Creation began on 07-26-16
Creation ended on 05-11-17
Neon Genesis Evangelion
Hope from the Sky: You still matter
Breakfast had been rather quiet in Kaede's home. It wasn't that her family didn't have anything to talk about, but rather, they just liked the silence. From Shinji's perception, it was something that they and everyone likely had to live with on account of the Titans. But it would likely change once all the Titans were gone.
"…So, Shinji," went Kaede's mother, setting her spoon down, "is there any chance of learning something new about the world outside the Walls from you?"
"Um… I'm not sure what is left for me to say that I know of," he responded to her. "I've looked at some pictures from several books that were found, and I hope that there is a frozen tundra out there waiting for people to rediscover."
"Uh, what's a frozen tundra?" Her stepfather asked him.
"It's a wasteland of snow and ice. No trees, no dirt, no weeds. There are certain animals, like a creature called a polar bear, that live in tundras."
"That's…quite a place to venture out to."
"Yes, it is. It is also a place where, despite the rising sun, night is said to last for more than one day. About a month, at least."
"Thirty days of night?" Her mother questioned. "Is such a thing truly possible?"
"I couldn't answer for certain," Shinji reminded them. "The world I come from is different from this one, ravaged by a calamity that reduced the place I lived in into one of constant summertime. I never saw snow until after I showed up here, within the Walls."
-x-
Asuka was beyond the point of biting off more than she could chew now. By destroying a large section of Wall Maria, she had unleashed a horde of Titans that existed inside them, which had returned to life by means of the sunlight after so long.
"Grrraurgh!" They roared, approaching the red Eva.
She counted at least fifteen of them so far, but she could no longer deny the possibility that each section of this wall she damaged was loaded with these Titans. Even if they were larger than the one she had captured, there was no guarantee that these giants weren't stronger than the other ones that emerged from the ocean and attacked her and the Third Child.
I gotta retreat, she realized, needing to escape and plan a course of action.
One of the Titans suddenly changed their appearance, turning from a skinned humanoid to a humanoid with a rock or crystal-like exterior. Other Titans followed suit, becoming encased in a similar exterior.
-x-
Up on the rooftop of her building, Shinji and Kaede looked out at the neighboring buildings and people below them as they continued to discover more about the city and reclaim their world.
"Even if we take back the world, it will still be a long time before we're off the endangered species list, won't it, Shinji?" Kaede asked him.
"Yes," he answered from his own beliefs, "but if we put much effort into reclaiming and repopulating, we could probably go from being a less than a few million to at least thirty-million. Give or take a few years to a decade or more, perhaps."
"Is the world really that massive to support that many people?"
"Yes…and no. Most of the planet's covered in water, but if there are few people, there shouldn't be much of a problem concerning most population requirements."
"Oh. Still…to know that it could take years to repopulate the entire world…and we've only left the Walls recently because of your help."
Shinji looked away from the world in front of him and focused on her.
"It's not something that everyone needs to get involved with for the sake of preserving the human race, though," he explained. "People that want to do something like that should do so because of personal reasons, not because of some need to carry on what may not be around for a long time."
"Is that so?" Kaede asked him.
"Yeah. I mean, some people can't even have children of their own. Even if they could, it should be a choice for them to make when they're old enough to handle the responsibility of having a family of their own. Of…of course, I'm not one to talk about such things. I'm no example."
"Still, you're the only person that has such knowledge that helps the people to reclaim the lost knowledge that was taken from us long ago. Even when I was still inside the Walls, one of the things that made me curious was why people wanted to have families of their own if we couldn't venture into the world out there without becoming victims to the Titans."
"People's reasons are their reasons, Kaede. Maybe because they love others or even because they made a promise to someone that, no matter what, they would try to find happiness. People are allowed to find happiness, even if it's in a world outside or beyond their grasp."
"That's what I want for myself, eventually."
"What?"
"I want a happy future. You see, even when I'm free of a life stuck within the Walls…I don't really feel like I am…completely free. There's always something that holds me back, something that I can't help but feel will always weigh me down…until it suffocates me."
