Erika was sitting in the changing rooms with Susan standing right before her.
She was furious. Erika had one job and she nearly jeopardized it all.
"You almost got two civilians and yourself killed out there!" Yells Captain Whitehall. "I ordered you to retreat and instead you charged toward the angel!".
"But I finished the job, isn't that what matters?" The Third Child brings up.
"That's not the point!" She reiterates. "You have to obey orders! As your commanding officer, I am responsible and accountable for what happens to you".
"So what? The Angel is dead, Whitehall" Erika snaps at her.
Whitehall gives a cold glare at the third child.
"Do you even want to pilot the Eva?" She asks.
"What's that supposed to mean?" Retorts the third child.
"Answer my question and I want an honest response, "The Captain demanded. "Do you want to pilot?"
"I'm the only pilot for unit-02," Erika begins to argue. "No one can pilot it."
"You know that's not true, Ken has already recovered and he has never displayed this type of arrogance," Whitehall argues. "Why do you want to pilot?".
"Why do you even care?" mutters Third Child.
The frustration of getting a response from this child was infuriating the captain.
"Answer me!" Slams the Captain as she hits the locker doors.
"You think I have a choice?" Erika yells. "You know the damage the Angels cause, and now it's my responsibility to stop them. I don't care if I get hurt, and I certainly could care less if I die trying!"
Upon hearing those words, Susan slaps her across the face.
"YOU listen to me!" She exclaims. "I don't know what got inside your head, but when I tell you to stop, you STOP. I don't care if you are one of the only pilots here, I will have you suspended, hell, even kicked out of NERV if I see you pull out a stunt like that again!"
Erika stares in shock as she covers her red cheek.
"You don't want to pilot the Eva? Leave" The captain declares as a final order. "NERV doesn't need someone with an attitude like yours in the field! You got that?".
"Then why bring me here in the first place!?" Erika fights back. "You should have just left me in that stupid boarding school!".
"Then maybe we will!".
The captain then left the changing rooms. The third child just sat there, speechless about what to do next.
That night in her room, Erika couldn't stop thinking about what Susan told her.
"If you don't want to pilot the Eva, leave".
"Screw her," She muttered to herself. "Just screw everyone here".
The Third Child tugs left and right, struggling to sleep as thoughts run through her head.
All of a sudden, she finds herself strapped to a chair, unable to move. All around her are growing shadows with red eyes, parading around her like a barrier.
"Hey look, it's that new kid" They start talking.
"Heard her father left her here".
"She's so quiet and stuck up".
"So gloomy all the time".
"She's always causing trouble".
The shadows then transform into copies of the Angel she just fought, shaped like a snake.
"What a weakling" The voices continue.
"You don't want to stay here? Then leave?"
"You don't belong here"
"You don't deserve to be a pilot"
"You're useless".
They all combine to form one snake-like monstrosity ready to bite at Erika.
"USELESS" It growls.
The shadow monster lunges at the third child, only to wake up in her room.
Erika, all out of breath, grasping onto her throat, sweating nonstop, panicking at the nightmare she'd just endured.
"I'm not useless," She attempts to console herself. "I'm not. God, I'm not...
The next day...
Susan was already awake, and knocking on the Third Child's door.
"Erika, it's time to wake up," She announced as she continued knocking.
Not a single response.
Ozie walks down the hall with a can of sardines in his mouth.
"Is she not in her room?" the captain asks the bird.
The penguin responds with a shrug and walks away to his freezer-like room.
"Maybe I went too hard on her" Susan begins to think as she tries to turn the doorknob.
As she opens the door, Whitehall finds an empty bed with Erika's phone on top of it.
Erika was nowhere in sight.
"Erika?" she began to call out.
Soon, the captain was searching throughout her apartment. Erika Langford was not there, she was gone.
"Why did she leave her phone?" She asks herself.
Still feeling uneasy, Susan drives to NERV HQ. On the way there, she called the school to see if Erika was already in class.
Their response was no. Erika was neither home nor was she at school. This was starting to make Captain Whitehall feel tense. One of her many responsibilities was to take care of the most crucial component of Evangelion: The pilot. Now, she seems to have lost that pilot.
At HQ...
