Creation began on 09-10-17
Creation ended on 11-01-17
Neon Genesis Evangelion
Hope from the Sky: A Wraith in the Night
Eren Yeager probably got the worst assignment of his time in the Survey Corps. Of all the people that could've brought Historia and Ymir simple beverages, the duty had to fall on him, simply due to an assumption that Shinji and Kaede came to after their conversation with Historia shifted to Ymir. He didn't think for a second that the woman was a Titan Shifter at all; if she had been so, why didn't she try to help out during the previous times they had to deal with the Titans, including the ones used by Marley that included Reiner, Annie and Bertolt? Why try to keep it quiet? And if there were only nine of these Titans that could exist at any one time, in any generation or incarnation, that were over two-thousand years old, this would mean that she was one of the remaining four Titans left.
Miss Sogen's Dark Titan now has the Colossal, Armored, Female and Beast inside it, meaning she has four of the Nine Titans, he thought as he entered the chamber where the two ladies were, and I have the Attack and Founding Titans. Excluding the Dark Titan, that's six, meaning that only three Titans remain under the control of Marley. If Ymir's a Titan Shifter, which Titan is she called?
-x-
"…Was there someone else with us when we came to attack over five years ago?" Bertolt responded to the question he was asked by Levi, handcuffed to a table. "Yes, there was one other person with us before we came to Paradis. His name was Marcel Gilliard. He was also a Titan Shifter."
"Do you know the name of the Titan he turned into? The one that he possessed?" Levi questioned.
"The Marleyans called it…the Jaw Titan. It isn't big or strong or anything like the other Titans often are, but it's agile. Its only real advantage are its jaw and claws."
"It was called the Jaw Titan…simply because of its jaws and claws?" Hange asked him. "Did it look anything like he did?"
"No. His Titan form looked nothing like him."
"What happened to him?" Levi questioned.
"A Titan, a mindless one, emerged from the ground…and ate him. It was going for Reiner, but Marcel pushed him out of the way."
"So, one of the Titans Marley had," went Armin, "was unexpectedly taken from you by a mindless one that used to be an Eldian person? And you don't know who it was?"
"After it ate Marcel, the three of us ran as fast as we could before it or more could come after us."
Armin then sat down and put down a drawing pad.
"Can you describe the Titan that attacked you?" He suggested; if anyone in possession of one of the Nine Titans possessed a previous Titan form as a result of the Titan Serum, there was a high probability that said forms would only change after gaining possession of the specific Titan.
An example would be every time Kaede's Dark Titan exhibited changes with the Titan powers she accumulated, such as gaining a more-feminine physique after obtaining the power of the Female and armored plating from the Armored or the increased height due to the Colossal.
"It was around four-five meters in height," Bertolt described, "with dark strands of hair on its head. Skinny but muscular. Really skinny. Thin arms and legs, and dark eyes."
"What about teeth?" Armin asked, drawing the Titan based on the description.
"They were like regular people teeth. If it's still around, they'll have likely changed into fangs as a result of becoming the new Jaw Titan."
Armin slid the finished drawing to Bertolt…and the former Colossal whimpered from the memory.
"That's how it looked," he confessed. "That's the Titan that killed our friend."
-x-
"…I really don't understand what any of you see in that boy," Ymir told Eren as she sat her cup down on the floor after finishing its contents. "I mean, sure, he's been helpful in getting people out of the Walls, but how long can he be trusted?"
"I think it's more like, you're looking for a reason not to trust him," he countered her opinion. "Half the time, the Survey Corps was looking for a reason not to trust me when they found out I was a Titan Shifter. And that was before we all found out the truth."
"Because of Mr. Ikari," went Historia to them. "Everyone feels that without his aid, none of this would've been possible for any of us. You know, I suggested that he be the one in charge of running the government of the Walls, but he turned it down."
"He couldn't rule, even if he wanted to. He has no royal ancestry, no…divine right to rule."
"Yeah, he mentioned that, too, the intellectual." Ymir expressed.
"Honestly, it's suspected that you're one of them, Ymir," Eren told her. "That you're like Reiner, Bertolt and Annie."
Historia looked at Ymir and then back at Eren, confused by his statement.
"What are you talking about?" She questioned.
