Chapter 19: Operational Readiness

Killing is not so easy as the innocent believe.
- J.K. Rowling

That has to burn his pride, Fuyutsuki thought as he stood behind his superior, both men watching the massive screens surrounding the bridge. They were overseeing the preparations for NERV's first ever offensive action against the angels, an attempt to capture one of the beasts in some sort of larval stage. What had caught the old professor's eye was the distantly visible aircraft circling high over the site.

They did not belong to NERV. At the council's insistence, JSSDF bombers armed with a plethora of N2 weapons were standing by, ready to drop them into the volcano to destroy it and the angel should the Evangelions fail to capture or destroy it themselves. Presumably, they and their pilots would be lost as well. He knew that the commander didn't care a whit for the teenage pilots, but the loss of the Evangelions, and especially unit-01 would be unacceptable to him.

Meanwhile, NERV's own aircraft, which had proven their ability to stop an angel with far greater precision, sat idle in their hangar. The commander's objections that they would be sufficient as a safeguard were overruled, and that had left the man in a brooding mood ever since, though nobody other than Fuyutsuki would have been able to tell the difference from his usual demeanor.

Thinking more on the issue, though, Fuyutsuki concluded that it wasn't the Commander's pride that was wounded. Ikari was, despite his many faults, not a prideful or vain man, as evidenced by his consistently disheveled appearance. Rather, he was angered by the message being sent to him by the sight of the circling bombers, a friendly reminder from the council of NERV's subordinate position.

Step out of line, and we will crush you.

Though they currently shared a common enemy, Ikari's goals would eventually diverge from those of his superiors, and that would mean conflict. He could guess that it would end in some sort of attempt by the council and their allies to seize control of the city and of headquarters, and he could also guess that Ikari would go to any lengths to prevent such an attempt from succeeding.

The topic of whether NERV was prepared for such an eventuality was something that had been crossing Fuyutsuki's mind frequently as of late. He'd broached the subject with the commander only once, and in response had been reminded that NERV possessed the most powerful weapons humanity had ever devised. No force on earth would dare contest control of Tokyo-3 while the Evangelions were still operational and under their control.

But will that always be the case? Should the Evangelions be somehow neutralized, or if their pilots refused to kill human beings, as Fuyutsuki suspected at least some of them probably would, then headquarters would be extremely vulnerable. The city's defenses were powerful, but not designed to deal with conventional threats such as aircraft or tanks, and failing them the task of defending the city would fall to NERV's security forces, who were of dubious value for anything other than guarding the gates.

The subject weighed heavily on the professor's mind in the days following the operation at Mount Asama, successful though it turned out to be, and he could tell that it was clouding the commander's thoughts as well.

It came as no surprise, then. A week after the battle, he was ordered to report to a meeting in Commander Ikari's office, along with several other senior NERV officers.

Operational readiness to meet non-angel threats.

Bishop once again mulled over the topic to be discussed at this mysterious meeting he'd been invited to. Non-angel threats could mean a million different things.

Eh, probably just some bureaucratic nonsense, he thought as he took a sip of coffee, before returning his attention to his newspaper. He had half an hour yet before he was due to report to the meeting, and was thoroughly enjoying a cappuccino from the espresso bar in the headquarters cafeteria, which of all places served the finest coffee he could ever recall tasting.

He didn't have many excuses to come all the way down here lately, and so he'd knocked off work early to have some rare time to himself. Although, he'd had more than usual lately with Katsuragi away on an operation, something to do with a volcano. He figured it was none of his concern; his unit had been stood up to full alert for a few hours about a week ago, but they were never launched, and now things seemed to have calmed back down again.

Yes, for this past week it almost seemed like a normal job, and he was taking his coffee break like any other office drone, sitting alone at a table in a far corner of the cafeteria. It was located about two stories up in the glass pyramid, and he'd picked a spot right up against the floor-to-ceiling windows, from which he could look out over the vast geofront forest and almost pretend he was home.

