A/N: Rumors of my death have been nonexistent. I wanted to get this out sooner, but real life got in the way. It's not the longest gap between chapters though, so I don't feel too bad about it.

Disclaimer Theater:

Shinji stared at the script in his hand. "Do I really have to read this?"

"Yes," Asuka growled. "You do."

"Why can't someone else do it?" he complained. "It seems more like something a girl should read."

"You have to read it," Asuka said, rolling her eyes, "because he knows I'd rip his face off if he asked me, Misato has a gun and isn't afraid to use it, and Wondergirl is…Wondergirl. So just read the damn line so we can go home."

Shinji sighed. "FourthImpact, handsome and witty as he may be, does not own Neon Genesis Evangelion. Please support the official release."


Neon Genesis Evangelion: Mitigation

Chapter 8: Machination


Gendo Ikari stared intently across his office. Not at anything in particular, it was really more of a contemplative gaze. His mind was miles away. Task Group Seven enjoyed considerable autonomy when on assignment. That said, they were still required to file regular, though admittedly infrequent, status reports.

The latest of these reports would be coming any minute now. Normally, such tedious things as taking reports were farmed out to one of his lower ranking minions. That wasn't an option with TG7. They were the fist of Gendo Ikari, taking their orders directly from him and only him. The number of NERV personnel not directly involved with the group who knew of its existence could be counted on one hand. As such, he personally received their reports. Besides, if a situation was critical enough to warrant TG7's deployment, he wanted knowledge of it directly from the source, not sanitized and cleaned up by a subordinate.

Amidst this thought process, the secure phone on his desk beeped unobtrusively as a small LED began flashing on its surface. He reached out and depressed the button to put the call on speakerphone. "What?" His voice was just as cold and harsh as anyone with prior experience dealing with the man would reasonably expect.

"Commander," the cool voice on the other end replied. "This is Phantom."

Ikari grunted to himself, glancing down at his wristwatch. Right on time, almost down to the second. Just as he liked it. "You have a report?"

"Yes, Commander." He sounded less than pleased about whatever he had to say. "The boat turned out to be a false lead. It seems the Inspector was smart enough to lay down false tracks to throw us off the trail."

"Agent Kaji is many things," Ikari stated. "A fool is not one of them. What happened to the boat?"

"Our intercept team located and boarded when the boat was a day out to sea," Phantom explained. "They rounded up the crew for interrogation. Agent Kaji and the Third Child did make contact, but left shortly thereafter."

"I assume," the commander commented, "that you maintained operational security after the questioning."

"Of course, sir," he responded. "The entire crew was shot and the ship scuttled."

Ikari grunted in approval. "Do you have any further leads on their whereabouts?"

Phantom cleared his throat, "Not as of yet, Commander. Wherever they went after leaving the marina, they've been smart enough to keep their heads down. We're working all of our contacts in the area to find them."

"I have the utmost confidence work." Ikari let a slight trace of a threat slip into his voice, "Do not make me feel that I have misplaced that."

To his credit, the other man's voice didn't waver in the slightest at the threat, "We'll find them, sir. I can promise you that."

"You and your men have not let me down yet," Ikari mused. "I cannot help but think that if I sent you to kill the Third while he was still in the city, this would already be over."

"I appreciate your confidence, Commander. Is there anything else you require at the moment?"

He took a brief moment to consider this, "No. Find them quickly. I await your next report."

"Yes, Commander. Over and out." The line clicked dead.

Ikari stared thoughtfully at the phone for a moment. "What do you think?" he finally asked.

Sergei Olev looked across from the desk and met the commander's gaze without flinching. "Task Group Seven comprises NERV's finest agents. I have no doubt that they will find Agent Kaji and the Third Child in due course."

"This would not be necessary if your men were capable of killing a single child," Ikari stated, his glasses reflecting dangerously.

Olev's back stiffened, bringing his impressive six and a half foot frame to full height, "There is no excuse for their failure, sir. I wish to once again extend my apologies."

Ikari didn't scoff, but it was a very near thing. "And I will once again tell you that I will consider accepting your apology when the Third Child is dead and not a moment sooner. In the meantime, the only reason you have not been suspended or worse is that there is no one who can run Section Two quite as effectively as you and I see no reason to suffer the drop in efficiency yet."

Olev did not miss the implication carried in the statement. He attempted to change the subject, "Is the vice commander still under the impression that this was a capture mission gone wrong?"

The commander nodded, "And I have no intention of telling him otherwise. He has always had a soft spot for the boy. I would rather not risk a negative reaction by letting him find out that I wanted the Third Child dead. He was very nearly pushed to his limit when he thought it was a capture order with a kill option."

The director of Section Two nodded. This was the expected response, and it seemed to have accomplished its goal of distracting the commander from his failure. "I agree. He seemed…distracted every time I dealt with him in the lead up to that operation."

