When Shinji woke up, it was to the sounds of food being prepared in the kitchen, accompanied by the smell of bacon being fried.

Bacon? That's a rationed item. How rich are these people?

However comfortable the bed was, he was reminded once again by his belly that he hadn't had nearly enough food in the past week, and so he moved to the closet that held his meager belongings.

His cello was there, looking none the worse for the train wreck, as was his bag of clothing. He changed from the hospital gown and robe into a pair of slacks and a white shirt, carefully undoing his sling and threading his cast through a rolled up sleeve before trying to redo his sling, but mucking the knot all up. Frustrated, he settled on a rather ineffectual abortion of a sling.

Should I wear shoes or not? I wasn't wearing any at all last night, but they were. But they were also walking around looking for me. Plus, this is Miss Akagi's home. I guess I'll see what she's wearing.

Deciding to compromise and wear socks, he pulled on a pair, but left his shoes next to the door in the event that he needed to grab them quickly. Leaving the room's door open, he moved silently down the hall back to the main room, in search of the kitchen, and hopefully something to eat.

The main room, now light by sunlight streaming in through the windows, was a large, spacious affair that held a couch and two chairs, with a low table, and a television on one wall. The room was divided by a counter/bar, beyond which was the kitchen. He could see a table with four chairs in it, along with two refrigerators, and an unattended stove, on which there was several pans, one holding smoking bacon, judging by the smell.

Shinji furrowed his brow in confusion. Two refrigerators? Why does she have two? And who's cooking? I know I heard someone moving around in here before.

Walking into the kitchen, he watched in amazement as a floating spatula flipped the bacon, while in a mixing bowl several eggs were being beaten by a floating whisk. Stunned, he could only just stand there, as the faint traces of a smile appeared on his face as he watched in a child-like sense of wonder.

This was all smashed to bits as the bacon caught fire, bursting into flames that danced up towards the ceiling.

No stranger to cooking mishaps, as he had prepared most of his meals, and the meals for his teacher back at his Uncle's, he immediately started looking for something with which to smother the pan.

As he searched through the cupboards for a large enough lid, he heard someone come running down the hall. Finally finding a suitable lid, he thrust it over onto the pan, just as he heard a surprised exclamation as someone tripped and slid right into him. As he fell, he reflexively reached out with his good hand for something to brace himself with. Unfortunately, his hand closed around on the handle of the frying pan, flipping it up into the air, as the hot grease caught fire again, and began to rain down on the two entangled people below.

Already wincing and bracing for the grease to hit, he only just heard the sharp cry of Naoko Akagi from the living room.

"Exsisto Etiam!"

Hesitantly looking up, his eyes opened in shock as he saw the fire and pan frozen in mid air. Suddenly, he was hauled to his feet as Naoko grabbed the collar of his shirt with one hand, and the arm of a protesting girl with the other.

"Just what are you two trying to do, burn down the castle?" Naoko asked irritably, the dark circles under her eyes suggesting that she hadn't slept well.

"I'm sorry... I was watching the... the things cook, when the bacon caught on fire. I was looking for something to smother it with..." Shinji apologized, feeling horrible. She lets me stay last night and now I've almost torched her home! He looked down at his feet, chewing on his lower lip.

Rei didn't answer her mother, as she was too busy staring at the strange boy standing next to her in the kitchen. She squeaked, realizing that she was only dressed in a t-shirt and a pair of pajama bottoms, and ran off to her room. Shinji looked up as he heard her departure, only catching sight of a head of blue hair as she rounded the corner and disappeared from view.

Snapping her fingers to get his attention, Naoko pointed to the still frozen flames. "You were doing what, exactly?"

"Umm... I woke up, hearing someone in the kitchen, Miss Akagi. I thought it was you, so I got changed... and when I came in here, I didn't see anyone, but the utensils... they were cooking all by themselves. I just stood there and watched, and... then the bacon c-caught on fire. I k-know that you have to smother grease fires, so I looked for a lid. I was just putting it on when I got knocked down."

