Creation began on 11-13-20
Creation ended on 12-12-20
Neon Genesis Evangelion
Hope from the Sky: Starting Over
A/N: I was originally going to add an omake in the last chapter, but I decided to save it for this one. I hope you will enjoy after the continuation of this story.
It had taken a month, but Marley's citizens had to recognize Paradis Island as the victor of the war after witnessing how powerful the people there had become in less than a year after their most recent ally in the war had fallen from the sky during an attack against them by the Colossal Titan. And during that month, across Marley's primary continent, in abandoned places or places ruined by the war that had gone on for decades, the land had been cultivated by massive Titans walking around and shedding their flesh across the lifeless soil, restoring life for miles. It was also during that Time that Kaede had done more with her power to affect the past than she thought she could when Historia permitted her to alter the fates of as many people as she could, which was quite the unexpected outcome when the Titan Shifter had received calls or texts from the queen or her own parents to inform her of people that had suddenly come back from the dead. And it was another sunny day in Liberio when the girl awoke on the carrier and stepped out onto the deck to look out at the coastal city.
I hope Ms. Ackerman can appreciate what was done, she thought as she walked over to the walkway and off the ship.
Last night, in her sleep, Kaede had once again visited the past through the memories of the previous Titan Shifters. It had mostly been Grisha's memories due to being the one closest to where it had occurred, but her presence in his past was all she needed to make her own actions necessary; the power of the Titans was present within the previous possessors the second they inherited one of the Nine Titans, enabling her presence in the past to take place no matter when she appeared. She had gone back to the year before the Marleyans had sent their Warrior Unit to attack the people, and headed to the shack where the Ackermans lived. About three days went by (it felt like three days, even though she had only been asleep for a few hours, as time spent in a memory varied all the time), but she kept her distance from the shack at first, just until those three men showed up.
They don't even belong to the Mix-fits, she thought as she hid behind a tree and saw them. They may not belong to the societies within the districts, but I can't risk these three men causing an irredeemable pain that may cripple a girl's emotions.
Deciding then and there on what needed to be done, the girl revealed herself to them…and became her Dark Titan-influenced Jaw Titan…and sent them running for their lives when they realized that they needed get away. But she didn't let them live; after what she heard about them from Eren and Mikasa's point of view, the former of whom had considered them monsters instead of criminals, she had to consider the possibility that even if she had chased them off, they would just return at a different time and Mikasa would be without parents, and so she had to do away with them. She had grabbed them, took them as far from where Shiganshina stood, unnoticed by anyone, dug a large hole…and buried them alive.
"Please!" One of them had pleaded to her before she threw them into the hole. "Please! Don't hurt us! We'll give you anything you want! Name your price! Those people in that shack back there! We heard a rumor that one of them, a woman, is a rarity among the people! Oriental or something! She'd be worth a fortune to whoever wants her!"
It just sickened her that one of these men would attempt to bribe her by trading in someone's life in exchange for their own being spared. There was no way she could allow anyone to commit such unforgivable atrocities, either for pleasure or for profit, and so she told them one thing that would be the last thing they would hear before she killed them.
"Your disregard for life…disgusts me," she had told them. "I suggest you pray for a second chance at life…because your current one is going to end under several tons of dirt…and you can only breathe in an enclosed space for so long before you run out of air."
And then she dropped them into the large hole, making sure it was twelve feet deep, just enough to ensure they couldn't climb out after she refilled it with dirt. If she did her research properly, Kaede knew that humans couldn't move for long in an enclosed environment with limited oxygen and no access to food or water, these three were as good as dead. Afterward, she returned to the shack and introduced herself to the three…and tried to change their fates.
"I'd recommend that two of you relocate to a small village outside of the Walls while your daughter stays with the Yeager family," she suggested to them; if she could get them to where the Mix-fits resided after learning that the Titans never attacked their settlement due to their numbers being too fewer than the ones in the districts, then their lives could be spared until after the Walls came down and the Mix-fits' village could be found later.
She really wanted to get the parents away from the danger and persecution caused to the Ackermans and non-Eldian ethnicities within the Walls, but she wanted for them to decide for themselves, not be forced unless she had to. And once she had them willingly relocate to the village and promise they'd stay there until they were visited by the people from within the Walls years later, she walked through time again, putting herself in the Reiss Chapel, just in time to watch Grisha Yeager turn into the Attack Titan and Frieda Reiss become the Founding Titan in front of the Reiss family.