Ikari twitched at that comment, so imperceptibly that Olev did not notice it. "Did he?"

"Yes, sir," the Russian man said. "At the time I attributed it to his usual reluctance to deal with me. Perhaps I was wrong though."

"Perhaps," Ikari said slowly, "if would be wise to start keeping an eye on Fuyutsuki."

"Commander?"

"Nothing heavy," Ikari said. "I see no reason to expend that many resources on this. Most likely there is nothing to find, but someone did tip off Agent Kaji about the operation. It would be foolish to ignore the most obvious possibility."

"The simplest explanation is often the best one," Olev agreed, a cruel smile spreading across his face.

"Indeed," the commander muttered. "Do it quietly. Fuyutsuki has been loyal for years and he at least deserves that courtesy. Be quiet, but be thorough."

"Of course, Commander. I will deploy a team immediately."

"Good," Ikari said. "You are dismissed."

Olev saluted and marched out of the office.

When he was alone, Ikari leaned back in his chair. "I hope I'm wrong, Professor. Yui would not like the action I'll have to take if I'm not. You meant a great deal to her."

#


#

Well this was familiar. Shinji sat on his bed in the crappy motel room waiting for something to happen. By "waiting for something to happen" of course, he meant leaning against the wall, repeatedly dropping his head back to bang against it.

He understood why Kaji insisted that he stay out of sight all the time. Really, he did, but that didn't make it any less boring. If he hadn't understood the importance of discretion before, he certainly did after seeing the news reports of an Australian boat the disappeared a day after leaving a Japanese port. His stomach churned at the very thought of it. There was no way that it was a coincidence. That boat disappeared because someone was looking for him and Kaji.

Those people didn't deserve what happened to them. It wasn't their fight. They had nothing to do with any of this outside of serving as a convenient decoy for a couple of fugitives. They were dead, more than likely, Shinji knew. He felt bile rising in his throat and ran to the bathroom, his last couple meals escaping just as he hunched over the toilet.

Then there had been the reports of another Angel attack back in Tokyo-3. Shinji had never really thought about how aware the rest of the world was of the Angels. It wasn't all that surprising though; after all it would be next to impossible to keep the attacks secret. Even less surprising was the extent to which NERV was still controlling the flow of information for its benefit. All of the footage of the battle carried a "courtesy of NERV" stamp in the corner and even Shinji recognized how heavily it had been edited

No, the thing that really surprised Shinji was that all three Evas were involved in the fight. They found another pilot already. He had mixed feelings about that. One the one hand, it was great that all three Evas were up and running. On the other though, it kind of hurt that he was so easily replaceable. As he sat on the bathroom floor, hugging the toilet bowl, he wondered who the new pilot was.

Shinji hauled himself back to his feet and stumbled over to the sink. He opened the tap and rinsed the taste of vomit out of his mouth. He wiped the sweat from his brow and went back to sit on his bed. His stomach was still doing cartwheels, but it didn't feel like he was about to hurl again.

Kaji left a while ago, Shinji realized. He glanced at the clock; a little over four hours ago, in fact. His head turned toward the nightstand. Kaji's spare gun sat at the base of the lamp, dully reflective in the incandescent glow of the bulb. Kaji said that it was loaded and ready to fire, just in case he needed it. All Shinji had to do was just aim and squeeze.

The thought brought forth a whole new wave of nausea that he had to fight down. There was no way he'd be able to kill another person, even if his own life was on the line. He stared at the compact handgun with apprehension.

He jumped at the sound of a key in the lock. The door swung open to reveal the tired looking likeness of Ryoji Kaji. Shinji watched as he dropped a small brown paper bag on his bed and made beeline for the bathroom. He could hear the sink come on for a few seconds. A moment later, Kaji emerged from the bathroom toweling off his face and looking somewhat refreshed.

"Right, Shinji," he said. "I finally got what we need to get you out of Japan." He tossed the paper bag over to the boy.

Shinji curiously opened the bag and emptied its contents out onto the comforter. He picked up a small booklet first. "A passport?"

"Yup," Kaji said as he sat down on his bed. "You have no idea how hard it was to find someone to make a decent counterfeit passport on such short notice."

He opened the passport and looked down at his own face staring back at him. He scanned the information next to the photo and nodded. Fifteen years old was close enough to reality. His appearance descriptors were all accurate. "Hideaki Watanabe?" He looked over at Kaji, who was holding a lighter up to the cigarette in his mouth. "How did you come up with that?"

"Well it had to be the same family name as mine," he explained, leaning over the side of the bed to pull one of his own fake passports out. "I've had a whole bunch of fake identities sitting around for a while, just in case. People will just ask fewer questions if they think we're related."

