Creation began on 04-06-20

Creation ended on 05-25-20

Neon Genesis Evangelion

Sword of Destruction, Sword of Life: Convictions

The streets were ablaze with fire and chaos. People that were still alive were told to leave the city, not to go home, not to warn anyone else, but to just get out of Tokyo-3 while they still could as the night swept across the sky. Police, firefighters, EMTs, businesspeople, students, even perps were ordered to evacuate the city.

"Rrrrrraurgh!" A demonic roaring was heard, and people just forgot about their cars and took the roads out.

Standing atop a skyscraper, looking as though he had better days, Shinji Ikari looked down at the roof of a smaller skyscraper at his father, who clearly looked like a dead man walking with demonic armor and the two swords in his possession radiating with his hatred and desire to kill. Right now, his shirt was ruined and his pants were just hanging on by his belt. The cold air barely bothered him on account of the wildfires that were on the streets.

"You know what this reminds me of?!" Gendo yelled from the lower skyscraper. "The aftermath of Second Impact! Literally Hell on Earth!"

Shinji, having to forgo his personal feelings about deciding his father's fate, knew that as long as he possessed Sō'unga, his drive to kill would persist, and as long as he possessed Tōkijin, the hatred he possessed towards his son would augment and drive him to persist in killing Shinji.

"Why, boy," he then asked his son, "why, why, why? Why do you persist? Why do you cling to this pathetic life? Why continue to delay the inevitable? This world is going to Hell, one way or another. Why deny this truth? Why deny the inevitability of our eventual demise?"

"Because I have people I want to protect," Shinji told him, "regardless of your beliefs…because that's all they are, really. They're just your beliefs, something only you believe in. I can't believe in what you believe in…just as I can't ever be what you want. Why do you do what you do? Why do you want to persist in this madness?"

"To kill you. That's why I do what I do right now. To kill you, the only person I hate as much as I hate God."

Shinji then raised the Tessaiga up and jumped off the rooftop into the air, aiming towards his father with the intent to stop him.

Gendo responded by jumping up and brandishing Sō'unga to meet with his son.

CLASH! Their swords collided…and Sō'unga knew what Shinji was thinking at that moment.

He's not going to hold back, Sō'unga told Gendo. He's going to give it his all to stop you.

Not if I stop him first, Gendo responded and pushed Shinji away with the pressure of his sword, sending him into another building.

Crash! Shinji landed against a desk and spat out blood as he got back up.

"Damn!" He grunted, looking out the big hole he made in the windows, seeing his father floating like an almighty demon wannabe. "Okay, let's try something he can't defend against."

Tessaiga then transitioned from its regular transformed state into its diamond state. Oh, Sō'unga was strong, but it didn't compare to Tessaiga, a sword that protects the living against the dark forces of the netherworld.

"Adamant Barrage!" He shouted, swinging his sword and sending a series of diamond shards at Gendo. Block those, old man!

Gendo used his swords to deflect some of the shards, but not the ones that got him in his shoulders and legs, despite his armor protecting him from the brunt of the impacts.

"Urgh!" He grunted; his connection to both Sō'unga and Tōkijin had reduced his tactile sensation, but not enough to know he was injured and needed time to recoup.

Five minutes to regenerate the nerve damage, Sō'unga informed. You need to get away before he can dismember you. Those two swords belonging to the Great Dog Demon may diminish my power, they're not enough to completely stop me. Use the Dragon Twister. Open the path to Hell.

Gendo smirked. Opening a path to Hell would distract Shinji from him, as well as further the chaos that he would find difficult to deal with on his own.

He's alone, anyway, he accepted as the truth, raising the Sō'unga above his head. "You brought this upon yourself, boy!"

Shinji looked up and realized what his father was about to do.

"Dragon Twister!" He heard him yell, and the sword released a large, dark purple twister from the blade into the air above the city.

Within the twister, Shinji could make out the claws and wings of a dragon of some sort flying around, relishing in the madness that was about to take place.

"Father, damn you," he muttered, seeing the twister releasing tendrils of demonic energy at the buildings below, ripping away pieces of each one that was tallest, and then he looked down at where he last saw his father…and he was gone. "Dammit!"

-x-

"This is insane," Misato stressed, looking up at the city above ground and seeing a black and purple dragon tearing away at pieces of the buildings.

"And I can't believe that Commander Ikari is the one causing all this devastation," added Ritsuko; the idea of murdering people and then reanimating their corpses to create expendable pawns was not part of anyone's job description at NERV, especially since this had nothing to do with dealing with the Angels, just attacking one kid that had resigned from the agency days ago. What are you thinking, Ikari? What are you thinking?

After assessing the devastation within the Geo-Front, Misato had assumed command authority and ordered the city to be evacuated until the matter regarding Gendo Ikari had been resolved. Though, how NERV was supposed to take care of the situation was another question altogether, as the use of an Eva on a human being would be a violation of the agency's legal protection without authorization from the UN. And they couldn't get aid from the JSSDF, not with Gendo using a sword that could reanimate them after killing them.

