Disclaimer: Neon Genesis Evangelion is the creation of Anno and Gainax. I don't own it, make no claims to it, and am making no profit from this fan fiction. No infringement of copyright is intended. In other words, please don't sue.

Disclaimer: I do not own DC comics or anything associated with it and am making no profit off this fan fiction. No infringement of copyright is intended. In other words, please don't sue.


Chapter Eleven: Recovery Time

Ritsuko Akagi lay on the cold floor of her basement, caught in a twilight state between life and death.

The scarab, the alien organism which had embedded itself in her back and formed a symbiotic relationship with her, was working frantically to repair the damage that Deathstroke had inflicted upon her, but it was a difficult struggle.

True, it had performed extensive alterations to her body before, giving her the physique of a professional athlete and removing years' worth of tar from her lungs in the course of a single night, but that had been different. Ritsuko hadn't been clinging to life then. Now, the scarab had to both keep her from dying and repair the damage at the same time. Even for such a mind bogglingly sophisticated device, this kind of multitasking was a bit more difficult than trying to walk and chew gum at once. It was more on par with trying to drive a car at top speed while rewiring the radio at the same time.

The slightest mistake could result in disaster.

So it moved as slowly and carefully as its task would allow it to, toiling for hours on its badly wounded host.

For her own part, Ritsuko remained mercifully unconscious through the entire process, oblivious to the passage of time or the pain that would be wracking her body if she was awake to experience it.

Instead of suffering through all of that, Ritsuko dreamed.


She dreamed that she was no longer in her armor and was standing in the middle of a ruined city, very much like the one where she had recently faced Deathstroke and his allies. However, she had no memory of that brutal confrontation at the moment. In fact, she found she had very little memory at all as she wandered aimlessly through the ruined city.

Cresting a hill, she found herself with a view of the ocean. The once greenish blue waters ran red, and she knew that was a bad thing, a very bad thing. She just couldn't quite remember why, for some reason.

"Ritsuko."

She turned at the sound of the weak voice calling her name, then gasped in horror at what she saw.

A great spire of crystal—which she would have sworn hadn't been there a minute ago—jutted out of the ruined street, and caught within it was none other than Shinji Ikari. The EVA pilot's hands and feet were covered in more of the crystal, and the stuff was growing fast. Pretty soon, his entire body would be cocooned in the material, and he would suffocate.

She didn't quite recall why the sight of someone trapped in crystal like that was so strangely familiar, or why, for that matter, she found it so intensely disturbing. All she knew was that she had to help him.

"Shinji!" she called. "I'm coming!"

She started to run toward the translucent spire, not knowing how she could possibly hope to free Shinji, who was suspended high above her head. All she knew was that she needed to get to him as soon as possible.

She had almost reached him when something, or, more accurately, someone, abruptly blocked her path, seemingly appearing from nowhere.

Ritsuko swallowed. Gendo Ikari stood before her, but it wasn't Gendo Ikari as she knew him. The man towered above her, standing at least twenty feet tall.

If the blonde had been more cognizant of reality at the moment, she would have been only too aware of the fact that what she was seeing was totally impossible, that Gendo simply couldn't have grown to such a size. However, she was lost in a dream, where the Commander's improbable height seemed only appropriate. He had always come off as larger than life to her, both when she'd been infatuated with him, and even more so when their relationship had taken a darker turn.

"You can't change anything," Gendo informed her in a cold, flat voice. It sounded like he was stating a fact that was obviously self-evident, and that she was stupid not to have seen it. "You can save no one. Everything you and everything you attempt is ultimately meaningless."

"He's right, you know," another voice added, and suddenly Naoko Akagi stood next to Gendo.

She was equally as huge as Gendo, which Ritsuko also found appropriate in its own way, while not wondering how her dead mother could be present. Naoko's ghost had loomed large in Ritsuko's life ever since the woman had died. The younger Dr. Akagi had once thought that admitting to herself she despised the woman would somehow free her from that influence, but it had never come to be. Privately, a large part of Ritsuko feared that it never would happen.

