who has created you to do his dirty work for him.

He's also too unstable to be left alive too? You have seen what has happened to that dimension, not even death could describe it properly.

He is a brutal and unstable beast not even able to fix his mistakes with all the power someone could want, his mind is so frail and weak that he had to create his own civilization that worshipped him to have a chance of happiness.

How pathetic is that?"

Suddenly though the Father said:

"You know nothing about minds.

And honestly, it's why I've always preferred the humans to most of the other races I created, because they are the ones who mentally resemble me the most.

They are able to feel pain, love, happiness, sadness, lust, peace and every other emotion that exists, just like I can… you don't, but that's my fault for not creating you properly"

And so the Wraiths replied:

"That's why you like them so much? Because they let their minds be distracted by such things?

What kind of God are you if you can't even control yourself, let alone your creations?"

The Father turned serious as his red mouth from earlier reappeared.

"I am the God that is trying to be the closest thing to a human being.

While you three, you always wanted everyone to follow your ideals, your laws and that's the greatest flaw in most of my creations… you can't adapt, you can't react when you're no longer in your safe space and you can't change your beliefs when they don't work anymore.

The universe evolves over time, it's impossible to stop it, even for me, because I evolve with it.

The same thing that Keel and SEELE were trying to do, which is why it failed even on a smaller scale-"

Suddenly the Father's chest was perforated by a beam of energy that then went around his neck, strangling him as he lost the ability to talk.

"You've said enough lies, not shut up, we have something more important to do.

So,Slayer, you can either kill one of them or both using the demonic crucible, otherwise we are going to kill everyone else, including your mother.

Whatever you choose, you will be forced to grab the crucible and we will possess you, then, using our combined powers we are going to take over the universe, so that we four can have anything that we could ever want"

The Wraiths stopped talking and liberated the way towards the sword for him.

He began walking closer and closer, each step feeling hundreds of times slower than the other.

But finally he reached it and stopped to look at it. The Wraiths were in front of him, waiting patiently for him to make his decision, but they got confused when he turned around to look at the others.

They heard him exhale loudly and then he stopped for a moment, his back facing the glowing sword.

In an instant, the Doom blade came forward and before anyone could react, the Slayer pierced the green central eye of the sword's angle, destroying it. As the Wraiths began screaming in pain, he grabbed the handle sideways with both of his hands and began turning his palms in opposite directions.

The force at one point became too great and the sword snapped, sending out a shockwave of energy powerful enough to send everyone except for him and his mother out of that dimension and back into the real universe.

Then, as his suit began absorbing all the Argent in the sword coming from the three Wraiths: souls, he felt his mother hug him from behind.

He slowly turned around as she said:

"You don't have much time left in here, right?"

"No,by absorbing this much Argent I'll be kicked out soon like the others…

Even then, are you going to be by my side?"

"Oh, my dear… I'm your mother, I'll never be able to stay away from you for too long… though I'll miss hugging you"

"Me too mom, but I can manage…"

"I know you can and…despite how much this hurts me, you have to go now, you have to protect the ones who care about you somewhere else.

So… go out there and show them how a real Blaskowitz ends his work"

"Hehe…

Goodbye mother, it was beautiful seeing you again"

He said as the excess of energy began pulling him back to reality and just as he was about to disappear, Annie said:

"Goodbye… Flynn"

Back to the real universe

As the Father regained consciousness, he found himself back in his giant body right in front of Lilith, where the evangelions and most of the group had been thrown out of her head by the difference in pressure when the eye broke.

He immediately created a sphere around them to ensure their survival and while he kept returning to his original colors, he noticed Samuel appearing from behind unit 02. Being able to check everyone's vital signs, he saw that they were fine and that since time didn't exist in that dimension, no time at all had passed in the real universe.

They smiled at each other and then the Father looked back at Lilith's body, where he spotted Rei and Lilith herself being pulled back inside by Keel as the giant white beast began regenerating.

