Preemptive author notes: This should have been done WEEKS ago. But my grandmother just passed away recently after suffering from dementia and multiple kinds of cancer. This is the woman that raised me after my own mother died when I was very young. So as you can guess I didn't really feel like working on this for a long time, for that I apologize. But it's done now and I hope you guys enjoy it!

PUTTING OUT FIRES

See these eyes so red
Red like jungle burning bright
Those who feel me near
Pull the blinds and change their minds
It's been so long

Feel my blood enraged
It's just the fear of losing you
Don't you know my name
Well, you been so long

Still this pulsing night
A plague I call a heartbeat
Just be still with me
Ya wouldn't believe what I've been thru
You've been so long
And I've been putting out fire with gasoline

See these tears so blue
An ageless heart that can never mend
These tears can never dry
A judgment made can never bend

See these eyes so green
I can stare for a thousand years
Colder than the moon
It's been so long and I've been putting out fire with gasoline

Just be still with me
You wouldn't believe what I've been thru

1647 hours, Saturday June 6th, 2016

"Hm." Shinji half grunted as he made his first attempt to sit up in bed. Mashing his teeth as he tried his best to ignore the pain, it gave him time to think up a much more satisfactory response than what he had managed so far.

"Did they suffer?" He asked, faking concern.

"Our best guess is that it happened instantaneously. Since they were basically vaporized, most likely their bodies never even had time to register pain." Misato's statement just seemed to stop, the meter of her speech implying that she had more to say, but had aborted for some reason. Misato sat in the ever present and always unpleasant hospital folding chair. For a place as loaded as Nerv was, why they didn't have better furnishing in the intensive care ward was beyond her.

"It's for the best I guess, I mean as far as death goes. No fear, no pain, just savoring victory and then oblivion. I hope that if I end up with the short straw, I get off that easy."

From Misato's point of view Shinji seemed almost wistful when he spoke of Keita and Lee's deaths. "How can you say that Shinji?" Pleading for him to rescind his previous notion. As she spoke Shinji noticed that the light coming through the thick curtain that had been pulled over the wall window behind Misato gave her an almost ethereal glow.

"See it as I do Misato. Most of my fights have ended up with me in here, near death. I have god knows how many inoperable tumors in me, kept alive only though the efforts of some of the world's best doctors and three super computers. I am currently undergoing weekly gene therapy, have moderate nerve damage, and a few days ago I nearly had a hole blown straight through my chest. Trends seem to show that I will meet a messy end, unless something changes soon." Shinji was not complaining, or asking for pity, empathy or anything of the sort, just ticking items off of a list and trying to make a point. He was not saddened by what he said, for he had long ago came to accept that if he might give his life to save thousands of others at Nerv, whether he wanted to or not.

Trying her hand at damage control, Misato gave her best enthusiastic response. "You make it all seem so hopeless, but really, I think you've come a long way. True, you have a long climb ahead of you, but trust me. I've talked to Ritsuko about you pretty extensively. She seems sure that the magi have come up with a way for her to forgo your weekly treatments. Something about positive test results on lower mammals. She got too scientific for me to really understand it."

Shinji appreciated what she was trying to do, he really did. He could see it clearly on her face that she just wanted him to not give up hope yet. She didn't realize that he had never given up hope, but simply measured his expectations. If he died, then he gave his life for something he believed in, he just had to hope that he had fulfilled whatever role had been laid out for him by his forced return to hell.

If he did make it through, like he doing his damnedest to, then he had an entire life of mistake that he could avoid. A far better place to leave to his kids, friends, everyone, we're talking Disney movie theme song level hopes here.

"Really?" He gave his best excited face as he slid out of his internal reverie.

"Yep, and if you ask me, if she can do that then something small like messed up neurons and knocking out those scars should be child's play." Misato paused for a moment as she rubbed her chin with her left hand. "Though I think they make you look manly, I bet Asuka would like them to." Misato teased in an effort to draw him away from their dour conversation, an attempt not missed by Shinji.

'God bless this woman.' He thought to himself.

"She told me I looked like Frankenstein." He said, giving a real smile at the memory.

"I can see how she could think that." Misato replied, aping Shinji's pleasant response. It was too bad that she had to break the bad news to him so soon after waking up. Would it have been unfair to build him up a bit before bad news, or would it have been more criminal to hit him with it as soon as he got up and then try to bring levity afterward?

"Is there anything you want to ask about before I go, maybe anyone you would like me to send down?" Misato really didn't want to ask the second part of her question, an adolescent urge to take some petty revenge on Rei still lingering in the back of her mind. But if she had not asked she knew that he would have asked for her anyway. After months of avoiding her like the plague, the day of Ramiel's arrival they had magically made up, at least to her knowledge. She of course chalked it up to teens being fickle, as they have the tendency to be.

The entire time they had been feuding, the one thing that had been off limits was why they were fighting, or even if they were at all. Shinji had oddly chosen to take the 'she does not exist' route. Internally she was still shaking her head at how ludicrous it had been, but then again they were teens, so nothing was off limits in the stupid department.

In the time between her confrontation with Rei and now, that had been a bewildering factor to her. At what point and why did they make up? Had they even? She had known from early on after his arrival that Rei was in love with Shinji, it had been blatantly obvious, the only reason Shinji had missed it was because, well, he was a fifteen year old boy. Hell, at first she had been surprised that Rei had seemed interested in him. Up until that point she had seemed almost asexual. But then again Misato had once gone from mute, near comatose nutcase to nymphomaniac in only a few months so maybe her frame of reference wasn't the best.

Misato had expected that it would end badly as well, since Shinji was head over heels for Asuka, a girl he had never actually met. Misato had thought that to be strange, but who was she to judge, really?

At first she had felt horrible for Rei and tried to help smooth things over between the two of them, but her efforts had met with so much venom from Shinji that she had abandoned it soon after. Yet here it was again, their bond seemingly reformed by battle.

