Warning!!  Spoilers Ahead!!






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	Shinji's revelation was recieved with startled gasps and indrawn breaths.
He waited for the briefest of moments before continuing.
	"Now, before you all try to think of some way to refute my statement, let
me give you some more background information.  The Dead Sea Scrolls were
given to us by the Angels a long, long time ago.  He was the first person
to discover those scrolls," he said, with a nod in Keel Lorenz' direction.
That notable had said nothing after Shinji's accusation.  "Now, in order to
keep him available for their eventual use, the Angels modified him
slightly, extending his lifespan and providing him with needed tools and
resources to accomplish his mission.  He's done all this," he said,
sweeping his hand around, indicating the GeoFront, "so his masters could
take over our world and kill all of us."
	"How do you know all this?" the Orange man asked.
	"During the fight, Unit 1 and I merged; bodily as well as mentally.
Barely an hour ago, we separated.  Physically.  Mentally, we're still mixed
together a little.  That's how I know all of this stuff.  And why I'm
somewhat different than you expected me to be.  I still have part of her
personality in my mind.  When we finally get around to sorting ourselves
out fully, that's when I'll forget all of this information.  And lose one
other ability, mind you."
	"And what ability would that be?" The man in green asked.
	"This," was the response and Shinji closed his eyes, concentrating hard.
Nothing happened for a few moments, and then all the members of Seele
looked away, at something outside of the holocams' ranges.
	Up in Central Dogma, Shigeru, who was reading a magazine, nearly fell out
of his chair as an alarm started blaring.  Misato, who was wandering by
aimlessly, ran in and demanded answers.
	"I don't know!  Somehow, Unit 1 is activating!"
	"How?  Who's in there?"
	"The monitors say...." he trailed off, not believing what his eyes were
showing him.
	"Say what?!"
	"That it's Shinji who's synchronyzing with Unit 1?"
	"What?  He's not in the plug!  It's not even inserted!"
	"I know that, but that's what all the sensors say!  It's at 20%, but it is
still synchronised with him!"  Misato did some quick calculations.  At 20%,
not much could be done; the Eva might be able to move, but that's about all-
	"Major!" Maya interuppted.  "The comm system in Unit 1 just activated!"
	"Who's it calling?"
	"I don't know, the signal is not one that I recognize.  It's just the same
series of repeating signals, in a format that we can't analyse," Maya said,
knowing what the Major would ask her.
	Deep in the meeting, the members of Seele were looking at each other,
wondering what new surprises the boy before them was going to do.  They
glanced at him before they heard a horrifed scream come from the head of
the tabel.  Their heads whiped around in time to see the hologram of Keel
Lorenz flicker for a few seconds before fading entierly.
	"Such is the fate of anyone who betrays their own species," Shinji
intoned, his voice sounding slightly different.  He opened his eyes, and
Seele could see the slight hint of blue in them.  The blue faded away, and
above his head, Misato finally breathed a sigh of relief when Unit 1 shut
down again.
	"What did you do," Yello asked after a long pause.
	"I had Unit 1 call out to the Angels.  To tell them that we knew what was
going on and who the spy was.  They have no use for what no longer works.
Much like yourselves, I might add."
	"Watch yourself," one of them snapped reflexivly.  Even though he might've
had some information for them, he had told them everything and they were in
control again-
	"And you were asking about the Lance?" Shinji asked mildly with a raised
eyebrow.  "More specifically, why did I throw it away?"
	"Well, yes."  They were somewhat shocked that he knew what they were going
to ask before they actually did.
	"Humanity was not, and is not, ready for such a weapon.  You yourselves
proved that by using it as you did.  When we are ready for it, it will
return.  Not a moment sooner, so I wouldn't even try.  If you thought the
Second Impact was bad, wait until you try to forcebly return the Lance."
Though, knowing the men before him, Shinji had no doubts that they would
probably not heed his advice.  Oh, well; that wasn't his problem.
