Disclaimer: The story and characters of Neon Genesis Evangelion are the property of their respective owners. I own only the characters I have created for them to interact with and the story that brings them to life.

Notes: This is my first chaptered fic! For years I said I was going to drag myself out of one-shot land, even if it killed me and it doesn't seem to have yet. This story began with a phrase: "History repeats itself." My subconscious decided to tweak it a little, and put it in Fuyutsuki's mouth and it grew from there. This story takes place in 2032, approximately seventeen years after the series. It is based off yet another alternate ending to the TV series so let me state up front that Episodes 25 and 26 in this universe are different from the events of the TV series and of the movies. For the exact nature of these AU events, you will have to keep reading. Let me put it this way: if something seems unclear, or you have questions, it's a 10 chance I screwed up and a 90 chance I'm deliberately withholding information from you. XD But, as always, feel free to ask anyway, and feel free to leave a review! Now, on to the story.

A Season For Atsuko by Severus-Fangirl

Chapter 1: To Wait

Even though Ikari Atsuko had only been in two airports in her entire life, she could understand why so many people claimed to love them. Collectively, Atsuko had spent two hours in two airports -- she and her guardian had spent about thirty minutes waiting for Atsuko's flight in the airport at Wakayama and, presently Atsuko had spent an hour and a half waiting for her father at the airport in Tokyo. In that time, Atsuko was enjoying her airport experience. Watching the hustle and bustle of people as they rushed to catch flights, greeted loved ones returning home from long journeys or took in their new surroundings, Atsuko wondered if this was what life must have been like before Second Impact. She knew, of course, that there were not as many people nowadays as there had been before Second Impact, and she knew that not as many people could afford air travel, but she couldn't help but wonder if this electric atmosphere of excitement and anticipation was an accurate representation of life Before, or if there was an air of fear and foreboding that she did not even know was there. Perhaps, she mused, this was just what life was like in the big city all of the time.

Life before Second Impact seemed so distant to Atsuko it seemed almost like a fairy tale. Her guardian, Fuyutsuki Kozou, was one of the very few people she knew of who had been alive at the time of Second Impact. Fuyutsuki didn't talk about it much, nor did he talk much about his time in Tokyo, before Atsuko was born, when he had worked with her grandfather.

Atsuko knew next to nothing about her parents or the reasons she had been sent to the tiny village of Hanazono in Wakayama Prefecture when she was just a baby. She knew that Fuyutsuki, along with her parents and grandparents had been scientists and that they worked for NERV, though she hadn't a clue as to the purpose of that organization or to the nature of their jobs. She knew that her father was her only living relative and that he was head of operations for NERV, as had been his father before him. Every time she had asked Fuyutsuki about the circumstances surrounding her relatives' deaths, he had replied only, "It was a tragic accident." After fourteen years of "a tragic accident," she had learned not to question him, for she would get no response, but she couldn't help wondering if there could really be that many "tragic accidents".

Fuyutsuki had seemed reluctant to let Atsuko come to Tokyo. Atsuko suspected that this was because he was unsure that it was safe - grown-ups, in Hanazono especially, tended to be wary of Tokyo because the only things to come out of there of late, according to old Mrs. Terada were "corrupt politicians and those awful Angels". Atsuko didn't put much faith in her neighbor's superstitions, but she hadn't told Mrs. Terada that, of course. Corrupt politicians wouldn't bother Atsuko as a junior-high school student and the last big wave of Angel attacks had stopped seventeen years ago. What Atsuko was looking forward to most about living in Tokyo was finally meeting her father, and getting to go to school in Tokyo. There weren't enough children in post-Impact Hanazono to warrant a school, so she had been home schooled by Fuyutsuki. Atsuko had enjoyed her quiet childhood with the elderly man, whom she had affectionately called "Ojii-san," and the handful of neighbors; however, Atsuko couldn't help but be curious about what life would be like in the big city. When the important-looking letter, printed on NERV stationary had arrived, it had represented a mixed blessing for Atsuko. She was a little afraid to leave the only home and the only parent she had ever known, but Fuyutsuki had encouraged her that she would have more opportunities in Tokyo than she would have had in Hanazono.

Atsuko sighed. She was now the only person in the terminal, and had been waiting for two hours. She wondered, briefly, if her father had forgotten about her, but she then decided that this was impossible. Fuyutsuki had spoken to him just that morning, before they had left for the long car ride to the Wakayama airport. Atsuko glanced at her wristwatch. Fuyutsuki had given it to her for her fourteenth birthday the previous May, telling her it had belonged to her mother. She wondered what he was doing at that very moment, but then stopped herself. She wasn't going to get homesick after only having been in Tokyo for two hours!

She happened to glance up just as a man in business attire was making his way towards her. Atsuko stood and picked up her suitcase and slung her backpack over one shoulder. Was this her father? She quickly made her way toward him. Atsuko had never seen a picture of her father, but Fuyutsuki had often told her she looked strikingly like her mother, so Atsuko figured her father should be able to easily recognize her.

When the man approached her, Atsuko smiled happily. "I'm glad you're here, Fa-," she began.

"Excuse me," said the man. "Are you Ikari-san?"

"Yes," Atsuko said, hesitantly. So, he wasn't her father.

"I'm Taizo, from the airport staff. There was recently a call from your father. He isn't able to come personally for you, but he said that if you wouldn't mind waiting, one of his subordinates would be along for you in about an hour's time."

"Oh," said Atsuko, dejectedly. "Thank you very much, Taizo-san." The man had already gone back to his post. Sighing, Atsuko returned to her seat.

The sun was just beginning to set, sending pink, purple and orange streaks across the sky, when a red convertible pulled into the airport parking lot. The driver indicated the NERV badge on the windshield, and was waved in by a security guard at the gate.

As she pulled into a parking space a short walking distance from the terminal, she couldn't help but think history was repeating itself. Another lonely child, another distant father. Would tragedy await this young Ikari, too? As she stepped out of the car, she vowed to make life easier for Atsuko than it had been for Atsuko's father.

Katsuragi Misato locked the car and strode purposefully into the airport.

TBC in Chapter 2: To Seek