"Has there been any word from Asuka?" Shinji replied, the answer he sought given away by his face.

"Sorry, but not yet. Most likely she won't know anything about the battle's outcome for a few days. Reports have to be filed and disseminated before she would have access to anything top secret. I'm sure she knows that the fifth has appeared and since the world hasn't ended, that you won, but anything further than that she would be in the dark. And even if she had asked to call or contact you somehow, if I was her CO I would keep any such communication out of her hands until everything was settled on our end." Inwardly Misato was beaming at his asking for Asuka first, but that was quickly followed by shame for again sinking to the juvenile act of revenge, and against a minor no less.

"But if nothing else, I will make sure that she can get a word through to you tomorrow, as I'd hate to keep you two love birds apart on your birthday." Misato tried to keep the light mood going by going back to her oldest trick, poking at Shinji. Anything to keep his mind off of her earlier news, regardless of how well he seemed to have taken it.

"Well actually today is my birthday, but I'm glad you brought that up, because it was going to be my next question. And yeah, anything you can do to get her though would be appreciated. After the past few days I've had, I could use some good company."

"Asuka is a lucky girl Mr. Ikari, if you were just a few years older maybe we could have made good company." Misato said giving Shinji her best 'sexy voice,' or at least the one that Makoto seemed to like so much.

"Please Misato, not so soon after I wake up. I'd hate to throw up all over you." The look on Misato's face let him know that he had just sunk her battleship. True it had been a childish shot at her, but the elicited response was what had given him the satisfaction. She had raised her hand as if to hit him, but quickly realizing his situation, and that she could not, she had no recourse but to pout. And throw him the finger.

"I would laugh, but the pain would be excruciating. Rest assured though, I am doing it on the inside," He said, all smiles.

"Well on that pleasant note, you ass, I think I will take my leave of you. Do you need anything?" Misato got to her feet, gave Shinji a quick kiss on the forehead and lingered there for a bit, giving him the time he needed to get a good, nice look down her shirt. Since day one Shinji had looked at her with predatory eyes, as much as a child can anyway. And she let him have his looks, the least she could do considering the service he was rendering.

She had considered calling him out on it this time after he had burned her so well, but decided against it. Maybe she could make a man out of him after all. If she had only known the truth.

Feeling that if she let him look any longer he would notice her lingering, she stood up, wondering what he would do if he ever actually got a real look at her. Brushing that thought aside quickly, she motioned with her hands, so as to say 'well?'

"If anyone had plans for me previous to the fifth, tell them to keep them. Even if I am bed ridden, I want everyone to have fun, more so now in light of what happened. Can you do that for me?" Shinji kept his smug look on his face, partly from his quip and partly for the great view of her twin peaks he just snuck. A man is a man after all, regardless of his age.

"Can do boss." She replied as she left the room, the door sliding to a hissing stop as she began to make mental plans for the belated b-day bash.

1300 hours, Thursday, June 17th 2016

"Well, I'm not even getting drug into that quagmire. I mean it's like they took some old harem show and just hit copy/paste. I didn't think stuff like that really happened, it just seems, you know, soap-opera-ish." Commented Mari to her 'boyfriend' Marcos as she brushed a bit of her long brown hair behind her right ear. She was in her best party outfit, by her own admittance, which to Pilot Reinaldo's eyes just seemed to be the set of clothes that most yelled 'Hey look at my boobs, aren't they great?' Not that he could complain really, for they were quite nice and were currently his private playground.

Although its appearance on a woman in her early twenties would have been acceptable, it would still have been a head turner, not the sort of thing you wear to a birthday party. Its intended purpose, if you only guessed by the amount of material present, would have been to lure in unsuspecting males. The concept of the little black dress was an old one, but since second impact, fashion and old-school concepts of decency had drastically changed. The iteration currently donned by Ms. Mari Illustrious Makinami was made of suede and sleeveless, with a very low V cut on the neck line to accompany the slit sides of the skirt that went so far up so as to raise the question about if she was wearing anything under it or not.

Taking her drink off of the coaster that Hikari had insisted she use, she took three short sips spaced a good bit of time apart before putting it back on the table in front of her. Knowing that while she did so Marcos would not talk to her, seeing as how she couldn't respond, she thought a bit harder about his previous question. Being the natural gossip that most girls her age are, she had been a big part in the rumor mill that had circled around Rei and Shinji.

By her reckoning Rei was a nice enough girl. But she was far too Japanese for her and Mari to ever be really close. Ms. Makinami had spent the last few years in America and had come to fully embrace their way of life. As far as she was concerned the meek, quite, reserved, archetype that was breed into Japanese women these days was to anachronistic for her tastes. Leave it to second impact to set the Japanese mindset back a few decades.

The one thing that she had to give Rei credit for was her looks, Mari could tell that the aspects that gave Rei her beauty were innate. She didn't have to wear certain clothes or makeup to be attractive. And while Mari was more attractive now, when she was old and gray Rei would still have a regal aspect to her, her years hidden beneath an almost otherworldly air of… of what Mari couldn't put her finger on, but she knew it was there.

Shinji on the other hand, well with him she was at a total loss. Rei, this Asuka person, Hikari, some of the lower level command staff, and even his guardian seemed to love the guy. To her, Shinji was just some random Asian guy, nothing about him stood out. Even with near daily physical training he was skinny as a rail. Though he spent so much time laid up that upon further thought, maybe he deserved a pass on that. But beyond his constitution there was still a blandness to him, nothing in his face or demeanor screamed 'hey, I'm an ideal candidate for a long term relationship.'

Mari was not ignorant of his various artistic talents, but to her that made him interesting, not attractive. He would make an interesting friend, a great way to make yourself seem more cultured by association, and other things, but not mate material. His inner beauty and outer blandness seemed contradictory, but there he was, all wrapped up in a package currently restricted to a wheel chair. Why she thought him boring when she knew he was not, was not the kind of introspective dialogue she wished to have while at a party. So putting that aside, she turned her attention to her current boy-toy and began again to talk about things that interested him, because he was a good kisser and she didn't want any of the other girls to take her prize.

