Creation began on 09-20-18
Creation ended on 10-06-18
Neon Genesis Evangelion
Hope from the Sky: Unleashed
A/N: If the Dark Titan is a representation of a demigod that can become a true god, then the Akuma Titan is truly an incarnate demon of the greatest level.
It was different in this coastal city now. Almost six months ago, it was just being reclaimed by people that had lived within a walled county, and now it was starting to look more like a pristine series of buildings you'd see from a Twenty-First Century society. With the continued return of lost knowledge through the power of the Founding Titan being distributed to the Eldians, including introduction of the ones that came from Marley, along with a month of peace and stability to progress without interference, the roads had been cleared, the debris had been cleaned up, and order was being established that not even Shinji had expected in such a short time, and all ever did was suggest things he knew about from his world that mirrored what they knew here in this world. The only major difference was the sight of the Titans that existed all around the island, serving as guards and protectors for the people.
"What do you think of the city, Shinji?" Shinji heard Kaede ask him, as they were looking down at the world below from the roof of a skyscraper.
"It feels more like a place you actually call home rather than some place you squat in," he answered, looking at her with a smile. "What do you think now that you're able to look at it with a clean slate?"
"Eh-heh, I think if we could reclaim and rebuild a whole city like this," she responded, "I think that we're bound for a glorious future. I mean, none of this would've been possible were it not for you."
"Me? Kaede, that's not true. None of this would've been possible without any of you, including yourself. You have the Founding Titan, and it's been returning more knowledge than even I have in my head to the people, allowing them to do more than what was believed to be within the realm of the doable. Give yourself more credit than you deserve. What has been accomplished…is one of your greatest achievements so far."
Kaede, released from incarceration less than three days ago, sat on the edge of the roof and chuckled at how her boyfriend couldn't be a little selfish and say he was among the best things to have ever happened to them in many years. And then she looked at her right hand, reminding herself that she still needed to help the Survey Corps by seeing how her Titan form was affected now by having the Cart Titan included into its functionality. She hadn't used her power intentionally ever since the final liberation of Eldians from Marley's internment zones…and when she fought Grausam for the first time. Since then, she let her anger towards the man subside as she allowed herself to become adjusted to the inclusion of an eighth Titan inside her so that she didn't get sick like before with the Attack and Founding Titans when she took them from Eren.
"Kaede?" Shinji uttered. "Are you feeling alright?"
"Yeah, I'm fine. I just… It just feels like it's been so long since I've been upset about anything. I mean, I still have the rage against that monster, but it's been so little since we left Liberio and I continued serving out my sentence."
"Sometimes, just being away from whoever or whatever makes you unhappy helps to calm you down. I like it when you're happy. You seem at peace and more serene. You're…well, lack of a better word to use, angelic. It probably sounds corny."
"You never sound corny when you just say what you mean or speak your mind. Everything you say, I appreciate because you're the one that is saying it. That makes you a good person above all else. Thank you, Shinji."
As they walked to vacate the rooftop, across the city on a street, Eren, helping Armin and Mikasa to oversee a small project being done to a wall, felt like he should've been doing something to prepare for war instead of enjoying this period of calm before another storm. He just wanted to be ready for conflict because they still had a global enemy aided by a man that was planning something with a lot of blood he stole from some people he left for dead. There was no time to waste on the restoration of a city that might not be here if they were attacked at any moment, even though they now had the means to be forewarned and therefore forearmed.
I still don't know how Reiner and Zeke ended up getting knowledge on surveillance observation, he thought as some kids were painting on the walls.
It was only a week ago that the former Armored and Beast Titans were blessed with new knowledge that allowed for them to aid in the new form of surveillance that the Garrison and Survey Corps had now appropriated for their own use after realizing that it was possible. This…satellite surveillance system that enabled them to use artificial satellites to actually monitor places across the planet seemed like make-believe, yet Shinji had confirmed that people from his world were able to do it, and the knowledge obtained by the random Subjects of Ymir here proved it possible, too.
We'll be ahead of Marley in more ways than we realized, he thought.
-x-
Days of trial and error, and he finally got the right dosage and desired results. This would please the Marleyan military and shift their original value of the Eldians in their possession to a new factor as Grausam Zanki may have altered their fates. No longer were the Eldians useful because they could be turned into mindless Titans or ones with intelligence so they could serve their masters more beneficially. No, now they were only useful for their blood…and Grausam would drain it all from those that remained if he had to in order to give the Marleyans the power to give the people of Paradis Hell.
