Creation began on 10-22-20
Creation ended on 10-30-20
Neon Genesis Evangelion
Hope from the Sky: A time for mercy…
A/N: Eren's fate revealed.
"…The doctors considered it a miracle that you were able to survive being thrown away from Paradis and into the water," Eren heard Armin's voice as he heard the young man inside his room. "Even though your arms and legs were broken."
"Armin," Eren uttered as he saw his friend. "It's been a while."
It had been two days since the second carrier had returned from the other island and found Eren at sea, his body broken as a result of being thrown by the Akuma Titan. In that time, life on Paradis had returned to its new normal and the previous operation to reestablish peace between Eldia and Marley was back in play. However, this didn't sway the people that held recollection of Eren Yeager's previous actions and were uncomfortable with his return to the island. Most were so uncomfortable with his return that they just wanted his judgment to come and know what Historia had decreed of his fate, whether or not it was personal or professional.
"…So…what will happen?" Eren asked him.
"Historia is discussing your fate with her advisors right now," Armin explained. "It's not easy to talk about when there are three things they need to discuss."
"Three things?"
"Yeah, your fate, peace with Marley…and dealing with Grausam Zanki so that nobody can ever find him and exploit his twisted knowledge again. Three things to discuss, each with a different outcome that leads down a different path."
"Why not just kill me?"
"Eren…please…don't tempt me. Until Historia decides your fate, you're living on borrowed time. You've slipped in and out of consciousness for the last forty-eight hours. During that time, some people have made small attempts to sneak into the building just to stab you in the heart. Mostly, it's just men and women that claim you caused the deaths of their children when you took down the Walls to release the Wall Titans. So…people are taking your very presence here very…personal."
-x-
Very personal was one way of saying that most people were afraid of Eren Yeager echoing his actions in this new lifetime where the Wall Titans surround the edges of Paradis and protect against invaders. And even now, atop the remnants of Wall Maria, overlooking Shiganshina, right next to the kneeling Unit-01, Historia Reiss and her advisors, Shinji Ikari and Kaede Sogen, were conversing in the open how to resolve the dispute regarding the former Titan Shifter that people were afraid of.
"…They just want a guarantee that he can't do what he did in that other lifetime where he still possessed the power," Shinji expressed; Kaede and Historia had to explain to him in detail what Eren had done to make people upset with him. "They need to be assured that he's under control, managed in a way that he's not a threat to them."
"Except he's not a threat," Kaede stated. "He's not a threat in the sense that he can just become a Titan again. Even as a Jaeger Titan, he'd undoubtedly be no different from any other Titan of that class; he'd just be capable of intelligence and whatever the standard abilities include with it, whether it's regeneration or hardening. They lack the power of the Nine Powers, and they don't exist, anymore."
"I want to be fair to the people, but I also want to draw the line," Historia told them. "Still, as a Jaeger Titan, his very judgment would be decided by his personality traits, with the dominant ones being amplified by the serum if he ever took it. If they're bad, he'd be, within the realms of reasonable doubt, no different from or better than Grausam: Unstable."
"But then… Kaede, couldn't you…make it so that no matter what Eren did…he couldn't become a Titan Shifter, anymore?" Shinji asked Kaede.
"I probably could," she answered. "I've studied more about human anatomy after we locked Grausam up for the time being. I'd just have to make contact with Eren…and render his body incapable of reacting to Titan Serums. He'd be no different from a regular person. He'd still be a Subject of Ymir Fritz, just unable to become a Titan. Ever."
"Except you don't seem positive about doing so, Kaede," Historia stated.
"Personally, I don't want to see him get executed for something he did in another life…but I don't want to see him incarcerated for something he hasn't done in this life. Should we really hold him accountable for what was in one sense…but isn't in another sense? He hasn't killed anyone yet. With his arms and legs broken, he can't harm anyone. There's a chance he might never recover the full use of his arms and legs unless we turn him into a Titan and back into a human again."
"Hange informed me the day before. Eren's arms and legs have significant fractures and nerve damage. He can still move his fingers and toes, but he won't walk again. There's a Titan Serum on standby, but that's if I make the choice to let him live."