"That makes sense, I guess." He putdown the passport and picked up the other item that fell out of the bag, a photo ID bearing the same identity the passport. He had to admit that it looked completely real, not that he really had any clue what made a convincing counterfeit. "So does that mean we're leaving soon?"

Kaji nodded, crushing out his cigarette in an ashtray, "As soon as we're ready to go."

Shinji looked around the room. All of their things, save for a couple toothbrushes and other toiletries, were still in their bags by the door in case they needed to make a quick getaway. "So, like two minutes?"

"More or less," Kaji grinned. "Maybe a little more if you have to go to the bathroom."

He didn't, so they were out of the motel in about ninety seconds. As Shinji gathered their things out of the bathroom, Kaji locked his guns into heavy travel cases. His expression suggested that he was less than happy about having to do this. As soon as they were outside, Kaji hustled him over to a waiting taxi. As soon as they were in, Kaji nodded at the driver, who pulled away from the motel and merged into traffic.

It only took a few minutes for them to reach their destination. Kaji paid the driver and they climbed out of the car. The taxi pulled away as Shinji stared uncertainly at the building in front of them. "Are you sure about this Kaji?"

"As sure as I can be," the older man sighed. "It's the only way I can think of to actually get out of here safely."

"Still," Shinji said. "An airport? Aren't there tons of cameras and stuff to spot us? Won't they be on the lookout for us here?"

"I doubt it," Kaji responded. "NERV will want to keep our entire situation as quiet as possible. By the time they figure out we were here, we'll be long gone."

Shinji gulped, "If you're sure."

Kaji ignored his trepidation and gestured him toward the doors, "Don't forget who you are, Hideaki."

Shinji nodded and tried to absorb as much information as possible as Kaji, in hushed tones, filled him in on the Watanabe's fictional backstory. He trailed off as they approached the ticket counter. He looked at the young woman behind the counter and flashed a warm smile, "Hi there."

She bowed slightly, "Hello, sir. How may I assist you?"

"I'm hoping there's a chance we could get two tickets on the next flight to Saint Petersburg."

The woman began tapping at her keyboard. "The six-twenty flight to Saint Petersburg still has seats available."

After a few more minutes of providing (completely fake) information for the tickets, Kaji slid a credit card across the counter. A moment later, the woman returned it with two freshly printed tickets. "Have a wonderful flight," she said.

"Thanks," Kaji said as he started to walk away from the ticket counter.

"Uh, thank you," Shinji added as he raced to follow him. "Can't they track credit cards?" Shinji whispered.

Kaji tried and failed to bite back a chuckle, "Easily. They won't be looking for this one though. It's under a name nobody at NERV knows about and an address that's just a burned out apartment building."

Shinji nodded. That was fair enough. "What's in Saint Petersburg?"

"Remember when I said there were a couple stops we had to make before we got to the US? Well I've got some friends over there that can help us out."

They checked their bags, Kaji reluctantly watching as the conveyor belt carried his bag, and so his guns as well, away. They got into the security line. As annoying as it all was, Shinji actually enjoyed doing something as normal as wading through an overly long airport line. His life was decidedly devoid of normalcy, especially lately.

#


#

The apartment was dead silent, save for the occasional sound of rustling paper. Misato sat hunched over her table with her head propped up against her hand. The sight was a common one ever since the day after the last Angel. The contents of the empty envelope on the table sat in a haphazard stack as Misato pored over them.

The papers were well read at this point, but she still had trouble believing them. It wasn't that she thought Kaji was trying to mislead her by leaving the information; it was just that the information was too incredible to believe. But these were official documents, printed from the most secure directories in the MAGI systems. They had the MAGI's discreet authenticity marker and everything.

And they revealed everything. The truth about Second Impact. The reality of the Human Instrumentality Project and the Committee. SEELE. Everything was laid bare right at Misato Katsuragi's feet.

Her first thought, when she had first read the documents shortly after retrieving them from Kaji's, was to find Commander Ikari and to put a bullet between his eyes. Her second was to alert the government to the dark designs of NERV and its controllers. In fact, she had the phone in her hand and was halfway through the well-memorized number for the JSSDF Strategic Operations Center before a couple things gave her pause.

The first was the NERV logo emblazoned on the corner of the phone. Something told her that she would be dead before she got halfway through the call. The other thing was the letter. Kaji must have written it just before he and Shinji disappeared. She reached over and picked up the hand written note. She'd practically memorized it by now, but it helped calm her when she felt too keenly the weight of these terrible secrets. It helped her crystallize her mission, to focus on what she knew she had to do, as difficult as it would be.

Misato,

I know. It must be serious if I'm coming off of our last name basis. If you're reading this, then either something's happened to me or you've taken snooping to a whole new level. Somehow, I suspect it's the former.

