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Hello Just to let you all know I don't own this story & never will. But I recently went looking for Sparky's site & found it's out of commission. Icould not let this story go to waste so I'm posting it up here as a reminder of a once great story that is still unfinished.

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NEON GENESIS EVANGELION: ASCENT OF THE FALLEN

By Sparky Clarkson

Foreword:

I suppose you'll skip this part most people do. Those who don't do that always complain about the author's putting this section before the story, instead of at the end where it can be more conveniently ignored. But the beginning is the natural place to put these notes, because these feelings came about before the story.

So if you've read these sentences I'd like to invite you to read a few more before you begin my little novella. I promise it won't hurt too much. Everyone has a reason for writing fanfiction. Some writers just want to expand the series that they loved. Others hope to live vicariously in the experiences of the show's characters (hence self-insert fics).

I decided to write the story you will shortly (I hope) begin reading because I had something to say. Some of the feelings stirred in me by the GAINAX production Neon Genesis Evangelion wanted expression, and the universe of Eva was the perfect place to express them.

That's not all, of course. I wanted some of those other reasons, too. Ifound myself profoundly dissatisfied by the ending of the series and by the movies. The television finale did not serve the plot of the series well, and the movie did the same to the themes and characters. Sadly, neither one could repair the deficiencies of the other. I believed that something more, something better could be done. So I wrote. This is what came out, starting from a single image I had of Shinji standing between Gendo and Kaoru. To say more about that image would ruin your surprise later on, but I think you'll know when you see it.

This story also expresses some of my beliefs about story writing in general. I've tried to emulate the methods of the old masters of science fiction, back when it and fantasy were really interesting. These days, speculative fiction(SF, Fantasy, Horror) has developed a tendency to produce ridiculously huge, unfocused books and series.

I wanted to take things back to the way they were, if only for one story. Ihoped, with Ascent, to recapture the feel of those old sci-fi serials that used to be in magazines. You'd read each one, and then you couldn't wait until the next month for the following installment.

I hope you enjoy the experience, and I hope it has tightened my writing style. On a final note, I must admit with regret that the characters, technology, and society depicted in this story are not my own invention. They are the intellectual property of Anno Hideaki and GAINAX Films, Inc., and are here used without license.

I offer this story as free entertainment to fans of the series, and host it without profit to myself. The plot of this story is my intellectual property. Ioffer unlimited rights to distribute and store this work in electronic form, provided that no alterations are made to the text beyond those required for formatting. Any profit made from the knowing distribution, storage, or display of this story must be remitted in full to GAINAX Films, Inc. as a licensing fee. That's all from me. Please enjoy the story as it comes out.

--Sparky

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Prologue:

"I will put a new spirit within you; and I will take the stony heart out..."
(Ezekiel 11:19)

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The white marble disk that formed the floor of the room felt warm to the nude boy kneeling at its center. His pale skin, a match for the color of the stone beneath him, did not recoil from the living rock as it might have from the cold blaze of steel. The boy had bowed his head, his unruly grey hair hiding his red eyes from view.

Nonetheless, he sensed every aspect of the room around him. Evenly spaced around the perimeter of the white disk, hovering between the stone circle and the glowing grey mist that lay beyond it, floated 10 monoliths. Most of them also glowed, each suffused with an inner illumination. All of the simple rectangular prisms were formed of different materials, yet each had something in common with its neighbors an underlying similarity, beyond a likeness of shape, that unified the disparate emanations.

Ahead of him and to his right was a glass monolith, all but invisible compared to the others. It alone did not glow, yet something about it nonetheless drew the boy's eye. To the right of it floated a series of seven smaller, glowing monoliths, each formed of a different material: gold, moonstone, silver, onyx, ruby, aquamarine, and emerald. Each was twice as tall as the boy, and three times as broad.

After that was a slightly larger monolith of diamond, glowing somewhat more brightly than the seven.

Directly in front of the boy floated the largest monolith, constructed of sapphire. However, neither the boy nor anyone else who might have been in the room could bear to look directly at it. No brighter than any of the others, it was nonetheless greater, as if the radiance pouring from it encompassed the entire spectrum incomprehensible in its vastness. All the other lights in the circle were but single tones to the symphony of its light.

No being could come to grips with such illumination, and so all bowed their heads in deference to the inconceivable.

A voice emanated from the sapphire, saying, "You know that this choice will change everything, do you not?" This indeed was a symphony: the mellifluous tones seemed to be created by every single particle of air, as if the universe itself spoke for the light in the sapphire. The memory of the sound lingered long after it was gone, like the last note of a sweetly tolling bell, inspiring an almost painful longing to hear it again.

The boy bowed his head lower. "I know, Father. But truly, I have no choice no power over my heart," he said.

There was a rustling sound from the seven smallest monoliths in the circle, but this stilled quickly when the voice again emanated from the sapphire."Do you then leave me, Tabris, as so many have before? Have you chosen another to worship?" it asked.

Tabris shook his head. "L ilha ill Allh," he replied,"I have not chosen to worship another. I have decided to surrender my eternal life for the one I love." A tear formed in his right eye.

Now a voice emanated from the diamond monolith. "I have seen his heart," it said, its tones similar to those from the light in the sapphire, but somehow more strident. "True love has guided him, not base lust."

The supreme light did not reply that it knew this already doing so would only repeat the obvious. "Then, Tabris, I have reason to make judgment," it announced.

Tabris bowed his head lower again. "I cast myself upon your mercy," he replied. "As you have asked, so shall it be done. My plan continues. The day of glory approaches. Let all know the consequences," the voice from the sapphire monolith announced. "Go in my love, Tabris," it added warmly. "Thank you, Lord," the boy replied.

A chorus from the seven seats quickly drowned him out. "So let it be written, so let it be done. Amen," chanted the choir of lights. Beneath his breath, Tabris whispered, "It is my choice..."

And then he was gone.

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Next week: Part One: "And now art thou cursed from the earth..."

Sparky