"In the end, you two have the final say," Shinji reminded the ladies.
"It's more Historia's say than mine, Shinji," Kaede claimed.
"No, he's right. We're both queens, and we both have the last say."
"Me? But I'm just… How I do make a choice without seeming biased?"
"Your choice is your own, Kaede," Shinji told her. "Historia and I can't make you decide any more than the next person could ever hope to. You decide based on what your heart tells you."
"Shinji, sometimes, I swear you're a lot smarter than you seem."
"It's just common sense."
"Still, he's right," said Historia, "making a choice without seeming biased is difficult; we all know Eren Yeager to varying degrees."
"The one thing I know the most about him is what other people that know him best say," Shinji claimed, "that he has a temper that borders of suicidal behavior due to the past resentment against the Titans, which has now switched to a resentment against Marley for their unjust hatred against Eldians. I can't tell anyone to give him the benefit of the doubt just because he's, more or less, angry all the time at people he doesn't really know and that don't know a thing about him."
"Except his anger…clouds his sense of judgment," Kaede stated. "To make choices based on anger and not because of other factors…causes more problems than a decision is supposed to resolve over time."
"And if a person can't let go of their anger…or keep their anger in check?" Historia questioned.
Kaede sighed and reminded herself of her own anger against Grausam, of how she was constantly walking a thin line between clarity and madness.
"Anger is poisonous," she uttered. "You let it consume you…and you lose yourself to it. If you lose yourself to it…then you become the very thing you hate, unable to recognize yourself."
-x-
"…What do you think they'll decide, Mikasa?" Armin asked the girl as she sat in the hospital cafeteria; sometimes, it was difficult for them to believe that they were now living in what Shinji told them was what he knew as the modern age.
"I don't know what they'll decide," she responded, unable to eat her lunch. "Whatever they decide…is whatever they decide."
"I guess we're the only ones that don't want something awful to happen."
"And…if something awful is decided?"
"We'll cross that bridge…when it comes to that."
Mikasa looked around them, seeing other people that were at the hospital for minor ailments, such as a cough or heart condition. Sometimes, she got the impression that they were looking at her, as she was among those closest to Eren and should've had it in for him since, based on the memories they recalled, the guy just up and betrayed her like he betrayed everyone else for the sake of his own freedom. And worse was how Grausam stated this obviousness with some clarity. Even if the old man was just trying to stoke flames that were already burning with reasonable doubt on the former Attack Titan, that didn't change the people's lack of trust in the would-be traitor.
-x-
Historia looked at the children of the village, their eyes full of light and hope. After all the devastation that befell them, one after another, losing their parents, their homes, what little they understood of a future because of the Titans and the people that unleashed them because of prejudice and hatred, they were able to let go of their pain and move on after she had gathered them up and started looking after them. Even with her assurance that Grausam wasn't going to come after them, she wanted them to know that Eren Yeager couldn't hurt them, either. She had to make sure of that, even if it meant making a choice that others couldn't agree with. As the last of the sunlight began to disappear from the sky, the young queen sighed as most of the people would begin to turn in for the night, recuperating for the next day.
"Have you decided on how to resolve this?" Ymir asked as she set a cup of tea down for her at the table.
"I have, but I don't know what Kaede will have decided," she responded.
"And…"
"You'll know tomorrow."
Ymir sighed and accepted this; she knew in her heart that Historia's choice was the right one.
-x-
In her sleep, Kaede wasn't having the best of times trying to decide what to do about Eren Yeager. While she wanted to believe in Historia's final say, she didn't want to cause Eren to suffer a fate worse than what had likely befallen him and the countless other people from the previous lifetime. Her conscience kept telling her that the lesser fate would be where he was just a regular person, incapable of being turned into a Titan and possessing the power of the Titans. Then, her thoughts turned to what the original power of the Attack Titan had been.
The Attack Titan possessed the power to receive memories of its future inheritors, she thought as she dreamt of the one night that changed things for the boy. One belief of this ability is that it can transcend time itself, but if all the Titan can do is enable knowledge of future events, then it can't truly transcend time. Another belief is the ability to change events, which is what Eren did in the other lifetime. He manipulated his father into murdering the Reiss family…only by showing specific events to reshape the future the way he desired, but was relying on incomplete knowledge, which led down a worse future. But if one knows better, or has better intentions, then maybe there's more to such a power. To transcend time…is to be able to choose a better outcome…for a better future.