"Do we have eyes on Shinji?" She asked Ritsuko as they stood on what was left of the bridge in Central Dogma.

"We barely have any surveillance cameras left in the city that are operational due to the interference that…thing is giving off," the faux-blond told her. "Worse, they're not near any that we have access to."

"Damn it," Misato sighed. Shinji, I hope you're faring better than we are down here.

-x-

If he dealt with Sō'unga, the path to Hell would disappear, but to deal with Sō'unga, he had to find his father, who was playing hard to find right now.

"Where are you?" Shinji wondered as he wandered the hallway of one of the buildings he was in.

He looked down at the floor and saw a stuffed animal with blood smeared on it; all he could assume right now was that it belonged to some kid that his father or an undead minion of his most likely murdered. This was madness and it was getting out of control. The longer Gendo had both swords augmenting his hatred and twisted need to kill, the more it would prove challenging to do away with the threat he posed to the world. Even Shinji was horrified by the repercussions of his father's actions if this continued.

"You can't stop me," he heard his father's voice behind him, sounding like he had caught his second wind now, "even with your swords. You're still weak. You believe in these pathetic notions of friendship and love, and they are what make you useless to me and everyone else."

"You're wrong," he told him, turning to face him. "I didn't cast people aside or push them away like you did. Who do you have waiting for you when this is all over? Who will be waiting for you when this feud is over and done with? I can name a handful of people I can hope will be waiting to hear from. Misato, Asuka, Toji, Kensuke, Pen-Pen, even if he's just a greedy bird that I can't understand. What about you? Do you have anyone you care about waiting for you after all of this? Do you have someone to protect that matters to you?"

"Have you someone to protect?" Both men heard the original owner of three of the four demonic swords question in life, as if asking them the same question that had been asked to the eldest of his two sons prior to his death. "Have you someone to protect?"

Of course, with Shinji, it was obvious that he had people to protect from the Angels and his own father's ruthless behavior. But with Gendo, it was as clear as crystal…and it was infuriating for him to have to hear it being asked of him. It was where he and Shinji would differ all the time; the boy had people in his life that he wanted to keep in his life until the very end of it, be it natural causes or unnatural causes, but his father, he didn't have anyone.

"Aaaurgh!" Gendo yelled as he raised Tōkijin to strike his son down.

CLASH! Shinji blocked with Tessaiga.

"You can't protect anyone if you're dead!" Gendo yelled at him, and raised Sō'unga to reinforce his attack on the boy. "It was never your purpose to protect anyone! Your only use was to pilot the Eva and defeat the Angels! And you ran away from your responsibility!"

CLASH! Sō'unga collided with Tōkijin on Tessaiga, but Shinji reinforced his defense with Tenseiga, softening the blow his old man tried to inflict upon him.

"Aaurgh!" He groaned, feeling a part of his left leg crack under pressure. "Aaaaurgh!"

"You're weak, boy!" Gendo told him. "You always have been. Always will be! This world will end and you'll get a front-row seat! And it won't be the Angels left that doom us all! It will be you! You and your inability to do what needs to be done!"

But Shinji… Shinji knew what needed to be done, here and now. He just had a difficult time accepting that he was the one that needed to do it. His father was insane, a monster among humans…and a demon among those who were damned because of their foulest of choices made long ago…and Shinji had to accept that he was the one that chose to abandon his humanity long before he ever came to Tokyo-3 to see him that day. He had to let go of what held him back and do what would protect the people.

"Father," he uttered, rising back up, despite feeling immense pain in his left ankle, "I am sorry it had to come to this…but you're the one that's the most dangerous right now. Even if it haunts me for the rest of my life…I will stop you!"

"You?! Stop me?!" Gendo questioned. "I don't think so!"

Shinji's eyes glowed bright blue as he took a step forward, pushing Gendo backwards. And then, he took another step, pushing him back further.

"I will stop you!" Shinji refused to back down. "Because when I have people I want to protect…people I want to see the next day with…I know I can't lose to the likes of you…or anyone else that endangers them!"

FLARE! His swords shined brightly as they surged with energy.

"Aaaaaurgh!" He yelled, and the swords unleashed a burst of energy that forced Gendo out of the building and into the air.

"Aaaaaaaahh!" Gendo yelled as he far to the streets below.

He crashed onto a truck and fell into the cargo area.

Damn him, he thought as he got back up. Where did he get that kind of power?!

Standing at the opening he made blowing his father out of the building, Shinji looked down at the street below and saw him burst free of the truck he fell into and step onto the pavement.

Do what needs to be done, Shinji, he told himself, and jumped out the hole. Do what needs to be done and you save everyone he can harm.

To be continued…

A/N: Expect to see an Evangelion in the next chapter.