Chapter 23

Shinji seemed to improve considerably in the days after the party. As he told Misato, it didn't matter that the party was late; the simple fact that his friends had organised one was why he couldn't keep a smile off his face for nearly a week. When he found out that Asuka had been the one to plan it all, Shinji's face had been red for a long time.

He did ask if their friends knew that it had been his first birthday party in a decade, to which both Asuka and Misato responded that they hadn't told the guests anything except that Shinji had missed his birthday due to his condition. That they weren't attending out of pity only made him happier.

His improved mood encouraged Asuka to try something. The redhead slowly but surely shifted her futon closer to Shinji's each night without the boy noticing. No matter what he said, she could easily tell when the nightmares had been hitting him, and her concern for him had finally managed to override her fear. Eventually their beds were almost at the same point they had been during his catatonia.

And then they woke up the next morning holding each other's hand.

It was the single most embarrassing moment of Asuka's life. They both hurriedly let go, and Shinji cut off her attempt at an explanation with an apology. In her embarrassment, Asuka simply let it happen, too worried over what he would think if he found out she had been the instigator.

But she didn't fail to spot the infinitesimally small smile on Shinji's face as he prepared breakfast, and she was thankful that the boy either didn't notice their slowly and subtly altered sleeping arrangements, or simply didn't want to call attention to them in case she changed her mind.

Which wouldn't happen even under torture, as far as Asuka was concerned. Waking up holding his hand once more had sent shivers down her spine at their closeness. All that was missing was a good morning ki-

No.

It was too soon for that. She still couldn't be sure that Shinji felt the same way. After all, she had hurled a lot of abuse and threats at the poor boy the previous year. What if he still harboured some resentment? She would have to summon up the courage and ask him one day.

At least he no longer seemed to fear her. That was something Asuka simply couldn't stand the thought of now. Her efforts to not be a 'demon', as the Stooges called her, had obviously paid off. Back when he had first recovered, she would occasionally see the tiniest of flinches in his body whenever she came into his sight. Now her mere presence seemed to always summon a smile or a hopeful look to Shinji's face.

Asuka wanted to go back in time and punch the Second Child for her earlier self's attitude towards the boy. That dumb girl didn't know what she had nearly utterly destroyed.


The next Sunday, not long after Misato had dropped the Children off at the apartment before heading back to NERV, there came a knock on the door. Asuka was busy making a sandwich, so when Shinji opened it he was greeted by Toji, who was wearing exercise clothes and a boisterous grin.

"Hey Shin-man!" he said, a little too loudly. "Got some free time to go for a jog?"

Asuka almost lost her concentration, risking a cut from the knife, as she heard the request. Shinji still hadn't mentioned his fear of other people to the stooges. For the time being, that fear would remain hidden as Shinji begged off, claiming that Asuka had made him work hard in the pool earlier.

"Fair enough, we'll go another time then. Later!" With that, the athlete headed off, and Shinji walked back into the kitchen, to be confronted by an inquisitive German girl.

"Today's exercise wasn't that bad," Asuka said, before sighing and gently adding, "It's because you'd be out in public, right?"

The lack of any response from the boy was enough of an answer.

Toji would try again twice more the following week. Both times, Shinji would claim he was too tired. After his second attempt, the athlete angrily shouted into the house, "Hey, Red! Quit tirin' Shin-man out!" before leaving.

Asuka growled under her breath, but knew that her hands were tied. It was up to Shinji to tell the jock about his fear. If she did it for him, it would damage their relationship by betraying his trust. That was something she couldn't bring herself to do, especially after what had happened during that past week.

"I think you should tell him," Asuka said after the third attempt by Toji. She sat down at the table opposite the boy. "He deserves to know, and despite being a dumb jock, he's your friend. It's not like he's going to force you into it if he knows why."

"But why don't we just keep swimming?" asked Shinji.

The redhead sighed. "Look, swimming's fine, but you should get out in the open air occasionally too. Besides, don't you want to spend some time with your friends too?"

It hurt a little to say that, but as much as Asuka actually enjoyed Shinji's presence, the other two Stooges were starting to loudly toss around ideas about why she was with him so much. If she could get the Third Child back outside, he could start spending time with his friends, and they could settle down on the 'Red Demon ensnaring poor Shinji' theories, or whatever they were thinking these days.

Helping Shinji with his fear of swimming had been easy, not to mention fun. But Asuka had no idea how to fix what was essentially anthropophobia.

"You're not going to let this go, are you?" Shinji bitterly replied.

"The longer you put it off, the harder it'll be," Asuka replied. "You can't stay inside forever."

The boy rubbed his forehead. The scar from his head wound had almost completely faded, but Asuka knew where to look to see the jagged mark, especially since Shinji always rubbed that part of his forehead, as if he was wondering if it was still there. "Why not?" he shot back. "It's not like I need anything."

"Except food, clothes, friends." Asuka's counter was just as quick. "You know, the essentials of living. Or are you just expecting us to do everything for you?"

Guilt crawled in the redhead's gut as Shinji's face fell. She had not intended to say something so accusative, and she felt like she had ruined some of the progress the two of them had made in her efforts to help him. Asuka lowered her voice and said, "Shinji, what is it you're really afraid of? Seeing people, or this... memory thing?"

'Do you have my memories too?' she didn't ask, but sorely wanted to.

"Well... you said that nobody really knows what happened in Instrumentality," Shinji slowly replied, head bowed. "And that the blame is officially on SEELE and... my father."

The Second Child smiled. "Good, you remembered. Right on both accounts."

"But I still feel like people would just know what I did, just by looking at me."

"I know what you did," Asuka replied. "Misato, Rei, Akagi, they know what you did too." She leaned forward into Shinji's line of sight. "You made the choice to let us return. That is what you did."

"After-" the boy began.

Asuka's interruption was swift as she waved a finger in front of his face. "No. Do not go there. Focus on the positive. Everybody's back, except the assholes who are truly at fault. Hell, for all we know they might be hating their so-called perfect world now. Fix that in your mind instead."

It was slow going, but Shinji's face eventually lost its look of despondency. "Heh. That would be a nice punishment. After all, I know how empty absolute perfection really is." At Asuka's curious tilt of the head, he waved a hand in dismissal and said, "I'll tell you about it some other time."

"O... kay?"

"To answer your question... I suppose it really is the memories of strangers hitting me while I'm outside."

"Yeah, I thought as much," Asuka replied with a sigh. "In that case you'll need something to keep your focus away from people."

Shinji chuckled. "Another distraction?"

"Damn right! But... what?" The redhead dropped her chin into an upraised hand. "Can't wander around and cook at the same time, and you're not exactly a thrilling conversationalist."

The Third Child stood up and stretched his back. "Do we really have to think of something right now? Besides, there's something I'd like to do now anyway. I haven't actually gotten around to honouring your request after all."

"My... Oh!"

Asuka grinned -and cheered internally- as Shinji fetched the cello case and his brand new bow, while she brought a dining chair into the lounge room. Despite his abrupt and possibly deliberate subject change, she wasn't going to give up just yet, and she wanted to stretch out on the couch while thinking about what would work to keep Shinji's attention off of other people.

