Creation began on 06-10-19
Creation ended on 06-26-19
Neon Genesis Evangelion
Hope from the Sky: Ceasefire
"Anything happen this morning before I woke up, Mother?" Kaede asked Christine as she stood by the door to her parents' room, seeing her standing in front of a wall-mounted mirror.
"Just the baby moving again for the umpteenth," she answered her daughter. "What are you up to today with Shinji?"
"For today, we're just helping the Survey Corps and Garrison to install these…solar panels across the island for different purposes. With the knowledge of renewable energy sources being implemented extensively, we're reducing our energy demands."
"Oh, those self-sustainability operations, you mean?"
"Yeah, that's right. What are you up to today?"
"Sig and I are just going to try the community garden a block away."
"Don't push yourself too hard."
"Oh, don't worry about me. After everything you two and the Survey Corps and Garrison have done in the past week…and in the previous months, Paradias City is probably the safest place on any coast."
Only a week had gone by since Eren was suspended from the Survey Corps, and in the aftermath, some things had to be done to make up for his minor trouble caused, such as the installation of additional security and relocating of the confiscated Jaeger Titan Serum to ensure that it couldn't be stolen again. This also required Kaede to supply more of her Dark Titan spinal fluid just in case it was needed (not that she minded becoming a Titan and letting herself get drained of its spinal fluid as long as she was doing something good to contribute).
"Uh, ladies," they heard Shinji say as he stood in the hallway, "breakfast is ready."
"Thank you, Shinji," they praised him at the same time.
-x-
"How did Armin manage not to go crazy when he was the one doing this?" Jean wondered as he was helping to monitor the water around the island.
"Get wired on coffee," said a male member of the Garrison to him, holding a cup of coffee in front of him. "Caffeine tends to help along with getting up and walking around."
Beep-beep! An alert came from Jean's station and he rushed back to it.
"We got a ship five miles out," he discovered, looking at it on his monitor. "This one's smaller than the other ones."
"And it's built differently, too," the Garrison member added. "It doesn't look like a naval ship at all. It…it looks like one of the ferry boats used to transport people and resources across districts, only a little bigger."
"Better call it in."
-x-
There were many parts of the island there were hollow, enabling for faster and more efficient underground tunneling for pipes or cables. All the Survey Corps and Garrison needed to begin their underground work was a starting point, something either Shinji or Kaede could do by punching a hole in the ground before laying down the solar panels in the chosen rows to let them soak up the heat energy. And they punched in eight holes in total after laying the panels down and setting them in rows of ten or fifteen eight feet from each other.
A small power station supplying a lot of energy, thought Kaede as she looked across the terrain at the rows of panels covered a mile of the land they were using in her Titan. Not all that different from what we now know about the history behind the Colossal Titan; the biggest of things and people had to start out small.
Bang! They all heard a loud bang from a distance and looked up at the sky, seeing a purple flare, indicating an emergency of some sort.
"That's a first in a long while," went Shinji inside his Eva. "What could be the emergency?"
-x-
"…Four miles out and no indication that it's armed," went Levi as he observed the ship approaching the island.
"What about the white flag that's on the deck?" Dot Pixis questioned.
"Probably a noncombatant," suggested Kaede, and all eyes were on her now. "Marley never had much of a reason to use white flags unless it was to attempt negotiations or a ceasefire. It's possible whoever's on that ship isn't looking to fight with us."
"We don't know for sure…until we meet them face-to-face," said Erwin, but he didn't want to risk sending out anyone in case it was a trap or a suicide attempt.
"Maybe you and Shinji should meet them, Kaede," went Hange to the Titan Shifter.
"Why do you think that, Ms. Zoe?" Kaede asked her.
"One is because you're both feared and respected by both Marley and Paradis, respectfully, and the other is that you can't be killed, even if they shoot at you."
"I'm going to pretend that that's just your sense of humor because I've never been shot at before…and am not looking to experience it, even if it is true."
In truth, everything Hange Zoe expressed about Kaede was more towards her ability as a Titan Shifter in a class of power all by herself, making her more capable than even the Survey Corps was most of the time. Even just as capable as Shinji, who needed his Eva to put up a fight, but was still in the same boat as his girlfriend as being feared and respected. While the girl could turn into a Titan either through self-injury or her monthly menstruation cycle, they had never tried inducing transformations through more serious methods of harm, such as fire or firearms, but Hange had to believe that a simple bullet could spill blood and set off the girl's power.
"The sight of the Eva should be enough to intimidate whoever's on the ship," stated Shinji to them. "If they're attempting a ceasefire, it's doubtful that they're armed for any amount of resistance against Paradis. And it's just one boat, not another armada."
-x-
"We're nearly four miles away from the island, ma'am," one of the guards informed Mrs. Tybur as she sat in her cabin, reading a book.
"Thank you, sir," she responded, and then set the book down. "Has the white flag been raised?"
"Yes, it has, ma'am."
"Thank you."
"Ma'am, if I may, why the white flag?"
"Marley has been defeated by Paradis. We can't fight back against them or their ally. And I'm not looking to fight with them. Hopefully, they'll just let me know what happened to Agnes. I pray that she's alive."
