Creation began on 12-12-20
Creation ended on 12-24-20
Neon Genesis Evangelion
Hope from the Sky: Family Matters
It was an unusual calm that was around the island of Paradis that had lasted for so long since the victory over Marley. The Eldian people that had lived in the internment zones had never known or felt such an outstanding period of peace in their lives…and the ones that had lived on the island their whole lives had never been able to go this long without conflict from other countries or the Titans that used to be their foes. If one had to consider the possibility that there would be no further animosity towards the Eldians and those sympathetic to them, it was a possibility solidified by how bright the future was looking for those that dared to hope for a new tomorrow today. The calm ocean waves as they crashed against the beach and receded, the warm temperatures and cool winds, the busying civilians as they walked down the streets of the coastal city, doing whatever it was they did to get by in their lives, making the most of their day-to-day activities without being confined behind a wall and hunted down or discriminated against.
It's hard to believe it's only been a little over a year since we left the confines of the Walls, thought Sig as he carried two bags of groceries in his hands while looking out at the beach. Maybe I should see about getting a job at the hospital. There's not much left to repair in this city and there's no need to build new buildings unless approved by the new government.
Seconds after, he saw something beyond the horizon. From a distance, it was too small to make out, but based on the fact that Paradis had two large carriers and one was away in Marley, he had to assume that it was the primary carrier that had been salvaged shortly after discovering the city, and its crew had finally returned from their time spent overseas. This also meant that his stepdaughter and her boyfriend were coming back, as well.
Christine will be happy to know Kaede has come home, he amused himself with knowing; the whole time that she was away, Kaede probably wondered how her parents were faring in her absence, and with her mother just a month away from her due date, the girl was probably looking forward to meeting her future sibling.
-x-
Nearly two months after the war with Marley had ended and the signing of several peace treaties and projects to restore lands devastated by conflict, the members of the Survey Corps and civilian volunteers couldn't wait to return home. Well, actually, they could wait, as they were taking their time traveling by carrier. They could've relied on Shinji and his Eva to carry them all back, but due to the war no longer being an issue for anyone, it didn't hurt them to travel by sea and enjoy the peace they worked so hard for. And this allowed Shinji to help with the volunteers in the kitchens to make sure everyone had a good meal.
"…Let me tell you something," Shinji heard Sasha say to Connie and Armin in the cafeteria. "After I get back, the first thing I'm doing is getting me a new bow, something for recreational purposes. Maybe a longbow or recurve one."
"Sasha, you've been talking about bows, arrows and archery to make an audiobook for people," Connie told her, eating his salad, "you should start a business that centers on it."
"I'll do that after I talk with Niccolo. He's been doing so well as a cook."
"Beware, pillagers of food," went Armin, joking, "Sasha has arrows."
"Ha-ha," Sasha gave a mock laugh; she had more control over her appetite than most knew. "I can probably get a custom bow made, something that takes the best aspects of different bows and combines them together."
As the three continued to converse, Kaede was up on the deck, basking in the sunlight with her Dark Titan.
"You certainly are a strange person, Ms. Sogen," they heard Reiner's father as he and Reiner were behind the pair. "How does the sunlight feel for the Dark Titan? If you don't mind my asking you?"
Kaede turned to face the father and son, reminded of how the former was coming to the island where the latter's maternal relatives now resided in order to meet his former love interest and…hopefully…begin anew now that the segregation laws were null and void by Marley. She gave them a small smile and gestured towards her Titan.
"The sunlight is invigorating," she uttered, surprising Nathan with her intelligence. "The warmth of the light on your skin, combined with the gentle breeze of the wind… It is among many beautiful experiences that are the ones that can be done like more than once, each time different from the previous one. How does the sunlight feel for you, Mr. Rhodes?"
"It feels…a lot like what you just said," he responded, taking in the grand view of the sea from atop the carrier. "I don't think I've ever been able to enjoy the sunlight and breeze the way you describe them. The days were so bare and I didn't have that much joy in it. How did you get through each day, Reiner?"
"Back when I was a warrior, I just kept thinking about going back home," he told his father. "Back then, the thought of failure, of letting my family down…was a fear that I didn't want to see happen."
Having to live each day for the years spent on an island you weren't prepared for, or expecting to encounter any people that originally knew nothing about the world beyond the Walls or even what to expect an attack from a nation that resented them… It was a stressful time for anyone so young and unprepared for what wasn't going to be simple or subtle. If anything, the enemy back then didn't know how to deal with how the people that they attacked with the power of the Titans would respond or react to the discovery of there being people within the Titans that trespassed upon their domain. And now, with the end of the war, with the shift in behaviors against Eldians, there was a great change in the way people were without the way a war affected them.
"Are you two excited about getting back to Paradis?" Kaede asked.
"Very excited," Reiner answered.
"It will be my first time seeing the island," Nathan expressed, unsure of what to expect. "What is it like there now?"
"It's…better than it was a year ago," Kaede stated.
Reiner had a different perspective on how life was like on Paradis now. Due to the technology discovered in the coastal city and the distribution of knowledge lost due to the isolation, he couldn't call the people primitive or helpless. And his…well, the people he had to work with back then against the Titans before he was exposed as the Armored Titan, they weren't as clueless, anymore. Not that they were too clueless to begin with; he still had a hard time getting past the use of a device called a tablet and creating something called an account to access these app things.
"Your family must be immensely proud of you," Nathan told Kaede.
"Yeah, my… Right now, it's just my parents, my Titan and my boyfriend, and they are proud of me," she responded; she hadn't gotten any texts or calls from her parents about any surprises that indicated that their family of three had expanded by at least another member. "I have a lot to be happy for with the Walls down and the war over."