He got away from her and it was only then that he noticed the glowing sphere above them, just as Davoth did when he got back up again from the asteroid he had been thrown at.

Over the planet-sized sphere that bore the mark of the Slayer the Demonic Crucible was hovering as it sent Argent energy all around it, separating it from the rest of the universe just like the Wraiths had said.

The handle of the sword cracked a moment later, forming holes from which the red light of the Argent around it was trying to escape.

Then it completely broke, irradiating the planet over the three gods with insane amounts of energy and just as the maykr ships were approaching the Father, a melody filled the emptiness of space by defying physics all together.

And it was coming directly from the glowing planet.

Play:[The Only Thing They Fear Is You] Doom Eternal OST

*boom* *boom*

Two giant explosions cracked the planet in synchronization with the song and as the riff continued the on the surface were getting larger and larger.

Cracks kept forming as the instruments kept playing, everyone else was completely still, with their full attention on the planet itself and once the sphere looked like it was about to fall apart, two new thunders made it explode completely.

*Boom* *Boom*

The Slayer's form was revealed, as two enormous red bat-like wings extended from his chest for what seemed thousands of kilometers, while his shining white armor and ruby red visor made him outshine even the blue supergiant of the first system.

He began flying towards the Father and once in front of him he turned around and looked at Davoth, all of this while the song was approaching a drop.

"After you" the Father said, knowing well that now that the Slayer had absorbed the power of the Wraiths… it would be hard even for him to stop his rampage.

The Slayer pulled out Lucifer's bane as a golden aura enveloped it, he pointed it at Davoth and loaded two shells.

Then, he fired, timing it perfectly with the drop of the song.

The asteroid Davoth was standing on had disappeared, leaving only space dust behind as the Slayer began flying towards him as his wings got brighter and brighter.

The Father was sitting in the back at the moment, contemplating if he should intervene or not, but he stopped thinking about it when he was suddenly kicked in the face by Keel, leaving behind the rest of the group.

The man was about to grab the sphere and destroy it to kill them, but the Father was fast enough to fly back at him and grab Lilith's arm. Then he twisted it and punched her in the face, sending her away again.

"Go dad, kick her ass!" Ramiel shouted as everyone looked at him for a moment before a small smile formed on their faces.

Except for Mari who said: "Hey that's my girlfriend!"

And so Ramiel replied:

"Uhhh… kick his ass Dad!"

This time almost everyone laughed, especially Kyoko who told Samuel:

"It's going to be fun having him as a brother-in-law, won't it?"

"Brother-in-law? I mea- ehm.. Uhh… yes, yes it will be"

"What's the matter Samuel? Marrying me is a bit too scary for you?"

"No! Hey, stop laughing!"

Samuel replied as Kyoko couldn't stop her blush from coloring her face as she reflected on what she actually had proposed:

"I might be going a bit too fast, but… given that the world has almost ended three times in a day… I think that we'll be able to make it anyway…

Plus he sounds so cute when he's embarrassed!

… I really am like my daughter when it comes to men huh?"

As she thought this she looked near Leliel where the two teens were enjoying the spectacle hand in hand.

A sudden ray of energy coming from the Slayer's ballista almost hit the sphere, catching the attention of everyone in there.

He and Davoth were going at it like maniacs, with either party delivering punch after punch before the other was able to block even just one of them and counterattack.

Sometimes they were able to use their weapons as well, with Davoth sending swings of Argent at the Slayer while he fired at him with his overpowered weapons whose shots always broke something, which was either a meteor or a part of Davoth's skin.

Right now Davoth had managed to move away the ballista before he could be hit and so it was back to hand to hand combat between the two opponents.

It began with the Slayer's punch landing on the Dark Lord's shoulder, who used the momentum from the hit to lift his leg and deliver a flying kick to the Slayer's head, who, unfortunately for Davoth, managed to stop his leg and grab a hold of it.