"Each injection of the Jaeger Serum only gives you thirty minutes of Titan power, but depending on the variant you're given to use, you either become a fifteen-meter Jaeger Titan with hardened plates of skin…or a fifty-meter Jaeger Titan with hardened plates of skin," he told the Marleyan soldiers as he distributed the syringes and vials to each of them. "Thirty minutes to do what you have to…until your next injection after five minutes of rest, that is. Go give the Eldians Hell."
Of course, he would be going, too; he had a score to settle with Kaede, and he owed her for the error she showed him in his fight with her. He'd been lax in his use of the Titan power he had, and wouldn't make the same mistake again. Kaede and he were the only ones of their kinds, made with his original Jaeger Serum, and he needed to put her down now that he had reworked his power and improved the variants he used on himself. Now, unlike the other Jaeger Titans, he could remain in Titan form for a week before needing an hour of rest before transforming again.
I don't know you managed to survive this long or how you ended up with being allied with something that isn't a Titan yet has power rivaling a Titan, he thought, looking down at his right hand, but you won't one-up me again. I'm the superior one. You're just a prototype, prone to flaws.
-x-
"…Say, Captain Levi," went a man to Levi as they were watching Hange conduct another experiment with Kaede's Dark Titan abilities, "I heard that you were requested by Ms. Sogen to take her to a different dungeon within the former grounds of Wall Sina to see a man named Kenny the Ripper. Is that true?"
"Is it," he answered, watching as Kaede had managed another successful transformation into her Titan with almost her whole body outside of it. "What of it?"
"Why'd she want to see him?"
"You know how it was revealed that people with the power of the Titans have access to the memories of previous Titan Shifters?"
"Yeah, you mean it's the same with her, too?"
"Yeah, but unlike most of them, it's suspected by even Ms. Sogen herself that she has the memories of the total sum of Titan Shifters from the past now, all the way back to the first Titan Shifter, Ymir Fritz."
"And there were so many of them way back then. I can't believe she hasn't gone crazy."
"If she had succumbed to the ideology of Karl Fritz, that would have been crazy, but she never bent to his will. The reason she wanted to see Kenny…was because she needed confirm the memories of Historia's uncle, Uri Reiss, the keeper of the Founding Titan before her eldest sister, Frieda Reiss."
"And…"
"She spoke to him…and he cried."
The man decided not to ask what was said between them and focused on the experiment in front of them as the Dark Titan stood up while Kaede was hanging from the nape.
Shinji in his Eva approached the Titan and raised its right hand to her legs, allowing her to stand instead of dangle.
"Thank you, Shinji!" Kaede yelled at him.
"I still think this type of transformation is dangerous," responded Shinji through the Eva.
"Totally, and I don't care if my hand is stuck! Hange Zoe, this is completely unnecessary and does not aid in the understanding of how my Dark Titan is affected by the incorporation of the Cart Titan!"
Hange, who was atop the shoulder on the Eva's right side, took a megaphone and yelled, "I'm sorry! I just wanted to see how well you could transform with as much of your body on the outside as possible for you to control it!"
"Isn't her being able to talk through the Titan form and perform delicate tasks with her hands good enough, Ms. Zoe?" Shinji asked her.
Despite everything the Dark Titan was physically capable of, Hange just couldn't cease her curiosity on what the Titans were able to achieve when motivated to do more. Even when it was confirmed from both Grisha's notes and Kaede herself through the memories of previous Titan Shifters that mindless and Abnormal Titans couldn't do much except walk, run, crawl, regenerate from nonfatal injuries so long as their nape was unharmed, and even speak to a certain degree, the woman always felt there was more to what they could do.
"I mean, once we get the War Hammer Titan, there's no telling what the Dark Titan will be able to do," Kaede informed her of their future objective. "I'll show you the possibilities of all Nine Titans put together, you could probably die from excitement…and I don't want to do that to any of you."
"No, please, don't," said Shinji, fearing that someone like Hange could, literally, die from excitement. "The War Hammer, though… No matter the generation, its abilities are always the same, Kaede?"
"That's right," she answered him. "Out of the three fifteen-meter Titans created from Ymir Fritz's passing, it's the most…flexible. And out of all nine…the most difficult to contend with if it were up against other Titans or even the Survey Corps that were ignorant of its abilities."
