Doctor Who: The Evangelion Error (Book One)

E7 Part 3: Mirror Mirror

Terminal Dogma. Solitary Track.

"Now that is a door." The Doctor scratched his chin. "That is a serious door."

Shinji had to agree. It looked like less of a door and more like a solid metal wall, two stories tall and twice as wide. Only under close examination could one notice the nearly-invisible cracks that divided its surface into four parts. A sign off to the door's side read:

KEEP OUT
MAIN LCL PLANT: PRIMARY GATE
TRESPASSERS WILL BE SHOT ON SIGHT
VIOLATORS WILL BE LIABLE FOR PENALTIES OF UP TO 10 YEARS' IMPRISONMENT, $10000 FINE, OR BOTH

"Serious door for serious people." The Doctor tapped a finger against the card reader underneath the sign. "Signal's definitely coming from inside. Looks like a hardened tungsten-steel alloy over a carbon nanotube rib structure. Not skimping on the security budget around here, are they?"

Shinji glanced over at him. "How long do you think it'll take?"

"Eh. Call it at fifteen minutes? Ten if I don't break for snacks." The Doctor kneeled down and started pulling an access panel off the wall.

Shinji wandered off further down, running his hand down the length of the door. It was perfectly reflective, like polished chrome or a mirror...

"So. How's it feel to be a fraud?"

He turned. Asuka stood behind him with her hands on her hips, the same angry glint in her eyes. But she seemed more focused now. Somehow, he found this even more alarming than when she'd been throttling him. "Um... what?"

"A fraud. As in a liar." She crossed over to him. "Ever since I got here, people keep talking about the amazing Third Child. The hero of Uenohara and everything."

"They do?" Since when? He'd never heard anything like that...

"But it's all just been a big lie, hasn't it?" She leaned in closer to him. "You're not some big hero. You're just a pathetic little parasite, sponging off the efforts of other people. A worthless puppet, pretending to be a soldier."

He shifted his eyes away. "S-sorry..."

"You disgust me, you know that?" she snarled. "How can you even bear to live? Don't you have any sense of shame? Or pride? How can you just --"

"Why do you feel the need to do that?" The Doctor asked. "Tear him down over and over. Don't you think he's been kicked around enough in his life?"

They turned. The Doctor eyed Asuka from his position lying beside an open maintenance duct in the wall beneath the card reader. A few paces away, Rei leaned off to the side, wordlessly staring out into space.

"Well, obviously not." Asuka stuck up her nose. "Not if he's still this much of a weakling."

"Oh, so you're doing him a favor, then, is that it? Toughening him up or something."

"Somebody has to," she snapped. "The way you and Misato baby him, I'm amazed he can tie his own shoes."

"I'm standing right here, you know," Shinji grumbled.

Asuka didn't even look at him. "Cram it, Betty. The grownups are talking."

The Doctor sighed and rolled his eyes. "Oh, for God's sake -- I've been helping him survive. It's not like I've been letting him have sweets before bedtime, or something."

"Well... we did stop for ice cream on the way back from Uenohara," Shinji admitted, before he could stop himself.

"Eh, that's different." The Doctor waved his hand. "Save the planet, get ice cream. Fair trade."