She had nothing but regret over letting her daughter go to Paradis with the military to fight against those islanders that had defeated the Warrior Unit. It should've been herself because she was older and had nothing left to lose except her life. She should've insisted upon it being herself that took the responsibility of the War Hammer Titan when it was time to pick a new inheritor after her brother's time was nearly up. But instead, her daughter chose to bear that burden, and now she might've been killed by these Eldians that may have killed over ten-thousand Marleyan soldiers that went to attack them.
"There's a boat coming towards ours!" They heard another guard yell out.
On the deck, three other guards saw a boat of similar size, only moving faster and more efficiently, approaching theirs. It looked like it was made entirely out of metal, a superior variation of their wooden ship.
"Attention," they heard a male voice over a megaphone. "This is the Paradis Coastal Patrol. Identify yourselves, immediately!"
One of the guards held up a megaphone of their own and uttered, "We're the guards of the Tybur family, escorting one of its members to Paradis Island."
"We're going to have to demand that you discard your weapons before we engage in further conversation regarding your travel to Paradis."
"We don't have any weapons, sir."
Then a young girl showed up on the deck of the other boat and looked over at the guards…and then jumped over onto their boat's deck.
"Are you certain that you're unarmed?" She asked them as she walked over. "The last two times Marley traveled to Paradis by sea…it didn't end well for most of them. I don't want an encore of a fight at sea."
They looked at her, surprised by the mere sight of her gray hair; they had never seen a young person with gray hair before, only ever on the elderly.
"All we really have are a handful of rifles and sabers," one of them revealed to the girl, "nothing really powerful or intimidating."
The girl took notice of the way they were looking at her, as though mesmerized by her appearance, and shook her head back and forth to wave her hair.
They just stood there and watched as her hair danced in the calm breeze.
"Is there something about me that you're disturbed by?" She asked them.
"Your hair is gray," one of the three guards expressed.
"You're still young," the second guard stated.
"And you're wearing trousers under your dress," the third guard pointed out. "What kind of girl wears trousers under their dress? It's unbecoming of a lady."
The girl looked down at her legs and then back at the three men, looking as though she'd been mildly insulted by them.
"Decency," she explained her trousers. "Comfort over style. And as for my hair, I get this from my father. If you have a problem with the way I look, we can always settle it over a little rough housing if subtlety doesn't work for you."
"I wouldn't lay a finger on her, though, if I were you!" They heard someone else say on the megaphone. "Anyone tries to so much as cut her hair because they feel offended by its color…will have to deal with her boyfriend, which will be the worst mistake of their lives."
Two more guards came onto the deck, escorting an elderly woman up.
"We're not here to fight anyone," the woman uttered to the girl. "We've raised our white flag up. All I want…is to find out what happened to my daughter, Agnes Tybur. She was the War Hammer Titan."
The girl looked at the woman and then leaned against the safety railing of the deck.
"You're…you're Anastasia Tybur," she uttered. "You're Agnes Tybur's mother."
The elderly woman gasped and demanded, "How do you know who I am?"
"I helped to defeat and capture your daughter in Marley's second naval attack. She's not dead…but she's not the War Hammer Titan, anymore. You could say that she was the last War Hammer Titan. Now, she's just a regular person."
"Who are you?"
"I'm the girl your daughter lost the War Hammer to."
Suddenly, the scarring that appeared on the face of every Titan Shifter around their eyes every time they used their powers appeared on the girl's face as something emerged from behind her. It was some sort of…Titan's head, dark-skinned and haired, a feminine face hanging from a stream of flesh protruding from the girl's back.
"I am the Dark Titan," it spoke to them. "It is nice to meet you."
-x-
"…You've barely spoken in the past week since you were told to attend these sessions, Mr. Yeager," the therapist reminded the teenage boy as he sat across the room from her. "It makes getting you on the path to recovery difficult when you don't talk about yourself."
"It's difficult when I try to think of a reason to claim there's nothing wrong with me," he responded. "I'm suspended from the Survey Corps, I have to help around a farm five hours a day, and I find it almost impossible to accept my current situation. But do I blame Kaede Sogen for this because she took my Titan power from me?"
"Do you, Eren?"
"No," he sighed, "I don't blame her. After Shinji Ikari, her boyfriend, had translated my father's notes and revealed that those with the power of the Nine Titans would only possess it for thirteen-fifteen years before the power left them to latch onto a new host, leaving the previous host in a state of permanent fatigue, I tried not to think about it. I only had the power for five years…and only discovered that I had it less than a year ago when Trost District was attacked by the Colossal Titan, originally possessed by Bertolt Hoover, when he and other members of the Marleyan Warrior Unit were here to take possession of the Founding Titan. Then Shinji's father sent people over here with a threat against him and Kaede, saying if they didn't hand themselves over to the organization that he defected from, that were suddenly interested in possessing the Titans for their own purposes, within forty-eight hours, then they were going to drop these bombs all over the island and kill all of us. He said his old man wasn't a good person, but when you threaten your own son with the lives of the people he protects, that saw him as an answer to their prayers for a miracle against the initial threat of the Titans, you can't question the validity of his belief in his father being a cold person that doesn't give any praise or acceptance of his son's choices. I didn't even think about using the Wall Titans like Kaede had, which was why she took the power from me. She has a way of thinking that defies basic morality, willing to risk her very sanity against the ideology of Karl Fritz, who made it so that anyone of royal blood that had the Founding Titan incapable of using it to defend the people from the Titans or Marley, no matter what they originally believed, while those that weren't royalty couldn't use it unless a member of the royal family was present."
