Disclaimer: Neon Genesis Evangelion is not owned by me. If it was, Shinji would be a round-headed kid, Asuka would be the Little Redhaired Girl, Rei would be a crabby girl who pulled the football away from Shinji, and Pen-Pen would be a beagle. Needless to say, I'd be lynched within hours at most.

The mansion of one Keel Lorenz, puller of puppetstrings extraordinaire, was a considerably more modest affair than one might imagine, considering his level of affluence and virtual domination of the world's political systems. The man was a pragmatist, after all, accumulating money and material wealth as a means to an end. Things did not make one great, he would espouse, were he inclined to share his philosophy; rather, power did. Power over one's own destiny. The destiny of others. Friends and enemies alike. Not that he had many of the former. This likely had much to do with his current occupation as the head of an organization trying to dominate the Earth.

He was, in fact, the latest chairman in SEELE; his successor had not had a timetable he considered aggressive enough, and as such, he had him eliminated. However, it had cost him; the cancer that ravaged his body nearly killed him, which would have made it impossible to seize the godhead as he so longed to do. Even with the finest cybernetics mankind had to offer, he could not expect it to be more than a decade before he drew his final breath. He had no intention of waiting that long to take what he believed only he was worthy to carry - the burden, as he saw it (or so he tried to rationalize), of guiding mankind's evolution to ever greater heights, free of the burdens of individuality and free will.

Along with the other members that made up the head council of SEELE, he intended to see to it that omnipotence and omniscience would sit in the palm of his hand. In fact, in a few short hours, his little 'present' would be arriving in Terminal Dogma - the Seventeenth Angel, delivered on a golden platter. After making some final adjustments on behalf of his benefactors, the unfortunate teenage genetic experiment - SEELE's answer to NERV's dabbling in forbidden attempts to hybridize human and angel tissue - would soon be destroyed trying to initiate Third Impact, trying to bond with Adam. Adam, who was never in Terminal Dogma in the first place, but rather, in the palm of one Gendo Ikari, both figuratively and literally.

Ikari caused Keel no small amount of trouble, but his genius and manipulation had considerably sped up the timetable for SEELE. Keel knew well that he might have Ikari to credit for the fact that he had lived to see this day. However, he also knew he was treacherous - he had his own scenario. They had suspected for years, but only recently had evidence with which to act. And act they would - plans were already set in motion. At dawn in Tokyo-3, JSSDF and UN troops would strike to prevent Third Impact. It was hardly a lie that that was their intended purpose, but what he would never tell them - and they would likely never realize - was that it was to make way for SEELE's Third Impact, and with the help of the mass-produced Evangelion series, they would ascend to the godhead within hours of thwarting Ikari's own bid.

As such, Keel took the time to enjoy the meal laid before him. It was rare that he ate anything but mush - his implants required him to have a fairly strict diet, and although this would not kill him, it would cause him discomfort over the next few days. No matter; in less than 24 hours he would no longer have intestines of any sort with which to be bothered.

However, he did not expect an uninvited guest at the dinner table, one who proceeded to announce himself in an innocuous, polite, yet reserved tone.

"May I join you?"

Keel looked up - knowing the voice before even seeing the face.

Gendo Ikari.

"GUARDS!" Keel called aloud, shocked at the presence of the man.

"They can't hear you, I've seen to that." Gendo waved his hand dismissively, as though the uzi-carrying guards in the next room were nothing but a trifle, a fly bothering a picnicker. He helped himself to a seat as he spoke.

Keel, however, retained his cool, collected demeanor. "This is awfully brazen of you, Ikari. Normally I would imagine that you would act through your underlings," he stated grimly, recalling the fate of one Kaji Ryouji mere weeks ago as his voice took on a gravely tone amplified by his strained vocal circuits. Quietly he moved his hand off the table, slipping it underneath. Fortunately for him, and unfortunately for Gendo, Keel prepared for every eventuality, and while Gendo himself showing up was unexpected, an intruder was not - for which he had an answer in the form of a fully loaded Magnum holstered just under his spot at the table. Which, as an infamous detective once said, would blow most any intruder's head "clean off." Granted, the mess would be most awful, but he wouldn't have a terribly great need to use these facilities again as an ethereal being presiding over humanity, would he?