-x-
In his cell, Rod Reiss looked as though he hadn't shaved in months, having a mustache and beard that was thick as he sat against the wall on his cot. It felt like an eternity since he had been stripped of his authority and imprisoned in favor of appointing Historia as the new ruler, and he was actually impressed later on with her success and popularity with the people of the island after he took the time to consider the downside of her being the queen. And he found himself remembering events from over five years ago happening differently from what he used to recall. For once, he was actually hopeful that by some chance of a miracle that his wife and their children were alive.
But how did that girl, that girl with the Titan that doesn't belong to the Nine Titans, end up there in the past…exactly as she was the day I saw her during that meeting between Eldians and Marleyans? Unless she used some form of Titan power I had no knowledge of.
Going down memory lane, Rod had been versed sparingly in what the Titans were capable, but this was limited to just the Founding Titan's abilities; he had very little intel on the other Titans, such as the Colossal or Armored Titans, just that they existed under Marley's control. And the night his family was attacked by that man that said he was from outside the Walls, he turned into a Titan he only knew from what he had revealed about it, how it could receive memories from those yet to possess it, moving forward and fighting for freedom. It was shortly after this and Frieda turning into the Founding Titan that he saw the mysterious girl that served as one of Historia's two advisers, just appearing out of nowhere…and looking at the two Titan Shifters as they fought over the other's power.
"Who is that girl?!" He remembered his eldest son, Ulklin Reiss, questioning, indicating that he wasn't the only one that saw her that night.
"Don't kill her," they heard her say, and suddenly the Founding Titan ceased struggling…and the Attack Titan bit slowly into its nape. "When it starts to evaporate, release her. Let her live."
Rod had seen the Attack Titan release his daughter from its grasp, watching as her Titan form began evaporating, and then saw it turn away.
"I am sorry about this," he heard the gray-haired girl say to them, "but I hope to see each of you in the future. Six of you will not leave this place, but I will not let you die."
He watched in sheer terror as his wife and children began to turn into Titans while he fled. Each of them, including Frieda, who had been spared from death, were transformed into a five-meter Titan version of themselves, but then they started to develop scales over their exposed skin, looking like armor as they began to sink into the ground beneath themselves. But he ran from the chapel. He ran for his life, fearful of the girl back then.
She was able to turn them all into Titans. Could she have done this after taking possession of all Nine Titans, melding them back into one, each one's abilities amplified by the other eight? Is she a goddess incarnate, serving Historia? He wondered.
-x-
They were welcomed back by the civilians after being away for such an extended period, and Shinji and Kaede's first order of business after returning was to go to the Sogen apartment to see the latter's parents before heading over to see Historia and Ymir.
"It feels good to be home," went Kaede as she walked down the sidewalk to the building she lived in.
"Yeah," Shinji agreed with her.
She had looked up at the tall buildings and streetlights, feeling like she had lived in this city for a long time with every step she took. For the first nine years of her life, Shiganshina had been her home, and then Trost for five years after the day the Colossal Titan appeared…and then Shiganshina again for a couple of weeks until her parents decided to come here and be closer to the water and away from the Walls. She breathed in a breath of the city air and sighed at how it felt great to be here in the city.
Reaching the building, Shinji got the door for her.
"Oh, heh-heh, how genteel you are, Shinji," she told him.
"Genteel? I don't think that's a word I've ever heard anyone say before." He responded, unsure of what to make of such a word.
"It's a way of describing a man as refined, polite, proper. Basically, a gentlemen."
"That works for me."
They went inside and got into an elevator.
"I hope my mother has been keeping out of trouble," Kaede stated.
"Why would your mother get into trouble?" Shinji asked her, curious.
"Unlike my father or Sig, my mother can be…somewhat of a handful. She wouldn't tell me much, but when she was pregnant with me, she gave my father a month's worth of difficulty."
"Uh…mood swings, perhaps?" Shinji suggested.
"Maybe, but I don't want to risk giving her the wrong idea. Do pregnant women really misbehave towards the end of it all?"
"I really wouldn't know. I've never been around any women that showed any signs of misbehavior during that period. The closest I've ever seen to moody misbehavior…is Asuka over even the most subtle of things."
"She's, uh… Well, I don't want to say something unnecessary, but…um, 'bossy' is the best word to describe her when she's moody."
"That's the best way to describe her…to a lesser extreme."
"And if I wanted to say 'completely egotistical' like she was months before, the last time we saw her? When I had threatened her?"
"That would be to a heightened extreme."
"I don't ever want to be like that towards anyone, Shinji. Not even you deserve that behavior from a girl."
"Thanks, Kaede."
Ding! The elevator had reached their desired floor and they got off.
"When I think about it, your family is probably one of only ten families that actually live on this floor," Shinji stated.
"Yeah," Kaede agreed with him. "There are forty families in this building, and this is a thirty-story building with thirty-five units on each level."
They reached the Sogen apartment and opened the door.
"Hello?" Kaede called out. "We're back."
"Is that you, Kaede?" They heard Christine reply from the living room. "Welcome home. I'm just…laying on the couch here."
"Oh, yeah, that couch is definitely comfortable."
"You have no idea."
She and Shinji came over to see her and the young girl was quite surprised by what she saw.
Christine, during the time they had been away, had swelled up to the size of a watermelon. Her mother looked as though she was set to pop like a balloon full of air or water.
"Goodness gracious, Mother!" She gasped, covering her mouth with her right hand and pointing at her mother's swollen abdomen with her left hand's index finger. "Please, tell me that's all the baby and not you."
"Believe it or not, I looked like this before you were born," her mother defended as she slowly raised up to a sitting position. "What can I say? I love bagels."
"There's nothing wrong with that," Shinji stated, bowing his head to her to show his respect. "How are you feeling?"
"I'm doing great. I hope you two were… Oh! The baby kicked. Care to feel?"
Shinji gave in and placed his right hand on her abdomen. It was actually the first time he had ever gotten this close to a pregnant woman. Her belly was taut, like someone had an oversized ball of rubber. Suddenly, he felt a small jolt under his palm.
"Oh!" He gasped and then chuckled. "Do you…know what you're having?"