"…Kaede Sogen?" A voice broke her from her recollection and she blinked her eyes, seeing Levi in front of her.
"Oh, Captain Levi," she greeted. "Yes?"
"Who did you save in the past this time?" He asked her.
"Just two people," she answered. "Two people…because I have to go back to the Reiss Chapel to save the other six."
"You mean…you were permitted by Historia…to change the fate of her half-sister and Rod's family?" He had to ask her.
"It…wasn't so much permission as it was her request," she explained. "Honestly, I was surprised that she had asked me before we left Paradis. Of course, I'd do it if she had told me to. Do you think either of us was wrong?"
There were many ways Levi could've said that this was a major violation of everything that was humanly possible, but since Historia was the Queen of Paradis, she had leeway to ask her co-ruling advisers for…small favors or personal requests. And…since saving lives was what they were doing, it didn't really affect how the Survey Corps or Garrison did their jobs.
"No," he decided to say to her instead. "Saving lives is saving lives."
Kaede bowed her head to him and walked away.
"Tell me one thing, though," he stopped her. "Who are the two people whose lives you altered by walking through time?"
She turned back to face him.
"Mikasa Ackerman's parents," she answered.
"That brings the number there up to five now."
Five? Oh, he means the Ackerman clan of Paradis. Yeah, there are five of them there now. But Gigante has more than seventy members related to the Ackerman clan, just not with the name…and thirteen of the women were expecting children before we showed up for a visit. They must've been at least five months along.
As she walked through the streets of Liberio over to the section where the wall used to stand to segregate the Eldians from the Marleyans, now partly demolished after several days. Inhaling through her nose and out her mouth, she felt relieved that Marley was slowly starting to accept them as people instead of demons.
"Excuse me, miss?" She heard a male voice around her, and turned to face the person. "Are you…from Paradis Island?"
She looked at him…and soon felt like she was looking at…an older, near-balding version of Reiner Braun! The guy was older, muscular, a little haggard in a way, like he hadn't been able to relax in a long time, with bags under his eyes. But his voice tone… It was almost as if…he were afraid of someone or something.
"Yes," she answered him, seeing that he was unarmed, not that he could really harm her if he tried. "Can I help you?"
"Uh, do you…know where I can…find…someone with the last name Braun?"
"Braun? Why do you ask?"
-x-
Mikasa had returned to the village of the Mix-fits, accompanied by Armin and Eren (the latter boy mainly because she asked him), and walked down the street to one of the smaller houses that had a symbol on its door that mirrored the one she had on her right wrist.
"What exactly are we doing here?" Armin asked Eren.
"My memories are slightly fuzzy right now, so I couldn't answer," Eren responded as Mikasa raised her right hand up to knock on the door.
A moment later, the door opened…and revealed a woman with slight resemblance to Mikasa…who shuddered at the sight of the young woman.
"Mikasa," she uttered, her eyes tearing up.
"Mother," Mikasa greeted her.
Armin looked at Eren, surprised that this woman was Mikasa's mother, someone they hadn't seen in a long time.
Eren's memory of her was no longer fuzzy. Instead of a day where he recalled seeing her corpse, he just recalled a day where she and Mikasa's father had explained to Grisha that they had to leave elsewhere, but would return for Mikasa when it was safe for them to come back. But years had passed and they never returned for her, leaving him to assume that they had either abandoned her or were killed. It had never occurred to him that they had simply relocated to the village of the Mix-fits.
"You're alive," Mikasa said to her mother, grateful that she was here. "I was told you'd be here, but I wasn't sure if it was true."
"There was a…a girl that came by years ago," her mother stated, "and she told your father and I that…we needed to get away from the Walls. We left you with the Yeagers and she led us to this village that the Titans never came near. She told us to wait here…so we waited."
It had to have been Kaede that made it so that they were alive, and she brought them here where it was safe.
"Mikasa…there's something you should know," her mother told her, and opened the door wider so that the three could enter the residence.
Inside was a light-haired man in his early-forties…and a little boy that was less than ten years of age, with dark hair like Mikasa and her mother. The man was standing over by a table while the boy was hiding behind a corner with a look of woe on his face.
Mikasa recognized the man as her father, but the boy… This was their first meeting.
"Is he who I think he is?" She asked her mother, who nodded in assurance as she went over and kindly pulled the boy out of the corner and guided him over to her.
"This is Tanjiro," she introduced him to the three. "Tanjiro, this is Mikasa. She's your sister."
The boy, Tanjiro, walked over slowly to the tall girl and held out his left hand to her.
