Creation began on 06-03-21

Creation ended on 06-06-21

Attack on Titan

Rise, Sasha, Rise: Light in the Darkness

"Miss Blouse," said the man that fathered Historia's dead child as Sasha left the house, "please…keep what happened here today to yourself. For Historia's sake, speak nothing of this."

Personally, Sasha wasn't sure if she could even speak of this tragedy, even if she wanted to. As she was just a regular citizen of Paradis, she had no influence on even what happened in her own village. There was even a chance the military taking interest into what happened too much. Sasha wasn't even sure if Historia would live to see the next week; the queen's life was currently in the hands of fate, just as her own had been when she'd been shot by that Eldian girl from Liberio.

Today, I go to invite Historia to my wedding, and I end up finding out she was pregnant and miscarried, she thought as she climbed atop her horse. She was pregnant during the time she was out of sight. She's our age, not even twenty yet…and she was going to be a mother before she was old enough to actually have children safely. If she recovers from her miscarriage and is able to have children in the future, I hope it'll be after she's older and more developed. One of the women from my village was actually thirteen when she got pregnant…and she didn't make it. I wouldn't these struggles on anyone that wanted children. But…did she really want that child?

She couldn't answer that question. All she could do…was keep quiet about it and pretend it never happened. Just forget that an unborn child didn't survive and move on. That was…all she could do for now…and try to keep it from being found out about by any that asked her about how Historia and if she would be at her wedding.

-x-

So far, Ymir had joined the growing number of previous possessors of the Nine Titans, but only because she, too, had to consider the possibility of getting out of this place that she found herself in shortly after she returned the Jaw Titan to Marley. If there was a chance of even returning to life, she had to at least think that she could return to Historia, to the girl she had left when she could've stayed when Bertolt and Reiner tried to escape and she chose them over her.

"So…you were the Jaw Titan," Frieda Reiss questioned her as they, Bertolt and Kruger walked down a path in this vast, desert terrain, "and you were named after the original founder?"

"It's just the name I was given when I was found on the streets," she explained. "I don't remember my real name…or if I even had one to begin with."

"But…Historia knows you as Ymir, only as Ymir, so…that is your real name as far as those that know or knew of you are concerned. How long were you the Jaw Titan?"

"Just five years. How long were you the Founding Titan that everyone was talking about?"

"Less than five less years. I barely made use of the power, despite wanting to help the people live better lives beyond the Walls."

"Why didn't you?"

"Anyone with royal blood in their veins can't use the Founding Titan due to a vow our ancestor made to renounce war. He felt self-loathing over what his people did in the past that he gave Marley, one of the main nations that had been oppressed, control over the majority of Eldians while he took a small portion of them to Paradis and imprisoned them behind three walls and made them believe that they were all that was left of the human race because of the Titans."

"What a load of rubble."

"You don't say? But even if I wanted to, and I did want to, nobody in my family can overcome the vow renouncing war. There was this theory, a belief, that the vow could be circumvented if the Founding Titan was possessed by someone without royal blood…and one of the other Titans possessed by someone with royal blood made contact with them."

"Any of the other Titans possessed by a royal?" Bertolt asked. "Like the Colossal, Armored or Female Titans?"

"So long as they have royal blood and the Founding Titan is possessed by someone that doesn't. That's the theory, at least."

"There's this guy that has the Beast Titan…and he could somehow make certain Titans do as he wanted them to. He was like what Marley believed the Founding Titan to be capable of doing."

Frieda had an expression on her face that was clearly one of concern; it was as though something like what Bertolt told them seemed unlikely.

"Is something wrong?" Kruger asked her.

"There was a memory of one of the other eight Titans exhibiting some control over certain Titans," she revealed. "It was a man that had inherited the Attack Titan…but the Titans he controlled were too violent and were just an extension of his aggressive attitude. The Founding Titan took control and returned the Titans back to human form. After that, it was decreed that the royal family would only possess the Founding Titan while other families would be entrusted with the other eight. To abuse such power was to challenge the reign of the royal family that kept order within the nation at the time."

"Then…whoever the Beast Titan is…"

"Zeke Yeager," Bertolt stated to them. "He's the Beast Titan that can make Titans do as he wants them to."

"He must have royal blood, then, if he can achieve such a feat."

Suddenly, Ymir tripped and fell onto…another woman that was laying on the ground.

"Aaaurgh!" She groaned.

Gasp! Bertolt and Kruger reacted.

"What?" Ymir questioned, getting up off the woman. "Who are you… Ah!"