In only a few minutes, music began to fill the apartment. Shinji had put a music disc into the stereo, but everything was silent until there came a soft tapping through the speakers. On the fourth tap, Shinji began. He started slow and alone on the cello for a minute before violins softly began playing, and then the song sped up as an entire orchestra joined in before it all went quiet once more.

Asuka listened intently, enraptured by the boy as she stared at his face, and all thoughts of distraction were gone from her mind. She had been expecting him to simply be playing a part of the orchestra, but this song seemed to centre entirely around the cello in his hands.

But after about ten minutes, a part of her mind began jumping up and down, urging the girl to figure out what was odd about what was happening in front of her. She sat up on the couch and looked closer at the scene.

Shinji's left hand was flying up and down the neck of the cello as the song sped up, eyes closed as his right hand seemed to be almost vibrating in place. The stereo speakers, while not exactly top quality, were nevertheless performing well as his accompaniment.

Wait. Eyes closed.

Asuka looked again. The boy's eyes were indeed closed, his face a mask of concentration as he focused entirely on the song. There was no stand in front of him, and she couldn't remember seeing him even glancing at a music sheet before beginning. He was playing the song entirely from memory, without a single foul-up, and the song had been going for at least fifteen minutes by this point. A glance at the time on the stereo showed that the piece was just over half an hour long.

Rei had stepped into the lounge room, having apparently just arrived home from school without Asuka noticing, and her focus was entirely on her brother.

The Second Child followed her example and remained still and silent until the song came to an end. Shinji opened his eyes and blinked rapidly, as if he was just waking up. "So... did I do alright, Asuka?" he hesitantly inquired as he got up and stopped the stereo before the next song could begin.

"You performed admirably," Rei answered in Asuka's stead, seeing as the redhead was still in awe. Shinji jumped a little upon hearing his sister's voice, but settled down and smiled at her.

"Y-yeah, what she said," Asuka finally managed to say. She cleared her head with a swift shake and asked, "What was that song?"

"Elgar's Cello Concerto," Shinji replied, before rubbing the back of his head. The name was unfamiliar to Asuka, as she really only knew German composers. "I suppose I could have stopped after the first movement like I usually do, but I guess I got a little too... swept up in it."

"And you played the entire thing from memory."

"Yeah." Shinji looked away, embarrassed. "But I don't think I did very well."

"Please do not put yourself down like that, Shinji," Rei interjected. "I may not be very knowledgeable about music, but what you just played sounded wonderful. That you have memorised the entire song is in itself a remarkable achievement." The Third Child didn't look back at her, but his red face did sprout a smile.

"So why has it taken you so long to use my gift?" Asuka asked.

Shinji looked down at the bow in his hand. "Um... this thing is practically a work of art, and I was kind of afraid I'd damage it. But... after using it, it feels like it was made for me. It would be a waste to not use it." He raised his head and beamed at the redhead, who gave thanks to the old man at the music shop for nailing the gift perfectly. "Thank you again, Asuka. I'm going to start playing more often now."

With her cheeks heating up at the gratitude, Asuka nodded and said, "Good. Are you going to play any more today?"

"I need to rest for a few minutes first, but I'll do a few more shorter songs." Shinji turned to Rei. "Would you like to listen too?"

"I am afraid I cannot stay long," Rei replied apologetically. "I have promised Kensuke that I would aid him with some of his homework." With a glance at the clock, she added, "In fact, I must leave now. I shall be back in a couple of hours."

The bluenette left the apartment, and Asuka watched her leave. When the door closed, she said, "Huh. I guess Hikari was right." To alleviate Shinji's confusion, she explained, "She said that Rei and Kensuke had been spending more time with each other since the party."

Shinji raised an eyebrow at the news, but didn't say anything. He instead set the cello to one side and stood up, stretching out his limbs after sitting still for half an hour. Afterwards, he checked the insert on the list inside the music disc's case, and skipped several tracks on the stereo before setting himself up with his cello once more. At a nod from him, Asuka pressed the play button and sat back down on the couch.

The first song sounded vaguely familiar to the redhead, and she had to rack her brain to remember the German composer's name. The second, Pachelbel's Canon in D, she could identify in her sleep. What surprised her was that Shinji was being accompanied through the stereo by a single violin, and it caused an idea to begin to stir in the recesses of Asuka's mind.

But it was the third song, Passacaglia, another violin and cello piece, that brought the idea to the front of her mind. The two instruments seemed to almost be competing with each other, like classical duelling banjos. It seemed so much like how she felt before her eventual decline during the Angel War. Her and Shinji, going against each other in their, or rather just her, struggle to be the best Evangelion pilot. As the song ended, Asuka clapped for the performance and could only think of one thing.

She needed her violin.


Surprisingly, it was Rei who came up with a possible idea to keep Shinji's mind off of other people while outside a few days later, while the two girls were getting changed after another round of sync tests and combat simulations.

"Have you noticed how Shinji concentrates while listening to the music?" Rei quietly asked after opening her locker.

Asuka mentally replayed the previous evening in her head. Both Misato and Rei had been home as well, and she had convinced Shinji to play for them. She had been focused on Shinji's face, as she was still amazed that he could play so accurately from memory. The thin sheen of sweat on his face as he played the last song before finishing showed just how much effort he put into making music. "Yeah, it's like... he shuts the world out..." Her eyes lit up.

"Precisely."

"Wondergirl, you're a genius."

The bluenette blinked. "I am?"

Asuka explained how she had part of a solution for helping Shinji to be comfortable outside, and that Rei's comment had given her exactly what she needed to complete it.

"I see," Rei replied after a moment. "Then perhaps this may help." She took a familiar object out of her locker and passed it to the redhead.

"This... is his SDAT player." Asuka would have preferred to never see this infernal device as long as she lived. Shinji had used it to shut out the world when things became too much for him. She looked up and asked, "Where'd you get it?"

"It was still in... my room," Rei replied. "I brought it to my locker to... hide it."

"Hide it?" Asuka repeated as she raised an eyebrow. "Why didn't you give it back to him?"

"I..." The pale girl looked away, seemingly ashamed. "I know why Shinji used it so often. I was... afraid he would return to that habit."

Asuka hummed in total understanding. She opened the SDAT player and took the tape out, muttering under her breath when she saw that it was unlabelled. The batteries were long dead, but fortunately not leaking yet. She was thankful that she always kept a few spares in her locker for her games and the long periods of waiting she had had to endure in the past. Slotting the fresh batteries in, she held the headphones near her ear and began to listen to the tracks, skipping through them to see what the Third Child's musical tastes were.

His playlist consisted mostly of pop songs, with a couple of classical music tracks near the end. The final two tracks made Asuka wonder if Misato had ever been a singer, as the vocalist sounded almost exactly like her.

A tap on her shoulder almost made her drop the SDAT in surprise, and Asuka looked up into the concerned face of the First Child. She shook her head at the unasked question, and glared down at the player. It was almost as if it was attempting to suck her in. No wonder Shinji returned to it so often.

'Maybe now its powers can be harnessed for good,' she mused. Out loud, she said, "The songs are pretty good, but the tape is starting to degrade."

"Kensuke may be able to assist," offered Rei. "He has helped some of our classmates to acquire music. Perhaps he can make a new tape."