Across Misato's crowded living room Pilot Ellis Morgan could be picked out by his ever-present blue tinted sunglasses. His Nerv-regulations-be-dammed attitude had cost him three pairs so far, as Nerv did not share his fashion sense. Sitting on the floor, for there wasn't enough seating in the apartment for the fourteen occupants and more to arrive later, Ellis attempted to strike up a conversation with Touji. Touji was sitting on the end of the couch, amusing himself by watching Kaede, Satsuki, and Aoi try, and fail, to play some random party game on the Gamestation.

This amused Touji greatly.

"You would think Kensuke would be all over the console." Ellis said in an open statement meant to begin their chat.

"It's always weird for me when I hear Gaijin speaking Japanese, no offence man." Touji replied in his usual gruff manner, never once taking his eyes off of the spectacle before him.

"If you started to speak the Queens English, I would be just as put off, so no biggie." Ellis replied as he straightened out his plain grey tee, an old school hook up's shirt to go with his charcoal colored long cargo shorts, before turning to watch the TV as Touji had, figuring it was a lost battle to get eye contact out of him for the foreseeable future.

"But, yeah he was on earlier and they got mad at him for 'cheating,' and kicked him off. Said something about how he can't play with girls, I made a gay joke. It was funny." Out of the corner of his eye Ellis could see his grin widen, the gears turning in his head at the memory of his masterpiece.

Over the next few minutes Ellis did his best to drag a conversation out of Suzuhara, he tried talking about his favorite music, old anime he watched back in America, even about some of the various stories he was writing, horror stuff mostly, but it all amounted to nothing. Touji never gave more than cursory responses, deeming it fine to let his mind wander in the hopeless flailing of the avatars belonging to the trio in front of him.

"Hey, what kind of gel do you use to get your hair to stay like that?" Suzuhara asked a minute or two later, in his best offhanded manner, failing big time. He would never admit to anyone, not even Kensuke, that he envied Pilot Morgan. He was better built than Touji, better with women, hell he was even able to grow facial hair, yet chose not to. Touji wanted to hate him, but he was just too nice, it would have been like hating kittens.

"Want to trade makeup tips and then braid each other's hair later?" Was the response he elicited.

"Smug shithead." Touji said as he swung his hand out to his right, whiffing just over the top of Pilot Morgan's impressive dark brown spikes. It was now Ellis's turn to grin.

Rubbing the ubiquitous stubble he sported, he came up with a blank. "To be honest I can't remember the name. It's in a blue tube with a grey cap if that helps."

"Oh yeah, a ton." Touji snidely stated. "Let me just go up top to a mall and look around for it. I'm sure that there are tons of shops left open and manned by all the dead people." Touji said referring to the now barren and lifeless Tokyo 3.

"Then what good would it have done if I had remembered the name?" Ellis replied, bemusedly.

"Touché." Was all Touji could come up with at the time.

"Sssoooo…?" Touji asked a few minutes later, the luster of watching non gamers make imbeciles of themselves beginning to wear off. "You sat down here because you wanted to talk right? Well then say something, or go and talk with your stolen goods." He said, pointing to the short girl with dark brown hair who sat in front of him, Kaede Agano.

"I assume you mean my woman." Morgan answered, raising his left eyebrow as he cocked his head slightly to the side to address his ever rude compatriot. "She still seems to be enjoying herself by all the squealing, and if she's happy then I'm happy."

Touji made the sound of a snapping whip to go along with his gesture.

"I don't see Hikari around here." Ellis retorted as he turned around to scan the room.

"Touché." Touji said once again, "Fight."

"That's what I thought." Ellis said triumphantly. Touji grunted, not thinking it was very funny at all.

As time drug on Marcos Reinaldo managed to untangle himself from Mari so that he may 'own the noobs'. Mari had tried to help with dinner, but was a walking nightmare in the kitchen. Shinji had nearly run her out, as much as you can from a chair anyway. Not that she minded, she hadn't really wanted to help anyway, this was a party, you have fun at parties, not work.

As it passed 1430 (2:30) in the afternoon, the meal was finally taking shape. The topic at the table had long since changed to more 'pertinent' things such as goings on at Nerv, their training regiments, school and their significant others, past and present, all of it still in mangled Japanese. Dreadfully boring things to have to hear if you were Shinji Ikari, but he did his best to drown them out by concentrating on his helpers cooking.

He hated being trapped in his wheelchair more than anything, it made him feel like an invalid, useless. He knew people who did away with useless things. But he was assured that within a week to ten days he should be able to move on to crutches. It was not as if his legs were injured, the worry was a flare of pain could cause his legs to give out. If that happened his wound could reopen, something he also wished to avoid.

Under his shirt he was still bandaged from clavicle to navel, his wounds long from being fully healed. Luckily, so far his worries had been for naught and the pain meds had done their job well enough. Speaking of unbearable pain…

"So wasn't the sixth Pilot Ayanami's birthday as well?" Harold asked Hikari. They had been sharing pleasant conversation since the cooking started, she found him to be a most agreeable person and would make a point of becoming friends with him in the near future. Victor would have said that she didn't know him at all then.

"Yep, I know she was invited." She said giving a slight pause as if daring Shinji to say that he hadn't. "I'm sure she'll be here any moment, I mean for her this is sort of a victory party. She was the first one of us other than Mr. Invincible over there to score a victory." She threw her head to the side to indicate the target of the moniker.

"I don't feel so invincible." Shinji replied.

"You know what I mean dear, figure of speech." Hikari said in a sing song voice as she patted him on the head with her mitten covered hand. Turning back to put the finishing touches on the western style dish, chicken fried pork chops, she continued her conversation with Harold.