"Wait, Rei wasn't in here?" She sighed, shaking her head. "Must have gone to the bathroom." Waving a hand at the flames, she muttered something that Shinji didn't understand, or think was even a real language. The fire promptly vanished, leaving behind the pan, lid and burnt bacon. Turning back to the amazed boy, she motioned to one of the refrigerators. "You said you know about grease fires? I'm guessing that means you can at least cook a little. Would you mind making up some more bacon? Enough for three, please." She glared at the mixing bowl and the still working whisk, snapping her fingers at them, causing the whisk to go limp in the bowl. "And if you feel up to it, can you finish that omelet? I'm going to go have a talk with my daughter." Not waiting for a reply, she turned and headed down the hall, muttering something under her breath about teenagers.

Going to the refrigerator that she had pointed at, he found the bacon easily enough amongst the plethora of foods, many of which were rationed items elsewhere. He paused to stare into the abundance of food, until the appliance began beeping. He shut it hurriedly.

How is it that they have so much food like this? Do they produce their own food here, by magic? Why don't they do anything to help the millions of starving people?

He began to fry up the bacon, dropping several slices into the pan, keeping a careful eye on it while he started on the omelet mix. He soon became engrossed in the task of cooking, as he often did when preparing meals, and all other thoughts soon left him.

Naoko leaned against the door to her daughter's room, watching her daughter fidgeting while sitting on her bed. "Rei, what on earth possessed you to use a unattended servant animation on the breakfast? If you had to use the bathroom, all you needed to do was turn the heat down on the stove for a little."

"I wanted to practice, Mom. It shouldn't have caught fire." Eager to change the topic, she switched gears. "Who is that in the kitchen? I would have gotten to it in time if he hadn't surprised me. When did he get here? You could have told me, I'm not wearing anything suitable for company."

"So I noticed." Rei blushed, and crossed her arms in front of her. With a sigh, Naoko continued. "He got here last night, well, very early this morning. He'll be moving out of here later today, so don't worry. I was going to introduce you two over breakfast, but you seem to have done so already." She resisted the urge to smirk at her daughter as she blushed even more. "Put something presentable on, or at least a bra", (she did smile now, over Rei's stuttered protests), "and come on back to the kitchen. I'm going to go see if he's butchered breakfast or if he's any good in the kitchen."

As she left, she turned her head over her shoulder as she pulled the door shut. "Oh, and that's Shinji Ikari."

Damn you Kozo, you stubborn old fool. This is exactly what I wanted to avoid. Now I have to at least let them get to know each other. Why did he wake up so soon? That sleeping spell should have kept him under for another few hours at least. Enough time for me to get Rei out of the castle, and then him out of here. Damn it.

Her train of though was derailed as she came back into the kitchen, to a table already set for three, with covered dishes scattered on the the table, and the sight of the boy lifting the water kettle from the stove to pour into the teapot. She paused for a moment, off balance.

"This... looks nice..."

Shinji blushed in nervous embarrassment as he poured the water, opening his mouth to apologize. Does he ever not blush? And is he ever not apologizing for things?

"-just that sometimes I get lost while cooking, and it... w-well it ends up like this." He made a vague gesture towards the setup on the table. "I hope I didn't make to much or anything..."

"No, no, it's fine. We're just not used to.. such a spread at our private breakfasts." Motioning him to sit, she pulled out a chair for herself. "Now, when my daughter finally gets back in here, I'll introduce you two. Now, she might seem a little strange to you, and have odd questions about the muggle world, but that's because she's been a resident of the Academy for her entire life."

"O-oh, OK." He paused, making the pretense of checking on the tea before looking back up. "Umm... what does muggle mean? I keep hearing it, but no-one's explained what it means."

"Oh! I'm sorry, it's just that it's common vocabulary, but of course you wouldn't know. It means the mundane, the 'normal' world or person. Someone without magic, for the uninstructed, the untaught."

"Untaught? So anyone can learn magic?"

"Well, not really. There are some forms that anyone can learn, but it's not really considered the same as being a true mage. You'll learn more later, I promise."

