"What the hell's going of here?!" shouted Commander Gendo Ikari as he found a small crowd of high-level personnel outside the retrieval lab.

"Kinoshi's dead" replied Ritsuko as she stepped through the group to meet him.

"How?"

She nudged her head, implying that it would be better to talk elsewhere. Nodding in agreement, the Commander followed her deeper into the corridors of central dogma.

When they eventually came around a corner, the Commander held her by the shoulder with an arm and turned her around to face him.

"How?" he asked.

Ritsuko frowned, displease at Ikari's impatience on the matter.

"I take it that you remember that it was you who sent Kinoshi to… 'terminate' the flaw last night?"

"Yes"

"The flaw… killed Kinoshi… and escaped"

"How?"

"She… it… somehow disabled him and used the neuro-suppressors meant for it on him"

Gendo seemed to ponder a while on the implications of her words. Staring straight through Ritsuko as if she wasn't even there. Then, he turned around and begun walking away.

Ritsuko was about to ask what was to be done when she promptly got her answer.

"Search the security records of last night, find out where it went. How it avoided tripping any alarms and when you do, inform me, we must make sure this mess is cleaned up"

"Yes"

Sunlight, though I have memories of it, this is the first real time I've seen it. The first time I've felt it's warmth snake across my skin.

The wind as it blows gently between my hair.

The sounds of life.

A pleasant feeling.

The feeling of freedom.

I wish the sensations of today would never end.

I do not wish to return back to void and darkness in which I begun.

I will not. But the ones who created me now wish my destruction. They will seek me. I must find a safe place to hide. Then I shall think of my next move..

On her terminal, Ritsuko watched the recording of the component walking, naked and still dripping in LCL, into the locker room. Where it proceed find some spare sets of clothes. Quickly cleaning itself up, it changed into them. However, when it was about to leave, it turned to stare up at the camera. Ritsuko shivered as she felt the hair at the back of her neck raising. It was as if it knew she would be watching the recording, its eyes seemed to stare right out of the monitor and penetrate her very soul. She swiftly switched off the recording.

"Smart… too smart"

Watching from the shadows, I watch as my other self leaves her dwelling. I feel angered. She has been enjoying these sensations for so long yet she still does not appreciate them. One day, I will have a word with her.

For some reason, she stops suddenly, almost as if she had just noticed something. She turns and stares towards my direction, she could tell that something was wrong but she didn't know what.

Her eyes see, yet she does not.

She watches intently, awaiting any movement that she can detect. But she finds none.

She turns and leaves.

I am tempted. Tempted to strike her down.

But for now, I avoid the security team that follow her. I however sense two who remain, they watch the dwelling for anyone suspicions. If they see me without the rest of the security team reporting in, they will raise the alert.

Only one way about it.

"The alarm was not triggered because the component was dress as Ayanami, therefore any cameras or personnel who encountered it were not surprised by her presence within NERV at such times" explained Ritsuko as she directed Gendo and Fuyutsuki's attention towards the holographic display of the security recordings.

"This particular recording was of it speaking to one of the gate guards, explaining to him that she'd lost her access card and was still awaiting a replacement"

The display switched to a close up of the guard smiling and allowing her through.

"The guards, seeing an obviously familiar face suspected nothing, thus allowed her through"

The Commander just sat there, obviously carefully analyzing the actions of the component.

"The guard did however report that he felt a little ill in her presence but the feeling faded when she left"

"Coincidence?" asked Fuyutsuki.

"The MAGI's exploring that angle right now, but the results wouldn't be back until later" replied Ritsuko.

"It would seem that the flaw is very intelligent and is in probably possession of some, if not all of Rei's memories. It could not have otherwise gotten as far as it did. The MAGI predict that there is a 79.5555 chance that it will seek a hiding place next"

"What about Kinoshi? How did it disable him?" asked Fuyutsuki.

"Unfortunately, the hidden camera in the retrieval lab started recording only static as soon as Kinoshi entered the room, we're not sure whether it was a technical fault or caused specifically by the flaw. But in terms of motives it's likely that it killed him in self defense… it must have very strong survival instincts to have surpassed all our security systems so easily."

"Why it killed him is irrelevant, it was to be terminated for this very reason, the flawed component now poses a massive security risk. Should any of the intelligence agencies or even worse, SEELE should capture it. All our plans will result in failure" interjected Gendo.

"There is something else…" said Ritsuko as she switched the holo display to a recording of the component walking through a corridor.

"What is this about?" asked Fuyutsuki.

"Listen carefully…" she explained.

"…"

"It's muttering something, but I don't quite understand… wait a minute… is that what I think it is?"

"Latin" interrupted Gendo.

"But how…?" asked Fuyutsuki.

"I don't know… maybe some residual genetic memories? I do believe Rei does know a bit of Latin" shrugged Ritsuko.

