Hope from the Sky

by Traitor of All Traitors

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

55. See how we live

Creation began on 02-14-19

Creation ended on 03-11-19

Neon Genesis Evangelion

Hope from the Sky: See how we live

It was a quiet and peaceful countryside where one could see the ocean. The trees and shoreline gave a tranquil view of the sea and its sunrise. And with the sight of children playing around, it made one think of settling down and starting a family there.

"Kaede," Shinji called out to the love of his life as he reached the end of the walkway to the cliff with Ymir, "where are you and Historia?"

"We're over here, Shinji," he heard a response over by a large, dome-like bench that was positioned a few feet away from the edge where a small fence stood, keeping people from falling over into the water or hitting the rocks below. "Historia and I are just…resting our feet."

They came around the bench and looked down at their significant others, smiling at them.

"We were worried we wouldn't find you two," Ymir told Historia.

"Oh, and do you truly think Kaede and I could get very far right now?" Historia asked her, and then chuckled as Ymir and Shinji sat beside her and Kaede.

"If people wanted to get very far, all they'd need is the will," Shinji expressed, wrapping his arms around Kaede's shoulders.

"You're lucky I can't become the Dark Titan right now, otherwise you'd be in trouble," Kaede threatened Shinji lightly.

"For all of our sake," Historia told her, "don't, please. Ymir and I don't need the heartache."

"Eh-heh-heh," the Titan Shifter chuckled as Ymir placed her hands over Historia's swollen belly while Shinji placed a comforting right hand over hers; both women had to be at least into their third trimester. "How are you feeling, by the way, Ymir? You're not suffering from any…side-effects, are you?"

"Nope, I feel fine. Thank you again, though."

Before Kaede could say something to Shinji, something emerged from the ocean in front of the four, sending a shower of saltwater down to the ground. It revealed itself to be a giant-sized Calvi of the Marleyan military, looking down upon them with scorn.

"You Eldians and your Asian ally are fools!" He yelled at them as he raised his arms up. "I will crush all of you!"

Gasp! Kaede awoke, seeing the sunlight shine through the curtains of her bedroom window, and Shinji asleep beside her bed.

That was all…just a dream, she realized, but then found it to seem like a letdown; her imagination had fooled her subconscious mind into believing they were several years into the future, after the war between Marley and Eldia had been resolved…and she and Shinji, along with Historia and Ymir, had only begun to settle down and enjoy a lifetime of peace. Damn that Calvi. He had to ruin what was a nice dream.

Yawning, she decided to shake her cobwebs loose and wake Shinji from his slumber.

-x-

"…Are you sure you don't want to talk about last night, Historia?" Ymir asked as they were helping to prepare breakfast for everyone in the village.

"It was just a dream, Ymir," the young queen told her.

"But it seems like one you were happy about…but you mentioned it was bad in some way."

"It was only bad at the end…and when I woke up."

"Wait, don't tell me. It was bad at the end…because you saw someone that bothered the peace you had, wasn't it? It was someone that was causing disharmony."

Historia sighed and nodded that it was because of that.

"In the dream I was having last night…I saw Calvi…and he was disturbing the peace," Ymir told her, revealing that her dream had also been a good dream that ended abruptly.

"Calvi was in my dream, too," she expressed, coming clean. "It looked like we were years ahead into the future and the war was over. We were with Shinji and Kaede and… Would you believe that the four of us were at the point in our lives where we were settling down?"

"I would…because in my dream, we had."

"In what way were we settling down?"

"We were having a family of our own."

"Then we had the same dream last night."

-x-

"It's been almost a week since that meeting of theirs took place," said Asuka to Misato in Central Dogma, "and that's our world's time. How long before Shinji gets back in his Eva and we're able to find out how much time has passed in the other world, since the satellites aren't able to determine the time that goes by there?"

"We'll know when he gets back in it," Misato told her; she was in no rush to see Shinji get back in the Eva so they could see his memories of what he does in the Titan world. "Curious about what he's doing?"

"I just want to make sure he's getting the third degree from that Sogen girl."

"He's gotten the third degree from this Calvi guy that hates the people he protects. What does that tell you about him?"

Asuka thought about it. She had seen and evaluated the recording of the meeting between Calvi and the Eldians and saw the guy as being unyielding, full of contempt, even more so when this other prisoner of war, this Reiner Braun, revealed himself to be the result of a union between his Eldian mother and a Marleyan father that were kept separate by Marleyan law enforced upon the Eldians to keep them in check. The guy was like a Nazi to her, not all that different from how the German people back in World War Two were influenced to believe that they were superior to the rest of the world's people, but Shinji had called him out over this hatred that seemed to go deeper than the Eldians, a possible misanthropist under or over the edge of racism. If so, then it was likely that Marley was just a global power that could've been a version of Germany that was granted the power of the Titans by one that had the power and enabled them to take the world for themselves. Only their hold on the world was, in one sense or another, incomplete because they didn't have one island that was all that remained of a once-powerful race that was returning to power through the aid of a foreigner.

"Asuka, they're dealing with an entire nation of people that have been seething with hatred for as long as they could remember and won't stop unless they're stopped and made to change their viewpoint and cease their hatred," Misato reminded her again. "It's not easy with any war…and in this case, Marley is Germany high on coke and steroids while Paradis…or the remains of Eldia, since it's an island that Marley has no control over, is the Allied Forces. In any war, the victor is often the side with the most to gain or lose due to the fighting…and what does Shinji have to lose if Marley won?"

