"Well, I've got to say it, Misato. This isn't terrible, you're getting better!"

"You better not be yanking my chain…"

The morning found Asuka and Misato having breakfast. It had been a day or so since Kaworu had stayed the night. He had stayed the previous night too but had left early, an act Asuka found odd but let go, since he told her to come meet him at home after Misato left for the day.

Misato had tried another crack at breakfast for the both of them. It wasn't anything super complicated; just rice and miso but honestly the effort meant more than the substance. Asuka shook her head, "I mean it!"

"It's no Shinji breakfast…"

"As if any of us could compete with that!"

Misato chuckled softly, "I suppose so."

She had decided to chance being late for work to make her and Asuka something. She could tell the isolation of the apartment was starting to wear on her, especially when she found out she had gotten Kaworu to stay over. While she was still sure Kaji's hunch about Kaworu was likely paranoia...she still found herself tucking his flash drive away in a better hidden spot after she came home that first night.

She asked, "Say, Asuka. Has Kaworu ever talked about his past?"

Asuka shot her a confused look, "Don't you guys have paperwork for that?"

"His is just like Rei's; redacted to hell and back."

"And you're asking me this now instead of months ago because…?"

"Asuka, just please answer the question."

The next look Asuka gave her was one she hadn't expected; a narrow-eyed glare of open suspicion. She huffed, "It's not like he talks about it. He came from somewhere in England and ended up with me in Germany. Whatever guardian he has couldn't give a flying fuck whether he's alive or dead. And he picked up piano from somewhere. Is that satisfactory?"

Misato winced at her sudden cold tone. She raised her hands, hoping to show her she meant nothing by it, "Doesn't that strike you as weird though?"

"What? That he doesn't talk about his past? Last I checked, I'm the last person who's going to jump on someone for that. I don't go around talking about my past either!"

"Asuka, I didn't mean anything by it…"

"Whatever," she stood up and headed for the door, leaving her breakfast behind, "He's gone through hell and this is what you do for him?"

Without waiting for her response, she stepped outside, letting the door snap shut behind her.

Misato sighed and pressed her head into her hands. She hadn't thought that one out, had she? Beside Kaworu being her best friend, of course Asuka would be offended by her digging into someone's past without consent to.

She wished she could tell her that it was all for her own good. She just wanted a little insight into the boy, to confirm for good Kaji's hunch was false. As far as it seemed, Kaworu was a normal boy, a traumatized but nevertheless normal boy. But she had to be sure before she came to that conclusion.

At least she also had Hyuga looking into leads. But how could she tell Asuka that she just wanted to protect her and Shinji's hearts?

---

Asuka marched down the hall, breathing through her teeth and shaking with anger. Where did Misato get off on poking her nose where it didn't belong? Kaworu was going through hell and all she could think of was finding that suspicious? Had either of them done something that made her wary of them?

She reflected, as the red dimmed from her vision, that it was odd she didn't know too much about his past. But her point to her guardian had been true; she thought she was the last person to go poking and prodding. What if something truly terrible had happened to him way back when, something he'd rather not think about?

She walked the last few feet to Kaworu's apartment, tucking those thoughts somewhere at the back of her mind. That wasn't important now. Her and Kaworu had a final Angel to plan for.

She gave his door a sharp knock and he answered quick after, as if he had been waiting. He smiled softly, "Good morning, Asuka."

"Morning to you too. You have breakfast yet?"

"Ah. Not as of yet."

She internally kicked herself for storming out of the apartment so suddenly, since she could have brought him something. There was no way she was going back now and she really wanted to get going, so they wouldn't meet Misato on her way back out to work. She jerked her head towards the elevator, "We can pick something up on our way to collect Mari."

Something that looked like disappointment or maybe exasperation flickered across his face when she mentioned Mari but he nodded.

As they walked to the elevator, she asked, "Not up to talking to Mari today?"

"Not...particularly. She's quite a lot."

"I'm the one supposed to say that!" she gave him a playful smile, "You've got it all backwards. But I figured it was best we get her to we can coordinate what we know."

They started the walk to Rei's old apartment, as it was where Shinji had mentioned she was living, some time before. They made a single stop to get a breakfast of a rice ball from one of the few convenience stores still open in the city.

