Creation began on 08-31-19
Creation ended on 09-12-19
Neon Genesis Evangelion
Hope from the Sky: Fritz, Reiss and Sogen
A/N: When does the truth about a secret that has been hidden mean more than what was really expected to be revealed?
"…Ahh…" Historia yawned as she and Ymir stepped out of their room and into the hallway the next morning.
"I take it you didn't get much sleep, either?" Levi asked as he came out of his room across the hall from their room, looking like he barely slept at all.
"It's not the sleeping that is challenging," said Ymir to him, "it's the getting up part that is hard. Have you ever slept on a mattress that was so soft that you didn't want to get up at all? It's a lot like that around here."
"My bed felt like air," Levi expressed. "I'm used to laying on hard surfaces, so I laid on the floor last night."
Historia took out her phone and checked the time, finding it was eighteen minutes past the eighth hour of the morning; they had gotten up much later than they usually did on Paradis Island.
"Does anyone know where Shinji and Kaede are?" She asked one of the lesser Survey Corps members as he came by.
"I think they got up an hour ago and went back to the Temple of the Unknown," he answered, holding a coffee cup in his hands. "The girl seemed upset about something."
-x-
"…Somehow, I knew you'd be back here, Ms. Sogen," went Frenzia to Kaede and Shinji as they returned to the temple.
"Some things just don't sync with me," Kaede told her. "It mainly revolves around my hair color. People seem to make a big deal over it, and I want to know why. What makes my hair such a hot topic? If you know, I request that you tell me."
Shinji looked at Frenzia and nodded his head in suggestion that she tell his girlfriend why, wanting to know the reason himself.
"The story behind your ancestral background is deeper in this temple," she explained, leading them to where they needed to go. "No matter the immediate family name you bear, your gray hair shows your heritage."
"What do you mean?" Shinji asked her.
Entering a different room within the temple, Frenzia showed the couple an old portrait that was of the Nine Titans of Ymir Fritz. Away from it were several other paintings of various people from the past.
"While most of Ymir Fritz's family was pleased with using the power she left their people with to help make their lives better and to help mend places that were ruined by hazardous waste or disastrous conditions, there were a few that felt that they could stand to stand out more. One such member of the Fritz family was a cousin of Karl Fritz's great-great-great-grandfather, born to Sina Fritz, Samson Fritz. He was never into politics or control, for he just wanted to stand out more. So, before his uncle passed away and the Founding Titan had to be possessed by a new inheritor, Samson requested that he use the power of the Founding Titan to alter his hair color to gray and make it a prominent feature for those that came after him in his bloodline."
"A prominent feature, you say?" Kaede questioned.
"It was a genetic trait that would be passed on from parent to child. Since your hair is gray, it can only be concluded that you, Ms. Sogen, are the last remaining descendant of Samson Fritz, meaning that within you is the blood of royalty that spans the ancient past and into the future. So, in a sense, your possession of the power of the Nine Titans…was practically your birthright from the very beginning. Your position of authority…is your dominion over the Titans no matter where they are in existence."
"But…how can you know for certain that Kaede's a descendant of the Fritz family?" Shinji asked her. "I mean, she could've just been a regular girl with beautiful, gray hair that was turned into a Titan Shifter against her will a few years ago by a lunatic that wanted to get out of the Walls on Paradis. What if there was a mistake made centuries ago or certain records were lost or misplaced someplace?"
"Everyone here that is old enough and have gone through the history of the family here many times over aren't that foolish to lie about anything…and why would there need to be a reason to lie to you about Ms. Sogen's familial ties to the Fritz family? In truth, anyone with gray hair that's a natural part of their body could be a descendant of Samson Fritz…and that's the only proof needed."
Kaede stood before a painting of a Founding Titan incarnation and a man facing one another. The Titan placed a hand on the man's head…and from the way the painting described what was happening, the man's hair changed from blond to gray. She raised her left hand to touch the painting…and then…
Flash! Kaede stood in front of a literal Founding Titan of that time and a man with blond hair, kneeling in front of them.
The Titan reached out to the man and extended an index finger from its right hand, making contact with his head.
"Rrrahh!" The Titan roared…and the man's blond hair shifted to grayish-silver.
Then, as if on fast-forward, Kaede saw the man's life flash in front of her eyes, seeing him marry a woman and starting a family of four, all his children possessing gray hair, clearly the life of Samson Fritz since the day he had his hair changed to reflect his desire to stand out.
"So, he's the reason your hair is the way it is," Kaede turned to her left and saw her Dark Titan standing beside her, looking at her. "He's the reason your father possessed gray hair. How unusual that that's how everyone born into your family stands out."
As they saw the man's passing and the succession of men and women from his bloodline go through time, doing whatever people did to fill their lives with interest and need, Kaede saw how at least two people, a brother and sister from Karl Fritz's time, among those that didn't travel to Paradis Island, but were already present when he decided to betray his people and country to Marley, turning several million Eldians that were Subjects of Ymir Fritz into the Wall Titans with his power, and then wiping the minds of those susceptible to his power, completely unaware that they had avoided the mind wipe and retained their memories of the world before Marley's corruption and rise to power because of him. But what surprised Kaede the most was the siblings' decision not to do anything to stop Karl or undo what he had done. They knew that they could've done something back then, but chose not to, even if they knew that there was only a chance of things going wrong.
