Hope from the Sky

by Traitor of All Traitors

Inspired by the works of other writers that took to it, this is my first attempt. Shinji and Unit-01, victims of the Twelfth Angel attack, find themselves in another world with giants that crave human flesh. Can Shinji offer his Eva's assistance in allowing mankind to cancel their extinction, or will he be joining them? Finally Finished. Bonus lemon chapter now uploaded.

15. Explanation and Acceptance

Creation began on 05-11-17

Creation ended on 06-10-17

Neon Genesis Evangelion

Hope from the Sky: Explanation and Acceptance

Kaede didn't expect to have the Survey Corps looking at her as she sat on the carrier facing away from them. But then again, she didn't expect to just be permitted to go home, either. Her parents were on their way over and an explanation was expected of her.

The only benefit of this situation was that Shinji was here with her.

"So, she's the Dark Titan?" Hange questioned. "I don't believe it."

"Hard to imagine a simple girl like her to be able to take down over eighty Titans over five years ago," added Connie.

"Still," went Armin, "there she is. Somebody whose ability can help us even more."

"What do we know about this girl?" Levi asked.

"Kaede Sogen," said Mikasa to him. "Fourteen years old, former resident of Wall Maria's Shiganshina District and Wall Rose's Trost District. Among the people that were relocated here after the Beast Titan was captured."

She left out the fact that she had been around before to find Shinji like some sort of fan; that was nobody's business but her own.

Erwin came back onto the ship and walked over to Levi.

"Her parents have arrived," he revealed.

"Quite the day today, huh?" Kaede asked Shinji, looking over at the Survey Corps on the other side of the carrier's flight deck.

"Yeah," he responded, though he was trying to be sarcastic, which he thought she was trying to be. "Can I ask you something about what happened?"

"Yeah, sure."

"When you turned into the Dark Titan and stopped those Titans by restoring them to humanity…how did it feel? I mean, how did you feel?"

Kaede sighed and expressed, "I was just trying not to get killed out there…and not to hurt anyone…and help you. It's hard to feel great about something you feel is the worst thing to have ever happened to you…or how to react to the fact that your parents now know."

Shinji looked over at the corps and saw her mother and stepfather coming out of the gathering to where they were.

"I hope they will be understanding," he told her.

"Kaede, are you alright?" Her mother asked her.

"I'm fine," she answered.

-x-

For some reason, these Titans that were within the wall were completely passive the second the sun went down. They just stood still or laid on the ground.

Just like the one we caught earlier, Asuka thought, suspecting there was some relation between their activity and the sunlight. They must depend on the sun to move. At night, they're no better than that baka is: Useless.

Then, looking at the expanse of land within the wall, the redhead decided to do a little exploring since the power source her Eva had was still functioning properly.

-x-

Everyone was quiet. No one said anything as Kaede told them that she was the Dark Titan.

"…But…why didn't you tell anyone that you were a Titan Shifter?" Armin asked her when she revealed her identity to them.

"In five words? I never wanted to be."

And in five words, it was implied by the minority of the Survey Corps, including Eren, that this girl was turned into a Titan Shifter…against her will.

"Do you…know who did this to you, Kaede?" Her mother asked her.

"It was…Grandfather," she answered her, sounding very resentful when she spoke of him.

Even her hands were shaking.

"But…your grandfather was dead before the wall fell," her mother told her, but her stepfather, who was sitting across the table from his stepdaughter, got up and walked away.

"Sig?" His wife asked, wondering what bothered him.

"Not your father, Mother," Kaede clarified who she meant. "It was his."

"You mean…your step-grandfather?" Hange questioned her. "He's the one that…did this to you?"

"That's right."

"Did he say why he did it?" Eren asked her.

"He only said that it had to be done, that it had to be me."

-x-

"…I can't believe it," said the stepfather, banging his forehead against a locker door. "I can't believe that he went this far."

"Um, Mr. Sogen, sir?" He turned and saw Shinji standing at the entrance to what was a locker room on the carrier.

"Mister Ikari," he greeted the boy.

"Shinji, please," the boy responded. "The formality…really isn't my cup of tea. About Kaede… I doubt she hates you for what was done to her."

"My father… I didn't know, you know… I just thought she was being distant towards me because her mother and I got married shortly after her father died. He was my best friend growing up."

"So…you married your best friend's wife? I rarely believed in such a fact of life."

"I was…just keeping a promise made ten years ago."

"A promise?"

"If something happened to him, Hagen, my friend, made me promise to take care of Christine and Kaede. My father was the only person I knew was against that promise."

"Kaede's step-grandfather?"

"Yeah."

"Who was he?"

"A man obsessed with the Titans…and I fear it was his obsession that killed him when Wall Maria fell five years ago."

"How obsessed was he?"

-x-

"…What did he do to you, Kaede?" Christine asked her daughter, unsure of whether or not to believe her when she said it was her step-grandfather that turned her into a Titan.

"When you two were out one night, he came into my room…and then strapped me to his basement table," Kaede told her, recalling the horrid memory as though it occurred only the day before. "He went and started shooting my arms and legs up with these substances. I don't remember much of that night, just that he said that he wasn't sure what would happen if he did it to himself…and that what he was doing was for the sake of everyone."

-x-

"…It was the way Titans were capable of feats that weren't possible that intrigued him him," Sig told Shinji about his father. "How big they were at their peak height of fifteen meters, whether or not they could get any bigger, how strong they were said to be, their ability to regenerate from grievous injuries inflicted upon them, even their longevity. It bothered my mother and I that he spent as much of his time with his beliefs that my mother had me away from the house long after dark everyday. She didn't want me around him after I was twelve."

