Disclaimer:

I do not own any of the characters from the Evangelion and Metal Gear Solid universes; they belong to Hideaki Anno, Yoshiyuki Sadamoto, GAINAX Studios, Hideo Kojima, Shoji Shinkawa, Kojima Productions and Konami Studios.

Author Notes:

Hello there! I've been having some problems with my connection lately, which unfortunately kept me from updating as I would have done normally. Now that that's fixed I'll be able to post much faster.

Many thanks to those who reviewed this fic. That's one of the most important things to me, as it encourages me and points me in the right direction as to where to go. My thanks to those of you who added this fic to your Favourites as well. If you like it, leave a comment and tell me what you would like to see. That always helps.

So, this is a very brief interlude. Thing is, I couldn't put this in Chapter 3, so here it goes as a separate update.

Interlude

"Well Misato, you were actually very lucky this time," Doctor Ritsuko Akagi said with a faint smile "The wound should heal nicely in a few weeks. Luckily it didn't hit the bone."

Besides her, Misato Katsuragi was flexing her right arm up and down carefully, looking pensively at it.

"You've kept saying that to me for the past week," Misato grunted, albeit a little playfully "But seriously, it is a good thing that I managed to get to the elevator. One more second and that guy would have killed me"

Both women fell silent after that comment. After his lethal encounter with Misato, Shalashaska had gotten away of NERV, killing four other guards on the process. Section hadn't been able to find him after that.

'They lost him right in the middle of Tokyo 3' Misato thought to herself 'No matter how good you are, its impossible to disappear completely from here without help. Someone assisted him in his escape, I'm sure of it' But Misato knew that it was no use to dwell on those thoughts for now. She had more pressing matters to think of.

"So Ritsuko, how did the Children's tests go?" Misato asked her colleague.

"Shinji scored at about 71%, which makes it his personal record," Ritsuko said "Asuka has synched at 77% and Rei at 62%. We feared that Shinji's synch ratio would stop progressing after you were attacked, but apparently he's been in a good mood lately, to put it some way. He's worried about you, but it looks like he's dealing with the situation by himself."

Misato nodded thoughtfully. She had feared that Shinji could get depressed and that his synch ratio would go downwards, but luckily that didn't seem the case. What intrigued her most was how it could be that his synch ratio kept climbing despite his obvious displeasure at being in NERV.

"What do you think Solid Snake was doing in Tokyo 3?" Misato asked the doctor darkly.

"No one has even the slightest idea," Ritsuko said "And I don't like to speculate. Most of the base's personnel think that he was trying to hijack or destroy the EVAs, though. I even found Aoba and some of the technicians making bets about who he would attack first"

"And we couldn't find him, even after Section 2 searched the city twice" Misato grunted "The same with that Shalashaska guy"

"You think they were working together?" Ritsuko asked with curiosity. Even if she tried to hide it, Ritsuko thought that Misato's opinions - when she was sober - were usually quite reasonable. And besides, Misato knew much more than Ritsuko when it came down to espionage and famous military operatives.

"No, I'm almost sure they weren't," Misato said clearly "And not only due to the rivalry between Solid Snake and Revolver Ocelot, but because Snake didn't try to kidnap Shinji at all. He gave him advise as a matter of fact; Shinji told me that himself. I don't think Shalashaska would have done the same if he were in Snake's place. He would have tried to abduct or interrogate him, I'm sure."

Kaji walked quietly and placed himself just next to the wooden door. He got his right hand inside his jacket, readying his Beretta for a possible fight. It wasn't as if he was expecting one, but preparing for that possibility would cause no harm. Opening the door slowly, Kaji slipped inside. Just as he expected, the shack was empty. Good. He moved forward, getting to the back door. Again he prepared himself, and again he passed through the door.

His informant was here.

It was a middle aged woman with black hair. Not being exceptionally pretty, or tall or curvaceous, she was pretty much a complete average woman. Good thing for a spy.

"Good to see you here," Kaji said as a greeting. He knew the woman had been alerted of his presence even before he arrived.

"You play a dangerous game," the woman said "We met last week. SEELE won't like you driving attention to them. You should stay low for some time."

"Ah well, sometimes I can't help it," Kaji said with a smile, standing at the lady's right "It's just I've heard some very interesting rumours lately, and I wanted to check if you did too."