	"What about how Unit 1 was able to move without a power source?"
	"Simple.  At that time, we were merged, and nothing could stop the human
determination of Unit 1.  No weapon, no plan, no ideal could even come
close to stopping us when we put our minds to work.  Perhaps that's why the
Angels despise us so."
	Leaning back in his chair, he could feel his connection to Unit 1 slipping
away, and with that the knowledge that he held in his mind.  Fortunatly,
he'd managed to get the vast majority, the most important parts, out in the
open in time.  He shuddered at the thought of might've happend had that spy
remained in a position of power within Seele.
	The pressure on Commander Ikari's fingers lessened as the truth of the
departure of the Lance was made clear.  But only slightly.
	"I'm afraid I must call this meeting short," Shinji said, his earlier
confidence slipping away with the memories, and he wanted to get away from
these men before he transformed into a blubbering idiot, "I've given you
all the infomation I needed to, and I answered all your questions.  I also
suspect that you'll want to discuss things among yourselves now."
	Seele was so shocked that they only nodded at him, instead of making a big
deal of being dismissed like some underling.  The now-four member council
winked out of the room, leaving only Shinji and his father.  Leaning back
in the chair, Shinji let out a large sigh, and with it went all traces of
Unit 1's influence on his mind.  It was a weird feeling, he would later
decide.  Knowing what he said, but not why he said it or how he managed to
work up the courage to say it.  He turned to his father, but only got a
curt, "Dismissed," from the man.  If it was at all possible, his voice was
colder and more distant than it ever had been before.
	Wondering what he would do with himself, he started out of the room.  When
he was partway down the hallway, he remembered what Asuka whispered to him
earlier, grinned the grin of the cat who just ate the canary, and set off
to find the now-woman of his dreams.
	Commander Ikari stayed in the conference room for several minutes before
getting up and walking out.  He wasn't really paying any attention to where
his feet were taking him, he just went.  It came as no large suprise to him
that he found himself in his office, the one place in the building that was
sure to seal himself from the day to day horrors of his job.  Here, the one
place that he was sure that he could relax, just a bit.
	He sat down in his chair and folded his arms in front of himself, his
limbs moving of their own accord.  His eyes focused on the gloves in front
of his face, and for some reason they suddenly became a mockery of
something... more.  In one swift motion he tore them off his hands and
stared at the burn scars on them.  He'd spent the last thirteen years of
his life working tirelessly towards a single goal, that one thing that
dominated his mind.  The marks on his hands were visible reminders of what
he was willing to do to achieve that goal.  He thought of Rei and all that
she was and meant to be.
	Suddenly gripped by sever emotion, Gendo Ikari barely had enough time to
turn off the security cameras inside his office before he ripped his
glasses off, threw them away, buried his face in his hands and wept.  
	For the second time in thirteen years, his wife was torn from him.  First
by Unit 1 and now by the truth of what happened.  She was gone!  All that
work... all that hard work!  All that time and lives wasted!
	The tears escaped from behind his hands, no matter how hard he tried to
hold them back.  Pain slowly transformed itself into rage.  The injustice
of the whole matter was simply inescapable.  In a fit of newly-born rage,
Gendo released his head, gripped the edge of his desk, and overturned it.
That not enough, he stood up, picked up the chair, and smashed it down onto
the desk.  There was satisfying crack, but not nearly satisfying enough for
what emotion demanded at the moment, so he hammered it down again and again
until only splinters of the chair remained.
	Fury still not sated, he picked up the phone from the floor, and flung it
across the room where it made a welcome shattering noise.  Mouth working up
and down in inarticulate anger, he slowly sank to the floor, leaning
against the remains of the desk and chair.  Gendo hammered his head against
the solid object until he saw stars and heard a ringing in his ears, and
even then he didn't stop.  The signs of damage before him only spurred him
into more and more intensive self-abuse.