"It's like I told Shinji, there is no reason to have two separate parties. So we make it a three in one super celebration." Her voice rising to a crescendo as she finished the sentence. At that exact moment the front door slid open and Rei Ayanami, container for the soul of Lilith, joined the party.

As the door hissed close behind them, Kaji Ryoji and Ritsuko Akagi stood in darkness for nearly a minute before any signs of life came from the other side of the room. Even though this shtick was old and they had been on its receiving end many times before, it still got to you if it went on long enough.

At first it would be annoying, why didn't he just get to business and not waste everyone's time? Did it give him some sort of juvenile pleasure to see them squirm? Hell, could he even see them? It was dark after all. The idea of him sitting there with night vision goggles on staring at them for long periods of time before the lighting under the floor came on was preposterous, or at the very least ludicrous.

After the light had come on it was exactly fifteen seconds before any foreign voice was heard, just long enough to notice the light was brighter and hotter than usual. Instead of coming from across the cavernous room Gendo's booming tenor came from behind them this time.

"As you can see from the figures here," he said pointing past them to where his desk, and he usually were, to a seven foot flat-screen that came down from the ceiling. The tables and diagrams he had referred to meant nothing to Kaji and very little to Ritsuko. Gendo flipped through them much too quickly for her to fully grasp what they were trying to get at.

"I'm sorry sir, but I fail to see the importance." Kaji said, knowingly saving Ritsuko from losing face.

"Please do try to keep up with us Agent Kaji." Gendo replied before changing to his pièce de résistance. Computer simulations pitting the new line of Mass Produced Eva's against Nerv's own Shigoki. "Using telemetry and other data collected from Unit 01's previous battles, we believe that this simulation is accurate for all available parameters. Several million simulations were done in nearly endless permutations and the MP won 83 percent of the time. And that is only with our current dummy system. As we further perfect it let there be no doubt that it will replace our very fallible pilots."

As a short clip from one of the simulations ended, the monitor clicked off and the normal lighting finally came on, the gargantuan screen sliding back into the ceiling as Gendo's desk rose in opposition. Oddly enough the floor lighting, which now seemed more like a buried searchlight than anything, continued to bake Gendo's guests.

"This is good, is it not?" Kaji said wondering why Ritsuko had yet to speak.

"As long as the dummy system stays on schedule and our good doctor does not keep finding herself distracted running tests for her friends." Gendo's voice held no detectable anger as he finally made it to his seat and assumed his famous pose. His desk was void of life, no emotion or distractions, just a cold black surface.

"At first, sir, I thought it best to placate the Major and her crusade to save Shinji from the world, but her pestering has become insistent and time consuming. I would better serve the project by not trying to solve her dilemmas." There was none of the usual force in Ritsuko's voice. She was usually very self-defensive and feisty, today she seemed tired.

Gendo sat still for nearly a minute, his thoughts filled with Shinji and not only his role in the greater scheme but also the immediate concerns of his condition. It took Akagi clearing her throat to bring him back, a fact that irked him. "If you weight time spent now against time spent later and find one more efficient than the other I take it you will take the appropriate actions. I don't care about your interpersonal problems, only about the results of Project E. I assumed this to be understood."

"It is sir." Ritsuko's response was like a beaten wife's.

"Moving onto more important matters, I want to draw your attention to this." Gendo said as the screen again descended from the room's high ceiling. On it played a video. No audio was present due to the wind having interfered with its recording.

The video in question was of Rei and Misato's confrontation. As it ended Kaji was basically flabbergasted, that sort of obviously heated confrontation did not gel with what he know of Rei or his memories of Misato.

"Now it is important to comment that since then nothing has been made of this, we have no recordings of the two ever bringing it up and their interactions don't seem to have changed on the surface. So that being what it is, what do the two of you make of this?"

"I assume you are asking me sir due to my history with the Major?" Kaji asked, wondering why a spy was sitting in on what seemed to be a weekly progress report.

"Obviously." Was the curt reply.

"I've never known the Major to have violent tendencies sir. Even given the messy nature of our relationships end, there was no violence, merited or otherwise. Have we had anyone try and read their lips so we could figure out what was said?"

"Obviously." Gendo repeated.

'Ok, this feels like a test, but why? I had already assumed he knew that I was a triple agent, that he only kept me around still was because I was of use to him. If I no longer was, Gendo isn't the kind to stage some elaborate game just to have me taken care of at the end. So what is the answer he wants me to give him?' Kaji's mind raced as he seemed placid on the outside, a testament to his years of training.

"Well sir, knowing Rei by the reports on her only, I would say that there has been fallout due to her timid nature. But as to what she did or said to make Misato strike her I couldn't begin to guess. I can only assume that you suspect it is somehow tied to your son, and feel that it could impact her ability to command properly."

Kaji's response was not any answer, but rather a question designed to try and draw information out of the Commander.

Gendo did not miss that, but reveled at finally having some sort of actual mental opponent. "I would do my own research if I was you Agent Ryoji, Pilot Ayanami has undergone radical changes since the first angels appearance. With her recent estrangement from Pilot Ikari I would not put some sort of rebellious action out of the question."

"If that is the case then why haven't her case files been updated? Or just replace her with a new one?"

'Now is the point where he tried to decipher my reasoning'… Gendo thought to himself, And there it is He continued on as he caught the almost imperceptible shift if Kaji's face as he reached a supposed epiphany. 'If you didn't know then of course neither would the other spies we are aware of in the organization that we feed false info to. Now you will wonder why I let you in on this.'

It was these mental games of chess that brought Gendo one of his rare bits of happiness.

"Well, Operation Yashima went off without a glitch, so I take it that you haven't seen any dip in the major's operational efficiency?" Kaji knew he had lost the last hand so he moved forward, hoping to get through this as quickly as possible.