"Obsession is just another way of saying a person's crazy when they focus on something too much," said Shinji.

"I never told my mother, but I really hated my father. I thought I'd be long gone from Shiganshina after she got sick and died…but then he suffered in an accident with a horse-driven cart one day and lost his right leg. I wish I could say that I stayed with him out of pity and contempt."

"Not many people willing to look after others that are elderly or incapacitated for those that either can't or won't."

"If I had known what he was planning on doing to Kaede, I'd have stopped him. I'd have him arrested and locked away so deep in a dark place that he'd never know sunlight again."

"But…he died when Shiganshina was attacked five years ago, right? I mean, the district was infested with many Titans. If they didn't get to him, then surely, just maybe, he got buried under a pile of rubble and was unable to get out."

"I wish I could believe that, young man. I was part of the reconstruction crew that came back to Shiganshina after you and the Survey Corps cleaned out the remaining Titans that were trying to get away. The first thing I did was go back to my house to try and find him…or what was left of him. I couldn't even find his crutches laying around."

"Then…there's a chance that he might be alive somewhere."

"I hope to God that he's very dead. I can't face Christine or Kaede right now, knowing what he did."

Shinji was then reminded of the feeling of guilt by association, and needed to speak his mind about what was done…and what needed to be done.

"What your father did is all on him, Mr. Sogen," he told him. "What he did to Kaede without so much as even asking you or her mother for permission to try an unforgivable act, it's his sin that he will never be forgiven for. If he's dead, then let his sins, his crimes, his obsession, weigh him down in the depths of Hell for eternity. You didn't make him do what he did. You didn't make him try to turn a girl I just met recently or spent time at sea getting to know into the very thing we all barely understand and want to get rid of so that no one else suffers. You want to wash your hands clean of him, then face the people that he harmed."

-x-

"…I thought that if I just tried to bury what happened, I could get on with my life," Kaede continued. "But then the Colossal Titan appeared again…and again…and then everything changed when Shinji showed up."

"And now, after all this time?" Christine asked her daughter.

"Now? I don't know. I've told you everything I can remember, everything I wish I could forget. I guess the only thing I can even ask is…what is going to happen to me?"

Kaede never looked at her mother during the entire revelation. She feared facing her…and then being rejected by her. That alone would just…break her beyond words.

"They can't kill my daughter, I'll let you know that," she heard her say to her. "No matter what was done to her that made her into something we don't fully understand. It would crush me."

Kaede felt her mother's left hand grasp hers.

"And I'm sure it would crush that cute friend of yours if something were to happen to you."

Somehow, she suspected that Shinji would wind up in this conversation.

-x-

Chained, suspended, and with a cannon aimed at them. This was the current status of Reiner and Annie, who were being watched by members of the Survey Corps.

"You know, I can't believe you two and Bertolt actually tried to kill Marco," one of the female members stated. "I had thought we had seen the last of you when Shinji threw you away into the air like that months ago."

Without her ring to help trigger a transformation, Annie remained silent. She didn't even dare to bite her tongue in front of them lest they fire the cannon and blow her to smithereens.

"Who the Hell is Shinji?" Reiner asked, hoping to get an explanation.

"Our hope from the sky," one of the male members answered simply. "The slayer of the Colossal Titan and bringer of freedom to the people that can now live beyond the Walls."

"You three…or rather… Yeah, three out of the four of you so far…are the worst bunch of people we've ever seen," another female member expressed. "Your attack on Wall Maria took the lives of three of my cousins…and they never did anything to anyone to deserve what happened to them."

"Fortunately, unlike you two and this guy that the Garrison are keeping in check, Bertolt Hoover, seems to be the only one that may be allowed to walk away from this…so long as he cooperates and helps us end this war with the Titans," one of the men expressed.

"Bertolt?" Annie finally spoke up.

"Yeah, he was fortunate enough to survive the encounter, even if it came at the cost of his Titan abilities. I think a Garrison member expressed that he claimed that it was facing God…and being punished for harming humanity."

-x-

"…I can't believe you knew about this," Eren expressed to Shinji, who Kaede had confided in about her Titan abilities, sounding almost angry.

"It was only earlier today that she told me, and she made me promise I wouldn't tell anyone," Shinji defended his actions. "Despite whatever it is that you're thinking about her, she hates what was done to her because she worries about how much of her future has been compromised by being a Titan Shifter. She doesn't know what to do about it all."

Then, despite his own infuriation, Eren stated, "For a long time, I thought the Dark Titan was a guy. It's hard to believe that it was always a girl."

Shinji sighed and responded, "Hey, I still find it hard to believe that the Survey Corps employs teens to fight Titans, not all that different from the people of my world exploiting teens to pilot the Evas against Angels. And…one should never underestimate a person simply because of something as common as their gender."

"Hard to believe even further in the fact that she was the one that saved my mother from being eaten by a Titan…and she doesn't even know."

"She knows. Believe me, she knows."

"Do you believe in her? Do you believe that she can be a harbinger of hope, too?"