The woman she fell on was in three pieces! Her head and upper body with her left arm, her lower body and right arm, and her left leg. For some reason, she was dismembered.

"I was wondering if anyone would find me," the woman uttered, surprising them with the fact that she was conscious.

"Who are you?" Kruger asked.

"Lara Tybur, and…if it even makes any difference… I was a member of the Tybur family and former War Hammer Titan."

"Who ate you?" Bertolt questioned.

"Eren Yeager."

"I can't believe that jerk would kill someone else to take their Titan power," Ymir expressed. "Why did he kill you?"

"He openly declared war on Marley after infiltrating Liberio…and killing my brother right after he rallied the other nations into defending themselves against Paradis because he was willing to use the Rumbling to destroy the world."

Now Ymir regretted ever leaving Historia with that jerk. If she'd known that the only person that had an attitude with everyone and a problem with authority, she wouldn't have left her. She would've taken her with her to Marley and try to bargain with the people there for her safety…or she would've let Bertolt and Reiner take Eren with them when they were captured by the two. She wouldn't have left Historia with someone as reckless and violent as Eren was.

"What are the chances of him actually causing this Rumbling?" She asked Lara.

"The chances are high," she answered. "He might've murdered my brother, but the rest of my family is at risk because of the danger he poses to the world…and I don't want them to die because of him."

"If you're the former War Hammer Titan," Frieda expressed, "then there may be a way to prevent the Rumbling from ever happening."

"If he has the Founding Titan, what hope is there on stopping him?"

"A stranger told us to find previous holders of the Nine Titans," Bertolt revealed to her. "You're the War Hammer, which makes you the fifth of the nine of us here. We need to find the previous Female, Cart, Beast and Armored Titan holders now."

"And you believe that the nine of us former holders can just…stand up to him and keep him from causing the Rumbling?"

"Some of us have different reasons for wanting to believe in being able to do something," Ymir told her. "Keeping the Rumbling from happening, getting out of this place, maybe even returning to life. Whatever happens when all nine of us are gathered here, I just hope something good can come out of all this suffering."

Lara sighed…and then asked if she could be put back together again.

"Some other lady just left me here," she told them. "I don't know which Titan she was. She didn't say and I didn't ask."

"I don't think we can put you back together," Kruger told her, "but I'll carry you."

-x-

"…Sasha, you're back," greeted her mother to her as she returned to Dauper. "How was the queen?"

"She was…resting when I met her," she responded; it was a half-truth, since Historia's miscarriage needed to be hidden for a long as possible. "I'm hoping that she'll come to the wedding, though."

"She must be very lonely in Wall Sina."

"Not too lonely; she has some people helping her."

"Well, that's good to hear."

"Where's Niccolo?"

"He said he had to do something to do in Shiganshina and then he would be on his way back," her father informed her. "When I asked him about what it was, he responded that he needed to talk to someone that was there."

There were only a handful of people they knew that were currently in Shiganshina right now, and most of them were just people they knew. Who could Niccolo have gone there to see?

-x-

It was difficult to see Gabi and Falco behind bars, but Niccolo had to confront the girl after finding out that she was the one that shot Sasha with the bullet that nearly took her away from him. It was just as difficult for Gabi to see that Niccolo was upset that she actually tried to kill someone, only to end nearly killing an Eldian devil that was just one of many that were the enemy; she couldn't understand why he seemed troubled by her doing her duty to Marley.

"Gabi, this goes beyond the racial discrimination that Eldians everywhere face," Niccolo told her. "They're not all that the world believes them to be. I don't even know fifty Eldians here, and hardly any of them are interested in the affairs of Marley, with the sole exception being attempts to broker coexistence."

"There's no coexistence with theses island devils, Niccolo," Gabi tried to reason with him. "That Eren Yeager attacked Liberio and murdered a lot of people there! He killed families! That, in and of itself, is an open declaration of this island's desire to go to war with the rest of the world! Kill Eren Yeager, and the Rumbling is for naught! What's the death of one other island devil?"

"It matters to me, Gabi," he told her. "While I could care less about Yeager, and I care very little for him, you shot a woman that matters to me, and you almost killed her."

"You…you've been seduced by the island devil, haven't you?"

Falco got tense; he didn't like where this conversation was going.

"I wasn't seduced," Niccolo stated, "and despite whatever Marley thinks, they were wrong to send the Warrior Unit here nine years ago under the falsehood belief that the Founding Titan was needed to end all wars when it was nothing but another war for the resources here. No matter what they claim, the people here did nothing to deserve what was done to them…and you didn't need to try and kill someone that isn't directly responsible for what someone else did on purpose, as far as I know and care."