"That's defeatist, Ms. Sogen," Hange declared to Kaede, feeling as though she were putting down the Survey Corps before they could even go up against such a Titan.
"No, Ms. Zoe," countered Shinji to her, "that's just laying out the information necessary to find a solution to a new situation that is unlike what we've anticipated we'd be facing. Giving up before we even try, that's defeatist. But anyone wielding the War Hammer is no different from any other Titan Shifter; they're vulnerable if they leave themselves exposed."
"Except that the information provided on the Titan makes me wonder if we can even take it from Marley. How can we be sure that we can?"
"Because you have my Dark Titan's spinal fluid," Kaede reminded her, "and you don't need to hit the Titan's possessor directly, anymore, or even make them drink it. No matter how protected they think they are, they still connect to the Titan's flesh at all times when using the power. Hit the flesh with my spinal fluid…and down goes the War Hammer."
"You sure that's not overconfidence?"
Kaede then ripped her hand free from her Titan and pointed towards Hange with it.
"I don't believe in overconfidence. I believe in the determination of the people that live here."
-x-
"What's that book you have there, Mikasa?" Eren asked as he noticed the girl was reading a book that seemed preserved.
"Hagakure," she answered him, putting the book away as she returned to the task of helping the other Survey Corps members re-establish this…observatory after it was found.
"Is it a good book?"
"In a way, it is."
"This is incredible," they heard Armin say as he was observing through the massive telescope. "You can see space directly through the sky."
"Hey, this telescope here is like a periscope for a submarine," said Sasha as she was looking through a different telescope. "The view of the ocean through this is so… Baaaahh!"
It wasn't an excited gasp that came out of Sasha's mouth. It sounded as though…she saw something to panic about.
"We got a problem," she told them.
-x-
"This isn't a problem," Dot Pixis told everyone as they saw the naval fleet of Marleyan soldiers. "This is a serious problem."
"And right after we had fixed the coastal city and found out what to name it," added Erwin, looking at the digital representation of the fleet several miles from Paradis' southern shoreline.
"Can we estimate how many soldiers they have on their ships?" Ymir asked them as she stood beside Historia, now holding a spear in her possession after discovering knowledge of how to use one as a weapon and Shinji verifying that it was very similar to how the Japanese would use pole arms back in ancient times.
"No, but we counted at least sixty ships out there, which indicates they must have over two-thousand soldiers." Levi answered.
"Assuming that they're even going to just come onto the island," went Hange, "and we're just going to let them do so."
"We should let them think that," said Eren, which got everyone's attention in the room they were meeting in to discuss their options available to them. "They don't know we've changed or what we're able to do now."
"And even if they were able to get here," added Kaede, "they don't know what's here that can hurt them if they're not careful."
"This is why we shouldn't let any of them get here and face the unknown unless they breach our primary defenses and enter the coastal city," Shinji declared, "or any other part of the island, if they aim to get in from the other sides."
"How long do we have until they're within visual range of Paradis?" Historia asked them.
"Maybe two hours," answered Armin to her. "Two-and-a-half, if we're lucky."
"Whatever you need to do, make sure you safeguard the civilians."
-x-
Safeguarding the civilians was the first priority that Shinji and Kaede did while the Survey Corps and Garrison prepared to fortify the coastline defenses to ensure that the Marleyan naval fleet couldn't breach and bypass to the rest of the island. To ensure civilian safety, Shinji and Kaede had relocated the people within the city to an underground shelter that was half a mile under the city, discovered ten days ago, prior to the girl's release from incarceration.
"I hope you two know what you're doing," said Christine to her daughter.
"I just hope I know what I'm doing," she responded; after getting the people as far underground as possible, she was to return to the beach and use her Dark Titan to cripple the fleet as much as possible if they were close enough to be assaulted.
"It's become a war, Kaede," Sig told her, being as sympathetic as possible. "This only started because Marley wanted the Founding Titan and was willing to kill as many of the people living here as possible to get it. In a sense, they're the ones that started this war, and we're just responding back by trying to protect ourselves."
"They'll be angry beyond usual when they find out that the Founding Titan is gone forever."
"Do you really think they'd believe any of us if we told them?" Shinji asked her. "They'll probably be even more set on claiming that Titan above all others if it means gaining control over every one of Eldian descent, except they don't know where or how to find the Founder."
