I don't own Evangelion, its characters or anything worthwhile, I just have my little stories

One Betrayal After Another

Once the entry plugs were removed from their respective Evangelions and onboard the deck of the carrier Oz, Karen found herself face to face with him, Yuu Joseph Williams, someone that she never wanted to see again. It was true that Karen had once been drawn to this boy, but that was the past. All she felt now was hatred, in the past he had betrayed her trust, tried to do something he had no right to. The incident that had happened between the two had been more than six months ago, but she could remember it all clearly. She hadn't told anyone why she felt the way she did, she never would. Not even to Aunt Rei or Kaworu

"How have you been Red?" He wore an orange and white plug suit, his smile was somewhat crooked, some of the girls back in America had found that to be very charming. Karen had once thought it to be very charming, but not anymore.

"What the Hell are you doing here Joe?" Had Misato not put a restraining arm on Karen she might have attacked him.

"Isn't it obvious?" he said bringing his hands up, "I'm the pilot of Unit Two, the Seventh Child and the guy who just saved your butt."

"You did no such thing!" Her voice echoed over the ships deck. "I'm the one who defeated the Angel, something you weren't able to I might add."

"That's enough you too," Misato said as she squeezed Karen's shoulder tighter, "we're going to take this ship back to Tokyo-3 until that time both of you are confined to quarters."

"That's fine with me," the Seventh said as he walked away, "I needed to get some sleep."

"You can't be serious," Karen looked into Misato's eyes pleadingly, "I didn't do anything wrong."

"You disobeyed my orders when you attacked the Angel."

"I wouldn't have had to if he had done his job," she pointed to the figure walking into the ship's interior, tearing herself away from Misato's arms.

"Regardless," Misato stood upright, her eyes as cold as stone, "you disobeyed my orders."

"I don't believe this," as Karen spoke every word made her sound more hysterical than the last, "after the crap he pulled and everything that's happened you-" Evenly, without any kind of reaction Misato slapped the Sixth Child across the mouth. As Karen recoiled and touched her throbbing cheek she could see that Misato was all business.

"I'll not tell you again Miss Ikari," she spoke coldly, in a way that Karen had never seen her do so before. It scared her, but at that moment she would rather die than show weakness.

"Fine," Karen's simple response was just as cold, the emotions swimming through her were becoming too much as she fought to suppress them. She spun on her heels, her red hair caught a passing breeze.

There would not be any more words between Misato and her Goddaughter that night, or for a while. She knew the emotions that that boy brought out of her were terrible. She remembered how Karen cried herself to sleep for almost a week after they had almost come to physical blows, but she also knew how temperamental a seventeen year old girl could be. Whatever the trouble was that happened between the two would have to be settled and soon, lest all of humanity pay the price.
Many things had changed since the Angels attacked nearly twenty years ago, many things did not. Misato's filing reports was one of the latter. Technically the mission had gone well, the Angel was defeated and Unit Two's oceanic type equipment had proven to work well enough, the confrontation between the pilots was in truth the worst case scenario.

Unlike the previous Angels, this group had no set number. Some even argued that these weren't Angels like the others, but something entirely different. Their information was also too fragmented. In a way it made Misato miss the old Commander Ikari, Rei had the same unwavering resolve as him, but her knowledge of the situation wasn't anywhere near his.

Rei was working with the best she could however. There was much speculation as to if the Seele Council still even existed, Rei and Kaworu believed that they did and for Misato that was enough. These creatures were their machinations made for their purpose. Misato just wanted to know what. She could not live with the thought of Karen facing a similar fate as her parents, it tore her up inside.

It wasn't too long that Misato found herself staring into the computer screen actually smiling. Somewhere along her musings she realized something important. Karen Ikari was acting more or less like a normal teenage girl. Though Misato hadn't had a normal childhood and the first three Children didn't even have a childhood. Karen however was able to cry over a lost love, would get angry over trivial things. She knew that right now she was busy going over the final preparations of her sleep over.

Sitting in her office at NERV headquarters, Misato counted her blessings. More than anything her parent's wishes for Karen had come true, she was living a somewhat normal life.
Despite Karen's preparations for something she had wanted for a long time, she was very down trodden. Only a few hours ago Misato had struck and betrayed her, her cheek still throbbed and her heart felt broken, how could Misato have misunderstood her so much.

Part of Karen wanted to call the whole thing off, she didn't want Chi and Reika to see her as she felt now. Still she knew that if anyone could help her it was them, the three of them had known each other for at least twelve years. Even though Karen had left them to live in America for a while, they remained good friends.

In fact it wasn't until Karen actively started to pilot EVA that she felt herself distancing from them, as they were doing to her. Lately the only thing Chi could talk about was her boyfriend Hideki, also Reika had been spending time a lot more time with her twin brother Ayato since they met.

