Creation began on 08-30-18
Creation ended on 09-02-18
Neon Genesis Evangelion
Hope from the Sky: Field Test
A/N: Effort pays off for Grausam Zanki.
Liberio had seen better days after Grausam had shown up the initial time he arrived on Marleyan soil. The place seemed unusual to him due to the fact that it had been the city and internment zone of Eldians associated with select members of the Warrior Unit; his new orders were to draw blood from the grandparents of Zeke Yeager, the father of Annie Leonhart, the relatives of Reiner Braun, the father of Bertolt Hoover and the Galliard family, as they were all that was left of the unit's past here. Of course, his orders allowed him to exploit a loophole his superiors hadn't enforced; while his orders were to draw blood from each of them family members, he wasn't instructed on exactly how much blood was needed from each of them, meaning he could bleed them dry if he chose and claim it was all for Marley's benefit against Eldia's forces. Not that he would care if he killed them in his efforts to improve the Jaeger Serum and maintain his own benefit.
First on the list is…Johnathan Yeager, he thought as he held up a syringe to draw blood from the elderly grandfather of the last known man to inherit the Beast Titan. A real pity that we don't know what became of his grandson over on Paradis.
The door to the room opened up and in came the elder.
"Who…who are you?" Johnathan asked the man that seemed…to give him the creeps all of the sudden. "You're not from around here."
"I know, I was just transferred here a day ago to perform blood analysis on select individuals living here in the internment zone," Grausam gave his cover story. "I used to live in Acier, but I was ordered to come here after the incident that occurred a few days ago."
"That giant that wasn't a Titan that took those people away? Some people here have been talking about it since the last two days. I don't know why, but some of them are hoping that it never comes here. They're more afraid of it than they are of the Titans."
"But your grandson… Isn't he a Titan? Wouldn't that mean you're afraid of him?"
"No, my grandson, Zeke, isn't like that at all. Never before has he ever been labeled like those Eldian demons that live on Paradis. I hope that he's alright over there, that he's looking for a way to strike back at them and their ally."
Grausam then stuck the needle in Johnathan's left arm and starting to draw blood.
"I'll be right out there for a while," he told the man as he got up. "Keep the needle in until I return to remove it."
When he left, Grausam pondered over the possibility of that thing showing up here. If it did, and it was liberate Eldians…then he had to accelerate his progress. He needed as much of the Eldians' blood as he could get.
-x-
"…Where to now?" Shinji asked Kaede as he held her in his Eva's left hand as the cybernetic behemoth had just deposited another bunch of Eldians off on the carrier before flying off again to Marley.
"Liberio," she told him, pointing towards the darkening sky ahead as they headed westwards back to Marley. "It's the last place with an internment zone! Five-hundred-eighteen Eldians reside there! All we have to do is liberate the three-hundred-sixty-one that want to get out! After that, we can deal with Marley with reduced trouble!"
"That's good."
But the only trouble of liberating the Eldians from there that wanted to escape…was that Liberio wasn't just an extreme city, but had the sourest aspect of being the home of the Warrior Unit's relatives…and more than likely had some time to prepare for the possibility of the Eva paying them a visit. All they could do…was their very best to save those that wanted to be saved.
"There's something else we can possibly look forward to," added Armin as he reminded the pair that a handful of Survey Corps members were present with them, hanging from the Eva's armored waist. "Bertolt told us that a member of the Warrior Unit lives there…and she's another of the Nine Titans of Ymir Fritz."
"The Cart Titan," went Sasha, glad that she brought with her a new bow to use her arrows with. "Everyone remember their orders regarding this Pieck?"
"Yeah," responded Eren, holding up a bow of his own after having learned to use one like other members after Sasha's knowledge of archery was enhanced by the power of the Founding Titan. "We see any Titan moving on four legs and looking more like an animal than a person, we assume it's the woman, and we hit her with our arrows."