"I do…because there's no one else like her…and I don't mean because of what she's capable of as a Titan. She's kinda like you…and not so much like you. She has this power she never wanted, this freedom she never knew she could offer, and there's no desire, no drive for revenge, whatsoever. If anything, maybe her role is the easiest one here. She's…she's the one person that can do what no other Titan-empowered person can do, which is undo the Titans that exist. And the strangest thing of it is… She might be the only unique Titan Shifter the world has ever seen…or will ever know. Of course, I can't really prove my belief until I know more about Titan Shifters. I need to know how much of her life has been changed by being one."

-x-

At least they permitted her to go home for the time being. It wasn't like she could run off anywhere or something of the sort. It was that Kaede didn't want to be seen as the enemy by anyone. The girl was still adjusting to the revelation of the Survey Corps knowing her past…and she worried about Shinji getting reprimanded for keeping quiet about it.

"So…now what?" Her mother questioned. "Will you be alright with us knowing, Kaede?"

"I honestly don't know," she responded, sitting on the sofa. "I've kept it all bottled up inside for so long, it feels different, being able to finally talk about it. What do you two think of me?"

"Me?" Sig spoke, entering the kitchen and opening a refrigerator to pull out a bottled water. "I think you're still the same, no matter how much of what you're now capable of. And…you give the people hope now, just like Shinji does."

"Give hope? Me? All I did was bite my thumb and let people I don't know bite at my arms and legs until they choked on what they filled their mouths with."

"Heh, still greater than what could've been," her mother stated. "And…no matter what comes your way, we'll still be here for you. You're no monster."

It eased Kaede to hear that from her mother.

-x-

"…This is the one part of my father's notes we don't really understand, despite knowing the rest of the research regarding Titan Shifters," said Eren to Shinji, showing him the room aboard the carrier they used to store the files found in the Yeager home's cellar. "It's written in a language we don't understand. We thought it might be some sort of ancient dialect or code…"

"It's Japanese," Shinji cut him off, recognizing the writing. "Ancient, but still in use by those back home. It says, 'The Curse of Ymir'?"

"Ymir?" Armin, who, along with Mikasa, was also present, uttered. "Like the girl that was in the trainee group we graduated from?"

Of course, Shinji didn't know who they were talking about; he had never met this Ymir girl in person. As he read the writing of his ancestors of this world, he made sure to translate it into English for the others as accurately as possible.

"Oh, no," he sighed as he read a piece that detailed something he was afraid. "No, this can't be right. This cannot be right."

"What is it?" Mikasa questioned him.

"Eren, how many years has it been since you became a Titan Shifter?" Shinji asked.

"Going on five years now," he answered him. "Why?"

"This section of Japanese is older than the rest of the writing, but if it is all accurate, then the Curse of Ymir is the only negative to being a Titan Shifter. It speaks of nine Titans. The nine under the one that spread her power to nine bloodlines, blessed and cursed with the power of thought over action, that followed the same path of self-destruction as she did after fifteen years of possessing the power of the Titans. All it states is that…upon their final year of having the power of their respective Titan, the bearer's life starts to become unbearable…as they suffer from what remained of Ymir's Curse as their power abandoned them in search of a new vessel to carry on the Titan."

"Wait a minute," Armin went, confused. "You're saying that Eren…and any other Titan Shifters, for that matter, have only fifteen years of usage of the Titan power before they…die?"

"I didn't say they die after fifteen years. I said that the power leaves them after fifteen years…and life becomes unbearable for them, afterwards. I can only assume that it means you and any other Titan Shifter that obtained their power by eating a previous bearer before they could lose it…will just suffer from some type of constant fatigue."

"Fatigue?" Mikasa questioned.

"Extreme tiredness," he clarified. "You'd just be exhausted…all the time."

Eren tried to imagine the rest of his life as a worthless waste of space if he lived to be in his fifties…but couldn't see past being thirty or forty. He couldn't even see himself as being exhausted all the time.

"But hey, I could be wrong," Shinji told them. "That's the thing with languages being translated into languages. They're not always translated accurately. I don't want to jump to conclusions until I read the entire portion. And…if there's a way around this, we'll find it, right?"

"Yeah," Eren agreed with him. "Don't give up until you've tried everything."

"But hold on," went Armin, "this is for those that were turned into Titans first before devouring the previous shifter. What if, just by some weird possibility, this doesn't apply to Ms. Sogen?"

As far as they and the rest of the Survey Corps knew from what Kaede had revealed to them, the girl had only been injected with various Titan Serums…and had never devoured a Titan Shifter at all in her life for their powers. If this was true, then Kaede was unique, one of a kind, independent of the Titan Shifters that came before her…and may come after her.

"That's a pretty big 'if', Mr. Arlert," Shinji told him; only the deepest part of him that came from a place of great concern hoped that what he suggested was true. "Even so, everyone here is entitled to live a full life when this thing with the Titans is over."

-x-

"…So, there's another wall, huh?" Asuka went, standing in front of Wall Rose as the sun began to rise. "I look forward to seeing these people suffer because that stupid idiot refused to fall in line."

-x-

Even after writing down the exact translation to the portion he read concerning a Titan Shifter's lifespan, Shinji couldn't bring himself to think that Kaede fell into the same category or occupied the same boat as the regular Titan Shifters. He read and rechecked every word, every sentence and paragraph, and what he found was a concern for Eren and those like him; even if their only weakness was the back of their necks like with the common Titans, and even if they could regenerate injuries, Titan Shifters only had a power-endowed lifespan of thirteen-fifteen years as a Titan Shifter after devouring one.

