[EVA] Eva Manga Stage 71

[M]

Here is the latest Sadamoto Eva manga stage.
This stage is a bit long and heavy, and the dialog in some places is  
stylistic and took some work, but I think it came out okay overall.   
Savor it because it looks like Sadamoto is skipping next month again.

"M"
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Stage 71: Scion of Adam

Cover: Shinji and Kaworu standing back to back in school uniforms

Lead-in text: Having learned the shocking truth, Misato and Shinji...

Scene: Misato’s apartment, Misato’s room -- Misato sits silently  
thinking at her desk which is cluttered with two laptops, computer  
disks, books and various notes. Images run through her head as she  
contemplates and pieces together what she knows.
Misato (thinking): Second Impact
(Antarctic base, people running, structures breaking up, Dr.  
Katsuragi placing Misato in the life capsule)
Misato (thinking): It was unmistakably caused/arranged by human hands.
(Second Impact explosion, giant wings of light)
Misato (thinking): Adam
(Seele mask on Giant in Terminal Dogma (*that we know to be Lilith))
Misato (thinking): The Giant of Light... The god that disappeared
(Giant of Light (*Adam) in Antarctica)
Misato (thinking): Eva... born from Adam... created by human hands...  
with the same power as the Angels
(Dark silhouette of Eva-01)
Misato (thinking): Angels
(Collage of the various Angels)
Misato (thinking): Seele... the Dead Sea Scrolls
(Seele 01 monolith and dark silhouettes of Seele members)
Misato (thinking): NERV
(Gendo and Ritsuko)
Misato (thinking): Ayanami Rei... the Dummy System
(Rei clones floating in tank)
Misato (speaking out loud): ... Kaji
(Cosmetic compact where Kaji hid the information)
Misato: I think I’m also beginning to see a bit... of the terrible  
thing that is going to happen.

Scene: A corridor in Nerv HQ pyramid -- Rei and Kaworu walk towards  
each other and pass without speaking, but Kaworu reaches back to grab  
Rei’s wrist and lift it up, stopping her.
Rei: What?
(Kaworu looks at her for a moment, and then releases her wrist)
Kaworu: Nothing.  Sorry.
(Rei looks at him, touching her wrist where he held it)
Rei: You have the same feel as me. Why?
Kaworu (smiles slightly): To be sure, the matter comprising us is the  
same. And our forms have also arrived at that of the child of man in  
order to live on this world (*lit: “star”). But our difference lies  
in whom we have met, and how we have lived thus far. (closes eyes)  
“You and I may resemble each other, but we are not the same.” (opens  
eyes and smiles at Rei) That’s what you said to me before. Don’t you  
remember?  (*Stage 62)

Scene: Shinji stands amidst the wreckage at the edge of the New Tokyo  
3 crater lake listening to the messages on his cellphone.
Cellphone: You have one message. Playing back. *beep*
Kensuke’s voice: Ikari - It’s me, Kensuke. I’m sorry but I’m  
leaving without seeing you. Then again, I guess we may never see each  
other as long as we live.  It’s just how it is, isn’t it? After all  
it’d be absolutely impossible for us to ever meet and laugh together  
again. So... you take care. Bye.
Cellphone: *beep* Message left on the 23rd at 2:18 p.m.
(Shinji lowers the cellphone from his ear and looks blankly at the  
waves lapping the edge of the crater in front of him.
Shinji: Kensuke, Class Rep and all the rest of the class have lost  
their homes and gone somewhere else. There’s nobody left. Nobody that  
I can call my friend...
Kaworu (from behind Shinji): What about me? You won’t call me your  
“friend”.
(Shinji does not respond or acknowledge him)
Kaworu: Even though... I’m all you have left now...
Kaworu: Second is like that. (Asuka in hospital bed) She just lies  
there in bed like a doll. And First- (back view of Rei in plugsuit)  
She’s no longer the First you know. The First you know died trying to  
save you. What a pity.
(Shinji still does not respond -- Kaworu becomes irritated)
Kaworu: Say something. (grabs Shinji’s shirt and yells at him)
Kaworu: Don’t ignore me! Say something!
Shinji (expressionless): I won’t be friends with you. I don’t need  
friends anymore. I’ve had enough of the suffering of losing friends.  
If I have to taste that suffering again, then it’s better just not to  
have friends from the start. If it was going to come to this, then it  
would have been better never to have met anyone from the start. It  
was better when I was alone, like before. (lowers eyes)
Kaworu (shouting): That’s not what I want to hear! I want to hear how  
you feel about me!
Shinji (expressionless): I told you before. I don’t like you.
Kaworu (pleading?): That was before, wasn’t it? What about now?
Shinji: Let go! (softer) Let go of me... please.
(Kaworu lets go of Shinji’s shirt, then turns and walks away.)