"It's a shame we won't be able to get the War Hammer Titan," said Hange as she held onto her bow, disappointed that the family that kept the ninth of the Titans belonging to Eldia wouldn't be in Liberio.
"Still, the tables will be turned, Ms. Zoe," Shinji reminded her that they would still have the advantage over Marley regarding the Titans. "They're crippled, technologically because they relied so much on the Titans and never took advantage of the resources at the coastal city."
"And it'll be night there," added Mikasa. "We'll have the edge of being almost invisible because of our new uniform."
"Ninjas, Ms. Ackerman," Kaede corrected her. "You're all dressed like ninjas. This way, none of you can be identified."
Because they were all wearing black suits, the Survey Corps could all be viewed as a handful of unknowns that couldn't be traced and made more menacing because none of them would have to speak; Shinji would use the Eva to make hand signals if necessary.
"We're nearly there now," went Shinji as the mainland was within view. "No deviations."
-x-
Sedation wasn't entirely what he had in mind, but Grausam needed all the blood he could get from these people. His new Jaeger Serum variation could very well be the deciding factor in what little use the Eldians had left if Marley no longer had the bulk of its Eldian resources…and he couldn't let these disgraces be a contributing factor to his own future, which needed to be independent of their fates. So he incapacitated the remaining relatives of the Warrior Unit's Titan Shifters, starting with Reiner Braun's mother, in order to take their blood for all they were worth. Whether or not they died as a result of his methods were of no concern to him.
"I heard you stuck a needle into an Eldian girl that wasn't even eight years old," he heard a Marleyan man, a member of the PSA, say to him as he was loading a cart with small containers full of the stockpiled blood samples he had taken from earlier.
"I was within my rights to do so," Grausam told him, closing the cart. "Why, you think I was wrong to do what I do to serve this nation?"
"Nope," the man expressed, "but I find it hard to believe that someone like you is one of them…and yet you're able to do what you do that alienates you from them. Heh, an Eldian with a hatred for his own people that's so Marleyan."
"If it were ever to become necessary…I'd bleed every Eldian man, woman and child dry to further Marley's future in this world."
"Wow. You really hate them, don't you?"
"Hatred is the curse that keeps on condemning. The only way it ends…is for everyone cursed to be eliminated."
However, just after hearing him say that, the man that policed the Eldians in the internment zone felt…bothered by this Eldian that served the military. It was as though this Eldian that got in Marley's good graces and had no intention of betraying the nation…was nursing a lot more than hatred in his heart and soul. A lot more than hatred, only he wasn't sure what it was.
"How many of them did you harvest blood from?" He asked Grausam.
"All family related to members of the current Warrior Unit," he answered.
"You harvested…the immediate families? As in…you bled out the Yeager, Braun and Galliard families for their blood?"
"Along with the fathers of Annie Leonhart and Bertolt Hoover, as they were all they had. It turns out that Ms. Pieck is an orphan because her parents died three years ago."
As Grausam turned to leave, inside the building where each of his targets were left in individual room, young Gabi Braun stirred as she came to from her sedation. She felt weakened, like all the life inside her had been taken and she was left with nothing. Climbing out of the chair she had slumped in, she knew something wasn't right about the man that was drawing blood from her whole family; she wasn't sure what it was about him, but felt like he, as some sort of doctor (as far as she and her parents knew) was supposed to have their best interests at heart, yet gave her the creeps because he seemed so…cold.
"Mommy… Daddy…" She whimpered as she fell to the floor. The girl… The girl that reached out to us all that day… She said the giant that isn't a Titan is an ally to those Eldian demons on Paradis…and that they want to save us from Marley… That man hurt us. Please…please, come get us. Please, come save us. I don't want to die here.
She thought of her beloved cousin, Reiner, wondering if he was alright on Paradis, if he was at least alive and in hiding…and what he'd do if he knew what that man had done to them. The last thing she heard before passing out on the floor…was something that sounded like an explosion…but it shook the ground only slightly.
