Creation began on 07-26-18
Creation ended on 07-28-18
Neon Genesis Evangelion
Hope from the Sky: Return of Memories
It was almost insane, but she was actually coping quite well. She still got out in the sunlight and wasn't as locked up during the first week of her incarceration. When she was asleep, however, this enabled Kaede to explore the inherited memories she received from the people that previously possessed the members of the Nine Titans of Eldia. Every hour spent asleep felt like a year or more reliving the lives of people like Bertolt, Reiner or Annie, but she was disgusted with the memories of Zeke Yeager, who was beyond any doubt nothing more than a damaged man that would go to extreme lengths to see Eldia fall to nothing more than a memory lost for all time…and the worst part of what she discovered about him was that he was also a member of the royal family, one of Ymir's descendants that was still alive…but would never be seen as a monarch like Historia was or her father had been in secret.
Another string of memories she had been exploring in her sleep at night had been Ymir's, discovering that she was quite old, at least in her seventies, preserved due to the power of the Titan's regenerative abilities and cursed immortality, and was…apparently…smitten with Historia ever since she met her in the Training Corps. The girl had been living on the street since before she could remember and had been dragged into a life of lies and a false name that might as well be her real name, and only got sentenced to eternity as a Titan by the Marleyans because she wanted to be hope for those that believed in her to Ymir Fritz…only to fail.
"Kaede?" She opened her eyes and looked toward the bars, seeing Historia and Ymir present; Historia had been the one to call her name.
"Historia and Ymir," she greeted them. "How are you?"
"We're fine," expressed Ymir, though she turned her gaze from her. "How are you doing with your sentence?"
"Every time I fall asleep, I find myself seeing through the eyes of previous Titan Shifters, learning of their pasts and motives."
"Is this true?" Historia asked her.
"Yes. At first, it was just a brief glimpse of their past, but after I got the Founder, their memories are clearer. It's not like what Shinji revealed to us were films to watch or slides… I see their memories from their point of view…as though I am living their lives. It's…pretty unusual."
"But…you can now tell us the truth to why they did what they did…if they lie about their reasons. I mean, you can do that now, right?"
"Maybe…but I don't want to take advantage of such powers to hurt anyone if it's just in my head. I mean, it could just be my imagination, but it all feels so real. I mean, Reiner Braun, he could've been serving Marley because he wanted to see his parents get back together without there being any repercussions for them. Or Bertolt Hoover served only to get his family out of confinement and be recognized as Marleyans instead of Eldians. I can't really say for certain. All I can say is that everyone that was a Titan Shifter…all had their reasons for doing what they did, either for Eldia or Marley or against them."
"But…if I wanted to know if you could do something for me that I think was done by my elder half-sister, Frieda Reiss?"
Kaede looked at Historia as though something crazy was just spoken…and she didn't understand why it was so.
"What…what did she do to you?" She asked her. "I mean…what do you think she did to you?"
Historia sighed and started explaining something that even she wasn't sure was real or not. There were these moments in various days in her past where it seemed like she was in the presence of a woman that resembled Frieda, talking to her, teaching her how to read and everything, but they felt like dreams…and every time she woke up, she would forget about them as soon as they came, barely able to recall any detail. She explained that if the power of the Founder could be used to take away or modify people's memories so long as they were Subjects of Ymir, it was hoped that now she, now the only person with the power of the Founder, unfettered by the will of the First King or any other influence except her own that prohibited her…could give those memories back.
"So, you think Frieda, using the Founder's power, took your memories of her visits to you away?" Kaede suspected. "And I should be able to restore them?"
"It's possible," she told her. "All I'm asking of you…is that you at least try. Please."
Kaede bowed her head to her; this wasn't her taking advantage of the queen, this was the queen asking her to try and undo something the previous member of her family had done to her so she could recall things she might've lost because of her. She got up and walked over to them.
"I'm not even sure how she did it, but I'll try for you," she obliged the queen. "Um…hand."
She reached through the bars with her left hand and Historia accepted it.
-x-
He wanted to believe they would be fine for now, but Shinji couldn't let go of that dreadful feeling in the back of his head that any moment he wasn't in the Eva to protect the Eldians, his father was going to send those JSSDF aircraft back to finish what he started with that ultimatum. While over a week had passed, he still spent every two hours in the afternoon within Unit-01 to act as a guard, just in case. Maybe he was just desperate for NERV to attack Paradis, but he just didn't want to take this peace they now had for granted.
