Creation began on 09-13-19
Creation ended on 10-11-19
Neon Genesis Evangelion
Hope from the Sky: A Message
A/N: A thought becomes a strategy, a strategy becomes a game, and a game…becomes a power play with many involved.
The sky was dark, but bathed in the ethereal glow of the aurora borealis-like lights as they stood on the sand-like surface that could've been a desert, but lacked large dunes, or a beach, but lacked much of an ocean.
"What is this place?" Historia asked as she found herself, Ymir, Shinji, Kaede, Draven and Frenzia all present in their current setting.
"Historia?" Shinji spoke, confused by this, seeing everyone else present. "Kaede, did you…did you bring others into your dream realm?"
"No, Shinji," Kaede answered him. "You're the only one that ever comes here sometimes. This is new, having others, besides you, here."
"Is this because of your Titan power, Ms. Sogen?" Draven asked.
"Uh, yeah. Sometimes, Dark Titan is around with an understanding of things I don't yet know about. Maybe she's around somewhere, waiting for me."
"I'm right here, Kaede," they heard the Dark Titan, and saw the dark behemoth nearby, taller than they were, with a stone path beneath her legs leading away from them towards a glowing spot that couldn't be made out due to the distance from where they were. "There may be a situation that you need to resolve here."
"What?" Frenzia questioned. "Why would there be a situation here in a dream?"
"This place isn't a dream realm. This…is where all beings associated with Ymir Fritz are connected to her and each other. I guess you could say that this place…transcends time and space, where Titan power can be passed from one Eldian to another. Or rather, where Titan power used to be passed from one Eldian to another. Welcome to the realm of the Eldian Paths."
"The paths? This is where the paths intercept and converge on where Nine Titans were born," Draven expressed. "I've read of this place, but it was known so scarcely that not much was truly understood beyond the facts that the Titan powers were responsible for the transference of many things associated with Eldia."
"You mean, the transference of Titan flesh, bone, energy, thoughts and memories?" Ymir asked.
"Yes."
"So," went Historia as she walked over to the Dark Titan, examining the behemoth that had demonstrated the power to undo Titan transformations, both mindless and Jaeger versions, "you're able to come here…and engage in conversations with Kaede?"
"I am," the Titan responded, and then pointed over to the glowing spot. "There is a reason to why all of you are here, but I have no comprehension to what may or not happen later, only that Kaede is the new nexus between herself and all of Eldia, what your primordial ancestress used to be when she discovered the power of the Titans, meaning that even if something does change, the overall standings of what is will likely not."
"And this all started right after we went to bed," said Shinji.
-x-
"…This island here is Paradis," Grausam went as he looked at a holographic map of the geographical locations that were what made up Eldian and Marleyan territories in front these SEELE remnants that freed him from his icy prison at the bottom of the abyss, "and the continent is a larger portion of the original Marleyan homeland before the people went imperial and decided to conquer more land masses across the planet. This neighboring island, though, Marley left it alone because it was useless to their purposes. I wouldn't bother with it, either."
"So, then, Paradis," said Lorenz as they were discussing a plan of attack against the Eldian people in order to get rid of the primary threat to their operations to take their resources for themselves: Shinji Ikari and Unit-01 and Kaede Sogen and the Dark Titan.
Whoosh. Grausam suddenly titled his head to the left side, looking like he had a revelation just now, and uttered, "No. Going to Paradis, while it would beneficial to you, wouldn't be much of a good move."
"And why wouldn't it be beneficial for us to go there?" Gendo asked him.
"You could deliver a message, but it's doubtful that it would be relayed at the time," he explained, "because I just the feeling that those kids you view as a threat to your plans aren't even there right now."
"If they're not on Paradis, then where are they?" Another man demanded.
That was something Grausam found hard to answer right then. It was just a sudden feeling that Kaede wasn't on Paradis for the moment, but he couldn't explain how or why he knew this. All he knew was that she wasn't there.
-x-
"…How long have we been here?" Frenzia asked as they walked the way to the glowing spot that remained obscured. "It feels like we've been here for over two hours."
"I thought it was for more than a day," said Draven to them.
"This world exists outside of time," Kaede explained. "It's not all that different from a dream; you sleep, you enter a world beyond the scope of time. An instant moment here can feel like a long time, but out there, only a minute or two, an hour or three, can pass by."
"That sounds similar to this theory of relativity by this Einstein guy," went Ymir.
"Yes, it does."
"Hey," went Shinji as he stopped, pointing to what was in front of them. "That looks like…Titanus Yggdrasilus, except it's made of light."
Gasp! Everyone else reacted as they saw that the glowing spot before them did indeed resemble the great tree, but made of light and branching out across the sky.
"Incredible," uttered Historia, who then saw someone nearby the base of the tree. "Who is that?"