"Hello," he greeted.
Mikasa was surprised. How could she not be? It had been over six years since she saw her parents, the memory of their deaths undone and rewritten to show a new present where they were alive…and had another child. She was a big sister now! This little boy was her brother!
"Hello, Tanjiro," she greeted back, lowering to her knees to meet his gaze…and he threw his arms around her neck.
Not even Eren could believe this. There was…just no way that any of this was possible…even when it was in front of him.
-x-
It was different for the former Eldian citizens of Marley to be able to walk around the streets of Liberio without any discrimination from Marleyans. They were able to go down sidewalks without any conflicts, and when asked a question that was as trivial as the weather or about what they did for a living now, the answer could be returned without any negative remarks. And even Shinji found Marleyans looking at him every once in a while due to the fact that he was an Asian associated with Eldians.
Beep. His phone went off, reacting to a text received from a fellow phone listed in his contacts, and he found it was a text from Historia.
Kaede had my sister and the others turned into crystalized Titans and buried under the Reiss Chapel to preserve them, the text read, indicating that while she was asleep again, Kaede had undid the murders of the Reiss family caused by Dr. Yeager, who had been influenced by the future version of his son, and did what she could to save their lives while not changing much of the timeline they currently inhabited. I await the day you all return to Paradis. How are you doing in Marley?
We are doing great, he texted back to the queen. The war has officially ended and the Eldians that came with us that used to live in Liberio are able to walk beside Marleyans without a problem. Kaede had turned the patch of land I left behind after rescuing the Eldians from the internment zone into another green patch of fruits and vegetables, too.
Shinji found an outdoor bar being attended by a man and went over to ask for a cold drink.
"Is it okay to ask this question?" The Marleyan man asked him as he served him a cold glass of lemonade. "I'm relieved that the war is over, but I'm just curious about what happens now?"
"What happens now that the war is over?" Shinji responded as he drank his lemonade. "Well, that is a good question to answer, sir. What happens now is…people move past any idea of conflicts. It's a new day to rebuild, to start over, establish new relationships and looking beyond the horizon towards a new tomorrow."
The man nodded in acceptance and then sighed. He had nothing against the Eldians for as long as he had heard about them…and rarely had any interaction with them to begin with. After everything he had learned in school and from his parents, he couldn't really wrap his head around how anybody from a race of people that could turn into giants could destroy the world. And then, there was the stories he heard about the Nine Titans, the Great Titan War, the threat of the Rumbling and what the Fritz royal family could do to the world if they felt threatened by Marley's would-be return to power. There was absolutely none of that that ever truly made any sense to him or a few others due to Marley's superiors keeping the past obscured.
"Do you believe it's possible?" He asked Shinji.
"It's only possible when people put in the effort," he answered him, and finished his lemonade. "Thank you for the drink."
After paying for his beverage, Shinji left the guy to look around Liberio and take in the sights that were hardly taken in due to the last time being about liberating Eldians and reducing the number of casualties when war began. Like the twelve districts and small villages of Paradis, Liberio had that old style of modernity, like early-Twentieth Century or late-Nineteenth Century. There weren't that many cars or planes in the air, people's clothing was simple and not like the styles he had seen back in Japan, and the roads looked like they were paved with bricks instead of being repeatedly ripped up and refilled with cement. Even when he lived with the majority of everyone else in the more-modern setting Paradius City, it was nice to come back to a simple setting from an earlier point in time without the advanced technology and everything every once in a while.
What to do, what to do, what to do? He thought as he pondered how to spend his afternoon until he had to head back to the carrier.
-x-
Using the Eldian Paths again, Kaede tracked down Reiner Braun, leading this man with her to the green patch where some of the Eldians were to continue cultivating the fruits and vegetables that were growing from where the Titans had walked around shedding their flesh to sow new life into the soil. When she had asked him why she was looking for him, the man had simply responded…that he was Reiner's father. This revelation had triggered her inherited memories of Reiner's past due to his previous possession of the Armored Titan. Her discovery of how they met for the last time, before Reiner had been shipped off to Paradis, was a disappointing lack of conversation between father and son, and it was all because of the racial discrimination that prohibited Eldians and Marleyans from having any relationships of any kind, be they strictly platonic or romantic.
"So, uh…what do you aim to say to him after you meet him?" She asked him.
"I don't really know what to say to him," he responded to her as they walked around the patch to where Reiner was volunteering with the care of the watermelons. "When I heard that Marley had abolished the segregation laws and everything, my first thought was just leave it all behind. But… I can't wash away or forget what happened in my past. I can't pretend what happened never happened."