Naoko smiled condescendingly at Ritsuko. It was an expression her mother had directed at her so many times in the past, and the blonde found that it still had the power to make her blood boil.

"You were always so afraid of being just like me," she said. "You tried to be different in such petty little ways. Dying your hair. Becoming friends with that whore Katsuragi when I told you not to. But in the end, you went to my old school to study computer sciences. You went to work at NERV. And you started sleeping with Gendo Ikari. You're just like me, and you'll have a death just as ugly and meaningless as mine was."

"No!" Ritsuko exclaimed, but she immediately felt like a mewling and petulant child in the face of the two giants before her.

Gendo didn't dignify her defiant yell with a response. At least, he didn't dignify it with a verbal response. Instead, he reached out with an impossibly long arm, as though to strike her. Ritsuko yelped in fear and stumbled backwards, avoiding the blow but falling and landing on her rear end.

Her mother and the Commander immediately rounded on her, clearly wanting to get her before she could regain her feet. Not that they needed to hurry; the sight of the two giants rushing toward her was more than enough to leave her paralyzed with fear.

They were almost upon her when a beam of blue light struck the ground between Ritsuko and her two attackers, putting another hole into the already battered asphalt.

The blonde looked up, her eyes widening when she saw the Blue Beetle descending toward her. The azure superwoman's eyes were glowing an electric blue, quite unlike the usual red of the lenses.

"Stay away from her!" Blue Beetle yelled in an eerie, almost toneless voice.

Ritsuko's mind might've been more than a little scattered at the moment, but she was still lucid enough to remember that she was the Blue Beetle. So did that mean…?

"Scarab?" she asked softly.

Blue Beetle turned and grinned cheekily at her. "In the exoskeleton," it said. "You don't think I would ever really abandon you, do you?"

Ritsuko smiled. "No, I guess not."

Naoko suddenly made a swipe for Blue Beetle, clearly intending to crush the armored superwoman flat, but her target was far too nimble. Blue Beetle dodged easily, then her body glowed and shrank in size, transforming back into the scarab. As Ritsuko watched, the alien life form flew through the air toward her, coming in for a landing on the small of her back. The armor seemed to grow out of the scarab, and in seconds, Ritsuko found herself once more clad in the armor of the Blue Beetle.

Gendo lunged at her, but Blue Beetle easily flew out of his grip, soaring upwards until she was eye level with her mother.

"Listen to me," Blue Beetle said as Naoko glowered at her. "I may be like you in a lot of ways. I am your daughter, so that's just to be expected. But I'm different in some important aspects, too."

"Like how?" Naoko snarled.

"For one thing, when you realized that Gendo saw you as tool instead of a lover, you snapped and killed the damn messenger," Blue Beetle spat. "When I figured it out, I decided to do something more constructive about it."

"Constructive," Gendo mocked her, getting to his feet. "You have no chance of ruining my scenario, and you know it."

Blue Beetle shook her head. "Your precious scenario is teetering on the brink, and I'm going to give it a good shove," she said. "In all your plans, you never anticipated something like the scarab showing up. As long as I've got him backing me up, I can win. I can beat you."

Both Gendo and Naoko glared at her, but neither offered any sort of argument against that.

Blue Beetle raised her arm, the armor shifting until it formed a wicked looking cannon. Definitely not the suppression rifle.

"Now get the hell out of my way," she commanded, "or else."

Gendo and Naoko looked just a bit intimidated by that, and back in the real world outside Ritsuko's dreams, the blonde smiled ever so slightly.


Unfortunately for Ritsuko, the real world Gendo Ikari was not like his dream counterpart; despite having made the discovery that his Project-E chairperson was the Blue Beetle, the Commander of NERV remained quite unafraid of her.

However, though his stony visage didn't show it, just because he was feeling fear didn't mean he was experiencing no emotions at all. Quite the opposite in fact; a heady brew of emotions was currently churning inside him.