"So you've been investigating SEELE as well," the woman said "Even if that's not part of your job."

"It's not," Kaji said clearly "Until it starts affecting NERV. Then it becomes my problem as well. So, are you going to tell me why is SEELE planning an attack on NERV?

"They need to," the lady said "They are going to test NERV, and Commander Ikari."

"Test them how, exactly?" Kaji asked with his ever present rogue smile. He was very curious about this; would SEELE send an assassin or something to see how far he made it? Or maybe an attack drill? No, that made no sense; NERV had proven its worth several times already.

"There is one way to deal with powerful organizations such as NERV," the woman said, not looking at him "One old and known way to deal with any powerful foe."

Kaji didn't have to think too hard.

"Cut their resources?"

"Yes. And I will say no more," with that the woman stood up and walked away.

"I wasn't expecting you to."

.

Kaji got in his car while dialling a number on his cell phone. He checked his surroundings and sped off, finally sending a call.

He didn't have to wait long.

"It's me."

"Yes, I learned something that might be of interest to you."

"NERV will be attacked tomorrow. They are going to arrange a blackout in Tokyo 3."

"No way will I be able to pull that off. And it could compromise my cover."

"I checked my info thrice. It's good."

"I'm just a man doing his job."

"Goodbye, Boss."

A quiet figure sat in the floor of a dark room. It was calmly checking a blade and some other items nearby.

A comm. link beeped and the figure stood up, leaving the dark room and walking through some corridors. He had been summoned by his Commander.

Gray Fox was not a normal person. In fact, there were plenty of people which actually wouldn't call him human to begin with. Some would say he was an animal, others a machine, and some others would say that he was a ghost. In Fox's opinion, he was neither, as he was the three all together. He no longer had a normal body, as he only had an exoesqueleton to move. The only things remaining from his original body were his head and his spine; the rest was entirely cybernetic. His new exoesqueleton suit was tinted black at the torso and light brown at the limbs, and it made him incredibly powerful, giving him the ability to dodge bullets or to punch through walls. But of course, that came with the price of losing his humanity. Or the fact that only him and one other subject had survived the procedure of installing the suit.

But Fox didn't have time to ponder on such thoughts. He passed through a door and entered a big room with a desk at the end. Next to the desk there was a grand window, and next to the window stood Big Boss.

Fox stopped a few feet away from his mentor. Big Boss turned around and faced him in silence for a few seconds. Neither man moved.

"Gray Fox," Big Boss said "I have a task for you"

Fox raised his head at the sight of his commander. To him, Big Boss meant everything. The legendary man who had freed him several times of the claws of the Patriots. In Mozambique, when he was a small boy called Frank Yaeger, the frank hunter in German. In the Peninsula de los Muertos, when he was Null, the Perfect soldier and a slave of the Pentagon. And finally, when Big Boss had founded Outer Heaven, giving Gray Fox a purpose in his life.

Fox didn't inquire about the words of Big Boss. He just waited for his commander to continue. Both men knew that he would carry out the task. After all, that's why he was called Fox, a title that was given only to the best agent in the world.

Big Boss threw him a folder with some files. Fox eyed them thoroughly, trying to get as much information as he could about his new mission. The files showed him a middle aged Japanese man. The man was wearing dark glasses and a dark jacket; he looked like an important person.

"His name is Gendo Ikari" Big Boss said "And he is the Commander of NERV in Japan. He is located deep within the Geo Front, which would make this mission almost impossible if it weren't because of one advantage we will have tomorrow."

"Capture?" Fox asked curtly. He didn't need to regard Big Boss formally. They knew that Fox would die for Big Boss, and to the commander Fox was almost like an adopted child.

"No," Big Boss said simply.

.

.

.

Author Notes 2:

I hope you liked it. It doesn't really tell much, save for working as a connection between chapters. Unlike this one, next chapter will be very big, at least as much as Chapter 2, and it will involve plenty of action. I'll have it ready as soon as possible, but it'll take me a while. Mostly because I'm completing the third chapter of Vengeance as of now. I suppose it could be ready in two weeks.

So, my heartfelt thanks for reading. It means a lot to me.

Devil Boss