"And what happened? I mean…what is it that you can't pretend didn't happen or forget about?"
The man stopped walking for a moment and looked at the people working hard to ensure the new garden was able to help in the future. What he couldn't forget about or pretend never happened, even with the end of the war…was constantly around him. He couldn't forget the time he spent with her…or the fear of punishment if it was ever discovered of his secret involvement with an Eldian woman. The fear of shaming his family, of getting executed, both of which were believed to condemn his soul to Hell.
"Whatever it is…or was… You probably don't have to worry about it, anymore," Kaede told him. "If people are going to survive in any future, no matter who they are, they have to admit that they need others involved in their lives."
"There were laws in place that dealt with any that had…relationships with Eldians…and they were severe," he explained.
"Look at me. I'm an Eldian girl…and my boyfriend's Japanese. He's Asian…and I have a relationship with him. We haven't even been together for a year, but he's…one of the reasons my life is working out fine for me now. If anyone has a problem with that, thinking that we should separate and see people from our own ethnic groups…or if we should be punished for something that doesn't make any sense to them…or simply because we chose to be together… Well, I'd like to know why they would think that…and tell them why they shouldn't. Oh…listen to me. None of that should matter, anymore. The laws that segregated Eldians from Marleyans were abolished for the purpose of building and rebuilding relationships between them. It's only a matter of having the will to do so. Look at us, we're talking, asking questions and answering answers we wouldn't have known about how to ask or answer. We're already building a relationship. And there he is over there."
The man looked over at the large wall to help with the care and growth of the watermelons and saw one of the people standing out due to his height and muscularity. Even though it had been over five years since he last saw him, he couldn't forget his own son, no matter how hard he tried. The young man looked over at them and there was this silence that was between them.
Kaede sighed and told the man to wait where he stood while she went over to speak with Reiner.
"Why is he here?" Reiner had asked her when she came over.
"He sought me out and asked if I knew anyone with your family name," she explained. "Why he wants to speak with you is anyone's guess, but you should probably speak with him."
"I… He… You know there's a reason why I shouldn't."
"Yes, and that's in the past. He's not looking to leave things as they were. He's probably seeking to start over, but he can't without some sort of absolution from people he might've harmed because of the old laws. I'm not going to tell you what to do, and I'm not going to tell him that he's wasted his time coming here. All I'll say is…talk to him or don't talk to him. You have a choice. Build and rebuild."
Kaede walked away from him, leaving him alone with Bertolt and Annie, who were also there helping to grow the watermelons.
"She's right, you know," went Bertolt to him. "You have a choice."
"What do I even say to him?" Reiner questioned.
"Just go talk to him," Annie told him, examining a watermelon she had examined the previous day. "Say anything."
Reiner looked at the guy, unsure of what to do, but was reminded of his initial reason for wanting to become a member of the Warrior Unit. Marleyan citizenship, his mother's happiness, his family no longer forced to live within the internment zone. That was all due to the previous belief that everyone on Paradis were the enemy of the world, but then everything changed…and he was forced to see that it was Marley that had become the enemy due to their unjust hatred that stemmed from the guilty conscience of Karl Fritz when the Eldians were just sharing their power with other parts of the world, not even trying to convert anyone over to their side. And then…his faith in Marley had been broken completely when he learned that Grausam Zanki had almost bled his relatives dry for their blood. He knew his father had nothing to do with the military's decision to let that bastard harvest his family's blood…but it was hard to choose whether or not to let him know about that and to know that he nearly lost his mother because of a madman that made Hange Zoe seem rather tame because of the conscience factor.
Damn it all, he thought as he walked up the patch to his father.
-x-
Every time Eren saw someone that hadn't been around before or had been dead from a different factor or another, he was reminded of how different things were because of how Kaede could use the power of the Titans to change things around based on however she chose to change events that she could influence. First, it was his father, then his mother…and then other people that couldn't have been saved through any other way without the power of the Titans being fully explored and exploited through a sense of benevolence. Even as he walked down the streets of his hometown, he was making a mental list of people that used to suffer greatly and had now suffered just minorly, including Armin's grandfather, who wasn't killed by the Titans like he had recalled, instead just dying from natural causes. And people originally killed because of Titans stripped of free will and conscious thought, like this Marcel Galliard, who was the Jaw Titan before Ymir, had been brought back to life by changing his fate through the memories of those that had been there back when they possessed the Titan power themselves, and now he was back with his family. As often as he tried to see the brighter side to how life was now, he was just reminded of his own failures…and his inability to actually measure up to what the Sogen girl had become for the people.