I know how hard it must be for you to know the things that are inside this envelope, what with everything you went through during and after Second Impact. I went through a form of the same thing when these were left on my doorstep.

Before you do anything too drastic, take a minute. These people aren't playing a game. They've killed before to keep their secret. They've murdered powerful and high profile people without raising a single accusation or suspicion. I can't imagine they'd hesitate to kill again.

Even if you manage to get the truth out and get people to believe you, it will most likely be near impossible to hurt them. They've been planning to end human life and make themselves gods. The depth and complexity of their plans must make the commander's look half-assed. I mention this, not because I don't think you could figure it out, but because I know you won't take the time to think about it.

Don't worry though; I've got a few ideas on that that I'll be putting into action soon. If everything goes right, things will be taken care of before you have to do anything. If not, well, I have no doubt that you'll be able to figure something out.

And I won't tell you what to do. You and I both know that it wouldn't do much good. You're one of the smartest, strongest, and most stubborn people I know. I'm just begging you to stop and think. Come up with a plan. Come up with a backup plan. Then come up with another one. If you think you're being too careful, you're not.

I…don't know what happened that has you reading this, but I swear to you, if it's at all possible, I will come back to you. I've never lost faith in you, so don't lose it in me. There's something that I've been meaning to tell you for a while, years in fact. I always assumed you knew, but I never said it. I love you, Misato Katsuragi, more than I could ever hope to say. One way or another, I know we'll be together again eventually. Just keep living in the meantime. For me.

-Kaji

Misato wiped away the tears that were gathering in her eyes. The paper was already stained with far too many teardrops. She hoped to the god she wasn't even sure existed that he was still alive. She had to make him pay for making her wait so long to finally hear those words from him. Her desire to do something rash and stupid had vanished completely, like it did every time she read the letter. He had only asked one thing of her. He didn't want her to do anything stupid, and she would honor that request as well as she could, no matter how hard it would be to look the commanders in the face.

She gathered the papers back up and slid them into the envelope. Then she just sat at the table, emotionally drained. After a few minutes, the front door opened and Asuka passed by the kitchen. She looked in and frowned at the slumped form of her guardian, "Misato?"

Misato looked over at the girl and gave a shaky smile, "Hey, Asuka." She wasn't sure what happened, but the last few days had yielded a noticeable improvement in Asuka's attitude. She no longer seemed on the verge of a colossal mental breakdown or a huge violent outburst. Misato wasn't sure if she'd talked to someone, or if she just dealt with it on her own, but she was thankful for the change. "How was school?"

"Boring as usual," she said with an eye roll. "The stupid teacher wouldn't know an interesting lesson if one slapped him in the face." She narrowed her eyes, "Are you okay?"

The raven haired woman took a deep, calming breath, "I'm fine. Just had a long day."

Asuka nodded, "Nothing about the Third Child or Kaji yet?" Her tone suggested that she already knew the answer.

"Not yet," Misato shook her head. As she saw Asuka's shoulders slump, her eyes darted down to the folder by her hand. Maybe she could let Asuka in on this. It would be the beginning of a plan, at least, getting an Eva pilot on her side. There would certainly be no love lost for Commander Ikari. "I need to tell you something."

Misato blinked in surprise as her words came out in stereo. She furrowed her brow as she realized that Asuka had said the same thing at the same exact moment. "Go ahead," they both said at the same time.

Misato chuckled and gestured to Asuka to proceed.

The German girl started to speak. She visibly hesitated and bit her lip. "It's nothing, don't worry about it."

"Are you sure?"

Asuka nodded. "What do you have to tell me?"

Misato suddenly felt herself hesitate too. How could she dump this on Asuka? She already had enough on her plate between defending humanity and Shinji's kidnapping. It could very well break her if she found out the organization she did the former for may have been responsible for the latter. Besides, Asuka wasn't one for keeping it cool. Cluing her in was more than a little likely to result in Unit-02 tearing through headquarters for a few minutes before the entry plug was ejected and she was arrested or killed. "Oh, never mind. It wasn't really that important."

They both eyed the other uncertainly, but ultimately decided not to push the issue. Asuka went into her room and Misato cracked open a beer. She stared at the can, "Goddamn it."

#


#

Seriously? It was raining again? What the hell? Lately it seemed like all it ever did in this damn city was rain. Even though Asuka was in a less volatile mood lately, she was far from happy, and the constant rain was doing little to lift her spirits. She scowled across the room, through the window at the rain, as though to let it know exactly how she felt about it.

She was hardly the only one looking through the window, though she was certainly the only one doing so with malice. Half the class had taken up Wondergirl's favorite school time pastime of looking absently across the room. Ironically, Ayanami herself was not present to lead the class in window gazing. Once upon a time, Asuka had been curious about the First Child's frequent absences, but she'd long since stopped caring.