Karen found out recently that Reika was adopted, this made Reika her want to track down her real parents, something Karen could understand. Then about three months ago a miracle occurred and she found her brother Ayato. Since then she had been spending more time with him than anyone, even went as far as to get him transferred to the same school as her and Chi.

With her friends moving on with their lives and her own extra activities she felt herself distancing from everyone outside of NERV.

In any event the little reunion would not take place for a few hours, also since the Angel attack and the turmoil afterwards she decided to take the day off from class. That left her with damn near a whole day to sit and brood by herself. That was unless of course she made other plans.

When she heard a knock on her door, Karen immediately stopped all planning, Chi and Reika both had school until noon on Saturdays and Aunt Rei made certain that no one of ill will knew anything about Karen. That meant it could only be Section Two, so they had some tests for her, still she wondered why they didn't even bother calling first.

"Mister Nagisa?" The Sixth Child stared open mouthed at the Sub-Commander of NERV, "What are you doing here?" Like always Kaworu smiled his almost sad smile, however this time his eyes held no joy.

"Aren't you going to invite me in?" without changing the expression on her face Karen motioned for him to enter. "Thank you." He said entering. The apartment that Misato lived in now was not unlike the one she lived in twenty years ago, in fact it was the same one. It had survived more than just Third Impact and had been renovated many times over the years.

Misato had many opportunities to move for good, but she kept the place as a reminder of them. Actually Karen's room now was the same room that both Asuka and Shinji slept in at some point in time. Things were not left the same though, most of Shinji and Asuka's personal belongings were gone since they had moved out on their own before they...

Also Pen-Pen's refrigerator was gone. Karen could still remember the old bird, he died when she was around five. She smiled every time Misato told her that Pen-Pen was a better parent than she was. This was however not time for nostalgia.

"Is there something I could help you with?" Karen said, closing the door, "Do you want some tea or anything?" When Kaworu entered the living room, he closed his eyes and took a deep breath of the air around him, despite the time he could still smell some of 'him' in the air.

"I came to see how you were," he said when he opened his eyes again, "sorry I had to take off on you, I heard that something happened with you and Misato after the battle." That was right, Karen did not hear a word of Kaworu after the battle.

"Well," Karen's eyes strayed from him, the whole thing left a bad taste in her mouth, between Joe's arrival and Misato's betrayal she felt like she could not win. The events affected her so much that she stopped looking Kaworu in the eyes without realizing it.

"I thought something was wrong," Kaworu said as he brought his face to mere centimeters from her own, "do you want to talk about it?" Kaworu's scent at that distance was consuming her, his breath warmed her face more than her blush at the time.

"I'd rather not think about it," Karen tried to look away from Kaworu, but as she did he brought his hands up to her face and held her gaze in his. She was transfixed by those eyes. At that moment Kaworu Nagisa seemed like the universe, she wavered under that almost magical gaze to the point where she could not control her body. Acting on an instinct she didn't think, she lifted herself up just enough that her face was even with his. Continuing her bizarre motions Karen brought her lips to his and kissed him.

Kaworu was surprised to say the least. He had not expected the young Miss Ikari to be this bold, yet as her lips touched his he could feel a nostalgia that he did not want to fight, thoughts of someone filling his mind.

"I'm sorry," Karen said as she stepped back and tried to bow, "I don't know what just came over me I just wanted to-" Karen was interrupted when Kaworu grabbed her face with his hands and resumed kissing her, this time more deeply.

Felling his lips on her's Karen melted into ecstasy, this was what she had wanted for as long as she could remember, finally she would be together with Kaworu. He kissed her forcefully as he held her face with his hand. Both moaned into that kiss, but one sound was more audible than anything, it was a name uttered by Kaworu, it was a name that Karen knew well. "Shinji," he said as he breathed into the kiss.

Karen pushed Kaworu away forcefully when she heard it. Her eyes tore apart with confusion, anger and sadness. Not knowing what else to do she ran. She ran out her home and into the streets, she needed to get away, far away, as far as possible for the turn of events was more than bizarre and she could not help the feeling of betrayal that consumed her.
Karen wandered dazed around the city, her mind blank. She did not think about what had happened, she did not want to. When Kaworu spoke her father's name while he kissed her childhood shattered. Did he see her father's face every time he looked at her, was that also why Aunt Rei was kind around her, because every time she looked at Karen she saw Shinji staring back at her.

Karen knew that Rei was no blood relation of her's, she knew that Rei was first called Ayanami. Misato said that Rei took the Ikari name because she didn't want to be called Ayanami anymore, but why? Was it because of her father? Was that really why she was nice to Karen, because of her father?

As she wandered the city rain began to fall, but she did not notice. The clouds made the afternoon sky a dreary gray, but she didn't care. As the heavens wept she felt her clothing beginning to weigh her down like her past had. Yet all of it was the least of her concerns.