It looked like a little girl, dressed in rags, carrying a pale of sand, probably around the age of a small child of eight or nine years. Her hair was unkempt and appeared to be salt and pepper-colored…and her face was covered in small bruises and her eyes appeared pale, as though she were blind.
Kaede, feeling as though she knew this girl from somewhere before, slowly approached her.
"Hello there," she greeted the girl. "Are you lost?"
The girl didn't respond, but she did look up to the Titan Shifter, revealing that she was blind.
My God, Kaede thought to herself, sympathetic to her lack of sight. Why does she look like someone I've met before?
Because she is someone you've met before, she heard the voice of Karl Fritz in her mind, the first in a long time since she defeated him in a battle of wills for control over the Founding Titan to protect the people of Paradis. It was only briefly, barely an instant, but you two have met.
Shinji approached the little girl, but she seemed indifferent to his presence…until she offered the pale of sand to him.
"Oh? You want me to hold this for you?" He asked her, and she nodded that she did. "Okay."
He accepted the pale, but then it dropped to the ground in front of them, pulling him with it.
"Whoa, man!" He gasped; the pale felt like a set of weights or sack of rocks, just something incredibly heavy for him to lift up.
The girl gave a small smile…and Kaede helped Shinji pick the pale up, revealing it not to be that heavy for herself.
"Nicely done, Shinji," she told her boyfriend. "You made her smile for the first time since she's been here, way too long ago."
"Do you know who she is?" He asked her.
"I think she's Ymir Fritz, the original Eldian that discovered the power of the Titans…or a shadow of her that came here upon her death."
"No way!" Historia gasped, approaching the little girl. "It is nice to make your acquaintance, Ms. Ymir Fritz. I'm Historia Reiss, one of your distant relatives."
The girl smiled and bowed her head to Historia.
"She can't talk, can she?" Frenzia asked Kaede.
"No, I don't think she can speak, but she understands us. She must've been here waiting for someone to meet her for a long time."
"But why?" Draven questions. "Even if she's a shadow of her former self, why be here where the Eldian Paths are…just to meet someone? I thought there was a belief that she just moved on after her thirteenth year of possessing the power. We're born, we live, and we die, but…to end up here? It sounds like…"
"Purgatory?" Ymir asked.
"Yeah," he answered, "purgatory."
Kaede placed her hands on Ymir Fritz's shoulders…and suddenly saw her past.
"Gah!" She gasped, finding herself in a forest setting, seeing a younger, less-active version of Ms. Fritz, crawling into a large tree and falling into a hole within the trunk, her back and arms covered by wooden spears, indicating that she had been harmed, which would explain some of her appearance being dirty.
"Back then, when I was young and powerless to do anything without harm to myself or others," she heard a soft voice that had to be the injured girl's, "people were struggling to survive in a cruel world. Back then…I was just hoping that the hole I fell into…would mark my end…because I didn't want to live in a cruel world."
The world is only cruel…because of the people that choose to be cruel to those that either aren't…or are just naïve, Kaede thought as she crawled into the trunk and looked down the hole Ymir fell into. The less people understood back then, the more they demonstrated naïveté. Those that knew more than those that didn't…chose to either help spread cruelty…or aid in alleviating it because they demonstrated compassion, understanding, empathy, acceptance. But back in a past where knowledge was scarce, where resources were limited in both their availability and utilization, it was a cruel world. But people possessed a power that made them capable of turning that all around.
A light shined in the darkness and Kaede saw Ymir bathed in its radiance.
We possessed the power of growth, of change, she thought as the girl emerged from underground and appeared as the Titan most romantics had envisioned her to be when she had the power for the first time.
"But after I saw that light in the darkness of that hole," Ymir's voice continued as the Titan examined its features and looking down at the world below, "I no longer felt weak. I no longer felt like the world was cruel, anymore. I felt better than ever, like I was blessed with something that very few people could ever come to possess. I felt like a hand from the heavens had touched my heart and soul, empowering me with a new sense of purpose, to gather the scattered and unite them under a new destiny. What I thought was my end in that dark place…was more than I could scarcely imagine moments ago. It was my end…and my new beginning. I could do more for the people that was impossible."
And Kaede saw how Ymir returned to her little village, viewed at first as a monster, but only at first. She saw how the man in charge, the leader of the village, a barbaric man by the name of Fritz, who claimed the people with such a hold that he forced each villager, including Ymir herself, to take his name, forgetting their own, that would use violence over compassion or understanding at every opportunity, had approached her and displayed his domineering arrogance to try and order her to do his bidding, as if he owned her, as if she were property instead of her own person. But Ymir…Ymir was now enlightened, smarter than any of the adults were in her village, and had an awareness that most barely understood; she knew from then on, with greater clarity, that this man believed in power…and that whoever had the most power, in either strength, authority, even access to resources, made all the rules, and Ymir…wouldn't allow people like this to live as malevolent rulers. And so, she killed him in front of everyone, friends and family alike, not as a demonstration of her newfound power, but as the first step towards their new future.
