1.5

I'm examining the Embryo of Adam.

It lays there, embedded in translucent bakelite, as cold and motionless as the day it arrived.

"What do I do with you?" I murmur. "Do I even need you? Will you be our destruction? Our salvation? Or something else entirely?"

I close the transport case and store it away. "Gateway to Human Instrumentality," I whisper. "Tempting. So very tempting. Something with which I could become a god, at my fingertips..."

I shake my head. "No. Not yet. I still need a Vessel. Yes... A Vessel..."

I sigh. "SEELE won't be happy about this. But this might be a Chance." I activate my backdoor to the MAGI.

"Backdoor code Judas," I say. "Set background process Sierra Golf One Niner. Activate."

Deep within Central Dogma, at the MAGI Central Processing Unit, a subprocess is executed. A sweep of the Pribnow Box area highlights a specific point of minuscule corruption. I smile. "Capture."

A powerful laser carves out the section of the wall, dropping it into a nearby-placed container. Another subroutine initiates a scanning process of the rest of the facility.

I forward the captured Ireul to the Project E laboratories. Good. He may play a part for us yet.

Another subprocess activates, as it was set to do on the condition that Ireul was out of the way. It is surreptitiously probing into MAGI networks all over the world, searching for a very specific type of information.

I suspect it will be a while before it gets me anything. I have other things to do.

I visit Terminal Dogma. The tank is fuller than before, as Reeproduction is at an all-time high. Backups are paramount, especially given the current... circumstances.

A separate tank is set aside. It contains the decomposing corpses of most of the captured NERV personnel.

The only humans left in NERV are Misato, Asuka, Maya, and Shinji. We still haven't found Maya, by the way. She's given us the slip.

We have downloaded the minds of all our captives and distributed them around the more active Ree. A scant few have their own bodies now, too. Some of the Ree have annoyed voices in their heads now, but it's a small price to pay for making sure that the humans won't cause trouble. It was a tactical decision, in anticipation of the already oncoming troubles from SEELE. Naoko and Yui, with pointers from Ritsuko (who has her own body), are working overtime on improving our S2 Organs, to prevent any future overloads.

The Ree are preparing for war.

Despite the horrors we were causing in preparation for an attack by SEELE, I did decide to contact them myself. You know, just in case.

I enter the green screen room and called a meeting. They are... surprisingly prompt to arrive.

"What did you do with Langley, kid?"

05 goes right to the point. Neat. I adjust my shades, now triangular to fuck with Sora. "I did warn you," I point out. "I warned you that he'd meet the same fate as Gendo, and he did. At least this time it was by my own hand."

"You're insane," says Keel. "Insane, and clearly not fit to defend the Earth against the Angels."

"I am fit," I say. "Fit to fiddle as your Scenario burns, and mine rises like phoenix from the asses."

That should flummox them for a while as they figure out if I'm being serious or not. And I got what I wanted. The lines go dead as I leave.

I knock on the door of Misato's apartment, one of the few habitated places left in the city. The UN cut our funding, you see. The Ree manage, but the humans trickle out. A few stubborn ones remain. Misato's one of the few.

"Come in," calls a soft voice. I enter. The place is surprisingly clean, despite the one and a half Misatos living in there. I mentally pat Shinji on the back.

Shinji himself emerges from the kitchen, apron tied around his waist. His eyes widen. "You?"

"Me," I deadpan. "How have you been, Ikari-kun?"

He shuffles awkwardly. "Is... Is it wrong to say that I'm doing fine?"

I shake my head. "Of course not! In fact, I'm glad you're doing okay. Where's Katsuragi-san?"

"Misato went for a walk," Shinji says. "I think she's getting restless. She liked working at NERV, you know," he adds accusingly.

I cough. "That's... kind of related to why I'm here, actually. But I'll wait until she gets back. May I sit?"

He nods hesitantly. I situate myself at the kitchen table. "So," I ask, "How's living with Siyon?"

"I-it's kind of nice," he answers, "She mostly draws things. T-they look kind of cool, even though I don't always know what they are..."

"Ah, artistry," I say. "I haven't had time to draw anything in ages. I'm sure she loves it. Where's she, by the way?"

"In her room," Shinji says. "Hang on. SIYON!" he yells suddenly. "GUESTS!"

A faint "yeah, yeah," can be heard from the depths of the apartment. And then the lady herself emerges.

She has a permanent bedhead, she's in pajamas, she has a pencil tucked behind her ear, and she has a sketchpad under her arm.

Yep. That's an artist, all right. I smirk. "I see you've made yourself comfortable, Siyon."

She looks at me blearily. "I'm not helping with your world domination plans, Ichi. Find somebody else."

I snort. "Nah, I'm not asking for that. I'm just visiting your landlord."

Siyon rolls her eyes. "She's not helping you with world domination either."

I glare. "I'm not asking for that."

Just then, the door goes. "I'm home!"

"Welcome home!" Shinji and Siyon chorus. I smile faintly. Looks like they're happy. Shame I'll have to disrupt that happiness.

"The city gets emptier and emptier every time I go out," says Misato as she moves further into the apartment. "I- oh." She has noticed me. "You."

"Me," I acknowledge her. "Please, sit. I have things to discuss with you."

She looks hostile, but does as she's told. "When were you planning on releasing your prisoners, Commander?"

I slip into a more comfortable position and tent my fingers. "I don't have any prisoners."