Any that heard her question would understand that on a personal level, Shinji and the Eldians would've lost all that they had if Marley won this war.

"Everything and everyone he has there that's worth having," Asuka stated.

With all of NERV on indefinite standby because the Angels haven't made an attack or their overall presence known since the last attack in the Titan universe, there was no telling when NERV would do anything it was supposed to be doing. And this…was something Fuyutsuki was hoping they wouldn't have to concern with any further now that Adam and Lilith were gone.

"I only have one question regarding the Angels, people," they heard Fuyutsuki as he stepped onto the bridge in Central Dogma. "Has there been any sign of their activity since the last attack made against Unit-01?"

"No, sir," went Hyuga to him, "there hasn't been a sign of any new Angels since the last one."

"Are you sure?"

"Yes, sir."

"Good…and any update on…Paradis?"

"Satellites only show the layout of the island, not what's happening on or around it," went Shigeru to him.

"And we won't get any recent activity from Shinji's point of view until he decides to sync with the Eva," added Maya. "We're…more or less…in the dark right now."

"What could he be doing that keeps him from the Eva?" Ritsuko wondered aloud.

-x-

SLAM! Shinji was thrown to the ground by Mikasa on the training grounds.

"Uhh…" Shinji groaned as he looked up at Mikasa.

"Maybe you should reconsider this training regimen, Shinji," she told him as he got up. "You're…a sensitive person."

"Physically," he asked her, "or emotionally?"

"Physically," she explained. "Strength is found in other ways, in other forms, and for you, the strength of the body…might not be one of yours."

Shinji looked over at Kaede, who was sitting down. And then he sighs as he looks back at Mikasa, a look of conviction in his eyes.

"Maybe it isn't, but throwing me around isn't about getting stronger. It's about building up endurance. You punch a weak person in the gut, and they'll fall from the pain they feel. But if you punch a weak person that's trying to build up their strength in the gut…and they may just hold out from the pain they'll feel before it starts to register."

"Really?" Armin asked him, being among those who were physically weaker than most others.

"I won't lie, but I was beaten by a friend back in my world. I went down without much effort."

"That's terrible."

"Honestly, I just hated what I was doing more than the beating I got. It wasn't easy when my father had nothing nice to say to his only son."

"It sounds like you really hated your father," Eren tells him.

"The guy isn't a well-liked person. I mean, I'm not the only one who was threatened by him. I doubt he's capable of being forgiven for his actions, either committed or attempted."

Despite the dangers they've been in that were recent and just as extreme, some members of the Survey Corps and Garrison couldn't forget the ultimatum that Shinji's father made unless he and Kaede surrendered themselves to him and NERV. Even when it was stressed that there was no way of knowing if the man could be trusted not to harm the entire island, the fact that it was accepted that he was the father of their Hope from the Sky and wanted to take him away from them didn't sit well with them at all. And a man willing to kill them all just to hurt his son wasn't someone they were quick to forgive when a line was crossed.

"But how are you sure getting tossed around by Mikasa will help with your endurance?" Armin asked Shinji.

"Didn't you once say that she was the best one out of each of you during your cadet training days?" Kaede asked when she came over. "Who better to help build up his endurance than one of the people to make the top ten of your cadet squad?"

"What about you, Kaede?" Jean asked her. "Don't you want to build up your endurance?"

"No thanks, I'd rather be fast than tough."

-x-

Calvi hated being locked up like he was a prisoner of war by these Eldians. Not only was he in a dungeon cell, he'd been in a dungeon cell for over a week! This was a nightmare cooked up by a bunch of demons that took their orders from a little girl with two advisors, one of whom was an Asian survivor from ethnic cleansing operations long ago while the other possessed Titan powers that were either unlike what he'd seen or were the result of possessing all of the Nine Titans of Ymir Fritz, both of whom were no different from a monarch's favorite pets.

I'm going to die on this wasteland of an island because of these fiends, he thought as he sat on the cot in his cell. I should've made a move on their queen and broke her neck.

The door to his cell opened and a woman came inside and set down a tray of food on a table across the cot Calvi was on.

"Hey," he uttered to her, getting her attention, "how long before you people decide to execute me like I helped to send countless numbers of you to your deaths during the wars?"

The woman looked at him and responded, "As much as I've been informed that you hate us just for existing, unless Her Highness ordered it, no order of any deaths was mentioned. There is a line between right and wrong, just as there are calms between storms in any war. I hope this current calm is long…because you can't live long with hatred in your heart."

"You have no idea how long I've been alive, Eldian."

"I know that Marley used to send alleged criminals to Paradis to turn them into Titans. I know that you've been waging war against other people due to your hatred for Eldians, and I know that even when you found allies that hated us, you turned on them because you couldn't trust people that hated us more than you did. At a distance, there's nothing about you that I don't know…and up close, there's nothing about you that I want to know. Things have changed now. With the exception of the Wall Titans, this island's free of Titans that would've hunted us down and eaten us simply because they don't know any better and were seeking the power of the Titans. Our lives are better, the Walls are gone and every new day is one where we can help retake the future one step at a time."