Rei chose this moment to present herself, now dressed in a dark blue skirt and a white blouse. She paused, as her mother did, when she saw that breakfast was ready. Quietly, she sat down at the third setting.

Naoko cleared her throat. "I had hoped to do this later, without all the theatrics, but Shinji, this is my daughter, Rei. Rei, this is Shinji Ikari. He'll most likely be staying here at the Academy as a student from now on." Turning to Shinji, she pointed to the teapot. "And now, how about we eat? Can you pass me the tea, please?"

Trying not to stare at Rei's pale skin, or her red eyes, or her blue hair, Shinji silently handed the eldest Akagi the teapot. He focused on his eggs and bacon, when Rei startled both him and her mother by speaking up.

"How did you hurt your arm?"

Looking up, he tried not to stutter or stammer, but failed. "Ummm... I d-don't really remember... It was during the attack on the t-train..."

Naoko watched the two, wanting to smash her head into the table. "Yes, we'll have some questions for you about all of that later, Shinji. Ritsuko said that Migo attacked the train?"

Talking to the older woman was easier Shinji thought. "Yes, well, that's what Hoja said. They were after Aoba."

Rei spoke up again, confusion in her voice. "Aoba?"

"Not that Aoba dear. Another one." Naoko turned back to Shinji. "There are two men by the name of Shigueru Aoba. One of them works here, as the aide to the Headmaster. The other is a fiend, a cold and remorseless killer who dabbles in dark magics, and who is the one who betrayed your father to the Dark Lord."

Shinji was confused by her statement, and while he tried to hide it, it showed plainly. Naoko and Rei took it to be just general confusion caused by culture shock. But he said that he had been away when Mom and Dad were killed. And the Shoggoths didn't seem to distrust him, and they said that he saved them. And how is it that there are two people with the same name? The exact same name?

"So, if the Migo were attacking the train, after Aoba, they must have soon figured out who you were, then? How did you escape?"

"Well, I didn't, not really. All I remember is blacking out after being tossed around. That's where I broke my arm. I woke up at the town with the Shoggoths with a sling and cast on, anyways."

Naoko raised an eyebrow. "You meet Shoggoths? But how did you get there?"

"Hoja told me that Aoba had brought me there from the train wreck, to hide me from the Migo, and to help get me here to the Academy. Hoja said that he had left after that, but didn't say why." He felt bad about lying to the older woman, but Aoba's words kept running through his head, and things just weren't adding up. The two Shoggoths and the Ghoul had made it sound like Aoba had told him the truth, and they had tried to get him here to the school. Why do that if they had been party to his family's murder? It was a question that he could not answer.

Rei was openly staring in shock at the matter of fact way the boy had mentioned meeting a Shoggoth. "You meet a Shoggoth, talked to one and you didn't think anything was strange?" She managed to ask her question without sounding like accusing him of lying.

He looked over at her and shrugged. "They seemed like normal people at the time, kinda. It wasn't until later that I found out that they can grow more arms. Hotaru said that they were shape-shifters, and that not all of them can look human."

Naoko spoke just as Rei opened her mouth again. "Shoggoths are... well, in their natural shape they look like amorphous blobs. It's a harrowing sight for some. The ones who can form the human shape, well, they are some of the oldest and most powerful ones. But how did you end up lost in the forest? From the sound of it, you didn't run away from them."

"Well, Mr. Hauser was leading us through the forest to the Ruined City. From there we were supposed to take a train, I think, to Mishima, and then here."

"Mr. Hauser? He was not a Shoggoth then, I take it."

"No, he said he was a ghoul."

Both Rei and her mother gasped in horror. Naoko found her voice first. "D-did... did he offer you anything to eat?"

"N-no... he said that it would not be appropriate. I think it has something to do with rank? He said that they were big on social standings and positions, and they think that I'm very important, because of something my dad did."

Both women breathed sighs of relief. "Shinji, it would not be appropriate because the Ghouls are necrophages." Seeing the blank look on her guest's face, she add "It means that they eat dead bodies. Most of the time they don't bother to cook them."