Then the Slayer used Davoth's leg to throw him face first into the ground and then jump at him with his wrist blade ready.

Davoth rolled to the side while the Slayer was in the air and as he got up he took out his sword and attacked, missing the Slayer just by a couple of centimeters as he jumped several meters backwards, leaving behind a grenade which blinded Davoth for a moment as the ground beneath him was blown away and taking this opportunity the Slayer fired a single charge destroyer blade, which managed to hit Davoth in the left leg before he could retreat completely.

Then he flew at him with the crucible out, but Davoth was able to stop him with his own sword while his leg regenerated.

While looking at the reflection on the Slayer's helmet though, Davoth noticed a large white mass approaching at high speed and so he used one of his hands to form a large fireball and male it explode next to him, using the force of the blast to move away from Lilith's incoming corpse that the Father had just thrown in their direction.

The Slayer used his blood punch right as he made contact with the white flesh, creating a hole large enough to let the giant body fly through him.

It wasn't over though as he had to defend himself from Davoth and also dodge the golden lances the Father had thrown at Lilith.

The first two projectiles missed him and so he was able to push back Davoth, but as he moved to dodge the third one, he didn't expect Davoth to throw his still active sword at him and with no time to react, the Slayer screamed in pain as he felt the Argent cut off his left forearm.

Davoth grinned at this, but he couldn't celebrate for too long as the Father manually moved one of the giant spears to hit him in the chest and without his sword, he wasn't able to block it from reaching him.

The tip of the spear perforated Davoth's skin as it came out from the other side, spreading his intestines into outer space.

He managed to stop it with his hands before it could do more damage and as he began to absorb the Argent it was made of, his body began to stabilize and regenerate.

Feeling somewhat safe, Davoth turned his gaze towards the Slayer, who had seemingly gone unconscious after losing his arm… but there was something that felt uneasy about him, like if he had become the trigger for a deadly trap.

So Davoth kept his distance as he continued regenerating and while he was waiting he decided to look at what the Father was doing, who at the moment was unleashing a jab of punches on Lilith's face and right at the end, his right hand turned black as Lilith was shot right through an already damaged planet.

"Is he learning to control that part of him? How is it possible?!"

"The two of us made an agreement"

The Father telepathically said to Davoth while his hand returned to normal, leaving him shocked to say the least.

Suddenly though his palm turned dark again as it fired a laser in a random direction, forcing him to grab it with his free hand.

"Well, let's say an incomplete agreement"

Davoth felt reassured, he still had a chance of winning this.

Suddenly the music began to pick up again,just as he got out of the golden lance that had pierced him and so he immediately looked at the Slayer, who's armor had begun to glow again.

This time, a chant began to accompany the instruments, growing louder and louder as the Slayer slowly began moving again.

At one point the Father and Lilith began hearing this too, interrupting their fight momentarily as the words began echoing through the void.

*Kar en tuk* *Kar en tuk* *Kar en tuk*

Everyone was focused back on the Slayer, who had gotten up again and grabbed his cut arm.

He brought it closer to his shoulder and suddenly an enormous quantity of Argent appeared, which fused it back in its place.

Davoth immediately threw himself towards him, but just as he was about to hit him again, the Slayer's eyes glowed a bright blue as he formed a shield of Argent around himself, before making it explode and launching Davoth away.

Now the chant was much louder, so much so that the Slayer didn't even hear the Father calling his name as his body began to adapt and use the Argent he had absorbed from the Wraiths more efficiently.

Basically, he was getting exponentially more and more powerful each second that passed, with an infinite reserve of energy to draw from.

He opened up a giant portal and decided to bring the fight right where it should be, at Immora,the capital of hell.

The thick hundreds of meters tall red and grey walls of the city shielded it and it's corrupted inhabitants from the demons that were constantly roaming the area as they fought between each other to feed or to establish their power over others.

But as soon as they saw the portal open, they began feeling the Slayer's presence and they spotted him immediately, roaring in anger as he flew towards them.