But Calvi didn't believe these people were capable of grasping the future, even if they came into possession of a city that was deemed an omen ever since he heard about it. A city…built by the Eldians with the aid of Titans controlled by Ymir Fritz, as a beacon upon her people on the island of Paradis, to symbolize that the future was theirs to grasp with their own hands.

-x-

"Keith Shadis?" Kaede addressed as the man came over to see them after watching Shinji get thrown to the ground again by Mikasa as the sun began to set; she only knew of this man from the memories of the previous Titan Shifters that had either seen or spoken with him. "What brings you out here of all places?"

"Other than seeing how this young man is after being thoroughly tossed around over a dozen times," Keith explained, "I needed to ask you something that's personal."

"So long as it's not about Grausam or Historia, I'll try to answer any question you ask of me."

As Shinji got up to his feet, feeling like his back was bruised all over from hitting the ground repeatedly, Keith expressed, "That day after those…planes from the other world that Shinji came from that delivered that failed ultimatum… When you took Eren Yeager's Titan power from him to take control of the Wall Titans… Did you ever…regret that you were deceiving him?"

Kaede thought about that day…and sighed as she nodded in the positive.

"I do regret that I had to deceive him…and everyone around me when I decided that to overcome the consequences of the ultimatum, since Shinji and I were not going to surrender to his deranged father, we needed to use the Titans within the Walls. But for Eren to use the power of the Founder required the presence of Historia, and as her advisor, I couldn't place her in danger like that, even to protect everyone else, but I had to hope that I could gain control of the Founder without having to resort to such an unacceptable extreme. If I could do that, then I'd be able to help protect everyone here from the attack that never came. Why do you ask?"

"If you had to do that day over again, to take the power of the Titans from Eren a second time in order to save everyone…would you do it, knowing you'd have to deceive him again?" Keith asked her, wanting her honest answer.

"I… Yes," she answered him. "If I had to do it again, do everything that day a second time, I would do it again. Even if it meant having to spend time in the dungeon cells again because I took a chance to help Shinji protect everyone. Even if it meant being despised by everyone for my choice, I wouldn't hesitate to make the same decision I made to help protect the people."

Shinji just looked at her, deciding not to say anything…and then Keith nodded in the positive.

"In any case," he spoke, "it was better that it was you instead of Eren that wielded the power of the Titans to help save the people. Although you helped save us all that day through the use of intimidation, you demonstrated more control over the power than he ever could. Historia made the right choice in asking you to serve as her advisor. The both of you were the right choice. Thank you."

When Keith walked away, Kaede stopped him with, "You know, that elderly woman from down the street that runs the bakery has been waiting for you to ask her out. Everyone's rebuilding their lives now that the Walls are gone. You should, too. Be happy, Mr. Shadis. You deserve it."

He turned back to face them…and chuckled before leaving again.

"What was that about?" Shinji asked her.

"Just another person who's grateful to me for freeing someone we know of a terrible curse that would've left them a husk of their former selves," she explained.

-x-

"…The children are loving these swing sets Kaede had helped to make for us all," said Ymir to Historia as they watched the kids swinging on ten swings made from chains, tires and hardened Titan flesh serving as the foundation and as the seats of eight of the swings.

"Yeah," Historia agreed with her. "It's great when they're happy."

But as the sky began to lose more light and the village began to light up the torches, the queen sighed as the children's fun came to an end and they got off the swings.

"We can't control the sun, even with the power of the Titans," she told Ymir.

"No, we can't," Ymir agreed with her.

-x-

"…Say, Shinji, there was something I wanted to ask you earlier, but never got to," Kaede told her boyfriend as he walked her back to her apartment.

"Sure," he responded, wanting to know what she ask him about.

"Last night, did you have any pleasant dreams that ended on…displeasing notes?" She asked him. "I mean, they started out good, but then just took a turn because of something unexpected?"

Shinji stopped walking in the hallway and sighed as he nodded in the positive.

"We were a bit older in my dream," he explained. "We were with Historia and Ymir, it was probably some time ago that there was no longer any conflict between anyone, and…we were settling down. I mean, we… All four of us were settling down. And then, Calvi showed up, as big as the Colossal Titan, and then I woke up."

"That's exactly like the dream I had last night," Kaede expressed. "That was saddening, the way it ended because of him. But what made it so depressing was that it seemed like it was actually happening, that we were finally past fighting everyone and getting ready for normality. Does it ever get depressing for people, to think that something's over…and it isn't yet, even when you want it to be?"

"I'm sure it does," he told her, "but when it's all over, when there's no longer a reason, a need, for fighting anybody…that is when settling down, heading down the path of a regular life…makes everything that has been said and done worth it all."

"You…have a way with words, Shinji. Try not to feel sore tomorrow, because we both need to be ready for anything…and I mean anything."

"Heh-heh…I'll be good."

-x-

"I take it you told Yui about Adam or Lilith," went Ritsuko to Fuyutsuki late that evening in his office. "Why is that?"

"The less people that know about them, the better," he explained; it wasn't that he didn't trust Yui's beliefs any further because of the massive deviation, but he couldn't trust her not to inform Gendo, who would have a fit and likely try something out of spite towards Shinji because he wasn't in charge no more. "Until we can be for certain that the Angels won't persist, the only people that should know about the demise of Adam and Lilith are the ones that found out about them from the very start, excluding SEELE."