"Karl has tainted the Founder with his sense of guilt over what we did over the generations," the brother had told the sister the day they went their separate ways. "Anyone with royal blood in their veins that comes to possess the Founder will themselves become tainted by his guilt, unable to fight back, unable to resist his influence. If any of us tried to take the Founder, we wouldn't be able to help anyone here or anywhere else around the world, even when we want to."
"Then…what do we do now?" The sister had asked.
"For now…we live. We live and try to find meaning in this life behind a walled enclosure. We go our separate ways and build our lives elsewhere…because one day, someday…Karl's ideology will come undone. Someone will rise and shake loose his hold on the Founder and restore the freedom of Eldia to the people, giving back their stolen knowledge and truths. You've seen it in your dreams, as well, haven't you? A young woman rising out of the darkness, aided by a Titan born from the same darkness to protect her from the influential stains of others that seek control over her?"
"I have…but how can you be sure that she's the one that will change anything that is back into what was and could be once again?"
"Because of the faith I have in my heart, sister. In the end…it all comes down to one's own belief in something…or someone."
"They're…they're talking about us, aren't they, Dark Titan?" Kaede asked her Titan.
"It would seem so," her Titan answered back, watching as the years went by…and the brother passing away without ever having any children of his own, leaving his sister to carry on their bloodline, which she did when she left behind a daughter before she passed away from natural causes. "Maybe they were hoping that you would be from their family and would undo what their relative had done to the people. No matter the distance or lack of socialism between them, Karl was a relative to them, and his actions and inactions can be reflected upon those of his family, meaning that his faults were their faults."
"And his crimes being their crimes…because they couldn't stand up to him, even when they had the same blood in their veins…but wanted to undo his twisted actions. But…there's no way I could be related to them, to Karl, to… I mean, I'm just…Kaede Sogen. I'm just a girl born to a pair of commoners. I'm just a commoner."
The Dark Titan looked at her as the sister's daughter went through life until she met a man and had twins, and responded to Kaede, "And none of that matters to me, Kaede. Your lineage…your social status… I don't care for any of it. It doesn't make any difference to me."
"Why?"
"Because…the only thing that does matter to me…is you. How you feel, how you smile, the people that want to be with you, the people that choose to put up with you, your faults, your fears, I can't overlook those the way I can overlook a past you knew nothing about until now. Still, whether carved in stone or engraved into the flesh, this…revelation…goes beyond you standing out, beyond you being a commoner. This is just one truth among many truths…and it's just your heritage revealed to you, your legacy exposed for you to know, not something that defines you for the rest of your life. It is as Shinji once stated when Historia was needed to assume rulership of Paradis. You remember what he said, don't you?"
Watching as a little boy with gray hair ran around with several other children his age while playing with a ball, reminding her so much of her father, Kaede uttered, "I do. He said that anyone, regardless of their relation, regardless of their numbers, anyone with a common ancestor with royal blood has a right to lay claim to the throne…but only should they choose to…or if they can take it."
"This applies to you, as well. You have a claim to the Fritzs' throne…should you desire it…and if you can take it. You can choose not to. Either way, it's your decision, Kaede. You can be a simple commoner…or a queen…whenever you choose, however you choose."
"But…I'm not fit to be a ruler of anything or anyone."
"Why do you believe that?"
"I… I can't make the best decision in every situation I'm involved in."
"Are you sure about that?"
The little boy had grown up into a spitting image of Kaede's father, right to the moment where he met with Kaede's mother for the first time…and the young girl gave a small smile when she saw her father propose to her mother in front of a young man that was none other than Sig, and Christine accepted his ring.
"I'm nothing like the previous rulers," she told her Titan side. "I'm nothing like Historia…or Draven Fritz…or…"
"Why do you think you need to be like them? You can't ever be who they are or who they're going to be. You have to decide for yourself…who you're going to be. You get to choose what kind of person you're going to be."
Kaede then saw what was perhaps her father's best memory of his past where he was spending his time with a little girl with short strands of gray hair as she slept on a blanket in a wooden crib; it was the first time she had ever seen a memory she had no recollection of that was from her own past, and it brought a tear to her right eye.
"You're precious to your mother and I, Kaede," they heard Hagen say to the sleeping infant. "I hope you grow up to be a happy, young lady with a family of your own someday."
Then, as if trying to reach out to her father in the small room that was in their house in Shiganshina before the appearance of the Colossal Titan several years later, Kaede took a step forward and saw Hagen look up to face her.
"Hello, miss," he spoke to her.
Gasp! Kaede didn't expect to hear him talk to her right then and there; she thought this was an hallucination happening just now, that she was simply imagining this (and maybe she was imagining this).
"You…you can see me?" She asked him.
"Yes," he answered her. "Do I know you from somewhere? You remind me of someone I met four months ago."
Kaede looked down at the sleeping infant that was her past self…and pointed to her.
"Your hair gave you away," he told her. "You must be…what, fifteen? Sixteen?"
"Fourteen, actually; I don't turn fifteen for another five months."
"I never thought I'd see you grow up into a beautiful, young lady, Kaede."
The girl blushed in front of her father as a strand of her hair fell out of place and she tucked it back behind her left ear.
"Judging from the minor sadness on your face, I'm guessing that in your future…I'm not in your life, anymore. Yes?"
Kaede sighed and responded, "When I'm nine years old…you go away, but not of your own volition. You…"
Her father placed a finger in front of her mouth and silenced her.
"It's probably best if I don't know," he told her; even if this wasn't a hallucination, Kaede probably couldn't mess with the past by simply telling her father what his fate would be in his future. "Just tell me one thing: Are you and your mother…still happy? Is the future any better?"