Once at Rei's old apartment, they climbed the stairs and pushed open the door to where Mari was staying to find...it empty.

Asuka, standing on the threshold, asked, "She's not here? Maybe she's up on the roof like Shinji's said before?"

"Hold on," Kaworu murmured, gently pushing past her and into the apartment proper.

He padded into the main area, where a cot was folded up and leaning against the wall. A collection of boxes laid beside it but, when he began to look through them, found most of them empty spare a few MREs and bottles of water. A stack of books had been placed right up against the wall, slightly askew. A thin layer of dust had settled on everything. He murmured, "She hasn't been here for a while."

"What? Where would she go?" Asuka asked, coming up beside him to paw through the boxes herself.

"I'd be inclined to say she vacated to a different location but she left the cot here," he laid a hand on it, "So she left...but planned to return? Perhaps she's off investigating something…"

"Well, that's a pain. I wish she could have told us where she was going," she huffed, hands on her hips.

"The less people know of a plan, the less points of failure it has," he told her as he rose, "I'm sure, whatever it is she's up to, it's important to our cause."

Asuka grumbled all the way out of the apartment, all the way up to the roof to double check then all the way back down to ground level. She couldn't deny that Kaworu was probably right and Mari was off doing something important for them. Still, she would have liked to have been able to get an opinion from her. While she was sure Kaworu would be open to her regarding the final Angel, there was a chance Mari might remember something he didn't or have experienced something he hadn't.

Kaworu, on the other hand, was relieved, though he knew he really shouldn't. Mari was extremely observant and it was all but a given she knew the final Angel's true identity. And he was sure she would see right through his deception. Knowing her, it was all but a given she would have mouthed off to Asuka.

If she did that...she'd be in the right but it would have made things far more complicated.

They continued onward to the park without her and sat down in the grass, facing each other. Asuka cut straight to the point, pressing the fingertips of each hand to the other in a thinking gesture as she asked, "Alright. There's just one more Angel, right?"

He kept his tone neutral, "That's right."

"Now, my memory from around here is shot and all fuzzy. I remember they brought you in to replace me and," she trailed off before admitting, "Not much else."

"It's name is Tabris," he murmured.

"Tabris," she echoed and something about that name in her mouth made it feel like the world was closing in around him.

She leaned forward, eyes steely, "Alright. What do I need to expect?"

He stared back at her.

He should tell her the truth.

Its what would be right.

"There is no set appearance to Tabris," he lied, "I have no idea what to expect from it."

"Are you serious?" she cocked her head, "Nothing at all? It's not always like what you told me on the Over the Rainbow?"

Oh right, he had said something of Tabris back then. She was going to make this hard for him. He lied once more, "Only sometimes. It took control of Unit 02 using me as vector, similar to Bardiel. Except the Core manifested in the Entry Plug," he trailed off, letting her make her own conclusion.

Her eyes widened, "So Shinji had to?"

He slowly nodded. It was a lie but close enough to the truth...uncomfortably close to the truth.

She rubbed an arm, anxiety reverberating off her. She asked, "But it doesn't do that all the time, right?"

"No."

"Gott danken. I wouldn't want him to have to go through something like that," she trailed off, casting a glance at her hands.

He knew that she was also envisioning what she would do in such a scenario.

He really was a monster. But somehow, this was better than the uncertainty of her reaction if he did admit it here and now. She was going to find out one way or another and he would have to die one way or another. Did it really matter when she found out about those two things? Did it really matter if it happened at the same time?

"Great," she collapsed back into the grass, "One final wild card. Shinji's MIA and I have no idea what to expect."

"We'll get through it," his words rang hollow to himself.

She grumbled something indistinct. She looked up at him from her position on the grass, "How have you been?"

He smiled tightly, "I really do miss Shinji. Losing him right after it felt like I might get better...it's rough."

"Well, I know Shinji's in a whole league of his own for you but you've got me and you've got Rei and I'm sure Misato would hear you out."

Her mind wandered to Misato's grilling from this morning about his backstory.

She said, "Y'know actually, Misato was being super weird this morning. She was asking about you."

"About me?" Kaworu's eyes widened in alarm.

She felt the tug of guilt at her chest but forged on. It was definitely something he should know, "She was asking if I knew about your past. I basically told her it was a little late to be looking into something like that."

