Doctor Who: The Evangelion Error (Book One)

E5 Part 8: What can I do to help my child?

The roof

The Doctor burst through the door into the open air. He scanned the rooftop. A few sheets fluttered on a clothesline, but no other movement. "Come on, then!"

Misato charged up the last of the stairs, knife in hand. She'd lost her jacket at some point, and picked up a nasty-looking gash on her shoulder.

And, naturally, there were at least twenty of that lot right on her heels. The Doctor slammed the door shut behind her and jammed the lock.

They paused to catch their breath. "Well," the Doctor said in between gasps. "That was fun, at least, wasn't it?" He saw the corners of her mouth start to curl before she caught herself.

The other lot started pounding on the door. It wouldn't hold for long. "Where's the cooling tower?" he asked.

"Up there." Misato flicked her chin at a large silver box on the roof of the hut over the stairwell exit. She pulled off her backpack and changed up her grip on the knife. "Get to work. I'll hold them off." The Doctor gave her a nod and ran around the other side of the landing, dragging her bag behind him.

***

The basement

Hikari faded back into consciousness with the vague sense that she'd done something really, really dumb. God, her head hurt. Her sisters hadn't tried to get her drunk or something, had they? That would be just like them. She kept telling Kodama that she needed to be a better role model... but no, she sometimes just had to be as much as a brat as...

Nozomi. Oh. Oh, shit.

She opened her eyes. Everything seemed dark and blurry. She was being moved — dragged by the leg over what felt like a concrete floor. She weakly tried to pull herself loose, but her body didn't seem interested in listening to her at the moment...

Where was the thing? She'd had this — this metal can thing in her hands. Whathisname — the insane foreign hottie — had made it. The fire extinguisher. Where'd it gone? She could remember spraying it at those masked people-things. It'd been working — made them fall down — then she'd heard something behind her and she turned and then everything had cut out...

... she was in trouble here, wasn't she.

She felt whatever was dragging her drop her leg. Hikari forced her eyes to focus. She was lying on the floor in the school's boiler room. Above her, in the dim glow shed by the emergency lights, she could see a thick fog of yellow gas hanging in the air. (Oh, God. Her breath mask. She couldn't feel it on her face. No wonder she could barely move. There was nothing between her and the poison.) Out of the corner of her eye, she saw one of the masked things — a burly construction worker — shuffle around her and rejoin the horde at the center of the room.

A familiar voice whispered, "Hikari..."

She raised her head. Next to her — in the corner of the room, piled between the concrete wall and a massive pump — a handful of first-years lay prone on the floor. Nozomi was on the outskirts of the group, her cell phone clutched in her hand. She met Hikari's eyes, tears running down her face.

It hit Hikari all at once - the fear, the panic, the ringing in her ears, the way her head felt like it'd been stuffed with broken glass. A wave of nausea sprang outward from her stomach. She forced it back down. Not going to throw up, she thought. Not going to scream. Not going to cry. Going to be strong for my sister. Just like Mom would've wanted.

She reached out and took Nozomi's hand. She could do that much, at least.

***

The roof