Anger that Ritsuko would dare to betray him. Anger at himself for having written off the signs that the scientist was up to something. Yet also…excitement. Now that he knew who the Blue Beetle was, he could use her, force her to aid his scenario rather than tear it down.

At least, he could if he could figure out a few things first. In the days since Deathstroke and his team had confronted the Blue Beetle, he had applied his time and energy toward doing just that.

The door to his cavernous office opened, and Fuyutski stepped inside. "You wanted to see me?" the older man grunted.

"Indeed," was Gendo's curt response.

Resisting the urge to roll his eyes, Fuyutski walked over to Gendo's desk and sat in the uncomfortable chair positioned next to it. "And?" he prompted.

"You saw the recording Mr. Wilson provided me with," Gendo began, "and you reached the same conclusion that I did, correct?" he asked.

"That it was Ritsuko Akagi's face behind the Blue Beetle's mask?" Fuyutski asked impatiently. For one who came off as so cold and distant, Gendo had an obnoxious love of being dramatic. "Yes."

Gendo nodded. "I am pleased you agree with me," he said. "However, there is the fact that Dr. Akagi's whereabouts were very much accounted for during several of the appearances that the Blue Beetle made."

Fuyutski nodded. "Yes. She was right before our eyes during a few of those appearances, if I recall correctly," he said. "Yet you clearly haven't decided that Ritsuko Akagi and the Blue Beetle are two separate people."

"Indeed, the evidence that the two are the same person was too strong to simply dismiss," Gendo agreed. "Though I must admit that I did have some difficulty solving this particular riddle."

"Do you intend to get to the point soon, Ikari?" Fuyutski asked, finally allowing his impatience to show.

Fortunately, Gendo didn't seem to mind. "I recently had a number of the regular security cameras around Dr. Akagi's office and Tech Division One's labs replaced with more specialized recording devices. Take a look at what the infrared camera saw when pointed in her direction."

He pressed a button on his desk, and a hidden panel in the wall opened, revealing a large screen, which quickly came to life, showing a rather blurry image of the hallway outside Akagi's office in a dark blue. A moment later, two figures entered the shot. The shorter one of the pair, which Fuyutski assumed was Lieutenant Ibuki, was lit up in shades of orange and red—exactly what one would expect a person to look like in an infrared view.

Ritsuko, on the other hand, was barely distinguishable from her surroundings, cast in light blues with the occasional trace of green. Only at her feet was there a spot of red.

Fuyutski frowned. "Why does she look that?"

"A good question," Gendo said, "and one I posed to an expert in NERV Security. He told me he believes that Dr. Akagi wasn't there at all. It was a hologram in her place, and the red object by her feet is the likely the projector."

"You can't be serious," Fuyutski scoffed.

"And why not?" Gendo challenged. "Blue Beetle has given highly advanced technology to the JSSDF. What makes the idea of her having used some herself so preposterous? And in any case, do you have an alternate explanation for the miniscule amount of body heat Dr. Akagi is emitting in this image?"

Fuyutski had to admit he did not. "So, how often has…the hologram," his tone of voice made it obvious that he remained skeptical of the idea, "substituted for Dr. Akagi?"

"Overall, that is currently impossible to determine, as the infrared cameras are new additions to the base," Gendo answered. "However, since their installation, it seems that the real Dr. Akagi has not come to headquarters once."

"Blue Beetle hasn't been spotted since her run in with Deathstroke, either," Fuyutski noted grimly. "Do you suppose he…killed her, Ikari?"

"Possible," Gendo said, as though speculating on whether or not it would rain the next day. "However, I doubt it. If she's already dead, there's no need to maintain the facade."

"I assume you already checked to see if she was admitted to any of the local hospitals," Fuyutski said.

Gendo nodded. "No one checked in under her name, and there are no Jane Doe's matching her description," he said. "If she's gone somewhere to recover, it wasn't a hospital."

"The most logical place would be her home," Fuyutski mused. "It might seem too obvious, but…"

"She wouldn't have time to worry about finding a good hiding place, yes," Gendo agreed. "Seeing as how the hologram is currently on the clock, I've sent someone from Section Two to investigate her home. If we're lucky, we'll catch her when she's vulnerable."

