The dressing room was empty when they got back, but they followed sounds of activity up to the stage and found Shinji mopping up the Matriel's mess.
"That's Kaworu's job, idiot!" Asuka called from down the hall.
He jumped and fumbled the mop, and it clattered to the boards. "Wah! D-don't yell out of the darkness like that!"
Asuka laughed. "Serves you right."
As they reached him he looked at their intertwined fingers and his face cleared. "Oh! You're – you two finally...?"
"Yep!" Asuka chirped, and swung Rei's hand.
Rei squeezed back, though she spoke to her brother. "I'm sorry for the Angel attack."
Shinji shrugged. "It's fine, I wasn't hurt – and the Matriel wasn't either. Um, please don't try to set me up with people, though. I mean, I probably should've told you how I felt – there was no reason not to..."
Rei shook her head. "I should not have acted unilaterally, either in assuming Asuka's feelings and yours, or in trying to arrange – what. What is that look for."
Shinji was grinning, the goofiest expression Asuka had ever seen on him – and since his default setting was 'goof', that was really saying something. "You called her Asuka."
"Yes."
Asuka scowled. "What of it?"
Then suddenly Shinji was in front of them, hugging them both. She squawked. Ninja family!
"I'm really happy for you both," he said. Rei curled her free arm to return the hug warmly.
Asuka huffed – this sap! – but, just to keep the peace, because she was such a selfless and generous person, patted Shinji's back.
Eventually he let them go and picked up the mop again, humming cheerily.
"Seriously, that is Kaworu's job," Asuka repeated. "He's the one with the Angel hobby. Where is he, anyway? Shouldn't you be inflicting your sappiness on him?"
Shinji hesitated. "He said he was going home. I think he wanted to give you – give us all – some space. Anyway, he took the Matriel with him."
Asuka scowled. "But not any of his costumes or anything, right? Lazy ass – that stuff needs to be washed."
Grumbling, she collected from the dressing room all the stuff they weren't leaving for the next performance (including Tutu, far too valuable to be left unattended). It would've probably been more efficient to use both hands, but that would've meant letting go of Rei's, which was No.
...I mean, one of us'll have to go to the toilet at some point, but that's a Future Asuka problem.
They held hands the whole way home – from the corner of her eye, Asuka saw Rei keep glancing down and smiling, which was both ridiculous and ridiculously endearing.
It was also reassuring. I'm not the only one being totally silly! She's silly about me, too! After feeling so alone and confused, it was a relief to know she was neither.
Asuka was so giddy off Rei's giddiness that when they arrived at the Ikaris' playhouse, it took a moment to process that it was empty.
"Huh? The Angels...?" She rubbed her eyes. The cryptids stayed gone – nothing splashing in the pool, or perched on the bookcase, or plastered to the window. Gone.
"Where are they?" wondered Shinji. "Where did they—"
He froze, and in the silent vacant playhouse his silence was loudest of all.
On the low table in the centre of the room lay the black cuff Shinji had gifted Kaworu.
Asuka's stomach turned cold. A timid glance showed her Shinji's face, confusion and hurt battling in huge eyes. Hurt won, and barely moving he still managed to crumple like tinfoil.
She flinched, physically and mentally. "Oh," she babbled, "looks like Kaworu forgot his cuff? How – how careless, he's so absent-minded, y'know. We..." She darted across and snatched it up. "We should – I'm gonna – yell at him for being careless."
She held the cuff out towards Shinji, who didn't move to take it.
"He'll be so relieved," she insisted. "He's probably kicking himself, wondering where he left it."
Shinji still hadn't taken the cuff from her, and she reluctantly slipped it into her own pocket.
"We can just take it to him, that's all," she tried. "Easy fix."
"Take it where?" Shinji asked in a hollow voice. "Where is he, Asuka?"
"Well – I mean..."
"You're the one saying 'easy fix'," he snapped, and she recoiled. "You can't fix everything with denial!"
"Hey, watch it!" she flared back. "At least I'm trying to be constructive!"
"Constructing in your own head, maybe," he sneered.
Rei's voice filled the room. "Our first step!"
Asuka and Shinji clammed shutdown.
