"AT field detected!" Misato heard as soon as she answered her phone.

"Pattern?"

"I don't know, it disappeared almost right away! The Magi couldn't get a read on it, other than that it's a type they haven't seen before," Maya reported.

"So the next angel is here, but we don't know where or what it's up to," Misato summed up. And it was the middle of the night.

She didn't know where Shinji was, but if he was finally managing to get some sleep after what happened to Rei, she didn't want to wake him. "I'm coming in," she said, glad she was already awake and dressed. The more she reviewed Kaji's files, the more certain she became that there wasn't much time left.

The next morning at testing Shinji was all smiles, coming in holding hands with the new pilot. Rei looked just slightly jealous, which Misato supposed was a good sign that she was developing emotions. Again? Or had Ritsuko just snapped and this was an entirely different person?

Misato wished she knew where Kaworu had been going when he slipped out of NERV in the early morning, but she'd needed to stay in the commander center waiting for the angel to show up on their detection equipment again. She'd almost sent Hyuga to follow him, but they didn't have time to continue Kaji's investigation of NERV and SEELE, not with an angel already here in Tokyo-3.

She didn't want to alarm Shinji, but having them spend the day testing meant he would already be in the Eva if something happened.

And staying in Kaworu's quarters instead of going home with her meant he would already be in the base if something happened overnight. Proximity to the Evas aside, she was worried about Shinji spending time with the new pilot from SEELE.

Especially after Hyuga liberated his sync test results. He could control his sync ratio. Which wasn't humanly possible.

Ritsuko would know what this meant.

"The two of us are the same," the newcomer said, holding out a hand to her. "So, won't you join us?" Him and Shinji. "Shinji misses you." And if they were the same, then didn't she also belong at Shinji's side?

"Please, Rei?" the younger Ikari asked hesitantly, worried that she'd turn away again, since this wasn't the Rei he had known.

Somehow, this made her take the other pilot's hand. His, and Ikari's.

"If that's what happened, the Magi say this scenario is consistent with the facts: that the last angel created took on human form and was 'acquired' by the committee."

That fit with the footage of what happened back then Misato saw in Kaji's data cache. The thought of an angel looking like a person disgusted her, even though she already knew they had the same DNA. But weren't humans just as monstrous as any (other) angel?

Deliberately setting off Second Impact… Making another angel… The Evas…

Even Misato was starting to see the horrible shape of what was to come.

Her cell phone rang again and she flipped it open. "Yes?" Her conversation with Ritsuko had been monitored: was someone going to do something about that now? Or were Gendo and SEELE going to ignore that she now knew what the Fifth Child was, and might have suspicions about them, because it was too late for anything she could do to matter?

"We detected that AT field again. This time, the Magi managed to identify it as an anti-AT field."

"Anti-AT field? Not an inverted one?" Like when Rei inverted Unit 00's to trap the angel inside with her?

"That's what the Magi report. We still don't have confirmation that this is the Seventeenth Angel, though."

"There and gone again?" Misato grimaced.

"Yes, ma'am."

"Thanks for the report, Maya." Misato hung up. So, where was the Fifth Child when this happened? What was he up to?

She was surprised to come home to find Shinji at her apartment, much less there with the Fifth Child and Rei's replacement. "Oh, hi Misato," Shinji said with a rare joyful smile, putting down his bow although he didn't get up from where he was seated with his cello. "Rei remembers how to play! She's remembering songs, and what goes with them!"

"She does?" Misato was just confused as to how Rei was able to walk and talk. Even if there was some mystical transference of souls involved, those required physical conditioning that a body wouldn't get floating in a tank.

The First Child lowered her head, unsure of how to deal with the attention, instead of staring right back at Misato due to lacking any awareness that she should be bashful if someone was staring at her. That was definitely progress, Misato had to admit, raising an eyebrow.

The question of what exactly Rei really was: that should be asked. She'd been made in the Eva graveyard, when Evas were made from angels?

Not to mention that while they had slightly different colorings, she and 'Nagisa Kaworu' looked far too much alike for it to be a coincidence.

It took a little bit of effort for Misato to smile and conceal the realization that she had two angels in her apartment, but- "Shinji, is that Asuka's violin?"

"Well, yes, but they didn't send Kaworu with his own, and I promise I'll put it back. Just don't tell Asuka?" If she ever got well enough to tell.

Asuka was in a coma, she might never be able to talk or think again because of what an angel did to her, and Shinji had loaned her possessions to another angel? This angel was practically looting the corpse of yet another victim of his kind, but Misato managed to just raise an eyebrow.