"And if we're not?" Fuyutski asked.

"I have other plans in motion," Gendo motioned.

"Well, you seem to have all the bases covered, Ikari," the Vice Commander said. "So what did you need me for?" he huffed.

"I find it useful to discuss my plans at times," Gendo answered.


"And everyone thought that this thing was done for," General Katsuro said as he gazed at his latest project.

As a direct result of NERV's star dimming, the JSSDF's special anti-Angel taskforce had gained significantly more funding than it had had previously. Katsuro could have easily ordered that the money be used to buy them more of the BVG313 attack planes and similar hardware. Yet while a large chunk of their funds were now earmarked for replacing the equipment and vehicles lost when the Auxiliary Air Base had exploded, Katsuro had ultimately opted against merely expanding their force beyond what they'd had before.

Instead, he'd decided on doing something a little bit grander.

His moment of introspection was interrupted by the sudden appearance of Dr. Endo, who was looking more than a little dazed and confused.

"I called for you almost twenty minutes ago," Katsuro said.

"Uh, sorry, General," the scientist stammered. "It's just that this place is so damn big."

Katsuro gave Endo a look. "Are you serious?"

True, by volume, the secret facility was large. However, the whole place was really just a big pit in the ground, with the project in the center. He would've liked something larger, but it would be a long time before the JSSDF would have their own Geofront, even assuming a string of continued successes. The individual floors weren't very large.

"Of course I'm serious," Endo replied, indignant.

Katsuro shook his head. "I want a status report on the project."

Endo nodded. "Of course," he said, adjusting his glasses. "As you know, we remain in the very early stages. However, the fact that this is really more of an extensive retrofit than a construction project from the ground up reduces the time involved substantially. The original structure was found to be quite sound—"

"Given how new it is, it had damned well better be," Katsuro grumbled.

"—so delays on that front were minimal," Endo continued without missing a beat. "Yet given how extensive the upgrade is, and the sheer scale involved, it's still going to take some time."

Katsuro grunted an acknowledgment. "And is everything in line with the simulations so far?"

Endo nodded. "Yes," he answered. "So far, it does indeed look like the sheer scale of this thing will make it possible for it to penetrate an AT field."

Katsuro smiled. He had once said that the JSSDF had no choice but to trust that the Blue Beetle would continue to come when they called her, because the alternative was failing to get back into the war, which was likely to lead to a slow and inglorious end for their branch of the service. However, that didn't mean he wanted to rely on a masked woman who refused to tell him her name.

Soon, he wouldn't have to anymore.

"General," Endo said, jarring him from his thoughts. "Would I be…out of line if I spoke freely for a moment?"

"Yes, but go ahead and do it anyway," Katsuro grunted.

"The military already spent a lot of money on this thing," Endo said, "and you know only too well how that went. If a second attempt to use this thing ends in disaster, the consequences…"

"Would only affect me, and the JSSDF," Katsuro cut him off. "You will be fine. The JSDF will find some use for you."

"I'm aware of that," Endo said. "You and the JSSDF are what I'm worried about."

"Your concern is touching," Katsuro said dryly. "But I knew that saving the JSSDF would require a few big gambles. Even one as big as the Jet Alone."

He looked out again at the massive robot, which was in the process of being reborn as the Blue Behemoth. Already almost half of the yellow armor plates had been replaced by much stronger blue and black ones. Under the hood, far more changes were taking place.

Once it was completed, they'd have a chance of defeating the Angels even if the Blue Beetle abandoned them. With such a powerful weapon at their disposal, the JSSDF would never be relegated to second string status again.

Now if only he could get the techs to stop referring to their new super weapon as the "Jet Blue" robot…


As a member of NERV's Section Two, Sato was only too well aware of the reputation his department had gotten for itself.

He knew that most people thought that Section Two was little more than a band of thugs in suits, ostensibly existing to protect important NERV personnel (such as the pilots), but really there in case the Commander needed some dirty work done. He also knew that most of NERV thought that the vast bulk of Section Two's members were complete idiots.