She stood before Grisha Yeager after he had injected his son with a Titan Serum, causing Eren to transform into a four-meter Titan that was an aberration compared to his Attack Titan form. And then watched as he attacked his father.
Please, stop, she thought as she saw Eren's Titan hold the lower half of Grisha's body in his mouth. "Please…stop."
Suddenly, Eren's Titan had ceased biting into Grisha.
"What are you doing here?!" Grisha had asked her.
Kaede had realized that he was able to see her…and she was controlling Eren's Titan.
Can I truly change this one event? She wondered, slowly walking over to where they were. "Uh…bite slowly into his spine, Eren! Slowly!"
"Aaurgh!" Grisha groaned, feeling like he was being crushed under an immense weight, but slowly. "Why?!"
"If I'm right, Mr. Yeager," she responded, trying to hope, "I'm changing the outcome. Your son's future is at stake because of both your actions. Well, mostly Eren's, but you also had a role to play in this. If you survive this, and I hope you do, you have to make sure that Eren has more restraint in his behavior and intentions. Otherwise, people will want him executed…and I can't have that on my conscience. Believe me, I really don't him to pay for something that doesn't need to happen at all. So, please…survive this."
"Gaaurgh…then…you've seen what he showed me, as well?" Grisha questioned her.
"In a way, yes…and in another way, I don't want it to happen…even if it can't happen. What your son does…is only because he doesn't know how to demonstrate restraint…or try to seek the path of least resistance. The path he chose, the path you put him on, is one of utter violence, loss and betrayal. If he has at least of his parents in his life, maybe he'll turn out better. Maybe if you survive, the future will be a little different for your son."
"But…aurgh…Eren has to eat me to get the power of the Titans."
"Not necessarily, Dr. Yeager. If he bites into your spine and ingests your spinal fluid, he will obtain your Titan power. You'll survive this night."
Eren's Titan ceased biting into Grisha, now beginning to evaporate in a state of agony.
Grisha fell to the ground, lucky he was able to still feel his toes.
"Aaurgh!" He groaned. "Why this way?"
"Because…your actions have led the majority of the people to fear your son, wanting his fate to be one that allows them to live without the fear of his actions having consequences that they can't face. A boy that throws a tantrum, people can deal with to some extent, but a boy that refuses to look for alternative routes to take when faced with adversity, that causes tension that can't be resolved effectively. Maybe this change will."
And thinking about it further, maybe, just maybe…Kaede could get past this.
-x-
Eren awoke to the next morning, uncertain of what his fate was to be by Historia. All he really understood was that he was still alive, so he was still able to feel the passage of time…until fate decided otherwise. He had a crazy dream that he couldn't shake off; it was night…and he saw his father, injured, moving slightly every couple of minutes, but still alive. But what made it strange was that…he thought he saw Kaede Sogen in it, telling him what to do.
But why? He wondered. Why would Kaede Sogen be in my dream? What does she have to do with this?
-x-
Gasp! A man awoke in a different hospital bed in the building, checking his arms and legs, seeing healed injuries and scar tissue.
"I…I'm alive?" He wondered, moving to get out of bed, his legs weakened from disuse for some time. "But…how is this possible?"
A female nurse walked into the room and saw him up and about.
"You're finally away," she greeted him, passing him a nearby pair of crutches. "Do you know where you are?"
"I… It…it looks like a hospital, but…I've never seen one this…sleek?"
"How about your name? Do you remember your name? What happened to you?"
"My name? My name is…Grisha Yeager."
-x-
"…You don't seem cheerful today, Kaede," Christine told her daughter as they ate breakfast before she headed out to meet with Historia and Shinji, who would be waiting for her. "Is something wrong?"
"No, I just…didn't feel like I got much sleep last night," Kaede explained, setting her bowl of cereal down after she drank the milk.
"But you slept like a rock after you got back from Shiganshina," Sig stated to her. "Had bad dreams again?"