"No… not at this level… it's almost as if it's the component's first language" Gendo commented, seemingly just as puzzled.

"Ikari, I advise that you instruct Rei's security team to report her location at all times and all other teams to report in if they ever encounter Rei" suggested Fuyutsuki.

"I see, I this way we don't have to inform them that there's a rogue Rei running around" nodded Ritsuko in approval.

"Agreed" was all the Commander said.

"… all security teams are to report any sightings of the first child at any time. The first child's surveillance team will also report her location at all times" came Gendo's voice through the ear piece laying idly on the ground.

Unfortunately, the former owner was to never receive the message, if he did, he would have reported that she was just there. The reason he never got the message was that he was sprawled nearby with blood seeping out from underneath him, and needless to say, the agent was quite dead. His partner was in a similar status, except his had his back against the wall with a large red stain behind his head. Both had been stripped of their guns, clips, wallets and any other valuables.

I had acted quickly.

After retrieving the other self's credit card from her apartment. I immediately proceed to various banks, withdrawing the maximum amount of cash from the devices there as possible. Although allowed an unlimited credit, my other self never had the need to use the card before. That was why she left it at her dwelling.

It was a good thing that I knew her pin number.

I was able to obtain a substantial amount of money. The little extra yielded from searching the agent's bodies were quite insignificant compared, but every little bit would help.

I realized by now that my other self's memories were a great advantage.

They guided me through communication with others and provided me with information on where I could find what I required.

It was likely that they would now be alerted to keep an eye out for anyone who looked like me. So it was time to find some other disguise.

A trip to a small shopping center would result in new clothes, various hair dyes and colored eye contacts.

Food and other supplies were also next.

I carried everything to a small abandoned dwelling, to which I had found agreeable enough to inhabit temporarily.

Fuyutsuki walked sternly into the Commander's office, stopping right in front of his desk and threw a thick folder onto it. It made a loud thump as it fell heavily, startling Gendo out of his train of thought.

"What is this?" asked Gendo.

"Bills… 'Large' bills, and report concerning two dead agents assigned to safeguard the 1st child's apartment"

"Bills?"

"Massive amounts of cash were withdrawn from banks all across Toyko-3 this morning, we traced the accounts to Rei's card"

"This 'flaw' is starting to seem more and more intriguing by the second" Gendo almost chuckled.

"That still leaves us with the question of how did she overcome two trained agents and take their weapons… you don't think it possesses an AT-field right?"

Gendo looked up from the papers at the old man, his face switched back to blank as always.

"No, it would not be possible because of its very flaws. We'll have to take a different approach to this, it has proven too smart for conventional methods. You'd better also cancel all of Rei's access codes for now too"

"Anything else?"

"Order a dragnet for anyone or anything which may indicate its whereabouts. Keep it low profile though, there we'll be even more trouble if SEELE should hear about it."

"You realize that this sort of information will leak out eventually don't you? It's already too late to wipe the slate, they will know something's up."

"Then make sure it is found soon, before anyone else does. SEELE cannot be allowed to obtain the component."

I cease snipping off bits of my hair and put down the pair of scissors I was using.

I stare into the mirror at my reflection.

I note how my eyes were normally red but often faded into pitch black when I released my mind.

I do not know why it does this.

I have no memories of why.

I do not pretend to understand my existence or my purpose.

All that I can do now is survive.

Silently, I reached for a bottle of black hair dye.

To the casual observer Shinji Ikari might have seemed like the average schoolboy. Especially when he walked home at a sluggish pace with his head drooped. He wasn't really paying attention to anything or anyone for that matter. It hadn't actually been a particularly good day for him. Of course his morning did start off with the now ritual arguments with Asuka. That by itself wasn't really all that bad, as he was getting quite use to it by now. But then he'd realized that his class presentation had mysteriously disappeared, though he did suspect that it was had actually turned into soggy piece of paper, due to someone, who shall not be named, having spilt a whole can of beer on.

After been laughed at by Asuka and chewed out by the teacher, he'd been given the *highly* important task of holding buckets of water out in the corridor. When lunchtime came, Asuka realized that she'd left her lunch at home, but before she could even whine about it, Shinji had already shoved his lunch box in her hands and walked off. Should he had stayed, he would have seen the guilty and saddened look on Asuka's face, but he didn't.

Touji was at home sick and Kensuke had some sort convention or exhibition to go to, so he was actually skipping school. As thus, there was no chance of asking them to share their lunch. And there was no way in hell he was going to dare ask Rei to share hers, so he stayed pretty much clear of her. Besides, he thought she was just talking to his father on the phone.

After school, Asuka said that she had to go somewhere with Hikari, therefore he should just walk home by himself. But by then he didn't really care anymore, so he just nodded and left the two girls to their own business. So now here he was, walking home, more depressed than he'd been for a long time. He didn't even have his SDAT with him right now. Things couldn't get any worse he thought.