"It sounds as though you envy her a little."
"I don't envy her. I mean…I don't have any envy towards her. Despite her deception, despite her previous situation regarding her step-grandfather, who was a complete monster, in and of himself, she saved my mother from getting eaten by a Titan. I'm indebted to her because of that."
"And her stopping you from taking a serum that would have restored to you a semblance of Titan power that her step-grandfather created for Marley?"
"It was revealed that the serum would've affected the person's personality if they took it, since regular Titan Serum turns Subjects of Ymir into mindless Titans, not Titans with intelligence. Depending on their traits, a good person could become great…and a bad person just ends up worse than ever. I wasn't sure which side of the line I fell into, despite wanting to protect the people from Marley."
"Simply because you don't believe they won't seek peace with Paradis?"
"Yes. If they don't want to seek peace, then it's pointless to put up with them any further, even when they're beaten."
"Except when it comes to seeking peace, we, the regular people, the commoners, the soldiers of one nation, we don't have the authority to question whether or not another nation will desire peace and attempt negotiations. All we can do is hope that they do…and that they mean so."
-x-
"…My God," Mrs. Tybur gasped, seeing the skyscrapers of Paradius City as her ship was escorted to Paradis' port. "So the city does exist, a marvel made by the power of the Titans, preserved for ages. This is Paradius City, the city that offers paradise."
Kaede looked at her as she stood next to her, and expressed, "Some just call it home after moving in and helping to clean it and master its secrets."
Upon docking at the port, several members of the Garrison stood at the dock of the Marleyan ship and watched as Kaede walked with a woman they didn't know, followed by at least ten men they didn't know.
Commander Erwin came over and stopped them from advancing any further on the pier.
"Commander Erwin Smith," went Kaede to him, "this is Anastasia Tybur of the Tybur family. She is Agnes Tybur's mother."
"Ma'am," Erwin greeted the elder woman.
"Sir," she responded, bowing her head to him; even if she wanted to fight, she was in no condition to pick one with any of these people, and there was no way she'd be able to survive any length of conflict. "I believe I can see how you have, more or less, defeated Marley."
"In many respects, it was mainly because of him," Erwin pointed over to Shinji, who had gotten off the other boat that docked a few feet away from the Marleyan one and made his way over to them, "and his tool over there."
Anastasia looked over at where Erwin pointed, noticing a purple giant that wasn't a Titan because it was just too massive and armored in a way the Armored Titan wasn't.
"This is Shinji Ikari, the owner of the Evangelion," said Kaede to Anastasia, introducing her boyfriend to her.
"Ma'am," he greeted, bowing his head to her.
Anastasia didn't show the usual reaction that those related to the obsolete Warrior Unit or the Marleyan military did whenever they saw Shinji, which confused them. She had either never seen an Asian person…or wasn't racist or biased towards people of other ethnic groups.
"It is nice to meet you," she uttered, bowing her head to him. "Your…giant has made some people in Marley very uneasy because they didn't know how it was able to do what it does."
"It's just a tool meant to help the people here," he explained, uncomfortable with talking about it.
"Forgive my saying this, but you don't look like the type that lives for fighting," she confessed her opinion towards him. "You don't show that desire to cause pain and death to anyone."
"Yeah, I get that a lot," he agreed with her. "Still, I'm here to help protect the people of Paradis. They see me as their Hope from the Sky. To do any less for them is to dishonor them for accepting me here."
Accepting him here? Anastasia thought; initially, she had suspected that this young man was a native of Paradis, but now had to consider that he was not all that different from the Eldians that had lived in Marley's internment zones or the Marleyans themselves that never set foot on Paradis, just outsiders from another place. But what remained of the Asian race was executed years ago. Even the ones that tried to escape by sea were drowned and fed to the sharks. The only ones unaccounted for were the ones that were said to live on Paradis, but this boy says he was accepted by the Eldians, implying that he didn't live with them in the beginning. They call him their Hope from the Sky? Did he…appear to them from the heavens themselves?
"Um, the white flag," she heard Shinji say to her, pointing to her ship's flag as it continued to flap in the wind. "Does it truly mean you're not seeking conflict?"
"No conflict," she answered him. "I just want to see my daughter."
Shinji bowed his head again in understanding; anyone that had children alive and wanted to see them, just to confirm that they were still alive…and prove that they still gave a damn…couldn't have been entirely bad, even in the face of adversity and change.
-x-
Agnes had to own up to it right now, but these…novels that were salvaged by the Eldians of this island were quite impressive in one way or another. Eight minutes ago, she had started reading about this…boy wizard with a lightning bolt-shaped scar on his head…and now she couldn't put it down.
"Agnes Tybur," one of the Garrison guards uttered to her, and she stopped reading momentarily to look up towards them outside her cell. "You have a visitor here to see you."
"I don't get visitors," she responded, confused.
"You do right now," the other guard expressed. "She's in the cafeteria waiting for you."
Who is she? Agnes wondered as her cell was opened and she was escorted by the guards.
Five minutes later, they had made it to the cafeteria…and Agnes was surprised by who was there at one of the tables.
"Mother," she called out to the elder woman sitting there, and she turned to face her, "what…what are you doing here? Were you captured?"