Satisfied that the rain understood the extent of her displeasure, she turned away from the window and looked at Hikari, who seemed to be splitting her attention three ways. For the most part, she was making a valiant effort to pay attention to the sensei. Being a class representative required no less. This was interrupted by frequent glances at her openly distracted classmates, whom she regarded with displeasure but held her tongue. Then, of course, she made occasional glances toward the back of the room. Asuka didn't even need to turn around to know that she was looking at Suzuhara. She rolled her eyes

She leaned a little closer to her friend, "Why don't you just talk to him?"

Hikari started. "What?" she whispered back.

Asuka choked back a laugh, "The stooge. I don't know what you see in him, but just talk to him so you can stop making puppy dog eyes across the room."

"I have no idea what you're talking about," she insisted. The blush coloring her cheeks begged to differ.

Before Asuka could respond, the bell rang, signaling the start of lunch. She waited as Hikari ushered the rest of the class out of the room. The minute the last student was out of the classroom, she grabbed her friend's elbow and all but dragged her into the hallway.

"Asuka?" the class rep asked. "Where are we going?"

"We are going to have lunch with the stooges so that you and the Fourth Child can finally get all this crap out in the open," Asuka said. "There is no way in hell I'm watching you two dance around each other again. I just can't do it."

Hikari blinked at her friend, "You want to have lunch with Toji and Kensuke?"

"Want is a strong word," the redhead shrugged. "I will have lunch with them because you're my friend." She looked around, trying to remember where exactly the stooges ate lunch. She glanced out the window; the rain had tapered off for the moment, so the odds were pretty much even that they would either be in the cafeteria or on the roof. She dragged Hikari into a stairwell and up to the door to the roof.

Asuka burst through the door and into the overcast gray sunlight, Hikari a second behind her. Kensuke looked up from his lunch and turned around to see the source of the sudden disturbance. His eyes widened at the sight of the Red Devil and the class rep walking toward them. He nudged Toji, who either hadn't heard the girls' entrance or hadn't cared enough to find out what was going on. He looked over his shoulder and furrowed his brow.

"What's the matter, Devil?" Toji smirked. "Run out of souls to harvest downstairs?"

"Suzuhara," Hikari gasped, appalled by the boy's treatment of her friend.

"Why would I come up here if I had?" Asuka launched back. "Everyone knows apes don't have souls."

"Asuka," Hikari breathed. She paused in her admonishment as Asuka continued talking about something. Something was off here. There was none of the tension that usually erupted when these two got into one of their verbal spats. Toji didn't look like he'd stepped in something unpleasant just by talking to Asuka, and Asuka didn't look like she was about to rip someone's head off. A quick glance at Kensuke revealed that the bespectacled boy had noticed the difference as well. He seemed wildly frightened by the change.

Hikari tried to figure out how she felt about it. She was glad that they seemed to be getting friendlier, even if they still said such mean things to each other. Her lips twitched upward in a small smile. Then again, just how friendly had they become since they started working together at NERV? The smile faded. Then again, again, Asuka had said they she wanted to pair her up with Toji, so obviously there was nothing going on between her friend and her crush. The smile returned, a little bigger this time. Besides, Asuka was crazy about Shinji, and that hadn't changed in the slightest since he disappeared. Her smile was almost dampened by the thought of their friend, but grew again when she realized it meant that there was no chance that Asuka had an interest in Toji.

Hikari idly noted that she had never come so close to being jealous of anyone before. She stifled a giggle. "We'd like to join you for lunch, if it's not too much trouble."

Everyone stared at her, visibly confused. "I just said that," Asuka muttered.

"Not that politely, of course," Kensuke noted. Asuka glared at him.

Toji shrugged, "If you want to join us feel free. Doesn't bother me."

"How generous of you," Asuka deadpanned. She looked at Hikari, who showed no signs of moving. The German girl rolled her eyes once again and gave her friend a gentle shove to get her walking.

Hikari nervously took the last few steps toward the boys and sat down next to Toji, "Thank you for letting us eat with you," she said, blushing profusely. The jock's cheeks took on a faint tinge of their own.

Asuka sighed and shook her head; taking a seat on Hikari's other side. Hikari looked down to open her lunch box. Toji cast a questioning look over the class rep's head at Asuka. He cocked an eyebrow, the silent question was clear. Are you doing what I think you're doing?

Asuka's eyebrows lifted a little as well. She nodded slightly.

Toji glanced at Hikari, then back to Asuka. He offered a nod of his own. Thanks.

Asuka shrugged and tilted her head at Hikari. It was more for her than you.