"Well, since I'm sure you're going to be seeing him again soon, I'll let you handle that," Asuka replied, passing her the tape. She briefly considered asking Rei about what was happening between her and Kensuke, but held her tongue. The confused redhead had to sort out her own relationship before she could pry into somebody else's. If the First Child came to her with any questions, she would just have to direct her to Misato instead.

At least it might be entertaining to eavesdrop on.

Asuka stuffed the SDAT player into her pocket, hoping the bulge would go unnoticed. After both the pool time and the tests and simulations, it was now well after lunchtime. The two pilots met up with Shinji and Misato, and together they headed for the cafeteria for a bite to eat before heading home. While the boy got his own lunch, Asuka quietly asked Misato a question, to which the woman responded that she would look into it and let her know that evening.


It had been less of an effort than Asuka had expected to teach Shinji the Western alphabet, and she had quickly had him singing the alphabet song in German. She couldn't work out what had compelled her to do such a thing, but it was worth it when she caught the Third Child idly humming it to himself while preparing lunch one day.

His rapid progress in learning her mother tongue had given Asuka an idea earlier that day. After Misato dropped them off and headed back to NERV, and Rei split off to speak to Kensuke, she posed a challenge to Shinji: Instead of Japanese, speak only German for the rest of the day. Everybody else in the Katsuragi household could speak the language, Rei only slightly less so than Misato and Asuka, so there would be little trouble as all three could correct him.

Asuka had no idea if Pen-Pen could understand German though. But since the bird drank, read the newspaper, watched television and could somehow smuggle a critically endangered fish into the apartment, she wouldn't put anything past him.

"Shall we begin?"

"Yes- I mean, ja."

Asuka nodded in approval. "Gut. Also, was kochst du heute zum Abendessen?" Good. Okay, what are you making for dinner tonight?

"Ah... Reis, Suppe, und ich werde dem Rest von die Thunfisch benutzen, die PenPen mich gegeben hat. Oh, und eine alternative Gericht fur Rei." Rice, soup, and I'm going to use the last of the tuna Pen-Pen gave me. Oh, and an alternate dish for Rei.

"Okay, that wasn't so bad," Asuka replied with an appraising look. "Just... Shinji, Rest and Thunfisch are male words, and it should be a genitive with the tuna; also, it's 'ein alternatives Gericht' and 'für'."

"Sorr- I mean... Entschuldige?"

The redhead rolled her eyes, trying to ignore what hearing the boy apologise in German did to her. "Don't be sorry, dummy. You're doing a hell of a lot better than I expected. In a couple months you'd probably be able to watch a German documentary and understand the entire thing."

The praise brought a smile to Shinji's face, which in turn made Asuka's lips turn upwards.


Asuka's stepmother, a woman who had apparently fallen for her bastard of a father just as badly as her own mother, had giventhe redhead a wonderful gift for her college graduation, despite Asuka being emancipated.

It was an antique Jakob Stainer violin, that Katharina Langley's grandmother had bequeathed to her in the old woman's will. But with her nursing career, she could never find time to learn to play it and so had quietly passed it on to Asuka when her husband wasn't looking.

Asuka had been determined to make time to learn to play the instrument. At first, it was simply because she wanted to add another skill to her repertoire. Another thing to brag about; another notch on her belt.

The Second Child was glad the time had been made now. All she needed to do was get the violin from the storage unit it had been stored at when she had arrived in Japan with far too much to fit in her room.

It was just a shame that the storage unit had been badly damaged by the N2 mine dropped on Tokyo-3.

"You're kidding me!" Asuka angrily exclaimed when Misato told her the bad news that evening.

"Afraid so."

"Everything okay?" Shinji asked as he turned away from the stove. "Er... I mean... Alles in Ordnung?"

"Ach... egal," Asuka hastily replied. "Ich hatte nur gehofft, etwas aus der Lagereinheit zu holen, in der letztes Jahr der ganze Rest von meinem Kram eingelagert wurde." Oh... never mind, I was just hoping to get... something from the storage unit the rest of my stuff got put in last year.

Misato raised an eyebrow at the redhead, curious as to why both teens were speaking in German, but decided to play along. "Ich hab nur gesagt, dass das Gebäude beschädigt wurde, nicht zerstört. Deine Sachen könnten überlebt haben." I just said the building was damaged, not destroyed. Your stuff might have survived.

"Um... Ich... Ah..." Shinji struggled to keep up.

Asuka took pity on the poor boy, as Misato had been talking far faster than he could follow. She returned to Japanese and translated for him. "Misato said that the building wasn't outright destroyed, and that I might get my things back."

"Right. Also..." Shinji began.

"I'll let you stop now, anyway" Asuka said, "You did pretty well, I suppose."

Shinji nodded and turned back to the stove. Rei's extraordinary gift had amazed everybody, and even caused some jealousy to stir inside Asuka at the fact that the First Child had basically one-upped her. Some of the old cookware had been passed along to a grateful Hikari, and the new ones were now cleaned almost immediately after dinner, as was the stove. Asuka took a deep whiff of the almost-ready dinner. His gifts seemed to have inspired him, as his meals were only getting better as time went on.

Since she wanted to surprise Shinji, she began speaking to Misato in rapid-fire German about precisely what she was hoping was still intact. The woman predictably teased her about 'making beautiful music' with Shinji, to which all she could do was blush. It was difficult enough to deny anything to herself, let alone somebody like Misato.

It was impossible to hide from her emotions lately, especially when they were as strong as they had become in the past few weeks. Asuka had tried in the past to change how she felt about Shinji, but it simply didn't work. She had only two choices: keep trying and not get anywhere, or give in and accept these feelings.

She couldn't even bring herself to try and change him anymore. Teaching him to swim and speak German didn't count, as they were both useful skills to know. And her attempt to get him to go outside again was just her trying to heal him, to return him to what he used to be. The quiet, polite, not-very-social-but-still-tries teenager she knew for most of last year.

Most other people wouldn't give up on changing him. They would try to 'fix' him, to mould him into their perfect mate... their doll. They would try to get him to 'man up'. But to Asuka, those changes would strip away the very things that made him Shinji Ikari. So what if he couldn't beat somebody up? He could still out-cook practically anybody, in her opinion.

Brave? No, Shinji wasn't brave. But he was courageous. He feared and hated the Evangelions, but he had the courage to climb into the machine that had stolen his mother, and put himself in danger to save humanity countless times.

To Asuka's faint surprise, she felt like he was perfect just the way he was, meekness and all. All those little flaws that used to irritate her to no end... they made him who he was. A cocky and arrogant Third Child just would not be the same. He would be like... well, like herself. And look how she had turned out.

And then there was his ability to make her relax with just a few notes on his cello. No matter how many times Shinji would say that he wasn't very good, Asuka would always insist that he was brilliant. Because he was.

Was this what it really felt like to be in love? Was it love? She didn't exactly have much to compare it to. It certainly felt different to whatever she had felt for Ryoji Kaji.

But fear was still lurking in her chest, ready to remind her what had happened the last time she had opened her heart to somebody. Knowing the truth behind her mother's death didn't seem to help. The sting of that betrayal still lingered. It was now like an animal that had learned not to touch an electric fence, instinctively keeping away from it in case it got shocked again.

What would it take to be able to force herself to say something?

"Asuka? You okay?"