-x-
The streets were empty, but several Marleyans had started to come out from their homes or out of restaurants, witnessing the source of the noise that caused them discomfort. It was the giant, the same one that had been attacking the whole country for the undesirable Eldians for the last several hours; even through the use of their radios and messengers, none of the other towns and cities that housed internment zones could be warned in time to setup security measures. And the worst was that most of these Eldian minorities actually wanted to get away, as if the life on the island where Marley disposed of its Eldian garbage was better than the life they had on the mainland or something else altogether.
"Marleyan citizens of Liberio," the giant spoke as it stood on the ground. "Return to your homes, immediately. A curfew is in effect. We want the Eldians that want out."
"What, a curfew?" A Marleyan man in a suit responded, unhappy about being told this as he looked up at the giant. "No, that's not right. It's called Marleyan rights! We don't have a curfew, you Eldian-sympathizing scum!"
"Return to your homes, immediately," the voice uttered again as the giant turned to walk towards the internment zone. "Nobody has to get hurt tonight."
"Since when do you make the rules, you Eldian lover?!" A Maleyan woman in a glittering dress shouted at the giant.
I don't make the rules, lady, thought Shinji as he hoped his arrival in the Eva had distracted the people enough for the Survey Corps members with him and Kaede to scatter across the rooftops to get ready for whatever was likely to happen. I'm just trying to prevent some casualties from happening because I don't like it when people die.
Hidden safely on the Eva's neck with a rope tied around it so she could repel down if necessary, Kaede looked down at the city around the Eva and saw the internment zone across the river border. She closed her eyes and focused on the power of the Founder inside her. Her mind felt as though it were detaching from her body and was able to wander through the eyes and ears of the Eldians she could reach out to.
Eldians of Liberio, her mind called out to. Liberation has come to those seeking it. Please, wherever you may be within the internment zone, wherever you may be within the city itself, if you're seeking freedom from Marley, please, put your faith in us. Put your faith…in Eldia.
"Someone, help, please!" They heard someone yell as they ran out of a building. "There are some people in here! They've been bled almost dry!"
A man ran out beside the other guy and pointed to the guy that was about to get into the truck that contained several bins.
"That's him! He's the one that bled them! Grausam Zanki!" He called out.
Suddenly, Kaede snapped back to consciousness and looked down at the truck below and felt something inside her stir upon hearing that name being called.
Grausam Zanki?! She thought. He's actually here?! He's actually here?!
She grabbed the rope and repelled down to the street below the Eva.
"What are you doing?" Shinji's voice asked her as she made it past the Eva's waist.
"It's personal now!" She yelled, now on the streets of Liberio's internment zone. "Grausam Zanki! Don't you dare try to flee from me, you monster!"
Grausam looked at the girl…and couldn't believe who it was. That face, those eyes, that hair, there was no denying any of it! It was Kaede Sogen, meaning she had escaped from the Walls of Paradis…and made it all the way here to Marley.
"Well, this has become a pleasant evening," he uttered, stepping out of the truck in front of her. "I'd welcome you to Marley, but it looks like you've done that yourself."
"You have no idea how much I've looked forward to this day," Kaede told him. "It was so much easier thinking you was dead instead of…indulging in your deal with the Devil here in Marley, a nation that despises the people that hurt them in the past so much that they use the very power they once possessed to hurt them and anyone that shows them even an ounce of sympathy! And worse, you're actually helping them! You're helping people we don't even know…to kill people they don't even know!"
"It's a kill-or-be-killed world, Kaede. I wouldn't expect you to understand. You're such a sheltered child, always have been. Life behind those wretched barriers did nothing but hide us from the world beyond them. I was the only one that had the sense to escape, and I was willing to risk everything to get out, even if it meant I had to be the only one to get out."
"Well, I got news for you. Life on Paradis has changed considerably…and you're going back there to face justice for your crimes…and you will rot there, in a dungeon cell…for the rest of your inhuman life."
FLASH-BOOM! An explosive flash occurred down the street and a gust of steam shot down the street.