The class rep looked up from her lunch and suddenly Toji didn't have any attention to spare. He leaned over to talk to her, giving Asuka a clear line of sight to Kensuke, who had been watching the entire silent exchange with eyes wide and mouth agape. His question was perfectly clear as well. What the hell is going on right now?

Asuka just rolled her eyes for the millionth time that day and started eating her own lunch. She grimaced at the bland taste. She really did miss Shinji a little more every day, the stupid baka. He'd better turn up soon.

#


#

Fuyutsuki was tired. Not "end of a long day of work" tired, but the kind of bone deep, feel-it-in-every-fiber-of-your-being kind of tired that only manifests after an overly long career in an overly stressful field. And as far as Kozo Fuyutsuki was concerned, Angel fighting and Third Impact planning qualified as well beyond overly stressful. Ikari was lucky to have ice water for blood; otherwise the pressure of running NERV would have killed him years ago.

He stretched, feeling a series of pops in his joints as if to remind him that he wasn't a young man anymore. A jaw-cracking yawn escaped his mouth. It wasn't all that late, but he wanted nothing more than to get home, pour himself a drink, and then crawl into bed and get a good night's asleep. He snorted in derision at the thought. He hadn't had one of those since the whole situation with Shinji.

It had gotten worse a couple days earlier, when one of the members of his security detail had discreetly informed him that they were under orders to report his activity to Director Olev and Commander Ikari. On one level, Fuyutsuki was pleased that at least some at NERV still liked him and respected his position and experience. On another, more pressing level, he could barely breathe from fear. Commander Ikari didn't make decisions on a whim. If he had Section Two spying on him, then he had a well thought out reason for it. The only thing that the vice commander could think of was Shinji's escape.

Ikari already knew that someone must have tipped off Agent Kaji about Section Two's operation. It seemed that he at least suspected that his second in command had committed the deed. That idea is what brought his already unpleasantly small amounts of sleep down to almost nothing. Fuyutsuki was under no illusions that he would live for long after the commander was certain that he had betrayed him.

He sighed. There was no point in dwelling on it. If Ikari was going to find out, there was little he could do to stop it. Anyway, it was time to go home and not sleep. He moved to shutdown his computer when an alert window popped up. He groaned audibly as he expanded the window to read the message from the MAGI. It wasn't outlined in red, so there wasn't a new confirmed Angel, nor was it orange to warn him of a possible Angel. The border was black, the color of a standard MAGI alert.

He paled at the image at the top of the alert, Ryoji Kaji and Shinji Ikari walking through what appeared to be an airport terminal. He read the text under the photograph. Mass transit surveillance alert. Possible facial recognition match for fugitive files: Kaji, Ryoji (97.4% likelihood) and Ikari, Shinji (98.2% likelihood). MAGI are unanimous in recommending immediate action to facilitate capture. Targets boarded Flight 742 bound for Saint Petersburg today at 1745 hours.

Fuyutsuki stopped reading and stared in horror. There was no good way out of this. Staying silent wouldn't do any good, since this would undoubtedly have gone to Sergei Olev as well. The MAGI's records would show that he had opened the alert, so if he didn't report it, Ikari would almost certainly take it as proof of his involvement in Shinji's escape. If he reported it, then he was putting Shinji in danger again. Ultimately, he rationalized that if he didn't report it, Olev would, and Shinji would be in just as much danger. If Fuyutsuki could keep himself alive, he at least might be in a position to help the boy later. If there was a later.

With a clenched jaw, he picked up his phone. The call was answered on the third ring. "Yes?"

Fuyutsuki forced his voice to remain steady as he replied. "Commander, I've just received an alert from the MAGI's transit surveillance systems. The facial recognition software has picked up a match for Agent Kaji and the Third Child."

"I see." The commander's voice betrayed nothing about his thoughts on this development. "Where are they?"

The vice commander scanned the rest of the alert and filled in the commander, who listened silently. He didn't speak until Fuyutsuki finished his explanation. "Very well. I shall see to it that Task Group Seven is alerted." The click alerted the older man that Ikari had hung up.

"You're welcome," he whispered bitterly, slumping back into his chair. He hadn't thought it was possible, but this day had found a way to drain a little more energy out of him. He forced himself to his feet. It was well beyond time to go home for the night.

#


#

Planes were better than hotel room, Shinji supposed. Not a lot better, mind you, but at least there was plenty to occupy his time. He could look at other people, not that they were particularly interesting, but it was an option that had scarcely been available to him since leaving Tokyo-3. He decided not to do that though, none of the passengers were doing anything worth watching and Kaji's warnings about his father's spies were still fresh in his mind.

Instead he had turned his attention to the computer embedded in the back of the seat in front of him. It held a massive selection of movies and television shows to watch. He had spent the last forty five minutes scrolling through the offerings, but nothing had caught his eye so far. He was running out of alphabet, too.

