COMMANDER GENDO IKARI<br/><br/><br/>I'm not used to being liked.  Being hated, on the other hand, is quite familiar.  I suppose I should have expected such behavior from Ritsuko, given her background.  Given who she was descended from.  What had she learned?  Was all of this just a sarcastic way of getting revenge on me?<br/><br/>I looked down at the test data.  Even as anger swelled in me, I couldn't deny what I was seeing, that her conclusions were in fact accurate.  Perhaps she'd faked the data?  No, it wasn't something she could do on her own, but perhaps with Kaji's help...  Maybe it was the wise men finally turning against me, choosing to humiliate me as they murdered the project.  But what else did they have?  Could I in good conscience resist their judgement?<br/><br/>The files were already on the internal network, even people sufficiently high up in the UN could tell what Ritsuko was thinking.  Bitch.  I raised a gloved hand and cautiously picked up the phone, rage quaking invisibly within me.  The "scientist" had suggested horrible things, had burned a pit in my heart.  Perhaps the entire "plan" was just a commentary on my relationship with Rei, if not by Ritsuko, although I wouldn't put it past her, then perhaps by greater forces.  Yet, I couldn't bear the insult alone.  My fingers dialed the phone, and I waited as it rang, my heart beating quickly but invisibly in my chest.<strong>"Rei?  Do you mind coming down to my office?</strong>I asked simply, not knowing when I would be able to discuss recent events with her.<br/><br/>I slouched in my seat.  This was all starting to become quite familiar indeed...