That was until he walked straight into someone, causing them to fall over on top of each other.

Groaning in pain, Shinji sat up and reached up to his forehead, clutching it in pain. Then he noticed the prone figure lying next to him. At first he thought it was Ayanami, which triggered a few flashes of dejavu, but quickly corrected himself when he realized this girl had black hair rather than blue.

"Oh my god! I'm so sorry! Are you ok?" he asked quickly in panic.

"Uhhhh" moaned the girl as she propped herself up on one arm.

"Here… let me help you" said Shinji as he reached out with a hand and helped her back up on her own feet.

"Ikari?" exclaimed the girl questioningly when she finally got a good look at him.

"Excuse me but do I know you?" queried Shinji as he looked at her in surprise.

He was pretty sure he'd never seen her before. Although she did look a lot like Ayanami, this girl had black hair, and black eyes. He would have considered in the possibility of it being the first child with dyed hair and contacts, if it were not for the fact that the girl had an obviously shorter haircut and strangely even paler skin. Unless Rei could cut and dye her hair and change clothes in less than ten minutes that is.

The was also the possibility that Rei had a sister, it's not as if he'd ever asked before.

"… no…" came the reply.

About as talkative as Rei though, he thought.

"Sorry, but then how is it that you know my name?"

"… I saw your photo in the papers… the Eva pilot right?"

"Oh… yes…"

"Sorry, I must go" she said as she turned away.

"Wait!"

At his words, she came to a halt, turning around slowly and looking at him questioningly.

"Yes?"

"Ermm… it would be nice if you at lest tell me your name"

The girl looked at him for a while, seemingly wondering if she should oblige him or not.

God… where did that come from, thought Shinji as he squirmed under her gaze. To him it sounded like he was making a pathetic attempt to pick her up. But he had to admit, she was quite pretty and there was something that he found enigmatic about the girl, it wasn't even the fact that she looked like Ayanami. It was something more.

Like an aura of loneliness.

Even more so than Rei… it was almost as if…

"Inanis"

"Huh?"

"My name… Inanis"

"Oh! Eh?… that's a very unique name… where is it from?"

"I'm Japanese, but the name's Latin"

"Ah… well… then… I'll see you around Inanis"

"Goodbye… Ikari"

"Shinji would be fine…" he shouted to her as she walked away.

"What a strange girl…" Shinji muttered under his breath.

I attempted to calm my racing heart as I walked away from him.

Shinji Ikari.

The son of my creator.

The son of who wants me destroyed.

Yet there are memories.

Memories of kindness, of sympathy. To my other self.

If he finds out that I am a flaw, then would he seek to discontinue me as well?

Maybe yes…

Maybe no…

Maybe…

"So want do you want to get him Asuka?" asked Hikari sympathetically as they cruised down the halls of a large shopping center.

"What are you talking about?" said Asuka as she swirled around to met her friend's gaze.

"Come on, I can tell you're feeling a bit guilty"

"Towards who?"

"Ikari"

"What would 'I' feel guilty about?" she smirked.

"Laughing at him in class, but he was still kind enough to hand over his lunch to you without so much as a complaint"

"Ahhh… That's because he's whipped…"

"Or maybe it's because he cares?" interrupted Hikari firmly.

"…"

"Don't deny it Asuka, you're here because you're feeling at lest a bit guilty."

"So you can read minds now Hikari? Oh hell… it wasn't only that… if it was, then I wouldn't even be bothered. But… Shinji wasn't lying when he said he thought Misato spilt beer on his homework… but he was wrong, it wasn't Misato… I bumped over an open can of beer on the table last night"

"Oh Asuka…! And you still laughed at him and didn't say anything to the teacher?"

"No…" she responded, feeling very small at the moment.

Hikari was tempted to scold Asuka for her treatment of Shinji, but it has been proven in her experience that Asuka didn't react very well to scolding. Sometimes Hikari felt like she was dealing with a small spoiled child rather than a girl her own age. So it was sometimes better to reason with her the same way she would a small child.

"Oh well… what's done is done, you'll just have to make it up for him" Hikari said.

"Oh… alright…"

"Hey… Isn't that Ayanami over there?"

"Huh? Can't be, she's got black hair… and a sense of fashion…"

"Hmmm… maybe you're right… what'd she be doing in a computer store? Unless her laptop's broken or something…"

"Here you go Miss," said the attendant as he handed the girl a large package, "The latest model, you can do practically anything with this. Top of the line 'wares and remote net-access."

All the girl did was to start reading the instruction manuals, which came with the package.

"Err… may I ask what will you be doing with this? I mean, this baby's got enough power to burn through corporate grade barriers…"

The girl raised an eyebrow, then looked up and stared at him with her gelid eyes. He felt the hair at the back of his neck stand on ends and was beginning to feel quite uncomfortable no matter how cute he thought the girl was. He suddenly also became aware that for some reason, all the other customers had left.

