"How could you do that to them?" she asked him, standing in front of his desk. Her face was still slightly shocked.

Ikari calmly sighed. "They will be fine, Major Katsuragi. Mr. Trent is fully trained for matters of this kind, he will see that they survive," he explained calmly.

"You mean Cirus was involved?" she asked back in disbelief.

"No, but he is more than capable of dealing with surprises, Major. This was a calculated risk. The attack on NERV will not be repeated," Ikari answered.

Ritsuko was standing slightly behind and to Misato's right. She had advised her friend against this action, but had given up trying to convince the other woman when she saw the expression on her face.

Misato leaned down, supporting herself on the other side of Ikari's desk, looking down at the ground. The whole mission was a front... "You did this to your own son?" she asked, looking back up.

"As I said, Cirus is more than capable of handling the situation, Major Katsuragi," Ikari's voice had a cold edge behind it this time. "You are dismissed."

Misato stood up numbly and saluted before turning around and walking out of the office with her friend. As they walked out into the hall Misato looked up at her friend wearily. "Tell Maya to start scanning for them. I'll arrange a search party," she said calmly.

"Alright. They'll be fine, Misato," Ritsuko reminded her before heading off to do what she'd asked.

Misato suddenly looked up with a creased brow. "Wait, Ritsuko!" Ritsuko stopped and turned back around.

"How will we fight any Angels if they attack right now?"

Ritsuko seemed to ponder the question for a moment. "You think he already has their recovery planned?"

Misato nodded.

"Perhaps, but that doesn't mean we shouldn't do our part," Ritsuko replied and then continued on her way.

Misato quickened her pace and did the same.

After almost three hours of hiking through the woods, Rei stopped them at a small clearing.

"I believe we should rest now," she said calmly.

Shinji eased Asuka down to the ground against one of the trees as Cirus, after putting the pilot down in a safe-spot, calmly hopped up on a boulder and perched himself there. Rei sat down in a small groove just big enough for her to curl up inside in an elevated section of ground. Shinji sat down across from Asuka and the other two, slightly hunched over himself with a weary expression on his face. Considering the young man had been helping lift another person for three hours he was more than deserving to let it appear on his face.

Cirus smiled faintly as he looked down at Shinji and then turned his head to look down at Asuka, who was leaning against the tree supporting the rock he was perched on himself. Her eyes were closed and judging by her breathing, she was already asleep. He looked down at her ankle and saw that it was very badly bruised, but most likely that was all. She'll be able to walk in a couple of days, but still... He raised his head and looked around with a lightly creased brow. He couldn't see anything in the surrounding area that would let him support her ankle and so settled back down into his hunched position on the rock.

After another half-hour Cirus finally let himself relax and hop down from the boulder. The soldiers definitely weren't following them, and it was getting dark. He walked toward Rei, careful not to touch Asuka or Shinji with his legs, and then sat down near Rei, who was curled up inside the little alcove, facing out. He looked at her calm expression and smiled. He reached up to caress her face, but stopped himself, realizing he might wake her up.

Asuka's quiet moan got his attention and he looked up at the young woman with a concerned expression. She had a grimace on her face, but was still asleep as she turned her head toward him. Obviously it was a nightmare, but Cirus wasn't sure if she would want to be woken up from it or not.

When tears started to come from her closed eyes Cirus stood up, and quietly walked over to her. He got down beside her on his haunches, and looked down at her closely. "Asuka?" he called her quietly and softly.

Her eyes opened wide, more apparent by their sheen in the dark than actually visible.

"I'm sorry, but you didn't exactly seem to be enjoying that. Should I not have woken you up?" he asked at the same volume, but a little lighter.

He heard her swallow and she shook her head. "N-no, thank you," she answered quietly.

Her use of actual politeness told him how disturbed she truly was. He hid the pang of sympathy that surged up in him and smiled down at her warmly. "Don't mention it, my lady," he said wryly.

He saw her smile and then bowed his head to her before stepping back over to his own resting-place. He saw her settle back into a comfortable position and slowly drift off to sleep.

Part of Cirus couldn't help but wish Shinji had woken up instead of himself being there to help, but the other boy had more than earned his rest. Cirus tilted his head back and relaxed onto the wood with a slight shake. I shouldn't have done that...

The four of them got started early the next morning. They set out in the same single-file formation as the day before: Rei in the lead, Shinji helping Asuka, and Cirus tagging along behind with the still unconscious pilot. Shinji was glad he'd never been attacked by Cirus if a simple knock-out could last so long.

By late morning they were starting to hike up a large hill. The going became a little tougher for Shinji and Asuka, but, Cirus noted with satisfaction, neither of them had started to complain.

"...How far have we gone, Cirus?" Asuka asked rather wearily as she hopped long on one foot with Shinji's help.

"We're halfway there, Asuka, don't worry," Cirus answered calmly.

They all froze when they heard a voice calling out from some distance away. After letting the pilot down, Cirus ran up to the head of the line and tried to see if he could tell how far away the voice had come from. When the voice shouted again Cirus smiled and chuckled. It was Hyuga.

"That sounded like..." Shinji led off.

Cirus nodded and then turned back to the other three. "Shinji, can you carry Asuka?" he asked calmly.

Asuka's eyes widened. "I-I don't need him to carry me!" she said loudly.

"Of course not, Asuka, but we need to save some time. Can you?" he asked Shinji again after looking at the young woman.

Shinji gawked for a moment, but the nodded. "I'm not sure, I can try though," he answered.