"No. I don't want to know until after I deliver. Kaede?"
Kaede came over and placed her left hand on her mother's belly, getting the same reaction seconds later.
"Hey, there," she greeted. "It's your big sister, Kaede."
-x-
"…They'll be here shortly," went Ymir to Historia as the young queen sat on the steps leading down to the ruins of the chapel where her father's family resided.
"Thank you, Ymir," Historia responded with a smile, and then looked up at the sky, seeing something that she didn't expect to see. "What in the world?"
It was a…Titan. It had to be five, maybe seven meters in height, with a pair of wings! Dark wings! She had heard from Kaede and the others from the Survey Corps and Garrison that the Queen of the Titans had turned a few of their members into Titans capable of flight for a short time, but there was a major difference between hearing about a Titan that could fly…and being a witness to a Titan that could fly.
"Now, that's something you don't see every day," said Ymir, surprised by this.
"Nope," Historia agreed with her as the Titan came closer to the ground.
Slam! The Titan landed and was revealed to be the Dark Titan herself.
Shinji had slid down her back and used a strand of her hair to touch the ground.
"Hey, Historia. Hey, Ymir." He greeted the couple.
"Hey, Shinji," Ymir responded, looking up at the Dark Titan. "A Titan with wings. I dig it."
"Thank you, Ymir," the Dark Titan expressed, and then evaporated after kneeling down.
From within the nape, Kaede emerged and walked toward the three.
"You two actually flew from the coastal city to here?" Historia asked her.
"Yeah," Kaede answered, tying her hair back with a ribbon. "Many apologies for making you wait until we returned, Historia."
Historia nodded her head in understanding.
"You changed their fates so that they would live, despite what had happened in the past because of the Titan power's misuse due to Karl Fritz's twisted ideology making the life of anyone possessing the Founding Titan and a member of the Fritz and Reiss bloodline a doomed one," she uttered. "You found a way to save them instead of letting them die because someone else thought it was pointless to let them live. And when you restored my memories of Frieda, I was all the more grateful."
Kaede looked over at the giant hole in the ground that used to be the chapel the Reiss family used to conduct their rituals when they needed to transfer the Founding Titan to a new host. She had left the six down there as crystallized Titans for over six years, preventing them from being killed…but keeping them in a state of limbo until she could release them from their accursed state of being. But now she was here. Now, she could restore them to their true selves.
"Come on now," she told Historia. "Let's go see Frieda and the others."
-x-
At least it was a job where he could keep himself occupied and out of trouble. And it was enabling himself to think less about the Survey Corps and his friends. With the end of the war, this was what the people of Paradis accepted. Peace and freedom, not just freedom, something Eren was trying to see with clearer eyes.
"Your parents told me you'd be out here," Eren heard a female voice say to him, and he turned away from the row of crops he was helping to grow to see that it was Dina, his father's first wife.
"Miss Dina," he greeted her, but had no idea why she was here. "What brings you here? I have another hour before my break."
"To see you," she explained. "I wanted to talk with you."
"Okay, then."
Dina walked away and found a nearby tree to sit by. There were many things Dina wanted to talk about, with both Eren and her husband, about the past, about Marley and Paradis, about Zeke, and about the Fritz royal family. She could've added wanting to talk to Grisha about the fact that he married another woman after she became a Titan and moved on with his life to a degree, but decided against it; when she was a Titan, she had no other choice to wander around the lands outside of the Walls of Paradis and do whatever she did or might've done as a Titan with absolutely no capacity for remorse or guilt in anything she did. She didn't even want to talk about the possibility of this Kaede Sogen girl undoing the death of her son so she could question Zeke about his own decisions that harmed various people, if not on Paradis, then at least elsewhere around the world.
About an hour had past, and she saw Eren approach her by the tree.
"You're surprised to see me again?" She asked him.
"No, actually," he responded. "Due to Kaede Sogen possessing the power of the Titans in its entirety, and her own morality, your return to life doesn't really surprise me. My parents' return to life surprised me because Kaede saw fit to restore them to life by making it so that their deaths never happened."
"And how is a young girl like Ms. Sogen…capable of what she can do? How can she…change events to make it so that they don't happen…or don't repeat themselves? Turn Titans back into humans? Everything that I had believed only those with the Founding Titan could do."
"Because she is the Founding Titan. She's the Founding Titan, the Female Titan, the War Hammer Titan…"
"All Nine Titans? She has all the Nine Titans within herself? You mean to say that…she's Ymir Fritz's successor? 'Whosoever manages to reunite the fragments of Ymir Fritz's soul, if their intentions be pure of heart, shall forevermore be known as the second coming of Ymir Fritz'."
"Children call her the Queen of the Titans. They see her as a benevolent goddess…and because she's a pretty face."
"Sometimes, a pretty girl with a conscience has more influence than anyone in the military or political theater."
"I wouldn't know for certain, as I have never viewed a girl as being a pretty face."
"And how many girls do you know, if you don't mind my asking?"
"Mikasa, Sasha, Hange, Historia, Kaede, Ymir, and these are just the girls I know the most due to working with them back when I was in the Survey Corps. Although Kaede Sogen isn't an actual member of the corps; she's loosely affiliated because she's a Titan Shifter and not an enemy of the people, the same as her boyfriend. The ally part, not the Titan Shifter part."
"You mean, the young man that people refer to as an Asian that commands a purple giant?"
"Yeah, him. Shinji Ikari. He's Paradis' Hope from the Sky when we were dealing with the Titans. He fell from the sky during the third attack on the Walls by the Colossal Titan. He changed everything when he did, made it possible for us all to live outside the Walls."
"They both seem like a reliable pair."
"Yeah, they are. They're the queen's co-ruling advisers. They give her advice that benefits everyone…and when she's not being the queen, she's being the primary caretaker of orphan children, a duty she does with a passionate heart."
"A benevolent ruler. I'd like to meet her one day."