"Research" she finally answered in a calm but strangely eerie tone.

"Research?"

"On people"

"Errr… right…"he mumbled trying to look busy.

"Errr… will that be cash or credit?" he asked automatically, although he pretty much expected plastics for that kind of purchase, no one was insane enough to walk around with that kind of cash.

He eyes widened when he was handed several extremely large banknotes amounting to a pile about an inch thick.

He blinked.

He blinked again.

The banknotes were still there.

"Right…" he said nervously as he handed her the change.

"Thank you" was all she said as she left the store.

Inanis was a name as good as any other now that she thought about it. And quite fitting too, if you knew it's meaning.

People would have to call me something sooner or later.

It would be displeasing for them to continually refer me as 'it', the 'flaw', the 'component' or even 'Rei'.

Although I doubt they would change, I now had a name to which to call myself.

So far the security teams surrounding the second and third child have not been able to recognize me. So my decision to cut my hair and dye my hair had been a correct one. Fortunately, they would only be able to see the similarity between my other self and me if they got up close.

Slowly more memories are surfacing about my original purpose. But they are not enough.

The answer in elsewhere.

That was why I acquired a means of obtaining information.

Unknown to Ikari, my other self had learned to access privileged information when she required it so through various backdoors.

There were other things she needed to research too.

People.

Their history.

Their origins.

What drives them.

Know them.

Know myself.

Survive.

"It would seem that your son might be finally getting a spine Ikari" said Fuyutsuki as he shuffled through the reports of the first child's surveillance team, "He bumped into a girl and was seemingly trying to strike up a conversation with her."

"Anything on our escapee?" the Commander asked in turn, totally ignoring the previous comment by his Sub-Commander.

Fuyutsuki sighed, "Unfortunately we've drawn a blank. The component seems to have disappeared completely."

"That is unacceptable!" stated Gendo as he dropped the report he was going through and stared at Fuyutsuki, "The component is out there and it must be found, it cannot simply disappear without any trace."

"Ikari, it's much easier to track down a person who actually has a past or connections. But the component has none, it has no friends, no family, no one to which it should bother attempting to contact. In my opinion that may be one of the reasons you seek to destroy it so badly. It cannot be threatened into submission, it sees no reason to do what it does other than for it's own survival. You have the tendency to destroy what you can't control."

"Need I remind you that this component happen to also pose a treat to our plans and signify an unstable element in the future?!" he spoke in a hard tone. "The very fact that it has eluded us so far tells us that it is not to be underestimated and cannot be allowed to roam freely any longer. Can you imagine what would happen if SEELE gets a hold of it? And I'm not only talking about the information they could extract from it, think of what they could do with a being of such power…"

"So you keep on emphasizing. Is there something about this flaw which you're not telling me about Ikari?"

"I don't know what you're talking about."

"Very well, keep me in the dark if you must, but at least make sure you let me in on the information should the need arise…"

This wouldn't be the first time Ikari had been working on his own little 'side-projects' as he called them, thought Fuyutsuki. He shuddered to think of what kind of creature had Ikari really unleashed upon the world. There was always the possibility of unpredicted developments with such things. As much as mankind has advanced so far, much of genetic engineering was still a matter of randomness, especially when using DNA strands from creatures such as the Angels.

"Find the component and there shall be no need" Gendo said, reaching for another report and begun scanning through it.

The Next Day

"Errrmmm… Asuka…" started a nervous Shinji.

"Hmmm? What?" asked the redhead as she finished typing notes down onto her laptop.

"Errr… I just wanted to say… thanks for the new SDAT tapes you got me yesterday…"

"Don't mention it"

"Oh… but I was just wondering… why?"

"Are you saying I can't be nice to my fellow pilot for a change?"

"Well… no…"

"I mean I didn't have to feel guilty about something to give you something now do I?"

"Well… Eh? What was that bit about feeling guilty about something?"

"Oh look its Ayanami! Let's go and say hi!" she said, grabbing his arm and dragging him over to Rei's seat despite his protests and demands to know what she had to feel guilty about.

"Hiya first child! How are you today?" she asked the perkiest voice Shinji's ever hear.

Startled out of her daze, Rei turned to face Asuka who in turn grinned back.

"Hello. I am fine" she answered bluntly.

"Hey first child you never told us you had a twin walking around"

Rei tilted her head to a side and blinked in puzzlement.

"I do not have a twin" she stated as a matter of fact.

"Well, me and Hikari saw someone who looks a lot like you downtown yesterday. She looked almost exactly like you except she had black hair"

"And black eyes" added Shinji.

"Huh? You saw her too?" Asuka asked.

"I… sorta bumped into her over on the way home yesterday…"

Asuka's eyes suddenly narrowed

"Hentai! You probably bumped her over on purpose just to get a feel!" she said.