"An Eldian from the Marley nation," he clarified. "The theory is this: Five years ago, when Wall Maria was attacked, Marley sent four of their seven Titan Shifters to capture the Founding Titan. The strategy was to use the Colossal Titan to smash open the outer gate of Maria, the Female Titan would then draw in enough mindless Titans to invade, forcing the people to evacuate the districts and villages to Wall Rose, and the Armored Titan would smash open the inner gate, allowing the Titans to cause so much disorder that anyone from outside the Walls could infiltrate and claim that they were from one of the districts or villages; nothing really exists in the way of records, so anyone can lie enough to bluff their own existence as a civilian of the Walls. The only thing we can't figure out is why they would send four Titans, three of them that we know of and have incarcerated to different degrees."
"But what about the other guy? The Beast Titan?" Historia brought up. "Isn't he the fourth person?"
"He might have actually had nothing to do with the initial attack on Wall Maria. And he's been incarcerated, as well. He's no longer a threat."
"So why think Ymir's one of them? What would be the use of sending four Titan Shifters…if not to cause further fear and discord?"
Ymir's face seemed to go blank as she sat there; she must've been deep in thought.
"Ymir?" Historia uttered, but she didn't respond. "Ymir?"
-x-
"I swear, every time I look at these things, I worry about them getting loose and killing everyone here," said Maya to Hyuga and Shigeru as they were monitoring the two Titans kept separate in their size-respective chambers.
"And from what Shinji stated, these giants are man-eaters," added Hyuga. "A man-eater usually ignores other animals in favor of devouring humans."
"But he never saw any of these creatures eat anybody," went Shigeru, "so how can he just take the word of these people he met for real?"
"They did try to grab a few of the personnel when they were brought here," explained Maya. "However, they do appear to get energy from sunlight, so they're mostly dependent upon solar power to sustain them. If they're completely cut off, even if people are near them, it's unlikely that they'll be able to move so much as an inch."
As if to prove a point, the fifteen-meter Titan, restrained against a wall in its chamber, tried to move its head a little…but was as stiff as a board.
Even the larger, skinless Titan in the chamber in Terminal Dogma barely moved as it lay on the ground.
-x-
Now, as uncomfortable as it seemed, Shinji figured that sleeping in the Eva's Entry Plug was probably the safest place for him to be right now. And due to the power increase from eating the previous Titans and the remains of the Dark Titan bodies Kaede made, he didn't need to worry about the life-support system failing. He just had to worry about hunger, a sudden attack from NERV or Marley, and other things that didn't include leaving Kaede and returning to the other world with a future of uncertainty and a black-hearted father.
Better to be safe than sorry, I suppose, he thought, trying to find a comfortable position in the seat. I wonder how Kaede is doing right now? I hope she's not getting hassled by the neighbors.
-x-
Partial transformations, thought Kaede as she slept in her bed that night. I thought about creating only an arm…and I did so after cutting my left wrist. It wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. The Survey Corps have a right to be curious about how the Titans work the way they do, but I am still a person before I'm anything else.
In her dreams, Kaede found herself in a strange town that was neither Shiganshina or Trost. At first, she thought it was a district of Wall Sina, but then noticed something different about the people; for some odd reason, she felt that they were cut off from the rest of the city they lived in due to a gate and fence in front of her. On the other side of the fence were people looking at her and the rest, either pointing fingers or calling them names; she never heard what they were, but could feel that they negative. When she turned, she saw, to her horror, Reiner, Bertolt, Annie and some other guy that she didn't recognize, but was with some other guy that seemed younger than he was (her best assumption was that they were probably brothers).
What is this? She wondered, now following the small group (minus the younger boy) to a large expanse of land. What's going on?
BOOM! The sight and sound of multiple explosions occurred…and the keeper of the Dark Titan saw four Titans that soon went into battle against a group of adults with vehicles that only Shinji could tell her were, alongside two other Titans she hadn't seen before.
Is this…some sort of dream derived from their memories? She suspected; if her Dark Titan spinal fluid could usurp the power of the Titans from the people that used them to harm the civilians to capture the Founding Titan, then it was likely it could impart her with some sort of series of memories belonging to the previous holders, a type of record for her to go through, to understand what they did…and what they were doing before they lost their powers.
One the two unknown Titans stood taller than fifteen meters, but was smaller than the Colossal Titan, and was covered in hair everywhere but its lower torso area, giving it the impression of not being like people…but almost like an animal that tried to look as human as possible.
That must've been the Beast Titan, she realized, seeing it throw stones at the enemy vehicles with brutal force. My God!