"Maybe you will. Historia isn't a person that hides behind the guise of others like those of her father's family had in the past. Everyone in the city knows who she is and what she does, what she stands for and who she trusts in her social circle."
"You seem…like you're anything but accepting of the current state of things, Eren."
"I have no choice but to accept things as they are. Some people that are happy with the end of the war have reason to look at me with some contempt; some of my unwritten actions had consequences that were considered unethical, such as sacrificing their lives when the Walls came down to release the Titans on the world. One Garrison member didn't hide his mild contempt towards my actions had I gone down that route a second time. And then another Garrison member…and then a civilian…"
"But you're alive. They're alive…and they can do as they desire without the fear of being looked at with hatred or murderous intent. You can go anywhere now. Why would anyone that walked through violence suddenly go and resent the peace others longed for?"
"I'm stubborn. If you haven't been told by my parents, I have always been this way."
"This is the first I'm hearing of it. Your father used to be that way…but he's different now. He used to think his sister was dead, murdered, but then she comes back, having been turned into a Titan to prevent her death and brought here to hide her until she was returned to her original state. And now, she's with her parents, who were brought to tears over her return, thanking everyone they could for saving her life."
"I wouldn't know my father to be stubborn at any point in his life."
"He and Faye, your aunt, just wanted to see a blimp that had been stationed outside Liberio where they used to live. The PSA just liked to abuse their authority with anyone that was Eldian, but not every member was like that with every Eldian. Liberio was just one of the places in Marley that was just…rough. Eisen was probably the only place with an internment zone that was not abusive in excess."
"Why?"
"I used to live in Eisen…before I met your father and the other members of the Eldian Restorationists. It was…the only city by the water that had the least degree of contempt toward Eldians…and that was mainly because there weren't that many of us, so the hatred wasn't like it was in Liberio. If Eldians wanted to see a blimp or ship, they could, even without a permit. The harshest penalty you could get from the PSA there was just a month's worth of community service."
"Sounds like Eisen wasn't anything like where my father used to live."
"In all honesty, Liberio was just one of the rougher parts of Marley. I wouldn't mind going back there for a visit to see how much of it has changed."
Eren then thought about asking Dina something that was very personal that he felt he should've asked her and his father.
"I don't know much about anyone getting the idea of asking Ms. Sogen about trying to undo certain events that happened in the past," he uttered to her, "but do you… Do you ever wonder if she could…bring Zeke back to life by preventing his death by Grausam Zanki?"
Dina looked away and sighed; she had been asked that question before, by Grisha's father, and knew she had to give the same answer to Eren as she had to Jonathan when he asked.
"As much as I want to believe that Ms. Sogen probably could," she told Eren, "I don't want her to even try such a move. It's not because I fear something as unlikely as her messing with the way time is believed to function, going in two directions, backwards and forwards, but because of what Zeke could still likely do out of a resentment to Eldians. Even if he had lost the power of the Titans to Ms. Sogen, there was still what he could try to do later on."
"You mean, the original plan he had to sterilize all Eldians with the Founding Titan?" He asked her. "Kaede had told Historia and the others in charge of the Survey Corps and Garrison after she received the memories of Zeke and his Beast Titan predecessor. But even though Kaede could do something like that if she desired, she won't do it because it goes against her very conscience. I think it has something to do with her mother having another baby soon."
"Christine Sogen. Yeah, I've heard of her. She's happy that her daughter is happy. She couldn't be any prouder than she is of her."
"And I thought certain parents would try to ride the coattails of their children or try to live vicariously through them."
"Not everyone goes down that route unless they feel their own lives have been less than good for them. I'll admit that my own past wasn't as happy as I had wanted it to be, but in the words of a good friend, things get better if you allow yourself to see the brighter side of life. And they have gotten better. I will always carry the pain of losing Zeke in my heart, but it was equally my fault that he did what he did. The worst sins committed by any parent…"
"Are the ones committed against their child."
"Yeah."
"I think the primary reason Kaede won't use the power of the Founding Titan to affect Eldians like what Zeke had originally intended to do is because of her mother being pregnant. When she found out she was going to be a big sister, she wanted to get rid of her step-grandfather before the new baby was born. She didn't want the desire for revenge to consume her over what he did to her before the Wall Maria breach."
"Vengeance becomes a poison that can take you over and turn you into something ugly. Any negative emotion, a feeling that is influenced by the way you perceive the world to be deep inside, regardless of whether or not it actually is or isn't, can strip away your heart, your sense of fairness, corrupt you until you can no longer think straight."
"And you think you and my father just corrupted Zeke?"
"We did. We had expected him to do something to save everyone else, not knowing that we were hurting him with such expectations. We had one child…and we didn't do what parents were supposed to do for their children. I own up to that…and have to live with it till the end of time. If you do something like that to any child, you give up any right to be considered an innocent person…or a person in general…until you receive their forgiveness for the wrongs you've committed. Only then…can you truly be atoned."
"That sounds rather selfish, Ms. Fritz."
"Have you been forgiven by anyone you've hurt, Eren Yeager?"
Eren couldn't say much of anything to that question. In many respects, he had hurt people, and without even realizing he had or would.
"Touché," he told her.
"So…what do you do after you're done here?" Dina asked him.
"I go home. Nothing much to do afterward."
"You need a hobby."
"Like what?"
"Anything. Grow a garden, become an aviator enthusiast, become an architect, something to do with your spare time. If you just go through the days like your life is going to end…then you might as well be the one that ends it. So you were discharged from the Survey Corps, so you get scornful reactions from people upset with you, you deal with it until you're forgiven. And if you can't be forgiven by those you've wronged…then at least own up to why…and forgive yourself for your transgressions and move on."
A moment of silence between them last for four minutes until Eren spoke up again.
"What would you say to him?" He questioned. "To Zeke…if he were alive again?"
"I'd tell him that I'm sorry for the way his father and I treated him," she answered.