He sighed. At least there was free music to stream too, including a considerable selection of classical, which was currently playing through the crappy headphones the flight attendant handed him at the beginning of the flight. It was certainly pleasant to at least be listening to music again. He'd been missing the comfort of his SDAT quite a bit.

Reaching the end of the movie list, Shinji frowned. There wasn't one thing that he felt like watching in that massive list. He leaned back in his seat and cast a glance over at Kaji. The unshaven man wasn't watching anything either. He hadn't even taken his headphones out of the little plastic package. Shinji thought he looked tense, and if there was one thing Shinji was good at recognizing in people, it was tension. His back was perfectly straight and his eyes darted around, taking in the entire cabin without looking suspicious.

"Kaji?" Shinji's voice was soft, uncertain.

Kaji started, turning to look at the boy. He frowned at the use of his real name, but didn't comment on it. "What's up, kid?"

Shinji furrowed his brow. He hadn't actually had anything he wanted to say, now that he thought about it. There was one question that had been lurking around in the recesses of his mind for a while now. Now seemed as good a time as any to ask it. "How did you get so good at this stuff?"

The man cocked his head curiously, "What do you mean?"

"Sneaking around and stuff," he explained. "Getting around without being noticed."

Kaji laughed quietly. "Surviving when it's you against the world?" he finished.

Shinji nodded.

He took a moment to consider the question. He scratched under his chin. "My brother taught me everything I know."

That left Shinji genuinely surprised, "You have a brother?"

A somber look crossed the older man's face, "Not anymore."

"Oh," Shinji said. "I'm sorry."

"It's all right."

"You don't have to tell me about it," he said.

They fell silent for a few moments, Kaji staring thoughtfully at the ceiling of the plane. "I was about your age when Second Impact happened," he finally said.

Shinji looked up, shocked that Kaji had started speaking again. "You were? I never really thought about it."

Kaji nodded, "I'm sure you've learned about it in school, but you really can't imagine how…chaotic it was back then."

Shinji found himself wishing that he'd paid attention to more of Sensei's lectures at school.

"The Japanese government managed to stay together," he continued, "which is something that a lot of countries can't say. There wasn't much they could do though." His hand twitched and Kaji desperately wished that they allowed smoking on planes. "A lot of people had died during Impact, and for years, there was pretty much always some war or another going on. A lot of people were dead, but there was still barely enough food and other resources to go around."

The boy found himself entranced by Kaji's story.

"Pretty much my entire family was killed by Second Impact, and the rest didn't survive for long afterward." Kaji was clearly in another place now, lost in the past. "It was just me and my brother, struggling to survive. There weren't enough jobs to go around, and we refused to go to the refugee camps. Those places were hell on earth. You were just as likely to get a knife in your back while you slept as anything else."

"How did you survive?"

Kaji chuckled darkly, "Well, if you couldn't find work and you wouldn't go to the camps, you did whatever you had to. Before Impact, my brother was always a bit of a troublemaker. I can't even tell you the number of times he came home in the back of a police car. Anyway, he was a few years older than me and he looked after me when everything went to hell. He taught me to do whatever it took to survive. He showed me how to get in and out of places without being noticed, how to get people to trust you so they'd do what you wanted." His eyes grew misty at the memories.

"What happened to him?" Shinji whispered.

"We fell in with a gang eventually, nothing violent, just a bunch of kids like us helping each other get by. They sent me to steal food from a JSSDF outpost one day. The troops captured me and started beating me. They said they'd kill me if I didn't tell them where the rest of the gang was hiding out. I tried to hold out, but they kept beating me and I broke." Kaji's voice cracked, just a little. "They went out and killed everyone before they let me go."

Shinji's jaw dropped. "They…killed them?" That was insane. "The JSSDF murdered your brother?"

Kaji scratched at his cheek. "It was a different time. The government didn't have the men or money or time to keep a tight rein on the military."

"I'm sorry." It was all Shinji could think to say. He looked down thoughtfully.

"Thank, kid," Kaji said with a small lopsided grin, "but I made peace with it a long time ago." He watched as Shinji tried to process the story he'd just heard. "You know," he finally said. "You and I aren't that different."

Shinji looked up, visibly confused, "How do you figure that?"

"We're both survivors," he explained. "The world tries its damndest to bring us down, but we just keep going, no matter what."

Shinji cocked his head to one side as he considered that. It was true enough he supposed. The fact that he was alive was a fairly compelling argument for that. Between the Angels and his father, the world did seem to be trying to kill him lately. "Do you really think we'll get to go home eventually?"

Kaji met Shinji's eyes and nodded confidently, "I do. I promised you that we'd make this all right, and I intend to keep that promise."

Shinji relaxed, visibly relieved.

"Besides," he smirked, "we've got to get you back to the redhead waiting for you."