"What does she know?" he asked, a note of dread lingering in his voice.

Frowning, she sat up so she could put a hand to his shoulder, "As far as I know, nothing. She wouldn't have asked me if she could just go into the NERV systems and find anything."

Underneath her hand, he relaxed a hair, "I suppose that is true."

He gave her a guilty look, "I never have shared any of it with you...but I know all about you."

Asuka crossed her arms, "And as curious as I might be, you will only tell me what you want to! I'm the last person to be trying to make you talk about your past."

Despite himself, Kaworu laughed airily, "That is...true. My past...before the loops, it's not entirely something I like to revisit."

"So we won't revisit it. If it was important, you would tell me right?"

Once again feeling guilty, he nodded slowly. Eager to change the topic, he lightly pointed out, "Y'know, I can't help but think of when we first met, before you learned all about me. You would have balked at how you've changed."

She scowled, "Why are you bringing that up now?"

"I suppose talking of pasts makes me think of then."

She rolled her eyes, "I worry about you, dummy. And y'know. I'm worried about Shinji too. Me from a few months ago would have had a meltdown hearing that!"

He chuckled lightly and after, the two lapsed into silence. She pulled her knees up to her chest, "About Shinji. You think he'll come back?"

"Of course," Kaworu said immediately, looking up at the sky, "I have utmost faith in him."

---

"Get off of me!"

Through his terror, Shinji found it in himself to rear back one leg and kick at the seemingly unmoveable Unit 01. He gritted his teeth and kicked again, yelling down at her, "Mom, let go! Mom! You're scaring me!"

He could feel her grip waver and then let him go. He immediately began kicking his legs away, eager to swim away, get anywhere but here!

The world shifted again, bringing a ghostly feeling of vertigo as the sea melted away in favor of a train. He whipped his hand out to grab one of the bars, to keep himself from falling over. Out of the corner of his eye, he could see the train following a track that led down a sand bar, the red sea lapping at both sides like some hungry beast.

"Shinji, come and sit over here with me."

He turned to find his mother beckoning him over to sit beside her. She was wearing a blue-and-white plugsuit, much like his own and when he looked down, he found he was wearing one too. Her face was still, impossibly, obscured. Feeling a rush of resentment, he sat across from her. She frowned but didn't call attention to it.

She murmured, "This must be rather familiar to you, huh, baby?"

"It's like after I spoke to my father, so long ago."

He noticed she tensed at the mention though ultimately, said nothing about it. Instead, she said, "I mean. When you wake up again."

A memory flitted across his mind; of the beginning of this loop, when he awoke on the train an hour outside Tokyo-3.

He frowned, "What are you getting at, Mother?"

"Mother…," she trailed off, "So cold."

"You're the one who just scared the hell out of me!" he snapped, "Now tell me: what are you getting at?"

She smiled sadly, "I really want to know. What is it you're getting at? Going through this…"

A memory of him lunging out of the way of Ramiel's first shot, scrambling to stand—

—only to get blasted again. He had to lie there in agony as the LCL around him boiled and then the blood inside his body and then...all went black.

"...and over…"

He couldn't get Unit 01 to move, even if he wanted to. The juggernaut Angel—Zeruel—had cleaved off his arms and was coming to finish the job. It reared its arm back, aiming at his head, and when it stared into Unit 01's eyes, he got the sense it was him it was seeing.

"...and over…"

Asuka and Rei were just a few moments too late. The aching in his arms from holding up Sahaquiel intensified and, with a horrible snap, Unit 01's now broken and useless arms fell to her side, letting the Angel's entire weight land upon him.

"and over."

"I SAID STOP THAT!"

He waved a hand in front of himself and, even if it didn't actually dispel the images, it helped to feel like it did. He scowled at his mother, "It was father's choice I pilot the Eva and it was Misato's I keep doing it. But going back, over and over? That was all mine."

Yui leaned back, leaning her head back to regard him with a firm frown. She warned, "But not all choices are good ones."

This time, he was in the dream-like space of Unit 01's entry plug, cradling Rei in his arms. Despite the serene atmosphere here, outside the world had descended into hell. The Geofront and world beyond were being torn apart by fierce winds underneath a blood-red sky that was opening up into a void beyond. At the epicenter of this apocalypse was Unit 01, luminous, three-eyed and many-winged.