"...Our first step," she repeated calmly, "is to try to contact Nagisa, in case he will – or can – tell us what is happening. From there we can decide how to proceed."
For a moment Shinji hesitated, until his cooperative programming kicked in and he took out his phone.
Kaworu's phone rang and rang, and went to voicemail. He'd never recorded his own message so it was the default machine-voice greeting, and Asuka wondered whether Shinji was relieved or sadder not to have heard Kaworu's voice. At any rate, he choked on leaving a message.
She tried ringing, too – nothing. (She didn't choke, and told the machine in no uncertain terms that he'd better call back soon and explain, or else.)
When Rei tried it went straight to voicemail, and Asuka scowled.
"Turning his phone off – so rude!"
"If it was Nagisa who did it," said Rei.
Shinji looked up sharply, filled with worry even in the middle of his own hurt. Seeing his stricken face made Asuka even angrier at her cousin. Shinji may have been a doofus and a dork, but he was her third-best and equal-oldest friend, and no flaky prettyboy got to make him look like that!
"C'mon," she grated, "let's try my place." She grabbed Shinji's hand as well as Rei's, and set out at a stomp.
When they reached the Soryu's apartment, Asuka charged straight through to Kaworu's room. Still no stupid cousin. Everything was as she'd last seen it, except—
"Huh? His phone's here?"
The battery was dead.
"Asuka," said Rei behind her, and Asuka was too frustrated to be startled. "This was on the kitchen table."
A sheet of paper with scribbly German lettering.
Dear Asuka, thank you for everything.
"What does it say?" demanded Shinji.
"Has Nagisa left?" Rei asked.
Shinji's eyes brimmed.
In Asuka's memory, Kaworu murmured, "People are so sad to say goodbye."
Her fists clenched. "I'm going to push him off the balcony for real this time."
She backtracked to the kitchen, and the address book sitting by the landline extension (not that anyone used it, unless Mama was taking a work call, like at Asuka's last birthday dinner).
The phone numbers for Uncle Keel were for their previous places in Berlin, Wellington, and Santiago. Residential addresses gave her a random Southern Ocean island, and—
"Ah-hah! Tokyo-2 office!"
"Will Mr Keel be there?"
"Only one way to find out," said Asuka, putting the address in her phone nav. "And if not, I'm great at bullying receptionists."
Normally Shinji would've frowned disapprovingly, but not today. Priorities.
Rei rested her chin on Asuka's shoulder to look at her phone screen (Asuka tried not to swoon, but she was only human...). "The intercity train is experiencing delays," she observed.
Shinji looked fearfully at the wall clock. "What if the office closes before we get there?"
Rei lifted her chin (aww...) resolutely. "We have alternative means."
"Mum and Dad are at that thing," Shinji fretted. "And Aunt Kyoko had that emergency..."
Rei dismissed these. "Come with me," she said cryptically.
(She didn't need to tell Asuka to do that, not when she had hold of her hand and therefore effective control of Asuka herself, but Asuka appreciated the gesture.)
They took a train in to the Tokyo-3 business district. Shinji alternated between staring out the window and scrolling on his phone (how many photos did those lovebirds send each other?) (Not that Asuka was peeking.) (And they were all so domestic and boring anyway, nothing even spicier than goodnight selfie the Iruel had shown her.).
...Where was the Iruel, anyway? Why had Kaworu taken all the Angels, and where, and what for? Asuka had never gotten an actual answer to why he was collecting them in the first place. They were too weird to just be left lying around where anyone could see them, of course; and honestly she'd gotten so used to them, and so distracted by the whole Rei thing, that she'd stopped thinking about it, beyond documentation for "one day I'll get the Nobel prize for these things, and Mama will have to come to the ceremony".
A scientific revolution had been right under her nose, and she'd just – complained about it, mostly.
...Well, they hadn't looked revolutionary. Just weird.
She shook herself out of reflection when they reached Mr Gendo's office building.
"It's closed on weekends," Shinji pointed out.
"To the public," Rei expanded, and led them to the garage, where she entered a code on the security keypad.
Shinji looked put out. "He never gave me the entrance codes."
Asuka snickered. "Guess we know who's the favourite child."