Beep. He was receiving an update from NERV HQ…and opened it.
It was Misato, who looked like she had been having better days compared to what was going on.
"You've been in the Eva for over eleven days now," she uttered to him, sounding like she had better days than now.
"It's called uncertainty, Misato," he told her. "I need to be ready in case he or anyone else sends the JSSDF back."
"Nobody's going to send them back, Shinji. Sub-Commander Fuyutsuki got your father in trouble with NERV's superiors, and now any further action taken against the people of the world you're in is prohibited. Not even the JSSDF want to go back and risk igniting a war with people they don't even know just to get back Unit-01."
"You swear?"
"I swear, Shinji. You can relax for now. Nobody's coming to get you or your girlfriend."
"Now that I think about it, this is perhaps the first time you haven't joked about me being with someone. Let alone someone that isn't even…what would probably be expected."
"Honestly, I had expected you to end up with Asuka or Rei. But it seems fate had other plans for you to end up with someone different."
"I wouldn't call it fate. Fate doesn't make absentee parents want to hurt their children or break up new relationships out of what might be nothing more than spite. These are just acts of inevitable circumstances decided upon by people and Angels."
"So…you don't believe in acts of God?"
"After everything that's happened…and everything that's yet to happen, I've lost any faith in any god's ability to do anything when everything else that happens is just causality. Even NERV's motto, 'God's in his Heaven, all's right with the world' is just lies. Nothing is right with your world and nothing is right with this world. How can all be right when everything bad that people do to other people that haven't done anything to deserve it is just so…wrong?"
That was something Misato hadn't realized for a long time. Ever since Second Impact, she had been maimed, tortured with the need for revenge against the Angels, conflicted between her hatred towards her father and indebted to him for saving her life, and now this kid, this young man that defected from NERV's mission to serve another nation's cause, goes and asks the questions that needed to be asked. Of course, his reason for asking, and she knew this, had to stem from his father being so cold towards him and only wanting the Eva back…and his girlfriend as a research specimen. With both attempts now impossible so long as the Committee says so, the man has been angrier than ever before.
"Your father's been anything but reasonable as of late," she told him. "Every time he brings you up, he calls you a coward, a traitor, a thief and so on, unwilling to consider that it was he who was out of line."
"Would you have me leave these people…just to fight the Angels again?" He asked her.
"Once upon a time, I would've ordered you to do that…but as you're over there…and I'm still over here…and neither NERV nor the UN have any diplomatic relationship with the ruling body you serve, which is mostly a young girl you swore your loyalty to, I won't try to stop you from doing what it is you feel has to be done. And you're a co-ruling adviser to this queen; you practically have all the authority you need to refuse any order I give you."
Shinji chuckled; he didn't expect anyone to mention his status as an adviser to Historia with co-ruling authority. He was just honest with her…and she needed honest people she could trust, people that wouldn't take advantage of her. And he refused to take advantage of the girl, even if he had the ability to do so and get away with it. He was just too nice for his own sake, too subtle.
"Tell me something before I go," he spoke again. "Do Toji or Kensuke know about my status here? Do they know that I'm still alive?"
Misato nodded in the negative; nobody that knew Shinji, nobody that really knew him, that is, and wasn't affiliated with NERV knew of his status.
"No, Shinji. Not in so many words. They know you're alive in another world, but they don't know what happened to you."
Shinji sighed and accepted this knowledge…and parted ways with his former guardian.
-x-
"…I don't know why she wanted to see us," a young, spectacled man with a camera in his hands told a young man in a tracksuit as they walked up to Misato's apartment. "Maybe it has something to do with Shinji. I keep looking into my father's files, but I'm not finding anything."
"I'm hoping for an explanation for why he hasn't been seen at school or why the Devil and Rei aren't speaking about him," the jock responded, stopping at the door.
These were Toji Suzuhara and Kensuke Aida, the only actual friends Shinji made ever since he arrived in Tokyo-3 just to serve as an Evangelion pilot.
Kensuke rang the doorbell and the two waited for a response.
Two minutes later, the door slid open…and they got an eyeful of Asuka.
"I don't even want to know why she felt you two needed to know what's going on," she told them and let them inside.
They stepped in and were led to the living room area.