His parents were surprised to know that Mikasa's parents were alive and that Mikasa had a little brother, just as they were surprised to know that the Walls were damaged because the Wall Titans no longer resided inside them and were spread out across the whole island, mostly along the coastlines. And then, there was the discovery of Paradius City being so unlike anyplace else in existence; his mother was in awe by the trains that could run along the streets, the buildings that could reach high into the sky, even the sight of the ocean. These were things that even his father never believed would happen because of what he only knew about the royal family's unwillingness to use the Founding Titan to end the oppression against the Eldians; the man had never even explored the city when he was shipped here years ago. The next thing Eren could suspect the girl to attempt was to save the life of his half-brother for his mother, Dina, who was now living in the city to avoid a conflict of relationships between Grisha and Carla; there was no doubt in his mind that the girl could do it if she saw an opening to change his fate.
"You look like you're having an off day," said an off-duty Garrison soldier, sitting beside the town's fountain, playing solitaire. "What's your issue?"
"Kaede Sogen," Eren uttered to him. "It's nothing personal. It's never really personal."
"But you sound as though you're jealous of her. Are you?"
"No, it's… She's this better person that has a better perception of the world and doesn't let things get her down. She keeps a level head and refuses to let the wrongs committed in the past break her spirit."
"That's self-control there, kid. Restraint, a conscience, stability in the face of adversity, and adversity exists in the form of whoever sees a problem that can only be resolved through violence and pain. Adversity is choice to those that believe that there is no choice, no other alternative. Restraint is the ability to refrain from resorting to conflict until there is confirmation of other alternatives that are more promising than escalating to violence. What do you see?"
"I see…rage…rage through freedom."
"No peace?"
"No."
"There's no freedom without peace."
"But sometimes, there are those that don't want peace."
"That sounds pretty selfish to assume that there are people in the world that don't like peace to go with freedom. So…I must ask you, young man…what do you have against the desire for peace? What do you have against peace in general?"
"I…I don't have anything against peace, but…there's no way that this…this peace can last forever. Eventually, someone's going to see a need for violence all over again…and seek to engage someone else in war…and death."
"Except that's also a selfish belief, thinking that peace can't last forever. It can last forever so long as we all don't seek war. Who wants war all over again? You?"
Eren was going to speak up again when he realized that it would've been the wrong thing to do. Even if his response was that he did, it would've been one-sided; he didn't want to see life without the need for conflict.
The Garrison soldier then put another card down on the ground in front of himself.
"Just so that you know and understand where I stand in this new future," he told Eren, "I was stationed in Trost when you decided to bring the Walls down. I was following the orders of my superior, keeping watch over the people from a distance. When the Walls came down, I went with them, along with several of my comrades, people I've known for years, friends… My last memory of that time that will not echo itself in this time…was falling into darkness. When the Walls were damaged this time, the Titans inside them simply tore down the front of each section around the districts and villages, leaving them unscathed by ensuring that the Walls themselves, even without the Titans inside to serve as the support pillars, stood for as long as possible after they left. Can you really not look at what Ms. Sogen has done and say it's better? Hasn't anything happened to you that is better than what happened in the previous time?"
"My parents are alive," he revealed. "The parents of one of my friends are alive, and she's a big sister to a seven-year-old. I didn't see any of that as being possibility."
"Is it because…you didn't want to see any of it as being possible?"
Eren thought about it…and accepted that it was a possibility. If he didn't see the possibility of peace, he couldn't see the possibility for anything else, including the ability to bring back people that have suffered. He knew he couldn't compare himself to Kaede, but he was constantly reminded of what had happened in the time where the girl didn't exist and how he had crossed too many lines that he couldn't undo, even if he wanted to. He turned his back on his friends, sacrificed countless civilians just to take the War Hammer Titan, even allowed people that wanted to believe in him to die after they had lost their faith in him for his unprovoked attack on Liberio and unwillingness to explain his actions properly.
"You don't want to enjoy the peace here," the guy told Eren. "If you can't live with peace around you, then it most likely means you're a person that prefers chaos over order, conflict over peace. How many people have told you that you need to let go of this point of view?"
"One too many," he answered him.
"One of my friends had actually hoped that that Grausam Zanki jagoff succeeded in trying to kill you, you know."
Eren looked at him like this was a harsh revelation.