"I…am Ymir Fritz," she had introduced herself to them as her Titan, "and I promise each of you…a new future where we no longer have to suffer because of those that use cruelty as a way of life. For as long as I am willing and able, I will share this power I've been blessed with to help each of you. All I ask in return…is that you believe in me."
She wasn't trying to be a dictator or a bully or even an incarnate god to any of them. She just wanted to help better their lives and way of life with the power she had discovered…and they knelt before her, choosing to follow her, to believe in her.
"From that day on, these people became my friends, my subjects, my children, my responsibility," she heard Ymir say, establishing her position as the Founding Titan, "a deity among mortals, but a mortal deity with a caring, human heart."
Then…less than thirteen years went by, but it was a time spent changing from a handful of villages into a growing nation of men and women endowed with knowledge beyond anything the rest of the world understood. Through the sharing of her power, Ymir had turned several villagers into Titans of great strength and height to change their lands and spread their message of change and adaptability to those that could choose to accept it or reject it. The generation and manipulation of their flesh enabled the cultivation of fertile ground from former wastelands, the taming of large beasts, to traverse mountains, to turn the night into day, and even to end the spreading of sickness and decay. None of these would've been possible were it not for Ymir Fritz and her power.
"And then…came the day I died," she heard her say, seeing Ymir sitting in front of a younger Titanus Yggdrasilus, looking withered and weakened. "The more I used this power, the more I shaved away at my life force…until I had nothing left. But I still had much to give, even with my last breath. My family and friends will carry on without me, but the power of the Titans, my blessing and my promise to keep them safe and ensure their place in the world…until the end of time…will remain. I might've lived a reduced life, the price I paid for a better world for Eldians everywhere, but I'm not regretful for any of the things I've done. I'm glad I fell into that dark place, to have been blessed with this power to help my people, to live in a better place. This world isn't cruel. It's just…our world, black, white and gray."
But what Kaede didn't anticipate was the essence of Ymir ending up in this realm that transcended time and space, existing beyond what they knew as the physical realm…and being unable to move on, armed with only a pale…and her bare hands to sculpt the Titans that would come in the following generations as the power she left Eldia continued to be used.
To be here, to sculpt each Titan that arises every time someone was either injected with Titan spinal fluid or when one of her Nine Titans was passed on to a new possessor… It can cause a person's will to break, being here for what is akin to eternity, she thought, watching as Ymir was sculpting a Titan from the ground around them, this one being one she had seen before, but barely worked with…and one that she would never see again. She sculpted Eren Yeager's Rogue Titan. That explains why its jaw looked the way it did every time. But whether or not it was deliberate or unintentional is unknown. Knowing that Ymir is the reason each Titan looks the way it does upon being sculpted is another piece of proof that not all Titans are created equal.
Going backwards and forwards, she saw how Ymir had created the mindless Titan and Jaw Titan that would both be associated to the young woman that was named after her who ended up with her most recent descendant, seeing that it was a simple case of taking a previous sculpture and re-sculpting it to include the marks of the Jaw Titan when she had it. And she saw how she sculpted one of the Wall Titans…and then watched as it replicated into millions surrounding herself, no doubt a result of her descendant Karl using the Founder's power to turn many Eldians into fifty-meter Titans that used to make up the Walls. But while she was observing how painstakingly easy and difficult it was for Ymir to sculpt each Titan over the ages, Kaede had realized something just then: Ymir had made countless Titans to represent the people that had received her blessing over time…but there were no Titans made by her that resembled either the Dark Titan or the Akuma Titan. In fact, there didn't seem to be a trace of any of the Titans that had been produced by her step-grandfather, no matter how far back she looked in Ymir's history of being here in this place.
"Why are there no Jaeger Titans?" She wondered aloud to herself.
These dark-skinned Titans are unique, she heard Ymir's voice, created by a man that is so full of hate that he perverted my blessing and tainted it with his heartless ambitions for freedom and dominance. But your Titan, the Dark Titan, was his one mistake. Instead of making himself the first of a different variety of Titan, he sealed his own fate by exploiting one of my descendants that would be his downfall. I may not have had a hand in your Titan's birth, but your connection to her grants her a connection to this place. The path that used to connect all of Eldia to me…now connects to you. You're the only other person of whom all things Eldian integrate become a whole. Grausam Zanki…has forever severed his connection and exists in a place of darkness from which there is no escape, where in the end…he will never see the light that all of you will see.
Yeah, Grausam became a monster that was more than what most people bargained for. He can't relate to people, he can't…care for anyone the way others do, and he has no remorse for any of his actions. But tell me, please…is he still buried in Titania's Abyss? Is he still…out of people's reach that may be damned by his presence or his power?
Standing in front of the little girl that had changed everything in the beginning of their history, who looked too tired to do anything other than take a long nap that was past overdue, Kaede had to wonder if the one person she hated more than anything else in life…was just in their makeshift prison that was worse than a freezer with no food or bathroom.
