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After a few rounds of drinks, Misato Katsuragi and Ryouji Kaji made love several times. It had begun on the couch in the living room area—frantic, primal foreplay which included a wide variety of surfaces and positions—before transitioning to the bedroom. Initially, Katsuragi had been angry, and as the two of them grinded their bodies together she raked at his slender back with her fingernails, marking not only her passion but retribution for his deception. After the first two goes, the mood had softened from aggressive, spirited fucking to rhythmic and passionate lovemaking. During this, Kaji rediscovered every beautiful inch of the violet-haired woman's ravishing body. His nostrils flared as he greedily imbibed her scent, drunk with her pheromones and drenched in her perfumed sweat as though it were the last sex he would ever have. He dug his thumbs into the hollows of her hips and pulled himself deeply inside her as her back arched and quivered with a toe-curling orgasm.

Misato lay on the bed, her eyes closed, her breathing soft and measured. She was out cold, but Kaji could not sleep. As soon as she'd passed out, the worries and uncertainties of earlier that day began to come back to him. When he realized that he'd begun to tap a swift and steady rhythm with his foot upon the floor, he rose from the edge of the bed where he'd been watching Katsuragi sleep and headed into the bathroom.

Kaji splashed cold water on his face and stared at himself in the mirror. He questioned whether this had all been a mistake. After all, what right did he have to drag Misato into this? By doing so, he had almost certainly put her life in clear and present danger. Ryouji knew Gendo and the sort of man he was; he knew that regardless of Ikari's former relationship with Misato's father, he wouldn't hesitate to kill her if she became a liability or threat to equation.

Each time he asked himself a question and endeavored to answer it, at least two more rose up in its place. Who had killed his contact in China? He was almost positive it had been SEELE. Was the killer still abroad? Was the killer now gunning for him? Given what he'd been able to glean from both local news reports and from chatter on the gray market, the death had been quick and chemically induced. There had been no evidence of any foul play given in the toxicology report. The individual who had administered the neurotoxin had also conveniently been able to find the blind spots of virtually every security camera in the station, and only when the somewhat petite hitman sat beside the mark for less than a minute at the station was the suspected culprit ever visible. And his or her appearance had clearly been altered, so making a positive ID from the footage would be useless.

No, this was top-shelf stuff. A corporate, professional hit. Kaji knew SEELE had a tremendous amount of assets in China, but their influence was not as grand and efficacious in Japan. Ironically, the power and prestige of Gendo's military umbrella had managed to keep him fairly insulated. But the question still lingered: Did SEELE know he possessed the information? Did anyone else know he possessed the information?

Kaji wandered outside onto the veranda and lit a cigarette as his mind logically and systematically worked through the questions that haunted him. If SEELE had been behind his contact's death, then most likely they would have realized the nature of the contents he was carrying. If so, the next logical step would be to immediately compile a list of contacts that the information broker had compiled, then check them out individually. This could be accomplished fairly swiftly in a number of ways, but given SEELE's resources, he guessed they would simply use one or multiple MAGI systems to hack into international security grids, law enforcement agencies, video surveillance platforms and the like, then simply data mine until they were able to virtually retrace the broker's steps and biometrically match the contacts on the list with individuals he'd met over the past few weeks. Of course, an enormous amount of resources and was required for such an undertaking, and there were only six mainframe computers in the world capable of achieving it with a full staff of trained engineers, data experts and cryptographers. NERV, and by extension SEELE, controlled five of the six.

They would find him, he decided at length. It was only a matter of time. At his arrival of what seemed like inevitable fact, he became momentarily consumed by panic. Perhaps it was the eruption of all the fear he'd kept bottled up all this time, just trying to keep himself sane and focused. When it did erupt, his first reaction was to flee. But honestly, where would he go? There wasn't a mountain, cave or ocean on the planet where SEELE could not find him, and to be perfectly frank, Tokyo-3 was probably one of the safest places he could be. The city had, after all, been built to be a superfortress, constructed to defend and deflect the sustained assaults of extraterrestrial entities of unimaginable power. SEELE was strong, but their power was still limited to the confines of what was humanly possible. Here he had guns. Resources. An army.