Shinji felt he could sympathize with whatever it was that Kaede meant; even after he was, more or less, not within the boundaries of his father or NERV, or had to deal with the Angels that threatened to bring about the end of the world, he still felt like he was a prisoner in some other fashion. Even when they were free in one sense, they weren't free in another sense.
"Kaede, you…you wanted to tell me something?" He asked her, reminding her that she was to tell him something she said was hard to tell about herself.
"Um, yeah, I did," she explained, looking down at her right arm. "It's something that I thought I could just forget about as I got older, but I guess some pieces of the past just won't stay buried, no matter how hard you try. You see, something…bad happened to me over five years ago. It was before Wall Maria was attacked by the Colossal Titan, but I can still recall it as though it were only yesterday."
Shinji calmly placed his right hand on her left shoulder and waited for her to share whatever it was she wanted to tell him.
"It's me, Shinji," she stated, confessing. "What you said about the person that can turn into the Dark Titan being a harbinger of hope like yourself with your Evangelion. You're looking at her."
"Kaede…what…what are you saying?" He asked her, confused.
"The Dark Titan, Shinji," she revealed. "You're looking at the person behind the Dark Titan. It's me."
-x-
"…I think this place is what Shinji said was called a zoo," said Armin to the seven Survey Corps members with him as they examined the large patch of land that looked as though it had been used to house several different animals.
And this was judging from the sight of various animal habitats that had been left is disrepair over the length of time that human beings had been confined to the Walls. But there were no animals to be seen, not even animal remains.
"Too many years have gone by for there to be any animals left around here," a female member expressed, kicking over an old, deflated ball that hadn't wasted away completely.
Thud. Something that wasn't as loud sounded, coming from afar. Thud.
"What was that?" A male member asked Armin.
Armin looked through a pair of binoculars and saw something that was a nightmare that refused to end so soon.
"Titans," he confirmed, seeing a few that appeared to be similar to the Colossal Titan, but they appeared to have more muscle mass on their faces…and they appeared to be chasing a red giant that was running from them. "You gotta be kidding!"
"It's that red behemoth again!" Another female member expressed. "And the girl that moves in it brought them here! Is she crazy?!"
As much as Armin wanted to answer her question regarding Ms. Soryu's questionable sanity, he was beginning to doubt that any person like this redhead that Shinji had informed them about had any sanity in her, no matter what she did. And this included her insane orders to gather Titans.
"We gotta get Shinji," he told them as they ran to their horses.
-x-
She was serious, thought Shinji as he walked down the street to the harbor where Unit-01 resided near the carrier, trying to process what Kaede had revealed to him earlier. But…it's insane in so many wrong ways. She's been a Titan Shifter for over five years, and it was against her will.
"How come you never told anyone, not even your parents, that you're the Dark Titan, Kaede?" He had asked her after she revealed what was close to the proof that she needed to convince him that she was the Dark Titan.
"The same reason everyone fears the Titans and would rather not talk about them," she had answered. "Fear. And because… I never wanted this. Even to this day, I still don't want this."
Even if Kaede was like Eren in the aspect of being able to turn into a Titan and retain their intelligence, Shinji still had to take into consideration that this girl that had made it so that the Titans that did appear were returned to humanity was more a victim than she was a potential harbinger of hope. He couldn't just see the two as being the exact same; both individuals had different feelings and beliefs toward what had been done to them against their will.
And all she knows is that her grandfather said it had to be done to her, he thought, only able to think about the probable reasons someone in the girl's family would just go and… No reason beyond that. It's nothing but a falsehood. It's nothing but an excuse…to do something cruel to someone else.
"Shinji… I would appreciate it for the time being if you didn't tell anyone about this," Kaede had requested from him, and he obliged her.
There was still a lot about Titan Shifters that Shinji didn't know about, but he decided to want a deeper and more thorough investigation into the notes left by Eren's father. He needed to know… No, he wanted to know how different the people that could turn into Titans were from regular people. He owed it to Kaede to know how much of her future would have been compromised by being a Titan Shifter.
