Disclaimer: I do not own the characters of Neon Genesis Evangelion, nor any other aspects of it.

Opus Kouzo part #4

Shinji grit his teeth as he adjusted the focus on the long-bore rifle balanced on the rooftop. The scope was padded, but he hated the feel of it against his face. Or maybe that was just his irritability, crouched as he was thirty floors up on a building, unsheltered from the brisk evening winds.

(Coast is clear, as at twenty-two-hundred-oh-three.)

(Thankyou Getbacker. Triplet, do you have a bead?)

"Yeah..."

(Triplet, please confirm bead.)

"Uh, confirm I have a bead, Geri. Just...not as easy as I remembered..."

(Understood. Stand by.)

Air whistled through the young man's teeth as he shifted slightly, his joints sore from holding his kneeling position in the cold night air.

(Target has entered the firing zone. Fire at your discretion, Triplet.)

With a deep breath, Shinji answered. "Yes sir."

He clenched his hand in preparation before shifting it to the trigger. "Target in the center..." he mumbled ironically.

Making a fine adjustment to the focus, Shinji attempted to control his breathing. His heart was beating too fast, his body unable to stay still enough. Steeling his resolve, the former Third Child clicked in the initial trigger.

The world shrank to the target in his lens and the beating of his heart.

'Okay!' he thought, pulling the trigger. Immediately, he felt the kickback and spiderwebs formed on the window in his scope.

There was a shout through the radio. (Missed!)

With a gasp he pulled back from the rifle, tense and ready to bolt.

(What happened?)

(Kirsch-I mean, the target moved...or something...!)

(Is he calling the cops?!)

(Wait...)

Shaking, Shinji leant back and listened to the chattering narrow-band with wide eyes.

(This is Geri, moving into the fire zone.)

(Sensei...!)

(It's alright. The first phase removed the internal security. It's just old man versus old man.)

"Sensei!"

(Triplet, keep an eye on me could you?)

"Uh...hai! Geri!"

An old man with a thin face and thin grey hair was facing towards the cracked window with indifferent curiosity. He spoke as the assasin entered. "So, who sent you young man?"

Fuyutsuki had to chuckle at that. He allowed himself a wry smile as he pulled the black balaclava from his face.

The older man in the leather recliner sat up in surprise, dropping a leather-bound book onto the floor. "Kouzo Fuyutsuki...! I can't say that black fatigues really suit you. Let me guess; Ikari came back from the slime just to spite me."

Kouzo tucked the silenced handgun into his waistband and hit his gloved hands together to dislodge the talcum powder. "I'm here with Ikari, but this was my scenario."

The wizened creature spat irritably. "Pah! That's what he wants you to believe. So? Gonna finish the job your sniper-pup messed up yourself?"

"Actually, that sniper is Ikari. Shinji Ikari. The son."

Kirsch was surprised enough to drop his outrage. "The boy, eh? Third Child? Killed the first one, Sachiel, before he even had any training?"

Fuyutsuki nodded an affirmation.

The old man gave him a skeptical look "And he missed?"

He shrugged. "No MAGI to filter the signals travelling down his spine up on the Telcorp building, Anders."

The old German nodded. "That so? How about that. What about Ikari, Gendo I mean? Hasn't come back I hope." As Kouzo shook his head, he grinned. "Good! Now, before you get on with your grizzly 'scenario', pull up a chair and join me for a final drink. Oh, and call the boy in. I'd like to meet him."

The former Supreme Commander hesitated for a moment. With a small nod, he spoke through his radio. "Triplet, disengage and join us in the fire zone."

(Sensei?!)

"Code Yellow. Getbacker, keep an eye out for us."

(Uh...hai, Sensei.)

(Roger that, Geri.)

"The drinks cabinet is behind me. Not of the same standard as my pre-Impact collection, but good enough."

Kouzo took out three glasses. "I must admit, I was surprised to find you living in a relatively modest apartment. Scotch?"

"Go ahead, there's ice under the cabinet. Make mine a sherry though. Tell me, you're here because I was the easiest one to find?"

"Mmm." Fuyutsuki agreed noncomittaly.

The elder watched as he poured. "You want the boy to hear this."

"He has a lot of naivety I have to knock out of him."