The flight emotion had passed, and now he'd moved on to fight. He'd told Misato Katsuragi the truth—well, most of it—and now he owed it to the woman to protect her as best he could. To do that, he'd have to stay alive. But he felt that with his own life balancing on the head of a pin, she needed to learn the truth sooner than later in the event of his own, premature demise. She had to know about her father, about the manipulated political sabotage of his career, about the planned recruitment of Fuyutsuki, about Gendo's repeated abuse of both people and power. The files were extensive, and it would doubtlessly take the woman weeks to read through it all and begin to even glimpse the tip of the iceberg. After all, he'd been at the investigation himself for years. Everything took time. And time was the one thing he didn't have on his side.

The triple agent was so deep in thought that he'd completely ignored the soft footfalls behind him and the sound of thin fabric being ruffled in the night wind. Suddenly, a pair of warm arms wrapped themselves around his midriff as Major Katsuragi pressed up behind him.

"You really don't sleep, do you?" she asked tenderly.

"Not anymore," he admitted.

"What changed? Back in college, you used to sleep like a baby after we'd fucked."

Kaji shrugged, forcing a smile. "Simpler times, I guess. Fewer responsibilities." He paused a moment, then added, "A future to look forward to."

The arms around his waist tightened. "Who cares about the future?" she sighed dreamily. "The only thing that's important is here. Now. Every new day is another chance to admit to our shortcomings and become the people we want to be. Make the changes we want to make. You were the one who told me that."

Kaji knew that on a philosophical level, Misato was in fact a brilliant woman. Most people failed to see just how emotionally rich and intuitive she was. While others excelled in academic or military endeavors, Misato's greatest gift was her humanity. It was also her greatest curse.

"We can change nothing," he countered. "No matter how much we strive and struggle to change the events of our lives, everything is fixed and finite. Things can and do happen only one way, because if they could have happened differently, they would have. No, Kat, we're all just cogs in a great, complex machine."

"I don't believe that."

"Cogs though we may be," he went on, "that does not mean that we shouldn't be cogs with a purpose. There are many parts of a machine, Kat. Some greatly more important than others. It may not be possible to change the machine we're a part of, but the inevitability of happenstance might allow us to alter its progress, or its course."

"What do you mean?" his lover asked.

Kaji had relinquished all of the information he'd been given to Misato except one file—the wet list of the top-ranking members of the shadow cabal, SEELE. It was the most sensitive and dangerous piece of information he had in his possession. He knew that with it he had both the power to create and destroy. He'd never in a million years believed his contact would come through for him with information this big. Now that he had it, he didn't honestly know exactly how to proceed from here. But he knew two things. The first, and perhaps the more obvious, was that if SEELE was looking to tie up loose ends, then Gendo's agents would get wind of it and put the pieces together in little time at all. Once Gendo knew what he was up to, his life was surely forfeit. And since his discovery by Gendo was inevitable, the second thing he knew was that he would have to make a choice and take action of any kind sooner than later. The only thing he couldn't figure out was how to deal with Misato. He loved her, and she deserved to know as much of the truth as he could afford to spare her, but he wouldn't let her get killed. No matter what.

"Kat, there's a lot of information in those files that shows that Gendo has been systematically funneling massive amounts of money out of the United Nations and various other financial firms, banks, and investment groups for several years, setting up a variety of shell corporations and money-laundering operations which he's used to systematically build and enhance NERV over the past decade."

Kaji felt the woman's arms loosen and recede from his hips. He turned to find her shivering, clad only in a thin silk bathrobe. He took her hand and gently led her around to the edge of the balcony where he stood behind her, wrapping her in the warmth of his own arms as she stared off, out into the night.

"How did he do this without anybody noticing?" she asked him after thinking it over. "I mean, there had to be at least a modicum of oversight."

Kaji shook his head gently. "At first there was, but that was back when NERV was still Gehirn. Like I said before, the transition of the organization from Gehirn to NERV marked a huge milestone not only for the group's power structure, but for its goals. The ambitions and purpose of the project shifted. Dramatically."

"How? What do you mean?"