She thought about it for a moment, thinking of the positive aspects of the future that were happening over the negative ones that were still being resolved and had yet to happen. There was still the conflict with Marley that needed to be resolved for good, the issue with Grausam Zanki, who might return, her budding relationship with Shinji, her status as a Titan Shifter and position as aide to a young queen. She was quite content with sharing this knowledge with her father and wanted him to know that there was some good happening on Paradis.
"The future gets better," she explains to him, "one day at a time. There's still conflict, but we're hoping it ends soon, everyone on Paradis, the island that we've been living on for a long time. I have a boyfriend that brings joy to my days, and we both help a young lady to help others around her… And Mother is very happy. We still think about you, though. We still miss you."
Hagen smiled and then hugged her.
"You'll be alright," he told her. "No matter what happens…I know you'll all be alright…so long as you have each other."
Kaede held onto his shoulders and took comfort in this moment.
"Thanks, Daddy," she expressed…and then let go of him.
Suddenly, she was back in the temple, her hand on the painting of the Founding Titan turning Samson's hair gray for him.
"Kaede," she turned to face Shinji, who looked concerned, "are you alright?"
She smiled and nodded.
"Yes, Shinji," she answered him. "I'm gonna be alright."
Shinji wasn't sure why, but he got the impression that his girlfriend had a private revelation a moment ago when she reached out to the painting.
"You…found out something really good from this (he points his left thumb to the painting)?"
"Actually, I did…and it was all meaningful. It's all true, what Frenzia said to us. My father and I… Just like Historia and her father, the blood of Ymir Fritz flows in my veins, too."
Shinji couldn't believe it…but at the same time…couldn't deny this…and bowed his head to her.
-x-
"…Are you sure about this, Rei?" Misato asked the First Child when she came to NERV the next morning and informed the female sub-commander of the dream she had last night.
"Ikari-Kun may be in danger because of his father," the girl explained to her. "Commander… Ikari-Kun's father will not let go of his anger of his defection from NERV. He blames Ikari-Kun for everything that has happened…and will not hesitate to make him suffer in any way that he can, including hurting the people he cares about."
And with the UN the way it is right now, there's no telling who's trustworthy over there and who might be a SEELE insert, Misato thought, unsure of who couldn't be trusted if there was going to be some sort of personal war against Shinji over his defection and would-be betrayal of NERV.
"Will an Eva be sent to intervene?" Rei asked her.
"Not at this time, no, Rei," she answered. "Why?"
"Titans are no match against an Eva due to never being over fifty or sixty meters. The only known exception is Kaede Sogen's Dark Titan, which can reach the size of one-hundred meters, able to match the height of an Eva… But if this Grausam Zanki is as dangerous as Ikari-Kun's memories and personal encounter with him suggests, and his own knowledge of Titan creation were to get in the possession of the wrong people that would misuse it…or become further corrupted by his power…then Ikari-Kun may need further assistance rather than further hindrance coming his way."
For the second time since the Twelfth Angel incident, Misato hadn't expected Rei to show this level of concern towards Shinji. Even after he had entered into a relationship with Kaede, she didn't expect the albino girl to still feel concern for him.
"We haven't been able to get in contact with him yet," she explained to the girl, "so, he's probably not in Unit-01 yet to make his activities known. Whatever's going on at this Gigante Island, it's taking a lot of his time, maybe establishing contact with a group of people there."
"If they're primitive, it would take a considerable amount of time to establish communication with them and reach a level of understanding," Rei suggested.
Meanwhile, Fuyutsuki had made contact with someone from the UN and was informed that they had no knowledge of any activity change over at the NERV branch in Nevada, which implied that SEELE had taken over the Nevada branch right under their noses, just to get control of the portal to the Titan universe.
"Make the call," he told Kaji, who took out his cell phone and dialed a number of a contact that might still be there…or at least their phone would be.
"Who is this?" A man asked Kaji when they picked up.
"I want to talk to Eric Gripes," he responded.
"No, I don't know any Eric Gripes."
"Then why do you have his phone? I'm recording your voice and breath patterns right now. If this phone's hot, it's your ass that's on the line. I'm talking at least seven years for stolen property. Now, where is he?"
The guy hung up on Kaji, but the limited time spent with him talking was enough to record his voice and trace where the call came from.
"There's no question about it," he told Fuyutsuki. "The Nevada branch is occupied by SEELE followers. The entire personnel there were most likely executed."
That's when Fuyutsuki decided that action needed to be taken, even though it was the most undesired form of action he was thinking of.
"Send Dr. Akagi in," he told Kaji.
"Sir?"
"We need to make sure the two Evas we have here are functioning properly in order to retake the Nevada branch."
-x-
"…You two were gone for quite some time," said Ymir to Shinji and Kaede as they returned to the building they were in, sitting down at one of the tables with her and Historia and the Tybur women. "What did you find out at the temple?"
"It's complicated," Kaede responded, not really wanting to explain the truth she discovered just yet to Historia.
"Does it have anything to do with Marley or…that man?" Historia asked.
"Um, no… No, neither of them, it's…"
"She did some soul-searching at the temple," went Shinji. "Self-discovery… Miss Frenzia Fritz had provided some insight and Kaede had an epiphany in the process."
"Miss Sogen had an epiphany?" Ymir questioned. "What does that word mean?"
"A sudden realization," answered Agnes to them.