Grausam Zanki…was recently released from his icy prison by new enemies that will seal their own fate by him, Ymir told her, which upset her immensely.
Great, she reacted, angered and feeling like she needed to go off on someone just to vent. That's just great. Who'd want to risk their very sanity by releasing him back onto the people?
Of course, she knew who'd want to cross lines just to get a hold of some type of power, but needed to ask just to vent. There were people from Shinji, beyond any doubt, that would go to extremes to retrieve Grausam if he was still alive, as Titan power was something they felt they deserved for the sake of their own goals, including her boyfriend's megalomaniacal father, who would've clearly had a score to settle with both her and Shinji if they so much as saw one another after the failed ultimatum.
"So…what do you want after all of this time, Ms. Fritz?" Kaede asked her. "Being here, time and again, you must want something that was denied to you. Tell me, please."
"To move on," the girl answered her. "I want to move on, to leave this place. Eldians that fin their way to the paths…they can hardly find their way to me, no matter how long I wait for one of them to do so. Only those with my power could come here…and only those with my power…can set me free by telling me I can go. But…nobody ever comes to say it."
"You need permission to move on, otherwise, you can't…no matter how much you want to, no matter how much you need to. Ymir Fritz, the first of the Eldian Titans, the goddess among mortals, literally the original Queen of Eldia, the great mother of us all… I, Kaede Sogen of the Dark Titan, the only known descendant of Samson Fritz…release you from this place. You have permission to move on."
Ymir gave Kaede a warm smile and bowed her head to her.
"Thank you," she praised her.
"You're welcome."
And with that, Kaede saw Ymir fade away from this realm of pathways that connected all of Eldia, free from an eternity of solitude in a vast setting of sand and starlight.
You'll be alright, Kaede Sogen, she heard her voice. You're stronger than I was…and you have an unbreakable smile.
Then, she was with the others in front of the tree of light.
"So…Ymir Fritz…was a former slave that freed her people from this Fritz guy that was a bully," said Frenzia in awe.
"Fritz was a world-class loser," went Ymir, "but he did one thing right, though: He died before he could make her a living weapon for his own greed and ambitions."
"Somehow, the power of the Titans made her smarter than everyone else at the time of her possessing it," Historia realized, "and she taught other Eldians to be smart, to use their brains, to develop the science and technology that could help people and the world. And that Fritz, he actually had plans of wanting to go to war with Marley when they were just a small tribe, but only after he had amassed a large army. I guess he felt a large Titan that couldn't be harmed by arrows and swords was enough to strike fear into people who were primitive at the time."
"She brought order to a sense of chaos," stated Shinji, who had also seen the past with them. "Did y'all see those buildings that were being built? Those bridges? And with Marley back then… Fritz wanted to go to war with them, but Ymir, she chose peace over tyranny. She was…an amazing person."
"Yes," Kaede agreed with him, "she really was."
-x-
"…So…how are things on Paradis?" Armin asked Annie, who was invoking a phone call with Armin from Paradis to the other island.
"Everything's quiet," Annie answered him. "The people are happy. There hasn't been a word from the queen or her advisers yet, but everyone's behaving. How are things there with the reconstruction and cleaning?"
"Oh, some of us are wishing that we had what we learned of as this nanotechnology for rebuilding the foundation of eight buildings. We've seen demonstrations of how it can repair damage in organs, but nobody takes it further than what is possible like they do in the movies. Sasha practically had to be told that it couldn't be used to replicate food, which she complained about yesterday."
"Yeah, that sounds like her, even after everything that's happened to change the course of what we know as history."
Armin then decided to send her a picture of the progress they made in rebuilding the town they found on the island, which was small at best, but still worth bragging about to a degree.
"What do you think?" He asked her.
"I think…you're doing just fine," she answered.
-x-
At least four times since they went back to base camp and led Erwin and the others to Yggdrasilus City underground, several children that grew up under the sky had mistaken Pieck for a kid their own age due to her short stature. It became almost like a running gag of sorts; because she was smaller than most other women her age, the former Cart Titan could've easily passed for a small child at a distance. This was something that Pieck had to get used to, even after explaining her age to the Survey Corps, which shocked some of them; it had turned out that she was actually in her early-twenties when Bertolt, Reiner and Annie had gone to Paradis over five years ago, and she still appeared young enough to be a young teen.
"I was held back because of my short stature," she had explained to them, "but I eventually showed my worth and was rewarded with the Cart Titan. The smallest Titan…for the smallest warrior of Marley."
Still, it felt kind of nice to be mistaken for a little kid every now and then, as she had been reminded that she hadn't had that kind of joy back in the internment zones.
"There's about eighty-seven or so people here that are small enough to pass for children just like you, Ms. Pieck," said one of the Frenzy Tribe guards to her as they were led down the stairs. "You may have a rare condition called Turner's Syndrome, which only manifests in women."