The triple agent stared past the woman out at the electric skyline. Somewhere off in the distance, he heard the low, cavernous roar of a Bell Boeing MV-22 Osprey ferrying either troops or supplies in the direction of the Geofront.

"I told you before that I thought that Naoko Akagi's death was more significant than most people realized, that I had a theory."

Misato nodded quickly, shivering in the cold night air. "Yeah. But you never explained it."

"The official story claimed that Naoko took her own life because of job-related stress and personal issues. An absurdly voluminous amount of testimony was gathered after the fact—signed off on by Fuyutsuki ironically enough—stating that Naoko felt an incredible amount of guilt at being a poor mother to Ritsuko. Others said she loved machines more than people, and that she threw herself onto the MAGI in some psychotic effort to become one with her synthetic magnum opus."

"And you don't believe that?"

"Look, Kat, any time there's a mountain of evidence surrounding a death at a top-secret military institution, you know it's a cover up. The information's been cooked and tactically disseminated to all the right people at all the right times. A real crime would either have a simple, concrete answer or none at all. This was what they like to call an 'orgy of evidence' in America." She stared clueless at him for a moment before he took the hint and translated the idiom into Japanese. She nodded understandingly, and Kaji continued. "What we know about Gendo is that he's a master manipulator with a particular talent for spotting people with subservient or otherwise submissive personality types. He's excellent at finding people who, at least emotionally if not politically, make good victims."

Misato hadn't really given Gendo's character that much thought before, but on some intrinsic level, her gut instinct was in accord. "I know what you mean." She hesitated, flinching, and Kaji sensed it.

"What?"

"Well… sometimes I worry that… oh, it's nothing."

"No, tell me. It could be important."

Misato tucked a stray lock of hair back behind her ear. "I feel like maybe he does that to Ritsuko sometimes. You know, like, treats her with unbelievable disrespect, but it's like he's not doing it because he likes it… but.."

"Yes?"

"…he's doing it because she likes it."

Kaji felt a rush of exhilaration shoot through him. He couldn't resist spinning the young woman around and staring her directly in the face. "You've felt it too, then?" he asked excitedly.

"Well, I mean, I can't quite put my finger on what it is," she began, but Kaji cut her off with the conclusion she was artfully evading.

"The two of them are involved."

Misato gave a laugh despite herself. "Oh, get serious."

"I am serious. It's the only thing that makes sense."

"How on earth does that make sense?"

Kaji considered telling Misato about the tracking devices, audio recordings and hacked text messages he had gathered independently during his own anonymous investigation of his employer, but decided it would just serve as a distraction. He wanted to win Misato over with brute-force attacks of logic and reason.

"Kat, listen, just go with me on this for a minute. Ritsuko's probably the third-highest in the NERV hierarchy. Think about it—you hold the rank of Major. Why do you answer to a scientist? Why does a scientist answer only to Gendo? Why does she have complete, unrestricted access to everywhere in the compound? She oversees the operations of not only the MAGI, but the Evangelions and the research labs too. How—and why—do you think so many responsibilities were given to a single person?"

The purple-haired woman figured that if Kaji had truly been compiling all the information he'd gathered for once, the arguments he was making to win her over to his side were made out of respect, but were superfluous. If he had a theory, no doubt he also had the evidence to support it. Still, the very notion of Ritsuko sexually involved with Gendo Ikari revolted her.

"Ok, ok, what's your point?" the woman said with little enthusiasm and great annoyance.

He placed his hands firmly upon her shoulders as if preparing her for a blow that could knock her off her feet. "I believe that something happened between Gendo Ikari and Naoko Ikagi. Something dark. Something terrible. I believe Naoko resisted whatever evil had come to pass, and that Gendo killed her for it. As a final insult, he manipulated the daughter of the woman who had opposed him by turning her into his personal plaything."

"You really can't be serious," Misato said, suddenly feeling sick and light on her feet. She staggered, but Kaji's firm hands kept her steady.

"The shell companies… the research projects… the EVAs… the A.T. field experiments—all of it. Gendo's gone off the deep end. He's preparing for some kind of… war. A quasi-spiritual crusade against threats both from this world and from others. And he's turning his back on the very church that gave him his power."