"Was it a big realization?" Historia asked Kaede, deciding not to press the possible issue; she trusted the girl not to be too deceptive or turn on her.
"Yes," she answered; what she had found out was a big revelation to her, but she didn't want it to interfere with her advisory commitment to serving Historia.
"Well, I hope you'll share what your epiphany was in your own time."
In her own time, though? That was something Kaede actually worried about doing, discussing to Historia that, while the relation was distant and spanned back over a thousand generations, they were both of royal lineage from their respective familiar ties. The only difference between them was that Kaede's father had absolutely no clue about their family's ties to Ymir Fritz or how one of their ancestors had used the Founding Titan to make it so that their hair was a sign of their royalty and link to the first matriarch of the Titans…while Historia and her predecessors were from the ancestors of one of Ymir's two other children, unaffected by the Founder's power. In essence, they were two young women that could rule the nation…but the one with the Titan power was subservient to the other by choice.
"Today may start the opportunity to change everything between Eldia and Marley," Anastasia informed the young couple.
"How so, Mrs. Tybur?" Shinji asked her.
"We're all to meet the king of Gigante Island," Agnes explained for her mother. "General Calvi is looking forward to it."
This, of course, made Shinji and Kaede look up at her with suspicion.
"In a positive way," Anastasia explained calmly. "Neither he nor his soldiers are stupid enough to try something they have no control over. I looked at him, and Calvi seems as though he has had his eyes opened to what this feud with Eldia has actually done to the rest of the world."
Then Shinji turned his head to look over at the table where the Marleyan Military General was sitting, unsure if the man was honest in such a desire to end the hatred between the two nations left in the world. While he was prepared to do whatever was necessary to protect the people, Shinji was hoping that the penance of spilling blood didn't occur; he did like violent side, even for the sake of peace and freedom. He suddenly felt a hand on his left shoulder and turned back to see Kaede had placed her right hand on him, no doubt thinking the same thing he was.
"Just as you kept me from going down a dark path," she told him, "I'll keep you from going down the same path."
"Thank you," he praised her.
-x-
Trial and error were the backbone of creating a success. And it was only through eight failed attempts that Grausam had finally succeeded in creating a working version of his Jaeger Titan Serum that could work for these foreigners from beyond the stars. Standing before the woman that had volunteered to test his serum the previous seven times, now a fifteen-meter Titan version of herself, sporting a lean and muscular physicality, the man behind the Akuma Titan had perfected his formula…and improved upon its abilities for these people.
To think that increasing the dosage and amount of my own blood necessary to improve the formula was the answer, he thought, as the temporary Titan Shifter started to show signs of stress as its body began to evaporate on the deck of the ship. She went an entire hour in a controlled state? That must be the new limit for these outsiders before the serum burns itself out of their bodies. A pity, if they were Marleyans, this increased dosage might be comparable to an overdose, and possibly kill them if something went wrong. Still…this is an impressive improvement over my Marleyan version, which was an improvement over the Eldian version.
As the woman emerged from the nape of her Titan body, looking as though she had managed to get a tan in such a cold environment, Gendo smiled at the power SEELE and he now had at their disposal. In due time, when they had enough of this serum for themselves, he would go after Shinji…and then make him pay for his betrayal of him. He could already imagine crushing him to death in his bare hand, reducing him to nothing more than pulp that had once been another human being.
Revenge is best when waited on, he thought.
-x-
Standing in a large room, about the same size as the throne room that had been in Mitras, but with several roots from Titanus Yggdrasilus laying around because the building was directly underneath them, Historia and the others from Paradis and Marley were in the presence of Gigante's current ruler, Voight Fritz, a man well into his late-seventies, with his blond hair showing bits of gray and his face covered in heavy wrinkles, dressed in a dark red robe. Beside him were his eldest son, Draven, on the left, and his adopted daughter, Frenzia, on his right.
"Welcome to Yggdrasilus City and Gigante Island," he greeted them. "Such an honor it is to meet new people from beyond the storm wall."
"As it is to meet people that we had no idea were living on an island that has a tree that is massive and reaches into the sky," Historia greeted back.
"It isn't every day you decide to come to an island that is believed to be unreachable. What do you expect to find upon going there? Uh, really asking here… What do you expect to find here?"
"Titanus Yggdrasilus, a place untouched by conflict, a place to seek a permanent ceasefire between two nations."
"Peace and freedom, the right to go wherever you want, to be with whoever you choose, unrestricted by barriers, unbound by one's rules and regulations, to be accepted by others without any prejudice or contempt?"
"Yes."
"Everyone on Gigante wants that, as well, though you may have one problem with achieving such an outcome…and it has nothing to do with Marley's current behavior towards Paradis Island or even the Eldians residing there, some of whom used to reside in Marley-dominated lands. The problem you face…is the undying rage and hatred that lies in the heart and soul of the man that desires to be feared by all…and will seek power at all costs under his delusion that he is beyond any measure of reproach or penance."
"What do you mean by that?" Ymir spoke up, asking him.
"A man that embraces the false impression that Marley has spread for generations, but to its worst extreme, represented by his other self, devoid of any humanity, bereft of any sense of pity, remorse or fear of his own downfall. You have encountered in the past…and you have seen his unjust hatred towards others."
Calvi then raised his up and uttered, "You're talking about Grausam Zanki, aren't you?"
"Grausam Zanki? Who is he?" Voight Fritz asked.