"No, and I'm here to see you," she answered her daughter. "It's not everyday you make a decision to come to an island where the majority of the Eldians reside after they were liberated from the internment zones after centuries of being forced to live under the rule of Marley just to confirm whether or not your daughter is still alive. I'm glad you are."
"Are you…the only one here?"
"Ten of our family's guards came with me. There was no point in bringing everyone. And there's no point in fighting Paradis any further."
"Tell me something, Mother, did you know about what Marley intended to do with all Subjects of Ymir when they obtained the Founding Titan?"
"What do you mean?"
"If they obtained the Founding Titan from Paradis, they use its power to induce sterility within all Subjects of Ymir with just a scream from the Titan. Did you know about this?"
"No, I didn't, Agnes."
"You swear?"
"I swear, I didn't know about that. Nobody in our family knew."
"I used to think Marley was such a great place to live in because we didn't live in the internment zones or faced discrimination. But after getting defeated, losing the War Hammer Titan to a girl no older than a young teen, who wields all the Nine Titans' power, and learning of what Marley intended to do once they had what they were doing everything they did for, I don't feel the same way about it as I did before," Agnes explained to her. "Marley's too consumed with hate to see clearly over anything, too damaged and bitter. They killed other ethnic groups around the world out of spite towards Eldians, destroyed their cultures, ruined their homes and burned away everything and left very little of anything. If they had the Founding Titan and did what they did, how good would it have been for us, Mother? Even though I'm incarcerated, I want what others want later on in life one day. I want kids one day. To think I'd have my eyes pulled open to see how messed up our predicament is in order to grasp how insane our world has become…and only because our ancestors conspired with the king and gave control to Marley when there could've been easier ways to find a balance between the nations."
It was clear to Anastasia that her daughter's time here on the island had affected her like it likely had with others here.
"Did you see a girl with a Titan that could emerge from her back?" Agnes asked her.
"I did," she answered. "She jumped onto our boat and knew who I was because she had your memories up until the second you were stripped of the War Hammer Titan. Unlike her step-grandfather, she has a strength to her that…exceeds what Marley initially thought about the power of the Titans when they had seven of the Nine Titans. She has all their strengths, none of their weaknesses, and she's unbound by any of the flaws we used to believe existed in Eldians. It's like…she represents the best of everyone around her or something."
"She serves a girl no older than herself and is the ruler of Eldia."
"Her name is Historia Reiss, who replaced her father, Rod Reiss, as the ruler of the Eldians. She has more admiration than the rest of her family."
"Because she's more caring of the people and takes care of some children that were orphaned by the Titans and other crimes. The kids love her, despite her being a kid herself. And she picked two people her age to be her advisors."
"She needed people she could trust by her side and who better to trust than the two people that aided in defending Paradis from both the Titans and Marley in a way that makes the power of Eldia greater than Marley?"
A silence between them lasted for more than three minutes before they continued.
"Tell me something, Mother," Agnes went, "do you believe that Marley will seek peace with Paradis after losing the majority of all their ships and manpower, just your opinion over the matter here, no one else's?"
"The way I see it, it's better to settle the issue than to self-destruct," Anastasia responded. "We're dying slowly on Marley. We need to end this here and now, even if it means Marley has to submit."
-x-
"This was unexpected," Historia told Erwin after she was informed of the arrival of the current matriarch of the Tybur family, sitting in his office, "but not unlikely to be the only time anything like this happens."
"We're still not sure if this…Anastasia Tybur can be trusted," Erwin explained to her and Ymir.
"She raised her white flag," said Ymir. "That and her only interest in coming here being to see her daughter…should be grounds to confirm that this woman isn't looking for a fight she can't even win, not even to start."
"You think she can be trusted?" Historia asked her.
"I think we should ask Kaede what she thinks; since she has her daughter's memories up to the day she took the War Hammer from her, she'd know as much as possible about her."
"Where is Ms. Sogen now?" Erwin asked.
"I think she said she was going to help reinforce the foundation of one the buildings," Historia answered. "Not doing much with her power makes her a little restless."
"We're still learning how durable hardened Titan flesh truly is."
"The thicker it is usually means it's denser," Ymir stated on the substance. "The Armored Titan was covered from head to toe in plates of it."
"But when the Dark Titan uses the power of the Armored Titan, she has a thickened hide instead of armored plates, indicating that Kaede can control how she armors up. The only thing we haven't done any tests on is the risks to what could happen to Ms. Sogen if were attacked while she was residing in the nape of her Titan…or if she somehow lost her head, not that we're looking to attempt such."
"As curious and insightful as it might be to know what might happen to Kaede," Historia declared, "I'd rather not endanger her life just for the pursuit of an experiment just to see what might be possible for her. She's already pretty powerful and adaptable as she is already."
-x-
It looked like the oldest building in the city, based solely on its structure and appearance as a three-story building, or at least one of the oldest buildings in the city. As she stood against one of the walls at the lowest level where the foundation was, Kaede pressed her left hand against it and could feel the hardened Titan flesh that had been used in the construction of the building; it was like she was touching a wall made of old flesh that was still warm because it had life beneath it.
"Refine," she uttered, and saw the metallic structures behind the walls where the Titan flesh was infused or used in combination with during the construction spread across the infrastructure like a rush of water going down a pipe.