"Why? Why is he doing all of his?" Misato finally asked out of frustrated bewilderment.

Kaji thought for a long while before he simply answered, "Because he can."

Rei Ayanami stared coolly down upon the slightly-faded photograph resting atop the small wooden table that served as a nightstand. The photograph had been taken earlier that summer; though she couldn't remember who had taken it or what circumstances must have availed themselves to result in a photo opportunity such as this, she felt strange every time she looked at it.

There were several bizarre elements to the photograph. There were three occupants in the picture—Rei herself, the third child Shinji Ikari, and in the distant background, towering beneath an ethereal patch of chromatic cloud iridescence was Evangelion Unit-00. Rei stood in the foreground of the image wearing a short-sleeved, frilly white blouse and matching skirt, tucking her hair behind one ear as a gust of wind was blowing through. Just behind her stood Shinji Ikari attired in an unbuttoned, plain blue shirt and a white tank top beneath it. Both of them were staring just past the lens of the camera as though they were making eye-contact with the photographer him or herself. And both of them had smiles on their faces. That was the most bizarre element of all.

The first child continued to stare at the photograph for some time with silent intrigue. Despite herself, she wanted to know quite feverishly why she had been smiling in the picture. She wondered if it had to do with Shinji. It would be logical, after all, to suggest she might treat Shinji with unique interest given her special relationship with the boy's father.

Ayanami was not one to voice her opinions of anything openly. Typically, the reason for this was simply that she didn't have any. But lately with how erratic, paranoid and scurrilous he'd become, she had caught herself on numerous occasions growing angry and revolted by Gendo's treatment of his son, particularly given the circumstances. She'd grown to despise how the man treated him with such disdain and emotional flippancy, obliterating the boy's sense of self-worth and purpose. Though she herself did not know purpose—she was entirely cognizant of her role at NERV—she dealt with her desire to have it by tracking its progress clinically and routinely in others. Ayanami did not know how, when or even why she'd taken such an interest in the junior Ikari, but ever since he'd switched bodies with Asuka, she'd suddenly felt inscrutably responsible for him. Protective of him.

There was a knock at her front door. Placing the photograph back down on the table, she turned on her heel and went to the door. She didn't seem bothered by the fact that she was wearing only a nondescript black bra and matching panties.

Kaworu Nagisa double-checked the address he'd been given one final time just to be certain the ruin of a tenement before which he stood was truly the place. He didn't need to look at Fuyutsuki's elegant scrawl to remember the location; his memory was photographic. Rather, the angel-in-human's-clothing, Tabris, had come to derive an entirely unfounded yet simply exquisite pleasure from practicing and rehearsing the trifles of human habit and ritual. He stared at the address on the missive, counting three seconds in his mind—he figured it was a reasonable amount of time for a lilin to recite an address—before folding the paper back up and placing it neatly in his left breast pocket.

He negotiated the stairs slowly, letting his fingers gently glide up the grated texture of chipped paint along the railing. There was a curious musk in the air, but the scents were too many to distinguish one alone. The walls had born witness to several generations of graffiti. One reasonably talented artist had tagged the largest wall which now read Anno Domini in blocky green and purple lettering. At length Kaworu reached the apartment number he'd been given. He straightened his collar fastidiously—another human habit—then knocked clearly and precisely upon the front door.

Several moments later, the first child appeared in the doorway of the apartment wearing only a pair of jet black underthings and a look of irritation. Nagisa grinned broadly, attempting to be sociable. "Oh dear, have I come at a bad time?"

Ayanami stared at Nagisa blankly for several seconds before her arms dropped to her sides and her fists unclenched themselves. "What do you want?"

"To talk," Kaworu replied innocently.

"You're talking now."

The silver-haired boy shifted awkwardly from one foot to the other. "I'd rather not do this out here in the hallway, if it's all the same to you. And you're not dressed."

Rei seemed to notice her choice of attire for the first time, but the expression she maintained indicated she didn't really care. She simply folded her arms across her small-yet-budding chest. "Tell me why you're here," she insisted.