"A former Eldian from Paradis Island that was exiled and sentenced to spend the rest of his life buried alive under Titania's Abyss," Levi explained. "He is perhaps the only man who has ever lived that hates his own people enough to want to see them dead. He gave himself a perverse version of the power of the Titans in a way that sets him apart from others that possessed the power, unbound by a former curse that would cut the life of those with the power of the Nine Titans down by thirteen-fifteen years, reduced to fatigued husks."
"A Titan Shifter who isn't one of the Nine Titans that no longer exist?" He questioned.
"A Titan Shifter who refers to himself as a would-be demon of the highest authority."
"There is no status higher than that of the Devil. A man that thinks himself to be the Devil…is a man destined to burn for eternity."
Kaede had to wonder if this meant that Grausam was still a problem they needed to deal with in the future, despite putting him in the one place that he couldn't escape. Even if he could, the massive depth and pressure he was buried under, coupled with the cold temperatures of the water would've crushed and froze him to death. He'd probably even become a small bomb and explode underwater like a balloon being popped. Basically, she couldn't believe that he'd find a way to return to their lives and become a problem all over again; the chances were just as astronomical as…well, as astronomical as Shinji falling from the sky like he did over eight months ago.
"Queen of the Titans," she looked up at the Gigante Island king, hearing him address her by that designation. "You seem troubled."
"I have a sour history with Grausam Zanki," she explained to him.
"There's something else bothering you beyond this…sour history with such a man."
"I'm sad to say that I know what troubles her," went Draven to his father, and the king turned to face his son.
"Yes, you would know. You're among the minority on Gigante that wield such an ability to know things you shouldn't about specific individuals."
"Do you mean telepathy, Your Highness?" Shinji asked.
"Yes…but not everyone has a susceptibility to leave themselves open to another individual who is able to read them as easily as a simple book."
"Can your son tell me what I'm thinking right now?"
All eyes were on Draven, who sighed as he looked at the Asian boy.
"You're wondering…if Ms. Sogen beside you is handling certain revelations with a calm mind," he revealed, "and you're also wondering…if there is conflict coming that can be prevented."
Shinji's shoulders lowered as he responded, "Yeah…that was exactly what I was thinking."
"Conflict is as absolute as the desire to travel to new places. The only thing that prevents conflict from happening…is the common sense of people that can see no reasonable explanation for such actions to be made. You go to an island and start ravaging the place, you risk provoking what is already there…and you don't go ravaging unless you're deliberately trying to pick a fight, regardless of whether or not you can walk away, afterwards."
Deliberately trying to pick a fight, thought Calvi as he thought back to the earlier years of his military career, attacking what remained of other nations in the name of Marley's future and advancement in the world…and how none of these nations stood a chance when it came to the hatred Marley had for Eldia.
"…You're not the only one who hates conflict, young man," Draven told Shinji. "As the old saying that has clung to existence since its creation, whoever fights what is perceived to be a monster…must ensure that they themselves don't become like them."
"Which is why I hate fighting…but why I fight," Shinji responded.
"People that hate their involvement in such conflicts…shall often develop the resolve to end the conflict," went Voight. "Only those that choose not to see that there is always another way to resolve an issue, however large, however small, however insignificant…are those truly incapable of living without the threat of some new foe."
Calvi looked at the Eldians, their rulers and advisors and, despite wanting to see them as nothing more than monsters…had to admit, however sickening and full of self-loathing it seemed…that they had probably seen him and the other Marleyans as nothing more than monsters, as well. And they had been right to see them as such…along with people from other nations, of other races…and all because of a hatred they possessed that they chose not to let go of for as long as they could remember. Why, his hatred towards Eldia's so-called once-great empire was as old as he could remember, learned from those that came before him hating the Eldians they kept in the internment zones, despising them for crimes they had no involvement in, of anything they could be blamed for, even for the most insignificant of offenses, even for just existing. And it had become a poison, something inside him that had turned him into something ugly.
"So, the question becomes," Voight continued, "can there be peace between two nations…if one side is willing to let go of the hatred?"
-x-
"…I can't believe we're actually considering attacking a NERV branch in the States," went Maya to Hyuga and Shigeru as they were testing Rei in Unit-00.
"It's only if the facility there is compromised," Shigeru stated. "If everyone that actually works for NERV is dead, then that means that someone else there is in charge and exploiting the portal to the other universe where Shinji is."
"The portal is just to come and go as one pleases, so long as they have the means to do so," said Hyuga. "The real prize is the resources that world has to offer. Unused fossil fuels, metal ores still buried underground, energy sources that can replenish our own. Or better yet, a new place to call home…if one wants to relocate."
Inside the plug, Rei still couldn't shake loose from the feeling that Shinji was in danger because of his father, who would be after him.
"Is this really likely to make him return to this world?" She had recalled asking Gendo, regarding the failed ultimatum that he tried to implement against Paradis.
"We're wasting valuable time waiting for him to stop acting as their false hope," he had explained to her, which she found unlikely to be true. "At times like this, pressure is required to restore order. And he defected from us. He betrayed us in favor of these people that see him as a sign of fighting back against extinction, which is inevitable. If he refuses to cooperate, then he will pay the price for his deceit."
But…he chose the Eldians against all possibility of returning to this world, she thought as time continued to pass in the plug. In the end, he refused to leave them defenseless in the face of an enemy they barely understood and may not have survived against.
"How is she doing?" Ritsuko heard Yui ask her as she turned to see the wife of Gendo in the back of the room they were monitoring the albino in.
"Her synchronization is at sixty-three percent. It's acceptable to a degree, but meager against an enemy in combat."