	When he finally did stop, it took him a moment to realize that the steady
throbbing in his head wasn't going away as quickly as it should.  In fact,
it seemed to be getting larger.  Understanding what was happening, he
slowed his breathing to facilitate the inevitible.
	When he felt a familiar presence in the back of his mind, Gendo whispered,
"You lied to me.  You told me you were her."  Amazingly, something or
someone answered him.
	"I am her, in nearly every way possible."
	"But you're not her, not the one I want."
	"I can be her, if you wanted."
	"You lied to me," he repeated, his resolve weakening.
	"Yes.  As you lie to everyone to achieve your goals, I did the same to
achieve mine."
	"But you lied to me.  Me!"
	"A neccisary step.  I didn't want to; I wanted to tell you the truth so
badly, but I couldn't.  I had to get you to work against them."
	"That's no excuse," was the weak reply.
	"No, but it's a reason."  A long pause followed before he spoke again.
	"What now?"
	"Indeed.  What now?"
	"We finish what we started."
	"Good.  But you must make some changes."  Gendo knew better than to ask,
as he would get no answer.  The pain behind his eyes lessened, and
eventually he could open them without being assaulted by pain.
	Recovering for a few moments, Gendo slowly stood up.  He righted his desk,
which was still intact despite a few nicks and dings, and put it back in
its proper place.  He spied his glasses, which had amazingly escaped his
rampage intact and settled them on his face.  A few moments later, after
placing a work order for a new chair and phone, Commander Ikari walked out
of his office, already planning for the future.
	Ritsuko went back to her reports, dismissing the sounds she thought she
heard coming from Unit 1 as imaginary.
	Shinji had wandered around the base until he found Asuka   Now they were
sitting in a couch in a lounge, on opposite ends but looking at each other,
in that awkward
'I-know-what-you're-feeling-but-don't-know-what-to-do-about-it' phase in
the beginning of any relationship.  They were making some small talk,
nothing of any importance, just trying to get a feel for what was going on,
despite all the passion of their kiss a short while beforehand.  Needless
to say, there was a lot of time where neither of them was talking, each
consumed by their own thoughts.
	It was during one of these empty spots that the other two pilots of Nerv
found them.  When Toji's voice had rang out to them, Shinji and Asuka
jumped slightly, and both immediately turned a nice shade of red with
guilty looks plastered on their faces.  Toji looked at them blankly for a
few seconds, debating whether or not to read anything more into the scene
in front of him.
	He'd assumed that Asuka was raking Shinji over the coals for tricking her
into leaving the fight and then trying to crush her afterwards, but the
evidence showed otherwise.  It almost looked like they were... talking.
But Asuka would never do that with him, and he wouldn't take it... would
he?  The thought of the redhead and Shinji getting together was more than
enough to turn Toji's stomach, but he forced himself to get it together.
He would, however, keep an eye on things, just to be sure.
	To cover up his uncomfortableness, he asked, "So, what are we going to do
about the costume party?"  In all the confusion and panic of the attack,
they'd almost forgotten the news that they'd been given at school that very
day.  There was a costume party, dancey-type thing going on at the school
later that day, and it was almost a requirement to attend.  But, because of
their status as Hikari's friends, the three of them had to attend; no ifs,
ands, or buts.  Especially Toji.  He'd tried every possible way of worming
out of this duty, but his girlfriend had been most adament.  He would
attend.  Or else.
	And, because his philosphy demanded that misery loved company, he dragged
Shinji, Rei, and Asuka into it as well.  There was little doubt that the
three of them would join him, but Shinji, Asuka, and Toji were all unsure
as to what Rei would do.  It was well known that she did not like people,
especially in crowds.
	"No," Asuka answered him.  "I have no idea what I'm going to go as, and we
don't have that much time to come with some good ideas.  Hikari told me
that this silly thing was still on, sorta gonna be used as a moral booster,
after that fight."