This was another boon for them; since the Founding Titan had become a part of the Dark Titan, the very identity and existence of the original Titan was protected within another Titan that was a shot in the darkness. Of course, with the Founder, the Dark Titan had its strengths, meaning that any scream it produced to the Titans present, they would obey (unless Kaede could find a way to use the power without screaming), and wouldn't deviate unless ordered to.
"Whatever you two do, just be careful and watch out for each other," Christine told them.
"Yes, ma'am," Shinji responded.
-x-
"…So, that's Paradis Island, huh?" One of the soldiers asked as they looked through a telescope on one of the ships. "Is that a city on the edge of the land?"
"Yeah, I heard the city was an omen," said another soldier. "My father claims that Titans built that city…and were ordered to by one of Ymir Fritz's descendants herself."
"A city for the Devil's children," a third soldier uttered. "What an eyesore."
"Hey, what's that?" A fourth soldier asked, pointing to something coming at them.
BLAM! Their ship was devastated and sent sinking along with at least eight other ships.
"What the Hell?!" The captain of one of the remaining ships yelled, looking through a telescope at something on the coast of the island. "A Titan?"
On the coastline, clutching a rock fractured into chips, the Dark Titan, Kaede, sighed as she just did as she was asked by Commander Erwin. So she threw a cluster of cracked stones like a shotgun spread shot, which, combined with the strength of the Beast Titan, made the attack more formidable. Eight ships were sinking…and only a few more to go.
I'm only doing this because it's a war, Kaede thought to herself, reminding herself that even her stepfather assured her that this was only because Marley attacked them first, and the Eldians were merely defending themselves, as with any war's reactional responses. We're the victims, not Marley. I'm protecting my people. I'm protecting my home. I'm protecting my right to a future, just like Shinji does to protect all of us.
She then had her Titan throw the fragments of stone at some more ships, watching as she got three more ships than the first throw she made.
"Wow, Kaede," went Levi as Eren, Mikasa, Armin and he were atop the Eva's left shoulder, witnessing the results of the Dark Titan's power. "You're a force to be reckoned with."
The Titan grabbed another large chunk of stone and fractured it in her right hand.
"Here goes the third pitch," she said, and threw the fractured chunk, scattering the stone fragments across a wider spread of ships.
As the ships, numbering at least thirty from the looks of it to the Eldians and Shinji, began to take in water and sink beneath the ocean waves, dozens of soldiers on each one abandoned ship, grabbing onto whatever was buoyant enough to keep them from drowning.
"How many ships do you suppose there are left?" Shinji asked someone within the city through the Eva's intercom.
"We're counting from the satellite surveillance system," he heard a member from the Garrison respond to him, "and there are still twelve ships on the south side of the island."
"That's where we are right now. Are there more ships on any other side of the island, sir?"
"Yes, about twenty of them, moving to the northern side."
"Damn it. What else can go wrong today?"
FLASH-BOOM! They all heard multiple explosions in the water, along with seeing several bursts of water in the air, showering everything in mist as the Survey Corps were wondering what was going on out there.
"What in the Hell is going on here?" Eren wondered aloud as they all saw what was now in the water.
"Rrrrrraaaurgh!" The battle cries of several Titans were heard as they found their footing in the water and began their trek towards the shoreline.
"Titans," went Armin, stunned by the sight of various fifteen and fifty-meter behemoths. "Jaeger Titans! All of them with armored plates!"
"Grausam Zanki," went Levi in disgust. "That man has been busy, the same as us."
"They can't all be Eldians that chose to stay in Marley, right?" Shinji questioned; the number of Eldians that remained in Marley would be less than the ones that wanted to leave the internment zones.
"No way," answered Kaede through her Titan. "They're not Eldians. They're not Subjects of Ymir. I shall try something with them. Brace yourselves."
"Cover your ears!" Shinji told them as the Dark Titan screamed out at the Titans in the ocean. If they're Subjects of Ymir, then they're subject to the will of the Founding Titan, meaning they'd have to do whatever Kaede tells them, no matter what.
"Rrrraaurgh!" The Dark Titan roared again, her desire for them to stop her only drive in invoking the Founder's power.
However, the Titans wading in the water didn't cease their approach, not even falter in their advancement. They just kept marching towards the shoreline.
"I'll try to hold them at bay," Shinji suggested, taking out his Prog. Knife. "If I can, I'll bring back one of them alive and you can question who they are."
The corps members on Unit-01 shot off towards the Dark Titan, enabling the Eva to advance into the water without needing to worry about them.