The other Titan, just as unusual as the Beast, Colossal and Armored Titans were, was smaller than this other Titan she saw biting through soldiers and tearing their vehicles up, but was only moving around on its arms and legs, carrying some type of armaments with people in it, firing shells at the enemy forces. For all that she knew about Titans ever since she could remember being taught to fear them, Kaede had never seen or heard of a Titan that could only move like a four-legged animal did.
Within minutes of being encountered, the six Titans had decimated the enemy forces and left no survivals, a terrifying marvel of their power being used by the Marleyans. Then…they all turned their sights on her! They came towards her!
No! She panicked, trying to escape, but felt her knees sinking into thick mud as she struggled to run. Keep away! Keep away from me!
A large, dark hand appeared out of nowhere and grabbed her up from the mud, lifting her high into the air, away from the Beast Titan (since it was the closest threat).
Kaede looked at the Titan that grabbed her and saw that it was her Dark Titan, enhanced by the combined powers of four of the Titans that she knew she had, but the jaw structure seemed more streamlined. She didn't know why it seemed that way, but she got the feeling her Titan had other advantages yet to be discovered by her.
"Titans," the Dark Titan uttered, sounding like an older, colder and harsher version of what Kaede could've sounded like later as an adult. "I hate Titans."
Of course, this was simply how the girl felt towards these giants due to their unpredictable behavior and ability to cause death and destruction without conscience. And because of the revelation that they were once people that could be turned into mindless drones left a measure of contempt for anyone that exploited this form of eternal misery for their own purposes. But the worst degree of contempt she had towards them was the hatred she had for her step-grandfather.
"Titans, drop!" The Dark Titan yelled, her voice booming.
Suddenly, the four Titans she had usurped of their powers fell to their knees and evaporated back into their human forms, leaving only the other two remaining.
-x-
"…What if the people there don't agree with your demands?" Fuyutsuki questioned Gendo in his office, against the decision to go after and capture a girl that seemed able to turn into a Titan larger than any encountered previously. "What if the girl has family that refuse to hand her over?"
"I wouldn't be too concerned about anyone there," he stated cryptically. "When cornered and faced with harsh choices, people will choose the option that offers the least form of retribution."
"You would threaten many people for two people and an Evangelion they see as a savior, that your son sees as something that could help the people there more than it ever could here? You better pray your son doesn't decide to do something that jeopardizes your scenario any more than it already has."
But Gendo wasn't too concerned about that. If his son really cared about this girl (and that was a big "if"), he wouldn't try anything that would risk her safety. And if this girl was any consolation, she would become an invaluable asset to NERV.
-x-
"…Nothing brash, Ms. Soryu," Asuka heard the guy in charge say to her through the communication system in her Eva as she got ready to move ahead with the operation. "Just frighten them and give them the warning message."
"The look on their faces when they hear their choices," the redhead expressed.
-x-
Levi rarely slept ever since he joined the Survey Corps. Even though most of the organization was currently asleep, he was up and alert, standing in front of the Eva. As much as he initially believed it to be a Titan, it mystified him due to its power…and how it seemed dependent upon Shinji to move. And the facial armor, designed as though to intimidate more than the rest of it was, a menacing force to be reckoned with.
"Can't think past it, either?" He heard Armin ask him.
"Think past it?" He responded.
"The Eva seems so much like a Titan, yet it's controlled by someone from another world. Except it looks nothing like any of the ones we've seen and faced. And it gained power from them by eating them. Or how the people from the other world beyond the sky that made it want it back, only Shinji won't go back because he wants to help us fight against Marley. Kind of makes you wonder why can't the rest of these people be more like him."
"If that were possible, there'd be more grateful people here towards them, not just towards him."
Boom. Something from far away was heard, and it felt like the ground was shaking.
Crash! A building far away was smashed to debris, causing several civilians to scream and run from whatever it was.
Unit-01's eyes flashed open and it rose from its kneeling position.
"What's going on?" Shinji's voice boomed from the Eva's speakers.
"Hey, idiot!" They heard Asuka's voice as the red Eva made itself known. "Don't worry, that building was empty. I can't say the same for the next building, though."
"What the Hell do you want now, Asuka?"
"Besides you to grow some sense and return with the Eva? That girlfriend of yours that turns into one of these giants!"