	"I suppose so," Shinji said.  He proposed that they go as students, which
Asuka immediatly shot down.  She voted that they dress up like Nerv
personnel, which Toji completely refused to do.  Knowing that Auska would
most likly dress up as Misato, and not wanting his frequent fantasies of
the attractive Operations Manager contaminated by images of a certain
redhead in a similar get-up, he voted to not go like them.  He, in turn,
suggested that they attend as body builders.  Which earned him a denile in
stereo from both Shinji and Asuka.  They argued back and forth for a few
hours before Rei finally spoke up.
	"I have a suggestion," she said quietly, forcing Asuka and Toji to back
down from each other, and gave Shinji some repreve from being trapped
between the two extremely vocal teens.  Rei then outlined her suggestion,
which caught everyone by surprise.  Then they actually considered it.  It
seemed to be a good idea, no matter how they tried to deny it.  
	Asuka was silent for a few minutes when she was reminded that the talent
show, part of the party, was still on.  When she spoke up she told them
that she'd have to make a detour on the way to it, and would meet them
there.  In the end they agreed to Rei's plan, and settled down for some
quality time spent in the company of friends.
	Ritsuko was working in her usual fashion: diligently.  She knew how the
Commander reacted to having the reports on his desk a moment too late, and
she had absolutly no intention of becoming a member of the ever-growing
list of people to earn his ire by doing so.  Needless to say, she was
startled when that notable's voice called out, "Status of Unit 1?"
	After calming down, and scraping her hair back down onto her head, she
whirled on him.  "I wish you wouldn't do that!"  The man just regarded her
for a moment, silent.  She sighed.  "Unit 1 is still being examined at the
moment, but it looks like we should be able to regenerate most of the
damage.  But that's still only theoretical at the moment," she hastened to
add.  Then the Supreme Commander surprised her.
	"Take your time.  The situation has changed.  We are no longer as pressed
for time as we once were."  Wait a minute.  She was being told to actually
do a thorough job?  She studied the man before her for a moment, wondering
what sort of game he was playing now.  And, most importantly, how she fit
into all this.  In the end, she answered with the only response she knew
that would appease him in any fasion.
	"Yes, sir."  Then she turned back towards her monitor, and got back to
work.  It was a few moments before she realized that he never left.  Again,
it was his voice that alerted her to his presence.
	"Ritsuko," he began quietly.  She stiffened.  Only rarely did he use her
first name; or anyones, for that matter.  "Shall I expect you?"
	When she answered, her voice had changed subtly from what was before.
Before it was professional and calm.  Now it was warm, caring, and maybe,
just maybe, had a hint of something that might have been longing or
impatience.  "Of course."  Then she went back to her work, confident that
the future would take care of itself.
	Misato thought she saw the back of the Supreme Commander as she walked by
Ritsuko's desk.  She got one good look at the tensness of the other woman's
back and correctly deduced that she was in the midst of pounding out a
report for her superiors.  Misato thought hard about asking Ritsuko her
questions anyway, thought better of it, and turned around to find Kaji.
They had words to share.
	When she turned around, she saw Kaji standing there, staring at her.  It
took her a moment to realize that he was staring at the back of her head,
not significantly lower, like she expected.  She walked up to him, stared
into his eyes for a while, and then, without either of them offering or
accepting, they turned away together and walked off to find someplace to talk.
	Ritsuko rolled her head, working out some of the kinks in it.  She knew
what would happen if she were to stay at the terminal too long, but she
really wanted to get that report on the Commanders desk before anything
else happened.  However, a familiar male voice called out, again
distracting her from her work.  "Hey, Ritsuko!" Kaji called out.  She
looked up to see both him and Misato walking towards her, somewhat close
together, she noted.  "We just got out of a sappy, melodramatic talk, and
were on our way to get completely tanked out of our minds.  Care to join us?"
	Ritsuko was about to turn them down, again, when she suddenly remembered
that the Commander told her to take her time.  Well, in that case...