Wandering aimlessly Karen found her way to what she thought was the center of the city, to NERV HQ. The structure wasn't the same as that which was destroyed after Third Impact. This was built by man in it's remains, though it still resembled a pyramid it was nothing like the building of old. For one thing it was a fraction of the size and built only to house the two EVA units. It was also equipped with three separate runways to launch the support planes that aided the deployments.

At least that was the part above ground. Below there was a whole network of tunnels, rooms and other things built to house and support the next generation Magi Supercomputers. There was probably more than even that, but at the moment Karen didn't care, all she wanted to do was confirm her suspicions by asking Aunt Rei herself what she felt.

"What do you mean it's losing it's effectiveness," Karen heard a familiar voice speak, "Doctor Ibuki?" Instinctively, Karen pressed herself against a corner where she heard her aunt speak. "You told me that the procedure was perfect, that Karen would never know."

The young girl held in a gasp as she heard her name being spoken, wondering silently what procedure they were talking about.

"The procedure itself was perfect," the Doctor spoke bitterly, "however introducing the Seventh Child may be too much for her reality to handle."

She thought of what they could mean when they spoke of her reality. Had they really done something to alter her mind or her body?

"I didn't have a choice in the matter," she spoke with a familiar monotone, "the U.N. brought him her. I'm sure that this was all planned out by 'them'."

"It doesn't matter in the least now," the Doctor sighed, "eventually she will want Chi Motosuwa and Reika Mishima to meet him, or they will occur in some conversation she has with him."

She repressed another gasp, she had never told Aunt Rei Chi or Reika's name. She also didn't know Doctor Ibuki well enough to talk about them with her. Yet they seemed to know their names... why?

"I can make sure that he does not interact with her," breathed patiently, like she was speaking to a small child and not a scientist ten years her senior, "in the mean time I suggest you work on an improved procedure."

"It doesn't matter anymore," the doctor sighed, defeated, "we should have never done that to her to begin with anyway. You're aware of it too aren't you Rei," her voice became desperate, "sooner or later she will figure it out, we can't keep this game going on forever."

What in the world were they talking about? What had they done to her mind? What the hell was going on?

"She'll find out," the doctor repeated herself bitterly, "and she'll hate you for it Rei, then what will you do without your stand-in for Shinji?"

Karen finally gasped at that, but not so loud that she would be discovered. Her eyes teared up as she realized she was right, the only reason that Aunt Rei was nice, that she cared was the same as Kaworu's. It was because every time she looked at Karen she saw Shinji stating back at her.

"It doesn't matter," Rei spoke with what Karen thought was an overpowering monotone, "the schedule is being pushed up. Soon she will to be too busy to realize that neither Chi Motosuwa nor Reika Mishima ever existed."

"What did you say?" Karen said, appearing from behind her corner. "What do you mean?" When she appeared Rei's back was to her. She would not turn around to look at Karen and the Sixth got the same cold feeling that she got when Rei thought she wasn't around. Doctor Ibuki, who turned her head away from Karen, was absorbed in her own feelings of self loathing and disgust. "Someone answer me."

"Why?" Rei Ikari spoke coldly, "you are well aware of what just transpired aren't you?" She then began to walk away. "If not we can just pretend that this never happened."

Not knowing what else to do she again ran away. She ran without thinking, she ran for what felt like forever through the pouring rain. She ran and ran until she felt that she could run no more.

Eventually she stopped, her lungs burning her inside while the rain froze her outside. Catching her breath she started to walk. Without noticing herself, her cellular phone materialized in her hands and she found herself pressing familiar numbers. She expected someone on the other end to pick-up, one of her friends maybe, but instead she received a message, then again when she tried to dial another number.

"The phone number that you are trying to call either does not exist or is not on at the moment. Please hang up and try again later." The automated message said, but no matter how many times she tried it the results were the same.

"Hello," an old voice said, "Karen." When Karen Ikari looked up from her phone she saw an older man, one she recognized from pictures. His hair was gray and he wore a thin beard and golden colored glasses, he was clothed in a black uniform from head to toe. His left hand clutched his right wrist, just as she remembered. Most noticeable, however, was that there was no hand on that clutched wrist. He smiled to her, gently and said "it's been a while."

Yes this was a man that Karen had seen many times in pictures and had read about in books. It was a man that she thought long dead.

"Grandfather," it was her grandfather, Gendo Ikari.
So after a few months off this story I've come back. I learned a lot while writing 'Of Wind and Forest' and even more writing 'Where her Softness Lies' so I thought I would apply it here. I had a lot of good ideas here and hope that someone out there is reading this, anyway to the person who wrote UPATE!! about three hundred times I hope you enjoy this, and to anyone else I hope the same for you.

Ryuhikohotmail.com