Tabris relented. Sometimes, the truth was more effective than fiction. Or at least faster. "I'm concerned about your employer," he said, as if reading the girl's mind. "I'm not your enemy. But I have a purpose within this organization, and my purpose is to prevent the abuse of power." He'd hoped the first child might betray a hint of emotion at his thinly-veiled accusation, but his ploy aroused not even a hint of discomfort in the girl's sylph-like features. "My mandate also requires that I do whatever I can to ensure the safety of the children who pilot the Evangelions," he added for emphasis, as though he knew exactly what the first child needed to hear. "They are humanity's last hope against the angel threats. I will oppose anything or anyone that threaten their continued existence."

Apparently sold on the lie, Rei Ayanami nodded and stepped backwards, allowing Tabris entry to her shoebox apartment. Kaworu bowed and thanked her in ritualistic Japanese fashion before entering her home. He really did have a penchant for human quirks and mannerisms.

The apartment interior was dark, gloomy, and unbearably Spartan. It seemed to him to be just functional enough to sleep in. There was nothing even resembling a kitchen or a bedroom. The only place to sit was on the bed, and he felt somehow awkward when the first child sat directly beside him and simply stared straight ahead.

"What have you found?" the girl asked.

Nagisa tried to shift his body away from hers as discreetly as possible, but he simply ended up closer. He could feel the warmth of the girl's slender leg penetrating the fibers of his trousers.

"Wouldn't you like to get dressed first?"

She cocked her head to stare directly at him, her crimson eyes locked upon his. "Do I make you uncomfortable?"

This child did not seem to possess the shame and self-guardedness common to most humans, he decided. It intrigued him.

"No," he replied.

"Then answer my question."

"Several months ago, your employer, Gendo Ikari announced his departure from a high profile United Nations security delegation. Previously, it had been implied that NERV had received far too little oversight for what it was—a private military contracting firm with interests in developing nations, macroeconomics, space-age technologies and innovations and more financial capital than most world governments. Evidence had slowly begun to come to light, and a few of the sharper tools in the proverbial shed had begun to connect the dots.

"Recently, Gendo Ikari ordered his second in command, Kouzou Fuyutsuki to announce that the NERV Corporation would not only be withdrawing its support for the U.N.'s proposal to establish itself as the new Planetary Defense Force, but insisted upon its dissolution. Ikari openly claimed the United Nations was the relic of a bygone era, completely impotent and nostalgic in a time that required potency of clarity of vision. Mankind, he argued, was being limited by the small-mindedness of those who still clung to the illusions of individuality and free will. In short, NERV issued the very organization who created it an ultimatum. It was simple: serve me, or get the hell out of my way. The man controls the most dangerous military arsenal and the most advanced supercomputers on the planet. We had to know just how far he was willing to go. I have a hunch that you might be able to answer that question for me."

Rei listened quietly to Kaworu's entire narrative in silence, staring dispassionately at her hands folded between her milky-white thighs. She didn't trust Nagisa, but she knew he was onto something. She could see it day by day, how Gendo was slowly slipping away from reality.

"He's sick," she muttered after a while.

"Sick? How so?"

Ayanami shook her head. "I don't know. But he's getting worse. More than likely, before long he will have passed the mortal limits of sustainability."

"He's dying."

"As I said, I don't know. But his… behavior… it concerns me."

Kaworu took the girl's hands in his. She surprised herself when she did not object. And she surprised herself again when she volunteered her annoyance at how he treated his coworkers. She told him a fair bit about the commander's surly personality, but she was careful not to betray any secrets.

"I understand," said Tabris. "You harbor strong loyalties to your commander, and that is commendable. But your humanity is in conflict with duty; you cannot simply stand by and watch while your commander continues to inflict harm upon those around him."

Rei felt strangely sleepy. She felt calm. And Kaworu seemed to understand exactly how she felt. All in all, the feeling was disarmingly euphoric. And then he placed his larger hand atop hers, and she met his gaze with hers.

"What do you want me to do?" Tabis asked, his voice containing a seductively lyrical quality to it.

Rei fixed him a stare so that it could not be mistaken who she was talking about or what she meant. "Save him," she said.