"Shinji Ikari!" He heard a female Survey Corp member shout out to him, swinging through the air above the streets with her ODM gear. "There's been another Titan sighting!"
"Titans? But there's nothing coming out of the ocean!" He responded.
"They're not coming from the direction of the ocean. They're coming from the direction of the Walls."
"The Walls?"
"Apparently, the girl that controls the red giant that's like your purple one found a bunch of Titans similar to the Colossal, and is now trying to get away from them."
"Asuka went and… That stupid girl. She was bound to start something she couldn't even predict would get out of hand."
-x-
"…Kaede, be honest about this question," Kaede's mother went as said girl laid on her bed. "You really like Mr. Ikari, don't you? I mean, not because he fell from the sky, you know, but because you got to know him."
Kaede looked up at her and responded, "Can you keep a secret?"
"Yes, of course."
"So can I."
Her mother sighed and called her a secret keeper. But Kaede didn't care much; even her secret as a Titan Shifter was one she wished was nothing but a bad dream and a thing of the past. Even if Shinji believed her to be a harbinger of hope, she viewed this power as a curse, not a blessing.
"To have to live with this ability everyday for the rest of your life is something I don't ever want to have to deal with, Shinji," she had told Shinji prior to him leaving after their conversation. I should've been nicer to him. I should've been nicer to him.
Suddenly, an alarm went off outside the building.
"Everyone to the shelters!" A male voice shouted out there. "Evacuate the buildings and head to the shelters, immediately!"
Titans? Again? Kaede thought.
-x-
Activating Unit-01, Shinji went around the city's populated streets and saw Unit-02 from a distance, being chased by large Titans that looked similar to the Colossal Titan, but without the exposed bone.
Dammit, Asuka, he thought, and charged towards them. These people are trying to retake the world and you're trying to send them back to a life without hope! And for what? The Titans are a bane that will bring nothing but ruination if they continue to exist.
"Oh, Third, it's good to see you," he heard Asuka say to him over the intercom.
"Asuka, you have no idea what you've done," he told her coldly.
"I'm just following orders."
BASH! Unit-01 struck Unit-02 in the chest, sending it falling to the ground; Shinji would deal with Asuka after he had dealt with the Titans she brought with her that would endanger the civilians if they reached the city.
He spread his AT-Field and felt the Titans smash into the semi-transparent barrier, being reduced to pulp in the process. But that was only eight of them…with at least twelve more behind them as far as he could see. What he hated about this was that he didn't have any leftover remains of the Dark Titan to use on these Titans to return them to humanity, meaning that these were people that would die as Titans after an eternity of being mindless and having no future…and none of them had to suffer this way were it not for Asuka and the orders she had been given.
Damn you, Asuka, he thought, charging towards the remaining Titans that the redhead brought with her. You never let up. You're always flaunting your overinflated ego.
With no other recourse, the pilot of Unit-01 had to do the next best thing, which was to empower his Eva by consuming the Titans.
As Asuka willed Unit-02 to get back up, she saw Unit-01 ravenously consuming the remains of the Titans she fled from.
Baka's taking more power for his Eva, she thought.
In less than eight minutes, the remains were all but disposed of and Unit-01's mouth was covered in evaporating blood and flesh, looking at Unit-02.
"You won't stop at all, will you?" She heard him ask. "You just won't stop. You want Titans so badly that you'll unleash Hell on the people here to get some."
"I'm just following orders," she defended.
"Following orders? That's bullshit, Asuka! Those Titans could've been restored to humanity. They could've been freed from what was done to them, to live like everyone else again. But you took that hope from them…just because you were following orders."
"What are you talking about? It's not like they're people that care, anymore."
"They were still people that cared about their lives, Asuka. They were people that could care again if they had been saved. They were people once, Asuka! All of them! You…you know how Titans are made now, don't you? You know how to turn people into them…and you still want them? You're sick."
"The power they grant an Eva will save the people back home, baka."
"What people? The ones that should be protected…or just a few that would disregard commoners because they don't do anything of any significance? When the people here that fought the Titans to protect everyone else asked for my help, I wanted to believe that I was helping everyone, not just the wealthy people that refused to leave the Walls or some cultists that believe the Walls to be holy and may have tried to kill me one time. You have no idea what you're putting at risk from the Titans if you keep trying to gather them for NERV."