The room shook a bit, alerting the Garrison members behind her that she was affecting the building with her power.
"Whoa, man," one of them gasped.
It was like that for a minute until it ceased.
"This is the basement," one of the men uttered through a walkie-talkie to whoever was on the other end. "What did you see on your end?"
"The Titan flesh inside the walls expanded and re-solidified within seconds," a man responded on the other end. "It seems to only one level at a time going up or down, but only after the whole level being worked on is done."
"Impressive."
"Yes, but it also feels honeycombed in a strange way," went Kaede to them.
"Honeycombed?"
"It means to have cavities, hollow openings, in the structure. Like with birds or small machines; they have to have a primary structure that is light enough to move about, but has to be strong enough to support everything else."
"Like our own bones," another Garrison member said.
"Yes."
They walked outside the building and saw that it was the same as it was when they went inside to reinforce the foundation, and then Kaede walked away as they now had it under control. Since she discovered that she could reinforce the structures of the buildings, the people were a step closer to the goal to use her power to cultivate wastelands in the foreseeable future.
"Kaede," she stopped at the sound of her name being spoken, and turned to face the person that uttered it. "What a surprise to see you out here."
"Mother," she gasped, seeing Christine with a small basket of fruits in her hands. "I thought you were at the community garden."
"I was there for half an hour, but then I left to go to the park down the street with the splash fountain. Where are you coming from?"
"Uh, Town Hall…back there. I was helping to reinforce the structure."
"Oh, that's helpful. Well, come walk with me. We can talk a little until you gotta be wherever you need to be."
Kaede walked with her down the street.
"I thought you'd be with Shinji at around this time of the day," she told her daughter.
"Uh, no," Kaede informed her. "We met up earlier, but that was to deal with a different matter. We might end up ending things with Marley sooner than we expected. I mean, a small ship arrived from Marley, but it was the matriarch of the Tybur family, and all she wanted was to see her daughter, who was locked up with the Marleyan prisoners, not to fight anyone. She had a white flag and disinterest in picking a fight with anyone, even confirming that Marley doesn't have fumes left to pick a fight with us. Shinji left to continue helping with the solar panel installation in the countryside while I went to reinforce a building here."
"Well, here's to hoping that we do end this feud with Marley in due time, sweetheart. There's only so much one can take of violence before they realize that they've had enough of it."
"If that belief is true, then I'm one of those people that have had enough of the violence. I don't even want to know what I'd do if I had to go a few more years fighting someone. If we can stop the fighting within a year, before the end of this year, even, then that would put a big smile on my face."
"That would put a big smile on a lot of people's faces."
-x-
"…I can only speak for myself, but even Marley doesn't have technology like these…weather reports or…wind farms," Anastasia Tybur expressed to Commander Erwin, Historia and Ymir as she was shown around where the Eldians of the island were building and rediscovering thanks to the reclaimed knowledge. "We don't even have a geothermal power station or a hydroelectric dam."
"So, how does Marley get its electricity?" Historia asked her.
"From fossil fuels, which we're running out of; to think that there are some resources that can't be renewed."
"If we can establish peace, Marley could learn everything there is to learn about renewable and alternate energy," Ymir expressed.
The elderly Eldian woman could believe that, with nearly every place in Marley lit up like this coastal city was at night, and the lights being so bright, they could turn night into day. She had seen the video they had made that was intended for Marley to look at that showed the Eldians saying what they wanted no more of to happen, and couldn't fault them for their ambitions or their pain. These were all the more reason for there to be a ceasefire between them.
"If you can save Marley," she told them, "they have to accept that it's pointless to continue fighting out of hatred and let it all go."
Looking up at one of the wind turbines, she grew more impressed by the technology that was available on this island and how the people's restored knowledge and freedom made it possible for them to do whatever they could to improve their lives here.
Historia then asked, "Um, say, Mrs. Tybur, have you by any chance ever heard of an Italian dish called pizza? It's quite delicious."
"I haven't. What is it?"
-x-
"That's the last of the solar panels, Shinji," said Marco to the Eva pilot as the panels were all neatly placed on the ground and the necessary hollowed points to build the connections to supply power to the former walled districts. "I can't believe it only took us a day to lay out all of these panels."
"A lot can get done when you put in the effort," Shinji responded. "They're probably building or rebuilding two houses on the other island right now."
"Either that or trying to keep Sasha from eating everything."
"I'm pretty sure that Ms. Blouse has her gluttony under control. I mean, ever since we dealt with the Titan situation and reclaimed the farmlands between former Walls Maria and Rose, she's been…cheerful at never needing to go hungry again."
"Somehow, I think if she ever has children, she'll probably name them after her favorite meats."
"Eh-heh-heh! I'll just say it, even though I don't really mean it, but that would be hilarious if that did happen. What about you, Mr. Bott? You see yourself having children in the future one day?"
"If I ever meet the right person, that's most likely, but not right now."
"Say, whatever happened with your relationship with…well, with Bertolt, Reiner and Annie?"
Marco looked at the Eva and wondered where the young man inside it was going with his question about that.
