Creation began on 09-02-18
Creation ended on 09-12-18
Neon Genesis Evangelion
Hope from the Sky: Dread of the Dark, Scourge of the Devil
In some beliefs, the dark of the night could cover up a multitude of sins committed, but not tonight for the people of Liberio. No, for them, tonight was a multitude of carnage unleashed by the violence of two Titans that expressed themselves for different reasons, one full of malice towards a race of people…and the other driven by its unrelenting hatred towards the other. The only other thing about tonight was the giant that was allied with one of them to take a hated number of them away from their home.
"Aaaahh!" A woman screamed as she and her husband ran for cover away from the intense steam generated by the Dark Titan as it stood across the street from the Akuma Titan.
"Rrrraaurgh!" The Dark Titan howled; maybe due to her anger and desire for revenge, Kaede had forgone the necessity for speech while in Titan form. "Rrrrraaaurgh!"
"Rrrrraugh, yourself, girl!" The Akuma Titan mocked; Grausam Zanki clearly felt no degree of intimidation from his step-granddaughter, whatsoever, and charged towards her. "It is time to put you down!"
Suddenly, the Akuma Titan slammed hard…into an invisible wall in front of him with enough force to damage its face.
"Aaaurgh!" It groaned, pulling itself away as it quickly regenerated, unharmed. "When the Hell did you learn to do something like that, Kaede?! It's not possible, even for a Titan!"
"She might be the one to fight you, Grausam Zanki," he looked up at saw the purple giant looking down at them, "but I'm here to make sure she gets home alive after she's done handing you your ass."
Shinji had used the Eva's AT-Field to keep Kaede safe and show Grausam that he would take care of him if she couldn't.
Once the field was lowered, the Dark Titan charged and slammed into the Akuma Titan, sending them both onto the street.
"It's either you surrender," Kaede's Titan spoke, showing that she was in control, "or I bring you back with us…as either a dead body, just a head or barely alive."
"Bite me," The Akuma Titan growled…and then kicked the Dark Titan off itself, sending it into the air and into a building down the street.
Crash! Kaede's Titan smashed through the building and she looked at some people huddled against a wall, terrified by her presence.
Removing her head from the debris, the Dark Titan looked at them and uttered, "I'm sorry about this. It's a family matter that needs to be resolved through violence. Please, get out of the building, tell everyone you can, and try to get to the purple giant down the street. Um…you're Eldians that want to get out of the internment zone and away from Marley, right?"
"Yes, ma'am," one of the young ladies responded.
"Please, be careful as you're running."
As they ran out of the room, Kaede turned to face the Akuma Titan once again, seeing it approach her from down the street. Of all the Titans she had seen, this one had been the most intimidating by far. A force among them that was…just bound by something that wasn't an emotion, like jealousy or passion. She could only address it as…evil.
When you give evil a persona, she thought, rising back to her feet, you give the world someone to fear, despise, respect, become curious about, or want disposed of. That's what you are right now, Grausam. You are evil personified. A vicious animal that needs to be put down so it can't cause further harm to people it gets near.
Raising her fists up, the Dark Titan prepared to fight again against her darkest adversary.
-x-
As the Cart Titan ran down the street, it was being followed by the members of the Survey Corps in their dark uniforms, blending in almost perfectly with the darkness of the rooftops as they pursued it.
"Damn, this girl's Titan's fast!" Connie uttered, as they were barely able to keep up with this behemoth that was said to be among the smaller Titans.
Mikasa, however, managed to get close enough to the Titan Shifter to latch onto its back to attack it. She brought out one of her arrows containing a capsule of the Dark Titan's spinal fluid, but something happened none of them anticipated.
The Cart Titan, without any warning, emitted steam of intense heat from in between its armored plates, causing Mikasa to retreat to a rooftop.
"Aaah!" She hissed.
"Are you okay?" Eren asked her as he and Armin landed on the roof to join her.
Mikasa removed a glove from her left hand, revealing a minor burn on the backside leading up to her wrist.