He's gotta be at least fifteen right now, he thought, closing the notebook and gathering the four pages he had to translate the information discovered. Which means that, unless relieved of the power by another Titan or some other Titan Shifter, he'll be a worn-out man when he reaches thirty.

But with this being the only acceptable con of being a Titan Shifter that he could find, Shinji didn't find anything else to indicate that this power changed anything else about the person. All he found was that the Titan power always resided in the person's spine and spinal fluid…and couldn't be passed down from one generation to the next through procreation. This meant it could only be obtained through being devoured by another Titan…or reaching the end of the length of time that it could be used and it leaves the current host to reside within a new, random host. There was absolutely no other way of passing the power on.

If Kaede is similar to regular Titan Shifters in this way, then she's still as human as the day she was turned against her will, he thought, hoping that he was right. She can't pass her abilities onto a new generation unless she's eaten by some Titan. Maybe the sooner she knows of this, she can feel some relief for her future.

As he stepped out of the room, he ended up in the presence of Levi.

"Sir," he greeted.

"Ikari," Levi responded, looking at the papers in his hand. "What is that?"

"Titan Shifter information I have translated from an old language nobody here reads. Japanese translated into English. The only drawback of being a Titan Shifter I've found, which may not even apply to Ms. Sogen."

"Japanese?"

"My native language."

"Very well. As you were."

Shinji bowed his head and walked away.

"Just tell me one thing, though," Levi stopped him. "The girl that controls the red behemoth who came after you with others from your world… Is she as dangerous as the Titans are?"

He turned to face the leader of the Survey Corps and answered, "Asuka Langley Soryu should probably be famous for being infamous. Her pride, her arrogance, makes her hard to be around. She wants to be better than others, thinks she's better than others, just because she can pilot the Eva. Now, I fear she's even more dangerous because of the fact that Titans can increase an Eva's power…and she wants them only for that. She refuses to see the danger they could bring back home if they were brought there."

"If it comes to it, can you do something about her so that she isn't a threat to the people here?"

"If you're asking me if I can kill her… I don't know if I even have the guts to do it."

"She may not give you that option. But you'll find a way to deal with her if she persists."

-x-

The Garrison members atop Wall Rose weren't in the best of shape to handle the current situation they were in. With the relocation of the majority of the Walls' population to the salvaged city beyond, they were undermanned and unprepared to handle the Titans that showed up.

They were not in the same capacity as the Colossal Titan, but their size and numbers made them an intimidating bunch.

-x-

Kaede had a bad feeling. It wasn't like what she discovered from salvaged books that spoke of words she had never heard of, like "premonition". But it was a feeling of intense woe. Even as she lay on her back on the roof of her building, looking up at the blue sky, she couldn't keep her mind off the sense of impending darkness.

What is going on out there? She wondered, raising her left hand up into the air. Why do I feel this way?

"Kaede?" She looked over towards the door leading to the roof and saw Shinji.

"Hey."

"How are you today?"

"Better than yesterday, I suppose."

"Well, I hope that I can lift your spirits a little with what I looked into on Titan Shifters."

"Oh."

"It's just something that may not entirely apply to you. Your life, your very future…may not be compromised by your current status as a shifter."

"What do you mean?"

"Your powers reside in your spine, Kaede. The power of a Titan Shifter resides within the person that possesses it only. So, unless you're devoured by some random Titan…or even a Titan Shifter…or outlive a specific length of time, even, the power you have stays within you."

"I…I…don't understand what you're saying, Shinji. What…are you talking about?"

"What I'm saying is…your Dark Titan ability can't be inherited by anyone unless they're a Titan themselves. You…you can still have a future of your choosing."

"You mean… I can have children of my own someday…and they wouldn't be like I am right now?"

"Yeah. Yeah, that's what I'm saying. Unless you gave one of them a Titan Serum and let yourself be eaten by them in Titan form, you'd be the only Dark Titan until your final breath of life."

Then, getting up onto her feet, Kaede approached Shinji…and hugged him, surprising him. This was one of the few things that bothered her ever since that traumatic event over five years ago. If she had gone and done something that resulted in her having any children, she feared they'd be Titans like her and then executed, which is why she stayed away from any and all men whenever she was outside. It was only because she wanted to thank Shinji for clearing out the Titans and helping the people to reclaim Wall Maria that she was willing to put up with being around boys when she went looking for him that night in Shiganshina.

"You have no idea how much hearing this means to me," she told him. "It was one of the things I worried about for a long time."

"It's really because of you that I wanted to know more about Titan Shifters and how much of them is still human, only to find out that they're always human. They're just…enhanced in a way." He revealed.

"Enhanced? What is 'enhanced'?"

"It's a word some use to describe the status of a person, place or thing that has been affected in a way that makes them a bit better than before. Maybe a lake with water that is cleaner than any other source known, a garden with more varieties of flowers than any other garden, or even some soup with other flavors added to it."

"So…enhanced people?"

"Yeah…if you put it that way. Enhanced people are still people, just like how a lake is still a lake."

Then she let go of him, putting space between them.

"Again, thank you," she praised him. "This has worried me for a long time."

Shinji bowed his head to her. Then…looking at her face again, he looked at her eyes. It must've been because of the way the remains of the night sky looked because of the airglow, but Kaede's eyes once again had that look of sapphire shining in the moonlight. They were just so…mesmerizing.

And then, he blinked, looking away from her.

"I'm sorry," he apologized to her. "I was staring."

"It's okay," she told her. "Even though it's too late, I should probably go to bed now."