"That's against an Angel, not regular people."
"Against regular people…the Eva is nothing more than a weapon designed for killing."
"That's only if the pilots are ordered to kill. Conventional weapons can't damage the Eva."
"That's it for today, Rei," Ritsuko told the albino.
In the plug, the system turned off and the girl exhaled air bubbles.
-x-
"…So, basically," went Asuka to Misato when she was informed about the situation in the States, "you believe that the former commander and some people that wanted to bring about the end of the world…are over in the other universe accessible through that portal in Nevada…and are out to get rid of him?"
"That's the belief," Misato told her.
"Why would we need to worry about him? I mean, he's got people that have fought against Titans for years, resources and weapons that could enable them to win wars against others if they chose to, and he has an Eva and his girlfriend. What makes you think he'd be in trouble because his old man is out to get him?"
"Because of his girlfriend's step-grandfather, whom they had buried at sea in an icy location," Misato explained her concerns. "From what we know, this Grausam Zanki was condemned to spend eternity in a cold abyss far from any stretch of civilization because of his inhuman indifference towards people, even people he purposely killed or threatened to harm. Shinji and the Eldians banished him to this abyss in the hopes that he'd die or at least be forgotten about…and they had no intention of ever retrieving him, having no current means being used to travel deep underwater. However, the access we have to his recorded memories enables anyone here to know where Shinji's been…or where Grausam was banished to, meaning anyone here with the means to do so could reach the abyss and attempt a salvaging operation to retrieve Grausam and strike a bargain with him."
"And you think this man, Grausam, could enable people here to become Titans over there?"
"If that lunatic, depending upon how crazy he truly is…and how desperate these people are to want some ridiculous revenge against Shinji, simply because he's over there instead of here, there's no telling what that guy is capable of if given the means to make people turn into Titans of his variety. And not knowing what he's capable of, how far he's willing to go, is what makes him more dangerous."
"But they do know what he's capable of. He can turn into a Titan…and that's all he can do."
"There's more to it than that, Asuka. We've seen what Kaede can do with her Titan, but that was only after she took these different powers into herself, these…Nine Titans. They each had different abilities or variations in abilities. And based upon what Shinji learned of them, each Titan is different in every sense of the word. This Colossal Titan was the largest out of them all, but was slow in mobility due to its greater size. There was a Female Titan that was capable in every field, and based on what Kaede informed Shinji, it represented the feminine side of humankind, of how women helped to balance the world. An Armored Titan, covered in thick plates of hardened flesh that made it difficult to injure, kind of like a walking shield or fortress. There was even a War Hammer Titan that could create various weapons from this form of flesh manipulation. Their sizes, their heights, were all different from each other, and their variable levels of strength and speed, too. Shinji even heard of how one of the Nine Titans, this Attack Titan that most preferred to call the Rogue Titan, had carried a boulder across a district to a hole in the wall that had been made by the Colossal, and was reported to have been the most impressive display of strength that anyone had ever seen. The point I'm getting at is that we don't know what else these Titans are capable of, or if there's any limit to what they're capable of, and if Grausam Zanki is capable of turning people into a variation of these giants with their intelligence intact, then he's among the only few that could grant Titan abilities beyond being a mere fifteen meters or armor-plated."
That's when Asuka recalled something else that was recorded from Shinji's memories; the discovery that Grausam, due to one of his science lackeys that reviewed his research, was most likely addicted to his Titan Serum variants, frequently injecting himself with it at every chance he got, making his Titan more dangerous than ever. And she was thinking that, like any other junkie, Grausam, if he was found by Shinji's father and the people he used to work for that were after Shinji…would likely be in need for another fix if he joined forces with them. Thinking this, there seemed to be nothing and no one that was as dangerous…as an addiction and its addict.
"Let's suppose that…you're all right and they did go after Grausam," she told Misato, "what do you suppose are the chances that the guy is still addicted to his own serum? What are the chances that if they provide him with the resources necessary to recreate it and make it so that they can use it…that he'll not feel the need for a fix and go back to injecting himself?"
Misato thought about it for a moment and then answered, "I think if Shinji's father and the former Committee knew what they were getting into by dredging up this lunatic for the power he could offer them…they'd overlook his addiction so long as he could give them what they asked of him. An addict is an addict, but an addict with an edge to them, whether it's a physical one or a mental one, is one that can be exploited."
-x-
"Gaaaurgh!" Grausam groaned as he lay on his cot in the lab on the ship where he was making his serum, exhausted from the heavy drawing of his own blood to produce more of the new variation. They only have three-hundred soldiers at their disposal, and each one has to be able to have four injections at their disposal. And these people have no machines that can produce artificial blood based off the person's blood type and characteristics. They can replicate to a degree, but they can't generate at all. If it weren't for my Titan powers, I'd be an exsanguinated husk were it not for my boosted regenerative abilities.
He looked over on one of the countertops…and saw one of the syringes loaded with a dose of his original formula. It had been too long since he last had a taste of his work…and despite his recovery, he felt weakened from the imprisonment in other areas of his being.
Just because something works doesn't mean it can't be improved, he thought as he got back up and grabbed the syringe.
Wasting no time for preparation, he just jabbed it into his neck and shot up, feeling the artificial serum flow into his system. Within seconds, he started feeling that good sensation he had lost not too long ago, this feeling of invincibility and all its greatness.
"Ah…" He sighed, letting the syringe drop to the floor.