"Quick, we gotta get to the carrier!" Levi ordered them and they took off, leaving the Dark Titan and Eva alone to face these Marleyan Titans. "You two try to hold them off for as long as you can! Use the Wall Titans if you have to!"
"Rrrrrrraaaurgh!" The Dark Titan roared again, calling for the Wall Titans nearby to come to their aid.
On her right side, at least eight Wall Titans, the closest ones, came over and waded into the water.
While the Eva, due to having consumed both mindless Titans in the beginning and Kaede's Dark Titan husks afterward, might've undergone an increase in strength that enabled it to go into the water temporarily, despite its armor not being suited to any aquatic combat, it couldn't move in water with the same ease as any Titan could. Still, it was a force to be reckoned with due to its AT-Field making it an immovable object in its own right.
-x-
Taking advantage of the situation in front of the naval fleet, Grausam, having been versed in the game of chess, took a small rowboat and rowed away from the fleet to a different part of the shore that was not as heavily watched over and got into the water. His plan was different from his superiors', intending to strike as soon as the moment presented itself so he could install fear in the Eldians that couldn't escape from his wrath. The only regret that he had was that if things went the way they did, he wouldn't get to see Marley's longest ally in the war against Eldia and what made them so special. Not that he would've jeopardized Marley's attempts to defeat the Eldians; he just wanted to see the infamous War Hammer Titan one day.
Emerging from the water and into a cove, Grausam chuckled as he snuck across the ground to a village or the city itself.
Kaede, you may have gotten the best of me in Liberio, but this will be no repeat, he thought. You and your family and friends are about to feel the full wrath and brutality of the Akuma Titan unleashed.
-x-
"…But Captain Levi, we were only able to finish eight of them!" A male member of the Garrison blessed with new knowledge of construction informed the captain of the Survey Corps. "The only others we have are still being cleaned and repaired."
"We'll make do with eight," Levi told him as he sent the corps members to the machines they had found and repaired on the carrier. "Anything else you can get up and running, do it as fast as you can."
"Are you sure they can handle these after only a week of practice?" Erwin asked Levi. "These things are a lot bigger than the ODM gear."
"With these Marleyan Titans just showing up on our doorstep, nothing is for certain."
Each member of the Survey Corps that had new knowledge of these old machines that had been preserved quite well after so long only had a week or less to memorize and practice using them before they could use them out in the field. But Levi had to have faith that they would do fine. In addition, Hange had incorporated the use of the Dark Titan's spinal fluid in these things, meaning it might've been possible to do to these Titans what they had done to the previous Titans.
"Good luck out there," he told them as their engines started humming.
-x-
Even if the Marleyan Titans were more than the Wall Titans that Kaede had summoned to their aid, Shinji and she were still able to hold them back to a degree. The only advantage the enemy had were their numbers of who remained, but even that was proving difficult in the way Shini was dealing with them; although it still weighed heavily against his conscience to commit to the violence of war, the pilot of Evangelion Unit-01 had to remind himself that as an adviser to Historia, he took an oath to protect the people of Paradis, and to preserve peace and order. He would do what he had to in order to protect the people with his Eva…even if it meant what he felt was the absolute wrong thing to do because of the Marleyans' unending hatred.
"Yibambe, Kaede!" He yelled. "Yibambe!"
"Yibambe!" The Dark Titan responded, grabbing one of the fifteen-meter Titans and crushing it in her left hand.
The Eva then used its Prog. Knife to decapitate four members of the fifty-meter Titans in one horizontal swing, sending them falling backwards in the water.
They didn't show signs of getting back up.
It seems like, for every two that we take out, thought Kaede, seeing more Titan transformations occur in the ocean to reveal more Titans that were either fifteen or fifty meters emerging, seventeen more take their place. It's starting to become a war here on the beach. We need to keep it contained to the beach.
Even if they had to live with this series of violent actions, it was only because it was a war, and they were just doing their best to the best of their ability to resolve the situation as fast as possible. As it was a war, they both had to agree on one thing they'd have to do once they were in the aftermath part of the dilemma: See a therapist to process their decisions so as to avoid the negative reactions from their actions. This way, they would move on with their lives.
"Can you still fight, Shinji?" Kaede asked.
"Hai!" He responded, projecting his AT-Field at the next wave of Titans, causing them to explode against it like a splatter on a wall. "I'm gonna splatter them all!"