"I… I… did not!" Shinji protested his innocence.

"Oh sure… knowing you, you probably did pulled that trick on Rei already"

"Actually…" started Rei, but Shinji stopped her, promptly placing a hand over her mouth.

"What was that?! Shinji let the poor girl speak!"

All Shinji could do at this point was stare at Rei with his pleading eyes. He would NEVER hear the end of it if word got out about that incident, especially if it was Asuka who heard it first hand.

Rei felt a tingle of what she suspected was remorse for Shinji. She guessed it might have something to do with the fact that he was staring at her like a whipped little puppy. Not that she knew what that looked like in the first place.

"It was nothing"

Shinji started breathed again, realizing that he had stopped doing so somewhere along the way.

"Aww you're no fun" Asuka whined, "So Shinji, did you try to pick the girl up or what?"

"Errr… no… but I did get her name…" said Shinji.

"And what was that?"

"Inanis or something… she said it was Latin"

Asuka thought back to when she did a little bit of Latin in high school back in Germany.

"Inanis? Are you sure? That's definitely not a common name and I don't remember exactly what it meant but I don't think it has a nice meaning"

"I don know… I think that's what she said… I'm not exactly an expert on Latin you know"

Unbeknownst to them, Rei did in fact know the meaning of the word. She also succeeded in putting two to two together based on the information she received from the Commander yesterday.

"Do you know where she went?" Rei asked.

The other two, were stunned silent by her sudden interest in the matter. From their experience, there were few things, which interested the strange girl.

"Emm… no?" said Shinji.

"Well, if you must know, Hikari and I saw her head to the south part of town. I think it was the Kagami district, but I didn't think anyone lived there anymore since…" said Asuka.

"Excuse me… I must go now…" Rei said as she stood up from her seat and made her way outside.

The other two could only watch as their fellow blue haired pilot walked away. Leaving several new questions unanswered in both of their minds.

"Get ready… move!"

Several large and extremely well armed NERV Covert Ops agents kicked in the door of the small apartment they had identified as the one containing the target. Two of them quickly rushed in, whilst another two covered them from outside. A fifth one held a position in a nearby building, ready to provide sniper support fire should the need arise.

They had had some fairly simple orders: terminate the target with extreme prejudice.

Amongst their briefing, they were ordered to ignore the fact that their target looked like a 14 years old girl and that they were not to underestimate it under absolutely any condition.

As professionals, they made sure that they would complete their mission quickly and cleanly.

Contrary to popular belief, good portions of the agents working for NERV were not necessarily Japanese. That was because good agents were always recruited from where they were available, especially in the area of security, where skill and loyalty in the employee was by far more essential than where you were born.

When Brent Leman signed up as the team leader for the NERV Covert Ops, he didn't expect to be crashing into the apartment of a 14-year old to kill her. But then again, there were far much more distasteful things that he had been force to do when he was a Lieutenant-Corporal in the Chilean army during the post impact uprisings. Earning the nicked name 'Wildfire' by the guerrilla fighters he hunted, Brent sported twelve gunshot wounds and a scar from a machete slash on the his back that well near killed him. He was respected and feared for his ability to hunt down entire raiding parties with cold efficiency. But that was a long time ago, he rarely went out into the field anymore.

Still, a job's a job. And who knows? Maybe their target simply looked like a 14-years old or something. Intelligence agents who took growth-hampering drugs were not unheard of.

But by the looks of it though, it seemed as if the apartment had been cleared out already, and it's occupants gone.

"You see anything Lee?" he tried asking through the head comm.

"Nope. Infra-red ain't showing nothing. I'll try thermal."

Brent found it always useful to have a sniper in the team on any mission, even though they could provide cover fire they still made good spotters.

"Oh shit! Takashi! Behind you!" shouted Lee.

The next thing he heard was the sound of a gunshot.

"What happened!" asked Brent as he rushed outside.

"Someone was behind Takashi… I lost them track of them though…" quickly replied Lee.

When Brent reached the source of the sound, he found Sato already crouched over the body of Takashi.

"Fuck me!"

It was bloody mess, the shot was probably fired at point blank at the back of his head. There wasn't much left of the back Takashi's skull so it was likely that he never even saw it coming.

"Solid round by the looks of it. Probably from a Glock. One of the surveillance agents killed yesterday was missing his when they found him," said Sato standing up, "Strange though… his Enfield's still here… would have thought they would have took his weapons too."

"Why wasn't he with you? You were suppose to guard each other's backs!"

Sato frowned, offended by the remark.

"He was feeling sick… the chemical stims didn't help for some reason. He was struggling to keep himself from vomiting all over the place, so he asked if he could just hang back. I said that was fine 'cause from what I was seeing he was in no condition to do us any good."

"So you just left him?!"