"Perhaps, but I felt that this particular visit warranted a more personal touch," Gendo replied, his aloof, dismissive attitude remaining, as though it did not matter a whit that he was deep in what amounted to enemy territory. "Incidentally, don't bother with the gun."

Keel's eyes widened as he reached for it, grasping the handle, only to find... sand.

The corners of Gendo's mouth tugged upwards, in the slightest, slightest smirk, as his gloved hands came together, hiding his face behind them, taking on the contemplative, calculating posture his subordinates knew too well. He regarded his 'employer' quietly as he gaped, waiting for him to put together the pieces.

"...Instrumentality." Keel said, eyes widening (or so Gendo imagined, were they not concealed under the large visor that gave him artificial sight). Both out of shock that it had worked so well - apparently, Gendo had attained literal godhood even before merging all souls into one - and horror, that he'd been beaten to the punch. "You couldn't have done it so soon, the Dead Sea Scrolls - "

"...were completely accurate." Gendo intoned quietly. "In approximately 10 hours, your forces will launch an attack against NERV. Combined with the mass-produced Evangelions and the massive AT field distortion due to the slaughter of NERV personnel, as well as the unification of Unit-01 and the MP units, you will attempt to initiate Third Impact before I would. Or at least, you would have, had I not interceded."

Gendo's smile grew ever-so-slightly, sending a chill down Keel's artificial spine - he could see the slight change in his cheeks even from behind the hands.

"Except you were a little late. I initiated Instrumentality a scant moment or two before your forces managed to ensnare Unit 01 and its pilot. Simply put, you ran out of time. And it was I who seized the godhead. And borrowing a bit of power from it, I decided to pay you and your compatriots a visit - incidentally, the true nature of time is nothing like most physicists believe. Most fascinating." Gendo quietly stood as he spoke as though conversationally, and walked around Keel, looking the old man in the face.

"...you blinked, old man. And now I'm going to give you what you deserved for a long, long time."

Keel's mouth opened slightly... only to be shut as his head snapped back with a strike that would be best described as inhuman in strength. Ikari's fist collided with his jaw, sending Keel flying out of his chair and smashing into an inconvenient wall with enough force to make visible cracks in the drywall - and possibly the boards underneath. Keel was stunned for a full moment, error messages cascading down his visor from the damage he'd sustained.

"...why didn't you just kill me?" Keel said. Perhaps Gendo had grown arrogant in his apparent godhood? Maybe he could win the day yet - of course. Of course he would. He was Keel Lorenz. He clawed his way to the top and stayed there, and damn anything that stood in his way, SEELE's old membership, biology, the will of the world, he WOULD ascend to his rightful place!

"You don't get off that easy." Gendo whispered quietly, deathly. Perhaps Keel's tendency to get what he wanted, so long the cornerstone of his strength, would not save him this time.

"I needed something a bit more visceral. You see... unlike the rest of SEELE, I have a conscience." He knelt down next to the fallen form of Keel, speaking as though he were lecturing a toddler who was nursing a scraped knee as Keel rubbed his damaged jaw, kept from being broken only by virtue of the auxiliary skeletal brace system deep within his body.

"Ridiculous. You killed as many as we did. You lied, stole - "

"...and I felt every. Last. One." Gendo intoned quietly. "The only difference was, I was doing it to save the world." His fist opened and shut... clenching. A trait, he remembered, that he'd once seen in Shinji... knowing that the boy was a bit like his old man. Gendo was not certain whether to be proud or terrified. He would hope that Shinji wasn't capable of this.

"Instrumentality was inevitable. But instead of simply heading it off at the pass, or helping humanity to weather the oncoming storm, you started Second Impact and killed half of Earth's population. You required a grandiose plan that required my WIFE," Gendo's voice increased in what can best be described as heated RAGE somehow intermingling with the collected, cold visage he was still presenting even now to Lorenz. "Being sucked into an abomination. And my son to pilot it." He adjusted his dark glasses once again. "In fact... I could do what I'm going to do to you for my son alone. Do you know how much he suffered during this? Do you? No. You don't. I didn't even know the true magnitude of it, until I'd attained this power. I had an idea, of course, but as usual, imagination pales in comparison to reality." A bit of a grim smile as he continued to speak.