"Yeah, she did hope that, but only because so long as you were capable of being turned back into a Titan again, or worse, a Titan with intelligence, with intent, she didn't believe that anyone anywhere was safe from you. Not with your behavior or attitude. But now that you can't become a Titan, anymore, you're just a… Well, you're just another civilian that the Garrison and Survey Corps look after against whoever tries to stir up trouble."
"And my survival threw everyone off?"
"Only a handful of people are upset that you're still alive, but the only reason you still get to see the next day is because Ms. Reiss is a good-hearted person. And when you look at the other factors that have been overlooked… No amount of death in the present will undo the suffering we've all endured in the past."
Eren looked away from the soldier and towards the remains of Wall Maria.
"How long do you believe this peace will last?" He asked.
"It'll last," responded the soldier, "for as long as it can."
-x-
Historia was beyond relieved when she returned to the Reiss Chapel after it had been cleared of the shattered debris that used to be the glowing crystals they now had distributed across the island, but not because of the hard work the people had done in cleaning the clutter. No, her relief was due to the discovery of there being a number of hardened Titans completely left intact that she learned from Kaede were Frieda and the rest of the Reiss family. At first, she was surprised to know that Kaede had managed to achieve the impossible for her, even though it raised the possibility that once she was back to release them from the crystallization and restore them back to their human forms, her father's wife would challenge her right to rule with Frieda's claim to the throne, but she didn't think too much about it. How could she think about her right to rule being contested when all she really wanted was just…to see Frieda again, alive and well?
Kaede had made it possible because of her access to the power of the Titans. She had undone their deaths caused by Grisha, who had been influenced by a future version of Eren, who had been influenced by memories of a different future. The Queen of the Titans was beyond powerful and capable of nearly anything…and she was still growing into her power. If there was anyone deserving of being considered a deity, it was Kaede.
Standing over a Titan she had to be certain was the Titan form of her elder half-sister, Historia gave a small smile at the possibility of a reunion between them. She just needed to be patient a while longer until Kaede returned and freed them from this slumber that she put them in to protect them after Rod escaped with his life. She had demonstrated patience with every other action that had been committed and had demonstrated tolerance in her short time as the queen, she could be patient for a while longer. This was her personal request fulfilled by Kaede, and it was only half-completed, needing the girl, her distant relative and a fellow descendant of Ymir Fritz, to finish the job.
"Can't wait?" She heard Ymir behind her.
"Uh, no, no, I can wait," she assured Ymir. "Just looking forward to the day we can meet again."
Ymir looked down at the Titan and hoped that this big sister of Historia's was everything the love of her life had wanted to believe. After hearing about her from the memories Kaede had returned to her after the failed ultimatum, Ymir had to admit that this Frieda had intrigued her. She didn't want to risk her Historia getting her hopes crushed, her heart broken.
-x-
"…Hmm-hmm-hmm," went Shinji as he was in the primary kitchen on the carrier, getting dinner ready for everyone aboard along with the other chefs.
"You're in a good mood," went one of the women that had volunteered to cook aboard the carrier. "What has gotten your spirits lifted?"
"These are the vegetables we got from the garden patches created from the Titans," he explained, "and they were grown less than two weeks ago. And this is the third time we've made anything using them. It's just so good to be using newly-grown food."
"Yeah, it is," agreed another woman with him.
Meanwhile, on the deck of the carrier, Kaede had just gotten back from her time in Liberio and was sitting on a medium-sized crate reading her book on human anatomy, rereading what she had learned about the spine three days ago and then proceeding to reinforce her knowledge on the ribcage and sternum. She sighed as she bookmarked where she was in the book and proceeded to count the number of ribs on her left side, which was slightly difficult due to her bosom. How hard was it for any woman to count their own ribs on account of their breasts? Plus, she was still sensitive to a degree; she deduced that she was still growing…and wouldn't interrupt that part of her own life.
"You have the same number of ribs as anyone else in existence," said her Dark Titan to her as she manifested behind her.
"It's called curiosity," she responded.
"I'm aware. I'm just letting you know."
The two looked over towards the coastal city of Liberio and at the lights that started to illuminate the darkening sky.
"Not as bright as Paradius City, huh?" Dark Titan asked her.
"No…but it's okay," Kaede claimed. "We still have a long way to go, don't we? I mean, a long way until we've secured Marley's future alongside Eldia's, right?"
"Maybe…but maybe you should look into the future to see for yourself. You can do that."