And get a beer. She needed a damn drink.

Shinji stared after her, worried. "Misato, are you alright?" Then he clearly realized how stupid a question that was. Kaji was dead, she'd failed to protect Asuka, Rei had perished under her command, Ritsuko was imprisoned: no, Misato was not alright.

When the door to her room was shut behind her, Misato heard whispers as Shinji and the Fifth Child conferred, then the three of them tip-toed out of the apartment.

Misato followed the three teenagers, who were carrying instruments, stands and sheet music through the ruined streets of Tokyo-3 in the late evening. It was the Fifth that started talking about music, to take Shinji's mind off his worries for Misato, and the two of them did most of the conversing although the new Rei made a few comments. The voice of this Kaworu sounded kind, and compassionate: far more human than Rei at her best, not that that was saying much.

When they got to Rei's apartment they set up and started playing again. There wasn't any revealing conversation, unfortunately, until Shinji said that he should go home, since he was a little worried about Misato and he shouldn't keep avoiding her (when she must be suffering too). Fortunately, Misato made much better time than a boy carrying a cello.

That left Kaworu and Rei alone together, but Misato wasn't Rei's chaperone.

…Now that was a disturbing thought, now that she was almost certain Rei wasn't human. How did angels breed anyway? Would they end up with a lot of white things with too many teeth flying around?

Just in case, she called Hyuga and asked him to keep an eye on them. He called her early next morning when Kaworu left the house at an hour no sane teenager would admit the existence of unless they had to in order to go stand on a decapitated angel statue in the middle of a lake and mutter to himself, and if that wasn't suspicious, what was?

Not to mention that she could swear he'd turned and smiled at her, seen her, despite how far away she was. It was theoretically possible for someone to see the sun reflect off her binoculars, ops had been ruined that way before, but under the circumstances?

Her cell phone rang as she and Hyuga were getting back in the car to drive to NERV. "Yes?"

"We detected another AT field, but the Magi agree that all three of partial data sets we have can't be from the same angel. Any two of them could be, but not all three."

"Ah," Misato said, smirking. On the one hand, that meant Kaworu's attempt to deflect suspicion by having an AT field show up elsewhere while he was under observation here was foiled. On the other, it meant she was right, and both Rei and Kaworu were most likely angels. That wasn't good, especially since Shinji was rebuilding his bonds with Rei. "Hold on, I've got an incoming call."

"Misato, Asuka's awake!" Shinji said, rare happiness and excitement in his voice.

Rei back to her old self, Asuka… Misato was grimly certain this couldn't be coincidence. What had some angel done to her this time?

"Hello, Dr. Akagi."

She turned to see the silver-haired intruder smiling. "It's a pleasure to meet you," he said, inhuman eyes mimicking warmth.

"There are cameras watching us," she told him, like she'd told Misato, but that time she'd given the warning so that Misato would be safe and this time it was her one hope of safety. Hadn't Gendo abandoned her to the old men of SEELE already, though? Would he argue with anything their tame angel chose to do to her? What could he do, file a complaint? It would be too late for her by then, anyway.

"Not right now," he told her, hands in his pockets. "Well, the Magi are watching over you, but anyone else will just see you sitting here, alone." He cocked his head to the side. "Solitary confinement is unpleasant for Lilim, isn't it? There isn't anyone here to help you forget your loneliness, and there's no one waiting for you where you lived before."

"What? Have you come to rub it in that I lost to those things?" To the Rei clones, the things like he was.

He shook his head. "I've come to tell you that you still have a home, a place you will be welcomed. Lieutenant Ibuki is worried about you."

"So… What? You're helping me escape so she'll hide the signs you're not human? Too late." But had Misato taken the same precautions as Kaji clearly had? What if the angel decided to silence Misato? No, there wasn't any point to it at this point, now was there? He was the last angel, so why was he bothering with her? Just killing time until the appointed time? "Or is it because SEELE sent me back here?"

"So suspicious…" It was sad. "But I can't blame you. Not when someone you let so close, someone you loved, just abandoned you like that." He touched his hand to his chest, over the heart he would need to pass even a basic physical. "I wish I could offer you sympathy, but I can't imagine that kind of pain. You Lilim possess a barrier, the same barrier we do, but it walls your hearts away from each other. It's hard for me to believe that Gendo Ikari did something like this, not just to you but to your mother, Shinji, Rei as well, when he should have felt all your pain as his own. How can he leave you here, alone in the darkness, and not care? But there is a place where you are wanted, Ritsuko. I think you can guess how desperate Maya had to be to ask me to help her when she had those clues to what I am. How much danger she's put herself in already, helping me infiltrate the Magi and ask them to stand aside, for your sake." Her daughter's sake. "A home is a place where there are those who love you, and that itself… Complementation is the union of all souls, Ritsuko. The light of your soul hides your pain from me now, but it must hurt so much. It's the pain of loneliness that drives all angels, including you Lilim, to reach our progenitors so we may be complete. If I win, your pain will become my pain." So yes, he did have reason to care. "And if I fail, then I don't want to think that I'm leaving you here to suffer like this."