A quick scan of the top stories in the newspaper reminded him, however, that home was hardly worth reminiscing over. The National Gazette was the only Canadian newspaper he'd been able to buy in the city, about a week out of date, and as usual none of the news from home was good.

VETERAN'S BENEFITS SEE FURTHER CUTS IN NEW FEDERAL BUDGET, read the headline on the front page. The story went on to say that the cuts were passed almost unanimously in parliament, a result of the ever-increasing costs of servicing the nation's crippling war debts as well as meeting UN obligations, and cautioned current and former servicemen against planning to retire on their pensions.

Fucking politicians. Bishop shook his head in disgust, though not surprise, as he flipped past more stories, most involving his country's worsening financial woes. His eyes settled on an article that caught his interest.

INCREASING RATES OF RESPIRATORY ILLNESS SEEN AMONG OTTAWA VETS. He raised an eyebrow as he read past the headline. Apparently, doctors in Canada as well as in the States were reporting a serious uptick in various lung diseases among troops who fought in Ottawa.

It made sense, now that he thought of it. Much of the city was set alight by the initial air and artillery bombardment, and soon burning skyscrapers began to collapse into the streets, turning the city into one giant maze of rubble and choking the atmosphere with thousands of tons of pulverized concrete, brick, glass, asbestos and God knows what else mixed with acrid black smoke. The soldiers of both sides fighting in the rubble were forced to breathe this toxic cocktail for weeks on end, spitting out mouthful after mouthful of inky black soot as they struggled over the ruins.

Well, I'll start worrying about that if I make it to forty , he thought with a sardonic smirk, before deciding he'd had enough doom and gloom for one day. As he flipped to the comics, he noticed a shadow crossing the page that wasn't there a moment ago, and jumped in surprise as he turned around and saw a pair of crimson eyes glaring down at him.

"Jesus Rei!" he exclaimed to the girl standing silently behind him. "You can't sneak up on people like that!"

She continued to give him a detached, impassive look, standing with a tray of food in her hands.

"…Is there something I can do for you?" he asked eventually, beginning to get that same unsettled feeling he'd gotten when he first saw her.

"This is where I sit." She sounded almost annoyed as her eyes flickered to the table in front of him.

"Uhh…" He was taken aback for a moment, looking around at the many other empty tables, before shrugging and gesturing to the chair across from him. "Well, don't mind me." Did she honestly expect him to get up and move?

Staring down at him for a few more seconds, she finally acquiesced and silently drifted over to the other side of the table, setting her tray down before gingerly taking her seat. Bishop watched her for a moment as she daintily began to eat her lunch, which seemed to consist of nothing more than a bowl of rice and some steamed vegetables, before shrugging again and returning his attention to the paper.

"Oh, uh, Miss Ayanami," he said distractedly, remembering that he'd been meaning to say something to the girl. "…Thanks for all your help with training the other pilots. I hope you didn't feel too left out, but, uh… Well, I'm sure you understand. We couldn't have done it without you."

He looked up when there was no response after a moment, and was surprised to see the girl looking back at him, a slight tinge of colour in her cheeks, before her eyes quickly flitted back down to her food.

"…Why do you call me that?" she asked quietly.

"Why do I call you what?"

"Miss Ayanami."

"Um…" He hadn't really thought about it. "That's just the proper way of addressing a young lady where I come from. Unless you're married of course," he replied with a chuckle.

"Where do you come from?" She asked without missing a beat.

"About five thousand miles thataway," He said absently, jutting a thumb towards what he was pretty sure was the east, though there was no way to be sure down here.

She nodded slowly, chewing a mouthful of rice. "What is it like there?"

"Full of questions today, aren't we?" He looked over at her with a raised eyebrow. "…Is there anything in particular you want to know about?"

She didn't answer, but when he looked up, he noticed that her gaze had drifted to the forest outside the window. "…Well, it's lot different from Japan. Much bigger and with a lot less people. Most of the country is covered in forest just like you see out there, except it goes on for thousands of miles."