Shinji blushed. "Yeah, I think you're right about that."

Kaji smiled. "Get some sleep. It's going to be a long flight."

#


#

"Are you sure about this, Commander?" Needless to say, Fuyutsuki hadn't made it out of headquarters before Ikari summoned him to his office. Now he found himself standing next to the commander in the private elevator to the holographic teleconference room.

Ikari pushed his glasses back into place. "Completely certain. This is the most reasonable course of action." Unbeknownst to Fuyutsuki thanks to the reflective lenses, the bearded man regarded his second in command through the corner of his eye.

Fuyutsuki frowned. "I'm not sure I understand that, Commander. I've been running over it in my head, and I don't see it."

"We've sent Task Group Seven to intercept them in Russia," Ikari said as though it were the most obvious thing in the world.

"Yes, sir," the vice commander said. He cleared his throat. "I know that, but why do we have to tell the committee that the Third Child had betrayed us?"

Ikari noticeably suppressed a sigh. "Agent Kaji is still with the Third Child. That means there is every possibility that apprehending them will involve a firefight. Something like that in or around a Russian airport will not go unnoticed. Both Agent Kaji and the Third Child are known to the committee."

"And in that situation, they would want to know why NERV operatives got into a shootout with two critical personnel who were believed missing," Fuyutsuki finished.

"Correct," Ikari intoned. "It is unavoidable now. We need to provide the old men with a story to keep them off our backs. They do not need to know the full truth behind the Third's betrayal, of course. Project Mitigation should stay off of their radar."

Something else occurred to Fuyutsuki, "What does this mean for the lockdown?" The elevator had stopped several seconds earlier, but neither man moved. Fuyutsuki was still digging for answers and Ikari never hesitated to keep the old men waiting for a few extra minutes.

"It means it should be even easier to convince SEELE to let us keep it in place even longer," Ikari said. "When it becomes an issue of defending against a potentially crippling external attack they will be all too eager to preserve it."

"So you and SEELE will be on the same page with regards to the lockdown?"

"Hmm," Ikari muttered. "It would seem so."

"I'm not sure how much longer the people will tolerate being trapped in the city," Fuyutsuki said.

One of Ikari's eyebrows arched upward, "The people will tolerate whatever I want them to tolerate. All it requires is a little theater."

Fuyutsuki frowned, "Sir?"

"The easiest way to make people accept inconveniences is to dangle their safety in front of them. A few carefully spread rumors and all of the dissent will fall silent quickly enough."

Ikari stepped out of the elevator and took up his position in the center of the room as black monoliths faded into existence around him. Fuyutsuki stood against the wall as always, feeling even less at ease than when the day had started.


A/N: Chapter 8, bagged and tagged. I'll be honest, it's late and I'm can barely keep my eyes open. I'm going to finish up this note and the acknowledgements and push this to the web for you all. I don't really have anything to say about this chapter. I feel okay about it. Let me know what you think. Shoot me a review.

I summon…

Review Acknowledgements (In attack mode):

Weapon-VII: Gendo really is a major prick, isn't he? Secret police is exactly what I was going for with Section Two, so I'm glad that came through

JDH: Phantom is a bastard coated bastard with bastard filling. You'll be seeing quite a bit of him in the coming chapters. As for Toji, I thought about making it someone else, but I loved all the potential interaction between him and Asuka too much.

KnightLance: I wasn't particularly going for funny, but I also wasn't going for deadly serious either, so I'm going to count it as a fortunate occurrence. I've personally always had a bit of a soft spot for Kaji as a character, in case you couldn't tell from the massively expanded role I've given him. I'm glad I've managed to make him entertaining.

Jack: Seems the cracks are starting to appear in Shinji's calm a bit as everything sinks in. And where Future!Shinji and Future!Asuka are concerned, expect to learn more about them in the next chapter or two.

Alistair: To be honest, I'm not overly thrilled with how I handled the first couple chapters. At the time, I justified it in my head as making the eventual divergence that much more jarring. I probably would have found a different way to handle it if I were starting out today. But whatever. I'm pleased that you stuck with it. Enjoy.

Lachesis: Haha. I've got to tell you, I didn't think anyone was enjoying my ridiculous disclaimers. I was about to give up on them and go to normal ones before I got your review. I hope you enjoy (the story and the disclaimers) as we move forward.

Watchdog: You definitely don't have to worry about Shinji becoming a Jason Bourne, but he'll start taking more of a front seat sooner rather than later. With Asuka and Toji, the way I figured it, Toji has a kind of bluntness that would resonate with Asuka while she was in that condition. And Kensuke…he keeps popping up, but never seems to do anything, doesn't he? Is it just a weak attempt to not completely ignore a character, or will he do something soon? Guess you'll have to keep reading to find out.