"It's not like you can keep people from exploiting these things forever. Sooner or later, someone's going to get what they need from them and change everything."
Suddenly, Unit-01's shoulder pylon opened up and it pulled out its Progressive Knife.
"What the Hell are you doing, Third?" Asuka asked him.
"Leave, Asuka," he told her, something like he was regretting something he had decided on. "Take your people that came for Unit-01 and the Titans and go back…or else."
"Or else, what, you lousy excuse for a pilot?"
As the purple Eva slowly brought up its knife, Shinji answered, "I will dismember your Eva, Asuka. If Titans come and attack you, how well do you think you can fare without arms or legs?"
-x-
"…Do you think he'll really do it?" Hyuga asked Shigeru.
"If he's that determined to keep the people there safe from these things, there's no telling what he'll do," Shigeru responded.
"Unit-02, attack Unit-01," Gendo ordered. "We have no time for the Third Child's petulance."
Misato was among the few that was uncomfortable with this order.
-x-
"I'd like to see you make good on your threat, Third," Asuka told Shinji, seeing his face on her holographic screen.
The boy closed his eyes for a moment, as if to let himself gather his thoughts and emotions, and then reopened them to look at her. There was regret in a choice he had made in that moment.
"You stupid girl," he called her, and then Unit-01 dashed towards her. "Don't blame me if this ends up killing you!"
Unit-02 braced for impact, but was immediately sent flying backwards by Unit-01!
Crash! It fell hard onto the ground.
"Damn you!" Asuka shouted, but Unit-01 was already atop her.
BASH! The purple Eva had punched the red one hard in the face with its left arm.
"Aaah!" Asuka shouted again, not believing that this boy actually punched her.
BASH! Unit-01 punched Unit-02 again…and again…and again.
Then, with its Prog. Knife, the purple Eva did the unthinkable: It stabbed the red Eva in the left arm, digging the blade deeply to the synthetic muscle and bone.
"Aaaahh!" Asuka screamed, feeling like it was her arm being cut into.
She managed to kick Unit-01 off her, but part of the intended damage had already been done. There was no guarantee that her Eva could use its left arm now with the injury it sustained.
"You idiot!" She called Shinji as he got back up, still gripping his knife in his hand.
"If you want Titans, you'll pay the unforgivable price for them," he told her.
"And you're going to hinder NERV from doing what needs to be done, you will suffer the consequences for your stubbornness."
"Not as stubborn as the choice you make easy for me to decide. If given the choice to stay here…I'd take it if meant being able to start over with no one to tell me how to live my life or tell me what to do."
That must've hit Asuka somewhere deep down. She thought it was no different from a cowardice point of view, but this boy, this…this traitor…saw it as a way to walk away from his responsibilities back home…and another shot at her pride.
"I will break your neck, you stupid idiot," she told him.
-x-
"…If this thing is as stable as it seems, and the fact that connects to another world," a man told Misato about the Dirac Sea portal over the phone, "imagine the possibilities of being able to collect new resources to replenish the ones we don't have much of or at all."
"Except there are people in that other world that need them," she told him.
"But from what was mentioned by the Third Child, there aren't that many people left in the world there. These…Titans, as they're called, have greatly decimated the population."
"And Shinji wants only to help them take back their world. It's not like anyone else is going to do it for them without assistance."
Suddenly, the purple-haired woman heard something, an alarm, on the other end.
"We're under attack!" She heard a woman scream.
"What's going on over there?" She questioned.
"Two giants! Humanoids! Attacking the base to get to the portal!" The man shouted. "Titans!"
Titans? Here? She was confused.
-x-
It was unexpected! Nobody saw them coming at all. To think that there were two Titans in Nevada already, and they were aiming for the portal, probably to escape to the other world or even to return back to it. One looked like a hunched man covered in bone-like plates from head to toe while the other looked like a skinned girl with blond hair.
