0.0 ??? ???? ???????

(0.1 Holy Mother)

Man found a God, and in their joy, they wished to obtain it, and they were punished for that transgression.

That was fourteen years ago.

The God that they found vanished, but even so, mankind kept looking to ressurect that God on their own, and that was Adam.

They took the rib of Adam, and from that, they created a Man who would be close to God…

and that was EVA.

And first among the EVAs was the true offspring of Lillith, the firstborn child of god -

birthed, not copied, of one being with the mother, light from light, true god from true god,

both god and Man alike.

But the divine plan had never ordained for such a creature to exist, so there was no soul to allotted to it in the chamber of Gauf.

The vessel EVA, which did not originally have a soul, would remain a lifeless doll unless a soul were to be given to it.

The God EVA would not answer prayers until a soul were ro be fed to it through the rite of human sacrifice.

So a faithful disciple offered herself upon the altar that was the throne of the soul.

She gave herself willingly with the heart of a martyr bound for heaven,

ready to leave behind all the joys and concern of the flesh, giving her very life as a sacrifice to protect the future of her child.

She gave herself knowingly with the mind of a sage bound for nirvana,

ready to cut herself on from the attachments of life, even if she should have to renounce the man that she loved.

Casting off her humanity, the disciple sought communion with God, certain that God herself would hear her plea, for was she not also a mother longing to protect her children?

As she passed into the holiest of holies, she finally heard a voice:

?Behold, here I am!"

?Take now thy son Shinji, thine only son, whom thou lovest, and get thee to the land of Hakone; and offer him there for a burnt offering upon the entry plug which I will tell thee of!"

(0.2 Sand Dream)

THE STILL END OF TIME

I wonder when it all went wrong.

It seems like just yesterday, I could never have imaged that things might turn out like this…

All our hopes and prayers, all our efforts and every dream I ever had -

it seems like they were all in vain.

Were we all doomed from the start, our doom pre-ordained from time immemorial?

Or was there something I could have done, something I failed to do?

Was it all decided before I was even born, during that incident at my parents' lab which foretold the coming of the angels?

Was my destiny set in stone since mom's experiment, or could it all have been different if ayanami hadn't had that accident?

Or are those all just excuses… Justifactions to avoid facing the truth of the matter.

Didn't I seal my own fate during the debacle with Unit Three and the events that followed?

Didn't I make this inevitable when I lost control of the EVA?

Didn't I do this myself, on the fateful day on which EVA 01 spread its unholy wings?

I'm not sure where this story starts, but I have to start telling it somewhere.

Preserved inside this world of blood red crystal is one single impression that lingers when all else seems to have faded away, one stubborn last glimmer of light and regret that I know to be mine, locked away safely inside the furthest depths of my soul even when all that I am threatens to dissolve into the crystalline vaults of data like a drop in the ocean -

It is the image of a classroom, mundane, ordinary, unremarkable in every way.

In the world that was, there were a hundred of millions like it.

It is filled with smiling faces.

I think one of them was mine.

Ah, yes.

I remember now.

I think it all began when I started middle school…

(0.3 Harbinger )

June 6th 2004

T minus 10 years, six months and 24 days

Excerpt from the Journal of Dr. Yui Ikari

Today is Shinji's third birthday.

But unfortually, neither myself nor Gendo were able to take the day off from work.

When we can't make it home during crunch time, we usually leave him with my brother or my old music tutor, but I really didn't want to leave him alone on such a special day.

So I decided to bring him with us to the lab instead. I didn't want to impose on the members of our team, especially not now that the day of our big experiment is soon at hand, so I made sure to ask around in advance. To my relief, none of them seemed bothered to have him there.

In fact, they went out of their way to throw a party for him!

Not only did they order an artisanal cake from an upscale bakery, they decorated one of our break-rooms and many of them even brought their own children so that Shinji would have someone to celebrate with. Langley and Makinami both brought their daughters.

Katsuragi's and Akagi's kids were of course rather too old to play with Shinji and his friends, but the two of them volunteered to look after them while we all worked! They even brought along some of their friends from College to help, and so the kids were well-entertained.

Shinji was so happy!

He even made a new friend.

Granted, he's not exactly an ordinary kid.

We've given him the name 'Nagisa Kaworu'.

He is an angel – One who bears witness to man's folly in God's place.