"Yeah. I…I should head back to the carrier in case they need me."

As he turned to leave, he wondered what else he could do to help Kaede…and why his heart pounded hard when he thought of her that way.

A hand grabbed him on his left shoulder and forced him to turn around. Before Shinji could say anything, before he even saw anything beyond the light of the ceiling, he felt a pair of lips press against his…and saw long, gray hair.

-x-

Maybe it was fate…or some kind of miracle, but the Titans standing just outside of Wall Rose didn't attack it just yet. In fact, they didn't come within thirty feet of the wall, like they were waiting for something, despite the numerous people that were still there, just within their grasp.

Even Asuka was puzzled at why the Titans didn't try to break down the wall; she assumed it would've been easy for them if she had been able to do it.

When are they going to ravage the people behind this wall? She wondered. Do I have to do everything in this forsaken world?

Flash! She saw two flares being shot into the air, one red and the other purple.

Flash! More flares were shot into the air.

She decided that there was no point in pressing any further in watching the Titans attack…and had Unit-02 grab the nearest one and dragged it with her away from the scene; one fifteen-meter Titan was sufficient and one that was at least forty-five-fifty-meters would impress NERV along with the Titan Serums they were able to obtain from that small community.

-x-

Maybe it was just her way of saying thanks in a more appreciated sense, but it was the first time that any girl actually made a choice to kiss Shinji like that. While she might've been the second girl to do so, in Shinji's mind, Kaede was the only one had a reason to want to do so, that wasn't meant to kill time or anything that Asuka had planned. And…as much as it should've been odd, he liked it.

She's nothing like Asuka or Ayanami, he thought as he entered the building next to the carrier, thinking about Kaede. I mean, she's pretty, easy to talk to, has a great personality. Plus, she actually likes me for me, not because of the Eva.

Approaching the walkway leading up to the flight deck, the young man looked out at the vast ocean that held such promise for the people that had yet to explore what was left to see. It was a nice view, and it gave a sense of inspiration and motivation to keep looking forward and reaching for the hope that laid beyond them.

The next time I see Asuka, he found himself thinking, I will tell her that there's no way I'm going back to the other world, even if after the Titans are all dealt with…and that she's better off giving up on using the Titans.

-x-

"Kaede," Gendo heard Shinji say as he viewed the limited footage recorded from Unit-01 in his office, seeing the mysterious girl emerge from the body of the large Titan that helped put an end to the ones that ganged up around the Eva; it was the way his son said the girl's name. "Kaede."

It was as though the boy had a special relationship with the girl, which would conflict with the scenario he had planned out for after the Angels were defeated. But if what he suspected from the footage was true, then there was a chance that NERV could still reap the benefits of these Titans in their possession. From what had been theorized and deduced about them so far was that people that were turned into them were no different from the zombies of old, but a person that could become one at will, demonstrate intelligence and reasoning skills, they demonstrated a basis as a biological weapon against any potential foes. And if this girl was able to do just what was viewed, it also gave NERV a potential means to exploit the Third Child.

"Kaede," Shinji's voice uttered once again on the recording, and Gendo thought of the next plan of attack against his son.

-x-

For all intents and purposes, Kaede slept well until the afternoon of that day. Her parents didn't disturb her; their daughter hadn't slept since the previous day with the revelation of her Titan ability, so she needed as much rest as possible. Even the revelation of possibly being able to live a normal life, despite this power, gave the girl hope. And truth be told, it was also the best rest she had that lacked the cold memory of her step-grandfather.

When she woke up and looked out the window of her room, she could see some people working to fix as much of the damages caused by the Titans as possible. And looking down at her right hand, including the thumb she thought she had lost to trigger her power, she felt ease she hadn't felt in years.

-x-

"…This Titan is as dumb as the previous one we caught," Asuka told the soldiers as they tied up the Colossal Titan she dragged to their base.

"While you were dragging this freak here, Commander Ikari called in with an unusual order for you that would probably get better results later," one of the men told her. "For now, we're to return with what we acquired."

The redhead frowned at the order to leave this forsaken world; she wanted to get even with the Third Child as soon as possible, and if it wasn't the Titans she unleashed from within that wall she destroyed much of that caused him discord, it was going to be her because she would break his back. But the two Titans she had caught would be in NERV's possession for research and development into the Eva program, and the vials of Titan Serums would aid in giving the agency their own Titans to work with. So in the end, the Third Child had failed in stopping her from taking anything from this world.

"How soon until we can go?" She asked the men.

"An hour from now," one of them on the Titan's left hand revealed.

-x-

So far, no new Titan activity was present, from either the ocean or the unchecked land away from the city. The latest of people that were freed from the curse of the Titans were tended to for their fatigue and questioned about their final moments before their transformations, the Survey Corps finding out a lot more than from the last number of people freed by the Dark Titan's power.

"…So, there's something called…the Marley government on the other side of the world?" Shinji asked Armin, who was the easiest person to talk to about such new information.

"Yeah," the blond-haired boy revealed to him; even though Grisha Yeager's notes had revealed about a past feud between the nation of Marley and the nation called Eldia (both of which were places that didn't exist in the world Shinji came from), it was only discovered due to the fact that the history stemmed from Grisha's own past in the Marley nation and the agenda he had to want to deal with the people of that controlled the government of that nation. "It turns out there might be only two nations in this world after so many centuries. Eldia and Marley. Both have been locked in conflict over the power of the Titans ever since the defection and loss of what was called the Founding Titan. It also turns out that we're on a large island called Paradis."