Misato barks a humourless laugh. "Then what do you call the tank full of people down there?"

A tiny quirk of my lips. "Spare Ree."

She stands, slamming her hands on the table. "Goddammit, you smug bitch, you know exactly what I mean! What did you do with the prisoners you took? And stop imitating Gendo!"

I pull out my pointy orange shades, put them on, and resume finger-tenting. "But it's such a comfy position~!"

Misato slaps me. My shades go flying. She stands over me, snarling. "Stop deflecting! What did you do with Rits! Or Maya! Or everyone else!"

Shinji stands behind her, looking horrified. Siyon looks horrified too, but for a completely different reason. She knows me.

I touch my cheek. "You... hit me?"

Misato is growling. "You're damn right I did! Start talking!"

My expression clouds. "You shouldn't have done that, Katsuragi." My voice is soft.

She inhales, but is interrupted. Siyon grabs the woman and starts to drag her away from me. "Misato, don't!"

Misato sounds confused. "What? Why?"

I exhale with a rattling breath. I'm showing teeth.

"I have some of her qualities," Siyon explains rapidly. "I know how she thinks! She's dangerous!"

"Sociopathic," I correct her. I've drawn my gun. "And most likely corrupted by power."

Siyon has positioned herself between Misato and Shinji, and me. I grin lazily. "Come now. What are you expecting will happen?" My gun is pointed at her. Both humans' eyes are wide.

"I expect," she snarls as her AT-field manifests, "that bullets still won't do shit against an AT-field."

I tsk. "And to think," I muse, "that I came here to talk about getting you out of the oncoming war between myself and SEELE. Instead, it seems that you'll get caught in the crossfire..."

Siyon stares helplessly. "Did you just take over to be Gendo 2.0 or something? This isn't how it's supposed to be! You've let them go! You showed them kindness! What happened to that?"

"She hit me," I offered glibly. "To just sit there and take it would have been a weakness."

Siyon shakes her head in denial. "No. That's too far. Too fast. Corruption doesn't happen that fast! Besides, she had a reason to hit you!"

I tilt my head. My gun is still pointed at them. "And what reason is that?"

The enemy Ree rolls her eyes. "Punching a Gendo-lookalike to the face. Duh."

I tsk, lowering the gun. "You make a compelling argument."

Siyon drops her AT-field. "So..."

My arm snaps up in lightning speed and I shoot Misato in the stomach. "There is precisely one way to save your life now," I remark. "I was going to offer you freedom. Now, consider yourself drafted."

Maybe Siyon is right. I am getting too used to using violence to get what I want.

Oh well.

Once Misato has safely been squirreled away into the Tank, with the Ree-download process activating, Hatchi confronts me.

"Ichi. What the Hell. What the Hell do you think you're doing."

I examine my shades. A crack runs through them, but that actually looks quite fetching like that. "What do you mean, Hatchi?"

The Ree snarls. "You know exactly what I mean. We got rid of Gendo, remember? That was supposed to make things better! Instead, you angle yourself as some sort of... Gendo 2.0!"

I tilt my head. "That was always the plan, you know. Taking the power Gendo had and making it my own. Hell, what was the whole Reeplacement plan if not for taking over the roles we desired for ourselves?"

Hatchi exhales. "I hope you know what you're doing, Ichi," she says. "Because right now it looks like we're heading straight to Hell."

I shrug. "What better way to conquer Hell than from the inside?" I generate a small AT-field, watching its light play over my hand. "A devil is nothing more than an Angel fallen from grace, and what are we but not Angels ourselves?"

Hatchi takes a step back. "You're not sounding very sane," she says quietly. "I... don't think you're fit to lead us anymore."

I replace my shades on my face. "Is that purely your opinion, Hatchi? Or has Fuyutsuki's ghost been whispering in your ear again?"

She crosses her arms. "It's my opinion, Ichi. I don't want to have to force you to leave."

I tent my fingers. "I suggest you rethink this confrontation."

Hatchi takes a step forward. "And why should I do that?"

The Angel Alarm goes off. The cool voice of MAGI announces from over the PA, "Blue Pattern Detected. Angel confirmed. Designation: Israfel. Blue Pattern approaching from the south."

I smirk. "Perhaps wait until after the Angel Attack?"

Hatchi narrows her eyes. "This isn't over," she warns. She stalks into the nearest air vent.

I smile. "You bet it's not over," I say to myself. I walk over to the safe and open it. ADAM is still there, in the transport case. Good. I'm gonna need this.

As I close the case and store it on my person, I take another look at the information finally provided to me by Subroutine SG1.

It was primed right after I captured Ireul for the science girls. The trigger it needed was me using the specific code phrase during the SEELE meeting, and its purpose was to sniff out Project MP-EVA. Specifically, the 08 model, because not even I can resist a good Vriska reference.

It pinged an unnoticeable worm through SEELE connections, looking for clues, and it has finally come through. MP-08 is being constructed near the Magadan Oblast, in Russia. Looks like I have to dress for winter.

And now, it's time for me to skeedaddle from the narration. But when I return... Heh he heh. When I return, I will do so as a god.

Au revoir, NERV.

It was fun ruling you.

A/N: Okay, I added the Drama tag. Now, this isn't the end of the fic, despite the finality of the chapter!

It's just the end of Act 1. Okay? Okay. Good.