"Not exactly. Remember when I told you that Titan Shifters could access the memories of previous Titan Shifters?"
Her parents looked at her.
"I was experiencing that as I slept…and then I went a little further down in my trip down memory lane."
"How much further down?" Christine questioned.
"The former Attack Titan, the one that Eren Yeager could turn into before I took it from him, could enable those that possessed it to see the memories of its future possessors, but that was only a fraction of what it was capable of. The Attack Titan possessed the ability to transcend time, defying fate in ways people can't do on their own. I saw Eren's father turn his son into a Titan…and then told Eren's Titan to bite down slowly on him so as not to kill him. If I saved him that day, then it's possible that he's alive today. Maybe. After that, I explored his father's past…and got lost for a while trying to find someone related to him."
"Who?" Sig wanted to know.
"His sister, Faye Yeager."
"Were you able to?"
"Yes, but…that's where I was uncertain that I could change the outcome with her fate. If all of use are Subjects of Ymir Fritz, then we're all connected to the former Founding Titan by way of the Eldian Paths. I saw her, as she was being attacked by dogs sicced on her by a Marleyan man with a cruel smile. And then…they saw me. At least, I think Faye saw me…and then I told her to do something that I knew was awful, but had to do in order to save her life."
"What…what did you tell her to do?" Christine asked her daughter.
Kaede sighed and uttered, "I told her to turn into a Titan…and then smash the guy with her left hand…and she did. She became a ten-meter Titan and smashed him under her hand, probably killing him. Then, I told her to go to Paradis and bury herself under a forest of tall trees, leaving one hand out to grab onto a trunk. I promised her that I'd come back for her. I'm not sure if I actually did anything or if I was just trying to amuse myself. I wish I knew for certain, though."
"But…did any of what you did feel like it was actually happening?" Sig asked her. "Did you feel like you were actually engaging in conversation with the boy's father and the father's sister?"
Kaede thought for a moment…and nodded her head in the positive.
Ring-ring! The house phone rang, and Sig got up to answer it.
"Sogen residence," he greeted. "This is Sig Sogen."
There was a silence that went on for about a minute, and then Sig turned to face his wife and stepdaughter with a concerned look.
"It's Ms. Zoe at the hospital," he explained. "She says that someone claiming to be Grisha Yeager is there and needs you to confirm if it's true."
Kaede and her mother looked at each other before the girl got up and took her bowl to the sink.
"I'll be back later," she told them as she returned to her room to change out of her pajamas.
-x-
It wasn't that Shinji didn't trust either girl, but even after they made a huge difference in protecting the island and its people from the Jaeger Titan invasion by his father and SEELE, he still had to play the role of babysitter in the case of Asuka; in a sense, one right barely erased the major offense she committed months ago. While Asuka felt mildly offended by this, Rei was unbothered by it, as this enabled her to see that Shinji was doing fine in this new world, and he had matured due to his time among a different group of people. And being shown around the city they helped to defend the most by Shinji enabled Asuka to see that the people, despite her active role in protecting them and their homes, trusted Shinji more than they tolerated her.
"I can't believe your AT-Field was expanded through the Titans to protect a city like this," Asuka stated as he led the girls to an ice cream parlor.
"It was more the Titans than the Eva," he chose to believe; even if his AT-Field was stronger, it was only because of the endurance of the Wall Titans previously tasked with the creation of the former Walls that it was able to extend across the whole island due to their vast numbers. "Their durability and regeneration allowed for the field to be expanded and sustained. It's a team effort, and there's no 'I' in 'team'."
"And everyone here is so…modern now."
"Modern in the way we live back in our world," Rei clarified as they sat down by a window facing out at the ocean.
"Any preferences?" Shinji asked them.
"Do they have strawberry?" Asuka wanted to know.
"Strawberry, sherbet, mint, rocky road."
"Mint, please," Rei desired; she didn't have a taste for ice cream, but that was only because she wasn't introduced to it in her past, and now here she was, trying to expand her tastes.
"Strawberry," Asuka requested.
Shinji got up to get their ice cream.
"I wonder why his significant other isn't here with him?" Asuka told Rei.