"This is an island? All this time, I thought this was a continent. To think that I end up getting displaced from one island to another."

"The island you called Japan? What was it like as an island?"

"Well, first, Japan is a country in the form of a number of neighboring islands, forming an archipelago. Before a calamity that devastated my world fifteen years ago, all I ever read about Japan was that it was one of the strongest of nations in existence. The only problem it faced most of the time was just the population disorder in such a small place. Although Second Impact, more or less, resolved that issue, despite its results being of the violent sort."

"Do you ever…miss your home?"

"It…wasn't really home. I mean, I lived there, but I didn't really…live while I was there. I piloted the Eva just to face creatures I had no business facing for people I had no business knowing…because a guy that up and dumps me when I was little after my mother dies sends for me to fight them. And only attended school when I wasn't being told to pilot the Eva. Even if I go back to my world, even if there were some people waiting for me, all I would really have to look forward to…is just facing creatures that are a nightmare compared to the Titans…and a father whose only real concern is his missing Eva, not his son. And…I don't really want to go back to that type of life."

Armin was probably going to be out of line by asking the next question, but it was only because it stemmed from what some of the Survey Corps saw on the carrier and yesterday on the streets of the salvaged city.

"What about Ms. Sogen?" He asked Shinji, earning his confusing stare. "I mean, some of the corps members here think that she's…sweet on you."

Shinji sighed, wondering why those that saw him with Kaede just assume that he's attracted to her, almost in the same or similar fashion as Toji, Kensuke and Hikari pairing him with Asuka back in school. Just because they were seen together, it didn't technically mean they were a couple or anything. If anything, it just meant that they were small friends or comrades. Of course, Shinji still had very little grasp on what was known as the typical behavior of others around his own age.

"It never seems to end," he uttered, "the accusations I get from others."

"Huh?" Armin went, confused.

"Back on the other side, some thought to label me and Asuka as a couple when we weren't…just because she always yelled at me for even the most trivial of things. People that see other people together just draw up their own conclusions that might not even be true. You…can't suspect everyone of being involved with someone else just because you see them with someone else. You don't have all the facts to have the right assumption to think they're involved with one another."

Armin felt that Shinji was defensive about his personal relationships when others tried to poke a little fun at him, and decided to not dig deeper than he had already into the personal matter. They already had new problems and very few solutions for them beyond the struggle for freedom.

"Anyway, change of subject," Shinji told him, wanting to get back to the matter at hand. "I should talk to the Armored and Female Titan Shifters to understand why they attacked the people in the Walls to begin with. If what this new information states about the two nations is true…and only those of Eldian descent can have the power of any of the nine Titan Shifters associated to their history and culture…then they're of the same nation as all of you…and they're the ones being cruel towards you when you were all behind the Walls and didn't know anything about the world beyond them, that there were people out there that weren't killed by mindless Titans. The legends we hear about only tell us one thing while history tells us another. But this is the first time I've ever had to contend with a situation where legends and history get blurred together, resulting in things that might be true in one sense…but not so true in another sense."

"Except the Armored and Female Titan Shifters, Reiner Braun and Annie Leonhart…still have their powers. If they see you, they might try to trigger a transformation and kill you," Armin warned him; despite every revelation discovered, the Survey Corps' greatest advantage against the Titans (and now, perhaps their greatest edge against this Marley nation) was the Eva…and this meant that Shinji's safety and dependability was their current drawback.

Shinji didn't need to be reminded how important his help was to them all the time, but wasn't stupid to let these people that might want to kill him see him.

"They've only see the Eva," he uttered. "They don't know what I look like. Eva can be used to communicate with people without leaving the safety of the plug."

-x-

Sometimes, Eren wanted to punch these two for being so smug and indifferent towards the survivors of Shiganshina and the rest of the Wall Maria. He thought that after the Armored and Female Titans were disposed of by Shinji, they'd never have to deal with Reiner and Annie again for their role in what happened five years ago. But now, they were back…and now they had to deal with them…and he wasn't permitted to cause them any excruciating pain at all. He swore that, one way or another, he would whatever he had to in order to ensure that they suffered the worst way imaginable for all the lives they harmed.

This method of communication with them was unlike anything they've done in the Walls. It was mainly because they never heard of microphones or megaphones. In front of Reiner and Annie was a security camera, a microphone and a pair of loudspeakers, this way, any potential harm that could arise from the enemy Titan Shifters was reduced.

"I'm sorry we couldn't meet under different circumstances, Mr. Braun, Ms. Leonhart," Shinji's voice emanated from out the speakers, getting their attention. "I can guess that you know who I am by now."

"You're the guy that controls that purple giant that isn't a Titan," answered Reiner to the microphone in front of the Survey Corps. "You're the people's so-called hope from the sky."

"That's one way of putting it. I guess we can skip the rest of the formalities and get to the point of this. I know about Marley's ethnic cleansing views and their feud with Eldia. My question to you two…is why do you hate your own people to the point where you willingly cause death and destruction for them? Why are you out to kill those that didn't even know of any of you until now?"

Reiner didn't say anything, and neither did Annie.

"Has Marley become so much to the point of teaching you hatred that you accept their views without ever thinking about why? Or is it because you two are like your friend, Bertolt Hoover?"

Reiner's eyes twitched at the sound of Bertolt's name being mentioned.

"You know not what you speak," he uttered bitterly. "You disrespect the memory of the dead."