Shinji turned green and swallowed a few times. Father was involved with them? He seemed to be actually concerned about me though... "Oh..."

"What happened next? This Hauser character, he was going to take you here?"

"Y-yes, we left for the Ruined City, but it sounded like we were being followed. H-he t-told us to run, and hide at night, and he went to chase off w-whatever it was." He swallowed, the events of the past week catching up to him. "A-and after that, t-the screaming started. The n-next day, Hotaru told me to run and went back herself. I just r-ran and hid, each day. I think I got l-lost, but I couldn't figure out how to tell where I was... then I guess you found me? I didn't really know what was going on, then. I kept telling myself that it was all just a dream, a nightmare..."

Rei, in a bold move of sympathy, impulsively grabbed his empty teacup and filled it again, pushing it towards him. He took it silently, his eyes slightly unfocused as he continued his tale. "The thing that was screaming... it caught up to me that night... it was horrible. It was huge, but bent over, and it didn't walk right. It's fur smelled terrible, and that scream..." He shuddered, as did Naoko, recognizing his description of a Shambling Horror.

Just what was one of those doing in the woods? Did the Migo send it after him? Things aren't adding up here.

"I t-think that it almost found me, but then the tree I was hiding next to turning into another monster, and stepped on it."

Naoko, still caught up in her own thoughts, shook her head in confusion. "Wait, what?"

"The tree, it, well, it came alive? I'm not sure, but it looked like it was joined with two other trees, and it's branches were moving all weird, and it stepped on the thing. Then, it just grew a mouth, on the side of one of the trunks. That was when everything exploded, and there was fire and light all around. I don't remember what happened next, all I know is that I woke up in the hospital room."

"Where you met my other daughter, and then tried to run away."

Shinji blushed again, as Rei looked questioningly at her mother. "He met Rits last night?" A frown crossed her face. "How come no one woke me up and told me. I still don't see why-"

Naoko was saved from having to interrupt her daughter by a knock on the door. "Rei, can you go answer that please?"

She rose silently from the table to go to the door, but her mother knew that she was still upset. She sighed, weary from both dealing with teenagers and trying to unravel the ever stranger growing issue of Shinji Ikari. She heard mummered voices from the front door, and looked up as Rei came back with their visitor. She shot a dangerous glare to the Headmaster as he pulled a chair out and sat down.

Kozo beamed at everyone, smiling his somewhat trademark absent-minded and goofy smile that set people at ease, either because they thought him a jolly, absent-minded old man, and thus either would be easy to manipulate and work around, or was just a good-hearted if slightly odd person. While he was generally a good hearted person, was an old man, and at times could be a little absent minded, there was nothing jolly to his nature, and he knew far more about politics and the game of spies than many other seasoned players. He just liked to play the part of a goofy old man. It made his victories that much sweeter, when his opponents thought that a slightly not all together man had bested them.

"Well, isn't this nice. I was in the area, and just felt like there was a delicious breakfast going on in here, so I had to stop by and see how everyone was doing. And my, it does look quite nice." He pulled a cup and saucer from out of one of his sleeves, and help himself to some tea before continuing on, either ignoring or not noticing Shinji's slack-jawed look of amazement and Naoko rolling her eyes. Rei, who had seen him inexplicably show up to private family meals before, simply passed him the sugar dish, knowing that her friend had a sweet tooth.

He turned to Shinji now, taking a sip from his tea. "I must say, I'm surprised to see you up and about. I would have thought you would still be asleep, recovering from your ordeal."

Shinji shook his head. "I just woke up this morning, sir, to the sounds in the kitchen. I just figured that I should get up."

Rei turned red, finding out that she had woken him up from what sounded like a much needed rest, espially concerning all the terrible things that he had endured. She shrank slightly into her chair, fidling with her teacup.

Kozo beamed again, this time at the blue-haired girl. "I must say, Rei, that from the smell of it, and looking at the remains of the food, that you put out quite a meal for our friend here."