Sato knew people thought all these things. Moreover, he knew that they were right. Section Two was there for when Gendo Ikari needed someone roughed up or disappeared, and by and large, the organization was comprised mainly of stupid thugs.

It was hard to find good help these days. Even so many years after the Impact Wars, men with military training and no scruples remained in high demand around the globe.

Yet despite all of this, Section Two did have some highly competent individuals working for it. Captain Chiron, the Section Chief, was one of them. Sato was another.

Sure, he could've made more money elsewhere, but he was a man of modest desires. And frankly, he did not want to go live in a Third World hellhole and help prop up some tin pot dictator's regime, regardless of how much money was in it for him. Better by far to live in some place like Japan.

His duties for the day were proof enough of that. Aside from having to stand around and look intimidating for a bit later on, all he had to do was check Dr. Akagi's residence.

Screw retiring at forty, he thought as he pulled up to the house in question. If people are willing to pay me for this, I have no problem working 'til I'm a lot older than that. Least this way I'll actually make it to my golden years.

Getting out of his car, he approached Akagi's residence, still not entirely understanding his assignment. Oh, he knew enough to carry it out, but he didn't quite get why he'd been ordered to do it.

As near as he'd been able to gather from the short briefing Chiron had given him, the Commander had reason to suspect that Akagi was doing something she shouldn't be. Said she was moonlighting somehow, or something. The really weird part was that she apparently had some kind of body double, who was going to NERV in her place, thus giving Akagi the time to do…whatever it was she was doing.

A year ago, he would've scoffed at the whole story. However, Tokyo-3 had become a place where science fiction was reality, so he was a little more inclined to give the Commander the benefit of the doubt.

Strangest of all, the Commander for some reason thought that Akagi would be at home at that very minute, and Sato could catch her red-handed.

It was a bizarre situation, but his orders to break into the house, search for Akagi, and report back on his findings were as simple as could be, so he wasn't about to complain.

Reaching the front door, Sato put a hand into his pocket and withdrew a pair of long, thin wires. His childhood on the streets might've been several years behind him, but there was no way a simple lock was going to stop him. He stuck the wires into the keyhole, and only seconds later, the tumblers turned. Even if one of the neighbors had been watching, he hadn't been at it long enough to look suspicious.

Opening the door, he walked inside, alert but not particularly anxious. He certainly wasn't afraid of Akagi, even if she was at home and did catch him intruding. His only real concern had been that she might have a dog or something, but no barks had greeted his entrance.

Now, where are you? He wondered, looking around and deciding that it was a pretty nice place, if a bit austere. It was pretty much what he'd expect of an ice queen like Akagi, really.

Going upstairs, he checked the rooms one by one, making a point of investigating every closet and potential hiding place closely.

That included the good doctor's dresser drawers, even though, if he was being honest with himself, he knew that they were all too small for an adult to even fit inside. He was just feeling nosey, and no one had ever said that he wasn't allowed to enjoy his work.

Finally satisfied that the top floor was empty, he went back down and searched the ground floor extensively. Once again, he discovered nothing out of the ordinary and certainly no blond scientist.

Just the basement, then, he thought, already wondering how he was going to tell Ikari that he'd been wrong and no one was in the Akagi residence but him.

He reached for the doorknob, but the basement door swung inwards before he could touch it, and Sato jumped back, caught off guard.

"Who the hell are you, and what are you doing here?" Misato Katsuragi demanded.

For a moment, Sato just blinked stupidly at the Ops Director, completely blindsided by her appearance. She was dressed in plainclothes, rather than her uniform, which was definitely a good thing from his perspective; it meant she (probably) didn't have her gun on her. However, the glare she was directing at him was still very intimidating, despite that.

"Well?" she demanded when he remained silent. "Answer me. Who are you?"

"Uh, I'm Sato, with Section Two," he blurted out. "What are you doing here?"

"I am a friend of Ritsuko's," Katsuragi said haughtily. "She asked me to come over and do a little errand for her while she's out."