"Tempting…but no. I shouldn't look into the future unless something happens that makes it bad and needs to be changed for the better. If nothing bad happens, then it's unnecessary to look into the future. I'd just be spoiling whatever is going to happen later on for myself."
"A wise decision, Kaede."
"Thank you. Tell me something, though… What are the chances of there being bridges between here and Paradis after a while?"
"Bridges between here and Paradis? Without knowing the future, that could be years from now."
Kaede sighed again and expected such an answer. She wasn't afraid of not knowing the future, just hopeful of there being events that would bring about better fortune between the two nations. The more hopeful she felt about everyone able to move beyond hatred and disgust and focus on peace and understanding, the better the world beyond tomorrow could be.
"Kaede Sogen," they heard the voice of Reiner Braun nearby, and the gray-haired girl turned to face the muscular teen.
"Yes?" She asked, and noticed that he was not by himself.
Reiner wasn't with Bertolt or Annie when he returned to the carrier. He was accompanied by the same man that had sought her out looking for Reiner.
"Any chance that we have room for another guest?" Reiner asked, referring to the man with him.
"On this carrier? We could invite over a dozen dinner guests and it still takes great effort not to go crazy with the idea of living on this boat for months at a time." Kaede told him.
"People live on this carrier for months at a time?" The Marleyan man questioned.
"It's a city that moves on the water. Some people on this thing have actually been below for two months and haven't seen sunlight. It takes a lot of people to keep it running."
The man looked around the deck on the flight path they were on, and expressed that it almost felt like he was on an empty street, just without the cars and buildings.
"I don't understand how anyone could live and work on a ship like this," he confessed.
"In the beginning, nobody in the Survey Corps understood how to operate it, either," Reiner told him. "They just found it and only had the knowledge of Shinji to rely on, who only had basic information. A few months later, everyone received new knowledge from the Founding Titan, which included information on the carrier that nobody else alive had possession. Now, it's easier to run a carrier. It sometimes even feels like people have been on the carrier for years, even though they've only been on this thing for less than a year."
Kaede looked over at the ocean as the remains of the sun disappeared. Even when she had been on the carrier a few times since leaving the Walls of Paradis, it had felt like she had been on the carrier for at least two years, going up and down several stairs, seeing how the elevators on it functioned, how many jets and planes could fit on it, along with the discovery of various parts and pieces that could've been used to build another C-17, minus the hardened Titan flesh. If there were a disaster and they had to relocate a large number of people away from the island, the carrier would've been a haven until they could've relocated to the other island they were still working on in their expansion operations.
"Miss Sogen," she heard Reiner say to her, and she returned her attention to him and the man with him. "You probably already know this man, but in case you don't…this is…my father."
Kaede stood before the man and did a curtsy.
"It is nice to make your acquaintance, sir," she greeted him. "I am Kaede Sogen."
"It is nice to meet you, as well, ma'am," Reiner's father responded, bowing his head to the girl. "Nathan Rhodes."
"So, uh…what do you do, Mr. Rhodes?"
"I…I work at small restaurant as a chef."
"That's nice."
"What do you do?"
"I…serve as an adviser to the queen with my boyfriend…and help with the Survey Corps."
-x-
"…You've been quiet since you and Mother returned," Willy Tybur told his sister as he saw her looking out at the city away from their family's estate. "You care to talk about what's on your mind?"
Agnes looked to her brother and sighed.
"What is on my mind?" She uttered. "People are putting behind them their hatred, their disgust, their cruelty towards Eldians. I am grateful that they're able to begin letting go of this hate…but will it stay that way?"
"It will stay that way," he told her. "Nobody wants to fight again…or die again."
Agnes was reminded then that because they had some connection to the previous future that had been undone, they still had the recollection of events that hadn't happened yet…and wouldn't happen. She remembered facing Eren Yeager, the keeper of both the coveted Founding Titan and the lost Attack Titan…and how she and her brother died minutes apart from each other. It was both disturbing…and irritable that they had been attacked by someone they didn't even know…but recognized as a threat to Marley because he had every intention of destroying the world once he found a way to take control of the Founder from the royal family. Except now the power of the Titans, all of the power of the Titans, was returned to the royal family, unable to be taken again, nullifying that dark future of bloodshed and despair. And they were all still alive, free of the downside of possessing the War Hammer…and from the war against Paradis itself.
"What do you see yourself doing in the new future, Agnes?" Willy asked.
"I see myself…settling down, eventually," she revealed her intentions. "Find my future husband and start a family of my own. I just want to enjoy my life while I'm still alive."