"You say I'm wrong? You turned your back on Marley, same as Zeke Yeager! And you did so because of a pretty devil face!"

"You're wrong! I love her!"

Hearing that surprised Falco! It was one thing for Eldians and Marleyans to be restricted from invasive interactions, but it was frowned upon by Marley for any of its people to develop personal relationships with Eldians. But Niccolo claimed to be in love with one of them, which would've earned him a one-way trip to an execution if anyone from Marley found out.

"You…you're in love with an Eldian?" Gabi questioned, disgusted by this revelation.

"Yes," Niccolo answered, "and you almost killed her when you snuck aboard that airship to get revenge for what was done. If it had been Eren that you shot, I wouldn't have cared in the least, because he has gone too far to incite retaliation, but with Sasha, that's crossing a line. A nearly-unforgivable line."

"Well, tell me, if it was that Eren Yeager in my place that nearly killed the devil girl, would you try to get rid of him for what he did?"

Niccolo sighed, thought about it, and responded, "If he had gotten her killed, I wouldn't hesitate to decapitate him…but only if he had gotten her killed, regardless of his intentions."

Falco could accept his answer. He hoped that Gabi would back off now.

"I won't give up," Gabi told him, though. "I intend to exact revenge against that devil Eren Yeager for the lives he took in Liberio…and Zeke Yeager's betrayal of Marley…a thousandfold, even if it leads me to my death."

Niccolo wanted to doubt that, since Gabi and Falco were in a different prison than Eren currently was, and their imprisonment was merely until they could be taken back to Marley, which was looking less likely due to Eren's actions. He had put in a formal request with the Survey Corps that these two be taken back to Marley as soon as possible; even after Gabi found out that he was in love with Sasha, knowing that she could inform the military and they'd likely have a warrant out for his immediate death. The life he had in Marley would be nothing more than a memory to be forgotten about by many, his parents either executed because he fell in love with a girl he wasn't supposed to be with…or likely cast out of Marley because they couldn't accept the stigma of one of their own citizens being with an Eldian. Even if Marley didn't kill his relatives, they themselves wouldn't tolerate his feelings for Sasha.

"Leave it alone, Gabi," he told her. "He's already facing the consequences for his actions; he acted without any authorization, and therefore ceased representing Paradis' actual interests in favor of his own. At this point, it's unlikely that he'll be pardoned for his actions. If he's not executed, he'll be locked away for the rest of his life, which he doesn't have much of because of the Curse of Ymir. So just wait here until things calm down some and you two will be sent back to Marley."

Niccolo then left the prison cells, having confronted the person that nearly took Sasha from him. While he was angry that it was a girl that had been drafted into the military under false pretenses that were unlikely to be proven true because of his country's intense hatred towards all Eldians…yet were completely reliant upon them for the bulk of their military and cheap labor, he wasn't going to let anger control how he acted towards others. If he allowed himself to be ruled by his negative emotions, he'd be no better than Gabi or even Eren Yeager were. He'd be unable to separate his intentions that were based on how he felt on a logical level…and how he felt on an emotional level.

Emotionally, once he was married to Sasha, no matter what became of them, nothing could separate them. Not even war and death. Logically, however, he wanted his relationship with Sasha to grow into something more than a simple crush or just because he gained respect for her because she loved what he could cook that she never ate before. He couldn't hate or resent her just because she was an Eldian or a Subject of Ymir; if love was true, then it transcended all other beliefs that they understood.

"Can you tell me just one thing, Niccolo?" Falco asked him. "Why do you love this Eldian woman so much?"

He turned to face the boy that had accompanied Gabi and answered, "She convinced me I could be a chef instead of a soldier, something I despised being. She was the first person that believed in me when my own parents disapproved of such a simple ambition. War is just Hell. Those that can't or won't walk away from it…are forever damned by it."

-x-

It was a strange feeling, but something felt off with Eren as he stared at his reflection in the mirror. He kept telling himself to fight, no matter what happened, but he got the craziest feeling that there were other people that he would have to fight that he didn't expect to face. But he couldn't stop now; if he stopped, there was no hope for Paradis. To fight was to live…and to live was to fight for freedom, no matter who or what stood in your way.

"Fight," he uttered to his reflection. "Fight."

To be continued…

A/N: Who do you think the title was referring to when there was light in the darkness? And how was the conversation between Niccolo, Gabi and Falco? Until the next chapter, stay safe, healthy, sane and alive.