Doctor Who: The Evangelion Error (Book One)

E8 Part 3: A Longing to Leave

Central Dogma. Pilot Ready Room.

He felt lightheaded and kind of tired after speaking with his father. So for a time he wandered the upper levels of Central Dogma, heading nowhere in particular. As he passed by the ready room, he heard something click, like a broken clock trying to keep time. He stuck his head in through the door.

Asuka sat at one of the tables. She wore her plug suit underneath a flak jacket two sizes too large for her. Her face sported a tiger-stripe pattern of green and black warpaint. She seemed to be cleaning a disassembled assault rifle, each part carefully laid out in front of her.

She glanced up and saw him gawking at her. "What?"

"Um... what are you doing?" Shinji leaned his arm against the door frame.

"What does it look like, stupid? I'm getting ready."

"Ready for what?"

"To go upstairs." She put down the can of oil in her hand. "The commander said he might send us in. I'm going to volunteer."

Shinji's jaw dropped. "Wait -- you mean -- to fight the Angels without an Eva?! That's crazy!"

She glared at him. "Don't call me that. Ever."

"Okay, okay!" Shinji held up his hands. "But still -- I mean -- do you even know how to use that thing?"

"Duh. I've been training with Fallschirmjägers since I was nine." She started to put the rifle back together.

"Well, okay, but..."

Rei entered the room through the back door, a crate in her hands and another assault rifle strapped to her back. "I found ammunition." Shinji stared at her, speechless.

"Mmh." Asuka didn't look up. "Hey, freak -- what are these things anyway? Steyrs?"

"Howa Type 89." Rei sat down on the other side of the room. "Standard JSSDF issue."

"Jeez. They're such cheapskates around here. Would it've killed them to spring for Heckler-Koch stuff?"

"You, too, Rei?" Shinji asked hoarsely. "Why?"

"I told you before." Rei calmly began to take shells out of the crate and load them into a magazine. "It is my bond with humanity. That remains a constant, regardless of how it is expressed."

"But -- the Doctor -- you don't have to --"

"Even if the Doctor's plan works," Rei said, "with the city's electronics offline, it is possible that the evacuation of the surface may take longer than estimated. If the Angels arrive during that time, some form of holding action will be necessary."

"But -- why you?" Shinji looked back and forth between the two girls. "Don't you get it? You don't have to do this! I mean -- aren't you scared?"

"I don't do fear," Asuka said brusquely.

He narrowed his eyes. "What about the elevator?"

"That doesn't count!" she snapped. "He caught me off-guard!"

Shinji raised his hands again. Probably not the best thing to bring up while she had a gun, he thought.

"Look. It's like this, Tina..." Asuka slotted in the last piece of the rifle. "You want to stay down here and hide with the other sheep, that's your problem. I don't care what your friend the egomaniac says. I'm here to fight, and I'm here to win. Clip me, Wondergirl." Rei tossed her a magazine. She caught it and slammed it into place. "If I don't want to die in a stupid elevator, that's just because that's not who I want to be. But if I die in a fight or in my Eva, I'm fine with that. At least then I'll have been acting like me. And if I can't be me, I don't see any point in being alive.