"I'm guessing Reiner lied to us about the abilities of the Cart Titan," Eren suggested.
"Maybe, but it's also possible that Grausam Zanki made improvements on the Titan that Marley couldn't," Armin countered, since it was more than likely this feature of the Titan they didn't anticipate was a recent ability. "The only thing that sets this Titan apart from all other members of the Nine…is its endurance, meaning it didn't have any enhanced durability until later."
"It's possible," Mikasa agreed. "Grausam Zanki could've enhanced the Titan prior to our arrival. This will make dealing with it more difficult."
The other members of the group tasked with chasing the Cart Titan continued to go after it as it turned left on the street, picking up speed.
"This lady's really pissing me off!" A male member of the group yelled, taking out his bow and preparing an arrow. "Here goes nothing!"
He fired it at the hind leg on the Titan's right, but the steam released from the flesh in between the armored plates pushed the arrow away.
"It looks like she can choose when to release steam from her Titan," went Hange, "and from wherever she wants, too."
"And judging from the plates, even if we hit her, they'll just bounce off," a female member added in. "How can we use our arrows on this Titan if it's beyond our initial expectations?"
Hange was wondering that herself.
"Hey, Blouse, what are you doing?!" Someone shouted as Hange saw Sasha maintaining the pursuit of the Cart Titan over the roofs and on the streets.
"What is she doing?" She questioned, curious.
-x-
Taking what they knew now, Sasha Blouse believed there was a weakness she could exploit of this improved Cart Titan. All she had to do was get close enough.
"One," she uttered, taking an arrow for her bow and firing from the right at the Titan's side.
Steam was emitted, deflecting the arrow.
Sasha flew over to the Titan's left side and fired another.
"Two," she said, and saw steam being released again, so she tried again. "Three."
Aiming for the same spot again, she watched as steam was released from in between the plates, deflecting her arrow. So far, each failed attempt was showing her something about this Titan that was undoubtedly accurate.
This Cart Titan may be sturdier than the others, she thought as she continued to pursue it, but no Titan is without weakness, and I think I might've found yours, Pieck.
Hiss! She heard the sound of the wind whipping behind her as she was soon joined by her comrades in the air.
"We can't get near so long as it releases steam wherever we try to hit it," a man told her. "We'll be out of arrows by the time we find a way to hurt it."
"We need to try its underbelly," she uttered.
"What?" Eren, who was now present, questioned.
"So far, we've only seen plates on its sides and back," she explained, "but it might not be protected underneath where its chest is. We need to get under it."
-x-
Crunch! The Dark Titan ripped off the Akuma Titan's right arm up to the elbow and head-butted him away into the Liberio riverbed.
"Grrrah!" The Akuma Titan howled as he began regenerating.
The Eva turned around to keep watch over the battle between the two Titans as people started to gather on the streets. Inside, Shinji was seeing the ferocity that Kaede hadn't displayed in any of her previous bouts of violence in Titan form. It was both incredible to see that she was so powerful and in control, but he was also quite terrified of her rage that she reserved for Grausam.
"Tell me, do you think it was worth it to put me through your depraved nightmare?" Kaede asked him as she waded into the river and grabbed him by his left arm and ripped that off. "I don't think it was worth it!"
Then she raised her right foot up and slammed it hard onto his chest and sent him down underwater again; a Titan may have had no need for air, but right now, Kaede just wanted to see Grausam squirm under her.
Somehow, the Akuma Titan's head was emerging from the water; somehow, it was extending its neck, despite not having the necessary bones in its neck to do so.
"You…have…no…idea…how futile…you are!" Grausam uttered, and then Kaede felt something penetrate her back and out her chest.
It was…some sort of blade…made of hardened Titan flesh.
What?! Kaede thought. Is he the War Hammer?
"You like?" Grausam asked, revealing that the blade was protruding from his right leg. "I've been tinkering with my Titan abilities for quite some time now. I really owe my newfound abilities to Marley. When needed by them, I serve as a knife that cuts slowly…yet deeply into the enemy, something you will never understand."