"What do you mean she's gone?!" Questions Dr. Ackerman upon hearing that had transpired earlier. "You're telling me that you lost the third child?!"
"She wasn't home and she wasn't at school," Whitehall explains as Ackerman confronts her. "My last guess was that she was here for training".
"This is utterly ridiculous, how do you lose a kid!?" Ackerman kept arguing. "A fifteen-year-old to be precise!".
"This is just great," Whitehall sighs sarcastically as she brushes her hand through her forehead. "A pilot has gone AWOL, just what we needed!".
"But can you blame her?" Remarks Dr. Corman as he walked in.
"What do you mean?" Whitehall questions.
"It's like you said, she's fifteen years old" He explains. "She's growing up. I mean, weren't we all teenagers at some point?".
Whitehall looks down while Ackerman holds a stern look on her face.
"But she's an Eva pilot, Corman" Dr. Ackerman rebuffs as grips her tablet. "The first child never exhibited such behavior".
"That's because he was raised and bred to be a soldier, doctor" Cormans quips back. "Erika didn't grow up in a NERV facility. We practically took her in after she got expelled".
"Expelled?" Whitehall inquires.
"Haven't you read her files?" he points out while searching for Erika's files on his tablet. "She had several cases of poor conduct, from fights to misbehavior towards teachers. The staff wanted to take her out of the school as soon as possible".
Whitehall gets hold of Corman's tablet. She scrolls down through all the school reports and commentary. Fights between students, vandalization of property, and misconduct towards teachers, Erika had just about an entire record that was enough to get her expelled by her 8th year at the school. Her eyes widened upon reading through all of it.
"Didn't you know of this, Whitehall?" Ackerman questions.
"Don't you dare blame this on me, Hilda" Susan argues. "I'm not the one who dictated that the pilots needed to be teenagers. That was your division!"
She sighs as she sits down on a nearby chair.
"I just wish she told me more of this" Whitehall brings up. "All this time, she just closes herself off from everyone, and every time I try to get her to talk, she retaliates!".
"Hedgehog's Dilemma" Corman points out. "If a hedgehog wants to give his warmth to other hedgehogs, the nearer they approach, the more they injure each other".
"What's that supposed to mean?" Whitehall questions.
"It's psychology, Captain" He explains. "Erika is cautious of getting hurt, which is why she strays away from talking to people. Therefore, a hedgehog".
Whitehall thinks back to when she was fighting Erika and their previous conversations. The tension that built up
"Call security to be alert, we need to find her" She orders them as she heads out of HQ.
Meanwhile, At the City, in the Afternoon...
Erika Langford stumbles upon a small park on the city's outskirts. Tired from all her marauding, she sat on a nearby bench and watched as the sun set over the horizon. She then looks at a nearby playground, where children are seen playing around. A feeling of nostalgia crawls into her, a memory of a childhood she cherished, A childhood she no longer holds.
The Third Child had roamed the entire city without purpose. From traveling through the metro to visiting stores, and just gazing into the skyline, she's traveled around all Spring City like a lost sheep without a shepherd. The thing that seems to guide her is the constant dread of the nightmare from last night.
Now, she sat on a bench, tired from all that roaming, pulling out the only possession she holds value: the walkman.
Time passes by as the skies darken into the nighttime. The third child sighs in frustration as she doesn't know what to do next. Suddenly, bright lights shine from the distance, revealing themselves as a pair of dark black vehicles. Stepping out of them were a couple of men in black with sunglasses.
"Erika Langford," One of the MiBs called out. "You are requested at NERV HQ on behave of Captain Whitehall".
"What if I don't want to go?"
"Don't make us use force against you kid" the MiB explains. "We either do this the easy or the hard way".
Erika was then escorted out of the park.
NERV Interrogation Room
Erika now finds herself inside a dark interrogation room with a small ceiling light hanging over the room. Keeping her head down and not knowing what to do next. She's exhausted her options of where to go after this.
"You had fun on your little escapade?" asked a voice from afar.
Erika looks up to see Susan in the room.
"Do you know how long it took me to find you?" Susan scolds her. "That I had to call Section 2 to have agents locate you all over the city? Just what were you thinking?".
Erika stares at her superior officer. That was what she was to her, not a guardian nor a friend, an officer whom she believed could never understand her.