"She must be attending to other matters," the albino responded as a matter-of-factly. "They both answer to the queen."
"Maybe, but it's surprising that they're not together right now."
"It's not that surprising. Kaede Sogen may have a position as advisor that is higher than Ikari-Kun's. She is able to become a Titan, a factor in which it takes less time to prepare and resolve an issue while he is preparing the Eva to assist."
Asuka sighed and looked over at Shinji, who was scooping the ice cream into three cups.
"So, which of us is going to tell him?" She asked her, referring to the one subject that they had avoided speaking of with the boy.
"Would you really tell him…and expect him to make a choice he may rather not make at all?" Rei questioned.
The redhead thought about it, but found Shinji to be a conundrum ever since they met on the Over the Rainbow. Then again, she didn't understand him very much after he ended up here, but his reasons for staying were no different from a regular person's. A person that chooses to stay someplace foreign and initially believed to be primitive due to its apparent lack of advanced technology, primarily out of a newfound sense of love, and sticks to his decision to disobey those that originally had authority over him only as a sort of soldier tasked with defending the human race against an inhuman enemy out to destroy…was crazy and reckless. But still…she had to respect Shinji to a degree when he stuck to his convictions, regardless of what she or anyone else thought or believed he should've done, even if one or the other was right or wrong.
Shinji returned with a tray of three different cups of ice cream.
"I'm surprised that they have ice cream," Asuka told him.
"Three months ago, they didn't," he revealed, "but then people that received knowledge of how to make ice cream got to work and started distributing it. People like ice cream; it's a desert they can have whenever they choose."
Rei picked up her wooden spoon to scoop into her mint ice cream and stuck it into her mouth.
"Mmm…" She went; it had an unusual taste that was…rather sweet.
"That good, huh?" Shinji asked her.
"Yes," she responded.
Asuka sighed and took a scoop of her ice cream; it was the first sweet dish she had since Shinji ended up here. She had to admit, it tasted better than the ice cream she used to eat back in Germany, and this was an island different from Japan.
"What'd you get?" She asked Shinji, noticing that his ice cream was black and white.
"Cookies and cream," he answered.
-x-
Kaede entered the hospital and met with Hange and Erwin, who led her to the room that the mystery man was being kept.
"Is there anything about how he ended up here?" She asked them.
"According to Shadis," went Erwin to her, "he found him in the forest one night with Eren. But the strangest thing is, up until a few hours ago, this man was considered deceased because of how the Titan power was transferred in the past since the time of Karl Fritz. And yet, he's somehow alive again. We don't know yet how this is possible."
Standing outside the room, Kaede saw the man…and confirmed that he was indeed Grisha Yeager, alive and well. Well, well in the sense that he was alive.
"But…how is he alive?" Hange questioned.
"Because I did something nobody else could do," Kaede expressed as she turned away from the revived man to face the two leaders of the Survey Corps. "I used the power of the Titans to change his fate so that I could alter Eren's fate. I stopped Eren from eating his father so that he would live."
Hange looked back at the door to Grisha's room and then back at Kaede.
"How, exactly?" She needed to know.
"The Attack Titan," the girl explained. "People that possessed it could receive memories from the future, unlike the other Titans that allow access to the memories of the past. But there was more to the power it used to possess. They could…go beyond viewing the memories…to changing things that might've been…or could've been. Influencing the past to change the future, and vice versa."
"Changing the future by changing the past? But that's… Such a power may be second to that of the Founding Titan."
"Except the Attack Titan was charged with Ymir Fritz's promise to ensure Eldia's freedom long after her death. This included the Titan having the power to refuse orders given to it by the Founding Titan if either was ever possessed by immoral hearts."
"Immoral hearts?" Erwin questioned.