"Except Yui could tell her husband, who could retaliate because of how their destruction went against any protocol installed to preserve their existence."

"Be that as it may, it might be better to take a leap of faith."

"I have never been much of a believer in faith."

"You mean, what Shinji's done ever since he ended up in that other universe doesn't strike you as something else at work besides science…when, by all other accounts, he should've died in the attempt on the Twelfth Angel?"

That was something Ritsuko couldn't overlook in its entirety. The plan to force-salvage the Eva had been met with utter failure and NERV had been reduced to only two pilots and two Evas until they received Unit-03 from the Massachusetts NERV branch in the States following the Unit-04 incident that opened another Dirac Sea portal in Nevada that connected to the alternate universe that Shinji ended up in. And then, discovering that he was alive and well…and helping these Eldians living on an island infested with giants that ate them because they were too intellectually inferior to do much of anything else, some could've viewed his survival as an act of the gods themselves or even the will of the Eva (of course, this was back when it had Yui inside its core). In fact, there have been many things going on that have been nothing short of acts that couldn't be explained through science.

"Science explains things," Ritsuko stated.

"Not everything," Fuyutsuki responded, "including the things that people really want to know."

-x-

Strength was something that Hange Zoe found quite spectacular regarding the Titans. When she heard of the insane story from the survivors from the cadet corps that were stationed in Trost about Eren's relocation of a large boulder to the destroyed gate to keep the remaining Titans from getting in, she wanted to know how he could've done something like that. But when Kaede approached her today with an insane idea on how to use the power of the War Hammer Titan above the other abilities she had, she couldn't resist this, either…so long as she didn't have a repeat of the last incident.

"Are you sure you can do this down here in the dungeons?" Armin asked Kaede as the girl sat on the ground beside the door. "They're…kinda spread out in there."

"Yeah," she answered him. "I am getting better at this. It's not becoming such a strain on me. Here goes…"

The marks under her eyes appeared again…and Titan flesh began to ooze out from behind her and snake under the closed door, into the dungeons. There were four cells that were to be reached, and the first one was three cells away from the door. The snake-like trail of Titan flesh continued to slither across the floor until it got the attention of several prisoners.

"What the Hell is going on here?!" A former member of the Military Police yelled as the cell that contained Agnes Tybur received a small puddle of Titan flesh in front of the bars while the rest of the liquified flesh continued to trek down the hall.

"This is new," said Agnes as she saw the puddle expand into a semi-perfect circle with a trail leading out of the cell. "Even I couldn't do anything like this before."

The second cell needing to be reached contained Rod Reiss, who was eight cells down from Agnes', and he was shocked to get a semi-perfect circle of Titan flesh in front of him on the floor, like it was a warning or a penalty.

"I don't like this," he expressed, afraid to move.

The third cell, five cells down from Rod's contained Kenny Ackerman, who was curious as to what this was when the trail of Titan flesh entered his cell as it continued down.

"Hey, are we getting executed in here?!" He demanded, but got no answer.

The fourth and final cell contained Calvi, who was ten cells away from everyone else, and he saw the trail of Titan flesh slip through the bars and stop in front of him.

"Demons," he uttered as the flesh became a semi-perfect circle.

Suddenly, in all four cells, the Titan flesh rose up and assumed a humanoid shape, darkening as a face protruded outward. It was the Dark Titan, standing at four feet in front of each of them in their cells. Assuming the same aesthetics of her original form when she first appeared, the Titan looked around and bowed to the four.

Kaede, feeling like she was looking through four different Windows at once, told the Survey Corps members present that she was in the cells.

Levi sent Eren, Mikasa, Armin and Sasha down to Calvi, Kenny, Rod and Agnes' cells, respectively to keep an additional watch over them while he stayed to watch Kaede with Shinji, who sat beside her.

"Nobody's getting executed today," went Mikasa to Kenny as she stood outside his cell. "This is a proposition being offered."

"Oh, is that so?" Rod questioned. "What kind of proposition?"

"Miss Dark Titan," went Sasha to the one in Agnes' cell, "would you care to explain to them what could happen?"

Then, all at the same time, the four Dark Titans expressed, "All I ask is that they sit and listen."

"Why the Hell should I listen to anything you say?" Calvi demanded as he stood against the wall.

"Because depending upon your responses, you might be looking at a day outside this cell instead of another day in it," the Titan stated. "You see us as monsters, but you have no idea on how we live these days. Before the Walls came down, all we had was the limited space in between them, and any travel beyond was limited because of the Titans that roamed loose. But now…now, things are different. We can go anywhere we want over the island…and in the air…and on the water. People are smarter, the resources more refined, and what do we have to show for it? What do you think we have, Mr. Calvi?"

"A Devil's deal is what you have."