The Second Child jumped a little at the woman's voice. "Huh? Yeah, just thinking." She didn't need to turn around to feel the concerned stare of Shinji on her, and was almost unhappy when that sensation disappeared a moment later as he put the finishing touches on dinner.

"Considering the look on your face just then, I won't ask what about," replied Misato. "Anyway, I'll do my best to find out if... that item survived."

"Thanks, Misato."


To Asuka's great relief, she had the violin case in her hands two days later. Most of the rest of her stored items had been damaged or destroyed, but the majority was clothing and fashion accessories, as well as the small amount of sheet music she had used to practice. With her pilot's wage, those were easily replaceable.

A crack in the case showed where something heavy had fallen on it, and as Asuka gingerly opened the case, her heart sank at the accompanying damage to the instrument itself. The fact that the bow survived intact was little consolation.

The loud German curse she uttered was soon followed by the sound of footsteps hurrying up the hallway, and she hastily shoved the violin back in its case and under her bed, pulling down the sheet a little to cover it up.

"Asuka?" It was Shinji, worried as usual, cautiously poking his head through the door as if her bedroom were a dragon's cave. "Everything okay in here?"

"It's nothing, I'm fine!" the girl loudly replied, much too quick to be believable. It brought to mind the times last year when she'd told him to go away. He always would.

"Oh... okay..."

And now he was making that face again, the one that made him look like a dog with its tail between its legs, as he slowly retreated.

Asuka sighed heavily. "Get back here, you idiot."

It was a long five seconds between the footsteps outside her room stopping, and turning around to come back at a snail's pace. This time, Shinji only put part of his face in view. He was probably expecting it to get burnt off. She had to wave him in several times before he got the message.

He stopped several feet away from her and said only one thing. "Um..."

The redhead rolled her eyes and yanked Shinji down to the floor by an arm. She grudgingly brought out the violin case and showed him her problem. Whatever had fallen on the case had had enough force to crack the neck of the instrument.

"Ooh, that looks bad," Shinji said with a sharp intake of breath. "But... you could still get it repaired, right?"

"I'd have to find somewhere in this city that does antique repairs and restorations," Asuka dully replied. "This thing is old."

The boy next to her gently placed the violin back in its case and closed the lid, then held up the bow. "You could ask at the place where you got my bow. Surely a music shop owner would have some idea."

Asuka almost dismissed his suggestion, but then she remembered the old man who had sold her the perfect bow. Masami was certainly not just some retail goon grudgingly doing his job. He was a person who had found his niche and did everything he could to ensure everybody who shopped at his store left more than satisfied.

She would have gladly paid full price for the cello bow.

For the second time that week, Asuka said, "You're a genius!"

And also for the second time, the response she received was, "I am?"

Asuka sighed. Despite the physical differences, it was obvious that the First and Third Children were related. "Damn right you are. Let's go while the shops are still open."

Shinji was almost dragged out of the apartment, Asuka letting go only when she realised that the violin had been left behind. She pressed the button for the elevator and waited.

When the door opened, they were greeted by Kensuke, who stepped out and waved. "Oh, hey guys."

"What's up, nerd?" Asuka almost growled.

"Uh..." Kensuke froze. A look of confusion crossed his face. "Aren't you supposed to be at NERV?"

"No, that was a couple days ago."

The spectacled boy scratched his head. "That's funny. The public address system called Rei away. Said it was NERV business. I assumed it was a sync test."

The puzzled look migrated to Asuka's face. "We get told ahead of time when the tests are scheduled. And why use the P.A.? Eva pilots have cellphones for a reason."

"Maybe her phone stopped working?" suggested Shinji. He took out his own phone and dialled Rei's number. The other two teenagers waited as he held the phone to his ear for almost half a minute, before he looked at it in disbelief. "No answer."

"Something's wrong, then," Asuka replied. "She wouldn't just choose not to answer it, not with everything that's happened this year and the last. I'm calling Misato."

The call was answered almost immediately, and she pressed the button for the speaker. "Shit. Asuka? Are you and Shinji okay?"

"Of course we are."

"And your friends? Nothing's happened to them?"

"Aida, are Toji, Hikari and their sisters okay?" At a nod from Kensuke, she answered Misato. "They're fine too. What's going on? Rei's not answering her phone, and Nerd Stooge said she got called to NERV."

"Her Section Two detail was just found dead, and we can't even locate her with the MAGI." The response drew gasps of shock from all three teenagers, but the the next words chilled them to the bone.

"We believe she's been abducted."


Asuka couldn't decide what was worse. The news of Rei's disappearance... or the look on Shinji's face.

His expression had changed swiftly in the past couple of minutes. From confusion at not being able to reach his sister, to fear and worry at the fact that NERV seemed to be in an uproar over her disappearance, but now? She involuntarily shivered a little.

Now Shinji was angry. His eyes held none of the warmth they had just a short time ago.

"Misato." The icy tone of Shinji's voice sounded eerily like his father. "Do you know who is responsible?"

His adoptive mother sounded taken aback, but recovered quickly. "It can only be remnants of SEELE. I don't know what they have planned for Rei, but they won't leave this city. Ritsuko's really pushing the MAGI to the limit to hunt for any sign of her abductors."

Asuka's left hand lashed out and grabbed Shinji's arm as the boy moved towards the elevator. "Shinji, what are you doing?"

"I need to find Rei," he coldly replied.

"Find... How?! Tokyo-3 is massive!" Asuka waved her other hand, still holding her phone, in the direction of the city. "Rei could be anywhere, and you're just going to go out and look?"

Shinji swiftly turned to face Asuka, breaking the hold on his arm at the same time. "I can't just sit around and do nothing!" he yelled. "Not again!"

Turning back to the elevator, the boy stalked through the doorway just as it was about to close. Asuka barely recovered from her shock in time to put her body in the way of the doors, forcing the sensor to keep them open. She stood and stared at the boy for a moment, before Kensuke gently nudged her forward into the elevator and stepped in after her.

One look at Shinji's right hand told the redhead everything. He was getting stressed again, with good reason. It was fortunate that he had taken the doctor's advice and clipped his nails, otherwise his hand would likely be gushing blood onto the elevator floor. Still, the white knuckles told her that there would be vivid marks in the palm of his hand for a while afterwards.

What she really wanted to do right now was to hold that hand; to try and get him to release at least some of the tension building up inside him.

But the nerd was watching.

"Shinji," she quietly said, trying to talk him down instead. "This isn't a lost pet. Somebody's taken Wondergirl. They're not going to just wander the streets."

"Yeah. I don't want to put you down, Shin-man," Kensuke added. "But NERV's obviously got everything they have out hunting for her. What can you do that they can't?"

Asuka sighed. She understood that their friends knew nothing of the boy's downward spiral before Third Impact, but that didn't stop her from thinking of the spectacled boy as a bit of a twit.

Shinji had, in his mind, failed Asuka by not forcing Unit-01 to break out of the Bakelite it had been trapped in. For so long, he had wholeheartedly believed that her death at the hands of the Mass Production Evangelions was entirely a result of his inaction. Now somebody else was in trouble, and Shinji didn't want to be sitting around doing nothing again.

She leaned closer to the Third Child and whispered in his ear, "Besides, aren't you forgetting something? You'd be going out in public."

