Doctor Who: The Evangelion Error (Book Two)

E11 Part 2: cRaZie$

Inside the TARDIS

Ever since he'd started the teaching job, the Doctor had found a new appreciation for the weekends. Oh, he'd always enjoyed them, of course -- so much so that he'd often go back and have them again, two or three times in a row. Being locked into a more linear schedule, however, had taught him an entirely new respect for those two little days. Even boring old Sunday, much to his shock.

(He'd started sleeping a lot more recently, too. Sometimes up to five to six hours at a stretch, which he never did. Probably not the healthiest thing in the galaxy. Still, he supposed, when in Rome, sleep as the Romans sleep, or something.)

So it was with a certain amount of reluctance that he picked up Martha's old cell phone late one morning on the third or fourth ring. "Yes?" he said, trying to avoid sounding too irritated but not entirely succeeding.

"Get down here," Misato growled in his ear. "Now."

***

NERV Headquarters. Days later.

"So, now that we're down to two pilots, what are our options?" Misato asks.

"We've already taken steps," Ritsuko says as they glide serenely down the corridor. "We'll obviously have to put them both on duty full-time. With Rei, it's simple enough -- we just need to pull her out of school. She'll burn through bodies faster due to the added stress, but we should have room in the budget to manage."

"What about Asuka?"

"That's where we had to get creative." They arrive at a big steel door. Ritsuko slides open a viewport at eye height and motions to Misato. "Take a look."

Misato peers into the cell. Asuka grins back at her, drool running down from the sides of her mouth. The girl is strapped into a pilot's chair, a rat's nest of wires running in and out of her flesh. Her head's been shaved, her long red locks replaced with lobotomy scars. Her eyes seem vacant of any intelligence or emotion.

"We should have no problems keeping her on alert full-time now," Ritsuko says cheerfully. "No more insubordination issues, either. We basically cut out anything unrelated to piloting."

"What if I need her mad, though?" Misato asks. "Her whole berserker thing could be useful sometimes."

"That's easy. We just show her a picture of the Third Child. Drives her into a blind rage."

Misato nods thoughtfully. "I guess there must be just enough of her left in there to hate him."

"I'm told that when they dragged her off for the operation, she spent the whole time cursing his name." Ritsuko tilts her head and smiles brightly. "Tea or coffee?"

"Ooh! I'd love some!"

They slide the viewport closed. In the darkness inside the cell, the thing that used to be Asuka giggles vacantly. "Stupid Shinji," she mumbles through her rictus grin. "Your fault."

< scenario end >

***

Inside Unit One
T+2 Hours, 11 Minutes

"GAH!" Shinji wrenched his eyes open. Oh, screw you, brain! he thought. What, is this situation not bad enough already for you? Is a good dream of some kind really that hard to come up with?! Geez... and it's not like Misato or Ritsuko would ever do something like that, anyway... or that the Doctor would let them...