"Shortness and delayed puberty?"
"Among other things that mark the woman with it. Less than half of them are over one-hundred and look like they're in their mid-fifties."
As they were being led around, Erwin noticed how several Titans that were present around the streets and buildings just seemed to ignore the people present, like they were tamed or uninterested in harming them. It was almost like with the Wall Titans on Paradis; they were under control and instead being something to fear, they were just a part of the life that the people lived now.
"Another city without walls," he expressed.
-x-
Walking around the deck of the ship, Grausam was deep in thought after wondering how he knew his step-granddaughter wasn't on Paradis…and he'd been buried in a frozen section of the ocean for over a month, withering away to skin and bones, deprived of sustenance, surviving only by his Jaeger Titan power. Right now, his current environment was helping refine his way of thinking; the cold air not really bothering him as he paced around the deck, looking up at the cloudy sky that obscured day and night and down at the dark, frozen water that had once imprisoned him. In his mind, both were signs of the end of all life, a land of death and desolation, where life fought to keep going, but eventually lost. Cracking his neck and finger joints, one theory he came up with was that he had some small connection to Kaede that lingered, probably festering from where he had that dream that revealed she was still alive before she showed up on the mainland with those primitives she used the power he gave her to help them improve over time (he still wasn't sure how long the people really knew she could turn into a Jaeger Titan instead of killing her outright, like he should've done so after he had gotten his results back then).
If the connection still exists, then maybe I can ascertain her whereabouts, he suspected.
"How long has he been out here?" One of Lorenz's lackeys asked Gendo, who watched the Titan Shifter walking along the edge of the deck in front of them as they watched from the island.
"Four hours," Gendo revealed. "He should be complaining about the cold temperature or showing signs of hypothermia, but he looks like he did right after he regrew his limbs. It's like nothing else affects him."
"Oh, some of us doubt that. Something does affect him…and he hates it. He hates what affects him so much that he wants to remove it from his equation, not all that different from how we need to remove the Third Child… Heh, I mean your son…from the equation."
"He will be dealt with in due time."
"But tell me… Say that we do succeed in the end, that he is eliminated, and he's just one problem removed from the equation…how will you explain it to your wife?"
"I won't have to," he answered. "People die all the time. Nobody is exempt from death. It doesn't matter what the cause is, whether it's sickness or an earthquake. And if he's been here for months, he's likely been exposed to pathogens he wasn't vaccinated against."
"Yet, when you ran NERV, you had him exposed to LCL all the time, and the worst thing is that nobody knows what the long-term effects, if there are any, that is, are on a human being. So, you might've signed his death warrant the day you had him fight the Third Angel, and his continued exposure to LCL just shortens his life."
But in truth, Gendo's own scenario didn't have Shinji living past fourteen, since nobody was expected to see Twenty-Seventeen when the Angels had returned; everything was set to end during the early period of Twenty-Sixteen. Though, despite every attempt to prepare for something that was deem inescapable was made, it had been for naught, and yet here they were, still alive, facing an unknown future that they could reshape…and it was only because the brat disobeyed them, abandoned them in favor of these Eldians. Instead of being the sacrificial lamb meant to save the human race from extinction, Shinji took the path of self-preservation by enabling a race of people that weren't even his own to exploit him.
"Hey," the guy spoke as he pointed over to Grausam on the deck, "what's with that?"
Out on the deck, Grausam seemed to be…generating a wad of dark liquid from his back that was…levitating into the air. The liquid took on a humanoid form from the waist up, shaping into a Titan-like version of Grausam, probably within the four-meter range, its eyes glowing red.
"I've missed this," the Titan spoke in his voice, amplified and devoid of emotion. "The power to change over time, the feeling of adaptability, the glory of an evolutionary acceleration that is afforded to one that chooses to seek it out. Oh, Kaede, you have no idea what you've enabled me to achieve."
-x-
"…You mean to say that…all six of you had the same dream last night?" Voight Fritz asked Draven, Frenzia, Historia, Ymir, Kaede and Shinji as they were in his presence the next day. "And that you saw Ymir Fritz?"
They each nodded in the positive.
"So…she was in this place where the paths were…just sculpting Titans all the time, waiting for someone to set her free?"
Kaede raised her left hand and explained, "She wasn't able to move on entirely when she died. The realm of the Eldian Paths was sort of like a state of purgatory for her where she needed permission to move on from someone else who had the power of the Titans. She was waiting there for over five-thousand years. Chronologically, that's over two-thousand years overdue to set someone free from a metaphysical prison that they didn't expect to be in after they died. But nobody's really at fault for not freeing Ymir Fritz in the past; nobody knew she was there or how to find her, so she couldn't ask them to set her free. But we found her…and she was able to move on, giving her her freedom after generations of Eldians, past and present, came and went. It's…quite a feat that wasn't expected."