Scene: Nerv HQ detention facility -- Gendo speaks to Ritsuko, who  
sits dejectedly in a chair with her back to him.
Gendo: Why did you destroy the Dummy System?
Ritsuko: It’s not the Dummy System, but Rei that I destroyed. What is  
important to you, Commander, is not the Dummy System, but Rei  
herself. Isn’t that so?
Gendo: I ask once more. Why?
Ritsuko: Because even being held by you no longer made me happy...
Gendo: ..... I am disappointed in you.
Ritsuko: Disappointed? (starts to break down) You had neither  
expectations nor hopes for me from the start. I had nothing- Nothing!  
Nothing!! (lowers head, crying) uu... uuuhhh... uuuuuuuuhhhhhh
(Gendo turns and leaves with the sound of a shutting door)
Ritsuko (sobbing): What shall I do, mother?

Scene: Gendo standing on bridge in front of Eva-01’s head
Gendo: The time remaining to us has become even shorter. But the  
Lance of Longinus that would thwart our wishes is no longer here.
(Lance drifting against backdrop of moon)
Gendo: Soon the final Angel will appear, and when we destroy that our  
wishes will be granted. Soon now... Yui.  Soon... the time that I can  
meet you will come.
(Gendo pulls a case from his pocket with his burn-scarred hand and  
opens it to reveal the exposed Adam embryo. He picks up the embryo by  
the tail with his thumb and forefinger, tips his head back and places  
it in his mouth as if swallowing a goldfish.)

Scene: Kaworu standing on the damaged and headless winged statue  
surrounded by the Seele monoliths
Seele 01: You have a sour face. Is something the matter?
Kaworu (curtly): No, nothing. And my face doesn’t matter, does it?
Seele: Indeed.
Seele: The matter is grave.
Seele: And requires haste.
Seele 01: Nerv -- originally formed as the implementing agency for  
Seele, it was provided to carry out our scenario. Yet now it is  
becoming the personal agency of a single individual.
Seele 05: There is a man who seeks to gain power equal to God’s.
Seele 02: There is a man who seeks to open Pandora’s Box before us,  
and then to close it again before the Hope contained therein can appear.
Kaworu: Hope? Are you saying that is the hope of all Lilim, and not  
just yours?
Seele 01: Yes.
(collage of war, terrorism, destruction, etc.)
Seele 01: We humankind, the false successors born from the Black  
Moon, have overrun this land with rampant inconstancy. Unable to  
understand one another, we are foolish beings who can only hate and  
hurt each other. And we, who have no future because we are the false  
successors, have but one hope left to us -- that we may be reborn as  
the true successors, children of God.
Seele: Adam, progenitor of Angels -- the true successors from the  
lost White Moon.
Seele: Whose salvaged soul exists only within you.
Seele: But whose regenerated flesh has no doubt already been  
incorporated into Ikari’s body.
Seele 01: That is why we now entrust our hope to you.
Seele: The time is ripe.
Seele: Go now,
Seele: Tabris
Kaworu: I know... For that is the reason I have existed from the start.

Ending text: And at last the final piece (Angel) begins to move...

- End Stage 71