"We have freedom…because we're not bound by a past we had no knowledge of or a generations-long hatred we knew nothing about until less than nine months ago. A long time ago, and I mean a very long time ago, a man said, 'Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it'. A variation of that quote is stated as, 'Those who fail to learn from history are destined to repeat it'. When you choose to reflect upon the past, one can find that there are many things that have been repeated, time and again, and for less than benevolent reasons. Despite our best efforts or intentions, people that don't see eye-to-eye or want to talk about resolving differences continue to wage conflict upon one another, or seek means to poison a place that has what is desired but can't be obtained to the rest of the world, or pursue more, unimaginable means of destruction. Have you ever stopped to wonder what it is you want out of your life and why you want it? Have you ever stopped to consider other possibilities to resolve issues? Or do you ever stop to think about thinking at all?"

"George Santayana, a philosopher from a supposed time before Eldia and Marley ever existed," Calvi uttered. "My favorite quote of his has always been, 'The young man who has not wept is a savage…and the old man who will not laugh is a fool'. Young people that cry are less than savages…and old people who laugh are less than fools. I cried only when my parents died…and laughed only whenever there was one less Eldian around."

"Oh, is that so, Mr. Calvi? Well, one of my favorite quotes of his, and this only because I took the time to read one of his works, is, 'Our dignity is not in what we do, but in what we understand. The whole world is doing things'. When I think about it, it means everyone across the world, not just the Eldians and Marleyans. I mean, the French, the Africans, the Egyptians, even the Asians, and everything they did or are doing, time and again."

"Time and again? You think that these ancient races of people that used to be around that were wiped away could exist once again?"

"Now, that would be a feat of divinity that surpasses even that of the Titans, but not in our lifetime, no. But in other lifetimes, other planes of existence, they exist within possibility. And anyway, this is about your one-day pass to get out of your cell and see how we live. There are restrictions to your pass, though: You take one step out of line that provokes the people, make one indication that you want to be biased towards the people, give any of us one reason, just one reason, to think that you might try to hurt anyone just because they're Eldian…or viewed as an ally to them…and you will face the consequences if you go too far. I don't know what Her Majesty intends to have done to you if you cross the line; she's still deciding on the repercussions, but I will follow them, however she sees fit. Maybe you'll be executed, but then again, we're not trying to be blood-thirsty or vengeance-craving, so there's a chance you'll just go experience something else, something…worse. But make no mistake that I won't have some hand in your penalty should you do cross the line, Calvi. There will be no nation, no army-controlled city, no ruins of a town, not even a bed you can hide under where I won't find you."

"Basically, if I so much as express my contempt, I'd be punished in some way that fits the crime," Calvi responded. "I doubt your lifestyles are any different now than they were before you showed up at Liberio."

The Dark Titan in front of Calvi lowered her upper body to meet his gaze and closed the gap between them.

"Over eight months ago, we used to be very primitive," Kaede told him, "now we're modern. Where is Marley, technologically? Where is Marley, medically? And where is Marley…unbiased and unethical?"

Calvi didn't answer her question. How could he answer this young woman that held all the power of the Titans and could kill him if she chose to? Or worse, if the Queen of Eldia herself ordered her Titan Shifter advisor to kill him and all the other Marleyan soldiers left from the failed attacks, what chance did he stand with no weapons or access to the Jaeger Serum himself?

"Still, what I think is one of your greatest shames," Kaede said through her Titan, "is the deal you made with Grausam Zanki, the Akuma Titan. I don't know if he's alive right now, but I pray that he's in agony for his crimes…and I will never forgive you for aiding him as he aided you."

Then the Titan began to evaporate, along with the other Dark Titans in Rod, Kenny and Agnes' cells, relieving the girl of some level of stress her body was feeling.

"Whoa," she exhaled as she got up.

"How do you feel?" Armin asked her.

"Like I just ran across one end of the beach to the other," she explained her aftermath after using her Titan power in such an unusual way.

Then, just for a moment, in place of Armin, Kaede saw a Titan that looked similar to the Colossal Titan when Bertolt possessed it, only it was less muscle and more bone, with an exposed windpipe and sunken eyes. It frightened her a little to see a Titan like this, like it was unfinished or degenerated, but what bothered her the most about it was that it just…felt like something that could've befallen this petite boy that served in the Survey Corps…in a different time that never was. When she shook her head, she saw Armin as he was once more…and was relieved to see his regular face.

"Are you sure you're alright, Kaede?" He asked her.

"It's nothing walking won't fix," she told him as she slowly walked away. "I'll be alright. Thank you for your concern, Armin."

When she had vacated the dungeon and was back on the streets of Shiganshina, Kaede sighed as she leaned against a wall beside an alleyway.

What was that about? She wondered, confused. This was the seventh time that has happened, and always with people I've either seen or know about.

At first, because it had only occurred with Connie's mother, Mrs. Springer, Kaede had dismissed this strange phenomenon where she saw the woman as a Titan instead of as a human, but then, three days after Grausam was buried at sea in Titania's Abyss, she saw Sasha in a way that was not like how she normally saw the girl. Instead of as a Titan, she saw Sasha…as a recently-deceased corpse. After this, she decided to confide in Shinji, Historia and Ymir, who all swore not to tell anyone else until they knew for sure why she was seeing random people at random points in random experiences that never happened.

First Mrs. Springer, then Sasha, then Hange, followed by three of Levi's squad mates, and now Armin… Even the Dark Titan doesn't understand it. Could Shinji be right about it, though, that I'm seeing bits of a different variation of what he saw when the Angel attacked Acier?