-x-
It really felt like a dream to Historia, except it wasn't a dream. At least not anymore due to Kaede's first attempt to use the Founder's power to undo what her sister had done. She stood as a bystander as a younger version of herself was being taught how to read by Frieda Reiss, one of the happier times she had ever experienced in her childhood. And then, she saw how Frieda took away those moments each time…and why she did so.
You may be too young to understand this, Kaede, who was also present as Historia viewed her own memories, heard Frieda Reiss' thoughts in her own head, as if telling Historia this herself, but nobody can ever know of your relation to our father. I'm not proud of what he did, but you're not at fault for his actions. If anything happens to us, you could one day be the queen of everyone in the Walls. Maybe even find a way to deal with the curse of our ancestors. I wish you could come live with us instead of having to live out here on a farm away from everyone, but for now, it's safer for you if nobody knows you exist. What I do for you, I do to protect you, baby sister. Until then, please…forget about me…and how dear you are to me.
Kaede balled her left hand and brought it to her chest as she placed her right hand on Historia's shoulder to comfort her.
It pained her to take your memories away each time, she realized, knowing that the young queen now knew this, too, but she really loved you. She wished that things were different back then. Things could've been different back then.
Historia reached up to grab her hand and shed tears of happiness of being able to remember these lost moments at will now.
"Thank you, Kaede," she praised her. "Thank you."
And then, as the memory faded from sight, the two were back in the dungeons as Historia released the Dark Titan Shifter's hand.
"Were you able to do it?" Ymir asked the girl.
"Yes," Historia answered for Kaede, wiping away her tears. "Yes, she was."
Bowing her head to the young girl, Historia thanked her again and turned to leave.
Kaede turned to return to the cot and sat down.
"It's pretty unusual, how powerful you have become," she heard Ymir say to her, "and how powerful you could become later as time goes by."
"But if you let power consume you, you lose yourself," she told her. "Power means absolutely nothing unless it can be shared with the people you care for, the people you want to protect from harm. Only then…is it worth seeking, having and using."
"Well said," Ymir agreed with her, and then walked away.
"If she doesn't know yet, you should tell her," the former Jaw Titan stopped and turned to face the Dark Titan. "You should let her know how you feel."
Ymir looked back to the retreating Historia and then back at Kaede, confused…and suspicious. She was starting to suspect that she knew about her past as much as she recalled it herself. Maybe her Dark Titan really could enable her to explore the past memories of previous Titan Shifters to know their reasons and secrets.
"What do you know about Eren Yeager?" She asked her.
"Other than his hatred for the Titans stemming from the slow death of his mother, he's quick to anger and it's hard for him to think calmly under pressure…and he's conflicted."
"Conflicted?"
"His father's past and everyone's different agendas for the future."
"What do you suppose he'll do now that he no longer has his Titan abilities?"
"I don't know what he'll do. I don't know what any of you will do. It's not my business to know what you'll do…until it does become my business to know what you'll do."
Ymir nodded in the positive in agreement with her and said, "Once again, well said. See you next time, Kaede Sogen of the Dark Titan."
She left her alone after that, and Kaede lied back on the cot, grateful that she was able to give Historia back her missing memories.
-x-
"…So, he's just some girl's co-ruling adviser now over there?" Kensuke questioned after Misato told Toji and himself about Shinji's current status in the other dimension he now resides in. "And his father actually tried to have him and his girlfriend, along with a bunch of other people that he protects using the Eva murdered?"
"Props to Shinji for the good he does for those people," went Toji, "but why isn't his father getting reprimanded or something? Didn't he just try to kill a bunch of people using this country's military?"
"His father was ordered not to go making trouble for the other dimension any further by his superiors," Misato explained, "but that hasn't quelled his anger towards Shinji. There's no telling what he'll do next."
"Crazy to believe that he actually has a girlfriend over there, though," stated Kensuke. "I mean, I'm happy for him, but… What's to keep anyone from going to that dimension through the portal that's constantly open in the Nevada branch and picking a fight with those people again if they feel a girl that can turn into a giant is more suited as a bio-weapon or something rather than as his girlfriend? What's to keep the Angels from going there again? I heard the last one went there and Shinji stopped it, but…what's to keep anyone from going back there just to mess with those people all over again?"
"The United Nations…and the fact that we have no diplomacy there," Misato told them.
"You don't think Shinji will come back, do you?" Toji asked her.