The elevator began to slow as it reached the ground floor, and Shinji scrunched his eyes up. "I... I know. But I have to."

"And what are you going to do when the headache hits you again? It's going to be worse than last time with everybody you'll see."

"That-that doesn't matter." His eyes opened, and Asuka was at least relieved a little to see that they were no longer emotionless. "I don't want to be useless when somebody I love is in danger."

Before Asuka could react to Shinji using that word, the elevator doors opened.

And a bullet whizzed over her head, burying itself in the wall behind her.

"Scheiße!"

The three teens scrambled for what little cover there was on the inside of the elevator, Asuka having to drag a transfixed Shinji to her side and press a hand to his chest to keep him against the side wall as she pounded the close button. The doors slid ponderously shut, a second bullet punching into the steel, but in seconds the sound of gunfire in the lobby was mercifully muted.

"Holy crap," Kensuke remarked breathlessly from where he was crouched on the other side of the elevator. "Those were sub-machine guns. Can Section Two hold them off?"

As if in response to the military enthusiast's question, a heavier weapon began to fire, drowning out the sound of the lighter calibre weapons. Asuka grinned slightly, sliding down the wall and dragging Shinji with her, in case of any more errant rounds.

"This is a NERV building, Stooge," she replied. "A NERV building where its Commander lives. Its security has more than just tasers and harsh language to protect it."

"Man, why didn't I know any of this?" Kensuke moaned. "I live here too!"

"Simple. I warned them about you."

"Aw, come-" The muffled crump of an explosion cut off whatever the teen was going to say. His eyes widened. It was hard to tell whether it was from shock or glee. "Explosives too?!"

"Commander," Asuka reiterated with a sigh.

They waited in anxious silence for several minutes. Just as the redhead was beginning to wonder why she hadn't pressed a floor button to get away from the fighting, she heard a voice coming from her hand.

"Asuka? Are you alright?" The line was still open.

"People are shooting at each other here, Misato!" she exclaimed. "What the hell is going on?!"

"Just wait in the elevator for now."

Asuka raised an eyebrow. How did she know where they were? A glance up at the ceiling answered her question, and she sighed and waved at the security camera. Maybe it was a good thing she didn't hold Shinji's hand.

"Yes, hello to you too. The fighting is almost over now, so please wait where you are. I'll see you soon." The line closed, and Asuka snapped the phone shut before sliding it back into her pocket.

A few more minutes passed before the elevator door opened; struggling a little as the deformed metal tried to fit into place. A black-suited man waited on the other side, a rifle held at the low-ready position in one hand as he glanced between the elevator and the shattered lobby door. "Are you kids alright?" he asked.

"Yeah, we-" Kensuke began before Asuka interrupted.

"What's today's passcode?" the redhead barked. The detail assigned to guard her fellow pilot was dead, and Rei had likely not even noticed that she had been picked up by phony Section Two agents until it was too late.

"Amelkin," the man replied instantly.

Asuka didn't actually know herself what the password was, but the fact that the man had identified with absolutely no hesitation was proof enough for her. She nodded in approval. "They're gone?" she asked, quieter but still authoritative.

The Section Two agent was much larger and bulkier than all three teens, yet still addressed her respectfully. "Yes ma'am. All hostiles eliminated. Please follow me. My orders are to deliver you to NERV until this matter is settled."

"Fine, but we're bringing the stooge here too," Asuka replied, indicating Kensuke who was looking past the man in front of them to the scene at the lobby entrance. "And the next words out of your mouth had better be along the lines of 'Our orders extend to your friends', or I'm going to be unhappy."

The agent confirmed that Commander Katsuragi had ordered all the teens that lived in her building to be picked up and brought to NERV for safety.

"Good."

"Hold up a moment," Kensuke said, before running towards another man sitting against a nearby wall, attempting to wrap a bandage around his arm. The boy brushed the agent's fumbling hand away and had the bandage tied within moments. After making sure there were no other injuries, he walked back to the nonplussed group at the elevator. "Wilderness survival," he quietly explained. "Gotta learn how to fix yourself up out there."

As they left the lobby by a side exit, Asuka carefully diverted Shinji's gaze away from the nearby... mess by simply using a hand to turn his head. Kensuke seemed to be turning green, and even the Section Two agent didn't exactly look pleased as he glanced at what remained of a white van and what seemed to be a dozen bodies.

There were too many black suits on the ground.


It was not long before Toji, Hikari, and their siblings were ushered down to the ground floor and into their own vehicles, and a convoy of black cars swiftly left the apartment complex and headed for the Geofront. The trip was thankfully uneventful after the chaos of the last half-hour, but the mood was subdued.

Whatever fire that had previously flared up inside Shinji at the news of his sister's disappearance had petered out. Now the boy seemed almost immobilised by shock, to the point that Asuka had to nearly drag him all the way from the car to the command centre. It took Misato breaking away from pensively staring at the giant holographic screen and walking over to hug him and Asuka for Shinji to snap out of it. Both the Commander and Sub-Commander did their best to reassure the two teens, but one fact still remained.

There was still no sign of the First Child's whereabouts.

Their friends reacted predictably to the news when Asuka and Shinji met them in the cafeteria. Toji was possibly nearly as angry as Shinji had been, but Hikari was there to comfort him when he sagged into his chair in defeat. Her effort was enough to help the jock to put the news aside and try to cheer up a sniffling Sakura.

Food soon arrived at their table, and spirits seemed to be lifted by the early dinner. While in Asuka's opinion the cafeteria couldn't put out meals like the Third Child could, according to their friends it was still far superior to that served by the high school. She remarked that it would be a very bad thing to poison military personnel, accidental or not.

Asuka tried very hard not to think about how Hikari had mentioned a while ago that the school cafeteria food had somehow gotten worse. Some things should simply not be possible.

After a few minutes, the redhead looked to her left and noticed Shinji half-heartedly picking at the food on his plate. She knew the look on his face well; he was going to apologise about something soon. But she held her tongue, choosing not to jump on him for an apology he hadn't made yet, and what she saw next came as a bit of a surprise.

Shinji scrunched his face up, the glum look replaced by an expression that looked like he was undergoing an internal battle as he tried to make his mind up about something. His head jerked slightly back and forth a few times, possibly as he weighed up the two sides of whatever mental argument he was having.

Asuka finally spoke up when the boy sighed and let his head droop downward.

"Well done," she whispered. "You were thinking about apologising, weren't you?"

Shinji's head shot up at the interruption to his musing as he finally seemed to register her presence. "Y-yeah," he stammered. "I was, but then the logical part of my brain decided to step in and give me a kick in the rear."

"It's about time that part woke up," Asuka replied with a grin, which faded as she continued. "There's no way you could have known the building was going to get attacked."

With a reluctant nod, Shinji said, "I know, but... if I hadn't acted like an... an idiot, we wouldn't have been in danger in the first place." His right hand clenched once more

Asuka reached out to his fist and gently pried it open. With their friends nearby, she couldn't make the gesture as reassuring as she wanted it to be, settling for simply checking for any damage. As she expected, there were marks in his palm from his nails, but no puncture wounds this time. Out of the corner of her eye, Asuka noticed Kensuke looking at them. A threatening look got a zipped lips gesture from the spectacled boy, and she nodded at him.