"Aaaaurgh!" Something inhuman was heard, and some people were seen running away from something that was approaching. "Rrrraaurgh!"
It was a Titan, but not just any Titan. It was the Cart Titan, only slightly larger than what had been expected; because they only had the knowledge of enemy-turned-ally Bertolt Hoover to go on, the thought of the Cart Titan being only four meters made the idea of being able to take it out easier. However, this incarnation of the Cart Titan was fourteen meters! It was ten meters larger than it was before. And worse was it was covered in armored plates, just like the Armored Titan had been when they had first encountered it in Reiner's possession.
That is not a four-meter Titan that walks on all fours, Kaede thought.
"Get the truck and don't lose the resources," Grausam told the Cart Titan and pointed to the truck. "You lose it, and it's your ass on the line."
"Grr!" The Cart Titan growled, and reached for the truck with its left arm, grabbing it and picking it up as it then turned away.
"What's in the truck that's so precious to you?" Kaede asked him.
"Oh, it's so limited, I had to take it while I still could," he responded in a cryptic tone. "You seem to be under the delusion that I'm just going to surrender to the likes of you…when that is easier said than done. I actually quite like my life here in Marley. I got no strings to hold me down, to make me fret or make me frown…except for people like you…that think they can just come here and say that I'm going back to some ludicrous island that used to be ruled by a depraved king that condemned his people to an eternity of isolation, thinking they were all that was left of the human race. His people, you see, not me."
"We're not bound to the will of Karl Fritz, anymore. And we know a lot more about Marley than we thought possible, like how they're just a hateful bunch."
"Oh, their hatred is justifiable."
"Like your hatred of us?"
Grausam frowned at his step-granddaughter and unsheathed a small dagger behind his back.
"Tell me, how is that gift I gave you so long ago?" He asked her.
"Maybe you'd like to see it for yourself?"
"I have no problem with that, since I need a field test. Just because a Titan works the way it's expected to, doesn't mean it can't be made better. This is power incarnate!"
He gripped the blade in his left hand and pulled it away, cutting into his skin, drawing blood. Suddenly, sparks of electrical energy surged around his body as steam emitted from his exposed skin, like fire.
"I don't know how you've adapted in the last five years, Kaede Sogen, but it's irrelevant to me! You were still the guinea pig for my research! You outlived your usefulness after I got the results I needed to correct the flaws and give me my edge to escape the Walls! Now, I'm gonna put you down like the rabid dog you are!"
Within the Eva, Shinji (and everyone on Paradis and the aircraft carrier that could see through the eyes of the behemoth) watched as it looked as though Grausam Zanki had an unfathomable degree of control over his own Titan abilities, either able to halt the transformation or condense the energy for a partial transformation. But the boy got the feeling that there was more to this…Akuma Titan than what they had found through Kaede.
FLASH-BOOM! His transformation was induced, but it damaged the exteriors of the buildings within its range, almost a block-and-a-half, forming a swirl of hot steam.
"What in the Hell?" Shinji uttered as he couldn't see the man that hurt his girlfriend (A/N: Cue to the climatic music of Vogel im Kafig that was used in Warrior).
"Raaaaa-ha-ha-ha!" A large, dark-skinned head sounded out as it emerged from the steam, resembling the man that was now situated within the nape of its generating body. "Such exhilaration there is from a Titan transformation! Such fulfillment! The raw strength, the invincibility one feels! No one truly understands it unless they experience for themselves!"
What frightened the people that saw this Titan emerging onto the streets the most was that it was talking; a Titan capable of speech was a Titan they viewed as among the scariest of Titans.
"Ah… Aaah!" Kaede screamed as the Akuma Titan's emergence sent her flying backwards.
Shinji was about to reach out and grab her, but the Akuma Titan had beaten him to it, just holding her in his cruel grip.
"Are you seeing this?" He asked everyone on the other side of his intercom.
"I'm seeing it, Shinji, but I can't believe it," went Historia's voice. "He really does look like the Devil incarnate."