Tinkering? Shinji wondered. Then that must mean he doesn't have the War Hammer Titan in him. He's just been reworking the way his own Titan works for him. If his Titan wasn't able to harden its skin like the Armored, Beast and Female Titans were, he made it capable of such during the time he was living here. Kaede, you need to finish him now. Don't toy with him, just cripple or exterminate him. Hell, even leave him to get him another day if you have to. We need to get the Eldians that want to get away from here as far away as possible, and we need to do so now.
The Dark Titan reached behind its back and gripped the blade in its hands.
"I don't have time for this, but we'll meet again, Grausam Zanki," Kaede told him, and broke the blade off the Akuma Titan's leg and raised her left foot to slam it down on its face, feeling it turn to pulp under her toes. This isn't over yet, Grausam. As long as you're free…it'll never be over.
The Dark Titan got out of the river and returned to the internment zone.
"Gah!" Grausam gasped as he surfaced in the water, swimming towards the opposite side of the river. Well, well… I'd say that this wasn't a bad field test for me. My Akuma Titan still shows room for improvement. It took a lot out of me just to make that blade out of my foot. I need more practice…and more of my Jaeger Serum. I don't know how you were able to become so strong and adaptable within five years, Kaede, but I'm still greater than you'll be. You're just a prototype, full of flaws as time goes by. We might not have reduced lifespans like those with the Nine Titans do, but there's no telling what's in store for you as you get older.
Of course, he wasn't sure what could happen to the girl as she continued to live. With himself, he had taken precautions, wanting to ensure that he would live a long time. He really didn't care much for anyone else in possession of the Titan power. But Kaede, he couldn't help but feel that she would become a threat beyond his original expectations of her, which were very small to begin with.
-x-
The Cart Titan continued to run down the streets as the Survey Corps pursued it with the new aim to attack it from the front instead of the back or sides.
"How many arrows do we have left altogether?" Hange asked Eren as they flew above the streets.
"Plenty," he answered; he wasn't keeping track, but knew they all had a total of over fifty arrows with capsules of Dark Titan spinal fluid in their possession. "We just need to get in front of this Titan to use them."
Suddenly, the Cart Titan stopped and put the vehicle down on a rooftop…before emitting steam once more from beneath the armored plates on its body.
"Whoa!" Armin and the others gasped as they landed on the streets in front of it. "What is it doing now?"
The Cart Titan made no attempt to attack them or the people that started vacating their buildings because of the increased heat in the air.
"I'm glad we're leaving," said a man as a woman beside him carried a child away from the scene. "This is not a place to raise a family, anymore."
"If it's not the Titans that will kill us, it's the Marleyans that will just for living and breathing," the woman responded, clutching her baby close to shield it from the heat.
"This Titan's like a blast furnace," Sasha realized, shooting one of her grappling hooks at the Titan's head, only to watch get sent back. "It's emitting so much heat that we won't get anywhere near it. None of us can get anywhere near it without getting burnt or the water in our bodies evaporated."
"Nobody…except perhaps another Titan that's protected," Eren suggested, "or better yet, something greater than a Titan."
Slam! Their answer came in the form of the Dark Titan.
Mikasa soared over to it and landed on its right shoulder, near its ear.
"As long as it's emitting steam, we can't use our arrows to hit it," she explained to Kaede, "but we may be able to get by its front if it's unarmored there like it is on its back and sides. Do you think you can close enough to knock it over?"
"Hmm!" The Dark Titan grunted, lowering to put its arms onto the ground. "Make sure there's nobody on the streets in case this goes sideways."
"Clear the streets!" Mikasa told the others.
Glaring at the Cart Titan, Kaede got tense at the thought of getting burnt by that heat being unleashed. It would've been something for her to fear…if she hadn't discovered through the number of experiments with Hange that she possessed similar-if-not-greater steam emission capabilities that were inherited from the Colossal Titan. During the first two months that came after Historia was crowned the queen, Hange had Kaede try to demonstrate steam emission with her power, and found that she could, along with choosing which of the additional Titans she could call upon in her Dark Titan at will during a transformation.