"…"

This was suppose to be a clean mission thought Brent as he looked back at the doorway of the apartment. He could help but feel that that this was all too convenient. It was then that he had a portent of impending doom.

"Where's Elina?"

"I thought she went in with you…"

"She was right behind me when I came running out…"

"Shit!"

"Elina! Where the hell are you? Answer me!" shouted Brent, tapping his head comm to make sure it was working properly.

Static…

"God damn it Elina! Answer me now!"

Still no answer.

"Let's go" said Brent, a glint of anger flashed in his eyes.

The two agents carefully made their way back into the apartment, making sure that they had their backs covered.

It did not take them long to spot the pool of blood that was seeping out off one of the rooms.

They found her in what was in fact the bathroom. It was obvious that she'd walked in there herself, where she'd been throwing up in the sink. From what they could tell, she'd had her throat slit while she was busy doing just that.

A small blood soaked knife lay nearby, drawing accusing looks from the two battle hardened agents.

It had been silent and efficient, in contrast to the gunshot that took out Takashi, which was no doubt intended to draw Brent away from Elina.

But how on earth did they manage to sneak behind her?

And why the hell did she do something so stupid as leaving her back unguarded in the middle of a mission in the first place!

He thought back to his guerrilla warfare training, these kinds of tactics used so far were strangely very similar to those that he'd been taught. Which meant that the next target of their foe was likely to be Lee.

"Lee listen to me, you're quite likely to be the next target so make sure you watch your back at all times understood?"

"Copy."

"Just stay there, we'll have to re-group for now. Keep your eyes wide open Sato, it seems that even though we were warned not to, we still badly underestimated our opponent."

Sato nodded grimily, seeing that their opponent had already taking their numbers down to three was not doing great to his morale.

This one is ready for me.

But it will not suffice.

As the others, this physical body was strong.

But also like the others, his mind was frail.

I step out of the shadows.

In his mind I see myself.

A haunting figure.

Shrouded by darkness.

Blood stains on my hands and a top, which was once white.

He sees my eyes.

He quickly raised his weapon, placing the tiny laser dot sight right between my eyes.

He attempts to pull the trigger on his gun, but he cannot.

He is paralyzed in fear.

His heart is racing. Adrenaline pumping. But he feels weaker than he had ever been in his whole life.

He struggles to even stand.

I slowly step towards him.

He tries harder.

By the time I reached him, he had managed to stand feebly.

He is trembling badly.

He had already dropped his gun, unable to keep it steady. He was forced to hold on to the railings of the balcony where he stood for support.

I reach out with an arm.

His eyes widened in terror as I held him up by his neck, surprised at my strength.

I swung him over the rails, holding him out there, five stories high.

Face blank.

I reached for his head comm.

I smiled at him and spoke gently into it.

"Who's next?"

"Who the hell was that?" asked Brent to no one in particular.

He had only managed to reach the building's car park when he heard the girl's voice coming through the head comm. He halted and drew his arm out, stopping Sato on his tracks not too far behind him.

"Lee? Are you there?! Come in Lee!"

His reply came in form of a scream, Lee's scream, coming from above him. But he could only watch as Lee tumbled down heads first towards the ground and landing with a sickening crunch.

That was when he first saw her. Standing on the balcony where Lee had been positioned. Her pale delicate features highlighted by the building's nightlights.

The bitch was smiling.

"What the fuck is she?!" exclaimed Sato, who quickly raised his rifle to take a shot when suddenly, the girl vanished back into the building.

"This is just like fucking Ikari to send us in the field with jack-all Intel! If we get out of this one I'm gonna have a few words with that fucking bastard!" shouted Sato in frustration.

Although Brent was just as angered, he could not bring himself to loose sight of what was important right now. Sato was panicking. That was not acceptable in this situation.

"Get a hold of yourself Sato! You can blow away Ikari AFTER the mission! Hell I'll even hand you the gun myself, but for now we've got a job to finish."

"Fine! I'm gonna skin that bitch when I get my hands on her"

"Just don't let you anger cloud your judgement right now"

"Oh don't give me that crap! I do my best with my adrenaline pumping!"

Before Brent could argue any further, Sato was already rushing into the building. Bringing him along for his aggressiveness was suddenly a very bad idea in Brent's opinion. But, he could do naught at the moment but follow him in.

Upon entering the darkness of the foyer, Brent became suddenly aware of another presence in the area. Experience had taught him never to ignore his own instincts no matter what the situation was like.

His insights were however interrupted by the noise of gunfire.

"Die!!!" screamed Sato above the roar of his machine-pistol. Suddenly showering one of the corridors with high velocity shells. Sparks flew as the rounds tore through walls and lighting fixtures.

"Sato! Sato! What in god's name are you fucking shooting at?!" shouted Brent.

Swiftly as it had started, the gunfire died down, leaving an extremely puzzled Sato.