"I mean, it was explained to me earlier, before we defeated and captured them, that they… But you survived because someone rescued you, so…"
"I haven't forgiven them for almost getting me killed yet. It doesn't even matter that they saw us as the enemy; the fact that they were just going to kill me through the Titans they let into Trost that day, without even trying to talk about what was going on, was crossing the line. Yeah, I get that they were kids when they attacked five years ago, being fed lies, half-truths and propaganda, but that's why they invented conversations, so we could understand each other and find a way to resolve things peacefully so that nobody else had to die. I'm supposed to see them this evening, but I'm not sure if I can forgive and forget."
"But…knowing that their families were targeted because they had failed to do what Marley had ordered them to do in the beginning, causing them to sever their own ties with Marley because they went too far, and the fact that they no longer possess Titan powers, shouldn't it mean that you four are on even ground and can now talk about…to try and forgive and forget?"
"It's never that simple…or black and white, Shinji."
"Not for everyone, but for some."
-x-
"…What's among the sad things for the children is that we don't have a functioning zoo or aquarium anywhere on Paradis," Ymir explained to Anastasia as they and Historia were enjoying a pizza with everything on it. "We used to, but that was a long time ago. The only animals we have here are farm ones. Horses, cows, chicken, dogs, even cats."
Anastasia, having tried a slice, felt like an explosion of flavor happened inside her mouth.
"This is amazing," she told them, helping herself to a third slice. "A zoo and an aquarium would be nice to see anywhere. Marley has plenty of animals, but many of them are on the endangered species list."
"Oh, dear," Historia gasped. "If they all die, nobody will ever see them again."
"Endangered animals are often the most exotic ones that people want to see."
"Say, how did Marley not ever get to experience the taste of different foods from different cultures?" Ymir asked the woman. "It's almost cruel."
"Marley was never into exploring other people's cultures or way of life," Anastasia explained, "just preserving their own culture, even if it meant destroying other people's lives."
"That's terrible," Historia uttered. "Ever since the Walls came down and we learned more about the world, we discovered how important it is to draw knowledge from other cultures across the world. If we only stick to what we know, the culture becomes rigid and stale, in severe need for change. And during the time I've spent looking after orphaned children, I've learned how to cook Asian, Mexican and Italian food. Ymir here has been teaching me about a cooking style called molecular gastronomy, and I have to admit, it's unlike anything I know about traditional cooking techniques."
"Mo…molec…" Anastasia tried to speak, but it was a term she had never heard of until now.
"Molecular gastronomy," Ymir spoke for her.
"What does it mean?"
"In short, it's a cooking style that focuses on the chemical fusion that occurs with the select ingredients used and turning it into a form of art that you can eat."
"Okay, maybe I should see that being done to get a better understanding of it."
"Sure, I don't mind showing you how it's done. It's…actually quite calming."
Anastasia then finished her latest slice of pizza and sighed about something she needed to ask the queen about.
"There is something I have to ask you," she told Historia, "which you are free to not answer."
"Ask away," Historia responded.
"One of your advisors," she went, "the young man, this…Shinji Ikari… He's not from Paradis, is he? I mean…he's not a survivor of any of Marley's ethnic cleansing operations or a native to Paradis' population, is he?"
"What makes you say that?"
"He mentioned how the people here call him their…Hope from the Sky, and that for him to do any less than what he has done…is to dishonor the people that have accepted him here."
"To be blunt, Shinji doesn't belong to any of the ethnic groups here. He is an Asian, that much is true, but he doesn't belong to our world. He came from another world during an attempt to face a creature that was unlike the Titans. Somehow, he ended up losing to that creature, but also ended up here when the Colossal Titan attacked for the third time. He saw what was happening and chose to help us by fighting the Colossal Titan. After that, everything else just fell into place when one of the leaders of the Garrison asked him if he would help the Survey Corps retake Wall Maria when it was still standing. He's been with us for almost ten months to a year now."
"Has it really been that long since he showed up?"
"Yes," Ymir answered for Historia. "There was a time when he was contacted by his people from his world with the intention of bringing him back, but he chose not to be rescued. He chose to stay here as opposed to returning to his life there."
"Why? Why would he choose to stay here over returning to his world?"
"The way we've learned it from him, life there isn't all that great. Our worlds have some similarities, but most of the land in his world is underwater due to the destruction of their South Pole. His country is trapped in constant summertime, so he's never seen snow before or a world where coastal areas aren't underwater or in ruins. What's more…is that he doesn't really have much in the way of family there."
"Is he an orphan?"
"No," went Historia, "but he might as well be one. His mother died when he was little and his father left him not long after. He only ever saw him a handful of times, but the guy is, lack of a better sum of words to describe him, an unfit parent that cares nothing for his son. Before and after I became queen, I saw and heard signs of how cruel his father is, even to anyone his son associated with. He's in charge of an organization that Shinji once served after he met his father after a few years of absence, and he forced his only son to face a monster he knew nothing about…with absolutely no chance of surviving…and doesn't care whether he lives or dies. He sent a girl he once worked with there, a redhead with an insatiable lust for violence, and her orders from his father were to recapture him and his Eva…along with Ms. Sogen for her Dark Titan. If Shinji refused, she was to harm the people that lived in the city. Shinji refused to let her or his father hurt the people…and severed his ties with them when he attacked the girl's Eva and destroyed it, but he let her live to return her back to their world. When his father attempted to reclaim his Eva and take Ms. Sogen a second time, he threatened to destroy as much of the island as possible with these explosives that could level an entire city or a mountain. Again, Shinji refused to surrender, and declared Paradis to be both his home and his grave…because the ultimatum he was given by his father wasn't worth giving into…since there was no guarantee that he was going to let us live even if he did get them both in his possession. So…Shinji, despite his own issues with his past, his faults and irreconcilable relationship with his father, his defection from this NERV agency his father orders around…is one of us now. Even if he could go back to his world, there's very little chance that he'd want to."