"It is of more concern that her growing relationship with Pilot Ikari will affect her ability to objectively lead." Gendo laid the bait out for Kaji, taking his lead in and adjusting it to his whims.

"Your son seems to have become a model soldier Commander, in spite of what hes been through, and what we did to him.' So I would rather focus my efforts on Pilot Ayanami. As you said, some rebellious action is not out of the question, based on what we've seen" Calling Shinji his son was a guaranteed point in any match against the elder Ikari.

Whether it was shame, anger, or perhaps some emotion that even Gendo himself could not name that elicited the response didn't matter. That it did is what made him react. Gendo was not one to make gut reactions.

"Attempting to get a rise out of me does not suit your needs Agent. You should eschew any further attempts to do so for your own health." Gendo made the appropriate response to Kaji's jab. It was how he expected him to respond so he acted his part, not wanting to give the bigger game away.

"Pilot Ayanami has the uncanny ability to evade detection if she wishes, so yes, do try and keep an eye on her. We seem to have the other two in question well under thumb."

Neither side got as much as they wanted out of the conversation, but one does not survive as long in the world Kaji lives in on luck alone.

"What about your efforts in trying to track down this Kaworu character agent Kaji?" Ritsuko finally interjected to break the battle of wills that had erupted around her.

"Well oddly enough if you match up Pilot Soryu's testimony with surveillance equipment from Berlin there is a distortion on all audio and visual feeds every time she supposedly encountered him. I have been unable to find out from section six what could have caused it, but they are working on it." Kaji took the out she gave him and made a mental note to thank her for it later.

"So you believe that it lends credence to her statements?" Gendo asked Kaji leadingly as he had done to him just a few moments before.

"I know Asuka, I'm sorry, Pilot Soryu, quite well sir. And seeing her physical degradation first hand, I don't believe that she had faked it. Someone or something was trying to keep her from interfering with the attack. With what happened in America and the emergence of Nerv's apparent infiltration, I don't think some sort of subversion can be ruled out."

"I agree. The unsettling matter is that nothing has been found. Either their skill is so great that we can uncover nothing, or the matter is not a secular one. I can't decide which is worse. I will be sending you additional resources with which to tend to this problem with." Gendo responded knowing that the money spent was going down the toilet, never to be seen again. He knew that Kaworu was Tabris and what that meant. When he had first received the intel it had chilled him to the bone.

Things beyond his ability to control were happening far too often for his liking, and nothing he did seemed to stem the tide. But it was time to switch gears again, having Kaji waste time on a known quantity was bothersome, but he had to so as to not raise suspicions on other facts.

"What progress has been made on the 667 code." He asked Dr. Akagi, baiting the hook.

"Well since its success is directly tied to the completion of the dummy plug it has been slow." Ritsuko paused for a moment as she gathered her courage. "Are you positive that any attempt to sway the pilots would be fruitless sir? I would have to believe that at the very least your son would be malleable."

"Pilot Ikari," Gendo stressing the words so as to get his point across, "made an attempt on my life not too long ago. I highly doubt that he would support any decision I made, no matter how valid or well intentioned. That, coupled with his recent trend towards independence, make coercion unlikely. I believe that agent Kaji can attest to that."

Kaji shuddered a bit at the memory.

"That being what it is I want you to reorder your priorities doctor. Number one at the moment will be the dummy plugs, followed by 667 and then repair's to Shingoki. What you do on your own time is your business, but you are not paid to indulge in personal favors, do I make myself clear?"

Kaji was not surprised by the commander's apparent callousness towards his son, rather he had expected it. But what had surprised him was the 667 code, he had never heard of it. Considering that it had been only mentioned briefly, he was puzzled why it had been leaked to him at all. He knew that Gendo was playing mind games, he just couldn't figure out to what end. The entire meeting sat poorly with him, he felt as if he was watching some surreal puppet show.

Various other topics were discussed at greater length, and after the better part of an hour Ritsuko and Kaji had been dismissed. As the door slid shut behind them Fuyutski walked out of the shadows behind Gendo. Without turning to face him Gendo began his questioning.

"Well what do you think old friend?" He said smirking a bit due to the fact that he knew that Fuyutsuki would sneering at him for the remark.

"Each of them has their own agenda, the Major as well. They keep them hidden, but not so well as to mask that they have them. It could be a hindrance to the plan." he said, emphasizing 'could' because he knew that they would not. "I believe that we should transfer control of the dummy program to Lt. Ibuki. The good doctor is becoming more unstable by the day, her poor acting job today is just another clue. She has too much power to leave on a long leash, soon she must be reined in. Ibuki on the other hand is a puppy, she would nearly manipulate herself if you even inferred some sort of negative repercussions for her lover." Fuyutsuki's voice was quiet and tired, matching his haggard look.

"Akagi's hatred of her mother and fear of living in her shadow, both literally and figuratively, have begun to show haven't they?" Gendo asked rhetorically. "And her pitiful excuse for a relationship with the Lt. has always been her biggest weakness, she knows that and I feel would be able to toss it aside in a moment's notice if it would save her own hide. But the reverse is not true, as you say." Gendo leaned back heavily in his chair and finally turned it to face his former mentor.

They stared at each other for a moment before Fuyutsuki continued on with his examination of the situation. "With the complete failure of all the S2 cloning experiments, I think you were right to go back to the dummy plugs. But the 667 is an Achilles heel, not your salvation. Let me finish" He said holding up his hand to delay Gendo's response.

"A backdoor into the dummy system is all well and good, but if you can use it then so can they." He said referring to the council and their real form, Seele. "If you think you can use it to better control third impact then so will they, because don't think you can keep something like that from them. They have found out about secret programs and information in the past and will in the future. My only hope is that you intended it as red hearing of some sort."

"If it was I could not tell you of course, so that question has to hang for the moment." Gendo replied neutrally.