"Not a bad goal."
The two looked at the city away from their family's estate and looked at the night sky. It wouldn't have been bad if there were some fireworks to go along with the end of the war, but Marley wouldn't have done so unless their family desired so; such things like fireworks were meant for events like victories, not losses. It would've properly been celebrated on Paradis. But the truth about everything would come out to the world. There was no hiding it behind deceit any further and keeping it hidden.
-x-
With all things considered and rethought about, it had been over a year now since Shinji came to the aid of the people of Paradis. Over a year since he came into their lives with his Eva, and almost a year since he and Kaede began seeing each other…and almost the same time since Historia became the queen. And during that time, it had been a period of escaping a life of confinement, relocating, discovering hidden secrets, expansion, intellectual enlightenment, overthrowing the previous government in favor of a new one that was suited for the well-being of the people, and overcoming obstacles. The most that people enjoyed out of it all during that period was the ability to move beyond Paradis and travel across the ocean and in the air when the Walls were damaged and left half-standing after the Wall Titans were freed and spread across the land to safeguard the people.
"You're awfully quiet right now, Kaede," went Shinji to his girlfriend in their quarters on the carrier after dinner, laying on his cot as he looked over at her.
"Hmm?" She responded, turning to face him on her right. "Oh, I…I was just thinking about my parents at home."
"You miss them?"
"Yeah. Shinji, I know I asked you earlier on, but I should ask you again. Are you doing okay after watching your father die?"
"I'll kill you first, you spineless coward!" Gendo's last words echoed in Shinji's memory as he looked at the floor.
Once his father, the remnants of this SEELE group and Grausam were dealt with, Shinji had gone to see a therapist to talk about his feelings about the aftermath. While he knew that there was nothing left to say about Gendo, the memory of his father smashing himself into pulp against his Eva's AT-Field in a desperate attempt to try and harm him and the people of Paradis was still fresh and lingering in his mind. It was only by the number of saving graces he had fought to protect in his life here that made up for horror he witnessed. Even if he was never rid of that memory, he had people in his present to help keep that trauma in his past.
"I'm doing fine," he told her. "He didn't break me, Kaede. I won't let him break my happiness here with all of you."
Kaede then looked at the closed door to their quarters and got up off her cot…and climbed into Shinji's and closed the gap between them. It might've been a bad time, but she just wanted to make sure that he was feeling fine.
"I know I can't make you forget about it," she expressed, "but maybe I can put your mind on something else this evening."
She wasn't even trying to be seductive to him, but Shinji was entranced by her boldness.
"What did you have in mind?" He asked her.
Kaede leaned in and kissed him.
To be continued…
A/N: I had to look at two YouTube videos about living on an aircraft carrier to make it seem like the characters on the one in this story had more understanding about it and how it would feel like they had been living on it for much longer than they had when they found it and started using it to travel around. What was everyone's impression of the glimpse of a relationship being built between Reiner and his father, the Garrison soldier revealing to Eren that someone actually hoped that Grausam succeeded in murdering him, of the revival of Mikasa's parents and the revelation of her big sister status or that in due time, the rest of the Reiss family will return? Let me know after you read this omake.
Omake (The Crow-influenced)
SMASH! Ymir, originally deceased for a year after the brutal murder of herself and the rape and murder of her fiancée, Historia Reiss, punched the glass mirror in front of her in agony over the loss of her true love.
"Aaaurgh!" She groaned. "Ohh!"
"Caw," the mysterious bird that had been following her ever since she emerged from the ground. "Caw!"
Now understanding what she needed to do, why she was back, wiped her tears away from her face and began to apply her dark mascara upon her face, reminiscent of the monster mask that lay on the floor beside her. Once she was done with that task, she rummaged through her old closet and found a large duffel bag she used to keep her old military uniform when she was discharged from the Cadet Corps and did a year within the Survey Corps. She discarded her burial attire and redressed in the old uniform before putting the mask on. There were five men on her list of targets to go after that needed to answer for the pain and suffering they inflicted upon two of their victims…and she was the judge, jury and executioner.
FLASH! Lightning flashed across the broken window, revealing Ymir's Jaw Titan facial makeup and mask.
"Live your life on your own terms," she uttered, the bird perched atop her right shoulder as the rain continued to pour down upon the streets of the city. "Let the guilty fall wherever they may."
FLASH! Lightning flashed again…and the girl was gone, on the hunt to go after the men responsible for the deaths of herself and her true love.