Naoko wished that she could kick him from under the table, but he was on the far side, and the two teenagers were in the way. Still, this was an opportunity to try to split them up. "Actually, Shinji prepared all this. Rei almost set the castle on fire." While she said it rather matter-of-factly, with no hint of accusation, she was rewarded as both boy and girl turned red, and looked off in different directions, unable to meet anyone's eyes.

So, it was that they missed the sparkle in Kozo's eyes. So you want to play this game do you, dear? He winked at his second in command, who suddenly glared at him again. Let's see how you deal with this one. He cleared his throat suddenly, drawing the children's eyes back to him.

"Rei, why don't you take young Mr. Ikari here on a tour of the castle and some of the grounds? Your mother and I have some things to discuss before we get him situated in a room of his own." He waved both of them on, noting the small tentative smiles on both faces. "Don't worry about the dishes, we'll take care of them." He continued to sip his tea as both teenagers rose and left, quietly watching Naoko seethe silently, a glare on her face, until the front door closed behind them.

"I had an interesting conversation this morning, Naoko." He stopped to refill his tea. "Charagon himself called me this morning, demanding to know if we had recovered the boy, or as he put it, 'The Master'."

The anger she had been feeling as Kozo kept pushing the two together was instantly replaced by dread. "Charagon? He called you, and not one of their High Council? Shinji said that he was being taken to the City before they were going to take him here. Did he demand we give them the boy?"

"No, oddly enough, they wanted to know if we knew who they should go to war against for sending chasers after him. It seems that they have transferred their loyalty from the father to the son. He said that they have raised the black banner, and will wait for his instructions."

She carefully put her cup down on the table, taking a few deep breaths before speaking. "The Black Banner. The Standard of Vengeance. The War Flag of the Ghouls. They've raised it, and want that boy to send them to war."

"Yes. And while he didn't mention it, I've received reports that Ikari's flag has been raised from half-mast in all of their cities. Charagon wants to flood Tokyo-3 with his soldiers, to provide security. He doesn't want a repeat incident. I told him that while I could not stop him from doing that, none would be allowed inside the Academy grounds itself."

"Do they know about Aoba? That he met with the boy on the train?"

"He said that the Shoggoths told them about the Migo attack. There is a small commune not too far from where the train was attacked, and it is on the way to the Ruined City from that direction. I'm sending Katsuragi to meet them, to find out what they know. They should revere her almost as much as Shinji, so she should be able to get some answers."

"I assume that you were listening to him as he told his tale, then. Why wouldn't the Shoggoths kill Aoba? He betrayed their messiah to the same Dark Lord that had enslaved them. This makes no sense."

"What makes even less sense is that Charagon wanted to know if Aoba had returned to serve as the boy's manservant. I'm not sure that they believe that Aoba is the one who betrayed the Ikaris. Even if the Shoggoths didn't kill him on sight, if the Ghouls thought that even for a moment Aoba had betrayed their Ghoul-Laird, they would be hunting him down until they caught him. He would not be able to hide from them."

"But he was the one who had the decoy spell! Only he knew where they were! We didn't even know where on the grounds his cottage was. Only those who knew where it already was would be able to find it, and that was a grand total of three! Yui, Gendo and Aoba!"

"I know, but while Aoba might be a wanted man in our lands, our society, it seems that the staunchest non human allies of Ikari have given him a free pass. My people have not mentioned this before, and I am going to be asking why."

"What about the Shambling Horror in the woods? Shinji said that there was one that had been chasing them. Those things don't just randomly pop up out of nowhere in Japan. In China, in the Himalayas, sure, but not here. Someone called it here, and sent it after him. Could it be the Migo? They attacked the train, apparently after Aoba. If they did realize that he was Ikari's son, they would try to kill him."

"And what of the one of the Thousand Young he encountered? He said that it stepped on the horror."

Kozo shrugged. "There have been sightings of the Young in those woods before. You know just as I do that they're like puppies. Big, mind shattering, unnatural horrors, but they have the same basic attitude as a baby dog. I can accept the Shoggoths and the Ghouls looking out for the boy, but I have to draw the line at suspecting that the Black Goat is keeping an eye on the boy."