The king nodded in agreement with her over this; to know that their primordial ancestress was in a prison-like setting after dying and serving as a literal sculptor for Titans…and being alone…was enough to drive any untrained mind insane with sorrow. But to know that she had been released from that prison…was a sign that the country of Eldia still possessed a power that was bestowed upon them by Ymir before she gave them the Nine Titans after her passing: The power to set people free from their bindings.
"Did she smile?" He asked them.
"Yes, she did," Historia answered.
Then he smiled as he nodded in the positive.
-x-
"…He didn't even cut himself," one of the SEELE council members stated, watching as Grausam examined his Titan body, clearly a giant, dark-skinned version of himself that was fifteen meters in height, but the muscular build made him somewhat intimidating.
"And he just did this on the deck?" Lorenz asked.
"Yeah," Gendo answered. "The way he says it, it's like he's evolving, adapting over time, similar to an Angel in a way."
"No, he's hardly an Angel. Before, he had nothing but his trials and errors in pursuing a power to reclaim his leg and escape from a cage. Then, he gained power and exploited it for his own gain, even giving it to those that saw a use for him. Who's to say that he knows a little more about this power than what he has said? Or his exposure to his success resulted in a secondary mutation in his chemistry?"
"And yet, he offered us this power as part of his own plot to get revenge on his step-granddaughter. How far are you willing to trust him?"
"Further than I trust you right now. His goal is simple vengeance against someone still alive and that he used to achieve his former goals. Yours is…or rather, ours was…the Human Instrumentality Project, which is now just a pipe dream. Now, we have to make do with reestablishing our order and control, and if making a Devil's deal with this man in order for him to get what he wants allows us to get back what we lost, I'm willing to put up with his agenda so long as it affords us his knowledge of the Jaeger Serum…and his Eldian blood. Right now, as the only Eldian with us, that makes him invaluable, similar to how your son is invaluable to the Eldians because of the Eva or his girlfriend because of her Titan power."
That's only so long as they're alive, and people can die unexpectedly at any time, Gendo thought, already making it a point to himself that he didn't trust Grausam, even if he was on their side now. When the time comes, when he's no longer useful…I will personally snap his neck.
If only he could have known…the man behind the Akuma Titan, even as he reverted back to his human form…held very little trust in his ability to do as instructed. But Grausam wasn't that much of a monster that he would betray his new allies just because he didn't trust of their own who was clearly an untrustworthy man. No, if it became necessary, he would do them all a favor by eliminating the black sheep; if Gendo was a weak link in the chain, then that made him a loose end, and loose ends only had so long to keep getting in the way of progress. This was a battle for control over all, a war of survival of the fittest…and most deadly…and in battles and wars…anyone and everyone was either destined to rise above all others…or become another stepping stone for everyone else that could still keep going.
-x-
"Voight Fritz, this is Commander Erwin Smith of the Survey Corps," Historia introduced the two men.
Erwin bowed to the Gigante Island king.
"Welcome to Gigante Island, Commander Smith," the king addressed.
Meanwhile, Kaede and Shinji were looking at the Titan carvings and old paintings again, letting the greetings between their queen and superiors go uninterrupted by their presence since there was no sign of danger present.
"Hey, Kaede?" Shinji spoke up.
"Yeah, Shinji?" She responded, looking away from the carving of the three rulers.
"Are you okay? I mean, after meeting the original Titan Shifter and then…well, taking on her mantle, I just…want to be sure that you're…"
She chuckled at his woe of something likely to be wrong with her after setting Ymir Fritz free from her imprisonment in the realm of the Eldian Paths, and nodded her head in the positive.
"All that really happened was that we set her free from that place, Shinji," she explained. "Nothing else was to happen beyond that. No repercussions, no regrets, no losses. The power of the Titans, that's something that will stay until the end, no matter what happens, but it's different now because I have it. I can't say, exactly, but there is benefit to nobody else having possession of the Nine Titans and their being gone, even if we don't understand it yet."
"Even so, just knowing that you'll be around…is enough for me to work with. I can accept that."
"Thanks, Shinji."
Rumble! One of the Titans within the chamber began to move and raise its right hand, forming a large piece of hardened flesh in the shape of a flat tablet.
"Oh, they must've received a new vision of the future," said one of the guards in the chamber, moving out of the way as another Titan raised its hands and formed a hammer and chisel from hardened flesh; this had to be how they carved their images to be interpreted. "Everyone, remain calm! Just move to the sides! The Titans are about to get to work!"
Shinji and Kaede moved away from the two Titans as they moved over to an empty space and began carving. It was amazing that the Titans were capable of such a degree of dexterity, despite their size and the confines of their small space. But they were working through such limitations…and it was magnificent.
"What…are they carving?" Shinji felt the need to ask, barely able to comprehend the lines he could make out.