"Don't you have royal blood in your veins?"
"Yes, and it doesn't matter. I'm not looking for a crown or a throne. I'm not into politics, either."
"Who is these days?"
"People that want to change the world for different reasons."
Eren then took out an apple and pocketknife, cutting the apple in half. Then, he gave one half to Dina before he proceeded to eat the other half.
"It'll be two years before I can enlist into the Survey Corps again," he told her. "I feel like I'm stuck in a rut somewhere."
"Then don't think about the Survey Corps," she responded. "Think about something else. Anything else. Get off the island, spend some time in another place, meet new people, stop thinking about what could've been and accept what is and can be. And, God, please, show restraint. You let your attitude get you into trouble, and you end up inviting trouble to follow you around until it becomes inescapable."
Dina was probably the only woman Eren had met, apart from his mother, that kept telling him to exercise restraint, something he found difficult to do every time. And he was considered among the most dysfunctional of people due to his attitude. He wasn't even eighteen yet and he was having a hard time with everything, and it wasn't like he could ask for advice from anyone, because even he wasn't sure what he was supposed to do with his life, anymore.
-x-
It felt like…she had been in a hot bath or sauna…and she had fallen to the ground, exhausted. Catching her breath, she looked up at the four people in front of her…and immediately recognized one of them.
"His…Historia?" She asked, barely recognizing the sound of her own voice.
The blond-haired girl in front of her dropped to her knees and placed her palms on the older girl's face.
"Hey, Frieda," she greeted her with a smile.
"Am I…really alive?"
"You are, sister."
Frieda Reiss, former holder of the Founding Titan and previous queen of the Walls, had been released from a long slumber imprisoned within a Titan with no will or means to escape. But the least good that came with being released from the hold of the Founding Titan was that she didn't have that ideology looming over her every thought and action any further.
"The…the Founding Titan," she expressed, concerned about whoever possessed it. "Does Karl Fritz's ideology continue to persist?"
"No," Historia told her. "Karl Fritz's ideology was removed from the Founding Titan by Kaede Sogen, the keeper of the Dark Titan. Kaede?"
Kaede stepped forward and gave Historia an oversized bathrobe; the years of being in Titan form had destroyed their original clothing, leaving each member of the Reiss family bare.
"I've seen you before," Frieda realized; it wasn't everyday that you met a girl with gray hair.
"Ma'am," she greeted her.
Historia then gave Frieda the bathrobe and helped her put it on.
"It's great to see you again, Historia," Frieda told her sister.
"It's great to see you again, too," she responded, helping her up to her feet.
"How…how long," went Frieda's mother as she slowly got up beside the evaporating remains of her Titan husk, "were we Titans?"
"Over six years," Kaede answered her. "Less than seven years."
"You…you're the one that turned us into Titans that day," she realized. "That was somehow your doing, young lady."
"To save your family from being killed."
"Haaurgh!" They turned to see Ulklin Reiss puking. "Urgh!"
Shinji came over with a bottle of water and another bathrobe.
"Here, drink this," he told Ulklin, handing him the bottle. "It's not easy for some people that have been a Titan for an extended time period."
"Thank you," Ulklin replied, feeling slightly better. "Hey, you're Asian."
"Yeah, I get that a lot. I hope that's not an issue."
"Are you kidding me? I've never met an Asian before."
Once all six members of the Reiss family were given a bathrobe, they were helped up the steps leading out of the cavern.
"So…you're now the queen?" Rod's wife asked Historia as the sun disappeared beyond the horizon, leaving bits of daylight left in the sky.
"I am," Historia answered her. "Do you…know who I am?"
"You remind me of someone I've seen a few times, but she was not…talkative most of time. She was called Alma."
Historia sighed and expressed, "She was my mother."
"Whenever I wasn't there to see you, I would speak with her," Frieda revealed, catching Kaede's attention. "I questioned her lack of affection towards you."
"Did she ever…say why?" Historia asked her.
"Alma was…not as open about her feelings as most could've expected her to be. There was never a kind word. I could only urge her to reconsider her treatment towards you, because keeping you at a distance, never speaking with you, never doing anything to show that she cared about you…would not get her in anyone's good graces."
"You mean, her mother just…refused to show her any measure of love and acceptance?" Shinji asked. "That's terrible."
"As I said, she wasn't very open about her feelings."
"Wall Sina is gone," they heard Abel Reiss say, pointing towards where a section of the wall once resided.
"Yeah," Kaede admitted. "We had a situation a couple of months ago and I had to tear them down to protect the people."
"Were there really Titans inside them?"
"There were."
"But…that was just a story," Rod's wife expressed. "Titans couldn't have existed within the Walls. That's crazy."
"How much about the Walls were you ever aware of, Mrs. Reiss?" Ymir asked her.
"That they've been around for over a hundred years, meant to protect what remained of the human race from the Titans that roamed the lands outside them."
"It's nothing more than a fabrication, Mrs. Reiss. A falsehood tale. The world isn't ruled by Titans and the human race isn't on the road to extinction. A lot has changed going back over a year. An unfathomable lot."
They walked down the path away from the former chapel towards a two-story hut that had been built a while back. It was built as a rest stop and recovery station for members of the Garrison, Survey Corps and former Titans returned to human form so they could recoup and return to their lives. They couldn't have the revived Reiss family walk around forever in bathrobes.
"I like your hair, miss," Kaede heard Florian Reiss say to her.
"Thank you," she responded.
-x-
"…How are things with Paradis now?" Misato heard Yui say behind in Central Dogma.
"I wouldn't know," she explained. "Shinji hasn't gotten back inside the Eva, so we can't monitor him or see what he's done or experienced. The last thing he ever did with the Eva was assist in the tearing down of certain walls around the settlements of Marley."
"Best guess?"
"If I had to guess… Shinji and Kaede are still helping with the aftermath of the war's conclusion and helping the Eldians resettle across the continent now that the Marleyans have changed their tune against them."