When she described how she either saw some people as either Titans or as corpses, Shinji theorized that what she was seeing was similar to what he saw when the Angel got in his head and tried to destroy his sense of hope. Only instead of trying to destroy her hope, Kaede was seeing a different scenario of what could've been had neither one of them had ever been involved in the situation regarding the Titans or Marley. This made Kaede feel worried that something of that sort might've actually been possible, since what Shinji saw was just as nightmarish…and because she herself wasn't there to do anything to prevent these scenarios from ever happening.

"But whether they were from a different lifetime or not," Historia had spoken upon the revelation, "you should remember that those possible lifetimes don't control our own. Nobody we know is dead. Nobody else we know has been made into a Titan Shifter because you have the power now, and nobody can ever take them from you. You've eliminated the Curse of Ymir for good, Kaede. You've helped to change things just like Shinji…and we couldn't be any better off because of you."

She took that into consideration, just wanting to hope that this was something that would pass in due time. The last thing she wanted to see was something else altogether worse than what she had already seen.

-x-

Yui decided not to tell Gendo about the destruction of Adam and Lilith. Even if she had told him, there was no point in complaining about it since every scenario for Human Instrumentality required them in one way or another was nullified and the Angels hadn't made their presence known since the last attack. Instead, she just made something up about how Sub-Commander Katsuragi was trying to find a way to establish a form of coexistence between NERV and Paradis in order to atone for the harm they had initially inflicted.

Of course, Gendo believed her and expressed that there was no point in NERV trying to get anywhere with Shinji because he abandoned them for a bunch of people that treated him like a hero after saving them from a threat they couldn't beat on their own…as well as a pretty face that held a power they couldn't possess.

I pray to the gods that Shinji is doing alright, she thought, wondering what their son was doing at this very moment.

-x-

"…A field trip," went Shinji to Historia as they were in the one place he didn't know was possible to exist on an island like Paradis after she had gone over her father's estate and possessions. "This place… It's incredible."

The field trip that Historia had suggested for the orphans, since Calvi and the others were given three days to think about their day pass to see how the people on Paradis were living now, was to see what was underneath the Reiss Chapel. The children had been in for something spectacular because they didn't think such a place was possible within the land of the Walls. While the chapel itself was small and made of stone and wood, beneath its very foundation was a stairway that led to an underground cavern that was large enough to fit at least fifty Titans of the fifteen-meter variety…or a small army of Titans of the smaller sort, with a multitude of crystal pillars connecting the top of the cavern to the bottom. And the best part was that all over the cavern, the crystals were constantly glowing brightly, making it impossible to tell what time of the day it was without a watch.

Kaede, who had been asked to come along with the children, Shinji and Ymir by Historia, sat down on the steps of where her queen's paternal family's history of Founding Titan successions took place and looked up at the pillars. While it was naturally her first time here, due to the memories of Historia's relatives that went through the succession, time and again, it felt like she had been here many times before.

"It bothers you, doesn't it?" She looked over at Ymir, who stood nearby, carrying a bag of water bottles and fruit. "Being here, I mean."

"No, it's not that," she explained to her, watching as Shinji was playing hide and seek with the children and Historia. "It's the memories belonging to the people that had the power before I did. They've been acting up a little bit. Why did Karl Fritz have to make it so bright down here when he had this place built?"

"He used the Titans to build this cavern?" Ymir asked her.

"Yes. The crystals themselves are a variation of hardened Titan flesh meant to give off light. Maybe they could be used to replace the lightbulbs of a lighthouse."

"That or replace torches and flashlights."

"Eh-heh-heh, yeah, that's also possible."

"Shinji, how did you get up there?!" They heard Historia yell, and they looked over, seeing that Shinji was holding onto a crystal pillar; he must've been up ten feet.

"Olivia climbed up the pillar and got stuck!" Shinji responded, and they noticed a little girl higher up the pillar than he was.

"Yeah, but how are you supposed to get down with Olivia?" Historia questioned him.

"Okay, I didn't think this all the way through," Shinji confessed. "I still got this, though."

Kaede chuckled as she was about to get up and consider using her Titan power to assist…but then she saw something else that wasn't possible. In place of the pillars, of Shinji, Historia and the children, she saw Rod Reiss on the ground, a shattered syringe that had contained Titan spinal fluid, and he licked it up and turned into a Titan referred to as an Abnormal due to its physical deformities and behavior. It generated too much heat and was twice as large as the Colossal Titan, making it twenty meters taller than Shinji's Eva, which was forty meters taller.

"…Kaede…Kaede…" A voice called out to her. "Kaede!"

She shook her head and saw Historia standing in front of her.

"I'm sorry," she apologized to her. "Yes?"

Historia got the impression that Kaede wasn't in her right state of mind right now because of the recent uptick in her sensory regarding the possession and access to the memories of previous Titan Shifters, but didn't want to make a scene about it in front of the children. Instead, she just pointed out to the pillar Shinji and the little girl he was helping down.

"You should be ready to help them just in case they fall," she informed her.

"Oh, right, yes, ma'am," Kaede responded, and Titan flesh began protruding from out her back and into the air above them, shapeless until it was needed to be something essential.

"I honestly don't know what possessed you to climb up a pillar like this, Olivia-San," they heard Shinji say to the little girl, "but maybe next time, you should stick to trees. It's a challenge just to hold onto the sides."