Inside Unit-01, Shinji frowned upon hearing the demand. Bad enough that NERV might've had several Titans after smashing part of the wall up, but now they wanted Kaede. It was like they…or his father…wanted to take what he held dear to himself that he found here.
"Go drop dead somewhere, Asuka," he told her.
"It's either that…or the next time I show up, and I will show up again, it will not be pleasant for any of the people living here because of your aid. If you want them to see old age, you…and your little girlfriend…will surrender to NERV." She told him.
-x-
This was a crazy type of hostage situation that Kaede heard once she was woken up by the devastation caused to a small building by the red giant. The girl operating it told her boyfriend that both he and herself were to hand themselves over to her.
"Kaede?" Her mother spoke to her as she and her stepfather were out on the streets trying to keep away from the Eva. "You've not seen this other girl, have you?"
"No, never," she explained.
"She sounds crazy," her stepfather gave his opinion about the girl that gave the demand and threat.
"I believe she is crazy."
"Hold on, Asuka!" They and many others heard Shinji yell out. "What's to stop me from stopping you right now?"
"I think we both know that you can't kill me," the redhead responded. "You're a coward and a spineless buffoon. And could you handle an Angel over in some other part of this world away from here, just doing nothing, on your own? I don't think so."
-x-
An Angel in this world where the people of one nation could be turned into Titans invading the people of the other nation that were persecuting their enemy's only remaining free domain? There was no way Shinji was going to believe Asuka of something so ludicrous that she might've just been lying to him just to throw him off his game.
"Even if you say something like that, you're nothing more than a liar, Asuka," he told her.
"Well, that's what I would expect from you, since you're in such a dwelling where the people have no advance technology," Asuka retorted.
"Let's suppose that, for a moment, I chose to believe you, why would an Angel come to this world? What motive would one have to come to a world like this?"
"Who knows why? I wouldn't waste my time trying to figure out how their minds work. I wouldn't question any of this like you would."
"And there are people here that will waste hours to try and understand how the Titans think…if they're capable of such actions. Even if an Angel were here in this world, I doubt it's your priority to go deal with it on your own…even if it's what you wanted to do. Isn't that right? Isn't that your agenda, Asuka Langley Soryu? Face an Angel on your own…for your own, inglorious recognition? To feed your insatiable ego?"
Asuka frowned at the boy as his face popped up on her holographic screens, looking like he had actually grown a pair to talk to her like that.
"If that man gave you the order to threaten the people here by demanding that I surrender to the likes of you and NERV, I'll suggest that you go tell him that my answer is 'no', and that no other person, regardless of who they are or what they can do, will be turned over to you just because you desire them to do so."
"You are only asking for these wretched lives you view as important to be disposed of," she told him.
"It's not like you really care about what happens to anyone here. It's not about them, it's all about you. You don't care about their lives, and we both know it."
Asuka inhaled and laid down the terms of the threat.
"You only have until tomorrow night to decide to surrender yourself, the Eva and your girlfriend, stupid. Failure to do so will result in the decimation of this city of ruins and all that live in it."
Shinji's fists tightened at the controls.
"If I see you come back here, Asuka, you will make me regret the hardest choice I'll have to make," he told her.
"Oh, really? I think we both know that you don't have the guts to kill me."
"You're right about that, Asuka. I'm probably the most pathetic person in the world when it comes to being incapable of doing what others feel is necessary…but not every decision needs to be made to involve such an extreme necessity."
"You always try to find the easy and simple way out of conflict…and that is why you'll always be the pathetic and useless waste of space that you are."
Shinji opened and closed his right hand to relieve his tension, but he really wanted to make Asuka suffer right now. And as the red Eva turned to walk away…he knew a line had been crossed.
"It's not like we even need you back there, anyway," Asuka uttered, and Shinji disconnected the communication link between them.
BASH! Unit-02 was tackled to the ground…by Unit-01.
-x-
"Unit-01 has engaged Unit-02," Maya informed the others in Central Dogma.
On the screens, the purple Eva had gotten on top of the red Eva and grabbed its left arm.
"Hey, stupid, what do you think you're doing?!" Asuka demanded to know from Shinji, only there was no response from the boy.
Unit-01 then tore Unit-02's left hand off at the wrist.
"Aaah!" Asuka screamed from the sensory output her nervous system received. "You idiot!"
Unit-01 then took out its Prog. Knife and stabbed the red Eva in the back.