"Don't. That's a low blow."

Shinji jumped to his feet, making the vision dissipate. The glower he was giving Yui could burn holes into her.

She still frowned, unaffected by his anger, "But you still think about it, right?"

"Of course I do! It...it haunts me. But if I never stopped running away and hiding when things got too hard," he shook his head, "I wouldn't be in much a better place I am now."

"I'm trying to offer you a better place, Shinji!" Yui cried, "In here, you won't have to worry about good or bad choices. You won't have to worry about anything anymore."

"I won't get to make any choices at all anymore. If you were interested in actually helping me Mother, you would tell me that no choice is unforgiveable. And you'd tell me to not run away."

That actually got Yui to flinch, as if struck. She started, "It's not running away…"

He cut her off, "That's exactly it! And I'm done running away!"

---

Misato's "appointment" with Ritsuko had arrived and at the very late hour of just before midnight, she came to her office, rapping her knuckles against the door. She waited a minute then, when no answer came, she knocked again, "Uh, Ritz...I came like you asked?"

There was a quick shuffling, a grumbling then Ritsuko called, "Er, hell...come on in!"

Misato pushed the door open and gasped sharply, finding Ritsuko's office looked like it had been hit by a typhoon. Her desk was buried by various papers and printouts with only her monitor, an ashtray (filled to the brim with cigarette butts) and an assortment of mugs (with varying levels of coffee) placed on top. The woman herself was half-leaning in her chair, rubbing at one of her eyes. She picked up a mug, inspected the coffee within and, finding it old, dumped it into an equally overflowing trash can. Misato whistled, "Where do I even start?"

"You don't," Ritsuko cut her off before standing, stretching as she did.

"What did you do, doze off?"

"Must have. I'm only getting a couple hours a night but it's not like I've got a choice," she grumbled, "With all the work the Salvage Operation needs and Commander Ikari breathing down my neck to get it done in a timely manner."

Misato raised an eyebrow and, seeing the gears in her head turn, Ritsuko continued, "Now whether or not that's because it's his son in there or one of the few useful pilots he has left in there remains to be seen…"

She scowled. Typical. She already had her own inklings that Shinji's disappearance was a direct result of the Commander pushing his luck against the Angel. And while she certainly hoped Ritsuko would be able to pull him back, the Commander pushing so hard for her to undo his mistake felt...off. She was shook from her thoughts to see Ritsuko rooting under the scattered papers until she found her red NERV keycard. She used it to gesture at her, "Alright, come along. There's something I need to show you."

She pushed past her, leaving Misato to gape at her, "Where are we going?"

"Just come along, Misato."

She followed her down the hall and, when they didn't immediately get on an elevator, Misato couldn't help but feel confused. She held her tongue as they wove through the halls until they finally came to an elevator Ritsuko wanted to use. She pressed the button for the lowest level and swiped her keycard, which earned her a soft chime.

Misato realized where they were heading to: Terminal Dogma. Her confusion and curiosity was quickly joined by anxiety and a touch of wariness. Why would Ritsuko be taking her there? Had she somehow found out she knew even more than she thought and was taking her down there to...deal with her? Her hand ghosted to her holster and she wondered, if it came down to it, if she could shoot her friend. She glanced at Ritsuko who watched her with an unreadable expression. She let her hand drop back to her side.

They exited out into a dark grey, dreary hallway which Ritsuko headed down at a quick pace, leaving her companion to rush to follow. She asked, "Misato, what did you join NERV for?"

"Haven't I told you before?" Misato asked, furrowing her eyebrows as she tried to recall just how much she had shared with her.

"Maybe I just need a refresher. When you joined I always thought it kind of odd you did. Wild party girl...joining what is effectively a military installation."

Still confused and anxious and curious all at once, she decided to humor her, "I guess living through Second Impact and being at ground zero made it personal for me."

Nodding in understanding, Ritsuko confirmed, "I know that. Is there anything more to it?"

"Ritsuko, what the hell are you asking this for?"

"Misato," her tone came out as exasperated, "Just humor me."

