Gendo Ikari- All Evangelion related copyrights are the property of their associated studios and distribution centers. Any EVA or GeoFrontrelated technical specifications are not to be disseminated under any circumstances. Violators will be punished beyond the fullest extent of the law . . . I'm watching you.

Volume Two

Yuki . . . was annoyed, sure she had the data she had pulled from NERV's classified section the overrides had worked just like she had expected. But now the she had, it what the hell was she supposed to do with it? It wasn't like she had a computer to decrypt it on, or really all that much experience with computers, it had taken her thirty minutes to figure out a series of commands that a trained technician could have worked out in less then twenty seconds. The small thumb nail sized flash drive arced back up into the air once more before she caught it absently in her left hand.

I need someone with at least moderate understanding of hacking, preferably someone who would be overlooked as a non threat by NERV. They have to have their own equipment, don't want this leaked in a public place. Should be trustworthy, a person who's likely to incriminate themselves along with me. Preferably intelligent, a little short on common sense is okay as long as they don't do something suicidal.

A face and name drifted through her head and she frowned slightly, ever since her first dim taste of awareness in this shared form Yuki had discovered she could sometimes read her hosts surface memories and thoughts, though she had to know what she was looking for . . . There seemed to be a very dark place in the mind she shared with the girl known as Rei Ayanami.

She considered the person for a moment, no, no good, he isn't even an option. But . . . there wasn't anyone else who would take the job. She was taking a look at an awfully short list when it came to people who would help her with this. It had to be person who would work with little or no pay and keep a secret. Sighing to herself Yuki slipped from her perch in a tree set atop a small hill on the outskirts of Tokyo-3, Its sad, you can't see the stars in this place.

Pulling her jacket a little closer to ward off the chill, the girl disappeared into the night.

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Kensuke Aida sighed slightly as he flipped off the television and headed back up stairs. His father and grandfather usually didn't come home until very late, if at all. It wasn't really that bad, Kensuke was more then capable of entertaining himself. It was however lonely.

Kensuke froze as he got that feeling that he wasn't alone. If this had been anyone else they would have simply disregarded the odd sensation. But this was Kensuke Aida, military otaku of the highest degree, obviously any odd sensations were the beginnings of what would become a carefully honed soldiers sense. At least that's what Kensuke liked to believe despite his complete inability to run more than five minutes on end and failure to climb past the three foot mark on the rope in gym.

Slowly turning around he surveyed his room until he came full circle. When his gaze came back to its starting position however, he was not met by the sight of his bed and window, he was looking into a pair of painfully deep blue eyes. Blue eyes bare inches from his face, a pair of eyes were not supposed to be mere inches from one's face. His mind slowly processed this odd phenomena, firstly, the eyes were set in a face, that face was quite pretty, heart shaped and slightly tanned with lank brown hair framing it, said face was of course set on a head which was connected by a slim neck to a body. Based on what could be seen through the jacket hanging open to reveal a comfortable but revealing work shirt, it was a very shapely body.

Finally it occurred to Kensuke that such aberrations did not just materialize in one's room, leading him to the logical conclusion by a rather circuitous route that this was, in fact, an intruder. All of this went through his mind in a little under three seconds. His face which had been vacant for that time suddenly paled as his eyes widened.

"Hie." The young woman said almost mischievously as she placed one hand firmly over his mouth and another around the back of his neck. Forcing him down to a kneeling position she leaned in close. "Now then, I'm going to take my hand away, don't start shouting or I might have to do something that we would both regret. Understand?"

Kensuke nodded quickly, he had a pretty fair idea of what she meant.

"Good." She took her hand away slowly letting Kensuke take a deep breath. "Now then, it's a pleasure to make you acquaintance Mister Kensuke Aida, I'm Yuki Toyama.

Kensuke blinked stupidly, The Manga character? . . . she does look like her . . . wait is it Ayanami . . . For a moment Kensuke entertained the thought that Rei might have gone overboard with a wig and some contact lenses, but there really wasn't much she could do about her skin, unless the young albino was also a make up artist this couldn't be her judging by the healthy complexion.

That didn't stop it from being some other nut with an obsession for the cult Manga's hottie main character. "Now then Mr. Aida, before you start saying that I'm insane, I have a favor to ask of you." She leaned forward smiling slightly as she pulled a small object from her jacket. "Do you know what this is?"

Kensuke leaned forward to get a good look, his hesitation momentarily forgotten. "It's a flash drive configured to mate with a standard universal serial bus."

"Good boy, now then, I have some information on this, it may be nothing, it may be big, I can't really say since I just downloaded whatever I could find in the MAGI secure database. Hacking isn't my forte but I understand that it is yours."

Kensuke looked at the small flash drive in fascination, "You got that out of the MAGI!" He wasn't sure if he should jump at the chance to take a look at whatever was on it, or just laugh at something that could only be impossible. The MAGI was incredibly heavily encrypted, and as good a hacker as Kensuke was, he was still just a kid. He couldn't keep up with three seventh generation operating systems, and he had the brains not to try.

"The proofs right here, like I said it could be nothing, it could be NERV's darkest secrets. Do you want to take a look for me?"

She placed the small device in Kensuke's palm, hand lingering just long enough for him to feel just how soft and warm it was. He flushed a little as the girl bowed her head respectfully. "Please Mister Aida, I believe you may be the only one who can assist me in this, you're the only person I can think of who wouldn't just turn me over to NERV."

Kensuke nodded slowly, all thoughts of Yuki's true identity forgotten as he starred down at the small memory storage device. They were silent for a moment. "I can try." He said finally, "But I won't make any promises, this thing probably has enough encryption on it to stone wall someone way more experienced then me."