"What is he doing?" Misato asked.
"I think he's going for the plug," suggested Ritsuko.
Suddenly, the communication link was reopened by Shinji to Asuka, and all of Central Dogma could hear him.
"I won't kill you, Asuka," they heard him utter, seeing Unit-01 rip out a large section of armor from the back of Unit-02, "but I don't have spare your pride."
Then, without any warning, Unit-01 thrust its left arm into Unit-02's back and gripped onto the Entry Plug, removing it from the red behemoth.
"Unit-02 has gone silent," said Maya.
"What about Asuka?" Misato asked Hyuga, concerned for the girl.
"The plug is still intact," he responded. "She's still alive."
"Oh, God," a woman on the lower level of Central Dogma gasped, and everyone saw Unit-01 dismember Unit-02.
-x-
He made a choice that would have repercussions, but he had to put Asuka in her place, remind her that they were not on their turf, anymore. They were in a world where NERV had no authority over any of the people. If they and his father wanted to label him as an offender and charge him with destroying one of their Evas as some sort of vendetta, then so be it. He had to make sure that Unit-02 was beyond any hope of being repaired, ripping it into as many pieces as he could. Then, holding up the severed head of the red behemoth in Unit-01's right hand, he threw it a great distance in the air before he set the Entry Plug on the ground.
I can't believe I did it, he thought as he returned to the city, calming down a little as he came to his senses, realizing that he had done something so reckless, so stupid and so dangerous that he didn't feel like he was himself. I could've killed her by ripping out her plug. I could've reduced her to being a cripple for the rest of her life.
Emerging from the plug after powering down the Eva, Shinji climbed out onto its left shoulder and looked out at the expanse of land away from the city where what remained of Unit-02 lay scattered.
Clink! Whoosh! He heard someone use their ODM Gear and flew up onto the Eva's shoulder to meet him, seeing that it was Eren.
"Did you kill her?" He asked him.
"No," he answered back. "I mean, I'm hoping I didn't. What I did to her Eva, however, was intentional. She doesn't feel so dangerous without it now."
"What do you mean?"
"She based her whole life around the Eva. She views it as being so important to her that she doesn't consider that it wouldn't be around forever. Destroying Unit-02 took her importance away, tarnished her pride. Without the Eva…she's just a regular person with no value greater than her own existence."
"But you protected the people from what she could've done with it. You didn't give into her demands for yourself, the Eva or Ms. Sogen."
Yet, I get the feeling that I might've made things with NERV worse than ever because of their demands, Shinji thought, fearful that his father was not going to take this outcome sitting down.
-x-
Emerging from the Entry Plug, Asuka stood in the silence of the night, surrounded by the massacred remains of Unit-02, all that she had left that proved to the world that she was an Eva pilot. She couldn't believe that the idiot Third Child really went and totaled her Eva…just because she was following orders to get him to fall back in line. If this was how far he was going to go to protect the people here, then she should've killed him just to prove that he was the most pathetic choice NERV made for an Eva pilot.
"Stupid idiot," she grunted.
-x-
"…Well, I guess we can assume that this means the Third Child has officially defected from NERV," went Misato to Gendo, Fuyutsuki, Kaji and Ritsuko in Gendo's office after the Unit-02 massacre that Shinji committed.
"Yes," responded Gendo, "and he's taken possession of one of the Evas away from NERV in addition to destroying another. Theft and destruction of NERV property."
"Ikari, NERV crossed the line first in your son's mind," Fuyutsuki defended. "You ordered the Second Child to threaten the lives of innocent civilians from another realm of existence the Third Child has been accepted by for his assistance in dealing with a threat they have difficulty dealing with on their own, and he prevented her from carrying out the threat. If you were to send an army over there with the same demand: Surrender both the Eva and a girl that might not just be capable of turning into one of these…Titans, but is, as we're only left to assume, his recent love interest, he'll likely respond with the same conclusion, that we're in the wrong and have to be stopped."
"Yet the girl could be just as powerful as an Eva," Ritsuko suggested, "as the one she turned into was of considerable size, far larger than the ones we currently have."
"Whether he is aware of it or not," Gendo stated, indifferent to the moral ramifications of the situation, "the Third Child will be reprimanded the instant he is returned to this dimension."