"I mean no disrespect towards anyone, Mr. Reiner…and your friend isn't dead."

At that moment, someone came from behind several of the corps members, surprising Reiner greatly. It was Bertolt, alive and well, but in restraints to keep him from resisting.

"Hey, Reiner," he greeted his friend.

"No," Reiner expressed. "I saw you die. You were ripped to pieces. How?"

"Maybe it was a dark miracle that saved me. All I really know is that after that encounter, my Titan powers were gone."

"That's not possible," went Annie in response to hearing this. "You're still alive."

"For how much longer, I don't know," Bertolt expressed, "not because of a curse, but because of their limited mercy (he gestured towards the Survey Corps). I told them all that I knew. I'm hardly a threat to even a deer now. You punch me…and all I do is bleed."

"If he finds out you turned on Marley, there will be no mercy," Reiner warned him, referring to the Warchief Zeke, who wouldn't accept weakness from any warrior under his authority.

"They know about the Warchief and have him in custody. He knows I'm just a man now."

"And?" Annie asked.

"He still prioritized getting the Coordinate, the Founding Titan, over all else."

"That was the mission objective."

"It's not my mission, anymore. I've accepted defeat. We don't have to continue fighting them with the half-empty promises that Marley offer for being warriors."

"Yes, we do," said Reiner to him.

"But why is that?" Shinji asked him through the speakers. "Why persist when there's truly no need to?"

"With Marley," went Annie to the microphone, "failure is punishable by death."

"If this is about the Curse of Ymir, all you may have to look forward to on that after thirteen-fifteen years of using the Titan power is just the rest of your life being fatigued. To just die instantly is a cruel fate to befall anyone, even those that may deserve less than mercy being offered to them."

"Eldia's people are cursed. Every day that passes, they're a constant reminder of the stigma we have to put up with."

"Stigma? And what is your stigma? What is your curse? I'm asking you to tell me."

Neither Titan Shifter answered him.

"Confinement in internment camp zones," answered Bertolt instead, expressing a part of the reason he had done what he did before he lost his powers.

"Bertolt," went Reiner, feeling betrayed.

"Confinement? Internment camp zones? Elaborate, please." Shinji uttered.

"When Eldia lost to Marley, the ethnic cleansing began," the former Titan Shifter explained. "Eldian men, women and children were rounded up and put into isolation areas walled off from the rest of the cities occupied by Marleyans. Then they wanted the power of the Founding Titan for their own ends, the same Titan power that was removed from the wars by the royal family that inherited it and abandoned everyone to live on Paradis. They began a program that used Eldians, selecting only those most loyal to Marley and were willing to die finding and returning the Founding Titan. If you were successful, your families would be given citizenship in Marley. You'd be seen as one of their own, never having to live in the internment zones, ever again. It was…what most families of Eldian descent wanted more than anything else in existence."

Eren didn't believe in this. To think that these people he once thought as refugees of the loss of Wall Maria at the hands of the Titans, people that were affiliated to the very people he was helping to live beyond the Walls, were just a bunch of people that were brought up to attack the Walls for the Titan power he possessed…just for a shot at a better life for their families in the same dwelling with the people that hated them. There was no way he'd believe this, even in Hell.

"So, it's propaganda and promises that the Marleyans use on you?" Shinji asked Bertolt. "Exploitation and manipulation? Enslavement and genocide? Quid pro quo?"

"Quid pro quo?" Levi questioned, not understanding that saying.

"It's a way of saying 'something for something' or 'this for that'," the Eva pilot explained. "If what Mr. Hoover says is true, then it's like a double-edged sword of sorts for any of them. They swear their loyalty to the Marleyans, give up their lives to face potential danger from the assumed enemies within the Walls, retrieve the Founding Titan power for them, and their reward is life without limitations due to discrimination. They risk their lives just to give their families a better one, regardless of whether or not they themselves die in the process."

"But…none of you even know if they will even honor their end if you were successful," said Armin. "If they hate you that much, they could go and renege."

"Renege?" Reiner questioned.

"Lie to you, even though they gave their word, promised you what you sacrificed for in exchange for your services."

"Or they could've done worse than that," went Eren, imagining what would have been worse.

"What is worse than lying to them, Mr. Yeager?" Shinji asked him.

"These Marleyans could've killed their families," he answered. "There's no guarantee that they'd be left alone when they got the power of the Titans and attacked the Walls."

There was a long silence before Shinji spoke through the speakers again.

"We've yet to see them…and you already assume that they would kill their families while they're here, far from what was home for them?" He asked him.

Shinji suspected this stemmed from the fact that his father had murdered a family before and it still weighed heavily on him.

"I don't know how much of any of the history of my world can relate or echo what has happened here," said Shinji, "but ethnic cleansing among the worst acts of war and terrorism in existence."

"Punishable by death?" Levi asked.

"In extreme cases."

"But…you don't think we should kill these two, don't you, Shinji?" Hange asked. "Even after all they've done?"

"Not in so many words. Although they were the cause of death for many lives five years ago, it must've been Marley that made the plan to attack the Walls for the would-be prize that was the Founding Titan…and these two were just among those that followed the orders in exchange for acceptance from some people that despised them. It would be easier to just relieve them of their Titan powers and keep them in custody…and then pay these Marleyans a visit to see what they've done over the years."

"Wouldn't you be killing them all the same?" Bertolt questioned.

"Not if the Titans that bite into them only do so to ingest their spinal fluid," went Armin. "It's unnecessary to devour them."