Everyone got sucked in, including the Maykr fleet and once the portal closed behind them, the Argent bubble popped, dropping the group inside of it on an island surrounded by incoming demons.

The mothers and their kids quickly got inside of the evangelions, with Gendo climbing into unit 01 and Misato climbing into unit 03, while the angels and Samuel used their powers to defend each other.

Meanwhile the Slayer had just blown a giant titan's head to smithereens as Davoth attacked him from behind, resuming their fight.

On the other side of the city, fighting between the dark red buildings there were the Father and Lilith, whose size had been reduced greatly by the portal.

Given his power and Keel's inexperience though, the fight was very one-sided, with the man being saved only by Lilith's excellent regeneration capabilities.

Back on the area where the bubble had exploded, Shinji, Asuka and Mari were each busy dealing with the multiple titans that were trying to eat them and even though the Evas were much more agile, the demons had strength, size and numbers on their side.

Thankfully though the angels were able to help them out when they weren't busy with the regular sized demons.

Suddenly a giant ray of energy perforated Immora's walls as the Slayer put away the ballista and grabbed his rocket launcher, then he began shooting what looked like miniature nukes at Davoth as he used the buildings to stay out of sight.

At the moment in fact the Slayer had proven much more powerful than before, being able to easily overpower Davoth in sword fights.

Still, he hadn't given up yet and after managing to get out of sight, he stopped behind a tower to formulate a plan.

As he heard the destroyer blade charging up, he took a deep breath and got ready to attack.

Once the wave of energy was released, he jumped out of his cover as it was cut in half and surprised the Slayer from behind, managing to lock him into a combo of sword and fists.

Paralized and unable to react, the Slayer took hit after hit, slash after slash as he began losing blood and his armor breaking, with the glass of his helmet exploding outwards.

He fell into a fire and crashed on a red rock, breaking it as his momentum made him slide for a couple of meters before stopping completely.

Davoth was now falling on top of him, with his sword ready to stab him directly in the heart.

"I am not going to fail… not now, not after all I have gone through"

The Slayer thought as his arm launched upwards, somehow stopping the giant red blade over him.

Davoth was surprised by this, but he didn't let it go to his head as he began pushing with more force.

The blade was now cutting through the armor, each second getting closer to the man's skin.

Suddenly, Davoth's advance stopped as the armor began to regenerate from seemingly nothing and soon it regenerated faster than what he could cut away.

He looked down at the Slayer and noticed that he couldn't see his face anymore inside the helmet, just a large quantity of light that turned red a moment later.

In that moment, the Slayer got up to Davoth and told him:

"You have lost"

An explosion followed, powerful enough to kill every demon in the area and bring the Slayer's red form up in the air.

Powerful winds began blowing as a tornado formed around the Slayer and began attracting everything towards it.

Then suddenly from behind the wall of dust and debris, the Slayer's mark appeared and after it a giant black hole.

From its dark surface, two large meathook chains were launched towards Lilith and Davoth, stabbing them in their chests.

A third chain came out, this time aimed towards the ground group, so the Father jumped in to defend them and got stabbed instead.

The chains began to pull as the entire planet began to crumble from the gravitational force of the black hole. Immora was completely destroyed, along with its citizens and Lilith had been pulled inside too.

And while Davoth was managing to hold on, the Father had just finished recreating the protective sphere and once the group was safe, Samuel asked:

"Dad, what's happening to the Slayer!?"

The Father looked behind himself and at the growing black hole, then he said:

"He's doing what I was about to do earlier…

After he absorbed the Wraiths, it was just a matter of time before the power inside of him became too much, causing him to collapse and begin a process that I like to call 'Superior judgment'.

At the moment he's unconsciously trying to absorb as many living beings as he can, before he gets to choose whether to kill or leave alive for each one of them.