He put one arm behind Asuka's neck and the other behind her legs before lifting her up in his arms. He groaned as he tried to hold her up, but she wasn't exactly light.

"Alright, good enough," Cirus said calmly. He hurried back to the pilot, hefted him onto his back, and then looked up at Rei. "Lead the way again, if you will, Rei?"

Rei nodded once curtly and then started off toward Hyuga's voice. Shinji climbed up slowly after her and Cirus came up behind him again. He would have offered to carry Asuka first, but one, he was carrying someone already, two, he didn't want her to get the wrong idea again, and three, he wanted Shinji to look at least somewhat more attractive in her eyes. Besides, the young man was doing a fine job of carrying her despite the situation. And Asuka had even put her arm around his neck to hold on, though the red on her face was more than just a minor sunburn.

After a few minutes Hyuga's voice was much clearer. "Can anyone hear me?" he called out loudly and then kept repeating the phrase periodically as he trudged along. He'd been the first to volunteer for Misato's search party, but was starting to doubt the possibility of success. The search area was so wide after all...

"Y-yes! Over here," Shinji's voice shouted back suddenly.

Hyuga's eyes almost popped out of his head as he spun around and then bounded over toward the origin of the voice. He almost crashed straight into Rei, but stopped himself, panting, and smiled at the four of them. "Ah, thank G'd, I thought we'd lost you four forever!" he said lightly, then stepped down to Shinji with Asuka.

Shinji was honestly too relieved to respond, and Asuka was still being quiet. Hyuga pulled out a small comm unit from his uniform, apparently he'd run straight out of NERV to help, and turned it on. "This is Hyuga! I've... well, the pilots found me. I need a medical team or at least some assistance, the pilots of the ship and of Unit 02 require assistance," he reported calmly and then put the comm device away as he took Asuka out of Shinji's arms, being bigger and stronger than the young man was.

A small team quickly appeared from around the trees and Misato was accompanying them. She ran up and saw that Asuka wasn't too badly injured before rushing over and grabbing Shinji in a tight bear hug. The boy blushed as he awkwardly returned the embrace.

"Oh Shinji it's so good to see you!" she exclaimed, relief flooding her voice as she finally let go of him.

"It's good to see you, too, Miss Misato," Shinji replied with a smile.

As the medical teams put Asuka down on a stretcher and started to walk her off, another for the unconscious pilot, the remaining five of them followed.

"Good work, Hyuga," Misato told the techie with a smile.

He raised his arm up and scratched the back of his head nervously. "N-not a problem, Major Katsuragi, as I said, they ran into me."

"If you hadn't been shouting we wouldn't have known where to look," Cirus pointed out to him with a wry smile.

"Ah! Right, well... at least I helped a little then," Hyuga replied, still nervous.

"So what happened to you four?" Misato asked finally.

Both Shinji and Rei looked at Cirus. He took the wordless cue. "Heh, long story short, Shinji saved the day and Rei started us back. In fact, Shinji was quite the hero even after the initial conflict," he added with a slight smile.

"Conflict?" Misato asked after sharing the smile with the young man.

"Ah right. Apparently the anti-NERV movement got a hold of our ship's course and shot us down. We had to deal with a few of their soldiers on the ground," Cirus explained calmly.

Misato's face turned slightly more serious, but she kept her tone generally light to avoid dampening the relief of the situation. "Ah, okay."

The four pilots, Misato, and Ritsuko were in Ikari's office, looking at the man's back as he faced the large window that made up the wall to their left.

"My compliments on a job well done," he said calmly, if not suddenly.

This raised a puzzled look from everyone. Ikari turned around and adjusted the glasses on his face. "It is because of your success that this militant anti-NERV group has been dealt with," he explained.

Cirus narrowed his eyes under his glasses as the others all showed varying degrees of surprise.

"We only escaped, how could that have helped?" Asuka asked. She was using crutches, having refused to be bed ridden.

Ikari tipped his head slightly. "True, but thanks to Cirus, who planted the tracker on one of the soldiers, SEELE was able to deal with the threat permanently."

Cirus bared his teeth slightly. It wasn't the worst Ikari could have done, but he'd still used him. Asuka and Shinji looked at Cirus in shock.

"You were in on this?" they both asked.

He shook his head subtly. "No, but it's standard procedure to plant a tracker on an unconscious enemy unit in the hopes that he or she will return to their headquarters, giving you the location and the ability to take them out," he explained calmly, his gaze locked on Ikari the whole time.

"Yes," Ikari responded calmly. "The enemy base was destroyed earlier today."

An uncomfortable feeling settled over those present.

"Do we know how they got our flight path information?" Cirus asked suddenly.

"Yes," Ikari answered, "I gave it to them."

Shinji and Asuka noticeably reacted, but the others were less obvious about their shock.

"And what would you have done if they had destroyed the ship?" Cirus persisted calmly.

"I knew they would not," Ikari answered as he sat down.

Cirus raised an eyebrow at this, but didn't say anything else.

"You are all dismissed to normal duty," Ikari said finally and the six of them departed, leaving Fuyutsuki and Ikari alone in his office.

"You shouldn't have told him," Fuyutsuki commented quietly.

"It is time the boy learned his place here."

"You underestimate him. If SEELE was willing to send a strike force in just because of his tracker it means he does indeed have a great deal of sway with them."

Ikari narrowed his eyes thoughtfully. "But SEELE is in the same situation we are. Neither of us know what to expect with the exception of another Angel."

"You're risking a great deal by assuming that," Fuyutsuki reminded him.

"But the risk is acceptable."

"I understand."