The NERV security fired at the Titans, but nothing from bullets to rockets hurt them or even slowed them down. But the strangest thing of it was that, despite what they heard from what the Third Child had said about these creatures being man-eaters, these two Titans never grabbed any one person to eat.
No, they just kicked, threw or knocked away any that stood in their way.
"Grr," the one covered in plates growled.
"Haurgh!" The female shrieked back.
-x-
The Way Back
It was either blind luck or a miracle for them. But the Titan Shifters, Reiner Braun and Annie Leonhart, had found themselves in a ravaged land known as the United States of America, and had felt a strange presence that attracted them to a decimated piece of land called Nevada. It was here that they found a portal that they heard, as people, somehow connected to the world they came from, and felt that it could return them back.
"Let's get this over with," said Reiner to Annie as he took a jagged rock and cut himself with it on his left leg while she cut herself with a small, curved blade on her ring.
Nobody ever saw anyone with a bomb or anything, but they saw the explosion and the two Titans approaching the base to get to the Dirac Sea portal.
They jumped into the Dirac Sea and disappeared.
-x-
"…The Titans… One armored… One like a girl… They jumped into the Dirac Sea…" The man told Misato over the phone in the aftermath. "They're gone."
But Misato got the feeling that these two Titans weren't exactly gone. No, she felt that they were just taking this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity…to get home.
-x-
Kaede walked down the street until she reached the current safety limit that was decided upon by the Garrison members that had yet to explore the land further away from the salvaged city the people were rebuilding. She leaned against a building side and sighed about her last conversation with Shinji. It wasn't the fact that she revealed her awful secret to him that bothered her right now. What was bothering her right now…was what Shinji probably thought of her right now, how she seemed to depriving people of more hope…and it was something she didn't want to be accused of doing. As much as she wanted to deny it ever happened to her, that it had to have been done to some other girl by someone that deserved to be despised and forgotten, she couldn't undo her own past.
He turned me into a monster, she thought, now sitting on the ground, looking up at the sky. I'm a monster. I'm a Titan, an enemy to the world…and I don't want to be. I just want to be myself…before that day…before the Wall Maria fell. Shinji said I could give hope like he does with his Eva…but what is hope to one like me?
Twinkle. She saw something shoot across the sky.
It looked like…a falling star. But it was falling too closely towards the city.
Kaede got worried and got up quickly.
The mysterious object zoomed towards the patch of land just outside the city limits.
Crashed! It smashed into the ground and caused a slight tremor.
"Oh!" Kaede gasped as the ground shook and stopped. I should've made a wish that mattered.
The ground started to shake again, but there was a familiar shaking to it, something that just…took hold of Kaede.
"Oh, no," she realized this feeling. "Titans."
-x-
They were very fortunate that their hardened Titan bodies were able to withstand the return.
Reiner was convinced that he had never felt such intense heat before since he obtained his Titan power.
Annie, on the other hand, was just grateful that she had survived and was on the ground. She had never seen such a sight as the night sky being as vast beyond the very sky.
As they climbed out of the impact crater, they saw the city ruins they had passed years before, seeing that it looked like it was being reclaimed by people.
"How long do you suspect we've been gone?" Annie questioned.
"Too long," Reiner stated simply.
BOOM! Something exploded from the ocean, and they saw large, hulking humanoids that seemed like the Colossal and Armored Titans put together.
"Titans? From the water?" Annie went; she had heard stories about such creatures, but never believed in them being to survive for so long because of the lack of sunlight below.
-x-
Shinji heard the sound of an explosion from near the city and feared for the civilians if it was due to the Titans underwater. His fight with Asuka, who was thrown to the ground by him after punching her hard in the face by him, would have to wait until he ascertained the situation there.
"I don't have any more time to deal with you, Asuka, but if you value your life, you'll leave while you still can," he told her as he walked away.
"Get back here and fight!" He heard her shout as she got back up. "We're not done!"
But as she got up, the purple Eva was already a decent distance away from her.
"There's still more Titans in those large walls, you know!" She tried to threaten him. "You know I can shatter them and release them! Don't think I won't, Third!"
Shinji stopped…and then responded to her threat.