"Did you ever have any doubts that he'd never be able to end a war without the need for violence?" Yui wanted to know.
"Hardly. He's not a violent person, hates causing pain and suffering, and even though he was protecting people of one country threatened by another country, the memories of his involvement won't be forgotten just yet. Nobody comes back from a war the same. Why, did you think so?"
"I never imagined the Eva being used to end a war like that. Not even against an enemy like these Titans. And now that the war is over, what use is it?"
"For Paradis and as long as he's alive, the Eva will likely be kept as a deterrent in the prevention of future wars that may involve the people of that island. A deterrent keeps everyone in line."
"But that's only as long as he's alive."
"It's not like he's going to continue using it for the rest of his life. Who knows what will happen to the Eva when he gets back to Paradis? Probably get put underground somewhere for safekeeping to prevent potential misuse."
But Yui was hardly convinced, and not because of the possibility of another war so soon after the end of the one his son aided in to save a race of people that possessed a power unlike anything remotely close to what they possessed in this world.
"It's because he still doesn't know you exist, isn't it?" Misato asked her.
"As much as I'm happy for him, I wish he did know about me," she stated.
"He'll find out about you when he's had time to adjust. He can't be forced to completely put what happened behind him any faster than humanly possible."
Yui understood that, but wasn't as patient as she used to be. How long would it be before Shinji knew she was alive again? A year? Two years? She wasn't sure how his mind worked, anymore.
And with the world governments here now being run properly due to SEELE's influence no longer present, NERV had been repurposed with keeping the portal in Nevada from being misused by rogue factions looking to stir up trouble. This resulted in the NERV facility there being modified to ensure its protection and study. And the three remaining Evas here (now that Unit-02 had been completely rebuilt) put in stasis and what remained of NERV's other assets to be repurposed for the rebuilding and expansion of other areas.
"You make it sound as though you're dying of a disease or something," Misato told her.
"No, I'm just impatient," Yui responded.
"Everyone gets impatient. Try to look on the positive side. At least now, Shinji has time to decide what he'll do with the rest of his life. And he's around people that have more knowledge than even he could tell them, and an island with plenty of opportunities available to him. I mean, he can be a doctor, a chef, a fisherman…or even a barista or bartender."
"Barista, maybe, but not a bartender, Ms. Katsuragi."
"That was meant to be a joke."
Yui had to guess that her sense of humor was as dead as her husband was now.
-x-
The one thing Frieda had to clarify when her mother chose to question who was in charge as the ruler of Paradis…was that Historia was the one best qualified to continue being the queen, something Mrs. Reiss had to accept because they no longer needed the Founding Titan or the transfer ritual that their family did every thirteen years. As she recovered her strength, she didn't want anyone in her family questioning Historia's competency, as none of them really knew her.
"…There's no need to go back to the old ways," she told her mother. "We're still of nobility, but we need to move forward."
Outside the hut, Kaede sat on the front porch and looked up at the night sky. She was waiting for Shinji to come out and join her while Historia was getting acquainted with the Reiss family.
"I've heard of family drama, but I think this is the first I've ever seen it like this," she heard Shinji as he came out and sat beside her. "I was asked by the eldest Reiss son what I did for Historia, and I answered that I serve as an adviser with a giant suit of armor that protects the people against potential threats from beyond the island now."
"I'm worried that Mrs. Reiss will constantly challenge Historia's right to rule," she told him.
"Miss Frieda has made her voice heard that nobody is to challenge her right. They may no longer possess the Founding Titan, but that hasn't removed them from their position as the ruling family. She even asked me where my loyalties lie, and I told her they lied with Historia, you and the Garrison and Survey Corps."
"It may be a while before Mrs. Reiss can accept this as our new normal, having been out of place for less than a decade. I think it's because of her husband that she's like this."
"Not many wives can tolerate that their husbands may have had an affair behind their backs. She doesn't even know that he's in prison yet."
"What about Ymir? How she's taking this?"
"She's holding her tongue, but if Mrs. Reiss does something, she might do something out of line in response."
"Maybe she needs to see the Queen of the Titans back up the Queen of Eldia."
"One step at a time, Kaede. They're still in recovery."
Suddenly, Ymir came out and the couple looked up at her.
"Historia needs your assistance on a sensitive matter, you two," she told them.
They got up and returned to inside the hut.
"How may we assist?" Shinji asked the young queen as she sat across the floor from Mrs. Reiss.
"I need…a show and tell of what's going on through the Dark Titan, please," Historia explained.
"Uh, what is the Dark Titan?" Dirk questioned.
Kaede sat down on the floor two feet from Historia and Shinji sat with her.
"Is there a reason behind this?" She asked the queen.
"They wish to know how much of life around Paradis has changed," she explained.
"Very well, then. Try to stay calm, people."
The Reiss family watched as dark purple streaks appeared under Kaede's eyes and something emerging from behind her neck. Florian and Abel held onto each other while Dirk scooted closer to his mother. The Titan flesh began to take the form of a head and shoulder, looking at the family, and then bowed its head.
"I am the Dark Titan," she introduced herself. "How do you do this evening?"
"You can talk?" Ulklin questioned. "That's impossible."
"Not much of anything is impossible now."
Suddenly, the room around them disappeared and they were all within the realm of the Eldian Paths, surrounded by previous versions of the Nine Titans.
"My God," Mrs. Reiss gasped.
"These are the events as they have transpired in the past up to the here and now," Kaede told them, and the Titans vanished to show the revived family detailed recollections of what has occurred since Shinji came into their lives.