"She was there Brent! I saw her! She was right there in the corridor!" he indicated at the now wrecked area.

"For fuck's sake! You're losing it Sato! Keep your head on your shoulders!" exclaimed Brent, clutching his own head, trying to rid himself of the mild headache he was having.

"But…! Look! There she is!", this time Sato begun firing into another corridor and begun emptying his entire clip, when he ran out of ammo he simply reloaded it with another one.

This time there was no stopping him though, now matter how Brent tried.

Finally, Sato ran dry. Having fired off everything he had on him.

Brent thought that that was the end of it, but to his surprise, Sato simply drew his knife and charged through the bullet-ridden corridors. A maddened snarl locked on his face as he sought out his unseen foe.

"Sato! Stop!" shouted Brent, quickly running after him.

Sato brushed aside the wreckage of broken furniture and rubble without pause. It was like he was possessed, driven, by some insane rage that consumed any rational thinking. Brent had trouble following him, as unlike Sato, he could not ignore his own cautiousness, expecting an ambush around every corner.

This one was the weakest by far. He could be manipulated with ease.

I'm surprised they would send one such as him to find me.

In his mind, he own sees one thing.

The taunting.

The daring.

Private insecurities.

Hidden fears.

He is angered easily.

He prides himself of his strength.

But he doesn't realize one thing.

I am stronger.

Brent found that his headache was getting worse by the minute forcing him to infuse himself with some painkillers. Strangely enough, it didn't seem to have any effect. Brent was now beginning to suspect some sort of bio-warfare agent. Thinking back to how both Takashi and Elina were feeling ill before they were killed. Could this girl be the source? It would certainly explain certain things. But still, gas or chemicals seemed unlikely for some reason.

I stood there waiting.

He turns around the corner, running pass me as if I wasn't even there.

He is blinded by his rage.

I reached out and grabbed a hold of his arm.

Instantly, I snapped it back with as much force I could muster.

The sudden shock and pain drove him out of his blood frenzy.

In his mind, he howled in annoy.

But in the physical world, he was on the ground whimpering and breathing in sharp breaths.

I watched him as he lay there. Broken.

For I knew the last would be following right after.

This one was the leader.

His mind would not be toyed with so easily.

But enough with playing around.

She stepped forth and past him, walking around over to Sato, though constantly kept an eye on him.

Brent tried his best to move away, but his legs would not budge. Instead, he collapsed on himself, all his strength seemingly leached out of him instantly.

Brent was a proud man, never in his life would have he imagined that he would end like this. He was always expecting a stray bullet in the head on some mission or at lest dying on his feet. But not like this. Not lying here waiting for death.

"Who sent you?" she hissed towards him whilst standing over Sato.

"Ikari…" said Brent, not knowing why he hadn't emptied his gun in her head, let alone why he was telling her this in the first place.

He then saw her knee down next to Sato.

She closed her eyes, and pressed the palm of her right hand onto his forehead.

Though it seemed pretty trivial at the time, Brent noticed that Sato actually stopped his mumbling. For that matter, it seemed as if he had stopped moving all together.

She then stood up, and stared down at him.

That was when he saw it.

Her eyes...

They seemed to shift between crimson and black.

Not even the contacts she was obviously wearing were able to hide the changes underneath.

Even in the darkness, he could see it as clear as if it was in the light of day.

It felt as though they were boring into the back of his skull.

Suddenly, she snapped her head up. Contact was lost.

It reminded him of how a cat would do that, when it suddenly detected some nearby danger.

The girl then sprinting off faster than he had ever seen anyone run, quickly vanishing into the shadows, leaving a puzzled Brent wandering what that was about.

Groaning, Brent slowly pulled himself up using the frame of a broken corridor window. That was when he heard a low rumble.

Squinting hard, he looked out of the window, trying to pinpoint the source of the noise. Soon, he spotted it, a small dot in the night sky, surrounded by a halo of fire.

It didn't take him long to guess what it was, and at the same time realized why the girl had run off so suddenly. But it was too late for him.

It occurred to him then, that Ikari was probably monitoring his team's communication the whole time. Which would explain the ground to ground warhead heading towards him.

Calmly, as the black spot and halo became bigger, he reached for his head-comm and spoke into it one last time.

"Well fuck you too Ikari" was then followed by a loud explosion and then static.

Gendo listened carefully as he sat in the confines of his office, displeased at the failure of the Covert Ops team. But, none the less he had gained valuable insight on its nature.

Its learning curve and adaptability was beyond his wildest expectations.

In a way, he couldn't help but feeling a little pleased by the skills that his 'creation' had displayed.

There was no doubt in his mind that 'Inanis', as it called itself, had in fact escaped the missile strike. Which he admitted that it was probably a tad bit excessive, but it did have the advantage of wiping out evidence that the Covert Ops team might have left.