"Of course, but getting back to something Akagi said earlier. She is right you know. If you told Shinji about the dummy system replacing the pilots, he may get on-board. You know he would quit in a second if he could. On top of that if you played on his fears of Pilot Soryu getting hurt he would be putty in your hand. He is a child after all." Fuyutsuki was a bit disgusted with himself, you could tell by the inflection of his voice. Explaining to a man how to undermine his own son was distasteful.

"I would have agreed with you not to long ago, but things seem to be changing. At this juncture I think it would behoove us to cultivate his new, more aggressive, behavior and guide it, rather than suppress it. Besides, he pushes the unit harder when he's having a temper tantrum, it provides better data.

"It could be anywhere from eighteen months to two years until the MP's are ready, so why risk another berserker episode?" Fuyutsuki knew that somewhere deep in that pit Gendo calls a heart he still cared for Shinji. Even though he never had children of his own he had to believe that all of this was some misguided attempt to strengthen his son for the coming hardships, that he would rather have his son hate him than be dead. But Gendo was a hard man to read, he would constantly give you false leads and contradictions, just to amuse himself and befuddle you.

"All the more reason to work on the committee. If we could get Soryu over here we could use her. I think knowing that she was around could serve as a way to mitigate his overriding of the limiters, with her we could more safely push him. Take him right to the edge, but let him keep himself from falling. But that is speculation, we need tests, results." Gendo began to get animated, at least for him, for the first time that afternoon now, making small gestures with his arms as he talked.

"Just another plaything eh?" Fuyutsuki mused.

"I consider myself nothing but a cog in a machine, why should he be any different?"

As Rei made her way up the stairs to the Katsuragi/Ikari residence she could sense the various emotions radiating from the party. Bracing herself for the worst and hoping for the best she let herself in.

The first person to notice her arrival was Satsuki Ooi. Her usual trio, having grown bored of video games, had decided to change over to movies. She was in the kitchen for a glass of water, letting the others bicker about what to watch. An old black and white American film began blaring out of the television, subtitled for their easy ingestion. That was when she spotted Rei in the doorway.

"Rei!" Satsuki's squeal penetrated the general bedlam with ease.

Pilot Morgan came walking out of the bathroom just in time to catch the beginning of Rei's mobbing in. Touji decided to sit out round one as he watched the Nerv personnel rushing the kitchen. Kensuke and Hikari had held back as well, a bit surprised by the warm and enthusiastic welcome Rei was receiving.

For her part Rei was overwhelmed, with several languages and bad Japanese all mixing into gibberish. As she began to parse through it all, Shinji's voice quieted the crowd.

"Give her some room people, it's not like she's going to run away." his words causing all the heads in the room to turn. Ken pushed him the kitchen doorway to the outside of the ring of people and then moved off again, this time taking a seat by Touji on the couch as Hikari looked on and crossed her fingers for a decent reunion.

"You look nice." Shinji said as he took in Rei's black sleeveless turtleneck, brown skirt with chocolate colored mesh design, and light brown beret.

"Thanks..." Rei said, her voice a bit quieter than she had expected due to her being a bit embarrassed by Shinji complimenting her in front of everyone.

A moment of awkward silence was averted by Hikari bear hugging Rei and nearly squealing, "I'm so glad you came!" She turned her head for a moment towards Touji and Kensuke obviously signaling for them to be happy as well. Seizing on his chance to get back into her good graces Touji put on his best approximation of Ellis's 'If she's happy I'm happy' routine, Ken following suit, as all good wing-men do.

After all the initial pleasantries were done Hikari declared dinner on and the Katsuragi/Ikari household soon resembled a military mess hall, fitting if you think of it. Small talk went back and forth between the assembled pilots, few of them missing the still tense air between Shinji and Rei. It was better than it had been but it was still like eating a meal with friends who are ex's.

After dinner dishes were dealt with quickly. At Hikari and Kaede's behest, the non-cooks set up a sort of assembly line so that they could get back to fun quicker, and that was that. While Rei put the dishes away, as was her assigned duty, she continued her internal monologue about when and how to get down to the brass tacks of the night's errands. Do it now so people can get back to having fun later, or save it for the end so it can't put a damper on the festivities?

The decision was made for her by the good old mother hen herself. "You look like you've been wanting to say something all night Rei, what is it?"

"I've been wondering the same thing." Ken chimed in after Hikari.

"Well it's not exactly the happiest news and I didn't want to ruin everyone's fun, so ya know..." Rei trailed off as she dried her hands off one last time.

"Things can't get much worse than they've been recently, right?" Kenny added, and realized he has stuck his foot in his mouth again when the rest of Nerv 01 gave him 'the look'.

"Its orders from the commander." Rei said all eyes on her now, everyone's apprehension apparent, the exact thing she had wanted to avoid.

"What's dear old dad got for us now?" Shinji said as he rolled himself out of the kitchen and into the living room, his memories of what his last order had done to him not forgotten.

"We're all being moved again, closer to the geofront. In fact most of us are going to be living in pairs now, in dorm style quarters."

"But were pilots, not single junior accountants!"Harald yelled, not wanting to give up his private room especially after he had just finally got fully unpacked. Mari and several other echoed his opinion.

"Look I have no say in this, you know that. He said that it's to bolster teamwork, but I'm not gullible or stupid so I don't buy it. I can't tell you why but I can tell you he said we all have three days to all get packed and ready to go. Some people will be coming by to move our stuff for us." Rei reached into one of her pockets and pulled out a printout of the orders and handed it to Aoi who was directly to her left.

"That's a copy of the orders, the room listings, and who your roommates will be. And before you jump me about it, yes, I have a private room. Shinji would have as well if he wasn't living with the Major. And no, I don't know why Suzuhara and Makinami don't get private rooms. They will be living next door to each other though, 203 and 204 respectively." She was only half heard by everyone though as they crowded around Aoi, trying to read over her shoulder or upside down if they couldn't get a better spot.