"Oh," Sato said, his voice hollow.

Damn, this was bad, he realized as his brain slowly shifted back into gear. He'd only expected to run into Akagi, if anyone. The leader of Tech Div One had no direct influence over Section Two or any personnel outside her department at all, so there was little danger in pissing her off, especially since he was running an errand for the Commander.

Katsuragi, however, was a very different story. Her authority was much broader, and the mutual animosity between her and Chiron was legendary around NERV. She was an old hand at making the lives of Section Two agents miserable.

"And what are you doing here?" she snapped.

He almost told her, then he realized that there was a very good chance the Commander would want to deny any involvement with this intrusion into Dr. Akagi's home.

"Uh…well, I….you see…" he stammered, at a complete loss for any sort of vaguely believable lie.

"Never mind," Katsuragi cut him off. "It's not like you'd tell me the truth anyway."

Sato tried not to look as grateful as he felt.

"Just get out," Katsuragi said. "Right now. If I ever catch you around here again, I'm going to have you thrown into a holding cell at NERV and let you rot there until the new year. Got that?"

"Yes, ma'am," Sato answered at once, then wasted no time in making his retreat.

He fervently hoped that Katsuragi forgot his name before Akagi realized he'd gone riffling through the blonde's underwear drawer.


The moment the Section Two chucklehead closed the door behind himself, Misato rushed over to the window and peeked out through the curtains. The black suit made his way to an equally black sedan and climbed inside, quickly driving away. Misato waited by her post for a few minutes after he'd gone, half expecting him to simply loop around the block and come back.

When there was no sign that he planned to return, she turned and descended into the basement again.

"Is he gone?" Ritsuko asked.

"Yeah, he's gone," Misato sighed. "I don't think he's planning to come back, but it's impossible to say for sure."

Ritsuko nodded silently. Though she'd no longer been on the edge of death when Misato had found her, the blonde had definitely still seen better days. Her face was extremely pale, and she had told Misato that she needed to remain clad in the armor from the neck down for a while yet. Misato had retrieved some pillows from upstairs and used them to prop her friend up into a sitting position, and Ritsuko had winced and grimaced through the entire process. The Ops Director didn't dare move the scientist again.

"You're damned lucky I happened to come along, you know that?" Misato scolded. "He would've come here and caught you, otherwise."

"Yeah," Ritsuko admitted. "The scarab's a little too preoccupied to hide me right now."

"I figured."

"Why did you come here, anyway?" Ritsuko asked. "Not that I'm complaining, of course." She quickly added.

"Did you forget that my ring can tell the different between holo-you and the real you?" Misato asked, holding up her hand and allowing the band of green metal on her middle finger to shimmer into visibility. "When you didn't show up for a work for a few days straight, I got worried and came looking for you."

"You're a good friend, Misato," Ritsuko said softly.

"Thank you," the Ops Director said, then crossed her arms over her chest. "But don't expect me to go easy on you just because you said that."

Ritsuko smiled weakly up at her friend. Since she was standing, the Ops Director quite towered over her. "Why Misato, what do you mean?"

Misato rolled her eyes. "You're supposed to be a genius, and you have to ask that?"

"I never claimed to be a genius…"

"You almost got killed!"

"I know," Ritsuko said, pressing her hands over her still injured gut. Or trying to, anyway. The armor kind of got in the way. "Believe me, it's a little difficult to forget right now."

The purple-haired woman's gaze softened, and she squatted down so she was eye level with the blonde. "I really wish you'd tell me what you're up to. You've been playing with fire a lot recently, and you finally got burned," she said gently. "This team of assassins was serious."

"You're telling me," Ritsuko agreed.

"But what's worse is that the Commander seems to be on to you," Misato continued. "That idiot wouldn't have shown up unless Ikari was at least suspicious."

"I know. I'll really have to be careful in the future," Ritsuko said.

Misato gave her a look. "You're not planning on stopping, are you?"

"I can't," Ritsuko said.