Letting Shinji's hand drop to the table as if she had simply stopped caring about it, she said, "You acted like anyone else would. Nobody likes feeling helpless when somebody they l... love is in danger."

Her stumble over that word went thankfully unnoticed by Shinji. "Yeah..."

He abruptly stood up and walked over to the cafeteria window. Asuka was hot on his heels after noticing the confused stares of the other people at the table. She stepped up beside him and watched as he ran a hand through his hair.

"Yeah, but...?" Asuka could tell that he had something else to get off his chest.

"But... I really don't like feeling useless," the boy finally replied. "Especially when I can actually do something."

"Nerd Stooge and I already told you, dummy. All of NERV is out there looking for her."

"No, not that. I know I wouldn't contribute much to a search." Shinji sighed heavily and leaned his head against the window. "But there is something in my power to accomplish, next time that... these Revenants attack."

Asuka froze. Was he really suggesting...?

"I hated, hated sitting in that command centre while you and Rei were out there fighting," Shinji said as he turned to fully face her. "As much as I loathe the Evas, I couldn't stand the thought of something happening to you just because I didn't feel like going out there myself. When I saw you go down, the first thing I thought of was..."

"Getting into Unit-01," Asuka finished for him, to which he nodded. "And you did it. Despite not being in one for six months- well, that one time when you were catatonic doesn't count. You still tried to join us."

"But I couldn't get it going!" Shinji almost cried. "I tried as hard as I could, but nothing worked!" He turned back to the window and rested his head against it once more.

Glancing behind her at the table to see if their friends were looking at them, Asuka took that moment to rest a hand on the distraught boy's shoulder. "Stop thinking about that. I'm going to go ahead and blame it on stress and the fact that you were rusty. I'm sure if you try again when there isn't so much pressure, you'll do a lot better. Just don't be surprised if your sync ratio is lower than you expect. Hell, my own score dropped like a rock the first time I got in Unit-02 this year."

Shinji gave a faint chuckle. "I bet it didn't take you long to fix that though."

"Yeah, but there is a bit of a... handicap in Rei's and my Evas."

"Huh? Handicap?" This time when he brought his head up, his expression was one of utter confusion.

"Yyyeah..." Asuka slowly said, rubbing the back of her head. She hadn't intended to bring up the subject of the new residents in their Evangelions, but it was too late now. "You know how... our mothers were inside our Evas?" Shinji grimly nodded, and his right hand clenched again, but soon relaxed once more. "Well... my mother is still in Instrumentality, and I don't know what was in Rei's Eva, but Adam and Lilith gave our Evas a piece of their souls so we could still pilot."

"And... what about mine?" Shinji asked, clearly dreading whatever the answer would be.

"We don't know," Asuka replied with a shrug. "Rei said that Lilith tried to put another soul fragment into Unit-01 but it got repelled, and she didn't want to risk any damage by forcing it in." She brightened up. "Hey, maybe that means your mother is still in there!"

The reaction she received was almost exactly the opposite of what she expected. Shinji's entire face twisted into a grimace, and then Asuka remembered what her own mother had told her in Instrumentality. Yui Ikari had deliberately let herself be consumed by Unit-01. She had chosen to leave her husband and son alone, scarring a three-year-old boy by essentially being murdered in front of him.

"Scheiße," she whispered. "Sorry, Shinji."

The window fogged up slightly at the Third Child's deep exhalation of breath. "It's... fine, Asuka."

Asuka decided it was time to throw caution to the wind. The presence of other people wasn't going to stop her this time. She wrapped an arm around Shinji's torso and drew him a little closer.

To hell with what anybody else thought.


Misato glared at the image on the screen in front of her. It resisted her attempts to make it make any more sense.

A van was parked outside one of NERV's surface access gates, its driver standing next to it with arms akimbo and wearing a balaclava and sunglasses.

The person had just 'requested' her presence specifically, claiming he had something to give her. And that he knew where Rei Ayanami was. Something that even the MAGI, after two hours of intense searching, could not achieve.

"This is obviously a trap," Ritsuko cautioned from the other side of the commander's desk. "Just give the order and that idiot will be reduced to nothing but a smear on the road." The scientist's irritation at the impotence of her beloved computer system was beginning to leak into her speech.

Somebody had stolen one of NERV's people, and for the first few minutes it had been as if a beehive had been knocked over as military personnel scrambled into departing aircraft and technicians did everything possible to make the search easier. Now things had settled into a tense silence as they waited and prayed for some good news. Even the local police force had been drafted into the hunt, as most of the vehicles with NERV plates had been taken off the road to avoid confusion as the hunt progressed.

"Can you guarantee me with absolute certainty that the MAGI can find Rei?" Misato asked, not looking away from the screen. As if sensing her gaze, the man waved at the security camera. He was not visibly armed, but for all they knew the van could very well be carrying an N2 mine.

"...Not as such, no." Ritsuko paused. "You're actually thinking of going out there."

"Not thinking," Misato replied as she got out of her chair. "Doing."

In the end, the purple-haired commander of NERV had to acquiesce to having half a dozen guards escorting her as well as two gunships on standby before Ritsuko would let her leave the office.

The journey was made in tense silence. As they neared the gate, the team assigned to Misato brought their weapons up and moved ahead to make ready for the gate to open.

As the massive doors opened, Misato noticed the man hurriedly stubbing out a cigarette before turning to face them. "Commander Katsuragi," he said welcomingly, arms spread wide. "Glad you finally decided to come out here."

"Tell me where Rei is," Misato demanded.

"Don't worry, she's fine," was the lazy reply as the man patted the air in reassurance. "She's unharmed and close by."

Waving a hand at her escort to order them to remain where they were, the angry woman stalked up to him and said, "Oh? Let me guess, you're here to demand ransom, then. What do you want? Money? The Evas?"

The man was still for a moment, before he slapped a hand to his forehead and laughed. "Oh great, we got some crossed wires here!" he eventually exclaimed. "No, no, I don't want anything. I'm here to return something to you."

"W-wait, what?!" Misato stammered out. "Y-you mean..."

In response, the man slowly walked to the side of the van and opened the door. The escorts, already twitchy, brought their weapons up to track him. He leaned inside for a moment, and the Commander heard him fumbling about a bit, before straightening up and stepping away from the vehicle carrying-

"Rei!"

The unconscious girl was whisked out of the stunned man's hands almost before he could stop in front of Misato, who was now fiercely hugging the First Child to her chest. Tears were threatening to leak from her eyes at the safe return of one of her Children.

"Uh... alright then," the man slowly said, letting his arms drop to his side before raising one hand to scratch at the back of his head. "I'm glad I could help."

"How did you of all people find her?" Misato asked disbelievingly. "Even the MAGI couldn't find anything."

"Trade secret, I'm afraid," he said apologetically. "But you should at least have a clue who we are. After all, you helped us get started on cleaning up SEELE."

Ritsuko had to have been keeping an eye on the situation, because a gurney was soon wheeled out for the First Child. Misato grudgingly laid the girl down and watched as she was wheeled off into the Geofront.

"You're the group that's been hunting down their supporters. The ones making them disappear," she finally said.

"Yep. Somebody we both know helped you find the truth, and now we're tidying things up so that truth doesn't get twisted by influential people in the wrong place."