"Wait, were all going to be in this building now?" Satsuki asked as she moved some of her long dirty blonde hair out of her face. As Rei nodded an affirmation Hikari gave Touji a nasty look that he didn't see. She didn't like him living next to 'that slut' Mari.

Reinaldo, after talking with Ellis for a moment because he still couldn't read Japanese yet, added what Rei left unsaid. "Hey you're just going to be a few rooms down huh? Room 402 is what it says here, were in what 407 right now, right?" Shinji's sigh could be heard from the next room.

It was at this moment that Misato picked quite possibly the worst time, ever, to open the door to her house and stick her head in. She was greeted with a myriad of boos and someone actually said the word hiss as she walked out of the hallway and into the middle of a minefield.

"Hey, I just came to check up on -my house-," she emphasized the words as she walked towards the living room. "Well I see it's not on fire and there aren't any holes in the wall, so I guess things haven't gotten too exciting yet." She said jokingly, though no one laughed.

As she walked back into the kitchen the crowd parted for her as if she was Moses . . . or a leper. "Ah, I see you got it already," she said as she nodded her head towards the papers Aoi still held in her hands. "I guess that saves me from having to look like the bad guy."

Misato walked over to her fridge and grabbed a beer out of it, noticing a few were gone. "Just don't drink them all." She said as she lightly shook the can in her hand. "I won't tell you not to drink cause you'll just to it anyway, and besides what is a teenage party without a bit of underage drinking right?" She said as she gave Kenny and Leos a wink, not that they saw due to their eyes being glued to her chest.

"Is there anything you guys need before I leave, Shinji-kun?" She added just to embarrass him.

"No were fine Misato, but thanks for asking." He replied not fazed in the slightest, in fact he was glad she had shown up to smash the dour turn the party had taken.

"Well, all right. I won't be back till late tomorrow morning so just make sure everything is cleaned up by then and maybe I can make the location available again sometime, 'kay?" She said as she roughed up Shinji's hair and gave Rei a warm smile before she left. Was she trying to prove she was the bigger woman or just genuinely happy that she and Shinji had seemed to reconcile?

Perhaps a bit of both.

As Rei shook off her confusion at Misato's gesture someone spoke without being spoken to for the first time since Misato had come by.

"Well that was odd," Victor said in Spanish. Marcos nodded in agreement as the foreign language left everyone else looking confused.

Capitalizing on the reprieve that Misato had given them, Hikari, and surprisingly Mari, were able to steer the festivities back to just that and the night continued on as teen parties with alcohol tend to go. Kenny even hit on Rei, poorly, for a while after ingesting enough liquid courage.

'Nice enough guy, but no, just no. Beautiful eyes though.' She thought to herself as she gently let him down and he passed out shortly thereafter.

As the clock on the wall passed two in the morning the last of the couples left, with sloppy, gross, drunken teen sex soon to follow for most of them, much to Rei and Shinji's obvious chagrin. Kenny, Kensuke, and Victor were passed out in what had, in a past life, been Shinji's room. As Rei finished picking up the last of the party's remnants she came into living room to see Shinji out on the veranda, staring off into the geofront's dome, a poor replacement for the real night sky.

The door to the patio was open and the fake summer breeze, as it always had, smelled...off. As if someone put an additive into the wind machines for the geofront that was supposed to approximate 'the smell of summer.' Whatever it was all it ever did was put a nagging feeling in the back of your head that something wasn't right. Most forget it quite quickly, but not Rei, Lillith always dug her nails in a bit deeper when they did stuff like that.

"Not good enough is it?"

"Not even a pale imitation to be honest." He said keeping his gaze 'skyward', "But it's better than nothing, right?"

"Debatable." Rei replied as she grabbed a chair a few feet from Shinji and moved it closer to his left side. "I had no part in the room assignments, you know that right?" Recalling a presumption she feared Shinji might have had from earlier.

"I know that, you're not that petty, and besides if I had really thought you had any say in how anything around here happens I would have exploited it from the beginning." Shinji said as he finally had his fill and brought his eyes back to earth.

"That wasn't very nice." Rei said, in a 'let's please not fight' sort of way.

"I know, I was hoping you wouldn't notice and let it pass. I regretted saying it as soon as it came out, sorry." Shinji was still not looking at her as he spoke, in fact he pulled farther away from her to get behind the veranda's only table, resting his head on it as he got there.

"Have a bit too much to drink?" Rei asked as she tried to tiptoe through the field of egg shells she still felt their conversations were built upon.

"I seem to keep forgetting that my old tolerance isn't shared by this new body." Shinji said to the ground as he waved his left arm back behind him.

Rei got his reference and got up to shut the verandas door. "Luckily I never much liked the taste of alcohol, only resorting to it when under social pressure. Besides I can go from drunk to sober instantly if I wanted to, blessing and a curse believe it or not."

"Oh, trust me I can buy that, easily." As he finished talking Rei took a new seat at the table with him, yet again to his left. They sat there for a few minutes in silence, Shinji not tired for some reason and Rei not really needing sleep all that often anyway.

It was Shinji who broke the silence by bringing up Asuka of all things. "I got a chance to talk to Asuka this morning; it was about this time in the day for her. We talked for a few hours, until I felt bad for still keeping her up. She never once complained about it." Shinji finally picked his head up off the table and had a small smile on his face.

"What did you two talk about?" Rei inquired, not feeling as if he brought her up to hurt her.

"This and that, mostly just stupid small talk, we can't talk like you and I do, or did at least. Not until she gets here. So we just have to be content with what we can get, but that's not all that hard to do really. Ever since...the incident, we have talked most every day. It's so odd, our relationship is better now than it ever was before. Even better than when the kids were still young, I don't know what it is that has gotten into her but it's the nicest and most understanding I've ever seen her. I just hope it holds, you know?" Shinji gave Rei a sidelong glance before pausing and then turning to face her fully.