-x-
It was not something that Calvi and the Marleyans present had dared to see, but it was a fact of life on Gigante Island. The sight of people, adults and children, that were of different unions between different races, including those of Eldian and Marleyan descent. They could see regular Marleyan men and women that were with spouses of other races or survivors from other races, and children being brought up by those same people. As much as it should've sickened them, this was part of the first step at obtaining peace as they looked around Yggdrasilus City.
"So…is nearly everyone here…" He asked Frenzia as she led them around.
"Mixed?" She responded. "More or less the majority of the population is. My great-grandfather on my mother's side was Marleyan, and his god brother was his best friend, an Eldian."
"How is that possible? I mean, everyone here is so…diverse and yet…you're able to get along like nothing's wrong."
"Are you familiar with the illusion of separation?" She asked him, and he nodded in the negative. "The opposite of illusion is insight, and insight is a form of truth to the lie that is the illusion of separation. It doesn't matter what your ethnicity is or where you're from; Eldian, Marleyan, Asian, African, Indian, we're all the same because we all live on the same planet. We all see the same sun, the same sky, the same moon. We're all One People, but we live as if we're divided by race, distance, culture and history. We here have seen through the illusion and understand that we're not separate. We can mine the roots and be up in the trees so long as we watch after one another. There's very little crime, no drive to possess loads of space and claim it as private property, no personal property that stays with us when we die. We're past much of that. We tolerate when we can't understand what one is saying and try to understand by putting ourselves in each other's shoes. When you walk a mile with someone who is not like you, you develop an understanding, and when you walk a lifetime with them, you end up understanding them when you put in the effort to look past the way they look."
Calvi saw how three women that were clearly of Marleyan descent talking to an Eldian man about the flora growing outside his café, a boy that looked Marleyan getting a piggyback ride from a man with dark skin, and a woman that seemed Asian, but wasn't like the Asian boy that served as Historia's advisor; the woman just seemed…something other than what she was. The people on Gigante were truly of mostly-mixed heritages, including Eldian and Marleyan descent, making them One People.
"This is…not like what life is in Marley," he expressed, "but I will give it a chance in order to find a balance between Marley and Eldia."
"In the end, that's all we can ask of you to do," Frenzia responded.
-x-
It seemed like a little unusual for Kaede to have Historia, Ymir and Draven in the king's throne room with Shinji while Levi and the others from Paradis were keeping watch over the Marleyans. At least to Historia, it felt a little unusual; she suspected it had something to do with earlier this morning.
"So…what did you want to talk about?" Historia asked her.
"What I found out today," Kaede answered, sounding bothered by it a little. "I… It probably sounds crazy to even hear of it. Those carvings and paintings say more than they show."
"Like the carving with the three rulers of Eldia we saw?" Ymir questioned.
"That I can't say for certain, as it only pertains to a future yet to be present."
"With each of you here, that future is on its way," Draven expressed. "The Earth is divided in many ways, despite being a whole. There are the Northern and Southern Hemispheres, the four corners of the globe, the morning, afternoon and night, the solar and lunar actions and reactions, even the realms of black, white and gray. One world, many divisions, but it only goes in one direction, and that's toward the future, one event at a time."
"But…you know what Kaede's going to say, don't you, Mr. Draven Fritz?" Shinji asked him.
"Yes…and no," he responded. "I know what certain people are thinking about saying, but that doesn't mean I know when and how they're going to say it. So…whatever it is that Ms. Sogen wants to say…is entirely up to her to say."
All eyes were on Kaede, who still had a difficult time gathering her thoughts together and ignoring her worries over the issue.
"Whatever it is," Historia went, "just tell us."
Kaede inhaled and uttered, "It turns out that you, your father, Draven and his family…aren't the only ones related to Ymir Fritz that are alive in the here and now. There's someone else related to her that's been on Paradis for years."
"Oh? Someone else with ties to my father?"
"No. Grisha Yeager killed Rod's family when he took the Founding Titan from them…and you're his only child that was born out of wedlock. The person I'm talking about…stands out without meaning to."
Stands out without meaning to? Historia wondered; this discovery that there was another person from Paradis with ties to the royal family was something she didn't expect to hear about. But the only people that I know stand out without ever meaning to are… What are you trying to say, Kaede? Who's this descendant you're referring to?
"One of Sina Fritz's children, Samson Fritz, had used the power of the Founder to have his hair turned to a different color in order to stand out more than the rest of the family," Kaede continued to explain, "and he made it so that all in his bloodline would inherit the same trait. The hair color he had chosen was gray…and all his children and their children possessed gray hair. My father had gray hair. My paternal grandmother had gray hair. You know what that means?"
Draven sighed as he sat down on the elevated step that the Gigante throne resided on; he knew that Ms. Sogen here was affiliated to Ymir Fritz, the same as he, his father, Historia and her father. But it seemed that Historia hadn't realized this just yet.
"So, what you're saying is that…you're also a descendant of Ymir Fritz…and you stand out because of your gray hair?" She asked Kaede.
"That's right," the girl answered, turning her face away from her. "I say this not to instigate any conflict with you…but only so that you know. I look at you…and I see the only person fit to rule Paradis…and the rest of Eldia, for that matter. That's all I need to say."
Historia sat on the elevated step on the opposite end of Draven, processing this information, and then sighed.
"Except there's only one problem with what you say, Kaede, and that's how it conflicts with what might happen in the future," she told her.
"In what way does it conflict?" Shinji questioned.