He scowled, and hit back, "It's lucky for you that you don't have any competition."
"How dare you!" Asuka said, and got him in a chokehold, making him squawk.
Rei spoke up pointedly, "It's this way," and they contritely stopped fighting to follow her. As the door closed behind them she said, "Shinji is Mother's favourite, so it is fair."
"Mama's boy," Asuka whispered at Shinji behind Rei's back.
He stuck his tongue out at her, and she smirked to herself. Not sulking over Kaworu now, huh.
...Not that she'd been trying to distract him so he felt better, of course not.
At the back of the carpark stood two large tarpaulin-covered shapes, too small to be cars or even motorbikes.
"What—?" Asuka began, but was answered when Rei lifted both tarps off in one graceful motion (made up of a series of small ungraceful motions).
The left scooter was yellow and blue with an oversized round headlamp. The right scooter was purple and green, the handlebar protruding at the front to a point like a horn.
Shinji's jaw dropped. "Whose are these?"
"Are we stealing them?" Asuka asked, and gathered both hands into her sleeves to obscure her fingerprints.
Rei felt around inside the lining of the tarp covers and soon produced two sets of keys, one of which she gave to Shinji. "Happy early birthday."
"Huh?"
"They are our presents. Father has been hiding them here in preparation."
"But our birthday is months away...?"
"Father values preparation very highly."
"Wait," Asuka interrupted, "Has your mum had access to them?" Visions of airborne rocket-powered and -equipped Ikaris rampaged across her mind's eye.
"It is a risk I am willing to take," Rei declared, "for the sake of finding Nagisa and returning him to Shinji."
Shinji's eyes brimmed again. "Thank you, Rei."
Asuka clapped her hands. "Then let's go already! I'll dink on Rei's. Did your super-prepared dad include any spare helmets?"
A rummage turned up a white-and-green helmet, a sky-and-royal-blue, and a red-and-orange that Rei handed to Asuka, blushing lightly.
"It isn't spare. It's yours."
"Eh? Mine?"
From the corner of her eye she saw Shinji grinning.
"I suppose they assumed Asuka would be travelling with us," Rei said, with what she probably thought was neutrality.
Asuka felt her face flame. Even if Mr Gendo and Dr Yui had only been thinking of their children's friendship with her, it was still a bit embarrassing to get so completely read by grownups.
"All right time to get moving now get in gear people—" ...and if Shinji doesn't drop the smug look in zero point zero one seconds I'll run him over with his own birthday present!
They checked over the scooters and started them up, with a sound like dubstep mosquitoes, and at last set out to collect the wayward weirdo (Asuka's offer to buy fuel was politely ignored).
Hanging on the back of the yellow-blue scooter, Asuka squeezed Rei's waist with her arms and hips with her knees, and in the midst of everything somehow felt – just a bit – okay.
Uncle Keel's office at the Tokyo-2 wharves turned out to be attached to an apartment with his name on the door, so when there was no answer at reception they rang the residence doorbell.
#Who is it? What do you want?#
Shinji visibly wilted at the harsh voice, and Asuka herself gulped. This guy hasn't mellowed with age at all. "Um," she rallied, "it's Asuka Soryu."
#...Kyoko's young one. Yes. Go ahead.#
"Is Kaworu there?"
#Kaworu? What do you mean?#
She withered. "Is he at home with you? We can't get hold of him."
There was a pause, then the security door clicked green. #Come up.#
Nervously they bundled inside. The entrance hall on the ground floor had a coat hook holding a khaki military-style overcoat, a dark blue winter jacket Asuka recognised as Kaworu's (covered in a layer of dust), and a light hooded poncho patterned with watercolour flowers. ...No way that's Uncle Keel's.
There were no house slippers available, so Asuka, Shinji, and Rei went through in their socks.
Upstairs, they found the living room walls solid with bookcases, and books piled on their tops, and books on chairs and tables and shelves. Rei's breath hitched and her pupils expanded like a cat's.
In a wheelchair by the window hunched Uncle Keel, a breathing tube looped around his face and an IV hooked into one arm. He looked up as the teens entered, and grunted.