They saw the Eva face and defeat the Colossal Titan, devour a number of lesser Titans, transfer a multitude of people from the land within the Walls to the coastal city, and defending it against Titans emerging from the ocean. It was followed by Kaede's exposure as the Dark Titan to help Shinji against an increasing threat of large Titans emerging from the ocean, and then her assistance to the Survey Corps after discovering that she could absorb the power of the Nine Titans by having the previous holders exposed to her Titan's spinal fluid, amalgamating the powers into a single whole that had been represented by the original Titan, Ymir Fritz. There was a situation in which Paradis had been threatened by Shinji's father, who desired the Eva and the Dark Titan for his own purposes, resulting in Kaede usurping the power of the Attack and Founding Titans from the son of the man that had attacked the Reiss family for their Founding Titan, and then fighting back against Karl Fritz's ideology to assume control over the Titan that would enable them to save the island and the people on it…and winning the battle, something Mrs. Reiss never suspected to be possible because, as far as she understood, everyone else in the family had been unable to use the Founding Titan to face the Titans and free the people from the life behind the Walls. As the months came and went with Historia as the queen, things had only progressed in positive outcomes, people able to amass ancient knowledge they didn't have before and clean the coastal city and run it efficiently, and the war against Marley, the country that had a personal history with Eldia, had been unable to cause them trouble like they had been believed to, even with their larger military forces because the Eva and Dark Titan were the main defense against them, virtually unbreachable.
"But…who's that man?" Dirk questioned, pointing to a memory of Grausam Zanki, who was unpleasant in every sense of the word.
"My step-grandfather," Kaede revealed. "Grausam Zanki. He's old history now."
"He was bad news before and after we had to deal with Marley," Shinji added. "A serious bad guy with an ego of power hunger and no capacity for remorse or guilt."
They saw how Grausam became a Titan that mirrored his human appearance with a prominent aura of hatred and ever-increasing cruelty, something that frightened the girls, even when he had been captured once and held in check and confronted by Historia for his crimes against the people of the world.
"Don't debate with me, girl!" They heard his voice as he yelled at Historia while locked up after the young queen questioned his intentions.
"Titanus Yggdrasilus," Ulklin gasped, seeing the legendary tree on Gigante Island. "It really does exist."
"Other members of the Fritz family," Mrs. Reiss added, seeing Draven and Voight Fritz.
"Miss Sogen is a descendant of the Fritz family?" Abel questioned, seeing a member of said family use the Founding Titan's power to turn another member's hair from blond to gray. "No way! That's impossible!"
"No," went Florian, "these are memories are all authentic, sister. You can't fake any of these memories. Nothing is hidden."
And then, they saw how Paradis became another attempted battleground by Titans unleashed upon it by a different adversary that stood no chance against the Garrison, Survey Corps or the Evangelion that worked in tandem with the Wall Titans to erect a barrier to keep them from getting through. It was the last battle that lasted only less than two hours, resulting in the enemy losing their lives and the enemy Grausam Zanki getting captured and later dealt with in a way that would ensure he could never get loose and cause further harm to anyone. Following that was the returning of Marley's surviving military soldiers back to the mainland and the declaration of the war's end in Paradis' favor after the power of the Titans was used to cultivate the wastelands that Marley made in their involvement in the war, turning them into new gardens to eliminate their path to infighting as a result of famine.
"I had no idea the Titans could really be used to grow food from where they walked," Mrs. Reiss expressed as she saw the Titans shedding their flesh wherever they went in the ruins of where they were. "They really can cultivate wastelands."
"And Ymir Fritz's soul actually resided here upon her death?" Frieda asked, looking around the place they were in. "I only remember being here once…but it wasn't pleasant because of who had also been here."
"You mean, Karl Fritz?" Kaede asked her. "He was enforcing his ideology on you when you took the Founding Titan."
"Yeah. There were times where I felt like I was in control, but every other time, when I felt like wanting to free the people from the fear of the Titans, I wasn't myself."
Kaede understood what she meant by that. There had been a moment where she, too, had almost buckled under the pressure of Karl's beliefs, but she refused to surrender her own beliefs in favor of someone else's when the goal had been to protect the people, not condemn them to annihilation. Again, she owed her relationship with Shinji for her inability to submit to Karl back then, and winning control of the Founding Titan.
"I'm guessing the battle took a toll on you?" Frieda asked her.
"Only when I don't take the time to rest," she responded.
Then, they were all returned to the inside of the hut.
"Over a year…and things have truly changed," Mrs. Reiss admitted. "I could never imagine any of this happening years ago."
"You three are really impressive," Florian told Historia, Kaede and Shinji.
"Thank you," Shinji responded, bowing his head to her.
"Two of the three rulers of Eldia," went Dirk stated, pointing to Historia and Kaede. "The Queens of Paradis and the Titans."
Historia nodded her head in compliance to this.
Beep! Kaede's phone responded to a text she was getting, and she took it out to see who was contacting her.
"Oh," she went, her hands trembling.
"What is it, Kaede?" Shinji asked her.
"My parents are at the hospital," she explained. "They're not sure what's going on yet."
"You two should go," Historia told them. "It might be nothing, but you never know for certain. It might actually be the day."
"Yeah, it might be the day. I'll contact you later."
She and Shinji got up and left the hut.
"What may be so important about today for Ms. Sogen?" Frieda asked Historia.
"Her mother's having a new baby," she explained. "She's looking forward to being a big sister."
"Her mother's having a new baby?" Abel echoed. "That's good news."
Outside the hut, Kaede turned into her five-meter Dark Titan form again and grew wings. She lowered down so that Shinji could climb onto her back and took off.
"I'm not flying too fast, am I, Shinji?" She asked him as she flew across the land below them.
"No, I'm fine, Kaede," he responded, holding on tightly to strands of her Titan's hair. "Any estimate on how soon we'll be at the hospital?"
"Ten minutes. Fifteen minutes. It all depends on the weather conditions…and my conviction to get to the destination as fast as possible."
And due to the fact that her Dark Titan was five meters and possessed a wingspan similar to that of a large bird, Kaede was practically akin to a small plane, just without the mechanical drawbacks or need for refueling or maintenance. With very little wind resistance affecting her Titan, there was no fear of delays in getting to Paradius City. All that was left…was the young woman's conviction to get to the hospital and find out what was wrong.