The angel asked her to, "Please, think of Maya. Even if you refuse to come with me, she won't stop trying, not when it's for your sake. She's safer with you in her home, and the watchers thinking I did something to you, than if she keeps looking for allies to help her rescue you and Gendo Ikari becomes aware of her disloyalty."

Ritsuko looked away, unhappy to admit that he did have a point. "Alright," she said, standing up. "I'll pick the route, no one knows NERV like I do."

He smiled, relieved. "That's a good idea, but keep in mind that I can fly, and Maya will be interfering with the AT field detectors just in case I needed to bypass another lock or some such thing."

Subcommander Fuyutsuki looked up as he heard a knock on his door. "Yes? Come in."

"Um, sir?" Shinji said, poking his head into the man's office. "Can I ask you something?"

That hopeful look… "Yes?"

"Were you really my mother's teacher once?"

"…Yes, why?"

Shinji looked down at his feet, then asked the real question. "Would you tell me about her?"

He looked so pitiful and so like Yui that Kozo couldn't just leave him standing there. He just had to let him in.

The seventeenth angel hovered before Lilith, held in the hand of Unit 01, waiting.

Finally, she arrived. "I have procured the item," Rei reported, holding a bloody hand out towards him.

"Thank you," he said, even though it didn't need to be said. "Are you ready, Shinji?"

"Yes, and so is she."

"The body of Lilith, her soul," present in Rei. "The body of Adam, his soul," present in Kaworu. "Unit 01 and you, Shinji." They were here as well. "It is time," Tabris said, closing his eyes.

"Shinji?" Misato asked, startled. When had he gotten up here? Wasn't he supposed to be down there, killing the final angel?

"It's alright, Misato," he said, putting his arms around her.

"Maya?" Wasn't she supposed to be at work?

"Ritsuko…"

"Mama," Asuka said happily, joining Unit 02. "Let's never be apart again."

Shinji lay awake in bed, watching Kaworu smile down at him so kindly. He just didn't know how to deal with kind words, with someone touching him so casually and saying that they liked him. It felt like a dream, like Kaworu might vanish with morning's light, because no one would ever be this nice to Shinji.

"Are you really comfortable down there?" Kaworu asked, concerned.

Shinji blushed. "I'm fine, really. I don't want to put you out of your bed, you must be tired, after just getting here."

"We can share the bed," Kaworu pointed out.

"Is, is that okay? Wouldn't that be crowded?" It was such a narrow bed.

"I'd rather be a little crowded than worry about you on such a hard floor." Even though Kaworu had folded up almost all the blankets for Shinji's sake. He tilted his head, red eyes warm and gentle. "Haven't you ever fallen asleep with someone holding you?"

People had put themselves into his bed since he came here, but for their comfort, not his.

Kaworu sat up and reached down to him. "Come here, Shinji," he coaxed. "You're so unused to kindness… It's alright. You won't have to be alone anymore."

"Kaworu…" Shinji hesitated, because he didn't know how to respond to something so foreign to him, but he took that hand, pushed himself up to sit on the bed with Kaworu.

He felt warm, like something in his chest might burst when Kaworu smoothed his hair, or maybe just stroked his head, just for the sake of touching him, just to be kind and let Shinji know that it was ok, really. That he didn't need to be frightened of human contact, and never frightened of Kaworu. Not when Kaworu loved him more than anyone else ever had: he'd already proven it, hadn't he?

Kaworu helped him lie down, wrapping his arms around Shinji. "See? Is it really so bad, to let someone close?"

"Misato says," Shinji gulped. "Misato says that when you let someone close, you'll hurt each other. But people keep wanting to let others close, because we can't stand to be alone."