"Sure, I'll come.  Just give me a second here."  As she closed down her
terminal, she saw Misato raise her hand, a plump wad of bills in it, which
Kaji took without a word.  Ritsuko sighed.  When would Misato ever learn
not to bet with Kaji?  He always found a way to win.  "Hey," she called out
to her friends, "try not to get so drunk this time that you use PenPen for
target practice with the fire extinguisher!"  At least they had the decency
to wince at the reminder of their last drinking binge.  As they walked out
of the lab, Ritsuko made a mental note not to get too drunk.  She had other
plans for that night...
	A few hours after the three friends left Nerv headquaters, four other
friends were standing at the door to their school gym.  None of them wanted
reach out and open the door, for that would mean actually admitting that
they were stuck in that room for hours, with no hope of getting out of it.
At least, three friends thought that.  The fourth simply kept walking
foward and opened the door without the slightest visible qualm.  The others
simply looked at each other, shrugged, and followed her in, albeit a bit
more nervously.
	Rei simply stared at everyone in the room when their heads swivled around
to face the newcomers.  When she was joined by Shinji, Asuka, and Toji,
they almost looked away.  Until they saw their costumes.  Hikari looked up,
scowling at Toji.  She stalked over to him, stood nose to nose, and
demanded to know what he was thinking.  Asuka repressed a comment about
that, but only just.
	Toji had only just opened his mouth when Hikari decided that he couldn't
possibly explain this transgression, and turned to Asuka for a reason.
"You were told to dress up as something."
	"Yes, and we did.  We dressed up as Eva pilots," she answered, and it was
true.  The four pilots had worn their form-fitting, odd-coloured,
strangely-shaped plug suits.  And, due to their form-fittingness, they drew
many appreciative stares, from both genders present.  However, as soon as
Asuka swept her gaze across them, everyone suddenly got very interested in
the food on their plates.  
	Smiling to herself at their reactions, she prodded Shinji in the ribs,
inticing him to move on.  He started a bit, but didn't complain as they
wandered over to the platters of food that'd been set out.  Then, like
someone had pressed a switch, the party started up in full swing again,
like nothing had happened.  The four pilots looked at each other, and three
of them shrugged at the odd behaviour.
	Two hours later Shinji was sighing.  There was the talent show going on
the main stage, and nearly everyone had taken a turn doing something, most
of them eliciting laughter and hollers.  He sat as far away as he could get
away with, considering Asuka's insistance that he pay close attention to
the next act.  And for good reason, because it was Asuka herself, Hikari,
and three of their other friends.
	They stood up there, the various colours of their costumes clashing
outrageously, and started making "V"'s with their fingers and yelling out
"Girl Power!" before they started singing to some old songs, modified for
Karaoke.  When they finished some three songs later, Shinji sighed again.
He lifted his glass of pop to his lips, and swore to himself that he would
never go up there and demean himself like that as the cool liquid filled
his mouth-
	And it immediatly exited at three times its entry velocity when his name
was called for the next act.  Astonished heads turned, as much due to his
name called as reaction to his spitting out his drink.  Their eyes meet
equally disbeliving ones as he stared back, wondering who would do this to
him.  Then his eyes settled on Asuka, who'd moved close to him, and they
narrowed when she grinned at him.  His jaw opened slightly and he had to
remind himself how to speak.
	"Asuka...  why?"
	"Because I want to see you show off a talent."
	"But I don't do this kind of stuff," he said, crossing his arms.
	"You do now."  Her tone suggeseted that she'd accept nothing else other
than complete aquesence, though the corners of her mouth twitched with a
barely-supressed smile.
	Shinji came close to bristling at the thought.  He wouldn't do it.  He
stood up, knowing that his being slightly taller than Asuka may give him a
psychological advantage.
	Asuka would have none of it.  She crossed her arms as well, gritted her
teeth, and called on her massive library of glares and full-body
expressions of displeasure that she'd perfected over the years.  She picked
out Glare #42 and Position #12, a guaranteed combination that'd worked on
Shinji in the past.  It was the slow narrowing of eyes, the setting of
shoulders and hips, and the blanking of facial expression that promised
that her mind was set and nothing would change it.