"In the future, so says the Titans that carved the image, there are three rulers, one for each part of Eldia that we know of: Paradis, Gigante, and the Titans. If such is true to happen, eventually, then that means you're one of the three rulers. You're the Queen of the Titans, both figuratively and literally. And before any of us even found out about any of this, we both lived the same type of life where we had no control over much of anything in our lives. Before I joined the Survey Corps or even the cadets, I grew up on a farm away from people and I didn't have a relationship with my mother, who resented me for just existing. Then everything changed when Wall Maria was breached. Before you got the power of the Titans, you were just a commoner…and you're still a commoner in the eyes of others, but I picked you out of thousands to be one of my advisors when I became queen to replace my father and Paradis' puppet king. And…well, look at us now. Look at where we are in our lives and how we stand out. We know who we are, who our ancestors were, what we're capable of, and who's with us. And it was said before…so I'll say it again: Paradis is big enough for two queens."
Ymir nodded in agreement with what Historia; the young queen had matured a lot because of the three of them being in her life.
"It's always been big enough for two queens," Shinji shared his opinion.
"You are an unusual Asian, Shinji Ikari," Draven expressed. "Are there any others from your world that are exactly like you?"
"Unfortunately, there are none like Shinji, here or there," Kaede stated. "He's one of a kind. Paradis' Hope from the Sky. That status alone makes him very well-liked."
"And your devotion to him stems partially from how he freed you from your life behind the Walls…and how he dissolved your own walls you built to hide yourself from the people when you were trying to deal with the Dark Titan being a part of you for over five years. What you feel for him…goes beyond status and beyond distance defined as being separate worlds."
"How are you able to know these things all the time?"
"Telepathy is my blessing and my curse…but I never know what everyone is thinking all the time. It's like a light switch; the knowing comes and goes."
Kaede chuckled; she could sympathize with him over blessing and curses. But the powers they each possessed were more blessing than curse as time went by. They were blessings because they were used to help the people…and less of a curse because they no longer weighed them down with their negative feelings.
Flash! Kaede found herself in front of a large crowd of people, comprised of varying ethnicities, be it Eldian, Marleyan, mixed or whatever, and beside her were Historia and Draven, all three sitting on thrones.
The Three Rulers of Eldia, she thought, suspecting that she was seeing into the future. But…it feels like a long way from now.
She turned to her left…and saw Shinji beside her, looking a little taller. Her best guess was that he was probably still in his teens, but running out of them by at least two more years. Then, she turned to look at Historia again, noticing that Ymir, also slightly older, was beside her on the right, probably nearing her twenties if she wasn't already there. And beside Draven on his right was Frenzia, who also looked older.
Flash! She was then back in the throne room and shook her head clear.
"Whoa," she heard Historia gasp suddenly.
"Uh, did everyone in here just see the same thing I saw?" Ymir asked.
"I saw us," went Shinji, "sitting or standing before a large crowd of people. We looked older, maybe two years older."
"I saw the same vision," Draven informed them.
"Me, too," Kaede revealed. "What do you suppose that means?"
"The future is ours to decide," Historia expressed.
"I'm down with that," Ymir added.
-x-
Gendo was thoroughly impressed with the newly-developed Jaeger Serum that could now be used by them to fight back at these Eldians that his son protected over aiding him to accomplish his scenario. And now, holding a syringe in his hand with a dose of the serum as he stood out on the deck of the ship, he only had one thought in mind: Find the problem…and crush it with his giant hands.
"You gave power to people that weren't your own for only a brief period each time," he had told Grausam a few hours ago after he had made enough of his serum for half the people that would be using it. "How can it only be temporary for them…but permanent for yourself and those like you? How can you be certain that this formula won't be permanent for any of us?"
"Because…as much as I despise this truth, I'm what the Marleyans call a Subject of Ymir, an Eldian capable of being turned into a Titan when injected with a serum that results in a mindless breed. My formula triggers the same transformation, but retains the intelligence. When I tapped into that power to escape from a lifetime of captivity, it became a part of me. It will always be a part of me. Non-Subjects of Ymir, they can harness the power, but they can't keep it. They will burn through it like how a car burns through gasoline. Even if I could make it work indefinitely for non-Subjects of Ymir, I don't know what the side-effects could be. The Marleyans always stressed how they needed to pass on the Titans they possessed before a person's thirteen-year-long term with them was up to prevent losing them to some unborn brat. A Jaeger Titan doesn't suffer from a reduced lifespan; so long as they can regenerate, so long as they can find a reason to keep going, they can live to see old age. I, on the other hand, through my tinkering and repeated injections of my serum's variants, have achieved what most spend their lives trying to achieve: A reprieve from sickness and death so long as my body's mostly intact. You overdose on my serum, you might get the same results…or you may just kill yourself. Either way, the choice to do so is ultimately yours to make."
And as it was revealed that despite being injected only once in an experiment once the proper dosage was found, a Marleyan man hadn't transformed into a Titan for three days, meaning that they could be injected ahead of time, and so long as they didn't have a desire to become one, they retained the power for a longer period, due to not exhausting their brief possession of the power. This also seemed possible for those from another world now that the formula had been reworked to apply to them. And so, with a sense that he had nothing left to lose now, Gendo raised his right arm up…and stuck himself with the needle.
You'll pay for your betrayal, Shinji, he thought as he injected the serum into his body. No matter what it takes, you…will…pay.
To be continued…
A/N: Trouble is brewing. The Devil has spread his darkness onto those that have desired it, and only a handful of people realize this.