"In fact, your Evangelions and troops managed to kill the Second Child - who he seems to have been quite smitten with - and his guardian. They were so thoroughly destroyed, even with the godhead at my fingertips, it's almost impossible to bring them back - almost, but not quite." his voice became cold, and monotone once again. "A problem that I won't have with you."

He snapped his fingers, as though ordering a servant to bring something. No servant appeared, but a large goblet appeared on the rug next to him. He opened his hand, and the cup drifted upwards, only to be caught by the outstretched fingers. There was a strange orange substance within it, and he regarded it for a moment, as though he were considering taking a drink - or perhaps offering one to Keel. The older man was uncertain. He half expected it to be hemlock, to offer him a way out. Or perhaps, he merely hoped it was.

It was not to be.

"What are you going to do?" he inquired, lips shockingly dry, he realized out of an odd corner of his mind.

"What am I going to do?" Gendo said, quietly. "Simple. I'll do my best to undo the damage that I - that we - have done. I'm going to destroy Adam. I'm going to destroy Lilith's body, and allow her soul to live on in Rei. I'm going to allow humanity to evolve from this experience, as Yui intended in the first place - if they choose to, out of free will. I'm going to get her from that abomination, and Soryu, and the other women we've imprisoned to that hell of quasi-existence in case Aida or Horaki or any number of other children were needed to be expendable soldiers in a war that never should have happened. I'm going to give back to my son the people he cares about most in the world - sadly, I'm far from among them, but I have you to thank for that. I'm going to bring back all the NERV personnel that we've used as pawns that you rather callously had slaughtered for your own ends to finish this macabre little scheme. And the JSSDF members, too - they may have tried to kill those under my command, but they DID think they had to stop me from destroying the planet - ironic, I suppose." Ikari shrugged a bit at that thought, as though he were shrugging off responsibility for a failed weather prediction. "I might even see if I can give the Fourth Child his leg and arm back. Cybernetics are good, but you can't beat flesh and bone, don't you agree?" Gendo's remark had a slight, deliberately conversational tone, meant to barb at the chairman - and it worked, though Keel gave him no visible satisfaction for that fact. His poker face remained intact as the initiator of the Impact, his apparent executioner-to-be, continued. "I can't actually repair all the damage, of course - godhood doesn't quite live up to the advertisements - but I may be able to pull off a few miracles, and it's certainly better than the end result you envisioned for us all. In short, I'm going to put things the way they should be."

"...and do you think you'll actually be able to simply set down omnipotence?" Keel uttered quietly, a slight bit of his rage entering his voice with a shake, despite the fear that gripped him, even if he wouldn't admit to it. A real concern - one that had worried Gendo. However, the NERV commander had an answer to that.

"Mr. Lorenz," Gendo uttered, smile growing for a brief few seconds - and his eyes hardening into the coldest look Keel had ever seen in his long life. "I've already gone this far to save the woman I love. Even if it were true omnipotence, I don't think that she'd be terribly pleased with me if I decided to take up the office of god permanently. I've already been sleeping on the couch for twelve years - thanks to you and your scheming - and I don't intend to spend another twelve doing that same thing."

Keel inhaled deeply with his artificial lungs. "And the rest of the Committee?"

"I've already taken care of them." Gendo said, tapping the lip of the cup. "In fact, you're about to join them."

Lorenz stared at the cup quietly, a slow horror dawning on him as he spied the strange liquid within. He knew what the orange substance was - LCL - though in his avarice, he'd never seen any up close with his own eyes (or optical sensors once his own no longer functioned), not bothering to know the details of just what horrors he'd unleashed on the world.

"None of you on the SEELE council were very fond of each other, were you?" Gendo asked almost conversationally. "And yet, you were so convinced that joined together with the rest of humanity, things would be better, and you'd not be such a bore among each other anymore. You were in it for power - you never once had a moment of camaraderie that I saw." He laid the goblet down at Lorenz' feet.