"I would never hurt you, Shinji," Kaworu said patiently, breath warm on the back of Shinji's neck, chest warm against Shinji's back, as though he was guarding it. Shinji couldn't remember ever feeling so utterly safe: the only thing it was possible to be frightened of here was somehow offending Kaworu, of losing this strange miracle, this kindness unlike anyone else. "Misato is right: it's inevitable that Lilim hurt each other, because you live in constant pain and can't help lashing out at others. How can you know how not to hurt each other when you're divided by a barrier that you can't penetrate, just like an angel's AT field?" So much sympathy, not forgiveness but understanding. "But what if all were one? What if everyone shared their hearts, so they were never alone? No misunderstandings, not anymore, just perfect communion. What if the thought of hurting another was impossible, because that would be to hurt oneself? What if pain was no longer inevitable, and there was no such thing as loneliness?"

"It sounds like heaven," but Shinji could believe in it, here in this cool, dark room, sheltered in Kaworu's arms.

"It will be," Kaworu agreed. "No more war, no more death, sorrow or suffering."

"Mmm." It sounded like a fairy tale, Shinji thought as he let his eyes close. A beautiful story Kaworu was telling him to make him feel better, to soothe him to sleep.

"Wouldn't you like that?" Kaworu asked, and Shinji nodded absently, because of course he would. "Then let go," Kaworu said soothingly. "It's alright to let down your walls: I'm here. I'll catch you, I'll keep you safe, forever. You'll never be alone again." He nuzzled into the back of Shinji's neck. "Just relax, Shinji. From your head to your toes."

Shinji nodded, just a very slight movement. Kaworu's voice was almost hypnotic, and even though he'd thought it would be strange to have someone hold him, he knew he could drift off listening to it, just like this.

"There's no need to be afraid for your heart of glass. So beautiful, Shinji. Let me hold it? Let me take it into my heart, where it will never be broken again. Where it's warm and safe enough for it to melt, for all the cracks to heal until it's as though you were never hurt, because you will never be hurt again or have to hurt for anyone else's sake. They'll all be right here with you, all walls between you washed away."

It sounded so wonderful, Shinji thought distantly. Like Kaworu's words were made up of light, a radiance that pooled around him, and all he had to do was let it flow into him, let it light up the dark places and purify the tainted ones inside him, and he would deserve the kindness Kaworu was showing him.

"Let me in, Shinji." The pilot felt a kiss on his forehead. "Let me in and you will never be alone again."

Kaworu would never be able to abandon him as his father had, because they would be one. He felt like he was melting, no, like a drop of water flowing into the ocean, or a candle held up to the sun. His mind (the light of his soul) was so weak compared to Kaworu's that he would be lost in the greater being, but that was alright, wasn't it? No, more than alright: it was what truly decided to him, made him draw in a needy breath and struggle to destroy whatever (part of him) was standing in Kaworu's way. He didn't need to fear that he would contaminate Kaworu, ruin this somehow.

Not when purifying the Lilim was part of what Kaworu was made for, 'Shinji' knew as their souls and memories mingled together, as he sensed the presence of others. He was jealous for a moment that he wasn't Kaworu's first, the only one granted this heaven, but only for a moment.

Because a moment later, he was freed from that emotion. Purified of that sin.

Because this truly was heaven, within the arms of a god who could not but love them for he was one with them, and soon all would be right with the world. All would be one.

It was hard not to give up the reminder of his individual identity, let go of his ego and let his personality become simply another avatar of Kaworu, but just as the parts of him/them that had once been other Lilim knew how to help Kaworu, how to make use of human weaknesses and flaws to make them let him in so they could be complete, Shinji was the part of them that knew how to act like Shinji, how to pretend he still possessed the Third Child's flaws well enough to fool Gendo Ikari, to keep Misato from worrying.

Angelic instinct: that was the source of half this desire to merge with Kaworu, to offer up everything he had, mind and soul and the molecules of his body, in the hope they would be found worthy to be used in the creation of new life.

The other half?

To be held in these arms, granted the light of this soul, here in this dim room: Kaworu (Tabris, other memories murmur) granted him this bliss, and for that Shinji will sing his praises eternally.

As the cherub stands before God!

So, I wanted to do a 'what if he was actually trying to cause Third Impact' verse for awhile now.

There's the whole concept that the angels are adapting to better fight the Evas/counter humanity's tactics, yes? Some of them go after the Evas, including Armisael, to take advantage of humanity's own weapon by taking it for themselves.

So, shouldn't the last one go after the pilots? There's the theory that Kaworu was out to use psychological warfare on Shinji, but given that Shinji is quite weak to that sort of thing at this point, he likely would have actually succeeded at Third Impact instead of deliberately failing if he did.

Armisael did go after Rei as well as infecting the Evas, after all, and Arael went after human minds before her. 'Hi, I'm Kaworu. You will be hugged. Resistance is adorable.' The pilots are so unused to niceness that it would be a quite effective tactic.