"Kaji..." Misato blinked, and turned back to the grinning man. "And who the hell are you, anyway? Why couldn't you just give Rei back to us, instead of making me come out here?! You almost got killed by an angry and impotent scientist, you know!"

"Well..." The man sheepishly shrugged. "I wanted to see the woman Ryoji Kaji talked so much about. You're as beautiful as he said you were."

That brought a blush to Misato's cheeks, for the first time in a long time. But then she frowned. Something wasn't adding up about this person coming out of nowhere and wanting to speak to her, bringing back her kidnapped foster daughter. She stepped closer and squinted at him, trying to see past the sunglasses, before suddenly reaching out to his balaclava.

"Wh-hey!"

The cloth and sunglasses were yanked off his head, some hair almost coming out at the roots as well thanks to Misato's iron grip.

The unshaven man backed up a little, then looked at her and sighed. "You just had to spoil my surprise, didn't you, Katsuragi?"

"K-Kaji?!"


Word of the eternally scruffy triple-agent's return spread rapidly through the Geofront, stopping just outside the cafeteria entrance where Misato and Ryoji Kaji came to a halt.

The purple-haired woman was both ecstatic and angry. She wanted to hug and kiss Kaji, but at the same time give him a black eye and kick him below the belt. When the shock of seeing him face to face had worn off, she had settled for almost fainting. As he had run in to catch her, she had taken the opportunity to slap him across the face, to which he had simply responded with that same smug grin he was still wearing now.

"I suppose you're taking me to see Asuka," he guessed.

"Yes, she's going to want to know how you're here too," Misato replied. "Not to mention that it was you that brought Shinji's sister back."

"Sister, huh?" Kaji raised an eyebrow. "Looks like I've missed out on some things."

"What, you didn't steal that info from the MAGI too?"

"Katsuragi, I only had access to the data that I needed to stop SEELE. Anything else was out of my reach."

Misato crossed her arms and stared intently at him, but could sense no deception coming off the man. She had gotten very good at detecting when he was lying to her, to the point where she had known perfectly well that Kaji wasn't going to survive the mission after that fateful answering machine message before he mentioned that he might not make it back.

So why was he now here? He should have died well before Third Impact. Not that she was complaining, of course.

"Fine, wait here until I call you in," she eventually said, before turning and entering the cafeteria.

Inside, her eye was immediately drawn to the window, where Asuka appeared to be comforting Shinji. The other teenagers seemed to be deliberately not looking in that direction, and she wondered how long her two kids had been like that. She walked over and tapped Asuka on the shoulder.

The redhead jolted as if she had been electrocuted, her arm shooting back to her side. "M-Misato!"

Now wasn't an appropriate time to get into teasing them, so Misato simply said, "I've got good news and better news. Which do you want to hear first?"

The Second and Third Children looked sidelong at each other, before Shinji spoke up. "Um... good news first I guess?"

With a nod, their adoptive mother turned and yelled, "Get in here, you horrible man!" before looking back at them. She wanted to see the look on Asuka's face in particular. How would the girl react?

"Hey kids."

"K-Kaji?!"

Ah. Just like she did. Minus the slap.

Misato had to eventually pry the redhead away from Kaji so that he could sit down. Even then, Asuka began to barrage him with questions. While Toji and Kensuke recognised him from their meeting on the Over the Rainbow, back when the Sixth Angel had attacked, Hikari didn't know who he was, and had to be brought up to speed. When Asuka was finally convinced to settle down, Kaji launched into his story.

After kidnapping the former Sub-Commander Kozo Fuyutsuki for SEELE, Kaji had sneaked in and rescued the old man, putting the triple-agent on SEELE's kill list. It hadn't taken long for their assassin to find him and shoot him.

Kaji thumped a hand against his chest. "The fool didn't realise I was wearing body armour. The bullets still tore through it, but they was slowed down enough that I survived. If he was any kind of real assassin, he should have put a third one in my head."

"You should tell SEELE to ask for their money back," Asuka snarkily replied.

With his trademark grin, Kaji continued. "I crawled away from there after about half an hour of bleeding all over the floor. Took me a while, but I made it to a back alley doctor I knew." The grin faded as he turned sheepish. "I... uh... don't remember much after that. I was probably unconscious when Third Impact hit."

"Wait a minute... I saw you in Instrumentality," said Misato. "You said you weren't real!"

'I am just the Kaji in your mind.'

The man gulped nervously. "I... well... you see..."

"You lied to me!" the woman roared as she began to slap at Kaji's shoulder.

"Ow! Hey! Quit it!" Kaji put his arms up to block the slaps. "Okay, okay, I was told to lie to you!"

The blows ceased as Misato froze in confusion. "You were... told to?"

Kaji peeked over his raised arms. "Yeah. Ayanami... or Lilith... she wanted you to leave Instrumentality to help Shinji, so she told me to make you believe I wasn't real. She didn't want you to be torn between me and him. And..." He gingerly reached out and put a hand on Misato's shoulder. "You made the right decision."

"... And you still have a hell of a lot to explain," the woman grumpily said, folding her arms and deliberately looking away from him. "So keep going."

"Oh, right. Well, I came back in... March I think. A bunch of us came out of the sea at once. Fortunately there was nobody who recognised me, so I was able to disappear quickly." Kaji placed his elbows on the table and leaned forward onto his upraised hands. "I knew that SEELE was still likely to be active in some fashion. I found a few people I knew I could trust, they found more people, and before long I had my own little anti-SEELE group formed."

"And then you started stealing data from the MAGI to track them down," Misato replied. "I thought those names were just going out to somebody in your little spy group and they were carrying out the missions in remembrance of you."

"Nope. They came straight to me, and I handed the orders out." The man's expression turned sober. "Those names are the reason I didn't contact you sooner, Katsuragi, I wanted to wipe SEELE out completely before I came back to you."

"What about today's attack?" Asuka inquired. "Shouldn't they have been handled by your team well before such a thing could even get organised?"

A guilty look flashed across Kaji's face for a split second. "That... was kind of my fault."

Misato's voice turned to ice. Her kids had been the victims of the attack. "Explain. Quickly."

Kaji's group had discovered that some of the SEELE sympathisers had banded together and formed what was almost a cult, intent on bringing about what they called 'The True Third Impact'. He had decided to simply observe them, watching as they brought in more and more loyalists. After all, why spend time hunting for something when somebody else was practically bringing it to you?

A mole was slipped in, and misinformation was spread to try and muddy the waters. But the mole had been compromised and almost killed only a few days ago. News about the kidnapping of Rei Ayanami had arrived only a few hours before the operation began, which had left no time to prepare to stop it. Kaji had been forced to focus on preventing the loyalists from fleeing with Rei, and the false Section Two agents had been cornered in an underground garage and eliminated with extreme prejudice.

Ryoji Kaji had a dim view of people who would try to kidnap the Children.

But the attack on the apartment complex had come completely out of nowhere. With the loyalists involved in the operation all dead, there was confusion as to why Shinji and Asuka had been targeted as well.

Misato and Asuka shared a concerned look. Kaji noticed it, but didn't comment.