"If he's still alive to be reprimanded," retorted Misato, since she had to consider the possibility that if it was between returning here to this world and the possibility of death upon returning if staying in the other dimension wasn't an option, Shinji would likely accept death rather than return here…and he would risk destroying the Eva to prevent NERV from taking it and the extended power it now had.
"He is too much of a coward to endanger his own life," Gendo declared.
"Ikari," uttered Kaji in response to his claim, "you don't know what your son is capable of. If he's able to destroy an Eva with absolutely no desire to kill the pilot inside it, then who's to say that he's capable of giving up his own life if it meant protecting the people that live over there?"
-x-
As the sunrise came and bathed the coastal city in warm light, Kaede found Shinji on the rooftop of the building beside the Eva, sitting behind the edge, draped in one of the Survey Corps' cloaks, looking depressed.
"Shinji?" She called his name, and he looked up at her. "Are you alright?"
"I still can't believe I acted that way last night," he responded. "I could've killed her, even though I had no intention of such. I mean, I don't like Asuka, but I don't hate her enough to want her dead."
She sat in front of him and expressed, "She isn't dead, Shinji. A small group of Garrison members went out after you returned and found the girl. She was…very verbal as she was put in a makeshift cell that was separate from the former Titan Shifters."
"You're sure? A redhead in a red version of my plugsuit? Very verbal redhead?"
"Not the type of person I want to talk to about anything if she's not calm enough to demonstrate a degree of restraint and compassion."
"I need to see her."
"Un-uh! Not until you get something to eat."
-x-
BASH! Asuka kicked the door to her cell for the umpteenth time, venting at the way she was being treated by these foreigners.
"Aaaaurgh!" She yelled, returning to her chair. "This is so immoral!"
"Do you really think we're immoral?" Mikasa, who was tasked with keeping watch over the girl for the next hour. "You have some nerve to call us immoral when you were the one that threatened to harm the people because someone you used to work with refuses to return with you or hand over a person with the power of the Titans."
"I have orders to follows, same as that idiot!"
Mikasa, sitting a considerable distance away from the Second Child, found her presence to be not only similar to Annie Leonhart's, but immensely insufferable. Being around her was like being near a Titan or some other threat to Eren's life, only she couldn't deal with the situation without disobeying orders.
"I honestly don't see any reason for that idiot to even put up with protecting any of you! And that girlfriend of his, too! What good are they when they can turn on you in an instant?!"
At least Asuka kept her distance from the girl when she noticed her blades and was informed that she was authorized to use them on her if she tried to either escape or attack her.
The door to the cell opened and Sasha stepped inside.
"Shinji's here to speak with her," she told Mikasa, "and I'm here to take over keeping watch of her."
Mikasa got up and raised the blade in her left hand to remind the redhead that she couldn't leave the room as she walked towards the door.
"Don't let her out of your sight," she told Sasha. "She's…too verbal."
As she vacated the room, she saw Shinji and Kaede, the former looking irritable over the reactions everyone had about the new prisoner while the latter seemed displeased with the former's current emotional state.
"Just how long were you watching her?" Shinji asked Mikasa.
"An hour," she answered. "She…doesn't restrain her opinions."
"At least she…can't cause us trouble now that her means to hurt or threaten was destroyed by Shinji," Kaede stated, trying to stay positive about the current state of things.
Mikasa, unfortunately, didn't comment on this.
"Are you truly okay with having let her live?" She asked Shinji.
He sighed and answered, "Yes. Her verbal abuse, I can put up with. But her death, I don't need on my conscience. Without her Eva, she's hardly a threat."
"Don't take your eyes off her."
Kaede, in her honesty, wasn't entirely looking forward to seeing this Asuka in person after learning last night that she had these orders to take her to Shinji's world to this NERV organization. If this girl was as negative as she anticipated her being, then Shinji's father had to be many times worse than the girl. Both just made her think evermore bad thought about her disgraceful step-grandfather, may he suffer for his own sins.
"She's not restrained?" Shinji asked.
"We had to improvise," Mikasa explained.
"Okay. Um, shall we, Kaede?"
"Uh, yeah, Shinji."
And they walked into the room together to meet with the redhead.
"Ugh," the girl behind the Dark Titan shuddered at the sight of the girl, intimidated by her expression of unrestrained anger, like she hated the world for no other reason than because she chose to.
"Kaede Sogen. Sasha Blouse. Meet Asuka Langley Soryu," Shinji introduced the two ladies to the redhead. "Asuka, meet Sasha Blouse of the Survey Corps and Kaede Sogen, my girlfriend as you so bluntly call her."