Naoko shook her head. "But it's still too neat, that he just happened to be hiding behind one of the young, and that it took care of the thing chasing after him. So much of all this just doesn't make any sense."

"And if we had kept him here from the start, we wouldn't have to worry about it."

"And we wouldn't even know that things weren't making sense, that things were not adding up like they are supposed to." she retorted, scoring a few points. "Has Aoba anything to offer on this mess? I suppose it's too much to ask if he can tell where his twin is."

Kozo shook his head. "As soon as I got done talking to Charagon, I asked Aoba about him. He still can't tell where he's at, only that he's still alive and still on Earth. He tried to reestablish the mind-link, but couldn't."

She sighed again, trying to resist the urge to bang her head on the table. "Let's say, for the sake of argument, that Aoba didn't betray them. That he went into hiding like he was supposed to, with the decoy spell drawing anyone searching for them away from here and after him. How could the Dark Lord get through our security, with no-one knowing, find the cottage, and then kill them? It's impossible, even with all the powers he supposedly had."

"The Cyborg was ancient. It's possible that he could do the impossible. Who knows how long he's really been alive? He's already come back from the grave once. We both know that he'll do it at least one more time, according to the scrolls. I think that if he can do that, finding a way around the warding spell on the cottage and the Ikaris should be easy."

Both adults looked up as the front door opened and Ritsuko shouted out a greeting. The blond doctor grabbed a fresh cup from the cupboard and settled down in one of the empty chairs.

"Well, the artifact has woken up, I guess you could say. We're getting massive psychic reading emanating from the core socket. It's definitely responding to his presence, even through all of the shielding. When are we waking him up and taking him down there? I'm interested in seeing what happens when he's in the same room as it."

Naoko's eyes narrowed. "That's another thing. The sleeping charm we put on his teacup last night should have had him sleeping until late afternoon. How the hell did he wake up to Rei in the kitchen? A herd of centaurs could have been playing polo in here and he shouldn't have woken up."

"It is interesting that he woke up. Very interesting, indeed. Perhaps he has a natural resistance to magic? It could explain how it is that he is still alive, despite the efforts of the Cyborg."

Ritsuko stared at the two. "He woke up?" Her eyes narrowed. "Was it about an hour or so ago? Because we got a major spike at seven forty five. It settled back down again after that, and we weren't sure what caused it. The damn thing twitched, even with the terminator plug inserted. Missing the core, and with the terminator inserted, it shouldn't be able to move."

"When are we getting the core? If we have the boy now, we should bring the core here as well. He'll need to begin familiarization training soon enough. Even if the first of the things isn't supposed to show up for a while longer, there's no need to push it off anymore than we have."

"I have a man already on it. Kaji left this morning for Geneva. He'll obtain the core from the vault, and bring it back here. Once it's been inserted, we'll begin primary tests."

"I still say we tell him the truth. Show him the scrolls, tell him the prophecies. Show him Lilith."

Kozo shook his head, raising a hand to stave off further argument. "We've already been following in the steps laid out by Ikari so far, despite my best efforts to the contrary. I think that even though the reasons we've been doing so are for different ones than he probably had in mind when he was on the tree, we'll stick by the plan" he shot a look at Naoko that her daughter didn't understand, "that was laid out. We've already discovered that somethings that we held as true may not be as they seem. There might be a reason, a method to the insanity of the plan."

Naoko snorted in disgust. "Oh, of course there is a reason. Ikari just had to have people dancing to the tune he called, and even from beyond the grave he is still pulling the puppet strings."

"You're the one who's strings were pulled first. You were the one who wanted him placed with his family." He raised his hand again to silence her angry response before she even spoke. "Why you wanted to do so is immaterial, because it still fit his plan."

"The thing that irritates me the most is that he didn't even look at the damn transcription after we cut him down. He goes through all that trouble, spouts out this insane set of instructions for the future, and then goes off to hide in the woods with his wife and son. It's like he knew that he was going to die. That he was planning on it."