"You mean, it's slippery for you?" The girl, Olivia, asked him, holding onto his chest as he climbed down.

"No, not slippery," he explained. "The sides are just…too spaced out. I have to reach for an edge that's higher or further away just to go up or down."

The girl looked down and noticed Kaede.

"Why is your girlfriend so sad today?" She asked him.

"Huh?" Shinji reacted, and lost his grip of the left side of the pillar. "Whoa! Aaah!"

He couldn't hold on and they both fell off the pillar.

The children gasped, but Kaede reacted faster than the two were falling, willing her Titan flesh to expand and become a slide for the two.

Shinji and Olivia made contact and slid down to the floor.

"Incoming!" Shinji yelled for them to get clear, and they slid across the floor to a stop. "Are you okay, Olivia-San?"

"Yes, Shinji," the girl answered him as they got up.

"Please, the next time you consider climbing a pillar made of crystal…don't."

Shinji looked down at his left hand…and sighed at the three cuts he saw on his palm, a small price to pay for helping these kids.

"Thank you, Shinji," Historia praised him, but then saw his hand. "Oh, dear, you hand."

"It's okay," he assured her. "They're just minor cuts."

"I think you might need to be with Kaede after we leave here."

He looked over to Kaede, who seemed off her usual game, and nodded to Historia that he would do what he needed to cheer his girlfriend up.

-x-

It was funny now…and ironic at the same time. He used to fear the possibility of dying before he harnessed the power of the Titans for his own benefit, but now… Now…he just longed for the sweet release it promised to those that sought to be free from pain and sickness that couldn't be alleviated any longer. But the irony behind his suffering now was that…the very power he abused to escape the Walls of Paradis, the same power he forced upon a little girl that never desired it, just to see if it was possible to regain his leg and freedom…was the very same power that denied him the right to die. Time had lost any semblance of order to his faded senses.

Was he in this darkness for a day, for weeks, years or just for a couple of hours? He wasn't sure, anymore…and wouldn't be sure. His limbs failed to regenerate, the air within his prison had long since been used up, and his internal fluids had dried up. But still, he lived.

Immortality, thought Grausam Zanki as he lay in the silent darkness, blind, deaf and crippled. The Titans were stated to be able to live forever because of their ability to regenerate from harm. As my curiosity got the best of me, I sought their power to escape into the world beyond the Walls…only to be condemned by the very people that escaped those same Walls without even trying to. Is this truly karma? I don't know who said it, but it must be true about both karma and payback when you go too far.

"Today, like before in the past, before we took the Walls down," he remembered being told by this…Commander Erwin Smith of the Survey Corps, the same group that his step-granddaughter aided alongside the boy that commands the purple giant prior to being sentenced to his ocean burial, "we believe in karma as much as we believe in payback, and as someone who exploited a child just to escape from here once, they are both impossible to avoid when they concern you, and you will know both of them."

Karma…and payback, Grausam thought, almost thinking he could see a bright light ahead of himself, they're both vicious bitches that have bitten me to the bone.

The light he thought he saw in front of him…was nothing more than his delusion that he was going to die…when he was too far from doing that. He had been dealt the worst of the worst regarding the power he sought after for years, losing the one thing that people couldn't accept, even though they knew it was a constant, an absolute in existence: He could no longer die…and would be left alive in this undersea prison that was his Hell…until there was nothing left. Oh, how funny and ironic it truly was for him. To have sought out eternity…but now to long for the promise of release that only death could bring.

-x-

"…So, I hear that Historia's going to want to mine those glowing crystals for distribution to the people across the island," Kaede told Shinji as they walked down the streets of the ruined Wall Rose's Utopia District at night.

"Yeah," he responded to her. "I'll be going back in the Eva in about a week from today to begin smashing the pillars up into smaller pieces."

"Shouldn't I be involved in that?"

"No, Historia doesn't want to overwork you."

"Honestly, I have been feeling restless for a while."

"Is that all you've been feeling lately?"

"What do you mean, Shinji?"

"Nothing, it's just…you look like you have something else on your mind…and I just want to know so that I can be honest with you on whatever it is."

Kaede stopped walking and sighed. At first, she wanted to think that someone put Shinji up to this, which wouldn't have been far from the truth, but the only reason they'd do something like this was because they were concerned about her. Then, there was her being slightly defensive over why she wasn't so talkative about what was really on her mind, really wanting to get it off her mind by talking to someone, anyone, about it.

"Back in the underground chapel," she confessed, "while I was sitting down on the steps…I saw another glimpse of that other life that can't come to pass…again."

Shinji leaned against the side of a building with her and placed his right hand on her left shoulder, looking at her with concern.

"What did you see?" He asked her.

"I saw Rod Reiss," she explained, "and he did something. Something that was insane. He's on the ground in the underground chapel…takes a lick of a shattered syringe full of Titan Serum…and then turns into a Titan."

Shinji looked away from her for a moment, and then returned his gaze.

"Do you see why he's on the floor to begin with?" He asks her.

"No, but…I think he was thrown."

"Have you been…seeing these glimpses a lot more lately?"

"They've always been random, and seem to be triggered by different things, different places…or random people I see, whether I know them or not."

"Maybe we should talk to someone that might understand why you're seeing these glimpses."