Asuka looked at the girl she had her orders to bring to NERV, not understanding what anyone saw about her…but really despised her more for the fact that she and Shinji were holding hands.
"You are nowhere near as attractive as I am," she uttered to her.
Kaede officially did not understand the girl at all. With some of the other women in the Survey Corps, it was simply a matter of observation and social interaction in small steps when she was with them and Shinji on the carrier at sea. But with this girl, it was like looking at someone so full of malice, cruelty and disgust towards others that she could probably break every rule that exists just to do as she pleased to anyone she decided to harm.
"There's no beauty contest here, Asuka," Shinji told her as Kaede and he stood against a wall. "Do you have any idea how serious the situation is with you?"
"All I know is that you up and defected from NERV, idiot, and for what? You get stranded here and people back in our world think you dead until we discover that you're very much alive, and you choose to forgo any chance of returning…to help a bunch of primitives fight against giants because you have a weapon that could make their goal so much easier than they had ever hoped! You practically renounced what you were brought to NERV to do!"
"In my defense, I had never thought of any means to go back there, Asuka," he defended. "I showed up here, I see their walled nation getting attacked by the largest of Titans that had attacked them twice before, and I intervene because I didn't want to see anyone else suffer, even if it meant facing a new enemy that I knew even less about than the Angels, and not because nobody was willing to explain them…but because they were kept in the dark about them, as well. I fought and defeated the Titan, and sometime later after reviving from exhaustion and hunger, I was approached by one of the Garrison leaders and asked if I would help the Survey Corps reclaim a wall for the people that had to live in fear of the Titans. I chose to help them, the second choice I made since I got here that had nothing to do with NERV or Angels. So…yeah, I defected from NERV in a way. Yeah, I chose not to go back, and yeah, I chose to make sure you couldn't carry out your threat to hurt the people of this city just because my old man told you to do whatever it took to get me to fall in line with you. Don't think I wanted to, but I did, and do I regret it? No, I don't. And do you know why?"
"Because you're just a fool that won't see past your foolish and pathetic perception of how the world is," she told him.
"Because you still live and breathe, that's why," he corrected her. "You have no idea how many people thought I should've killed you. Some even thought you could be helpful to them if we worked together against the nation attacking this one. At least eight of them. How fortunate do you think you are just to be alive after what happened last night?"
"You destroyed my Unit-02. You can make your inferior Eva eat these Titans to fuel its internal battery so it can fight longer than a few worthless minutes, but you can't even kill one person because you lack the spine to do what's necessary? You should've just killed me, stupid."
"You're so ungrateful," said Kaede to her, expressing her opinion on the redhead's current state. "Shinji's such a gentle person, and you condemn him simply because he kept you from crossing the line that you did last night when you made your threat based on your so-called orders. Why the sudden interest in me? I can understand the reason your organization wants back the Eva Shinji uses, but me? Not much of any reason beyond your orders."
Shinji thought about it and had his own conclusion to why NERV wanted Kaede.
"It's not really you they want," he shared his assumption of the reason. "An Eva pilot winds up dead or compromised, NERV will just find a replacement pilot and move on. An Eldian with the power of the Titans at the ends of their ability to become a Titan won't matter to those that don't want to lose such a resource. Just feed them to another Titan and give them the power. But NERV won't get the power of the Titans. If my old man has a problem with that, he can come here and try and make a big deal about it, but I doubt he'll risk getting eaten by a Titan he has absolutely no control over."
Asuka found this assumption to be ridiculous. There was no way that whatever this power was that the Titans possessed was transferable from one to the next through some form of cannibalism. If it were possible, then it would've been possible to transfer such power to the Evas, making them more powerful than ever before, maybe even eliminating their power limitations.
"Nobody's sure if the powers you've taken from the previous holders can even be separated," went Sasha, confusing the redhead.
Suddenly, there was some commotion outside and Mikasa entered the room.
"We have trouble," she told them.
"Titans?" Kaede asked.
"And something else. Larger than a Titan and hideous."
"Nothing shaped like a human?" Shinji asked her.
"Some sort of…thing."
Kaede and Shinji looked at each other and both got the feeling that something else from Shinji's world had come to this one, but under a different reason.
"Looks like we have more than just our wraith in the night," Shinji declared.
To be continued…