"Anyone that misused their powers or had agendas that endangered the people of Eldia and their friends and allies from other parts of the world. Karl Fritz tried to engineer a slow-motion extinction of everyone on the island in the past…and a future version of Eren Yeager attempted to ensure freedom through the destruction of the world around the island by using the Wall Titans. Even if it was for the sake of freedom, it was not real freedom. There was no peace, no equality, no willingness to see other alternatives in the face of adversity, only mass genocide. This prevented Eren's future self from seeing other ways to change the outcome of the situation he caused…and became a poison that needed to be purged from the world. And the primary cause of Eren's corruption…was that he didn't have anyone left in his family to reign him in when he went out of line every time he threw a fit. If I tried saving his father, maybe that would help. And then…I went deeper into the past, looking at why his father ended up here on Paradis, what motivated him…and ended up trying to save the one person he lost before his past turned to crap with Marley."
"In his records found in his basement," Erwin stated, "he mentioned having a sister. What else did you do?"
Kaede spent the next four minutes explaining everything she had done while asleep, trying to change the minor things without changing the big things that still happened. She was hoping that the two things she did try to change were changed because she wanted to make sure Eren was dealt a lesser fate than what people probably desired. Sure, she was willing to ensure that he couldn't become a Titan once he recovered, but she didn't want to kill him, no matter how much people felt he deserved it. Such a fate she would've reserved for Grausam.
"…If you turned his sister into a Titan to save her life from being killed by a Marleyan," went Hange, "and she escaped Marley and swam all the way here, just to bury herself in one of the forests while leaving her arm out to mark where she is, why haven't we ever located her?"
"The forests are large and we've never mapped out each tree, only the designated paths in and out of them," Erwin stated. "What's more, nobody's going to really notice a Titan hand sticking out of the ground against a tree trunk, especially if it's been covered by vegetation over the years. If this is now a new future, then we have to find the forest this Titan is hiding under, assuming she actually made the journey across the ocean."
Assuming that she's actually here and not some figment of my imagination, Kaede thought.
-x-
As Historia and Ymir entered the city to reach the hospital where Eren was, the young queen sighed as she knew what fate had in store for the former Titan Shifter; she wasn't sure what Kaede would do, but they would have to agree on some measure of penalty that needed to be dealt.
"Having second thoughts?" Ymir asked her as she led the way on an ATV.
"No," she answered her, "just hoping that Eren will not be temperamental when he hears of his fate. This is the third time I've had to pass judgment on someone that was otherwise threatening the peace of the people."
"Well, he hasn't exactly threatened the people today. He's just not being as cooperative. I can be honest with you about what I accept as my worst decision that isn't relevant, anymore?"
"Go ahead."
"I left you alone with him after thinking you'd be safest with him, except I didn't consider the possibility that other people, innocent people, would have to suffer because of his temperament. My sole concern at that time was you."
"And now?"
"Now… I don't want to echo anything from a lifetime ago…and I don't want him echoing anything he did, either."
"If he's made unable to become a Titan for the rest of his life, that's a way he can't do anything to threaten anyone."
They made it to the street the hospital was on and Ymir parked on the sidewalk.
"Whatever happens in there is whatever happens," Ymir told Historia as they walked inside.
"Yeah," she agreed with her.
-x-
"…But…how is this possible?" Eren questioned; he had just been told that his father was alive in the hospital, but he had a difficult time believing it from Armin, who was told to tell him after Hange sent for him.
"That's still a mystery," Armin stated; the truth was that even he had no clue as to how this was so, although he had small memories of Eren's father at the hospital, memories of which he was positive he didn't have hours ago. "However, it's believed that his being here may negate some of whatever your fate is to be by Historia later today."
"How's my father being alive again suppose to make whatever's going to happen to me hurt any less?! If he was brought back to life, why couldn't whoever or whatever brought him back do the same with my mother?"
Armin was thinking the same, and if it was all Kaede's doing, then maybe she could do so if she tried whatever it was she did to bring Dr. Yeager back. But that would've probably been asking the girl to play God too much for any one person when it might've been viewed as unfair to anyone else. While he had no interest in trying to make her bring someone he loved back to life if she couldn't do so, it was a possibility that the young woman was more powerful than she seemed due to her Dark Titan. Then again, she was the original Jaeger Titan in possession of the recombined powers of the Nine Titans, meaning she was the most powerful Titan Shifter in history after Ymir Fritz herself, and she was probably still testing her limits and working around them or pushing past them.