"Whatever it is that they saw to the best of their ability to transcribe for all to see," Kaede told him, unsure of what they saw herself.
-x-
"…So, even though you're convinced that they're not on Paradis, you still see no problem with us going there?" Lorenz asked Grausam later that day, watching as he resumed producing more of his Jaeger Titan Serum in the lab.
"Just because we don't know where they currently are, who's to say that the people still there don't know where they are?" He responded, filling up another vial with his blood for dilution. "What's more, I have two other relatives on that island that I could probably get to deliver a message for me to that little bitch."
"We could just show up and take their island for ourselves if we wanted to."
"If you try to take from them what is theirs, they will resist…and retaliate. Also, they still have Titans that may have been instructed to do whatever it takes to defend the island against invasion…and the technology they have has more than likely been improved since the last time I was there. Using the power of the Titans to develop technology beyond what Marley and their enemies possessed is both ancient and modern. It's probably how most of their buildings in that city by the bay were able to stand for so long despite the passage of time and the bad weather."
"Nothing lasts forever."
"You shouldn't say what you don't believe in. If nothing lasts forever, why believe that something will last forever? If we're going to die an inevitable end, why struggle to avoid it all the time? And if you have nothing you want to say to someone, but can't tell them in person, why use a proxy to deliver a message for yourself? If there is one thing about belief and disbelief…it is that to disbelieve…is to believe in the possibility that nothing is absolute, that there is nothing worth believing in. If you disbelieve in hope, you only believe in despair. If you disbelieve in love, you only believe in hatred. And if you disbelieve in your own goals…then you believe only in your failure. I came close to accepting my defeat when I was down in that abyss for what felt like an eternity. I came so close that I almost felt like dying. But I couldn't accept it just yet…and that is why I'm determined to achieve my goal of vengeance over my step-granddaughter. If there's even the slightest possibility of my entering the next world…I'm taking her with me."
"And you disbelieve in immortality?"
"I used to believe that the Titans were immortal. Dozens of people that saw them or fought them must've made the same claim…but then I found that they're just as vulnerable as the next organism. Even deities, beings that exist beyond the physical realm, will eventually die."
Lorenz could see that if this man had been involved in the Human Instrumentality Project, he'd likely fight back any belief that harmonizing all souls would endow them with immortality and perfection, probably holding on to a subconscious belief that his individuality was his greatest advantage in the face of inevitability. But that was only if Human Instrumentality were still a possibility, a goal that was no longer within anyone's reach.
"I don't know who said it, but they must've been at odds with someone of authority that they couldn't agree with if they were to go and say that they would rather rule in Hell than serve in Heaven," Grausam said to Lorenz. "Would you rather be a ruler or a servant?"
-x-
The new carving the Titans had made was disturbing when it was completed an hour later. Not only was it depicting a future event, but what bothered the people that evaluated it was how it was of a conflict between two Titans…and one of them was clearly on the losing end.
"What do you think, Shinji?" Historia asked.
"I think that, if this event does come to pass, all of Eldia has a persistent demon that refuses to stay down," Shinji answered her.
The carving depicted the Dark Titan and the Akuma Titan locked in combat…and the Dark Titan was on its hands and knees.
"A very inhuman demon," went Ymir, "and we already have one that's an ally, only prettier."
Shinji knew that she was referring to his Eva as the other demon that she deemed pretty, but chose to say nothing about the aesthetics of his Eva; half the time, he wasn't sure whether the cybernetic behemoth was meant to be pleasing to the owner or menacing to the enemy that wasn't originally believed to be intelligent to comprehend fear.
"Who is this Akuma Titan?" Voight asked them.
"My step-grandfather, Grausam Zanki," Kaede explained. "An Eldian exile who is completely devoid of any humanity. He's the guy that created the Jaeger Titans, a variation of Titans with intelligence similar to the Nine Titans."
"A crazy patriarch?"
"In a way, yes, he is."
"He created the Jaeger Titans in an attempt to regenerate his lost leg," Erwin added, "and experimented with his original serum on Ms. Sogen here, making her his first success before he used it on himself prior to the day Shiganshina was attacked five years ago, and then he escaped off the island and defected to Marley."
Calvi was also present, examining the carving, and sighed.
"Grausam Zanki was a brilliant mind," he expressed. "He made the exploitation of Titans more efficient with his formula and variants than the Titan Biology Research Society could with the last Beast Titan holder that he killed later on. He always kept himself in check, though, never exhibiting any of his…darker tendencies in front of anyone."
Then…Shinji looked over at Calvi and approached him.
"Has Grausam…fought for Marley against anyone before coming back to Paradis, sir?" He asked him. "Any resistance factions? Another country during a previous war?"