"There's no telling how unstable he might be," added Erwin's voice.
The only thing unstable right now…is what's going to happen next, Shinji thought, fearful for not just the Eldians that wanted to get away from Marley, but the Eldians that didn't believe in redemption and the Marleyans that despised them if Grausam Zanki was everything the freed people that were once in his presence called him out to be and more.
Kaede looked up at the Titan she had seen in her dreams that was her step-grandfather, seeing that it looked worse than before. Not only did it seem armored, but there was something else about it that made it…like it was to be feared more than the previous Titan Shifters that attacked Eldia before they were defeated. Its glowing, red eyes looking like fire contained within its sockets peering deep into her soul.
"Eh-heh-heh!" She heard him snicker. "Look at me, Kaede Sogen. I am the one thing you can never beat. I am your worst fear, your deepest regret, your greatest shame."
Kaede couldn't help but recall the times where her worst thoughts were always of this man. How her fear of him being alive and somewhere nearby after having to abandon Shiganshina because of the Colossal and Armored Titans secretly worried her to no end. She was relieved when her parents told her they thought he was gone, but when they all learned that he was alive, she became so enraged with and fearful of him that she became so convinced that there were so few ways to deal with him. And she felt it in her heart that their options on how to deal with this man were less than slim.
"I want to see that man again only to kill him so that he never hurts others the way he hurt me again," she remembered telling her parents. "That's what I want right now."
"Anger stains people, but only as much as we allow it to," Shinji had told her during their time together in the unclaimed lands within the Walls. "It's our responsibility to keep our anger in check, which is a trying one."
She recalled her happier moments from before the revelation, of when she heard that Shinji was going to help the Survey Corps to retake Wall Maria, returning home for the first time in five years when the reconstruction was completed, going to the coastal city, and even getting off the island for the first time because of a happy accident. Then her using the power of the Titans to help defend the people alongside Shinji when they were desperate to find a solution against the JSSDF being used by his father to get the both of them for his own purposes. The incarceration sentence that she was willing to serve because she wanted the people to believe in her being a friend and ally…and her mother telling her that she would be a big sister soon. These were moments in her life where she could forget about her anger…but now she needed those moments to remind her why a person like Grausam Zanki was beyond redemption…and was better off paying the ultimate price for his inhumanity against his own people.
Grausam Zanki, she thought, freeing her left arm as she felt empowered by her rage that overrode her sense of dread. Grausam Zanki!
With conviction in her determination to deal with him once and for all, the girl bit into the side of her hand, drawing blood. She knew just what she needed to be in order to best deal with him. Nothing too extreme…but nothing too weak; he didn't know about her Titan's improved capabilities, so she didn't need to show the full extent of her power that only got better because of him. She felt the power surge through her body as she broke free from his grip.
"You're about to face the wrath…of the Dark Titan!" She yelled as she was enveloped in the generating flesh of her Titan form.
What Shinji saw was different from what he'd seen in her previous transformations. He had been expecting her to become one-hundred meters and exhibiting all the characteristics of the seven Titans she had obtained over time. Instead, it looked as though Kaede's Titan was at least eighteen meters in height, sporting a muscular, feminine build, with hardened skin. If he had to guess which powers she was using, Shinji assumed that Kaede was utilizing her original Dark Titan with the combined powers of the Armored, Attack and Female Titans, which would explain the aesthetics of its form.
"Be careful, Kaede," he uttered.
To be continued…
A/N: Which way do you think Kaede will go: Justice…or vengeance? And her transformation was something I had to consider at the last moment; if she has seven of the Nine Titans in her possession, and she's been going training sessions with the Survey Corps in order to get a better grasp on her abilities, then it was possible for her incomplete transformations to be specific. I mean, Eren had two Titans before he took the War Hammer Titan, yet his Titan was always recognized as the Attack Titan instead of the Founding Titan, so it's possible that Kaede could decide which Titans would manifest in her Dark Titan based on her desires.