Her eyes snapped to him, and so with a small smile he went on. "There's lots of farmland too, and not like the little rice paddies like you see around here. Imagine an area of flat grassland that's bigger than all of Japan put together. That's the prairies, where I grew up." He looked up at the ceiling in fond recollection. "It's one of the prettiest sights you can imagine, when the wheat fields turn yellow in the fall. They ripple in the wind, and it looks just like waves on a big golden ocean for as far as the eye can see."

He could tell that the girl was enthralled by the idea. He imagined she had probably never left Japan, maybe never left this city, and her crimson eyes sparkled as she pictured the things he'd described in her head.

"…I would like to see that." she said in a barely audible whisper.

He shrugged. "Well, there's no reason why you can't, when you're a little older at least." He frowned at the girl as she again looked down at her tray, thinking he saw a flicker of sadness in her eyes. "…Although I suppose you won't be taking any trips until all this is over, huh?"

She nodded almost imperceptibly, and Bishop smiled sadly as he tried to console her. "…Aw, cheer up, miss. I know it seems like this war will go on forever, but all wars end eventually, one way or another."

"Is this… war?"

The pilot pondered the simple question for a moment. "I suppose I haven't thought too much about it. I guess it is, I mean we have the kill the angels or else they'll kill us, right? That's more or less what war boils down to."

"So war is… Killing?"

He shifted uncomfortably now, not entirely liking the road this was leading down. "…Yeah, I, uh, I suppose it is."

She looked at him impassively. "And before this war, war was killing… People?"

"Yes…"

"But… Why would people kill other people?"

He flicked his newspaper down in annoyance, giving her a glare. "Christ, don't you kids have a teacher, or a guidance counselor, or gee I don't know, parents you could talk about this sort thing with?"

He immediately regretted the outburst. "I have offended you." Rei said softly as she stood to leave. "I am sorry."

"No, no, no, please sit," he quickly backpedaled as she cautiously retook her seat. "I'm sorry Rei, you just caught me a little off guard is all. Wasn't expecting things to get quite so heavy on my coffee break." He chuckled mirthlessly as he downed the last of his drink, before leaning forward to fix the girl with a serious look.

"Why do people kill each other…" he thought on it for a moment. "Well, there's a lot of reasons Rei. Money, power, jealousy, revenge... you name it. But I think the most common one, in my experience at least, is to protect something. Maybe yourself, your family, your country. Killing isn't something that comes naturally to most people, but when it's in defence of something you care about... Well, it becomes an instinct, no more difficult than breathing or blinking, and you don't think about the consequences until long after it's already done."

It was a question he'd pondered quite a bit in the past, and he thought he had a decent enough answer for the girl. "Somebody much smarter than me once told me that if you strip away the veneer of civilization, we're still just the same tribal apes our ancestors were. Our first and most important instinct is still to protect our tribe at all costs, just like we had to do in the jungle a million years ago. Much was we may pretend otherwise, we aren't wired to do what's morally right or what's best for the common good. We're wired to protect our own."

He gave a shrug. "And why shouldn't we be? Let's say society collapses tomorrow. No government, no police, nobody's coming to help you. If your family is starving to death, why wouldn't you kill your neighbour and steal his food to save them?"

"Because stealing is wrong."

"Of course it is, and so is murder, but people don't think in terms of right or wrong in circumstances like that. Now, scale that idea up to the level of countries, and you'll start to understand why they go to war, why millions of perfectly reasonable people are suddenly willing to kill someone over a line drawn on a map." He shook his head sadly as he thought about it. "Nothing shows that more than second impact. We should have come together to try and salvage what was left, but instead we turned on each other like a pack of rabid dogs and fought over the scraps. I guess that's just how people are."

"Oh." She thought for a moment. "So humans are inherently… Selfish? They care only for themselves and those near them?"

She was staring at him with eyes as wide as saucers. She probably wasn't ready to hear all that, but… Well, someone had to be honest with these damn kids. Still, he figured he ought to end on a positive note.