With a deep inhale and the assurance she didn't have anything to lose and everything to gain, she explained, "I guess killing the Angels feels like...I'm avenging my father. Making it up to him."

"I see...thank you."

"I'm guessing this is where I ask you the same thing."

"Yes," Ritsuko murmured, "I was following in my mother's footsteps. I always admired her skill and her drive. I wanted to be like her."

"I thought you and your mother weren't on the greatest of terms."

A small, sardonic smile crept onto Ritsuko's lips, "Two things can be true at the same time. In the scientist-woman-mother hierarchy, it always seemed like being a mother was at the bottom. I...was always at the bottom. I ended up following in her footsteps...thought I might spite her by becoming better than her."

"You are better than her," Misato encouraged, "Look at everything I've done!"

"Not in all respects," Ritsuko corrected, "...but I'm starting to believe that's good...in some ways."

She stopped in the middle of the hall and, beside them, there was a doorway leading into a large open room. Misato asked, "So why are you telling me this?"

"I've changed, Misato," her friend murmured, "Maya, too good for this terrible world...has changed me. For as long as I could remember, I was chasing the affections of...the Commander," seeing Misato start to cut her off, she raised a hand to silence her.

"I thought maybe everything I was doing, every terrible thing I had done might mean something if I could have his heart. I just didn't know he had no intention to give it to anyone but her."

Misato frowned. She didn't need Ritsuko to clarify who she was talking about. The grinning, ghoulish visage of the unarmored Unit 01 appeared in her mind's eye. "What terrible things could you have even done?" she asked.

Ritsuko shot her a sad smile and she gestured to the doorway, "Let me help you understand."

She followed her into the large, mostly empty room. At the far end was a bed and a divider. All around were derelict and broken medical equipment, with long cords snaking across the floor. Most bizarrely were the words scrawled on the walls and floors like "Strangeness" and "TiD2". A thick layer of dust on everything suggested the room hadn't seen use in quite some time. After studying it for some time, Misato realized, "This looks like Rei's old apartment...the one we took her from."

"That's not a coincidence. This is where she was born and raised," Ritsuko murmured, lingering at the doorway, as if unwilling to go any farther.

"She was...born here? Here in NERV?" Misato turned to face her.

Ritsuko could see the gears turning in her head. Good. She wasn't quite sure how much she knew already but hopefully these would give her a more complete picture of how deep they both were in this. She nodded and gestured her out, "There's more to see."

She led them both back down the hall and, after a few twisting turns, they came out into a gigantic chamber, on top a rusted and creaky metal platform. Beyond was a cross-shaped depression and a collection of smaller, circular ones. Inside all of them was a grotesque mess of bones, old armor and what even appeared to be dried blood. Ritsuko explained, "This is the dumping ground for all the first Evas...the failures. But it's also where Unit 01 underwent its Contact Experiment…"

Misato leaned over the railing, gaping at the horror show unfolding before her. She turned back towards her, "Alright...raising Rei here in NERV is pretty damn shady. But this isn't exactly a surprise...after all, it's not exactly a secret the Evas, in their own way, are organic. I don't think this warrants you saying you've done terrible things…"

Once more, she gestured for her to follow her back into the hallway. Misato followed, those same feelings of curiosity, anxiety and confusion being joined by a sickly dread. Like whatever Ritsuko had to show her now was even worse than everything else combined. Something that might even change her view of the woman. Once more, her hand ghosted over her holster.

As selfish as it was, whatever Ritsuko was going to show her...she couldn't let it affect her emotions to the point she attacked her. Then Shinji would be lost forever.

They came into another, large chamber. As they passed by, Misato noted that it was labeled as "Dummy Plug Production". Inside was dark, with the only light coming from an illuminated tube of LCL in the center. Some machinery was attached to the top of it and snaked upwards into a mess of tubing and wiring, evoking the uncomfortable imagery of a human brain. If Misato squinted, she could see the circular walls were covered with a metal shutter and, just behind the tube, was a computer terminal on top a rolling cart. Ritsuko stood, staring at the tube, eyes unfocused.

Misato broke the silence, "This is where the Dummy Plug was made? That...thing...that…" she trailed off, finding herself unable to finish her sentence.

Ritsuko swallowed thickly, "That's...part of it. It was indeed made here. But...here is the full truth."