Calvi sighed again and responded, "Eight months after we took him in…he was asked to participate in the war between Marley and what was left of this Mid-East Alliance. We had originally expected to end it within a year…and he ended it within a week. Several of the Eldians and Marleyan soldiers at the time described his actions as a Titan to be…beyond what any of the Nine Titans were shown to be capable of…but what had frightened them enough to want to walk away from the war…was his apparent need to be feared by anyone that tried to stand up to him. It was like nothing, even weapons that could harm the Armored Titan, could stop him. The aftermath was…like something was set on fire…and burned everything away. The enemy, men, women, children, all slaughtered by him. One soldier stated he even used the corpses for target practice."
Everyone else in the chamber felt like they could see and hear the nightmarish slaughter that Grausam had committed for Marley when he was asked to fight against their enemies. The would-be sounds of people screaming, the would-be sight of the sky red because of the burning lands…and a large man bathed in light and darkness, eyes ablaze in red.
"It would seem as though he reveled in what he was being asked to do for Marley," Voight suggested. "He exploited the power of the Titans for his own purposes, gave a variation of it to a nation of people that were taught to hate another nation…and when asked to kill, he did so…and not only did he tear down the enemy forces…but he enjoyed it."
"He's a sick mind," went Levi, "with an even sicker soul. There is no redemption for the likes of him at all."
Draven looked closer at the carving and sighed at the depiction of the Akuma Titan. It wasn't that it was monstrous or even a former Eldian that was cast out and sentenced to eternity in a frozen wasteland, but the fact that the man behind the Titan was yet to be encountered…and therefore uncertain of how to best deal with the situation.
"Tell me, Draven, if you read this monster's mind," his father asked him, "what would you know of him that nobody else did?"
"Father, I would probably know things of which I can't un-know, things that would drive a sane man mad. I would consider not knowing what lies in his mind a message not to trespass upon it in favor of one's sanity over madness. If we meet him, send him back to his icy Hell…or burn him until there is nothing left of him to regenerate from."
"Miss Sogen, when you discovered that Grausam was recently released from his imprisonment, were you able to find out how he was released?" Erwin asked Kaede.
"No, only that there is a new enemy," she answered him.
"A new enemy?" Calvi questioned; after decimating what was left of the Mid-East Alliance, Marley had taken most of the planet, leaving only their feud with Paradis for their resources. "But, excluding the lands of Eldia, there shouldn't be any other nations left besides Marley."
Unless…the new enemy isn't from anywhere on this Earth, thought Shinji in suspicion of how there could be some people from his world that still had limited means to do much of whatever they wanted to people over here in this world. I hope I'm wrong.
Oh, if only Shinji was wrong about what he felt was a possibility. If he was right, he was going to hate that he guessed correctly.
Screech! Something on Erwin and Levi gave off a static noise, catching everyone's attention.
"Radios?" Draven asked them.
"Yeah," Levi spoke as he removed his from his waistband. "This is Captain Levi, speaking."
"Base camp reporting an emergency call from the carrier," a woman's voice responded on the other end. "They picked up a radio link with someone claiming to be Shinji Ikari's father with a message to give to him and the Eldians."
"What is the message?"
"A large group of people from his world that feel betrayed by Shinji's defection from his world and his refusal to surrender himself and Ms. Sogen has led them to track down and release Grausam Zanki from Titania's Abyss."
"My father?!" Shinji gasped.
"Some group called SEELE released Grausam with the aim to take over our world so that they can retake control of their own," the woman on the radio continued.
"Did you confirm whether or not they were bluffing?" Erwin asked.
"Yes, and, unfortunately, it's no bluff. Grausam is with these people…and he's allied himself with them."
"What the Hell does he think he is, a triple crosser," Calvi demanded; it was bad enough that Grausam turned on his own people, but to go and align himself with another group of people just because they dredged him up from the abyss.
"Probably the way a life debt functions with him," Draven suggested. "Someone that isn't associated with the Eldians saves him, and he owes them to repay the debt."
"Why can't he just stick with one kind of people to serve be content with that?"
"And why can't my father just accept that I go and make personal decisions that go against him?" Shinji stated. "People make choices that affect the choices made by other people, for better or for worse."
"And what kind of person is your father?"
"Not someone that I'd nominate for Father of the Year, past, present or future. He's just a…a complete jerk."
"And he tried to wipe out Paradis in order to force you to surrender to him?"
"The worst decision he made that enforced my own to stay here."
"Ten to one, the guy is similar to Grausam in the fact that familial bonds mean nothing to him," went Historia. "One-hundred to one, the guy seems like he has a god complex; he wants to be in control of everything and everyone, but when he can't have his way, he'll attempt to use force against any that refuse to bend over for him. But in the end, both are virtually heartless men."
To be continued…
A/N: The message? That's for you to decide. It could be anything that was in this chapter, ranging from Grausam suddenly knowing that Kaede wasn't on Paradis, Ymir Fritz being released from where she's been since she died, or how Gendo and Lorenz both have differing opinions regarding Grausam…to even Grausam being unstable.