"…I don't think I'd go that far, Rei. There are lots of good people out there who work for the common good even when things start to fall apart. That selfishness isn't always a bad thing either, if you think about it." He smiled reassuringly at her. "Those same instincts that can turn people into crazed killers can make them do some very brave and noble things as well, like when you burned yourself saving Shinji. You did that because you care about him, right?"

"I…" She paused for a long moment, before giving a decisive nod. "Yes."

"Well, there you go. Even at humanity's ugliest, there's still some good to be found. Try not to forget that, Rei. I know it's easy to do in times like these." He glanced down at his watch, realizing he was now running late, and stood to leave. "Geez, sorry miss, guess I really talked your ear off, huh?"

"It is... okay." She bowed her head ever so slightly towards him. "Thank you for talking to me."

"Oh, uh…" He wasn't expecting that. "You're welcome, I guess. Enjoy your lunch."

He quickly strode back across the cafeteria, and glancing back saw the girl resting her head in her palm, gazing idly out the window.

There was certainly more to her than met the eye. Beneath that somber, emotionless exterior lurked an intense curiosity about the world beyond this place. He sincerely hoped she would get to go out and see it someday.

Clack clack clack clack clack clack

The sound of the pilot's boots on the metal floor echoed through the strange space he now found himself him after stepping off the elevator. Surrounded on all four sides by inward sloping windows, he figured that he was probably near the top of the pyramid.

He also figured that he was meant to feel intimidated by the person sitting at the desk in the middle of this dark, foreboding place. He decided to make a point of not showing it, marching confidently toward the distant seated figure with perfectly measured steps.

He recognized him immediately from his dark glasses and white gloves. He also recognized the old man standing behind him, as well as one of the two people standing in front of the desk. The one in the suit was the head of NERV's faux-CIA. The other he didn't know; a tall, well-built Japanese man in a standard NERV uniform.

The strange glyphs inscribed all across the floor and ceiling caught his eye, but he had no time to consider them as he arrived a few metres from the desk, halting and coming smartly to attention beside the stranger in the tan uniform.

"Major Bishop." Fuyutsuki addressed him coolly with a small nod. "Thank you for joining us. We can begin. I believe you know Chief inspector Katori, allow me to introduce you to Captain Hayate Tsuga, commander of NERV armed security."

He shared a glance and a small nod with the man to his left, before the sub commander continued. "Needless to say, anything said in this room is never to repeated outside of it. Now, the reason we've asked you here today, gentlemen, is to discuss our readiness to meet threats to Tokyo-3 and the geofront from enemies other than the Angels. We believe that as the leaders of NERV's more… conventional armed forces, your input on this subject will be invaluable to this organization's future security."

The three men remained silent, before Captain Tsuga cleared his throat and spoke up. "…And what enemies would those be, sir?" He was an older gentlemen, with a proud and distinguished bearing that told Bishop he was probably from the upper echelons of society. The pilot wondered what he'd done to land here, commanding a bunch of glorified mall cops in this godforsaken hole.

"That is none of your concern." The commander finally spoke, glaring up at the officer. "All you need to know is that such enemies exist, and that this facility cannot be allowed to fall into their hands under any circumstance."

Bishop exchanged a look with Tsuga, who no doubt sensed their shared confusion. "Well, then what exactly do you want from us?" he asked cautiously.

The commander's smoldering eyes shifted over to him, seeming to notice him for the first time. It was Fuyutsuki who spoke, however, in a much less confrontational tone. "We simply want a general idea of the ability of the units you command to deal with an armed assault against the city."

Katori snorted in amusement, his features looking even more rat-like than usual in the dim lighting. "With all due respect, sir, nobody would be stupid enough to try something like that. My agents would have alerted me long ago if there was any such threat. And even if there was, the Evangelions could easily crush any such assault, could they not?"

"Assume the Evangelions are not available. And assume that your intelligence is wrong." The commander's words were curt and sharp.