"It's best not to question the 'why' until we know for sure," he told Eren. "Maybe it's mercy or a minor form of retribution or something else altogether. Who knows for sure?"
Eren wanted to question this, but he had no proof of whatever it was that caused his father to no longer be deceased. If someone did do this, they were likely more powerful than he had been when he was a Titan Shifter. Much more powerful than any of the previous Titan Shifters that came after Ymir Fritz, who, in the previous lifetime, was no different from any other slave of the first Fritz king that ruled with cruelty.
Maybe Kaede Sogen had something to do with this, he suspected.
"Eren Yeager?" He looked up and saw Historia by the door with Ymir and Kaede behind her.
"Your Highness," he responded.
"I'm here to pass your sentence."
"Dare I even ask what my fate is?"
"Maybe you should hear it from Kaede, who is much more creative in sentencing than I am right now, since it's more her idea."
Kaede then came into the room and sat in a chair beside Armin, facing Eren.
"You understand that people are just afraid of what you might do if you ever became a possessor of the power of the Titans again," she explained to him, "and they're just upset about what did happen in what they understand as an alternate future…or parallel future. Ahh…thinking about it hurts my head when I try to make sense of it. Anyway, what I'm trying to say is…everything will be easier for everyone on Paradis…if you didn't have the ability to possess the Titan power again, no matter what you do."
"So…you're going to kill me?" He asked her.
"You wish I was ordered to do something like that. But no, that isn't the way to resolve this matter. So…for the next few minutes…I'll reduce you to a one-meter Titan, to mend your broken bones, after which you'll be returned to human form…and then I'll render you incapable of becoming a Titan for the rest of your life. That way, everyone can walk away from this sense of dread and forget about it."
"What about just forgetting about it?"
"Because I don't want people to forget about this in an instant. Using the power of the Titans to take away people's memories would be wrong of me to do; I'd be echoing what Karl Fritz once did to the people that could be made to forget. Making them forget would be a violation of what I told Historia what I wouldn't do with the Founding Titan when I took it and the Attack Titan from you during the ultimatum handed down by Shinji's father."
"Just tell me one thing: Did you bring my father back to life?"
Kaede looked away from him for a second and then returned her gaze. Sighing, she responded, "There's always a proper way to do things…and an unexpected way to do things when you're asleep. It turns out the former power of the Attack Titan went a lot further than what previous inheritors did with it. So…yeah, I saved your father's life by taking a step back into the past when he turned you into a Titan. Change bits of the past without changing the majority of the present. Doctor Yeager survived, but was rendered comatose due to his injuries. After finding Paradius City, he was transported from the hospital in Trost District to the hospital here where he recovered. You're probably familiar with what the Attack Titan is capable of from the recollection of memories you got like everyone else, right?"
"If everyone recalls everything that happened in that other lifetime, then they know why I made a conscious decision to do what I did."
"You felt there was no other choice but to do what you did…and because you wanted to make sure that nobody could take away anyone else's freedom, including yours, which was flawed in the way you were thinking."
"How was my way flawed? There was no chance of coexistence."
"Because you didn't want to believe in coexistence. You just wanted to believe that violence was the only option, regardless of what others believed. Even back when you stole that Jaeger Titan Serum to use on yourself, you were conflict-crazy, unable, or rather, unwilling, to believe in the possibility of peace between Eldia and Marley without one destroying the other. Even if you had managed to succeed, you would've caused more harm than good. You know what happened after the future you went and triggered the Rumbling, don't you?"
"Yeah…people died."
"And even before the Rumbling, you allowed your half-brother to turn people of the Garrison and Survey Corps into Titans. That was worse than you throwing a tantrum…or me hiding my Titan Shifter status because I was afraid of what people would do to me if they found out. You made decisions that robbed people of their lives and future. But none of that needs to happen this time around."
"Because the Nine Titans are no more."
"And because the Rumbling is no longer necessary. In one sense, we've already dealt with small-scale Rumblings because of Grausam."
"The Jaeger Titans."
"Yeah. And this time, there were fewer casualties for Paradis. Grausam killed only two people…and crippled you when he tried to kill you. While I'm sympathetic to the lives he took, I'm curious as to how you managed to survive getting thrown over eighty miles away from Paradis, crashing into the ocean and surviving with just your limbs getting broken."