"But I can't go to anyone more experienced." Yuki pointed out a small smile running across her lips before getting up to leave. "I'm going to entrust this to you for now, I'll be back in a few days to find out what you've got . . ."

" . . . Wait . . . Who are you . . . really?" Kensuke asked, snapping out of his daze.

Yuki paused, her head bowed down and she brushed aside a strand of her brown hair, a habitual mannerism of her character. It was a good question, and after several moments of thought that left her feeling very insecure about herself Yuki finally responded. "Honestly . . . I can't really say . . . I just believe myself to be Yuki Toyama, I know that this is the identity of a fictional character, and I am aware that I cannot be her literally. But it is the identity I choose to link with myself. So . . . just call me Yuki for now. Is that okay?"

"I guess . . ." Kensuke said slowly, "If this is the real thing . . ." He held up the flash drive, "Then I'll call you whatever you want . . . but how did you get this, data from the MAGI . . . you would have to have a direct tap into their database . . ."

"I did . . ." Those words quieted Kensuke immediately. "I broke into NERV's secure database and downloaded the data physically from a secure terminal."

Kensuke's eyes swelled up in size as he began to offer something akin to a prayer to his new god.

Yuki sighed, Just like Kenji . . . I knew he would be . . . "I'm going to head out now, and remember . . ." She leaned forward placing one slim finger to her lips, "Not a word to anyone."

Kensuke nodded, right, not a word, he could do that! She turned to leave again, and once more Kensuke stopped her as he asked the question he should have asked to begin with. "How did you get in here?"

"Oh that . . ." Yuki pulled a key from her jacket and tossed it to him, "Someone left a key under your welcome mat, kind of silly isn't it?"

Kensuke laughed embarrassedly, "Yeah, who would do something as cliched as put a key under the welcome mat!" Now I have to find a new hiding place . . .

Yuki let out a snorting laugh,". . . dork." She said with a good natured look on her face. She turned again to leave.

"Uhm, I'll lock up after you!" Kensuke said, fallowing his strange visitor down to the backdoor where she could sneak out.

"Thanks for the help Aida, I'll see if I can do anything to make it worth your while." She bowed again to him before opening the back door and slipping into the backyard. "Well . . . see you later." Before Kensuke could say anything in response she turned and disappeared into the shadows once more.

This can't be real . . . He decided as he slowly closed and locked the door. It just isn't possible . . . just not . . . just not . . . possible . . . But if it is . . . if this is real then. Kensuke's fists clenched as his head shot up, "TOO COOL!" A cat let out a shrill cry in the distance, woken by the boy's loud shout.

Running up the stairs now Kensuke flopped himself out in front of his computer, jammed the flash drive into appropriate port and began to work. This was his chance to see NERV from the inside and he had no intention of giving it up.

HHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

Troubling, this is most troubling. Gendo thought to himself as the escalator continued its decent. Section Two had reported multiple thefts that they believed to be related to the attack, further reinforcing that the attacker was likely a NERV employee. So far the list of stolen items included six kilograms of C-4, one Automatic handgun, sixty rounds of ammunition for said weapon, three smoke grenades, two fragmentation grenades, a pair of night vision goggles, and a thirty meter high tension rope, and that was just including things reported. Who knew what else had been stolen.

Gendo glanced at Rei from the corner of his eye. She had not been looking well over the past few days, her eyes were ringed from lack of sleep and her hair was in greater disarray then usual, and her clothing was disheveled. "Is there something wrong, Rei?"

The albino girl shook her head, "I have not been sleeping well."

Gendo turned to get a good look at her, and had to note that she did look quite bad. Her skin was almost sickly and she was swaying very slightly. "Are you feeling ill Rei, why have you not been able to sleep?"

Rei thought for a moment, her sleep deprived mind working out the request on then possible reasons. "It may be my apartment, sir."

"Explain."

"The heater has not worked for some time, and the noise pollution is often very distracting."

Gendo frowned, why had he not been informed of these things, though it would have been hard to believe, Gendo Ikari care at least a small amount for the girl he had made in the image of his wife. If nothing else he saw no reason to so greatly burden her physical existence. Besides which her loyalty to him would be reinforced through a kind gesture.

"I will have you moved to another complex, there are several empty rooms in the complex reserved for Section Two."

Rei felt a sudden intense discomfort at the thought of living surrounded by NERV security agents, that was odd, she did not remember any ill experiences involving section two. She forced herself to look at it rationally and then nodded, "That would be acceptable, Sir."

"Go see Doctor Akagi after the synch tests today. It is important that you be in good health."

"Yes Sir."

Gendo did not speak for several long minutes until they had almost reached their destination. "Also . . . I want you to take note of any suspicious activity within the GeoFront, we had a raid two nights ago."

Rei felt a buzzing pain at the back of her head and a sudden intense discomfort, dismissing them as simply lack of sleep she listened as Gendo continued.

"Do you understand Rei?" It was important that Rei know of this considering the number of small errands she ran behind the scenes for the Commander. Of all the people within NERV she was the only one he trusted absolutely and the only one who could be trusted now to act on his behalf. Even Fuyutsuki, the only other person to even know the outline of Gendo's plans, was a possible suspect.

"Yes Sir." Rei bowed her head respectfully, she would do her duty and assist the Commander in any way possible. If he needed her to help hunt down an intruder she would not hesitate to assist him.

Yet . . . As they stepped from the escalator she could not shake the troubled feeling building within her.

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Anyways, this is mostly an experiment at doing stories in smaller chapters while releasing them at a higher rate to see if it will help with my writing. Bear with me on this and the next chapter of Under New Management will be up by sometime no later than saturday. Ironically I got a week off during spring break but couldn't spend any of it writing. I guess teachers figure if you have a week off that means they can give you a months worth of homework.