You have no idea what's in store for you, she thought, taking aim at the Cart Titan.
The Cart Titan didn't move an inch, despite not knowing what type of Titan this person was or if there was any relation to the Akuma Titan. The person within it was confident that they were impervious to being assaulted after having the Cart Titan improved; being bigger and stronger meant being better and able to serve Marley more effectively to take out the enemy.
Witness the might of the Dark Titan, Kaede went, and charged towards the Cart Titan. I honestly don't know what sort of name is Pieck, but I will say that I don't pity you for your lot in life. I just regret that you believe in the Marleyans' twisted hype that Eldia's all evil with no shred of redemption when it's the people you serve that hate us enough to declare war on upon us. Do forgive me, but this will hurt you more than it will me.
SLAM! The Dark Titan collided into the Cart Titan…and set it falling onto its back…without its arms or legs.
"No… Not…possible," the Cart Titan uttered, revealing that it was capable of human speech like the Beast Titan had been and Dark Titan was.
It also revealed that Sasha's theory was accurate: The Titan's front, a small area of the torso from the waist up to its neck, wasn't armor-plated like the rest of its body, meaning it had to be vulnerable there.
"Now!" The Dark Titan yelled, and one of the Survey Corps members, Sasha Blouse herself, leapt into the air, her bow taking aim, and the arrow was fired.
Time seemed to slow down by mere seconds, with several of the other Survey Corps members watching as the arrow took its sweet time flying down towards the Titan's chest. As more people evacuated the streets, Kaede watched as the Cart Titan started to release more steam from its remains, but knew that wouldn't save it from what was in the arrow.
As we learned from our life experiences and Shinji himself, who learned of this from his life's experiences, however minor they seemed, she thought, just as the arrow pierced the Titan's chest and released her spinal fluid on and into the body, shit just happens.
"Aaaaaurgh!" The Cart Titan shrieked, feeling a sense of agony as its flesh seared. "Aaaauurgh!"
Something emerged from under its head, covered in smoldering remains of nape skin, and it started to stagger away.
"What is happening here?!" A female voice shouted out as the flesh evaporated further. "So weak! This can't be happening!"
Nearby was a small fountain…and the person screamed as they fell into it, causing steam to rise from it; it was as though whoever was in the Cart Titan was lit on fire and needed to douse themselves or cool off in the water.
"Whoa," Armin gasped quietly; it was the first time the Dark Titan's spinal fluid had been used against another Titan Shifter that was one of the Nine Titans of Ymir Fritz. "Do you think she's…dead?"
"Maybe," Eren responded.
Splash! The woman that had been in the Cart Titan, Pieck, burst from the fountain and fell onto the street in front of them all, soaked and her face covered in the scarring related to the mild negatives of being a Titan Shifter, panting from exhaustion.
"What…what did you do to me?" She panted.
Emerging from what was left of the Dark Titan, Kaede exhaled a breath as she stood out on the street and walked over towards the fountain. Her intention was to meet this woman, face-to-face, and simply speak to her.
"Hopefully," she uttered her answer to her, "we just took down another one of Grausam Zanki's lackeys…along with the infamous Cart Titan. Eight down for the count…and now only one left to conquer. The power of the Titans will be undone, and Marley will fall from its throne of bloodshed and hatred."
"You…you can't defeat Marley," Pieck told her as she placed her hand over her mouth. "I'll crush you now!"
She bit into her wrist, spilling blood…but that's all she managed.
"What?" She questioned. "Why?"
"Why?" Kaede responded, and then, despite the craziness of it, picked up the small woman that looked like a little girl by her wet shirt's collar and raised her over her head. "Because shit happens, lady. Shit…just happens."
-x-
"Shinji, be advised and inform Captain Levi and Commader Erwin that we just downed ourselves a Cart Titan," Shinji heard Hange say to him over the intercom.