"Do whatever you feel you have to, Asuka," he told her as he resumed his trek back to the city. "Just know that you made that choice…just as I've made my choice to stay here. If you want this Eva…you'll have to kill me for it because it's mine to use to give these people back their world…and I'm not going to hand it over."
"You spineless coward! Weakling! You're a disgrace!"
But Shinji kept running.
If that's the way you want to play it, Third, thought Asuka as she turned to go back to the Walls, it's all on you.
-x-
If what Shinji told her was true, and he learned of this from the Survey Corps, then the Titans were attracted more to people with the power to become Titans more than regular people. This meant, as much as she hated it to be true, that the Titans would be more attracted to her than others.
One such Titan actually looked down at the ground…and at her.
"Oh, no," she gasped, her left hand shaking.
"Whoever the Dark Titan is, they're a harbinger of hope, too," she recalled Shinji's voice from before she told him the truth. "They have a power that help rather than harm, undo the Titans and turn them back into people again."
"This had to be done, Kaede," her grandfather's voice uttered from the depths of her conscious. "It had to be done."
"It's not you fault, Kaede."
She ran from the buildings, away from the city, hoping they would follow her and ignore the people that would be heading towards the shelters. Right now, she wanted to keep her parents safe the fear of getting eaten by mindless abominations.
BOOM! Another explosion, one of fiery energy instead of watery, came from afar, and Kaede saw two more Titans appear.
Titan Shifters, she realized, seeing one that looked distinctively like a girl without skin. What is going on here?
-x-
Shinji saw the large Titans near the city, but was just as shocked to see two smaller ones that he hadn't seen since he first arrived and defeated the Colossal Titan.
"The Armored and Female Titans?" He questioned. "The worst part is that there's barely any preserved Dark Titan flesh left that's still usable…and we have no other spinal fluid available to deal with these Titans. Could today get any worse than before?"
With very few buildings to maneuver around or on, nobody within the Survey Corps or Garrison would be able to aid Shinji, and there was very little doubt that Eren would be able to control the number of Titans Shinji was seeing emerging from the water; it wasn't that anyone lacked any faith in the Titan Shifter's capabilities, but due to the recent return of the Dark Titan and the discovery that its flesh was saturated in spinal fluid, there had been very little need to resume training to control this Coordinate power he obtained.
Boom! He heard another explosion and looked to where it came from, seeing some smoke clear…and the Rogue Titan charging towards the Armored and Female Titans.
"Okay," he told himself, deciding that if Eren was going to deal with those two, he would deal with the larger Titans. "Let's do this."
He saw the larger Titans turning away from the city, however, as if there was something else on their minds, however mindless they were right now.
Where do you think you're going? He wondered sarcastically, charging towards the closest Titan and knocking it down.
-x-
Smash! Asuka, enraged by Shinji's would-be victory over her, shattered more of Wall Maria, releasing more Titans from their confinement.
She would be long gone before the ones she knocked down could get back up.
I'll show him, she thought, tearing as much of the wall down as possible.
-x-
"…Aaah!" Kaede screamed as a Titan was sent crashing into the ground eight feet away from her. "Aah!"
Shinji probably didn't notice her, so she couldn't fault him for his attempts.
She saw him punch several other Titans away, but not a single one was harmed to the point of death…and she knew why.
Shinji, just make them stop, her mind raced between the fear of being killed by the Titans and the fear of being stripped of what was left of her life by the people if they found out what she was.
Stomp! One Titan that was missed had gotten close enough to Kaede to reach down.
"Gaah!" She gasped and ran to avoid the Titan's left arm.
She barely evaded it…and its right arm. It was true. The Titans were more attracted to Titan Shifters than they were to regular people. She had become a prize to the Titans that wanted to eat her.
-x-
It felt hopeless! It seemed that for every Titan Shinji knocked down or threw aside to disable them, three or four more took its place.
They were people that cared once, he kept reminding himself of the possibility of saving these Titans. Damn it, Kaede, I wish there was another way to resolve this!
-x-
"…But there isn't another way, is there?" Kaede found herself saying, as if responding to something only Shinji would have said, falling into a crater.
