Doctor Who: The Evangelion Error (Book Two)

E10 Part 9: I Don't Want To (Love You)

Condominium D16. Later.

Officer Tone of the Tokyo-3 Municipal Police Department stuck his head through the open door, his gun held out in front of him. Several bruises, including a prominent black eye, marked his face. "Oi, Chikuma... take a look at this."

***

Psychiatric Observation Room 3. NERV Medical Center.

Shinji felt a sharp pain in his left arm. He opened his eyes. Unfamiliar ceiling. Again.

He groggily raised his head. He was alone in a large hospital room with a dark window set in the wall next to the door. He lay in bed with a needle stuck into his arm. A complex network of plastic tubes ran between the syringe and some bags full of clear liquid that hung from a pole by his side. He felt like he'd seen setups like it before somewhere. Maybe on television at some point.

"-- disruption in city services continues due to a major software glitch in the municipal computer network," a newsreader murmured from a radio speaker somewhere in the room. "In their most recent statement, city officials stated that ninty-five percent of automated sewer controls have been restored. They apologized once again for the continued delays in public transit --"

He lay his head back and tried to recall what'd happened. He'd been in Unit Zero for the test. He remembered getting some kind of headache or migraine or something... but after that, it was all just fragments. Bits and pieces. A gold star. A room with white tile. Someone crying... the details eluded him, evaporating out of his mind even as he tried to examine them. He spent a while staring at the ceiling, trying to put it all together in his head. There was something important in there. Something he'd meant to hold onto. He was sure of it...

"-- in other news, sources within the Tokyo-3 police department report that a known international terrorist was apprehended in the city earlier today. Tarak Ital, originally of Pakistan, has been linked to the violent revolutionary groups Lashkar-e-Taliban and the Sons of Kargil. He is wanted on charges of murder and assault in eight countries, including India, France, Cuba and the International Territories --"

"Hey! Sorry I'm late!" Misato swept into the room. She held a pizza box in her hands. "Delivery guy had trouble with the conveyor belts."

He smiled. "Wow. I-I'm amazed they didn't arrest you for bringing that into a hospital."

"Well, you know, rank has its privileges." She pulled up a chair and sat down, putting the pizza box on the side of the bed. She pulled out a slice and bit into it with an ecstatic expression on her face. "Mmm. So good."

"You're going to get fat, you know," Shinji said. "You're going to get fat and depressed, and then we're going to have to get you one of those scooters for obese people, like they have in American supermarkets --"

She sniggered. Then Shinji noticed the tears in her eyes. "Hold on. What's wrong?" he asked.

"Huh? Oh. Nothing." She wiped her eyes. "It's -- it's just been a hell of a day, you know?"

Shinji smiled and looked away. His eyes settled on the window next to the door. No, wait, not a window... he could see his reflection in it, but also shadows moving about on the other side of the glass. His smile faded. "A one-way mirror?" he muttered.

"Ugh, I know, right?" Misato sniffed and shot a glare back at the glass pane. "I hate those things. So creepy."

Shinji studied the mirror. Something about it felt... wrong to him somehow. But why?...

***

Outside Observation Room 3

Asuka watched the two of them talk from a distance, her eyes narrowed. She sat on a bench across the hall from the room's one-way mirror, cleaning the LCL out from under her fingernails with a tactical knife. The folding blade, an old Fallschirmjager-Messer Type V, had been a gift from one of her old combat instructors. (Was the Doctor right about them? she wondered. Were they all... indoctrinating me, or whatever, the whole time? Turning me into just a dumb grunt?... She wouldn't have survived the graveyard fight without her training. She knew that much. But anyway.)