"But, as it turns out, most of humanity does not fancy the idea of being turned into something resembling a powdered orange drink mix." Gendo stated, as he got up from his kneeling position, looking down at Keel... and witnessing just how pathetic he was. Lying against the wall. Almost broken, utterly helpless. Even if he rose up to fight, he knew he had no chance. Lip trembling. Gendo almost felt pity for him.

Almost.

But for Gendo Ikari, feeling - let alone acting on - the emotion known as 'pity' was something that happened a lifetime ago. A broken family ago. And from a time before he had seen the true monsters in the world, and become one himself.

"But I decided to compromise. You get to join with the other Committee Members."

"...no... PLEASE..." Keel began to plead, as Gendo held out his hand.

The glove seemed to be almost at one with his flesh as an eye opened in Gendo's palm, and stared straight into Keel - and he felt it penetrate his soul. He tried to choke out a word, but found he couldn't, falling over, almost choking as he felt himself beginning to dissociate - dissolve... a strangled gasp that was probably an exclamation of 'no,' even as he felt his mind beginning to be crammed together with the other eleven loathsome men whom he tolerated in order to take over the world. And then what was Keel Lorenz was no longer Keel Lorenz, but a pile of cybernetics, and liquid that was drawn into the cup, the container holding all of it despite apparent physical impossibility.

With that, Gendo straightened up his collar, and pressed his sunglasses up one last time.

"I do so enjoy irony, don't you, chairman? Life's little ironies are one thing that makes it worth living after all. Not that you'd be able to enjoy such things in Instrumentality, but, as you've seen, I'm more than happy to help provide them." A cold smile flitted across Gendo's face, as he used a bit of his power to make certain Keel heard him.

He looked at the goblet for a moment. Truth be told, there was an urge for the schemer to simply pour it down the toilet... but he had a better idea. There were those in SEELE, not in the Human Instrumentality Committee, who he wouldn't be destroying today, though that might be able to put together the puzzle and begin Instrumentality themselves. And for them, he would send them a small package containing a small amount of the LCL he'd gathered.

As a warning.

Even if Gendo no longer retained godhood, he wouldn't need it for the threat to resound clearly. And to hint at the safeguards he would set in place lest any man try to tread where he had today before humanity was truly ready for such power, and such a universal merging, if indeed they ever were.

He snapped his fingers, and the receptacle vanished to whatever unseen storage place it came from.

With that, he turned around and began to walk away - straight through the wall that would have impeded him had he still been affected by Earthly limitations. Not a word he'd spoken was a lie - after he set things right, he'd set down the godhead, but not a moment before. He still had much to do - thousands of JSSDF soldiers and NERV employees to bring back to life, first and foremost the girl and the woman his son was so fond of. He was not, much to his chagrin, truly omnipotent - but even the worst at the massacre were fresh, just within his reach. None would actually die today after all. Despite the fact that, to the uninitiated, one would imagine that time travel ought to have erased the event from ever happening simply by eliminating SEELE the day before the massacre happened, Gendo knew too well from first-hand experience that time was far, far more complicated than that.

But he had too much to do to worry about the nuances of temporal mechanics. After he resurrected the dead, he had Eva cores to shatter... and mankind's two deadliest threats to put down for good.

He had a lot of blood on his hands to make up for. He had a world to save.

"We'll have to have dinner again sometime, Chairman Lorenz."

And then he was gone to his next destination.

I've been thinking about Evangelion a lot lately. And it occurred to me, amidst reading EvaGeeks forums, that it's entirely possible that Gendo was just trying to do what he could. After all, there's a lot we don't know about his motives (or only partially know, or the online community has discussed a great deal), or the broader idea of just what the entire business about the 'inevitability' of Second/Third Impact was.

I'm well aware I probably broke canon in several places. With most fanfics I write (not that I write many), I don't stick to canon too hard in any case, but I was hoping to get it close for this one. In any case, please read and review, and maybe I'll put some of my other ideas out there.