"I'm happy for you, and I'm not just saying that, I'm serious. It's good to see you happy again."

"What about you though." Shinji said, noticing Rei's even countenance, neither looking happy or upset. "I'm not as dumb as I once was, I know what happened hurt you, even when you weren't being quite vocal about it. I was trying to hurt you yes, but there are times I can recall very clearly that I wouldn't have been able to hurt you even on my worst day."

"Why bring stuff like that up, it was literally in another life. It has no bearing on today at all." Rei said keeping her even tone.

"I don't really know to be honest." He said, falling into the Gendo pose as he thought. Rei didn't like seeing that one bit.

"Well to answer your question I guess, well, I'm not doing great obviously, but I am doing better than I was before the Ramiel fight."

"Is your happiness really based on our 'relationship'?" Shinji asked as he sat back in his seat and took his chin in his hand, rubbing it as he thought.

"Well putting it that simply doesn't do me justice to be honest, but it's a big part of it, yeah. You're my best friend and you threw me away for almost a whole year, that's not a little thing you know." She held her hand up forbidding Shinji from responding. "Yes, I know about what I did and all that, let's not go back there. Tonight isn't about fighting, the only reason I came here tonight at all was for this. . . one last attempt to fully bury the hatchet between us. If it doesn't work then I'm done, I won't torture myself anymore or cause you any more distress. It benefits no one." Rei didn't break eye contact with Shinji after he tried to interrupt her, as if she was trying to read his mind.

"That's awfully unfair you know? Knowing that makes it my fault if this ends badly, I know you're not trying to coerce me, but it sure plays out like that." Rei said nothing, keeping her eye contact with him.

"I wish you could just poke me in the forehead and end all of this shit. Get all the hours, hell weeks, of us doing this weird little dance out of the way. It's...annoying. The hoops I feel like I'd have to jump through, I..." Shinji just trailed off as he broke eye contact with her, yelling as he ran his hands roughly through his hair, felling like he wanted to just rip it out in chunks.

"See what I mean, I can't even talk right. All the thoughts and feelings I have are all jumbled up, and I can't get them all out right. It would take all day and I'd just end up repeating myself a lot and still forgetting most of what I really want to say and do." He started to fidget pretty bad and after growling to himself again. It was easy to see that if he could walk under his own power he would pacing around frantically. "And now I'm just rambling like a retard. This is... ARRGH!" He yelled a third time, so loud that Rei was worried it would wake his drunken friends.

Rei did not interrupt him, letting him go on like that for a very long time, constantly doing just as he said he would. Repeating things over and over, retreading old ground from their past arguments. Flinging unfair accusations, condemnations and other negative comments at her, his father and other people who had nothing to do with their current predicament. By the time it seemed he was finally starting to run out of steam the geofront was starting up its 'morning' routine. It was already after six.

"Why did you let me do that?" Shinji asked after they had both begun to watch the artificial sunrise, his voice showing the first signs of giving out.

"Because it was something you seemed like you needed to do. Stuff you had to get off your chest. Do you feel any better now?"

"I guess so." There was another long pause. "I'm not going to say that I'm sorry for what I did." He said, finally breaking the silence.

"You still don't feel you owe me that?" Rei asked purposefully keeping her gaze off of Shinji.

"I owe you a lot of things, I think. Just not exactly sure what yet, if that makes any sense at all."

"No, not really." She said as Shinji wheeled himself away from the veranda's banister and closer toward her.

"Look at me." Shinji commanded her as he grabbed her right arm and turned her to face him. He wasn't being violent but he was rather serious. "I..." He opened his mouth for the next word but it died on his lips. He broke eye contact with her for the briefest moment, looking to the ground. "The severity or duration, however you want to think about it was wrong. OK? That was wrong, but..." Shinji let out his breath slowly as if tormented by his own words as he let go of her hand and leaned back in his chair, taking his chin in hand yet again.

They stared into each other's eyes intently for what seemed like forever. If it had been scene from a movie they would have kissed, but this was real life. Instead Shinji got a finger pocked in the forehead, his response to which was looking at Rei like she had three heads. She gave him a beautiful smile and then it dawned on him and he started to laugh.

"It seemed like the thing to do." Rei said, emotion returning to her voice.

"I see." Again they fell into silence but this time it was finally different, it was comfortable.

"They're waking up." Rei said as she looked towards Shinji's old room.

"Already? I'm impressed, didn't think we would see them until noon at the earliest," Shinji said as he started to make his way over to the door back into the house. "I guess you better come over here quick then, so they don't get any ideas."

"Are you sure?" Reis voice carried her apprehension.

"Do I ever say or do anything I'm not a hundred percent on?" At Rei started to give a response Shinji interrupted her. "Just get over here."

As she stood in front of him he reached out to her and gave her the best hug he could from his chair. It was awkward on both ends, yes, but it was a start.

And in the back of her mind Rei could feel something stir that she didn't like.

A few hours later in the shallow sea above the former country of Denmark, Asuka Langley Soryu killed Gaghiel. The roaring 'beast of god' was the first angel attack that wasn't directed at Nerv HQ. . . At least that what the brass thought, but if that was the case then what was Tabris and Yamagishi?

Cat people (putting out fires), its lyrics and all associated copyrights belong to David Bowie, his record label and all appropriate copyright holders. I own nothing. PS, Bowie is a musical god.

Trying italics for inner thought for the first time, let me know if any of you have a preferred method. I'm ok with either.

A million million thanks to my prereader rob, hes the best.

Only pic this time is what Rei's wearing. I have no drawing talents of my own so if I cant find what I want or form what I want to what I can find then im sunk. Oh well.

https:/ docs. google. com/ document /d/ 1ARYQIcqdB9EBqiomE7tw2VYxBY_5L0866bA-OZW2Qbs/edit?hl=en#

spaces in url need to be removed as usual. FFN is still to dumb to handle them correctly