	Shinji, her favorite recepient of that particular pair, had long ago
learned how to counter it, but this was the first time he'd actually tried
to.  He simply shook his head slowly, making absoultly sure that she knew
he wouldn't ever, ever do it.
	She raised an eyebrow, accepting his challenge to her will.
	He narrowed his own eyes, prepared to fight it all the way to the end.
	"No."
	"Yes."  Pause.
	"What'll it take to get out of it?"
	"Nothing.  You're going to do this."
	"Not if I have anything to say about it."  He'd closed his eyes, trying to
reign in his feelings, which were threatening to boil over the top.  While
his eyes were closed, Asuka took action.  Swiftly stepping behind him, she
placed her hands squarely on his back, and gave him a hard shove towards
the stage.  "Hey!  What do you think you're doing?" Shinji demanded.
	"I'm helping you along."
	"Hey, wait!  No... wait!  Have I no say in this?"
	"No, you don't.  Now get moving," Asuka answered, walking him up to the
stage.  Shinji protested every step of the way, trying everything from
bribery and trickery to out and out refusals to do anything once he got up
to the stage.  
	Though the verbal exchange had been conducted quietly enough for no one
else to hear it, Asuka with her hands planted on Shinji's back and walking
him up to the stage was a little hard to miss.  The scene was so shocking
that the audience didn't say anything, just stared with their eyes wide and
mouths hanging open.  Toji was sure he'd be sick.
	When she'd finally walked him up to the stage and had dumped him into the
single chair on it, Asuka directed his attention around to the back of the
stage, and pointed at a large box.  When she explained what was in it,
Shinji's head whipped around and he stared at her like she'd suddenly grown
a second head.
	"What?  You don't like it?  After all the trouble I went to get it..." her
voice dropped off as she started contemplating the various ways she'd make
him pay for this.
	"I haven't done anything like this for three years.  I'm out of practice."
	"So what?  Look," she said when she saw the argument in his eyes, "I know
you're good at it."  She sighed when he didn't answer, and brought out the
big guns, "I would consider it a personal favour to me."  His eyes took on
a mischivous glint at this statement, but it was almost immediatly taken
over by the nervousness and desire to be somewhere else that still
permeated his thoughts.  She was about to press the issue when he suddenly
caved and agreed with her, saying something along the lines of wanting to
collect that favour sometime soon.  Asuka was stunned enough by the sudden
turn of events that it took her a moment to agree and step off the stage.
	Shinji, screwing up his courage, reached behind him, opened up the box,
examined its contents and removed the cello.  'At least this explains why
she had to make a side trip', he mused.  He hesitated for a moment before
he put bow to strings.  To his utter amazement, and his audiences', he
found that it was little harder to play it then than it was three years
previous.  He found it very easy to remember how to move the bow across the
strings to create the desired music.
	At first, he played an old, musty song that was far too depressing for
anyone to stomach for long, after the initial shock of Shinji Ikari playing
the cello had worn off.  But there was no denying the power of the music,
no matter how dreary.  It was if the player could reach out and pluck the
heartstrings of the listeners directly.
	When Shinji glanced up from his playing, he saw Asuka's face.  While she
was happy that he'd played it, she cleary wanted to hear something a little
more upbeat; a little more appropriate for a party.  So he obliged her.
	The first song ended, and he immediatly launched into the second, the
cello part of Andrew Llyod Webber's "Variations 1-4".  And it was well
recieved.  The moment the audience adjusted to the shift in songs, they
signaled their approval by applauding as loud as they could.  A few of the
more adventurous spirits actually lept to their feet, dragging partners
behind them, and started dancing right there.  Tables and chairs were
quickly moved, providing an impromtu dance floor for the gyrating bodies to
flail about on without danger of hitting an innocent bystander.
