Ritsuko leaned down predictably to look at Maya's screen for herself, the light casting a glare across her glasses.

"Synch ratio back to maximum," Ayobi informed her.

Dr. Akagi, along with Misato, Asuka, Shinji, Rei, and the three techies, was in the test lab. Since the incident Commander Ikari had wanted to make certain Cirus could pilot Unit 14, so they were testing him. Of course everyone knew he could do it perfectly well unofficially, but the books needed records to be kept.

"He's back in business," Ritsuko reported finally. "Not that there was any doubt," she added under her breath as she stood up and turned around to Misato.

"Deactivating test plug system; opening plug hatch," Hyuga reported the events as they occurred, visible through the window.

"Really?" Misato asked her friend back sarcastically.

Ritsuko shook her head, but had her own amused smile. "Yes, very much so. In fact I'd say he's better for it, but that's just... intuition," she elaborated with a wry smile.

"Ah, right!" Misato replied energetically with a wink at her friend before turning back to the others. "Well he's back to normal."

"I think we noticed," Shinji commented quietly.

"Well I can't be sure unless you say something, can I?" Misato asked back with a slightly twitching eyebrow.

The doors opened and Misato looked up, expecting to see Cirus. Kaji was there instead and was walking toward her, his ponytail limp along the top of his jacket.

"Ah, Major Katsuragi," he greeted her with a light smile, "good to see you again."

Before Misato could reply Asuka perked up and waved at Kaji energetically.

"Hello, Mr. Kaji!"

Misato sourly puckered her lips to the side before looking back up at Kaji with a smile. "And you too."

It was then that Cirus entered, his coat fluttering behind him slightly as he strode in. He looked up with a slight smile as he saw the others before stopping near them. He tipped his head to Dr. Akagi and Misato, Rei, and Asuka.

"Well, Mr. Kaji, you haven't been around for some time," he commented with a wry smile, looking at the older man.

Kaji laughed once, his face lop-sidedly amused. "Yes, I had some business to take care of."

Cirus nodded once briefly in acknowledgement. He then looked back at Ritsuko with slightly raised eyebrows. "Will that be all, Dr. Akagi?"

Ritsuko, who was staring down at a screen, nodded distantly. "Yes, Cirus, that will do. Thank you."

The darkly clothed young man nodded, though it was not visible to the Doctor, and turned back to the others. "That means I'm basically free for the rest of the day. Will you be needing me for anything, Major?" he asked, looking at Misato with calm expectancy.

Misato shook her head briefly. "No, no. Not that I know of anyway. Just stay within contact," she advised him before starting on her way. It wasn't hard to miss her slight look in Kaji's direction and his sudden decision to follow her out.

Cirus half-smiled wryly at the couple, looking at them out of the corner of his eyes.

Shinji sighed and started to walk out. "I'm so tired, I don't want to go to school tomorrow," he commented wearily.

Asuka frowned. "You're a boy aren't you? Stop whining!" she said sharply and then stormed out after him.

Rei looked from the sad display to Cirus with a calm expression on her face. He turned and saw her looking at him.

"Is something wrong, Rei?" he asked quietly, slight concern coming through in his voice.

Rei shook her head slightly before looking back down at the ground and starting to walk out of the lab. Cirus' brow creased and he walked up beside her.

"I can tell something is bothering you. Do you not want to tell me what it is?" he asked her, his voice even quieter than before.

As the lab doors closed behind them Rei shook her head again. "No, I was just looking at you," she replied with her usual calm manner.

Cirus wanted to ask what for, but he shook the idea away. He'd asked her enough questions. When he looked ahead of them he saw a man in a NERV uniform rushing toward them.

"Miss Ayanami, Mr. Trent, Commander Ikari wishes to speak with the two of you in his office," the man said, all business.

Cirus raised an eyebrow, but wordlessly followed Rei's lead toward the office. It took a few minutes to move through the halls and automatic paths, but they arrived soon, and entered. The spacious office loomed before them, the perpetual twilight of the light through the windows of the remaining three walls casting their shadows long. As they approached the desk they could see that Fuyutsuki was not there, only Commander Ikari.

"Thank you for coming," Ikari said slowly.

Cirus tipped his head in response and Rei was silent. Almost subconsciously Cirus stepped just ahead of Rei, as if he was going to defend her bodily from an assault.