"If there is a god, he hates me enough to keep me from going to Heaven for my transgressions."
"She…is not so full of hatred to do that. And those were potential transgressions; you haven't done any of them yet…and you can't. Ever."
Eren looked away from her and sighed. Even if he wasn't getting executed, he knew his future was bare bones due to his actions, past, present AND future. His suspension from the Survey Corps would likely become a discharge and he'd be reduced to just another civilian, a nobody among the nobodies. And the worse part…was that it was his fault; he was warned that his actions would have consequences, even if he had no prior awareness of some of his actions.
"Just do what you're here to do," he told her.
Kaede sighed and uttered what she needed to say.
"One-meter turn," she went, and then Eren was reduced to a larger than human-sized Titan laying on the bed, groaning from the fact that he clearly had no clue to what was going on around him or why. "Turn back."
The Titan ceased moving and began to evaporate almost instantly, revealing Eren, covered in perspiration…and just about nothing else.
"Oh, that's gonna get etched into my eyelids for a while," Kaede groaned; she understood that when people were turned into Titans, they usually retained their garments after being transformed and then returned to human form, but if a Titan has been active for an extended period, the person returned to human form was as bare as the day they took their first breath.
"Oh, you must've seen your boyfriend in all his glory by now," Ymir suspected.
"Unfortunately, I have not. We respect each other's privacy."
"Bummer."
Kaede decided not to respond to that and accept that everyone's personal relationships were as different as there were different times in a given day, week, month, year, decade and century. Now that she had mended Eren's injuries, she just had to do one other thing.
Cut him off from the power of the Titans, she thought; by severing most of Eren's connection from the Eldian Paths, he couldn't access the Titan power in the future for the rest of his life.
She could still locate him via the paths or even communicate with him like with other Subjects of Ymir Fritz, but unlike everyone else that was a Subject of Ymir Fritz, he was no different from a regular person. He couldn't be turned into a Titan again, whether he was injected with a Titan Serum, a Jaeger Titan Serum or someone simply told him to turn into a Titan if they had the Founding Titan, although she could undo this if she chose. After the task was done, she got up and left the room.
"Kaede," Historia stopped her before she went down the hall. "Do you…think you can change things a bit more if you tried?"
"In what way?" She asked back.
"In however way you did while you were asleep."
"You never know for sure until you do."
Historia accepted her answer and permitted her to leave. If Kaede could use her power to change the fates of people like how she did with Eren's father, that would've been a power that could've, potentially, undid the fates of many Eldians in the past on the island. It seemed like there was more to the power Kaede possessed that she was discovering all the time, which proved to be benevolent each time she used it.
The Queen of the Titans may be more merciful than she seems, she thought as Kaede disappeared around a corner. The least violent of us all…when she needs to be.
With Eren's fate decided, the Queen of Paradis just needed to announce it to the people that the young man was no longer a threat to their future. They could move on with their lives knowing that he was just another regular person. And all that left now to be dealt with…was the man that came back to Paradis for one thing: Revenge against the girl that hated him the most.
-x-
Walking down a flight of stairs, Kaede had a moment of time to herself to think about the fate Eren was dealt.
"You don't have to worry about his future actions, Kaede," the Dark Titan told her as her head manifested behind the girl on her nape, facing her. "He's no different from anyone else in existence that isn't a Titan Shifter: Harmless, vulnerable…and free to make his own decisions on how to live with the time he has."
"Thank you, Dark Titan," the girl responded. "Now, there's only one thing left to do…and that will be the end of every threat we know of."
"But how will you do away with this final threat?"
"There's always a way to deal with someone that can't be redeemed. But can any way be used to do away with the likes of him?"
"You'll find a way, Kaede. You have an unstoppable heart."
Kaede chuckled as she made it to the bottom floor of the hospital.
To be continued…
A/N: And with that, Eren Yeager is no longer a threat to people anywhere. This leaves Grausam Zanki left to be put away for eternity. What do y'all think of how Eren's fate was resolved? And what do you think Kaede will do with what she's capable of later on?