The three men stood in silent thought, before Tsuga plucked up the courage to speak again. "…Well sir, I can only speak for myself and my men, but I am confident in our ability to meet such an attack. Altogether we have the equivalent of a brigade in manpower, and combined with the city's defenses I see no reason we couldn't fight off a force three or four times our size."

"Yes," Katori added with a feverish nod. "My agents are extremely well trained and equipped, if not as numerous as Captain Tsuga's forces, and our intelligence network would give us warning far in advance of any attack happening, allowing us to prepare strong defenses. No, I don't believe any such attack is a real threat to us. To capture the city and the geofront would require numbers in the thousands, and surely the military would step in on our behalf at that point."

The deafening silence from NERV's two leaders at that last remark raised a lump of concern in Bishop's throat, before all eyes turned to him. "Major? Your thoughts?" Fuyutsuki prompted him.

"Well…" he looked down and met the commander's dark eyes. "Exactly what sort of 'armed assault' are we talking about, here? By what sort of forces?"

"For the sake of argument, let's say a standard infantry division," Fuyutsuki said evenly.

There was stunned silence in the room as the commander continued to fix Bishop with his steely gaze.

"…An infantry division?" he replied incredulously.

"Yes."

"With armour, artillery, and air support?"

"Presumably."

Bishop shook his head slowly. "Well, I think if an entire division of properly trained and supported infantry wanted to take this place, and we didn't have the Evas, I don't think there's much we could do to stop them."

"Nonsense!" Katori spat with an antagonistic squint. "Are you calling us incompetent? Of course we could deal with a rabble of common soldiers."

"I'm not calling you anything." Bishop crossed his arms and turned to face the human rat. "I'm simply stating the facts. And if you honestly believe that a handful of your agents along with a brigade of barely armed security forces could hold this city against an actual army, then I've got a bridge to sell you, inspector."

"How dare you! Who are you to speak to me that way, you-"

The fuming inspector's retort was swiftly cut off by a raised hand from the commander, who turned to address Bishop.

"You have experience in this area?" he said curtly.

Bishop nodded slowly. "I do. I was part of the rabble once, and I think I can safely say that I'm the only one here who's actually been in a city under siege."

Fuyutsuki gave him a small smile. "Ah yes, you were at the battle of Ottawa, weren't you major?"

"I was."

"Hm. The bloodiest battle for a city since the second world war, or so I've read. Perhaps you could offer us some insight from your time there."

Bishop shrugged indifferently. "I was never anything more than a corporal in the infantry. I wasn't exactly privy to the strategic decision-making."

"Nonetheless, it would seem to be an example of an outnumbered force holding a city against a superior enemy, would it not? Why do you think we couldn't do the same here? Hypothetically, of course."

The pilot could only scoff at that. "Well, outnumbered though we were, we weren't bloody amateurs. We were properly trained and equipped, a machine gun and at least two shoulder fired AT weapons for every five riflemen. We weren't running around with nothing but pistols and riot shotguns like your people would be." He thought for a moment before continuing. "More importantly, though, we were motivated. We understood that we needed to hold the city in order to tie down as much of the enemy as possible, to keep them from pursuing the rest of the army as they fell back to regroup and wait for reinforcements. We knew we had to hold for as long as possible, and that all was lost if we couldn't. We knew that, and we were ready to sell our lives dearly to do it, every one of us."

He swept his hard gaze around the assembly to try and drive home the point. "That's the sort of resolve it takes to hold a city against the firepower a modern military can bring down on it. You need troops who'll sit there and take it as the city is bombed to the point where it no longer exists, troops who'll dig into the rubble and dare the enemy come in after them rather than surrender. I don't think you have any such troops."

"Sir," Captain Tsuga interjected to the commander, giving Bishop a frosty glace. "I must protest. With all due respect to the major, he is an aviator, not a leader of ground forces, and I believe he is out of line here. My men are as brave as any, and if ordered to they would hold this city to the death."