Terrorist tampering of the missile buildings could always be blamed in the end.

Till next time then…

Within the confines of a virtual location, a highly secret meeting is taking place. Only three black monoliths existed within this artificial universe. These three, represented the higher echelons of the organization know, by those who were privy to it's existence, as SEELE.

"The reports are quite clear in this matter" stated the central monolith designated as SEELE 01.

"Is there not a possibility of an error?" queried SEELE 03.

"No."

"Ikari should not have been allowed to play around behind our backs. As a result of his foolishness, he has unintentionally unleashed Pandora's box. It could spell disaster for us all" calmly said SEELE 02.

"It could not be helped, but it was not totally unexpected."

"What do you mean? This was never part of the scenario" asked SEELE 03.

"Ah, but it always pays to be prepared."

"What do you intend to do about it?"

"Eliminate it of course."

"Ikari has already been trying that, with no results" commented SEELE 02.

"Ikari does not know it's true nature, let alone know how to deal with it. He want's it destroyed to prevent it from falling into our hands. But we care not for that. He has yet to realize how much more of a threat it poses alive than he could possibly imagine."

"Very well, we will leave this up to you then."

"Agreed."

Simultaneously, both SEELE 02 and SEELE 03 faded away. Just as quickly, an unmarked monolith appeared in front of SEELE 01.

"You heard everything?" promptly asked SEELE 01.

YES.

The answer however was not voiced out. Instead, it was visually manifested in English on the monolith.

"Have the teams been deployed?"

DO NOT INSULT US.

YOU CREATED US FOR TWO REASONS.

THIS IS ONE OF THEM.

THE TEAM WILL ARRIVE IN 4 HOURS.

"But are you confident they will be ready for what awaits them?"

NO.

"Then why did you send them?! Why not simply send the Inner circle?"

THE IC ARE NOT READY. ANOTHER 5 PERCENT OF THE AUGUMENTATION ARE STILL UNDER DEVELOPED. BUT THEY WILL BE OUT OF THE PODS IN 8 HOURS.

"Why don't you just let the team find it and then stay clear until the Inner circle arrives?"

WHEN THEY LOCATE IT.

THEY ARE AS GOOD AS DEAD.

BUT WE HOPE THAT THEY WILL WEAKEN IT SUFFICENTLY FOR A WHILE.

"I see. Its powers are growing is it not?"

YES.

IT WILL SHADOW US.

"Will the Inner circle be enough?"

NOW: YES.

FUTURE: MAYBE.

"Even with the weapons we provided?"

YES

"Alright, but remember… if anyone is in the position to find out its true nature… eliminate them… whoever they are."

YES

"Then hurry. Or all is lost."

The unmarked monolith didn't even bother responding, it simply disappeared into thin air. Shortly after, SEELE 01 also vanished from vision.

OMAKE - By Seph Khan

"It would seem that your son might be finally getting a spine Ikari" said Fuyutsuki as he shuffled through the reports of the first child's surveillance team, "He bumped into a girl and was seemingly trying to strike up a conversation with her."

It took over a minute for Gendou to get over the shock.

"This is most…disturbing. This was never anticipated in either the Old Men or our scenario" Commander Ikari said For the first time in many years, he was actually… sweating.

For no apparent reason, at that moment in New Jersey, two school girls spontaneously combusted. But we're getting beyond ourselves here :-)

"If we did not anticipate this change in events, I assume we have no countermeasures."

"Indeed. We must go into damage control. If the mystery girl can be made to fit our plans, the scenario can still be saved."

"A vain hope, but it's all we have left…" Both were silent. Strangely enough, it was Gendou who broke it.

"Was she by any chance of European extraction? Preferably German?" Gendou clasped his hands together, in the trademark position, waiting for the answer. He wasn't happy with the answer he got, of course.

"The security reports don't mention it in their report."

"Then we must move on… Was she in her late 20's early 30's? Under the influence of alcohol?" he said, with a hint of desperation in his voice.

"Definitely not."

Gendou's clasped hands where beginning to tremble. But he still gave his beloved scenario one last chance…

"Hmmm…. A human-angel hybrid?"

"I refuse to even dignify that one with an answer…" Fuyutsuki replied. Gendou sighed.

"I see… Then this alteration can not be allowed to continue. Find the girl and have her killed. Now."

"But Ikari… are you sure this is…"

"That was an order, old friend…"

"…Very well… I'll make the arrangements…"

"And while you're at it, execute the boy as well. He usefulness has come to an end."

"Shinji!!? But…but… he's your son! Why!!!" Gendou reached into the drawer of his desk and pulled out a small pistol, aiming it directly at the Sub-Commanders head. Fuyutsuki gulped, and probably would have wet himself had he been more like other people his age.

"I did not spend ten years screwing around with his life and state of mind just so he could act like a normal fourteen year old teenager…"