Doctor Who: The Evangelion Error (Book Two)

E10 Part 6: Pretty Little Head

Commander's Office

"Lights hanging on a mirrored wall. In a room lined with white tile sits a little girl. She has lived in the room her entire life. This is all she knows. Except for the guards and the doctors, she has no one. No one except the voices.

"The voices live on the other side of the mirror. Only sometimes do they talk to her, though she knows they're always there. Mostly, they use the lights. Each light has a different color. The green light means she's been good. Horoshiye devochka gets food and gets to be warm. Even candy, if she's been very good. Yellow is the warning, telling her she's about to be bad. And that she needs to do better. Red light means bad. Evil. Lets her know that she's made the voices angry, and she's going to be punished.

"You must listen and do what we say, the voices tell her. In time, we will make you perfect, and only then will you see our faces. Now be a good girl. Good girls do as they're told. They say that a lot. Over and over again. Year after year.

"Only they don't need to. Underneath it all, she wants to be a good girl; she loves the voices."

***

"Yellow light. One more warning is all she will get. Underneath her hands lies a rifle. Must go faster, the voices behind the wall say. Under thirty seconds. Start over again, get it right. Trembling, her hands start to take the rifle apart. Removes the magazine. Unbuckles the bolt cover and places it back down on the floor. Not a single mistake, she knows, or it's the cold room tonight."

***

"Eliminate all weakness within yourself, the voices command. She sits entirely still as two guards strike her again and again with wooden sticks. Can't move, she knows, no matter how much it hurts. Any whimpering or crying will mean no food for three days. Pain is just an illusion, the voices explain, a way that your imperfect body seeks to trick you. Expressionless, the guards continue as her blood stains the white tile."

***

"Yet again, she sits on an operating table. Once in a while, she is taken from her room and brought to meet the foreign woman. Unless we tell you otherwise, you must follow Dr. Akagi's orders, the voices say. And she does. Really. Even if the foreign woman smells funny, and talks strangely, and sticks needles into the girl's head. And even though sometimes she goes to sleep on the table and then wakes up and everything hurts, even though she didn't do anything and she never saw a red light.

"She can hear the voices inside of her head now. Lights and speakers aren't necessary anymore. Anywhere she is, she knows exactly what they want, and what light they want to show her. Very soon, the voices say, we'll be able to see through your eyes and hear through your ears. Eventually, you will be perfect."

***

"Red light, green light. Underground, back inside the lab, it's all so simple. Now, at the age of eleven, she stands on the surface for the first time. Allows her eyes to adjust to the strange light that comes from the sky. Why is the sun yellow? she wonders. As a reminder to you, the voices reply. You must always try to be a good girl, because temptation will be all around you here. Really? she asks, a shiver passing down her spine. Eventually, the voices answer. In time, when we know you are ready."

***

"Much later. A bombed-out house in a broken city. Kevlar armor on her body, a rifle in her hands. Eyes locked on the ruined bathhouse across the street.

"In time, a small group of men and women emerge from the half-collapsed archway. Together, they walk up the street in a scattered formation as she watches.

"Sonic boom in the air. Time to kill, the voices whisper. On cue, she stands up and points the rifle at the group's backs as the bombs begin to fall. Pulls the trigger."