Ikari stood up and walked around his desk before walking over to the pair of them. Cirus noted that Rei pulled away slightly as Ikari grew closer.

"Was there a point to your summons?" Cirus asked.

Ikari adjusted his glasses. "Indeed. I wished to check on the two of you."

Cirus gave Ikari a puzzled look.

"You two seem to have grown quite attached to each other," Ikari added.

Cirus mentally braced himself. He was on thin ice in this situation and he and Ikari both knew it. "I'm not sure what you mean by that, Commander?"

"You love Rei, do you not?" Ikari asked calmly.

Cirus took a step back and Rei�s eyes shot up in surprise.

"Do you not?" Ikari repeated.

Cirus narrowed his eyes under his glasses. "What is the point of this?"

"Do you fear answering the question?"

"No-"

"Then answer it," Ikari ordered firmly.

Cirus clenched his jaw. "...Emotionally I'm too young to know," he answered.

Ikari raised his head slightly, looking down at Cirus. "An adult answer coming from a child's body. Odd, is it not?"

What are you getting at? "It is not necessarily an adult answer."

"You know what Rei was created for, correct?"

Cirus' eyes widened and his head shot up, his eyes quickly narrowing to slits. You miserable... "Yes."

Cirus flinched as he sensed Rei's surprise at his answer.

"Then you would not be trying to interfere with humanity�s only hope?"

Cirus kept his eyes narrow. Ikari was good at manipulation; he had to give him that.

"Stop," Rei said suddenly.

Cirus and Ikari both looked at her.

She looked up at Ikari with a creased brow, her eyes blazing. "I am not your doll anymore."

Ikari adjusted his glasses. "Of course not, Rei. That is why I am resorting to human methods of control," he responded calmly.

Now it made sense. Cirus sharply focused on the Commander again. "How can you do this to her?" he asked quietly.

Ikari addressed the younger man in the usual, calm monotone. "She was created for a purpose, she must fulfill it."

"Why?" Cirus asked back, cold anger pouring through his voice. "Because you want her to? How do you know what her purpose is?"

Gendo tilted his head down faintly. "I created her."

Rei closed her eyes tightly and started to step away. Cirus' anger flared up like his Eva's AT field and his control slipped. "You created a body and gave it a name, you did not create her!" he said furiously, motioning at Rei.

"Nevertheless, she exists for my purpose alone." Ikari's voice remained cold.

"Just because you created her with a goal in mind does not mean you have a right to control her!" Cirus shouted back. How could he do this to Rei? How could he be so heartless?

"She is needed, that gives me the right."

"The minute you gave that soul a body and it came alive you lost your control! She has a right to exist on her own terms!" he finished firmly. Calming, the darkly clad boy added, "You're just too blinded by your own selfishness to see it."

"We shall see, Mr. Trent. We shall see," Ikari replied, remaining perfectly calm himself, adjusting his glasses again. "Dismissed."

Cirus didn't start to leave until he felt two hands grip onto his arm. He turned and saw Rei, pulling him with her. He nodded and followed her, closing the door behind them.

Though her soft voice remained calm, the blue-haired young woman warned him as they walked down the hall, "You should not have done that."

Cirus exhaled deeply and stopped, turning to Rei. She stopped and looked up at him.

"Rei, listen to me, please. You have a right to exist, and not just because he needs you. You have a true soul," his voice was low, soft as he spoke.

She gave a soft nod, keeping her head bowed with a subtle sorrow etched through her features. "...I understand that now... but I am afraid."

Cirus' face turned slightly inquisitive. "Why?"

Her blazing red eyes glided up to focus on his own, straight through his dark glasses as if they weren't even there. "I am afraid for you."

The boy's pale lips softened with a gentle smile before he reached up to caress her cheek. The backs of his fingers traced across her skin so lightly, as if appreciating a precious flower. "Don't worry about me, Rei. I'll always be with you, as long as you want me," he reassured her, keeping his voice soft.

Rei gave another faint nod, and he pulled his hand away. She kept her eyes on the ground, and asked, "Are you certain?"

"Never as much in my life," he answered with another gentle smile.

A smile crept across her lips. The words were very comforting to her at that moment. She bowed her head once more, and then they continued on their way. After a few moments, she reached out and grasped his hand with hers. Cirus inhaled faintly from surprise, and he looked down at his hand, his cheeks turning pink.

"May I hold your hand?" she asked, giving him an apologetic look.