"Naoko," he called, and at the kitchen door appeared the poncho's presumed owner, a middle-aged woman with short red curls. She wore scrubs and carried a tray with food and medications.
Her eyes widened when they landed on Rei. "Goodness. If you aren't Yui Ikari's child I'll eat every book in this dragon's hoard of a house."
Rei blinked. "Yes, ma'am."
"Well it's lovely to see you again after all this time. You too, boy," she added to Shinji. "I delivered you both, you know, back when I was in obstetrics." She flushed. "Forgive me, I saw so many kittens – I'm afraid I've quite forgotten your names."
"Oh, no offence at all!" Shinji reassured hurriedly. "Rei," gesturing, "and I'm Shinji."
"Yes! I remember now. Usually with twins it's the first out who doesn't cause issues, and the dallier who's troublesome, but you two decided to be different." She laughed lightly.
Asuka tried (not very hard) to contain her protective scowl. Rei doesn't cause trouble or issues, she thought. And if she did, so what? You're a doctor, deal with it!
Dr Naoko continued, "Always good to see the little ones again. Please excuse us a moment. —Lorenz," and she turned to Keel, "We're all done here. I'll pack up and be on my way, if there's nothing else."
As the three teens waited with varying levels of patience (Asuka felt she was justified in fidgeting, given the circumstances) she took out the IV needle from his arm, checked the tank of his nasal tube, then presented the tray. "Your usual, dry oatmeal with water." Her voice was at least as deliberately bland as the meal she described.
Keel quickly took the meds and a drink to go with them. "That will be all for today, Naoko."
"Then I'll see you tomorrow. Is your emergency call button working?"
He took hold of a band on his wrist and pressed; the doctor referred to her pager, which beeped in response.
"Good. The evening shift will check in at eight, as usual."
"I know," he said irritably, and waved her off.
Dr Naoko exchanged a nod for the teens' bows, and clattered down the stairs.
When the front door closed behind her, Keel grunted again. "Now. My nephew."
"He's not here?" Shinji blurted. "Has he talked to you? Have you heard from him? Where could he be?"
Keel eyed Shinji, expression unreadable. His eyebrows were so heavy they seemed to obscure half his face anyway.
"He said he was going home," Asuka reported, "but he's not at our apartment, and the – the project we were working on, he's taken them – it – with him. We figure."
"Hm," was Keel's unhelpful response.
"That's what he told Shinji, right?"
Shinji nodded. "He said 'It's time I went home'."
Keel let out a disgruntled sigh, and muttered, "That child. I thought he might have spoken to me first."
"First?" Asuka echoed. Something twisted in her stomach. "Uncle Keel, do you know...?"
Silence, for a long moment.
Then:
"How many Angels have been found?"
Asuka jumped. "Huh?" Beside her Shinji said and did the same. "You know about the Angels?"
"More than any other Lilin, I expect," Keel said curtly. "How many?"
Rei had been counting on her fingers. "Fourteen, or fifteen," she said, "depending on what state the Israfel is in."
Keel nodded. "Then yes, they are going home."
"What does that mean?" Shinji demanded. "Where is 'home'?"
Asuk felt realisation crystallise in her. "The Angels aren't from Earth. Are they."
Rei and Shinji looked at her, eyes wide.
Keel grunted, possibly in approval. "Your reasoning?"
"Well—" she fumbled, "they don't – live, or exist, the way Earth lifeforms do. They don't eat or drink, or – or photosynthesise, or whatever, as far as we could tell. They don't take in energy or create – waste, faeces or anything. They don't ... do biology like we do, or even physics. They're not ... like us."
Rei's expression was puzzled but rapt. "Then how can they survive in this world?"
At the same time Shinji wondered, "So where are they from?"
"I don't know that," Asuka protested. "How could I know that?"
"Because," rumbled Keel, "the answer to both questions is the same." His over-browed eyes were leaden on Asuka.
Her mind was whirling so fast she could hear it whine. And at the centre of the whirl, Kaworu gazed at the night sky. "Will you recognise me, I wonder?"
"The moon," she whispered. "It was part of this planet billions of years ago, while the solar system was still forming – that's why so much of the geochemistry is the same. The Angels are all from the moon."
She swallowed. "Including Kaworu."