"I haven't had time to get back to my people and sort things out yet," he said. "But almost all of the SEELE remnants have been taken care of by this point. I'll spare you kids the technical details. I get the feeling only Glasses there would be interested anyway." Kensuke's face fell, and the others at the table chuckled. "I need a little more time to make sure there's nobody else left that would be willing to follow their hideous plan."

"I'll make Ritsuko loan you the MAGI if necessary," Misato offered. Her expression grew dark. "I tell you this now as the Supreme Commander of NERV: I don't want anything left of SEELE when you're done."

"Yes ma'am!" Kaji replied with a mock salute. "Do you mind if I start now, before our enemies can reorganise?"

"Get the hell out of here," the woman said with a dismissive wave. "I still can't decide whether to punch you or kiss you."

"Why not both? Like that time-"

"Finish that sentence and it'll be just punching."

Kaji, evidently deciding not to push Misato, declined to comment and simply walked away, giving a lazy wave over his shoulder as he passed through the cafeteria entrance.

"A thousand yen says Akagi slaps him," Asuka remarked as she watched him leave.

Misato rolled her eyes. "That's not a bet, that's a guarantee."

Shinji's attention returned to his meal. To Asuka's relief, he had stopped picking at it, and the plate was almost empty now. He stopped with a piece of food hovering in front of his mouth for a moment, before putting it back on the plate and asking, "If Mister Kaji was the good news, what's the better news?"

Asuka's eyes widened as something that Kaji had just said came to the front of her mind. Her chair tipped over and she sprinted out of the cafeteria.

"Get your head out of the clouds, Shin-man!" Toji replied, a look of exasperation on his face. "Weren't you listening?"

"Um..."

Misato told him straight up what the better news was. Half a second later, his chair had joined Asuka's on the ground.


"Took you long enough, Third."

Asuka was already in the elevator, but she had kept the doors open for Shinji. It wouldn't really be fair to make him wait, after all.

"Well... I guess I'm glad you convinced me to go swimming," Shinji replied as he stepped in, panting only slightly as Asuka pressed the button for the medical ward's floor.

"I still want you to go out jogging with Jock Stooge though." Asuka stealthily patted her hip pocket. Kensuke had slipped her the replacement tape for Shinji's SDAT during the car ride to the Geofront. For once she was glad that the Third Child listened to a nearly-dead music format; a compact disc case wouldn't have fit in her pockets. "Rei worked out how to help you keep your focus away from other people."

"O-oh? What is it?"

The elevator door opened, and Asuka said, "I'll show you when we get home." She strode over to the counter and almost demanded the location of Rei Ayanami. The receptionist tapped on her computer for a moment before directing them to Room-102.

It was fortunate that the NERV medical ward was not very busy, as the redhead barrelling down the corridor would have caused quite a few problems otherwise. Shinji was simply dragged along in her wake until they stopped outside the door leading to Rei's room.

"Crap, I just realised we don't actually know if she's alright..." Asuka thought out loud, one hand on the door handle.

"What do you mean?" Shinji was almost dancing from foot to foot in his anxiousness to see his sister, looking rather like he needed to go to the bathroom.

The moment Shinji had been informed of his sisters disappearance had almost scared Asuka with how angry he had been. She had seen what the Third Child was capable of when he was angry, and the Fourteenth Angel had died horribly as a result. 'What if those SEELE bastards crippled her or something? How would he react to-' "Hey!"

To her surprise, Asuka was pushed away from the door by Shinji, who had evidently gotten sick of waiting. The boy ran into the room, and she sighed and followed him in.

Inside, Rei was sitting up in bed, hands folded in her lap as she stared out the window. Her head turned towards the pair as they entered. She seemed entirely unharmed, to the relief of both teens.

Until she spoke.

"Pilot Soryu. Pilot Ikari," Rei said in a dull monotone. "What is the reason for your visit?"

Horror and despair crossed the Second and Third Children's faces. Had she somehow lost her memory? This was far worse than anything Asuka could have imagined.

Then the side of Rei's mouth began to twitch.

"Is... something the... matter?" the First Child asked, now evidently struggling to keep her face neutral. The effort quickly became too much and she began to giggle. She brought her hand up to cover her mouth, but the damage had been done.

"You..." Asuka began. Next to her, Shinji was almost collapsing in relief. "You pulled a prank on us?!"

Rei nodded, dropping her hand back to her lap and smiling openly. "I believe this is one of those situations where a camera would have been useful."

"Mein Gott," the redhead gasped, returning to her native tongue out of surprise. Rei Ayanami had just thoroughly japed them. "Wondergirl... you... you magnificent b-" She stopped and censored herself for the benefit of the boy standing beside her. "You magnificent person."

Once his shock wore off, Shinji moved rapidly towards the bed and threw his arms around Rei in a tight hug, eliciting a small gasp of surprise from the bluenette before she returned the gesture.

"Are you alright?" Shinji mumbled into his sister's ear. "I was so worried about you."

"I was sedated by the men who abducted me," was Rei's gentle response. "I am simply here for observation."

Asuka frowned and folded her arms. "Those idiots that kidnapped you... I think they know what part you two played in Third Impact."

Rei nodded grimly as the hug ended. "Yes. Before the sedative took effect, I heard one of my captors mentioning Lilith." A strange look crossed her face. "Wait, us two?" After being filled in on the apartment attack, her expression turned sour.

"H-hey, there's nothing to worry about now," Shinji said in an attempt to reassure his sister. "Mister Kaji and his group have been dealing with SEELE, and he thinks they're almost completely gone."

His fist clenched slightly, a gesture that the Second Child easily noticed. She walked up beside Shinji and 'accidentally' brushed her hand very slowly against his, the gesture hidden from Rei by the height of the bed. Her ploy worked, and Shinji's hand ceased its twitching as he looked at Asuka in confusion.

"What?" the redhead asked innocently, before changing the subject. "Hey, why don't you tell Rei about your decision?"

The red-faced boy was seemingly as eager as her to pretend nothing happened, as he began to stumble over his words while speaking of his choice to pilot Unit-01 once more.

"You will join us in our fight against the Revenants?" Rei asked in clarification. At a nod from Shinji, she smiled. "I know how difficult it must have been for you to make such a decision. Thank you, brother."

Asuka didn't know what possessed her to break up the serious mood, but she accomplished it with some completely coincidental contact between her hand and Shinji's as she moved away from the bed. The look on Shinji's face as she stopped at the door was priceless.

"Speaking of which, we should let Misato know about that, Shinji," she said, keeping her face straight with a modicum of effort. When she saw the boy glance at Rei, she added, "First, you may as well come along too. It's clear there's nothing wrong with you, and sitting in a hospital bed is boring as hell."

All three Children knew the pain of sitting in a hospital bed with nothing to do. Perhaps that was why Rei did not even think of declining as she asked Asuka and Shinji to give her some privacy.

Mere minutes later, the three were stopped in the lobby by the receptionist, who attempted to send the First Child to bed. Asuka simply told the woman to put her complaint in writing, and that she would deliver it to the Commander herself. The receptionist immediately backed down and nervously wished them a good day.


A/N: About the games in the previous chapter... Obviously the first one (where Toji lost to Pen-Pen) was Street Fighter. The second one is Ninja Warriors Again. The last one (ANGRY MODE!) is Rival Turf, maybe the first SNES games I ever played.