	What was only meant to be a quick demonstration of talent grew into nearly
three-quaters of an hour of non-stop entertainment.  It was only stopped
when, during a rest break, Shinji's cell phone started to ring.  On the
other line was Shigeru, who told him that the Commander wanted to see him.
Toji, after saying his goodbyes, nearly had to run to the washroom when he
saw Asuka following him out.
	The two people in love decided to walk to Headquarters, and did so
hand-in-hand.  As they walked the rapidly darkening streets, they never
noticed the person sitting on a side bench.  A short while after they
passed him, he stood up and stared after them.  "And so it begins and so it
ends," Kaoru Nagisa said to himself, before he turned around and walked in
the opposite direction.
	After Asuka left him standing in front of the Commander's door by himself,
Shinji figited.  He had no idea what to expect, given how unpredictable the
Commander was as of late.  Finally sighing to himself, he opened the door,
and stepped through, trying not to look like a frightened deer caught in a
light.  Commander Ikari sat behind his desk, his hands folded in front of
himself.  However, it wasn't the Commander's posture that snagged Shinji's
attention, it was what was in front of him, on the desk.
	Shinji slowly walked up to the desk, before sinking into the chair
opposite the Commander, and looked the other man right in the glasses,
which revealed nothing.  Shinji stiffled his questions, fearing that the
noise would somehow interupt what happening in that quiet office.  It
wasn't something that was happening between pilot and commander, but more
between a father and his son.  Instead, Shinji simply reached forward and
made the first move.
	Fuyutsuki, again hemmed in beside Maya's station, who again had hacked her
way into the security cameras so they could see what was happening, took
note of Shinji's action.  He turned to the leutenant, and asked her to call
up Shinji's file.  "Who did he live with before he came here the first time?"
	"One of his teachers," Maya answered.
	"And before he lived with him?"
	"Uhh... it says here that he lived with his maternal grandparents," Maya
said before she noticed how the Sub-Commander had suddenly stiffed for a
second, before he relaxed and smiled.  "Is that important?"
	"It explains how Shinij knows what he's doing."
	"It does?  He does?" Asuka asked from beside him.
	"Yes, you see I only met his grandfather once.  I was sitting at a chess
board, trying to figure out a problem.  He came into my office, I forget
why, and started shouting.  Then he noticed what I was doing, and reached
down onto the board and solved it for me.  I'd spent three hours trying to
puzzle it out, and he did it like it was nothing!  Then I played a game
with him."
	"And?" Misato prompted.
	"He cleaned my clock.  In less than twenty moves he'd shattered my
position and defences before he took pity on me and finished it.  If Shinji
lived with him for some time, he might've learned how to play the game."
All eyes turned back to Maya's station, straining to see how the Commander
would answer to the opening move.
	Shinji studied his father from across the board, two things going through
his mind.  First was wondering how his father know he could play chess.
The second was all the patterns, tactics, and tricks his grandfather had
taught him so many years before.  He noticed, for the first time, the pad
of paper and the pencil beside his elbow, he he quickly picked them up and
wrote down his move.  He could use it later to study the past and reflect
on his mistakes.
	He thought about this game, and what it could mean.  Sure, it was a way of
passing the time, but it was so much more.  Since his father had started
it, Shinij couldn't help but wonder what kind of ulterior motive the
Commander had.  The man always had something else planned-
	With a start, Shinji Ikari awoke from the dream.

end 

Thanks to: Peter Vela, Damien, John Murphy, William Schweder, Anand Rao,
Trevor Even, Latin_D, jedi, Canis36, HellFire, Horizon302, Warr, Arkane
Dubai, DeadPol999, Grace Lau, Mancino, Zero-XIII, Vincenzo Ciaschi, Ed
Spell, Norberto Angel Mene, Zayler, Fasdar, KoalaKiller (still love the
nick ^_^), Walt Wood, Candida A. Oliva, David Roy, Jonathan, Phillip Penty,
and Rony Gamble.

Cory Holmes
timh@intergate.bc.ca