"You really like Mr. Ikari, don't you?" Her mother's voice echoed in her. "You got to know him."
"Heh, someone like this Ikari boy," her stepfather had expressed an opinion about Shinji, "is someone you don't likely see every generation, Kaede."
But Kaede wouldn't have known anything about that belief. She kept to herself, never thought about boys, about what she could do outside the Walls, about any future free of the Titans. It wasn't even until she met Shinji that night in Shiganshina that she felt she was entitled to think about him as some sort of sign from the heavens that there was hope for her. Hope that she could put this horrible aspect of her past behind her.
"Will I still matter to anyone…if it all comes down to my last moment?" She questioned.
-x-
You would still matter to me, Kaede, Shinji found himself thinking of the ramifications of what could happen to the girl he ended up liking, as he suddenly found himself getting jumped by at least twelve Titans. You can be hope for the people, the same as me. As there are many kinds of hope, I want to be your hope for a life beyond that of a Titan Shifter.
-x-
The first time she did it, it was beyond her control. She wasn't even sure how it happened. The second time, all she did was cut her left hand. But now…now, she put her right thumb in her mouth, thinking only about being hope for the people, for Shinji…and bit down as hard as she could.
"Grrraagh!" She screamed, feeling like she had bitten the whole thing off as she tasted her own blood.
FLASH-BOOM! Kaede felt like she had been set on fire and then submerged into hot water, numbing her of pain.
Then, she felt like she had been laying over a strange log made of a mattress, only warmer and like skin. It reached out to her, surrounded her, wrapped around her and would not let her go. As she opened her eyes, she saw that she was above the Titans, like she was made larger than anything she had ever felt before. She wanted to talk, to say something, but she didn't hear any words come out of her mouth, just sounds that you would hear large and predatory animals make when fighting or hunting.
The Dark Titan had returned again.
-x-
The three Titan Shifters that were under twenty meters saw the Dark Titan and couldn't believe it had returned.
With the sole exception of its increased size, it was exactly the same as it was the day Wall Maria had fallen when the Colossal Titan had broken it so the smaller Titans could invade and cause the mayhem they committed without conscience.
What nobody had ever seen or heard of that occurred that day was how the Female Titan had fought the Dark Titan…and was forced to retreat due to its raw strength and savagery. In her mind, Annie didn't suspect this Titan to be just some poor soul that lost their humanity a long time ago. No, in her mind, this had to be someone with a conscious unhindered by a useless drive to devour others, but found that to be impossible because of an ancient, historical fact.
There are only nine Titan Shifters at any one time, she thought, never able to understand how there was another Titan Shifter that appeared separate from the original nine…if this was indeed the case. Any other is just a mindless drone.
The Dark Titan raised its arms up and flexed its fingers.
"Grr!" It growled, and the Titans that ganged up around Unit-01 suddenly turned to gather around it instead. "Guuragh!"
In less than three seconds…they lunged at it and bit into its flesh wherever they could, but were unable to get at the head, causing copious amounts of fluid to spray out of the bite wounds.
Kaede, thought Shinji, concerned for her safety. So long as they can't get at the Titan body's nape, she should be alright.
Suddenly, eight of the Titans that were biting deep into the legs started steaming up and released their hold to get away.
"Haaaurgh!" They shrieked, looking like they were trying to cough out whatever got into their throats.
They fell and evaporated.
"Uuuragh!" Other Titans biting into the Dark Titan's arms and waist started shrieking as they released it, feeling the same effects their fellow Titans were feeling, evaporating and choking on something they didn't know they were after.
And as they fell a and gave off steam, the injuries of the Dark Titan regenerated.
It looked at Unit-01 and gave an odd roar to it as more Titans started emerging from the ocean water.
-x-
"…Incredible," went Armin, not believing their luck when the Dark Titan returned again and allowed the other Titans to sink their teeth into it.
On the hill, among the civilians that watched the battle, even Mikasa was impressed by the display of what had to be a miracle among miracles for them. Whoever this Dark Titan was that suddenly came back into their lives, she wanted to know who they were and know what else they were capable of.
