I still don't own anything.

An Assassin's Memories

Twentieth Shot: Reprogrammed?

"Mike!" Kari happily grabbed her former subordinate in a tight hug. "I thought you were going to die!"

"It was close," Michael answered calmly. Kari frowned slightly as Michael hugged her and then pushed her away gently. Michael had never responded to anything like that. 'I guess near death experiences change people,' she reasoned, completely forgetting that this was the fifth near death experience Michael had gone through in the short time she had known him.

"You were injured?" she asked.

"Yes," Michael said. "Don't worry Ari."

"Kari," Kari corrected, shocked by his use of her name.

"Sorry," Michael said. "I had a rough night." Kari had to smile at that.

"I guess you did," she said. "Did you kill them all Mike?"

"I did," Michael said. "Like I said, don't worry Kari."

"I'm trying," Kari said. There was something very wrong.

(:ii:)

Conciseness returned abruptly and with it came pain. "Relax kid."

"You've been badly injured," a new voice said. "You should be dead. There were ten of SEELE's assassins in there."

"Can you think of anything that would cause SEELE to deploy assassins here?" the first voice demanded.

"Calm down Ryan. Look at him, he's just a kid," the second voice said. "I doubt he even knows what SEELE is."

"He's not just a kid," Ryan argued. "He survived an attack by ten assassins!"

"You really think he was the target?" the second voice asked. "The building burned to the ground. The real target is probably nothing by ash and dust. I think this kid was an innocent bystander."

"That's bullshit Doc," Ryan said.

"You can hassle him when we have time to stabilize him," Doc said. A man's voice floated into view. "Rest now," Doc said. "You're damn lucky kid. A man named Thirty-Three was in that building. He's the most dangerous man in the world." A deep chuckle made Doc's face twist in surprise.

"I know. I am Thirty-Three."

(:ii:)

"What?" The young man's eyes slid shut and he lapsed back into unconsciousness. "Damn it! What did you mean by that?" Doc pushed Ryan back gently.

"Easy," he said peaceably. "The boy may very well be delirious." Ryan leaned forward again and inspected the young man's head carefully."Well?"

"He was hit," Ryan said. "If he had a tattoo then, there's no trace of it."

"Let's get this kid back to HQ. The Colonel is going to find him very interesting."

(:ii:)

"I don't know what's eating you, but I think you're being paranoid." Ginji knocked louder on the door.

"Of course I'm paranoid," he said in annoyance. "Something is wrong with him sir." Yuji sighed and stepped forward to push the door open.

"Well that proves it." Ginji pushed past the older man, fearing the worst. What he found was Doctor Akagi fast asleep at her desk.

"What the hell does that prove?" he demanded in annoyance.

"It proves that she really doesn't have a personal life," Yuji said. "Doctor Akagi!" Ritsuko jerked up and rubbed her eyes.

"I was just resting my eyes," she said tiredly. "Can I help you two with something?"

"You were the one who operated on Michael, right?" Ginji asked.

"Yes," Ritsuko said. "What about it?"

"What were his injuries?" Ginji asked.

"There was a deep cut in his left forearm and a single bullet wound to the chest," Ritsuko said. "All in all, that's much better then I expected."

"What caliber was the bullet?" Ginji asked.

"We're still checking it out," Ritsuko said. "It's small, probably one of those new high-velocity pistol rounds."

"Like a 4.6x30mm round?" Ginji asked.

"Or a 5.7x28mm," Ritsuko said. "We'll known soon enough. It's taking a while because the bullets looked like they were some kind of frangible design."

"Thank you," Ginji said. He turned and walked out with Yuji in tow.

"Well?" the older man asked. "Did that prove anything?"

"It doesn't prove anything conclusively," Ginji said. "The fact of the matter is that I gave Michael my personal MP7. It was loaded with blended metal limited penetration rounds. Then there's the fact that of the weapons recovered at the scene, none of them are the PDW-style weapons that use high-velocity pistol rounds."

"So Mike was shot with the gun you gave him," Yuji said. "He might have dropped it or discarded it."

"I don't know," Ginji said. "My gut tells me that something is wrong." He expected Yuji to look more cynical then he did.

"We'll look into it."

"Sir?"

"Gut feelings are pretty damned important in this line of work," Yuji said, "besides, I do think Mike's behavior has been a little off as of late."

(:ii:)

"So what's his condition Doc?" Doc glanced up and rubbed his eyes. "He looks like hamburger."

"Pretty close Colonel," Doc said. "He's got over three hundred puncture wounds from shrapnel."