Anastasia sighed heavily over what she had just heard. It was depressing and bitter; to know that a young man that became like a hero to these people had to sever all ties with the world he came from, and not just because he didn't want to return to the life he had there (which wasn't really much of a life if all he had to look forward to was fighting creatures he had no guarantee of walking away from alive), but because his father was an outright villain that only wanted him and the Sogen girl like they were considered property, not people. And she had to suspect that the young man, if given the option of returning to his world and leaving the people here, he would decline it without hesitation.
"That's no father," she proclaimed her opinion about the boy's living relative. "That's a monster that looks like a man…but isn't a man."
"True that," Ymir agreed with her, and downed her cup of water. "Still, you gotta admire the kid. When it came between the choices of risking death here over returning to live there, he chose to stick with us and face the possibility of death rather than return to his old life there. When it came between surrendering his girlfriend and severing his ties to his world, he chose his girlfriend and now doesn't have anything to go back. Maybe because of his time here or due to his lack of relationships in his world, he has some…flaw that can't let him take the easy way out and sacrifice others for himself. Some could consider that a sign of weakness, but with him, it may actually be one of his greatest strengths."
"If he's able to do what you say he has," Anastasia admits, "it is one of his greatest strengths."
-x-
"…I honestly don't know what's more terrifying," said Maya to her fellow Bridge Bunnies during their lunch in the NERV cafeteria, "that we're not discussing anything Angel-related, how we're on indefinite standby, or how there's a whole other world accessible through a portal in Nevada…and nobody wants to consider going there because it's not our world that has a ravaged terrain?"
"It's the third one, hands down," went Hyuga. "Shinji's the only one there that's actually seen snow and ice and gets to react to the change of season, whereas here, we're stuck with the summertime. And the Eldians there, they love him."
"He became a hero to them," Shigeru reiterated how the people of that world Shinji ended up in when he showed up on their island. "Think about it. Back when we were following orders to get him to return to this world, we weren't exactly trying to enforce any logic with him. It was either return or the people he helped there would suffer, but that was when Commander Ikari was in charge and sent Asuka to try and convince Shinji to return and hand over this girl that he liked and liked him back. Not exactly the way to get into his good graces…and not something that he can forgive and forget due to his father's contempt towards him."
"Speaking of fathers, I'm actually relieved that Commander Ikari was relieved of his authority," Maya confessed. "It was only a matter of time before he likely caused another situation where he wanted the Eva and Kaede Sogen. If Shinji ever marries her, his relationship with his future in-laws would make his lack of a relationship with his father seem like a bad memory."
"Yeah, no doubt about that," Hyuga agreed with her.
-x-
"It came to our attention that you wanted to talk," Erwin told Calvi as they stood in a small room.
"Yes," Calvi responded. "I've been in my prison cell for what seems like an eternity, waiting for an execution that wouldn't come because I was defeated by men and women that didn't want to be seen as the monsters parents tell their children about at night."
"If we believed in killing you after defeating you a handful of times…and only because we don't like you, then we'd be no better than you when you sent Eldians here to punish them by turning them into Titans or sending them off to war as cannon fodder. What is this about, your reason for wanting to talk?"
"My one-day pass to see how you people live now," he revealed. "I wish to use it."
"You do realize that if you try anything to give the people a reason to think that you might hurt them, you will go back to your cell."
"I wouldn't do anything to jeopardize my right to go outside and be in the sunlight."
"Anyone want to use their one-day pass, as well, not just you?"
"At least ten other people want to see how life is around here."
"When do they wish to do so?"
"If at all possible, they want to do so tomorrow."
-x-
The ocean waves and the calm breeze were like a godsend to Christine as she sat on the beach with her daughter.
"So, you and Shinji sit around here sometimes?" She asked Kaede.
"Yeah," she answered her mother. "The sight of the sunrise and sunset by the water is soothing. It makes me feel glad to be outside the Walls when they were still standing. And…to know that we're free of our troubles with the Titans and how they're not villains like we were led to believe in the beginning, I can just look out at the horizon and see past forever, to travel past forever. It's a beautiful sight to behold."
"Yes, it is, sweetie."
Christine reflected upon her past with Hagan when he was alive, how they had to make do with sitting at a pond or a lake because the Survey Corps couldn't claim much of the land outside the Walls because of the Titan hordes just outside them. She remembered how he hoped that they would one day see the ocean for themselves. And thinking of now, they did get to see the ocean; even though he was dead, Hagan was still able to see the ocean through them. It felt so good to be free of the Walls and to be near the water.
"Do you think he'd be proud of me?" Kaede asked, her head resting on her knees beside her.
"You mean, your father?" Christine asked her.
"Yeah… I mean, despite the bad things I've done, destroying naval ships and causing a tsunami, would he proud of the good I've done to help others?"