That's why I recreated the shield, I'm going to teleport you inside the main maykr ship and then you will leave as soon as possible"

"But Dad… what about you? You have that chain in your chest" Samuel asked as he got closer to the edge of the sphere.

"I… I can't leave, the Slayer used this chain to make sure of it, to make sure that I was judged for my actions like everyone else, especially because of my actions in the past and what they have caused.

This entire mess is my fault after all"

"Wait, does that mean that… the Slayer can kill you? But you're immortal right?"

"..."

"...Dad?"

Suddenly the Father got much smaller and entered the sphere, then he hugged Samuel and after pushing his head on his shoulder he said:

"This… is in case I don't come back"

"Dad wa-"

"Samuel, listen to me…

If I don't come back… I want you to be happy, I want your siblings to be happy and if I'm not there to do that, I need you to take my place.

Make Kyoko happy too, alright?"

"Dad I-, I-"

"Promise me Samuel, please, promise that you will be there for them, promise me that you won't make my same mistakes"

Silence fell for a couple of seconds, but then Samuel hugged his father back as he replied:

"I-... I will try that…Dad"

And as the tension on the chain got stronger and stronger, the Father said:

"Then…whatever the outcome is, I don't have any regrets Samuel, not anymore"

He tightened the hug as he felt the angels running to hug him too.

"Goodbye everyone… See you all in Tokyo 3 if I come back"

And then he teleported them all out of there and into the Khan Maykr's ship.

Once there, they all noticed how it looked a lot like the main deck of the fortress of doom and as the Khan approached them, Samuel said:

"Aurelius, long time no see"

"Same for us, Samur… but we'll talk later, right now we have to leave or this ship is going to be torn to pieces"

"Wait, let me see dad one last time!"

And so Ramiel flew at the giant frontal window and after forming a sort of arm, he began waving at the Father.

Noticing this, VEGA couldn't help but smile as he waved back until the black hole behind him turned into a giant unstable sphere of energy,so bright that he almost didn't see the ships entering the return portals.

As the last portal closed, he looked back at the sphere and noticed a long grey line extending over the hole where Immora once stood.

He approached it, knowing who was the figure at the end of it.

Once he was just a couple of meters from Davoth, the Dark Lord said:

"Have you come here to mock me? After I lost everything? That I ever worked for?"

"You had lost it already long ago… when you let the corruption take you over"

"I just wanted eternal peace and prosperity for my people, it's what you had led me to do"

"It's true… and I've come here to apologize… for everything that has happened to you.

It was my fault that you turned out like this, that you turned into what you are now…

Back then…you reminded me of myself… when I was attempting suicide… I thought that you would have been able to overcome it by yourself… to find your own light…

And I avoided helping you because even though I wanted to… even looking at you in that state reminded me of that period…

I avoided helping you because I feared that I would have turned back into that thing, but in doing so I let you succumb to your instincts and I ruined everything.

I'm… I'm sorry… David"

Suddenly Davoth turned around and walked next to the Father,standing only a meter away from him, then he said:

"You… Remember… that name…

… My name?"

"I… have never forgotten it"

*Vzoom*

Davoth didn't say anything as he closed his eyes and stabbed the Father right in his chest, not hearing a scream of pain despite the tremendous damage the Argent was causing.

Instead after a couple of seconds, he felt a pair of hands get over his shoulders and…

He deactivated the sword.

As gravity began to pull them into the sphere, the Father said:

"I hope that… wherever you end up after this… you will be able to find the happiness you always searched for…

David"

The Dark Lord let his sword fall to the ground and closed his eyes, feeling just like when he was born again as the light took them both.

Inside the sphere

"It's time for me to end this… I don't really know what's going on… but, I think that I'll be able to make the right decisions"

"Slayer, I have to do something"

Rei asked and as the Slayer looked at her, he noticed that now she was the one in possession of the embryo, but before he could react, she jumped at him and said as she touched his chest:

"I need to look into your heart"

Back on Earth

"Alright, alright, keep it steady and land us safely" the Khan Maykr said as they began their final approach to the Earth's surface and as they got under the clouds, they saw how the entire land had been destroyed, almost as if someone had put the entire planet into a giant furnace.