The Dark Titan raised her arms up and shot out a pair of spears that were made from her hardened Titan flesh, sending them flying towards two fifty-meter Titans that were impaled in their abdomens. Unfortunately, the attempt had left the body in a weakened state; although she was still practicing, trying to manipulate her Titan's ability to create weapons through the Armored Titan's power proved exhaustive and not as effective during a prolonged battle. Kaede had actually tried this the previous day, and it only aided to confirm the severity of the truth they all knew, and it was none of the Titans they currently had, no matter how special they were, no matter what abilities they could be granted from specialized variants of the Titan Serum, were as skilled in the manipulation of Titan flesh as the War Hammer was. Once they had it, there was no telling what was no longer impossible for them.
"Graaaaurgh!" The skewered Titans roared as they started showing signs of evaporation occurring, falling to the ground.
"What the…" Shinji wondered, and suspected that because Kaede had projected those spears from her arms, they were either coated in or contained trace amounts of her spinal fluid, which was a bane to other Titan Shifters. "Kaede, I wish I could kiss you right now!"
The Dark Titan, looking like it was getting exhausted faster, looked at her hands where the two slits were on the palms that had yet to heal up, and noticed the spinal fluid seeping out.
"Here goes something new!" She shouted, and thrust her arms out at the Titans in front of her, unleashing a stream of her spinal fluid from them. "Aaaahh!"
It was an impressive display of improvisation on Kaede's part, using her self-inflicted injuries as a makeshift pair of firehoses to distribute her Titan's spinal fluid. And the Titans exposed to it began evaporating, heavily affected by the reversal of their affliction.
Shinji counted, but from what he could tell, it looked as though most of them had been compromised. Unless they had more Jaeger Titans, Marley had been beaten yet again.
-x-
Grausam had taken notice of the large army of his Jaeger Titans getting beaten by the Dark Titan, confused by how it was able to do so, seeing as not even his Titan could perform anything like that before, and suspected that his bitch of a step-granddaughter had been keeping some secrets of her own that changed things for these Eldians.
"That's why the pawns go first in chess," he told himself as he covered his body in a military poncho for camouflage. "They teach the remaining pieces what is to be expected from the enemy."
As he passed by a stone column, he failed to notice a pair of eyes that had opened…beside the column!
"Grausam Zanki!" Grausam heard someone yell his name.
To be continued…
A/N: I bet none of you can guess who the mystery person is that Grausam hears.
Omake (The Avengers-influenced)
"Kaede," went Shinji to his girlfriend as the white, Mass Production Evangelion flew towards them, "now would be a good time for you to be angry about something."
"That's my secret, Shinji," Kaede responded, looking back at him. "I'm always angry."
Then, she turned into the Dark Titan and punched the Eva dead in the head, reducing it to pulp, sending pieces flying everywhere.
The remaining eleven Evas hovered in the air, snarling and shrieking at what had been done.
"Bring it!" The Dark Titan stated.
On her left, Evangelion Unit-01 brandished its Progressive Knife. On its left, Eren, Mikasa and Armin brandished their blades, and all behind them, a large army of Survey Corps and Garrison members.
"Yibambe!" Shinji shouted.
"Yibambe!" They all repeated.
Gendo, watching from a distance at how persistent these people were proving to be, uttered, "Send the rest of them down."
From space, dozens more Mass Production Evas were sent flying into the planet's atmosphere.
"What's your attack plan, Shinji?" Levi asked the pilot of the purple Eva.
"Until we can get to my father and take his remote control from him to stop these Evas, we go at them with all that we are," Shinji explained the plan. "The Survey Corps call out patterns and attack any incoming Evas, the Garrison tries to slow them down as best they can…while Kaede and I get the worst job."
"Which would be?" Kaede asked.
"Grab the Evas and smash them," he answered.
"Totally."
-x-
Hours later
"…Eldians," Kaworu Nagisa expressed in front of a man wearing a visor, informing him of the failed battle between NERV and Paradis where the Third Child had defected. "Gendo Ikari lied to you about them. They're not the primitive wretches we were promised they'd be without the Eva and the Third Child. Their belief in their hope from the sky has strengthened their resolve. And with the Dark Titan on their side, they stand even firmer. An Evangelion of their own and itself makes them completely unreasonable, and therefore cannot be reasoned with."
The man in the visor stood up from his chair, and Kaworu bowed his head.
"To challenge them…is to court…death," he suggested.
Under his visor, the old man's eyes lit up…as he smiled.