"Your father would be very proud of you, Kaede Sogen. There is nothing about you that he isn't proud of. You're cheerful, pretty, you make people smile, and you're in a relationship with a nice man that sees you as you are and who brings out the happiness in him."
"Thank you, Mother."
As the last bits of sunlight disappeared beyond the horizon, they got up off the sand and walked off the beach and back towards the city.
"But hey, one day, you gotta do something that's worth your future with Shinji," Christine told her as they crossed onto the pavement.
"And what is that?" Kaede asked.
"Tie the knot and settle down."
"Eh-heh-heh! One day, Mother. One day."
-x-
Even as the night claimed the sky, the lights of the city were so bright, they turned it to a piece of daylight, and for Anastasia and Agnes Tybur, it truly was beautiful.
"None of the cities and towns on the mainland are anything like this," Agnes confessed as she and her mother were escorted by members of the Garrison around the place in one of the cars that had been salvaged and confirmed to run on electricity. "We really are primitive in Marley."
"I wouldn't say you're primitive," Dot Pyxis expressed. "We just didn't find out about this technology until after we left the Walls behind and young Ikari explained what he knew about some of it. And with the knowledge distributed by the Founder's power, we're progressing beyond what we once knew as our advancement block, which had kept us from going any further in life."
"How much about the world beyond Paradis do you really know about?" Anastasia asked him, impressed with how a car could be powered by an electric battery and move at the same speed as a gasoline-powered version.
"We could say that we know just about everything that was once around," he answered.
"Then…you must also know about…Titanus Yggdrasilus," Agnes spoke.
Suddenly, Dot and the three Garrison members in the car with them had wide eyes. Something about what Agnes had said…struck a nerve deep in their minds.
"Titanus…Yggdrasilus?" One of the men by the passenger doors uttered. "You mean to say that…it still exists?"
"Yes," Anastasia responded. "It's probably the best place to meet with Marley's leaders to talk about a permanent ceasefire between them and Paradis."
"But Titanus Yggdrasilus," Dot said, "wouldn't Marley have…reduced it to just a memory?"
"There are some things that even Marley as a whole are afraid to do away with…and that's one of them that they both fear and admire."
-x-
After shutting down the Eva and leaving the base beside the primary carrier, Shinji returned to Kaede's and found her playing on the piano again. The song she was playing sounded familiar to his ears and he was trying to recall where he had heard it before…and his eyes widened to the realization of why it felt familiar. When she was finished, he couldn't help but clap his hands.
Kaede turned around and faced him.
"Oh, Shinji," she greeted him, a little surprised by his presence. "I didn't hear you come in."
He came over to her and sat beside her.
"That was Fly Me to the Moon," he spoke up. "I haven't heard that song in a long time. It's my favorite one to listen to."
"A song for romantics," she told him, "except I don't know the words to go along with it."
Shinji tapped a key on the piano.
"Fly me to the moon," he uttered, "let me play among the stars… Let me see what spring is like…on Jupiter and Mars…"
Kaede played the tune over and Shinji uttered the lyrics to go along with it. It was a beautiful song to hear for her heart, the way the words were layered out.
"…In other words…I love you," Shinji finished as Kaede stopped on the last key.
"It really is a beautiful song," she confessed to him. "Thank you, Shinji."
"You're welcome, Kaede."
To be continued…
A/N: I look forward to writing down the next chapter. I bet some of you can take a guess on what the Tybur women said is and why it had the members of the Garrison surprised, even though they've never even thought much on it. Well, onto the omake.
Omake (Godzilla-influenced)
Kaede Sogen, after defeating the remnants of the rogue Marleyans that still sought to exterminate what remained of the Eldian race, collapsed onto a makeshift chair that looked similar to a throne, her Titan formed wasting away from overexertion, and her gray hair unkempt and her clothes tattered and damp from the heat her Titan gave off. She inhaled and exhaled as she looked up at the sky as the sun began to rise.
SLAM! Something made an impact on the ground, but she was too weak to do anything beyond looking at the source.
Eren Yeager, in a Titan form similar in appearance to his former Attack Titan, but without the uneven jaw structure, along with several other people that used the Jaeger Serum to become able to assist after swearing to give up the power after the threat was over, and Shinji in his Eva showed up and approached where she was.
"Rrrrraaurgh!" Eren's Titan growled at her…and all she did was look up at him with her exhausted eyes.
Mikasa Ackerman, anchored to Eren's right shoulder, repelled down to the ground and approached closer to the Dark Titan Shifter.
"You saved us all, Ms. Sogen," she announced, followed by the arrival of Historia on Ymir's Jaeger Titan variation of her former Jaw Titan.
Historia stopped two feet from where Kaede sat…and knelt before her.
"Queen of the Titans," she expressed, followed by Ymir, whose Titan bowed, as well.
Kaede looked beyond them, seeing Mikasa, Eren's Titan, Shinji's Eva and other people and Titans bowing to her. While it had only been used by the children that saw her as the most powerful Titan Shifter on Paradis because they had utmost respect for her, to have others address her as the Queen of the Titans seemed to be the only status she had that was as close to royalty she would possess (not that she needed it). But yes, she was the queen…and although she didn't consider herself in the same position of power as Historia, she was a queen that needed her king.
Shinji self-ejected from the plug of the Eva and climbed down to meet her.
"Are you alright?" He asked her.
"Never better, Shinji," she answered.