"But I wasn't bitten into by anyone," Bertolt expressed what happened to himself, "and I still lost my power, regardless."

"We'll find a way to deal with this without the need to kill them," said Shinji; he believed there was a way to deal with this situation that didn't need an execution. We may already have a way!

-x-

It was frightening to see it happen at first, but NERV was surprised to see the space shuttle emerge from the ground…and a large container that held some precious cargo.

Kaji was among those that were so surprised by what Asuka had managed to take from the other world that he lost control of his bowels at the very mention of the word 'Titan'.

Repair and replenishment work was put into effect while Asuka was being given her new assignment and the two Titans and Titan Serums were put into research and development as they were sent to NERV HQ back in Japan.

-x-

"…The Dark Titan spinal fluid," said Armin to Shinji later that day after the Eva pilot vacated the Entry Plug. "You think Reiner and Annie will lose their Titan powers if they ingest it?"

"It's only a possibility," Shinji stated his suggestion. "So far, mindless Titans return to human form when they ingested the Dark Titan's spinal fluid in her arms and legs. It might be possible for a Titan Shifter to experience the same thing, even in human form already."

"But…even if it were possible, we can't trick them into drinking it. I mean, they're not stupid."

"I'm not questioning their intellect. And how can they be tricked into drinking something that could remove their powers if they can't taste it? It wouldn't even be like we're trying to poison them. That would be trying to kill them. We're just trying to mitigate the levels of danger they could cause if they try something that puts people in danger."

"Mitigate?"

"I'm sorry. It means to reduce, to lessen of something."

This suggestion was also due to the fact that they still had the last Dark Titan body that Kaede produced in her most recent transformation…and the discovery that the residual spinal fluid it possessed actually took longer to evaporate because the body didn't degenerate or evaporate like regular Titan bodies did. If anything from recent discoveries and studies, the degeneration of the Dark Titan bodies produced by Kaede actually took longer to achieve, which meant the Survey Corps had a decent supply of Titan spinal fluid to run tests on and use against future Titan threats.

"I guess we can put it in their drinks to mask the taste," Armin suggested. "I just hope you're right about this, Shinji."

"I just hope I'm right about every idea I get when it comes to what we're doing. Between Eldia and Marley, I'd rather side with the people that deserve to be free from tyranny and oppression, and that's the Eldians. The more I think about it, these Marleyans sound similar to a race of people in my world called Germans, who, under a fascist dictatorship, started a war with the other nations of the world. They were people that, despite decades afterward when the war ended, led to the girl I mentioned was the pilot of the red Eva."

"They were that bad?"

"I honestly don't know. I just know that Asuka was hard to deal with, always putting me down, no matter what I did, even just breathing. As much as I'm able to admit to disliking her now, even to the point of not wanting to see her again for as long as I might live, I'm not sure I have the will to be the one to execute her if she crosses the line any further than she already has."

Armin noticed how Shinji's right hand clenched and unclenched, as though he were deeply conflicted with the idea of actually killing someone, no matter who they were and how much they may have deserved that fate. He didn't blame him for feeling this way; none of the Survey Corps ever thought they had to deal with the possibility of killing anybody beyond the Titans. And personally, he couldn't imagine their hope from the sky killing anyone due to him seeming like a gentle soul caught up in one violent mess after another.

"I'll be honest with you, Shinji," he told him. "You don't seem like you're able to kill anyone, no matter who they are…and you shouldn't kill anyone, either. You're the hope from the sky. No offense."

"None taken. It's nice to be something better than one that's violent most of the time."

-x-

"…So long as they're deprived of sunlight, they're useless," Asuka informed Ritsuko over the phone as she memorized her new orders.

She couldn't believe her orders came from Gendo, who still maintained that Unit-01 must be recaptured at all costs, but the new assignment seemed so…beneath herself. Instead of a direct assault towards the Third Child, she was to kidnap this girl the boy had addressed as Kaede. As far as the commander told her, the girl held a soft spot in the Third Child's heart, and if they took her and brought her here, he'd have no choice but to come back for her, which meant Unit-01 would be brought back, as well.

So that idiot found a girlfriend over there? She thought as she threw her orders into the garbage bin beside her. Who does he think he is?! Who would want anything to do with that spineless coward?! Still, a girl that can turn into one of those Titans… If she wanted to, she could take the world and all it's worth…and then some.

-x-

"…Kaede?" Shinji gasped, seeing her on the carrier as he was about to get off and head for her building to see her again. "What are you doing here?"

"I…came to see you," she expressed. "I saw the petite boy, Armin, and he told me where you were."

"Yeah, well…there's nothing really wrong with being skinny. There are really some things only the little people can do. Why come here to see me?"

"It's about what happened earlier today…after you told me what you found out about people able to turn into Titans. I may have crossed a line I shouldn't have with you…and I'm sorry."

But the truth of it was…that Shinji wasn't sorry that it happened. It was the first kiss that actually meant something to him…and not just his first kiss from a stranger here in this world.

"The truth is…and even my parents think there's something going on between us…so I should probably ask before I press this any further. Shinji Ikari…despite my status as a Titan Shifter…and my identity as the so-called Dark Titan…do I have a shot with you?" Kaede questioned him.

"A…a shot with me?" Shinji reacted, confused. "What do you mean, Kaede?"

"I mean…would you like to be…my boyfriend…is what I'm saying," she explained.

To be continued…