"Well? " She demands.
"Why do you care?" is the reply Erika gives her.
"Care? care about what?"
"About me? You asked why I pilot. Now it's my turn to ask why you care about me" the third child points out.
"Don't turn the tables here, this isn't about me-
"Why do you care that I leave if I'm replaceable? Did the first child get injured again? First, you say go in the robot, then get out, and now go back in?"
Erika begins to tear up, frustration is what dominates her mind. Why must she be tossed around from place to place? Why endure this?
"Damn it, what do you want from me!?" she yells facing her.
"I want you to stay!" Whitehall exclaims.
They now both sat in silence. The third child struggled with what to say next. Who exactly was she speaking to? her superior or her guardian? both?
"I'm sorry, Erika" She apologizes. "For yelling at you and slapping you. But you have to be more careful with your actions. They have consequences, just like this fiasco that you did has consequences."
"I-I don't get it" Erika now questions in confusion. "Am I being sent away?"
"What? No. You're not getting sent away" She explains. "Look, I heard about what happened...at the boarding school"
"The Boarding School," The mention of such a place disgusted Erika. To relive and bring back St. Agnes, the experience she endured there.
"You wanna talk about it?" Susan asked.
Erika sat silent for a while.
"I...had a hard time fitting in at the boarding school" Erika explained. "The girls bullied me constantly, while the teachers just turned a blind eye to it. I had no one to rely on or help me, so I tried to defend myself. Too many times I've gotten blamed for every fight they started, every problem they caused. They blamed it on me, the problem child that no one wanted".
"But your Father? The commander..did he ever find out?"
The third child recalled the last time she saw him as a kid, the last time he had contact with her.
"He never wrote back to check on me" Erika painfully recalled. "He didn't even bother to visit me. I was alone for 8 years at stupid school".
"But during the summer and the holidays, who did you live with?".
"A college professor who was a close friend to my mother came to stay in Geneva" Erika recalls. "He took me in during the holidays and the summer. He cared for me as if I were his child. A stranger I've never met, yet he cared for me better than my father".
Susan caught a glimpse of Erika's smile, a small one, but it was small nonetheless. In all the time she'd been in this city, she had never seen this girl smile.
"But as soon as I began 7th grade, he was sent away to another country" Erika laments as the smile fades away from her face. "Last I heard, he was in Germany; working for the government's science department."
Captain Whitehall just looked at Erika with sadness in her eyes.
"Susan, why do you want to know about this?" Erika asks as she turns to face her. "Why do you care?".
"Erika, I'm your legal guardian" Susan astoundedly responds.
"So it's because it's your job?" She scoffs back.
"No, because I care about you!" Susan exclaims. "Erika, this is more than just my job. I was genuinly worried about, as a person, as a friend".
"Friend?" the third child brings up. "So now you're my friend?".
Susan then grasps hold of Erika's hands.
"Please listen" Susan begins to plead. "I'm...I'm not a good communicator either. In some ways, I see a bit of myself in you, my younger self, to be honest."
The third child keeps her eye contact, trying to understand what she wants.
"I never had a good relationship with my parents, much less with anyone growing up. I'm not good at keeping friendships either." She further explains. "Remember when I told you that Ozzie was a cloned penguin? Well...He was more than that. A science experiment by NERV for research and development. They made him smarter than a normal penguin. But after they finished the experiments...they wanted to pull the plug on poor Ozzie".
Erika's eyes widened upon hearing such a thing.
"So I took him in so that he wouldn't be alone anymore and neither would I. Because I know what it feels to be
"Abandoned" Erika cuts off.
"Those two boys you saved, your classmates" Susan brings up."They were worried that you didn't come to school, and so was that other girl".
"Zoe?"
"Yeah, she too" Whitehall adds. "Erika, I don't want to force you to do something you don't want to. So I have to ask, what is it you truly want right now?"
Erika began tearing up as she faced Susan.
"I want to stay here...I want to stay with you." She firmly states while holding back her tears. "I don't want to go back to where I was before, I don't want to be alone anymore".
Susan then hugged her with all her strength. tears streamed down the third child's face as she reciprocated with another hug.
"Children are hard to understand," thought the captain as she looked at her child. "But it just takes time I guess".