She withdrew a remote from her coat and tapped it. With a low groan, as if pained, the metal shutters began to rise.

Orange light flooded the room as it was revealed that, beyond the metal shutters, was a tank of LCL. But it wasn't empty. Everywhere Misato's eyes darted, all she could see was the grinning, soulless visage of Rei Ayanami. Not one, not two but a whole dozen of them staring blankly at the pair. All her emotions were washed away by a sense of revulsion and she staggered back, looking at Ritsuko who stood silhouetted against the nightmare.

"You...what the fuck?" she hissed.

Ritsuko turned to face her, eyes turned downwards, "This is the nature of the dummy plug...and the nature of Rei Ayanami."

A sense of realization came over Misato, "Long ago...she said she was replaceable."

"And she is. In the most literal sense. These are just vessels. Vessels we can put the soul called "Rei Ayanami" into."

To spare her any more horror, she pressed the remote again, letting the metal shutters close over the tank once more, casting them into darkness.

"You made her," Misato hissed.

"I did not...but I followed my mother's footsteps in some of the worst ways," Ritsuko murmured, "I suppose that's when I first realized I couldn't justify my actions anymore. You see...Rei's trick with the N2 Bomb and her AT Field...it cost her dearly."

Misato's eyes widened. Of course...her miracle recovery, her spacy memory...it all made sense.

Ritsuko continued, "I was already losing faith in Gendo then but I thought that there was little else I can do. After all, I was already too far deep. But when we finally retrieved Rei's Plug...I had to be the one to pull her small...broken body from it. I had to bring her here and I had to make sure I could coax her soul, everything she was, into a new body.

And that night, as selfish as it was...all I could wonder if what Maya might think of me if she knew. Suddenly, I cared a lot about the things I was doing.

Then...Rei stayed with us to see if Shinji was okay. Seeing her about to cry...I realized I could no longer pretend she was just a tool...a doll. She was a person, a person I had been so terrible to."

She sighed, "So there it is. However you decide to feel about me now...well, you know the whole truth."

"Is this why you told me all this?" Misato asked, her tone low and dangerous, "To win my trust?"

Ritsuko smiled at her, though it didn't meet her eyes, "I'd be lying if I said that wasn't at least part of it. But the end is coming soon, Misato. I'd like to face it without any regrets."

"The end...what are you talking about?"

"There's only one Angel left. And he's a lot closer than we all think."

"He…" she trailed off, her eyes snapping wide, "You don't mean?"

Once more, Ritsuko smiled sadly at her, "Like I said before...you should come to your own conclusions. Some time ago, when Iruel invaded the base, I saved the data from it for myself. After some time, I've only recently realized why its AT Field seemed to double before it died. Because there was a second one and the owner of that one killed it. There was an Angel amongst us back then…"

Suddenly, Misato felt sick. The image of Kaworu's disheveled self from that day in the car flashed in her mind's eye. Overlaid was the image of Armisael—drawing a comparison between the two.

"There's no way…," she murmured, "But why would he...why would he just live with us? Hell, why would he help us?"

Shaking her head, Ritsuko replied, "I can't tell you any of that. And I can't even tell you if my theory is completely correct. But from what I know, it would make sense."

Recalling Kaji's identification of him as a SEELE asset and the Commander's apparent desire for him to come to harm, she agreed, "It would...it really would..."

---

Time marched forward for Asuka and, growing increasingly restless and bored in the empty apartment, decided to rope Rei and Kaworu into doing something with her. It would take her mind off the sense she stood on the precipice of a great fall, one of which she couldn't see the bottom of.

At the very least, all three of them doing something should be good for not just her but the other two too.

For all his insisting he was going to be okay, Kaworu didn't seem to be getting much better. Though he was willing to entertain whatever she wanted to get up to, there was this sense of melancholy dogging him. He spaced out all the time and seemed to struggle to actually focus on the 'now', his mind always somewhere else. His words rang hollow and anytime she tried to comfort him, it seemed to slip off him like water off a duck's back.

She found herself missing the annoyingly serene Kaworu of a few months back.

Rei, on the other hand, seemed to have gone the other way on the emotion scale. She was brighter and more responsive and that seemed to intensify as the days went by. It was almost like her miraculous resurrection had unlocked something within her and she was finally, truly, coming into her true self.