"He might have been fine with his own death, but Yui? He would do things that would make the Cyborg look like a benevolent man if he thought that someone was going to kill his wife. You saw what he did to the Tcho-Tcho when they kidnapped her. He would never just accept her death. And I doubt as much so for his son."

"So what, he just decided, after reading the scrolls, go onto the tree, babble out this mess of instructions, and then go try to avoid whatever it was that he saw in the visions? You knew him better than me, but that sounds ridiculous."

Kozo shrugged, leaning back in his chair. "I agree that it wasn't very much like him, but I can't claim to know his mind. Who knows what he saw? All he told me was that the stars were shifting and that there would be another attempt at impact. Besides, if he really knew that someone would come for him, even with the safeguards in place, why not hide Yui and Shinji someplace else first, and then face whatever was coming? If you gave him any time at all to prepare, he would be able to repulse any attack on himself."

Ritsuko spoke up, butting in on the conversation. "We can ask 'what ifs' and 'whys' all we want, but it's not going to give us any answers. We still don't know why the Cyborg even had brought Rei with him to the Ikari's cottage. The minions you captured then didn't have any information on why she was there."

Kozo looked out the window, not really focusing on anything. "I may have to go up on the tree myself. Things aren't making any sense and I hate working blind."

"We could try necromancy again. Call him up, try to get him to talk."

Naoko shook her head at her daughter's suggestion. "Without a physical remnant we can't force his spirit to appear, and he never did take well to being summoned while alive, let alone now that he's dead. He's never shown up before when we tried, and I see no reason for him to do so now."

"It's still something we can try. It can't hurt, anyways."

Eins, Zwei, Drei, Vier!

Rei tapped a foot impatiently as Shinji just stared up at the 'sky', a vast dome of metal. "We're really underground?" He asked again, awe in his voice. "What did you call this again?"

"It's a geo-front. It's a massive underground cavern that was hollowed out and used by the mages as the new home for GEHIRN. It's one of the ways that we hide from the muggles." She stared at the awestruck boy, quietly studying his features as he turned in a small circle, looking around. "You know, it's not the most amazing thing here." She said in her matter of fact tone.

"Are you kidding? This is amazing! How big did you say it was?"

"It's a half-sphere with a diameter of fifteen miles, and half that going from the center of the ground circle up to the highest point of the dome. From the very top of the of dome to the surface of the Earth is another two miles." She rocked back and forth on her feet, and blew a strand a hair from out of her eyes. "There's a lot more to see, just around the castle itself."

Still awestruck, he followed her down the path leading from the front gate of the castle. "How did this place get here? It must have taken a long time to dig out."

Rei shrugged. "Magic."

Shinji blushed in embarrassment. Of course, magic, how else? She must think I'm a moron.

How come no-one told me that he was here? She watched him from the corner of her eyes. At least he hasn't said anything about my eyes or hair yet. She hated it when that was the first thing that people commented on when they met her, and so far, their guest hadn't even stared at her. It was a pleasant change from normal. "So you really don't know anything about your parents, or the wizarding world?"

He shook his head in response. "No, the only things I know are what the Headmaster and your Mom told me last night. I grew up thinking that my parents were farmers who died when a car hit them at a train station."

"They never told you anything?" Rei was confused. Why hide the truth about his parents from him? They were celebrated war heroes, who had stood against one of the greatest evils mankind had ever witnessed. Everyone knew of the Ikari Tragedy.

"No, they never did." Shinji's tone was somewhat resentful. "I don't know why. They obviously knew, but they never said anything. Lots of people apparently knew all about it, and me, but I didn't know anything."

"Yes."

They stopped at the top an incline. Rei pointed out towards the forest and lake that could be seen. "This is forest preserve and The Lake. Most students are forbidden from entering the forest and going down to the lake, but I can." She turned around and waved at the castle. "This is the castle Hogwarts, taken here in ages past from it's original home in Scotland. It has a long history, some parts nicer than others. You'll learn about it in one of the history classes."

"It's a real castle? Real stone and stuff?"

Rei nodded silently, unsure as to the nature of his query. Is it not there? It certainly is not made of fake stone.

