Doctor Who: The Evangelion Error (Book One)

E8 Part 6: Invaders Must Die

Inside Unit Two. Tokyo Memorial Dome.

If only she had laser eyes, Asuka thought. Or heat vision. Or Firaga. Something -- anything -- that would let her shoot pure rage into Shinji's pathetic back. Or even better, just some way she could simply hate the miserable little twerp to death. With her mind.

Instead, all she could do was fling curses at Unit One's retreating form. "FINE!" she shouted. "Go ahead and run! You -- you worthless, gutless COWARD! They shoot people like you on the battlefield, you know!"

He didn't respond. And to top it all off, now he was ignoring her?! Of all the -- Unbelievable! She threw every insult she could think of at him, from the prosaic to the obscene. It took a while. She had ten different languages to go through, after all.

***

Command Center

The Doctor winced at the flood of what sounded like Russian coming through from Unit Two's link. "Ruddy hell. College or no, where does a fourteen-year-old girl learnthat?"

Misato ran her hands through her hair. And here I am again, she thought. Watching a perfectly reasonable plan fall to pieces right before my eyes. "Shinji, listen to me. I know you're scared. But you can't just leave Asuka --"

"He can't hear you, captain," Aoba said. "He's shut off his comm."

Dammit, Shinji, she thought. "Is he at least heading towards Rei?"

"Negative," Makoto said. "Telemetry gives his heading as east-by-southeast."

Fuyutski leaned forward. "We still have full access to Unit One's systems, don't we?"

"Yes, sir," Maya said.

"Raise his LCL pressure, then," the old man said. "Slowly. Let's see if we can bring him back to his senses."

Makoto hesitated and glanced at Misato. She looked away. "Yes, sir," the lieutenant said. Reluctantly, he moved his hands to the safety unlock switches by his side.

Aoba's console sparked again. The lights on Makoto's safety controls went dark. "Oops," the Doctor said.

"Oh, for the love of -- will you STOP THAT ALREADY?!" Fuyutski shouted. The Doctor calmly tucked the screwdriver back into his coat pocket.

"I don't like it either, Doctor," Makoto said quietly, "but we need Unit One in this fight. Without his support, we're liable to lose Unit Two. We can't just let him run away."

The Doctor shook his head. "He's not running away."

"It kinda looks like he is." Misato motioned to the video feeds.

"How the hell can you be so sure?!" Fuyutski glared at the Doctor.

The Doctor met the vice-commander's gaze. "Because," he said. "He's not a coward."

He looked away. "Even when, by all rights, he should be."

***

Inside Unit Two

Asuka felt her AT field vibrate. The twins were getting hands-on. Orange flailed away at her shield with its claws as if in a rage. White took a more surgical approach, pushing and tearing into the first layer with both hands at a single point. They were breaking through. She could feel it.

That horrible, miserable, worthless piece of human filth... h-how could he just leave her like this? Alone with this -- with these...

... wait.