The Ops Director sighed. "Fine. We've had this argument too many times for me to try again," she said, standing up straight and moving to leave.

"Misato, wait," Ritsuko said.

"Yes?"

"Could you stay here for a while?" Ritsuko asked. "The scarab says it should have me back on my feet in an hour or two. I really don't want to be alone until then."

"Yeah," Misato said with a small smile. "All right."

The Ops Director grabbed the stool Ritsuko used when she was laboring at her workbench, sitting next to her friend, and for the next hour and a half, the pair made a point of talking about everything but Ritsuko's superwoman activities.

The blonde quickly found herself growing wistful. It had been a long time, she realized, since she'd simply sat around to shoot the breeze with a friend. Even before she'd become the Blue Beetle, her hectic work schedule at NERV (not to mention her secretive relationship with Gendo Ikari), had kept her from getting much socialization.

It almost made her sad when the pain started to ebb, and she could move without aggravating her now nonexistent stab wound.

Almost.

"All better?" Misato asked as she helped her friend to her feet.

"I'm definitely not all better," Ritsuko said, "but I'm functional again, at least. Thanks."

"Welcome."

An awkward silence descended between the two, and Ritsuko was more than a little grateful when the scarab interrupted, informing her that the "blue phone" was ringing.

"Sorry, I have to take this," Ritsuko told Misato, and a moment later, the helmet materialized over her head. "Blue Beetle here."

"Beetle, this is Katsuro," the voice of the general replied. "We've got a situation here."

"And what would that be?" she asked.

He told her.

"I'm on my way," Blue Beetle said at once, cutting the connection.

"You can't be serious," Misato said incredulously. "You were half dead less than three hours ago. What the hell is so important that you have to rush off to deal with it now?"

Before Ritsuko could answer, Misato's cell phone went off. Not her personal phone, the NERV-issued one. And just like that, she knew why her friend was ready to rush back into danger.

The Fifteenth Angel was coming.


Author's Notes: Poor Ritsuko, there are people plotting left and right, and she has only the vaguest idea about it. Next up, the Fifteenth Angel.

Nothing else to say here, so thanks as always to my readers and reviewers, and thanks to my beta reader as well.


Movie Madness

Opening the door, he walked inside, alert but not particularly anxious. He certainly wasn't afraid of Akagi, even if she was at home and did catch him intruding. His only real concern had been that she might have a dog or something, but no barks had greeted his entrance.

Now, where are you? He wondered, looking around and deciding that it was a pretty nice place, if a bit austere. It was pretty much what he'd expect of an ice queen like Akagi, really.

Going upstairs, he checked the rooms one by one, making a point of investigating every closet and potential hiding place closely.

That included the good doctor's dresser drawers, even though, if he was being honest with himself, he knew that they were all too small for an adult to even fit inside. He was just feeling nosey, and no one had ever said that he wasn't allowed to enjoy his work.

White cotton. How boring. Figured her for the black leather, whips, and chains type, he thought. Then he spotted…something at the back of the drawer. Hello, what's this?

He reached for it.

SNAP!

"Ahh!" Sato howled in surprise and pain as the mousetrap snapped shut on his fingers.

Eventually prying the damn thing off, and coming to the conclusion that Akagi was a crazy, paranoid bitch, Sato decided it was time for him to leave. He departed the bedroom and headed for the stairs…only to step on the strategically placed marbles made of clear glass that he'd somehow missed earlier. With a cry, he went tumbling down the stairs.

When he reached the bottom, a bucket suspended from the ceiling was overturned by some unseen mechanism, dumping a black viscous liquid onto Sato, along with a great mass of white feathers.

"That's it!" he exclaimed, slowly and painfully getting to his feet. "I'm getting the hell out of here!"


Meanwhile, Ritsuko sat in the basement, viewing everything with the elaborate surveillance system she had installed into her home.

(See?) The scarab said smugly. (I TOLD you those traps would be a good idea. And you said that that movie was stupid!)

Ritsuko just sighed. "I never should've let me talk me into watching Home Alone…"