"How is it that it's got regular lights and electricity then? The plugs and outlets are all installed like they would be in a regular modern building."

Rei was puzzled, and if one knew her well enough, one could tell in her voice. Shinji however was not quite up to speed on the nuances of interacting with Rei. "What good is magic if you can't use it to cheat your way past the normal limitations on things? Just because it's a castle, we should use candles for everyday lighting? The inefficient light output of a candle would lead to severe eyestrain. Just because we have access to magic does not mean that we forgo the conveniences of the modern world."

"Oh. That makes sense."

They wandered around the grounds immediately surrounding the castle, Rei pointing out various places like the green-houses, the barns and farm areas, the much smaller and attended wooded park, and the road to the town that lay a mile or so off. She explained that the Academy was designed to be largely self sufficient, and while it might seem that the school was the only thing here, there was a lot more going on behind the scene, so to speak. The amount of people who lived and worked in the geo-front was staggering, and they had occupations ranging from farmers to nuclear physicists.

They were wandering the hallways now, Rei pointing out directions to the various dormitories and classes, when they came along to a hallway lined with photos, actual photos and not the various paintings that could be found everywhere else. A quick glance at the nameplates on the picture frames made it obvious that this hallway was a shrine to the dead, the names punctuated with two dates underneath them. Shinji stopped where he stood, completely still, looking down the hall. Rei silently berated herself for not paying attention to where she had been taking him.

"M-miss Akagi? A-are there pictures of my parents up here?" He stuttered, but his voice was otherwise even, betraying no emotion.

"Yes."

She stood where she was as he began to slowly walk down the hallway looking for his parent's pictures, reading each nameplate in turn. When he finally found them, the two pictures side by side, he reached up to touch the pictures in turn.

His father's picture was obviously a school photo, a young man some years older than Shinji was, dressed in robes staring impassively at the camera from behind a pair of glasses. He seemed to be smirking, but Shinji wasn't sure if it was just a trick of the camera that did it. He could see some resemblance to the face he saw in the mirror.

His mother's picture wasn't a school photo, but one that had come from someone's personnel collection. She was smiling, and laughing at something outside the confines of the picture. It looked like it was summer outside, but Shinji wasn't sure if that was because it was summer, or if it was due to the climate controlled geo-front. Regardless, it looked like a warm sunny day at a wooded picnic area.

Blinking to hold back the tears he could feel forming behind his eyes, he turned to the silent girl behind him, his voice catching a little when he spoke. "D-do you think I c-could get copies of these? I-I don't have any photos of them."

Rei nodded silently, not sure what to do. She counted herself lucky that she had no relatives up on the wall, even if she didn't know who her father was. Neither her mother or sister ever spoke of the man, and there were no pictures of him anywhere in the family albums. Even her mother's wedding photos had been torn in half or simply removed. She had stopped wondering about him a long time ago, when in her child's mind the Headmaster replaced her absent father. Perhaps it is better that I not know. Would I be able to mourn a man I never met? He seems to do so, but he also lost both parents, and thought they died in an automobile accident. Would it have been better for him to have been told nothing?

"I will talk to the Headmaster. He will be able to get you copies of those photos." She shifted her wieght from foot to foot. "If you want, we can go and look for some photos in my family's picture albums. I know my mother has some older photos of your mother."

"S-she won't mind?"

Rei shook her head. "I am sure that she won't. How is it that you have no pictures of them? Did your family not have any?"

He shook his head as they walked back down the hall. "No, they barely had any photos of themselves and their son. I don't think that we even had a camera."

"It sounds like you were very lonely. Did you not spend time with your cousin and your friends? Surely someone had a camera to take pictures."

Shinji shook his head, rubbing his shoulder with his free hand. "No, he died in the wars, and I didn't have any friends. I was home-schooled by our neighbor. I almost never saw anyone my age, ever."

Rei watched him, and then stopped. Reaching out, she untied the startled boy's sling and retied it with an actual knot, securing his arm much better than it had been before.

"Thanks..."

"You're welcome."

They continued down the hall in silence, neither one entirely sure what to say to the other.