On queue, Shinji entered the room. "Uhm...Konbanwa, Kirsch-san." he said uncertainly.

Kirsch nodded in reply. "Third Child, welcome. I take it your palatte hasn't developed much - a muscat for the rugrat if you would be so kind, Kouzo."

Shinji fidgeted under the SEELE member's gaze as Fuyutsuki poured the drink. He looked up as he was handed a glass.

"We're not here socially," the former Sub-Commander muttered under his breath.

Kirsch indicated for the two to sit, which they did on a pair of well-upholstered lounge chairs facing the recliner.

Anders held up his sherry in a toast. "To our just desserts! Proste!"

The other two drank uncomfortably, but politely. Then, Fuyutsuki raised his glass. "To our lost brethren, sleeping still."

Kirsch made a wry face but drank anyway.

"To...those that have returned." Shinji said, his cheeks a little red from the unaccustomed alcohol intake.

"Idealist." muttered the old man. "You should drink to Justice, or perhaps more honestly, Revenge. Here I am, the weakest link in the Committee, so here you are."

Shinji sat his glass down. "Why don't you tell us what happened to you after Impact, Kirsch-san?"

"Now down to business, eh?" the Kirsch muttered. "Very well. When I returned, I felt a way I hadn't for well over half a century. I felt...free. I could have been just another old man, perhaps a grandfather looking for his family, not one of the rich and terrible masters pulling the world's strings. But then...an illness dragged me back to earth, a horrid gastic upset. Nothing too serious, but I found myself a feeble, stinking patient in one of the hosiptal wards overflowing with the distraught Returnee's."

"Paradise lost." Fuyutsuki muttered.

"That was a painful experience." Kirsch said before continuing. "Anyway, it was...just too tempting to go back to my old self after that. I reactivated my bank accounts, ate at a four-star restaurant, slept in my own bed again. Even so, I could tell I was missing something. So I sold that mansion, 'forgot' most of my other assets, and gave the majority of my cashables to the Civil Resucitation Fund, all trying to find that liberty again. However..."

The boy nodded sadly. "I think...I can understand that, Kirsch-san. Did you try to contact any of your family or friends? Business partners...?"

The old man chewed his lip before answering. "No. My work was my life before impact, after all. But even if I had...I won't betray my comrades. Despite your righteous feelings, we of the Committee were trying to help secure mankind's future. We did many wrong things, but it was in the name of preserving mankind's very existence!"

Fuyutsuki snorted sardonically. "By turning us into a stagnant monument."

Kirsch actually growled at that. "And what was Ikari's plan? Build an infinite playpen for him and his dead wife!"

"That doesn't make your instrumentality any better a future." Fuyutsuki retorted.

"Hmmph. What good does finger-pointing do now anyway? For better or worse, the future belongs to other now. Still, I'm glad to hear about Ikari. Unless...you didn't Complement with him, did you?!"

"I don't think I've ever been so insulted. And before you ask, I don't believe he complemented with his son, either."

"Hmmph, I should have guessed. No doubt he's swimming about all mixed up with his dead wife, or that other abomination of his. Who knows, maybe both? Who cares if amoeba sleep around, eh?"

Shinji tensed slightly at that, but Fuyutsuki surreptitiously held out a restraining hand. "Who knows?" he said. "In any case, Gendo Ikari is now...irrelevant." The word left his tongue dripped in irony with a black and licorice taste.

Shinji looked at Kirsch speculatively. "Kirsch-san...do you think that we're here for revenge?"

Rolling his eyes, the old man snorted. "Don't tell me it's because I'm a menace to society."

With a small, ironic grin Shinji nodded. "Truthfully, I'm not entirely certain why this has to be done. Not yet."

Silently, Fuyutsuki stood. Shinji followed suit, apprehension writ on his young face.

"I'm sorry, Anders, but you knew this wasn't a social call." The former Sub-Commander of Nerv said, pulling the gun from his waistband.

"Wait." commanded Kirsch from his seated position, staring out of the cracked window. "Boy. Shinji Ikari. You do it."

There was a pause as Shinji froze.

"It'll only get harder from here." the former SEELE member pointed out.

Looking an askance from his mentor, Shinji reluctantly took the proffered weapon.