Though, this came with the caveat, that Rei also tended to space out, like her mind was somewhere else as well.

She hoped wherever their minds wandered off to, it was a nice place...though realistically, it probably wasn't.

Today, she had roped them both into going swimming with her at one of the lakes. The shoreline was a far trek away and...invited uncomfortable memories, even though the water there was still blue.

Once there, Asuka shed her yellow sundress, wearing her bikini underneath. Kaworu, ever polite, was farther up the shore, giving the girls a modicum of privacy. Rei had finished shedding her outer dress and was standing at the edge of the shore, the lake water lapping at her ankles. She murmured, as if in a daze, "This is alright?"

"Why wouldn't it be alright?!"

"Shinji's not here," she trailed off.

"And if Shinji knew you didn't think you could enjoy yourself without him, I bet he'd feel really bad," Asuka pointed out, hands on her hips.

Rei stayed silent for a few moments more then murmured, "That would be correct."

Kaworu crossed the shore to them, now dressed in his own swim trunks. He wore his typical serene smile though Asuka noticed it didn't quite meet his eyes. Having overheard them, he said, "I agree with Asuka. Shinji would hate to hear we're moping around."

"I suppose," Rei said noncommittally.

"You guys can keep talking, I'm going swimming," Asuka said as she backed up a few strides up the shore then ran into the water.

To her relief, Kaworu leapt in after her. Rei watched them from the shore, her face a purposeful mask of neutrality.

Asuka paddled around for a few minutes, even diving down to peer down at the lake floor, littered with twisted bits of metal and debris. She emerged to find Rei had wandered down the shore, staring impassively at a half-submerged angel statue. She swam over and called, "Rei! What are you doing?"

She jolted out of her thoughts, a look of confusion flashing across her expression. She turned to her and explained, "It's just. I thought I've seen this somewhere before. But I've never come here."

Asuka looked at the statue. It wasn't very impressive. Time hadn't been kind to it; sometime, its head and half a wing had fallen into the water. It looked like it was slumped over, defeated, not victorious as one might expect a proper angel. She frowned, "You mean just like the place in the Geofront? The place you thought you saw in a dream?"

"I guess so."

She paddled out of the water and clamored onto the shore until she stopped beside Rei, who turned her gaze to the sand, her expression unreadable. She glanced once more at the crumbling statue then back to her, "Maybe you just saw something similar, like in a book?"

"Somehow, I don't feel like that's the case."

Asuka frowned and remained beside her, absorbing her comments and the very many implications. For some reason, Rei was remembering things she really shouldn't, like her, Shinji and Kaworu. But she wasn't remembering whole loops or even just standalone events.

Did this tie back into her weird Angel hybrid nature? As far as she knew, at this point in the game, Rei was an otherwise normal human. A cloned human but a human nonetheless. That trumped any bits of Angel DNA she might have. She furrowed her eyebrows and cast her eyes to the water, where she saw Kaworu floating and watching them.

From the water, Kaworu watched as Rei and Asuka talked, feeling like an outsider looking in. When Asuka had asked if he wanted to go swimming at one of the lakes, he had agreed—though mostly for her benefit. He wished he had known it would be this section of the lake so he could have led them a farther down, farther away from the statue that seemed to taunt him.

He idly wondered how long after Shinji returned and he failed to strike would the old men begin to pester him.

Not that it mattered. They'd get what they wanted in the end. They could give him as many spare moments he could snatch away before then.

Back on the shore, Rei finally shook herself from her thoughts and tracked Asuka's gaze to Kaworu.

Could he perhaps give her some insight in her newly found sixth sense and her ever-worsening nightmares? It seemed every night now her mind elected to show her some new vision. Some she remembered, some she didn't but the red sea seemed always present, like some dread portent to her fate.

Kaworu had said so long ago he thought they were similar, if not the same. Could he be experiencing the same thing then? She suspected her rebirth as her true self had something to do with it but there was little way to confirm it. At least not without asking Dr. Akagi or the Commander, both of which who might treat this as a bad omen.

She would ask Kaworu, she decided. He would know, her senses told her.

She didn't know why she knew but she knew that he would know what was happening to her.