Then, dotted all over the countryside and the rest of the Earth, giant blood tinted crosses stood, each one of them holding one of the Mass Production Evangelions with fossilized human bodies climbing the tower in an attempt to reach it.

After the buzzing of the teleporters dissipated, the group could only hear total silence as they watched the wreck that the giant metropolis had turned into.

The dead silence continued for almost a minute, before a slow rumbling began rising in the background and a moment later exploded into one of the most powerful sounds ever heard in the entire history of the universe,which somehow did not make their eardrums explode.

Yet, the sound coming from the destruction of hell was powerful enough to cross dimensions and cause the entirety of creation to shake.

After a while, a portal opened up in the sky over the beach they had landed on, with an orb of light being launched out of it.

As it traveled along the air and towards the red sand, it broke and shattered after crashing, letting out its four occupants.

The Father, the Slayer, Rei and… Rei again?

Nope, it was Lilith.

As soon as the Father was upright again, he was tagged by both the angels and Samuel as the Seraphim said:

"You. Are. The. Stupidest. Being that has ever existed, dad"

"Well, you need someone pretty stubborn to make a universe as bad as this-Ouch! Hey Zeruel don't do that!"

"Heheh" the angel replied as his tendrils wrapped around his body and began almost squishing him.

Meanwhile in the back Mari had already jumped on Rei and she was presenting her to her mother.

Lilith looked at herself as she laid on the sand and she noticed that her original body was gone and that she was stuck with one of Rei's.

Suddenly though, a thin white hand presented itself in front of her and as she looked up, she saw Kaworu offering her help to get up.

Her vision blurred for a moment as it overlayed Adam's silhouette over the boy for a moment, so she took his hand, feeling the same cozy coldness that she felt inside that strange dimension.

Finally there was the Slayer, who was having trouble getting up, feeling completely exhausted, but also at peace with himself.

He had finally done it. He had won…

Davoth was gone, forever, along with everything that was left of hell, now only an empty dimension in its place.

He had killed them, he had killed them all, all the demons, all the demons that had ever existed and…

He had finally avenged them.

As he felt his forces disappearing, he didn't care if he was about to die or not. He had won, that's all it mattered to him.

And as darkness seemed to close in around him, he exhaled for one last time and wondered… if it had all been worth it.

…

…

"Slayer, you still have something to see"

Hearing those words, the man was suddenly filled with energy once again as the Father helped him get up and stand right in front of Lilith and Rei.

He was able to distinguish them just because of Lilith's hair, which had turned white, otherwise he would have thought he was seeing double given the nausea he felt.

Suddenly Rei spoke:

"When I reached out to you during the Superior Judgement, I had absorbed the power of the embryo after Keel died and I wanted to thank you for everything that you had done, so…

I looked into your heart and just before the explosion, I used all of the superbeing's power to give you what your heart desired the most"

He didn't understand what she was talking about, until a splash coming from the LCL filled water behind them caught their attention.

And as the two female figures popped up from the sea, the Slayer was already swimming towards them after he had noticed the golden mass of hair he had learned to love so much.

When he returned to shore with the two figures in hand, he got on his knees and let his helmet fall off,then he didn't hold back the tears when he felt his wife's and his daughter's hands move on his back as he hugged them as much as he could.

Then with a small whisper, Sarah told him:

"You…You….

You can rest now, my dear"

And as the Father flew into the air to use his powers to begin fixing the planet, the Slayer laid down on the sand again…

And fell into a peaceful sleep.

The-

Hey hey did you really think that I was going to end it here? We still have an epilogue to go through!

Anyway, I really hope you have enjoyed this story and I hope you will enjoy the epilogue as well.

See you all next time :)