"Copy that, ma'am," he responded as he made the Eva walk over to the sight of where the Cart Titan fell from Marley's possession.
The sight of Kaede holding up the former possessor of the Titan made him think back to when she picked up Asuka and raised her over her head. And the fact that this Pieck woman looked like a little kid as opposed to a teen or young adult. It seemed crazy to even think back to the discovery from Bertolt that these people exploited Eldian children of ages five through seven, but then again, as Shinji accepted in the end as the truth, it wasn't any different from how NERV exploiting children his own age or what the Fritz/Reiss family did every thirteen years, what Grisha Yeager did to his own sons, or what Grausam did to Kaede when he chose to use her as his Guinea pig. It was just…older people making choices that had real consequences to those affected by them and were either too young or easy to manipulate that end up paying the price for those choices, one way or another.
But now we're in control, he thought, watching Kaede put the woman down. Now, we're making the choices that have real consequences for those that don't believe we should be taking charge. But if we don't make the choices that we do to change our fates, to save ourselves, who will? The adults or people we thought we could trust can no longer be trusted if they have their own agendas or hidden goals that don't have our best interests in mind. Some of them might be trustworthy, but not every one of them, which is why we're doing this.
Pieck was then restrained and picked up by Eren, now a prisoner of Eldia until further notice and because they couldn't trust her not to say what she experienced in battle with them to her superiors. As she was now stripped of her Titan power, she was no more dangerous than a regular human that relied solely on a power that carried a high price. She was just a weakling.
Shinji then looked at a rooftop and noticed a truck that had to have put there by a Titan. He made the Eva pick it up and set it on the street.
"Was this of any interest?" He asked them.
Hange and Mikasa investigated the and the latter girl opened the back of the truck to reveal small containers with a red substance inside them.
"It's something Grausam clearly values," Kaede told them. "He wouldn't have tried to get it away from us if it wasn't worth his time."
Armin went over to Eren to speak to Pieck.
"What is in these containers?" He asked her.
"I don't know," she responded, and then Eren took one of his ODM blades and moved it towards the left side of her neck. "I don't know! Zanki didn't tell me what was in them! He just told me to get the truck away from where he was."
"We'll take it with us," Hange sighed. "Let's finish up here and leave."
-x-
A large section of land within Liberio where the Eva stood was watched by countless Marleyans as it was suddenly ripped from off the ground and into the air. What they only heard in urban rumors was true, that this purple giant could rip large portions of land up and carry them away from where they came from. And it did this mainly to ferry the Eldians from the internment zone to wherever it took them, which was likely the island of Paradis.
Go ahead and take the Eldians that want to go with you, thought Grausam as he returned to the building where it all began for them, watching the patch of land float away in the dead of night. I still have what I need for my next move…and I'll be coming for you, Kaede. You can't escape from the Devil you know, no matter how far you try to get. I will destroy you for living…and all that you hold most dear to your heart until you have nothing and no one left.
Deep in his eyes, a fire could be glimpsed, razing a small town to the ground; he was imagining a place like that of Shinganshina burning to the ground, filled with people screaming in agony over being unable to escape the horror of what befell them. And at the center of it all…was the Akuma Titan, standing and watching the carnage that occurred around it, like a literal Devil watching its victims writhe in perpetual agony.
I'll bring Hell to Paradis.
-x-
"…Does anyone know who these people are?" Kaede asked the newly-liberated Eldians of Liberio as they stood away from the handful of people that had been brought with them by some of them that felt they couldn't be left alone.
"I know them," responded an elderly woman that raised her left hand in attendance. "They're relatives from the current Warrior Unit."
"The familiar ties of the current Warrior Unit?" Eren questioned, making sure he heard right when one of the Eldians that wanted to get out of the internment zone said that these members were almost bled dry. "Can you identify them?"
"That's Karina Braun, the mother of Reiner Braun. The little girl is Gabi Braun, his younger cousin. The woman beside her is Kayla Braun, Karina's elder sister."