-x-
Karina Braun was unable to speak a word at the sight of who Reiner had with him when he came home. To see Nathan again, her first love, the father of her son, after so many years apart due to the discrimination and segregation laws Marley had against Eldians, was like a dream come true after living through a nightmare.
"Uh, good evening, Karina," he had greeted her as he stood out in the hall outside the Brauns' apartment; after so many years, he wasn't sure how to be around the woman he had been in love with ever since they first met. "How are you?"
"I…I…" She tried to speak, but her emotions, both positive and negative, caused her to just stand there and look at him…until she closed the gap between them…and hugged him.
This was quite a surprise for Reiner; he knew his mother was relieved to be alive and no longer living behind a walled internment camp, but he wasn't sure how she was deep down upon seeing his father after so many years apart. He was just hoping that…these two would try to mend their relationship without the cruelty of the past hindering them now. There had to be no plots of revenge, no hidden agendas, no tricks lying in wait. All there should be…was a chance to start over and move on.
"What are you doing here?" She finally asked Nathan.
"I wanted to see you," he answered her.
-x-
"…They landed on the roof of the building," Sig told Christine as he sat beside the hospital bed she was in, responding to a text. "They should here in a minute or two."
"It's really nothing," she tried to brush off what landed her in the hospital. "All I did was trip coming out of the bathroom."
"Yeah, but you hit you head against the wall. You gave me a scare."
Knock, knock. The married couple turned to face the door to the room and saw their daughter and her boyfriend.
Kaede, whose face was still streaked with her Titan marks, saw that her mother had a bandage on her head.
"What happened?" She asked them.
"I tripped coming out of the bathroom and hit my head against the wall," Christine told her daughter, explaining why she had a bandage on her head.
"How did you trip coming out of the bathroom?"
"My left foot fell asleep because I was on the toilet for a while."
"Ouch. But…are you both okay?"
"Still waiting on the doctor to return with my MRI results. They're certain that the baby is okay. What happened with you two, though? How was Historia?"
"She was doing fine," said Shinji to them. "She was happy when Kaede brought back her sister and the rest of her extended family. Uh, it is extended family, right?"
"Yeah, Shinji," Kaede clarified. "Even if Historia and Frieda are only related on their father's side, the latter's family is the former's extended family."
"You brought the Reiss family back?" Sig questioned. "How did you bring them back to life?"
"I just…changed history by taking a step back," she explained. "Instead of them being killed, I made it so that I turned them into Titans and become part of the crystalline structures under the Reiss Chapel. When I came back, I returned them to normal. I still can't do anything about the fact that when anyone's been a Titan for an extended period that goes over the length of the Cart Titan, their clothes waste away."
"Just focus on what you can do and go from there," her mother told her, proud of her feats.
"Excuse me, people," the voice of a male doctor as he stood by the door behind Shinji and Kaede, holding a medical chart board in his hands. "I'm here with Mrs. Sogen's MRI results."
Shinji and Kaede moved aside and let him into the room.
"You'll be pleased to know that your brain scan came back clear of injury," he told Christine.
"Thank you," she praised him.
"So, as soon you can get up and change, we can begin your discharge and you can all go home."
"Thank you very much, doctor," Sig told him.
Christine started to move on the bed, but then her face frowned.
"Unfortunately, I don't think I can get out of bed right now," she told them, laying back against the elevated frame behind her.
"Why not, Mother?" Kaede asked her.
"My water just broke," she revealed.
To be continued…
A/N: Sorry to leave you with a cliffhanger, but I promise the next chapter will be worth the wait. It's Christmas Eve, and the next day will be one of holiday miracles. I mean, there have been miracles going on in this story when you think about it. And the return of the Reiss family is just another miracle due to Kaede's power. Merry Christmas to all, and to all a safe and healthy path to the New Year.
Omake (Bad Boys II-influenced)
The gang of fans for the Marleyan Zealots were enjoying themselves as they set fire to a statue of a five-meter Titan. They had just won a football game against the Eldian Gatekeepers, and were about to show their superiority against the fans of the losing team by burning a Titan statue and burning a boatload of recreational grass.
"Marley forever!" One of the male members yelled.
"Marley forever!" The rest repeated, and then someone shined a huge light on them on the beach.
They were blinded and their burning statue was knocked to the ground.
"Y'all know your team only won because of a technicality!" A female voice uttered. "The Eldian Gatekeepers had the game in their favor tonight!"
"Oh, wow," added a male voice, as the light moved away to reveal four teens, a guy and three girls. "It's the cosplayers for the Eldian Gatekeepers."
"Yo, big boy," the gray-haired girl uttered to the big guy that looked like a brute, "drop the bag of medicinal dope."
"You heard my girlfriend," the ebony-haired boy enforced, and the blond-haired boy dropped the bag. "We clear. The rest of y'all bring your game faces on."
"Heh-heh-heh," snickered the freckle-faced tall girl as she and the shorter, blond-haired girl brandished cattle prods. "Bad boys, bad boys, what you gonna do? What you gonna do when we come for you?"
"Heh-heh-heh, oh, yay," went the blond girl.
"She still doesn't know the words," the ebony-haired boy told the gray-haired girl as they took the bag of grass.
"Who knows the words these days?" She responded.
BLAST! The boat where the rest of the grass was being stored exploded and got everyone's attention, with either groans of disappointment or surprise.
"All we got left are five bags of the dope," the tallest boy in the Marleyan Zealots' gang of fans groaned. "We'd go through that in an hour."
"You only took five bags from the boat?" The freckled girl questioned. "Well, that's better than nothing, I suppose. We'll still take that from y'all."
"Yeah," the blond girl agreed. "How much of that grass was worth on the street?"
"At least two-and-a-half-million," went the blond-haired tall girl from the Marleyan Zealots.
"Bummer," the gray-haired girl sighed.