Cirus swallowed a lump in his throat and nodded. "...Of course you can," he replied with a slightly hoarse voice.

Two hours later, Rei was alone in the fitness area of NERV headquarters. Cirus had needed to take care of something, and she felt perfectly good, so she saw no reason to not let him go. She wasn't there to swim, she didn�t really wish to exercise. She was just there because she had no obligations at the moment and knew that Commander Ikari never came to this part of headquarters. She wanted to be very far away from him at the moment.

Thinking of Commander Ikari reminded her of what she was afraid of; or at least had been. She frowned slightly as she looked out over the pool water from her chair near the edge. Cirus believed she could exist for any reason she wanted, but was that true? If she denied the reason for her existence was she making herself not? She used to be so clear about it. She knew she was created for that one purpose and was simply waiting for the proper day to come, but now she didn�t know if she even needed to wait for that. At least she had known then, even if it scared her.

"What am I?" she asked the room quietly. "A human being with a heart and a soul." She remembered what Cirus had told her. She wanted to believe that, but she didn't know for certain.

Suddenly the lights in the large room died. Rei looked up with a slightly creased brow before standing up as the emergency lights flared to life.

"A black out?" Hyuga asked in the darkness of the test lab, his glasses casting an ominous glare over his eyes thanks to the emergency lighting.

"I guess," Maya answered. "Shouldn't the emergency generator activate?"

Ritsuko looked up through the window where some vague light was coming through. "It would have kicked on with ten seconds. Something has gone wrong... again."

"Not again!" Misato frustratedly. She and Kaji were in one of the secondary halls. When the power went out she had ran straight into a wall. She was now rubbing her head as Kaji helped her stand up.

"This can't happen twice, can it?" he asked.

"No way in hell," Misato answered in a deathly calm voice.

"SEELE?"

"I doubt it, they have no reason this time. I think someone else must be going after us."

In another hall section Asuka and Shinji had just stopped.

"What the...?" Asuka's voice died off as the lights did.

"Is it an Angel?" Shinji asked.

"I dunno, but we better try and find someone," Asuka replied and then grabbed Shinji by the arm, dragging him off with her.

As the lights died in the section of the hall in which Cirus was, he turned around. He slowed his breathing and listened for anything around him. SEELE had briefed him about their attempt to shut NERV down to see if it could handle emergencies. This wasn't SEELE though.

Instinctively, Cirus reached for the gun he always had hidden in his coat. He pulled it out and dislodged the safety catch as his eyes adjusted to the emergency lighting. He started to hurry down the hall back the way he'd come.

Asuka and Shinji rounded another bend and walked down to the nearest door. Thankfully they didn't have to open it manually to see inside and notice no one was there. They ran further down the hall, Asuka in the lead of course, and stopped at the T-junction at the end. Asuka heard footsteps and started to call to the person, but before she could she saw that it wasn't NERV personnel. She dived back around the corner and plastered herself against the wall. Shinji followed her example and they watched the, supposedly male, person walk by. He was wearing dark clothing with a mask and a rifle.

When he was safely far down the hall Asuka exhaled and looked at Shinji. "We need to find someone and now."

Hurrying to the command center, Ritsuko, Ayobi, Hyuga, and Maya all knew that Central Dogma and the Magi had to be supported at all costs. Finding the doors sealed, Ayobi and Hyuga forced them open for the two women, and wasted no time following them inside.

His glasses glistening even in the dim light, Hyuga slipped into a console and tapped into the reserves. His eyes widened as data started pouring to his console. "My G'd... There's barely enough power to keep them running, yet alone the base."

"Well do it and fast! We don't have time to deal with that," Ritsuko ordered quickly.

Commander Ikari entered from his office entrance. "What is the situation, Dr. Akagi?"

Ritsuko looked up at him. "Almost all the power is gone. We're diverting what we can to Central Dogma and the Magi, but we don't have much to work with."

"Well done, continue to the best of your abilities," Ikari replied and sat down at his command chair.

"Radios are working," Ayobi reported, pulling the emergency radio out from under his console. As soon as he turned it on it burst into audio activity with other NERV personnel chattering over it.

"This is Shigeru Ayobi, report!" he ordered on the basis that they all knew he would be in the command center.

"All the power's gone," came one voice.

"And there are intruders in the base, with weapons!" warned another.

Ritsuko looked up in shock at Ikari. "So that's what happened..."