"That ship pretty much sailed the day he ended up there and wind up in another feud where he's not against giant monsters that nobody understands, but another nation that's out to get rid of the people he's helping…and he stays there because anyone that ever got possession of the power they have would only invite bad news upon themselves. He called where he was his home and his grave."
"He called it his home and his grave, huh? That sounds like someone that has found where they need to be."
"If his father tries to send people over there again," went Asuka, just wanting to express her opinion, "it may very be his grave."
Misato was to speak up to that when her phone suddenly rang.
"Katsuragi," she answered, and soon wished she hadn't. "What? When was this?"
She then hung up and told Asuka that they needed to be at NERV, immediately.
Toji and Kensuke took this as a sign to go home.
-x-
"Hey, Kaede," greeted Shinji as he came to see his girlfriend. "Are…are you okay?"
The girl yawned as she got up from the cot and looked at him.
"Yeah, I'm okay," she responded, getting up. "Why do you ask?"
"Your eyes, they look… You look tired."
Kaede went over to the mirror by the desk in her cell and looked at her face. There were dark circles under her eyes, but she had been asleep for a while.
"But…I've been asleep," she informed him. "I've been getting plenty of sleep and everything."
"What about your Titan abilities? Have you been using them a lot?"
"No. The last time I ever used them…was just to help Historia reclaim her missing memories of her sister, Frieda."
"She had memories missing?"
"Yeah, it turned out that Frieda suppressed her memories of her during her childhood to protect her from anyone that came looking for her. She knew about their father's infidelity, but didn't blame Historia for it at all. She really cared about her, even though she had the Founder in her along with the First King's ideology."
"Well, it might be nothing, but you should probably see a doctor."
"Yeah, I should."
They were both hoping that it was nothing serious, that it was just all in their heads…or maybe Kaede was just going through a phase in her Titan Shifter status because she now had seven of the Nine Titans instead of five. But all Kaede knew right then and there…was that she didn't feel like she used to with Shinji. It wasn't like they were drifting apart; she still loved him, but she wasn't feeling like she used to before she took Eren's Attack Titan and the Reiss family's Founding Titan. It was like…she felt sick to her stomach.
"I'm going to lay back down, Shinji," she told him, turning away.
"Uh, yeah," he responded. "Look, I'll go find Hange and see if she or someone with a medical license can come down to see you."
"Appreciate it."
Shinji then left out. Or rather, he ran out due to his concern for her. He was hoping to every deity he knew Japan had that it was all just in his head.
Though Kaede… She felt like she was going to explode a little.
-x-
"…What do you mean, it's not coming here?" Misato asked Ritsuko as she and Asuka got to the Geo-Front.
"We thought it was coming to Tokyo-3 based on the would-be mistake of the last Angel to go to the other dimension and attack the Eva there," the faux-blond explained, "but instead, it's doing what the last Angel did. It's going straight to the Nevada branch where the Dirac Sea portal is."
"You think it's going after Shinji?" Asuka asked her.
"That's what everyone here's thinking," went Kaji, "even he's thinking it."
Asuka looked past the unshaven man towards Gendo, up on his seat in Central Dogma, who didn't show it due to his glasses, but he was clearly spiteful towards Shinji. If anything, she felt he was hoping for the Angel to kill him.
"Just how long until this Angel reaches the States to get to Nevada?" She asked Kaji.
On the screens, the Angel that caught everyone's attention, resembling a ring of light, was traveling across the Pacific Ocean on a destination to the United States. It seemed very passive in its movement, not in a hurry, but not deviating.
"At the rate it's going," said Shigeru, "it should reach Nevada within eighteen hours."
And the worst part was that all the Evas left on Earth were all stationed in Japan after the fiasco with the Unit-04 incident that created the portal to the Titan dimension. With NERV primarily setup to fight in Japan and having no positive relationship with the people Shinji defected from the agency to protect and serve, there was no way that they could provide any sort of aid to the boy. Maybe they could send a warning, but nothing more beyond that.
"We need to warn him," said Misato.
"No," went Gendo in response to her suggestion, "we don't."
This was his spite, his anger and resentment towards Shinji speaking up. He was willing to let the Angels that went over to that world go there if it meant inflicting relentless agony on his son.
-x-
"Say 'ah'," went Hange to Kaede, who looked worse than she did the day before the next morning, and stuck a tongue depressor into her mouth.
