I do not own anything at all. Everything is owned by the respective copy-write and trademark holders. If they say for me to take this down, then down it shall come, a tumbling.

In the darkness of midnight, in a small town far from the bustling metropolitan centers where spies kept tabs on everyone and everything, and men far older than they should be plotted against their fellow men, two figures sat in an unmarked, unassuming black van, down the road from a battered looking building. The older man sipped his tea before breaking the silence.

"Are you sure you want to leave him here? He's already traumatized, and doesn't know what happened or what's going on. He's been asking for his mother and father. Leaving him here, with them would not be a kindness as you think it would. They may be family, but there is no love in that household. They barely even speak to each other. They lost their son in the Impact Wars, and haven't been the same since."

The woman shifted in her seat uncomfortably, glancing out the side window into the darkness. "It's out of my hands, now. The arrangements have already been made. Better he lives with family than people of no relation to him. He may yet find solace in their arms, and they might see in him a second chance for happiness."

"He will be needed, in time. He will be called to the Academy. He will be called back to Tokyo-3. You know that I'm right. ADAM might be gone, but SEELE is still out there. You've read the prophecies. You've made divinations concerning all of this mess. Everything agrees on one thing. The Angels will return, in time. It's no accident that that boy still lives. He is prophesied to do battle. To stand there, at the Abyss and fight. He should be trained for it."

"He will, when he is older. For now, let him have the semblance of a normal life. We still have obligations to meet. The rest of the world thinks that it is safe, now. We know the truth. NERV has an obligation to keep that truth. Yesterday was a coup for us, but as much as I would like to think that was the last we'll see of Kiel Lorenz, you and I both know it won't be. SEELE is a powerful cabal."

"Their cabal is broken. We hold the Second Angel. We hold the secrets. We even have the original scrolls. They are scattered to the four winds, and they have no leader right now. They will be back, but we can keep the boy with us at the Academy, with the girl."

"No. SEELE might be broken, but they are not shattered and ground to dust as they should be. These are powerful men, and many of them claiming that they were under mind control? Impossible to prove, and just as impossible to disprove. They will wait it out. Lorenz has been waiting for centuries to trigger Impact, and he will wait however long he thinks he needs to. They'll need time for the First Angel to become viable enough to stage a resurection, at any rate. If we keep the child with us, he will be suspect to tremendous scrutiny. Let him have his childhood here, away from the prying eyes and ears of the spies and the world."

"Is that fair to the girl, then? Where is the family for her to spend her youth with?"

"You know that's an impossibility. She has no family. By all rights she shouldn't even exist. Golems do not have souls. Golems most certainly are not living, breathing, little girls."

"And yet she exists. They made her as a focus for another Impact. We should destroy her, and remove any possibility of impact."

"But, like I said, she is a little girl, as alive as you or me. She'll grow up in a the Academy. It will be normal enough. She'll need lessons to control her abilities early on, anyway. I will take her as my ward. No-one will question it. Besides, my daughter's always wanted a baby sister."

"When will the boy arrive here?" The shadowy man mentally congratulated himself on a smooth change of subjects.

"Section-2 should be delivering him to the house in the morning. He won't remember a thing. I'm not sure if it's a blessing, or a curse, that. "

"Will they give him up, later? What if they do come to see him as a surrogate for their son?"

"If they don't want Third Impact to occur they will. Besides, I thought you said that there is no love in their household."

"Shut up. Did you tell them the truth of what happened? Of the attack, of the betrayal?"

"They know that the Ikaris were attacked at their cottage on Academy grounds, and that Yui and Gendo were killed saving their son. That's it."

"What did they say? And more importantly, what will they tell the boy?"

"I'm surprised you didn't listen in on the conversation, Professor. They'll tell him that there was an accident at the train station. Each year they'll take him to visit a pair of tombstones with their names on them, unless he doesn't want to go. They'll say nothing of the truth. They blame Gendo for all of this. Even as they weep for him, they curse his name. They said that they always expected Gendo to come to a violent end. He was always a rowdy one, even for a Battle-Mage. "

"He always liked a good scrap. That never changed, even after the Impact and the Impact Wars. He was also a cunning strategist. He could have assumed control, but he didn't. He was dedicated to Yui and to his son."

"But he didn't, and now we're here. I never could see what Yui saw in him. I wouldn't be caught dead with the man. Romantically, I mean."

Professor Kozo Fuyutsuki, Headmaster of the Tokyo-3 Academy of GERHIN, Leader of the Secret Society of NERV, Veteran of Second Impact and a General from the collection of battles and wars collectively known as the Impact Wars, and Wizard Extraordinaire, glanced over at Dr. Naoko Akagi, Professor of Applied Magics, Thatamurgy, his second in command in NERV and trusted adviser.

"The hour is late. Shall we retire? Section 2 already has a watch set up on the house, and the wards are in place."

"What, no dinner first? What kind of woman do you take me for?"

Fuyutsuki rolled his eyes as he started the van.