Ikari adjusted his glasses. "It would appear so. Locate the pilots, they must be protected as well as the Evas."

Rei hurried along the right wall, trailing her fingertips over it to avoid running straight into another. She was silent as she moved, and was able to hear the other footsteps coming down the hall ahead of her. When she felt the wall die away under her fingers, she realized she had reached a T-junction. She pulled herself back into her hall and held herself to the wall as several forms hurried past her location. She could not make out much detail, and had to strain to see anything at all. The long items in their arms were visible enough, and Rei knew that NERV security did not carry weapons like them.

She peered out around the corner and saw that no other figures were following the ones she had seen, so she stepped out and continued down the hall in the opposite direction to the intruders. She did so for several minutes until she heard another set of footsteps. These sounded panicked and rushed, not calm and sure like the intruders' had been. She waited and saw two smaller figures running toward. I did not take Rei long to realize it was Asuka and Shinji.

"Stop," she said calmly.

The other two froze. Rei knew they were probably about to run the other direction so she held her hands up to the sides.

"It's you, Rei," Asuka's voice was filled with relief.

"Yes. Where are you two going?" Rei asked back calmly and quietly. She did not know if the intruders were close enough to hear or not.

Asuka lowered her voice also. "We were trying to find anyone, I guess you're it."

"Then come. We must get to the command center," Rei replied, stepping past the two of them and starting down the hall.

"No, wait. They're all over the place back there," Asuka warned her quickly.

Rei did hesitate, but then continued. "There is no alternative, they are everywhere."

Shinji started to follow Rei when Asuka grabbed his arm and yanked him back to her. "She'll just get you both killed instead of herself. If she wants to risk it, let her," Asuka said in a harsh whisper and then started to drag him down the hall in the other direction.

"But we should help her," Shinji protested.

"She doesn't want our help," Asuka replied sourly.

They ran down several halls, taking turns sharply and running. It occurred to Asuka that they may want to go for stealth, but she was too frightened by the situation to really stop and analyze what she was doing. At least when she got into her Eva she knew dying was a risk, that was part of the job, but this was not her field, why should she die just because someone didn't like her?

It was this thought that froze in her mind as she ran around the next corner and right into the nozzle of a rifle. Shinji almost ran into her, but froze quickly also. The red-haired girl swallowed hard, and slowly looked up from the barrel to the person behind it. A black mask hid the person's face perfectly, and the combination of dim light and bulky black suit made gender impossible to define. They were at a T-junction and Asuka wished she had taken the left.

"Are you two pilots?" the voice was male.

Asuka wasn't sure which way to answer. If she said yes she knew he would probably kill them on the spot, but then again, she didn't know what these people wanted. Maybe all they were interested in was the pilots and would kill anyone else?

He raised the rifle and pointed it more threateningly. "Are you?" he repeated.

"Asuka, Shinji, drop!" another voice suddenly shouted.

Asuka fell, pulling Shinji down with her. An immensely loud, reverberating crack filled her ears followed by the sound of a loose pile of clothes falling to the ground and a metallic click. She looked up with Shinji, and saw that the man had a small red hole in his forehead with blood coming out of it. She quickly looked away and up at the person who had shouted. He was farther down the hall and was running up to them.

"Cirus!" Asuka shouted in relief.

"How are you two?" he asked as he got down near them.

"I'm alright," Shinji answered.

Asuka nodded her agreement.

Cirus nodded his approval as he looked around. He stood up and stepped around them, taking the rifle off of the fallen intruder and putting it over his shoulder by the strap. He turned back around with a raised eyebrow. "Have you two seen anyone else?"

"A few other intruders," Asuka answered.

"Rei?" Cirus continued.

Shinji was about to answer when Asuka pinched his arm. "No, we haven't. I'm sorry."

Shinji looked at her in shock for a moment before looking back down at the ground.

"No need to apologize. We'd best get back to the command center, I think," Cirus continued calmly.

Another incredibly loud bang resounded through the air and a sharp twang came off the wall to their right. Cirus pulled his gun again, and Asuka and Shinji dove down as he took aim down the hall. The darkly clothed boy pulled the trigger, and his gun let off its own deafening bang as the flash filled the hall with momentary light, throwing his arm back. A man's brief shout was followed by another crumpling sound of clothing.

"Let's go," Cirus said in a calm, firm manner.

Asuka and Shinji got up and ran after him as he took off down the hall.