"Ahh…" Kaede, who looked like her skin was paling up as her eyes had larger dark circles. What is happening to me? How'd I get this sick in less than a day?
"Is Ms. Zoe sure she knows what she's doing?" Sig, who was present with Christine, Shinji, Levi, Erwin and Armin, asked as he was concerned for his stepdaughter's welfare.
"Believe it or not, I think it's because of Kaede here that I know everything I'm doing so far," Hange expressed. "A few days ago, I wasn't sure what I was doing, but then it hit me."
"What hit you?" Shinji asked her.
"It's a theory-in-progress, but I believe that shortly after Kaede tricked Eren Yeager into drinking her spinal fluid and getting his Titans, she started transmitting knowledge across the island to people, all Subjects of Ymir, all random bits and pieces. Maybe not intentionally or consciously, but people thought they were going crazy when some of them started doing things they didn't do before because they didn't know about it."
"Transmitting knowledge?" Christine asked. "You're saying that Kaede's become like a…like a well or a fountain of information…and she's just passing it around like a bottle of water?"
"It's possible," expressed Armin. "Just yesterday, I woke up knowing about a place called Egypt, that…it was known for having pyramids and sphinxes. And the day before, I knew about a historical figure named Arthur, who ruled a kingdom and wielded a magical sword called Excalibur. If this is because she has the Founding Titan, then just about everyone's getting different bits of knowledge that was lost to us for hundreds and thousands of years."
"Egyptology and Arthurian history," Shinji uttered. "What of you, Mr. Erwin, sir? Did you receive any new knowledge in the last few days?"
"Three days ago, I ended up knowing more about metalsmithing than I thought was possible," he answered him, "and just this morning, I found myself feeling the need to sew something, anything. Am I supposed to be a metalsmithing seamstress?"
When Hange removed the depressor from her mouth, Kaede asked, "What knowledge did you receive so far, Ms. Zoe?"
"If this is your unexpected doing, I now know three different branches in medicine," she explained. "Adolescent medicine, nanomedicine and pediatrics, and just three days ago, I didn't know what any of that meant. Then I found myself looking through medical books, understanding everything written. This condition of yours might be due to exertion. After you gained two more of the Nine Titans, you went through 'em in such an extreme way, you didn't give yourself time to properly adjust to the power increase."
"Then why do I feel like I'm gonna…" She said, but then quickly turned her head to her right…and spat out a stream of puke to the floor. "Barf?"
"It looks like one of the symptoms includes the stomach flu," Hange expressed. "For the time being, just get more bedrest and drink plenty of liquids and you should be fine within a few days. Though, I must urge that you don't do any Titan Shifting during this period, no matter what."
"But tell me something (she then vomited again before she could say anything else)… The Titans I let out of the Walls… They haven't…done anything to anyone since I was incarcerated for my deception, have they?"
"No," went Levi for Hange. "If they haven't moved an inch since that day we expected bombs to be dropped on us by a foreign power from another world, then they're not going to move unless you tell them to."
"Oh, I worry about what they could do now that they're out. The last thing I want is to be the cause of so much trouble."
"Honestly, the only trouble we're getting right now…is Eren's temper."
Shinji looked at Levi and questioned what he meant by that.
"Ever since he lost the Titans, he's been…moody," Armin explained. "I think he feels like he's lost a part of himself when he lost them."
Kaede looked down and wondered if she should say something.
"If you ask me," Levi spoke, "it's easier if the one holding the Nine Titans is over sixty meters tall and used to be in between fifteen-eighteen meters and saved his mother's life from getting eaten by another Titan."
"You make it sound as though Mr. Yeager went through all of what he had to go through…just so he could lose the Titans his father gave him to help everyone," Shinji expressed.
"His temper is what makes him erratic. If he loses control, even in a battle, he could risk throwing off everything in a strategy."
"If you lose yourself to your anger," went Kaede, "you lose sight of everything."
"Exactly," said Erwin.
Kaede was about to vomit again when Shinji ran over and held out a trash bin for her to hurl in.
"Thank you, Shinji," she praised him.
To be continued…
A/N: So too much usage over very little time to adjust to the power made Kaede sick and she's on medical leave, and unexpected transfer of knowledge makes her a living fountain of information she has due to having the Founder under her possession. What trouble awaits them?