"Tough kid," the Colonel commented.

"Yeah," Doc agreed. "Took me forever to stabilize him. Just when I thought I got it I find another problem. He's going to need to stay sedated while we finish the blood transfusion."

"You don't keep him under a moment longer then you need to," the Colonel said. "This kid has answers that I would very much like to know."

"I understand that sir," Doc said. "However, I will not bring him around until I am confident that he is on the way to recovering."

"That's fine," the Colonel said, "but if he takes a sudden plunge you bring him to. We can't let him die with what he might know."

"Yes sir," Doc said.

"Ryan mentioned other people outside the building where you found him," the Colonel said. "Do you have any idea who they were?"

"No sir," Doc said, "but they were packing some serious heat. As a matter of fact they were the ones who started the fire."

"SEELE?" the Colonel asked.

"I don't think so," Doc said. "It didn't look intentional."

"Did you try to make contact?" the Colonel asked.

"In my career as a combat medic I have learned several lessons," Doc said. "One of them is never talk to a stranger carrying an RPG."

"I see."

(:ii:)

Gendo frowned as he leafed through the reports. "Michael has survived."

"He was hardly wounded," Kozo said. "It seems to me that something is amiss."

"What do you mean?" Gendo asked.

"His behavior seems suspicious," Kozo said. "He has been seen around almost all of the entrances to the Geo-Front?"

"Why is that suspicious?" Gendo asked.

"Its almost like he's scouting the entrances," Kozo explained. "Sergeant Takashi has also expressed some worry."

"Increase the surveillance on Michael," Gendo ordered. "SEELE has proved incompetent once again and thus we may have to take matters into our own hands."

"With two failures already attributed to SEELE, what makes you think that we can kill him?" Kozo asked.

"We have his trust."

"You're a fool," Kozo said flatly. "That boy doesn't trust anyone here except for that girl and I'm not too sure about that. SEELE isn't as foolish as you believe. He's their best with good reason. He's smart, capable, and heartless."

"I believe you give him too much credit," Gendo said. "Every man has a weakness that can be exploited."

"The girl doesn't trust us at all," Kozo argued. "If she feels threatened then she'll disappear."

"She cannot hide from us," Gendo said. "That is the end of this argument Professor."

"You're going to get us all killed."

(:ii:)

Michael looked around the massive Evangelion storage cage and frowned. "What are you doing here?" Michael turned and regarded the blond woman walking towards him.

"Good evening Doctor Akagi."

"Hello," the blond said curtly. "What are you doing here?"

"Just inspecting the Evangelions," Michael said. "I was just wondering, how fast you could mobilize something so heavy?"

"The launch catapults can get them to the surface in under thirty seconds," Doctor Akagi explained. "Really the only limiting factor for deployment is the pilot."

"That isn't a problem with the pilots living on the base anymore," Michael said.

"Correct," Ritsuko said.

"The catapults are hydraulic, aren't they?" Michael asked.

"Yes," Ritsuko said. "Why are you suddenly so interested Michael?"

"I've always found the mechanical aspect of warfare interesting," Michael said. "It's my job to know everything pertaining to weapons."

"I see," Ritsuko said. She turned and stared at the Evangelions. "So what do you think of Unity Zero-One?"

"It's interesting," Michael admitted.

"What about the color?" Ritsuko said. "I absolutely love the color, what about you?"

"I like it," Michael said. Ritsuko turned and smiled.

"I'll see you later. I have to go to a meeting right now."

(:ii:)

"You're right." Ritsuko watched as the man in front of her leaned against the wall and sighed.

"What do you think it is?" Ginji asked. "Can trauma affect someone like that?"

"No," Ritsuko said. "Besides, he's already survived far worse with no lasting affects on his psyche."

"So what do you think is wrong with him?" Yuji asked as he took a drag on his cigarette.

"I honestly don't know," Ritsuko said. "Maybe SEELE managed to reprogram him."

"Is that possible?" Ginji asked.

"I don't know," Ritsuko said, obviously pissed off at the truth. "I suggest you keep an eye on him. If he tries to betray us then you will have to kill him."

"Damn it," Yuji cursed. "This is bad. I knew we shouldn't have left him alone."

"Well, we didn't exactly leave him as alone as he wished," Ginji said. "We need to get someone new. Michael will recognize us if we follow him."

"Right," Yuji agreed. "I think I know the perfect person."

End

(:ii:)

Author's notes. Well that was a short one. Eh, couldn't be helped. Namely because I'm one lazy bastard. Catch you folks later!