Soon enough, a large portion of where the Titans were had become consumed by steam and the wind blew close to the hill, causing a type of breeze that was like a hot spring made of mist.
"Gosh, that's warm," said Connie to the others.
"You said it," added Sasha.
"Yeah, they give off a lot of heat when they evaporate," went Hange, wiping her goggles of the condensation forming on them.
-x-
BURST! The left fist of the Rogue Titan exploded upon striking the face of the Armored Titan as hard as it could've hit any Titan before.
It might've cost it its left hand…but the Armored Titan lost its head, exposing the person Eren knew was controlling it.
Reiner Braun!
"Raaaaaurgh!" The Rogue Titan roared at him as its arm regenerated.
The Female Titan came running, its arms crystallized for taking the Rogue Titan's head off.
Grip! It was stopped and grabbed at by Unit-01, who picked it up and started squeezing it tightly.
"Huuurgh!" The Female Titan groaned, unable to use its power to call upon the mindless Titans to the Eva in a feeding frenzy because its body was feeling constricted.
With no other alternative, Annie cut off her connection to the Titan body and started emerging from the nape; she was hoping that she would have at least a minute to escape and create a new Titan body, since she was stronger than Bertolt and Reiner in terms of combat.
-x-
It was the second time Shinji found himself dealing with someone that had this strange power that the Titans possessed that used it against the free people of the world, but he had come to accept that there were only three types of Titan Shifters so far in this world he was trying to give back to the people. There were the ones that used this power to help the defenseless, the ones that harmed others for wrongful reasons…and those that had the power with absolutely no desire, no agenda to want it, whatsoever, regardless of their situation. However, the last time he faced them, all he did was throw them into the sky. Now, he had to deal with them.
Seeing the person try to escape, he used the Eva's other hand to grab her before she could do something either suicidal as jumping to her or dangerous as creating another Titan body to use.
"I don't think so," he told her.
He made sure his grip was tight enough to keep her in check, but loose enough to not kill her; the Survey Corps needed as much information as possible on a new matter.
"Aaaaurgh!" Several more Titans shrieked and groaned from their failed attempts to eat the Dark Titan. "Grrugh!"
They fell to their knees and palms, coughing and choking as they began to evaporate, generating intense steam from their pores.
Eren quickly grabbed Reiner and gripped him tightly in his Titan body's left hand so he couldn't escape or create another Titan body.
-x-
Misato couldn't bring herself to say that she was impressed by Asuka's response to Shinji's decision to remain on the other world and keep the Eva with him. She couldn't even bring herself to be impressed with Shinji's decision after being unable to get Asuka to back off the Titans after telling her they were dangerous to deal with let alone desire for any other reason. If there was more to Shinji's reason for choosing to stay there and keep the Eva with him, maybe some hero indulging or because he met a nice girl there, she would've probably understood better. And then, there was his father, who was going to go to extremes to get the Eva back, even if it meant sending an army over there to declare war for its return.
"…Kaede," she suddenly heard Shinji's voice over the intercom.
On the holographic displays that were connecting to Unit-01, everyone saw what Shinji saw, and he saw a large, black-skinned Titan with long hair fall to the ground in front of him as it evaporated.
It was a surprise to the purple-haired woman that they were finally able to access the external visual data from the purple Eva after so long. And a greater surprise to see a young girl emerging from the Titan's nape.
My God, she thought.
-x-
Having completed her purpose, the Dark Titan's body evaporated and released the girl that controlled it. It was like a hot bath, only she still had her clothes on, and they were now damp.
"Ahh…" Kaede exhaled, mildly exhausted, but strong enough to stand.
"Ohh…" She heard some people around her as they came to.
Looking up at the Eva, Kaede thought of Shinji…and, despite looking worried, gave a peace sign that he showed her how to make with her left hand. Even though she didn't want to think about it, it felt…good to help people like Shinji did, to take something she viewed as a negative in her life…and turn it into a little bit of a positive. And to know that she mattered to someone.
To be continued…
A/N: The next chapter brings in character revelations and deeper truths.