"I'm hoping they'll pass, eventually."

"Okay, but if they don't, we should consider talking to someone about them."

"I promise."

They resumed their walk, but Kaede was not as hopeful as she had been a moment ago. Despite seeing things that didn't happen and would never happen, they bothered her due to the fact that they were from a different time that paralleled the time they were in. In this timeline, she existed alongside Shinji and they took down barriers and brought freedom to the people, but in another timeline…they never existed…and anything that did happen came at the cost of pain and death. For her, for anyone, pain, death and destruction…were bloody prices paid way too much for change to occur…and were often not the type of change one desired for others.

I know the Survey Corps do the job they do at the cost of their own lives to pave the future, she thought, looking up at the sky, but back then, before hope returned…what they did was never enough…and what they sacrificed was too much.

"Hey, Kaede," she stopped and looked at Shinji, "let me carry you on my back."

"Huh? Why?" She asked him.

"You look tired right now…and we're three blocks away from a hotel."

"Are you sure you can even carry me?"

"No…but that doesn't mean I'm not willing to."

She gave in and climbed onto his back. Surprisingly, though, despite his petite frame, he felt like he had developed some muscle in his arms.

"Are you sure this is okay for you, Shinji?" She asked him.

"Yes," he answered her, feeling like she didn't weigh much. "Off we go."

He started moving with her on his back. One of the things he never bothered to ask Kaede was how much she weighed; that was one of the things he decided against wanting to know after they became a couple. There were some things about people that were better off unspoken about. But interestingly, Kaede didn't weigh that much for him.

"Shinji?" Kaede spoke up.

"Yes?" He responded.

"Maybe we should see someone about the things I've been seeing lately."

"Are you sure?"

"No…but it's best to be cautious."

"I'm with you till the end of time, Kaede."

"Thanks, Shinji."

-x-

As he received his evening meal from the Survey Corps member known as Sasha Blouse, Calvi decided to speak up after a few hours of silence.

"Miss," he uttered, getting her attention. "I just want to know one thing, please: How exactly do you people live on this island?"

Sasha turned to face him and uttered, "Before or after the Walls came down?"

"Both," he sighs.

"When they were there, we seemed to be trying every now and then to forget that Titans existed. People would play ball, farm, cultivate flowers, read whatever books they could find, drink, party, whatever passed the time to forget there was danger beyond the Walls. After they were abandoned and disposed of, we had more land to claim on the island…and a city that became a beacon of hope for the people that started to live in it, harnessing knowledge that was lost to us for thousands of years. The only people not in the coastal city are the nobles, but even they have to obey Her Majesty and follow the rules like we all do. Why your sudden interest in how we live now? We probably seem like a joke to you."

"I guess the only way we'll know for sure…is to see for myself how you Eldians live on this island, don't you think?"

Sasha then left out his cell and secured the door; she would inform her superiors of this, but beyond that, Calvi would most likely be someone else's problem for the time being. There was no way she wanted to be responsible for anything this Marleyan man might've done.

To be continued…

A/N: Well, that's it for this chapter. I'd like people's responses on Kaede's glimpses into what was once the canon universe before she and Shinji changed things. Also, how many of you were surprised to see Grausam in the state he was in after quite some time?

Omake (China, IL-influenced)

"Damn it, Shinji!" Gendo yelled at his son as they stood in the hallway of the building the Survey Corps were using. "Get to the Eva and do as I tell you!"

Because his father had shot Kaede in the chest and caused her harm as she sat against the wall, something snapped in Shinji, and he jumped his father to the ground, getting the gun out of his hands, and began punching him wherever he could.

"Aaaauurgh!" He yelled. "You… Die!"

"Aaahh! Aaahh!" Gendo screamed as he was hit multiple times in the face and neck. "Aaaurgh! No, Shinji! Shinji, stop! Stop! I'm ordering you to stop, boy!"

"Urgh! Fuck you! Fuck you! Father, I will kill you, you fucking bastard!" Shinji grunted, his fists now covered in blood. "Aaaurgh! You are a thorn in everyone's side! If you can't have me, you'll go after my girlfriend because you see her as a weapon?! Oh, just die already, Father! Die like the other bad people I've seen in this world! Die like the Akuma Titan! Die like Grausam!"

"Gaaaahh!" Gendo, his face partially reduced to pulp, yelled as Shinji kept hammering at him.

"Gurgh! I was so relieved…when you were out of my life," Shinji told him. "It was hopeless for me to think that there any hope of any reconciliation between us! You're just a bad person that has no redeeming qualities! You even tried to kill everyone on the island when I refused you, and that's as far as you go here! You won't hurt another person ever again!"

Panting, Shinji realized that he beaten his father with so much force in the face that he had killed him, mangling his head beyond recognition.

"You never should've come here if all you were going to do was hurt people for something you couldn't have."

Kaede, recovering from the gunshot wound to her chest due to her Titan power, looked at Shinji as the Survey Corps arrived too late to apprehend Gendo.

"Damn," went Eren, "he murdered his own father."

"No," Shinji responded as he got up and turned to face them, "I murdered a madman."

"He was a madman," Kaede agreed with her boyfriend. "Are you alright, Shinji?"

Looking down at the beaten face of his father, Shinji sighed as he responded, "I'll be alright."