"To the death…" The pilot shook his head slowly, turning to face the officer. "With all due respect to your men, captain, they're security guards, not soldiers. Do you really think they'll hold their ground when artillery fire starts turning their friends into hamburger? How about when they see a column of tanks bearing down on them, when they feel the earth start shaking and realize they don't have any weapons that could even scratch their paint?

"We do have means of fighting armour, though. Our anti-angel defenses could destroy any armoured formation in a matter of minutes." The captain stubbornly held his ground.

"Maybe…" Bishop conceded. "…But I've seen those defenses from the air, and they're not hard to find. The first thing an attacker would do is knock them out with airstrikes, and so far as I can tell you've got no anti-air weapons suitable for engaging a small, fast target like a jet fighter."

"We have air power of our own." The commander interrupted his two arguing subordinates with a pointed look at Bishop.

"Well sure, but…" the pilot was caught off guard. "My aircraft are equipped purely for the anti-angel mission, they wouldn't be much use against anything else."

"But they could be equipped for other roles?"

"Of course, they're interceptors with a secondary ground attack capability. They can carry up to fourteen missiles in a pinch, though we'd never take that many for a normal mission. The Phoenix is the main standoff weapon, but it can use any British or American versions of the Sparrow or Sidewinder as well. As for ground attack, she can take all kinds of unguided bombs and rockets, but…"

Bishop suddenly became suspicious at the line of questioning. "Hold on a minute, you don't honestly expect us to go up and kill people if this place is attacked, do you?"

"I expect you to follow my orders."

Bishop was incensed at the idea, and took a step towards the desk to tower over the seated commander. "Officially, I am here in a strictly advisory capacity, sir," he said through gritted teeth. "…And my pilots are here on the understanding that they would be fighting humanity's enemies, not humanity themselves."

"They are part of my organization, and they will fight who or what I tell them to, as will you."

"I answer to King Edward, not to you." Bishop was unmoved by the implied threat. "If I engage in combat against the armed forces of a country the commonwealth isn't at war with, I'll be court martialed and probably shot for a traitor, and rightfully so."

"Humanity has no future if this facility falls into the wrong hands." The commander growled with a steely glare. "Are you saying that you value your own career over the fate of all mankind?"

"No," Bishop spat. He'd reached the limits of his civility with this detestable creature, and leaned forward to place his hands on the desk, his voice low and dangerous. "I'm saying that I never want to take a human life again. And if I did, I wouldn't do it on the orders of a cowardly piece of shit who sends children to fight his battles for him."

For a moment, it seemed as though the two men were about to come to blows, their steely gazes meeting with an almost visible spark of mutual dislike. The others in the room watched in stunned silence for a moment, before the commander finally moved first, slowly lifting a hand to push his dark glasses further up his nose.

"All of you," he snapped. "Leave. Now."

Bishop waited until he heard the sub commander and the other two officers hurrying towards the elevator, not taking his eyes off his adversary, before turning away with a sneer. A pair of curt words stopped him before he made it more than few steps.

"Not you."

"I wouldn't expect a man in your line of work to have such an aversion to killing."

Gendo Ikari glowered at the foreigner's back, the two men now alone in his cavernous office.

"You would too if you'd done as much of it as I have."

"And yet you still wear that uniform." The commander pointed out. "You'd kill to defend a country that no longer wants you, but not to defend humanity."

"Defend humanity from what? Itself?" The pilot whirled to face him now.

"From those members of humanity who don't know what's best for themselves."

"And you do?"

"I do." Ikari answered simply.

The Canadian scoffed incredulously at him. "Would you look at the ego on you. Who the hell are you to think you know what's best for billions of people you've never met?"

If most people had spoken to him this way, the commander would have simply pressed a button under his desk. A moment later, a pair of his personal bodyguards would step off the elevator and remove the offender, who would then suffer an unfortunate accident somewhere out in the woods.

In this case, however, Ikari had his reasons for not doing so. Though the major may not have known it, he had become quite a popular and influential figure within NERV according to Ikari's sources. He was looked up to as a hero by many in the lower ranks, especially those attached to the Aerial Operations Section, and reportedly held some sway over the young Eva pilots as well. He was the type for whom the confidence of command came naturally, who people were naturally inclined to follow, and who inspired a loyalty in those who did that Ikari knew he himself could never hope to.

Gendo had known and despised types like him all his life, the types he'd had to compete against as he clawed his way to the top. He was always the underdog; he'd been a lonely, awkward orphan who grew into a morose and solitary man who most found off-putting, possessing none of the characteristics traditionally associated with a leader. But what he did have was his mind, and with it a cold, calculating cunning that had prevailed time and time again against the Robert Bishops of the world.

A less shrewd leader might have considered the major to be a serious threat: a skilled and dangerous warrior, in control of incredibly powerful weapons, who could potentially turn them and a large part of his own organization against him. But Gendo Ikari was as shrewd as they came. He had gotten this far by always thinking two steps ahead, and doing so now, he saw much greater potential benefit in securing this man's loyalty than he did in removing or making an enemy out of him.

"Distasteful as it may seem to you, everything I do, I do for the sake of humanity's future." Ikari hid his lower face behind his hands as he lectured the foreigner, who remained perfectly still. "We face threats you cannot possibly comprehend, and I am the only thing standing in their way."

"Yeah, I've seen the angels."

"There are greater threats than them, threats that come from within our own species." NERV's commander leaned forward ever so slightly in his chair, as though he were about to divulge some great secret. "There are those among us, some in very high places, who believe that mankind is too flawed to be allowed to continue existing, who would use the power we possess here to bring about what they would call a..." He paused to allow the half-truth to sink in, before punctuating his point with a single word. "...Cleansing."

The major was given pause by that word, his grey eyes moving rapidly as the man pondered what he'd just been told, the truth as far as he knew. There was intelligence behind those eyes, Ikari saw then. Not to the same level as his own, but not a mind to be taken for granted, either.

"…Have you ever taken a life, commander?" he asked eventually, catching Ikari somewhat by surprise.

"I-"

"I don't mean giving the order." Bishop cut him off, taking a step closer. "I mean doing the deed yourself."

"No." He answered truthfully. "…I fail to see how that is relevant."

"It stays with you." The major continued on, ignoring his reply. "Doesn't matter if they deserved it or if it was self defence." He stepped back and turned away from the desk, clasping his hands behind his back. Ikari noted the burn scars, not dissimilar to his own. "…I already see enough faces when I close my eyes, commander. Doomsday crazies or not, your enemies, your human enemies, aren't mine. I won't kill them for you."

Without so much as glance backwards, the officer stepped off towards the elevators. "…And If an army shows up intending to take this city, I'd recommend you surrender to prevent any unnecessary bloodshed, seeing as you won't have any air support," he said tersely over his shoulder. "Good day, commander."

Ikari let him go for a few steps, before opting to play his trump card, a tiny smirk forming behind his gloves.

"Major," he said in a low voice. "You lost someone once, didn't you?"

That stopped him in his tracks, just as he knew it would. Ikari had done his homework, as he had on all of his subordinates. He knew them better than they knew themselves.

"Of course," he said evenly, not turning. "…Haven't we all?"

"You lost someone…" Gendo's voice took on a solemn quality, as it always did on the rare occasions when he spoke of her. "…Who was everything to you. Someone you couldn't imagine living the rest of your life without. Someone who took all the joy and meaning in your world with them when they left."

The man whirled on him again now, and even NERV's inscrutable commander was alarmed by the murderous look in his eyes.

"Choose your next words very carefully, commander," He growled, fists clenching at his side.

He did.

"What if I told you," He said slowly and deliberately. "…That you could see her again."

A/N: Thanks, as always, for reading! A very dialogue-heavy chapter I know, but one that contains some interactions that were very interesting to write, and that will hopefully set up some interesting dynamics going forward.