"And this man here?" Armin pointed to the individual beside him on a small cot.
"Arnold Leonhart, the father of Annie Leonhart," she identified.
"These two elders?" Erwin demanded, pointing to the eldest members of the incapacitated individuals lying beside one another.
"Jonathan and Madeline Yeager, the grandparents of Zeke Yeager," she answered.
Eren looked at the elders and couldn't believe his ears. These were his father's parents, his grandparents…and Grausam Zanki had bled them almost dry.
Grandmother… Grandfather… He thought, wondering why someone like Grausam would stoop so low as to bleed a bunch of people like this when they couldn't have done anything wrong to anyone to deserve such an act committed again them.
"Did you know about this?" Hange asked Pieck, looking down at her. "You're part of the Warrior Unit, right? Do you have any family here?"
"I don't have anyone," the child-like woman expressed, looking away. "I'm an orphan. I don't know why Grausam Zanki would do something like this. He's not affiliated with the Warrior Unit, so he doesn't have to answer to anyone in charge of it. But whatever he was up to, it had to have to been for the good of Marley."
"Do you actually call what he's been doing to the Eldians, his own people, good?" Shinji's voice asked through the Eva's speakers as the Eva carried the expanse of land across the ocean back to Paradis. "If these people die from being exsanguinated, how is that good for Marley…or anyone? That's just murder. Look at them."
Pieck didn't pay them any mind.
"Look at them!" Shinji's tone was raised, and Pieck obliged him.
Each of the thirteen people related to the five members of the Warrior Unit that had the Beast, Colossal, Female, Armored and Jaw Titans didn't look anywhere near grateful for having served Marley. Not that they could with their minor movements to indicate their discomfort and bare consciousness. Even if they survived, how would they respond to the fact that they were bled almost completely? Just because they were honorary Marleyans, they still had the indignity of being Eldians until the war with Paradis and the capture of the Founding Titan was over.
"What is the point of harvesting all their blood, anyway?" Sasha questioned.
"With Grausam, it's anyone's guess," went Kaede, "but it's not good."
"This truck's cargo's a dud!" Levi shouted, knocking a container over. "This isn't blood! It's red wine and paint!"
"What?!" Pieck gasped. "But that's the truck he ordered me to get away from you!"
-x-
First rule of protecting what you value for your own purposes, thought Grausam as he got inside another truck with a large number of small containers, is never give away the actual valuables you want protected. Always use decoys to lure your enemies away.
The containers he had put in the previous truck were just duds full of red wine and paint. Since the Cart Titan was among the fastest of the Titans Marley had, Grausam could entrust the mission of keeping the enemy away from the real containers of Eldian blood that he would take back to his lab himself. There was no way he would entrust such a limited resource to someone as expendable as a member of the Warrior Unit; in his mind, every single one of those inheritors of the Nine Titans and their families were as replaceable as the soldiers on the battlefield.
Good riddance, he thought, referring to the Warrior Unit and their families as he drove off.
To be continued…
A/N: Unbelievable! I bet none of you thought that Grausam was going to pull off a stunt like that with anyone! This only confirms that the guy doesn't trust anyone, no matter whose side they're on, even if it's the same as he! What do you think will happen next? Review, please. Peace!
Omake (Tokyo Drift-influenced)
"Nice ride there," said Shinji to Ymir as she and Historia were inside a brown Dodge Charger on the left side of his and Kaede's blue Chevrolet Camaro.
"Thank you," Ymir praised him.
"She won it from my sister, Frieda, about two years ago," Historia told them.
"I didn't know your sister was into dream cars like these," Kaede expressed, impressed.
"She was when I mentioned you two to her."
"Heh-heh… You bad girls know this ain't a ten-second race, right?" Shinji asked the ladies.
"We have nothing but time," Ymir responded, showing that she and Historia were bound together by the gold bands on their left hands' fingers as she turned the Charger's engine over. "Are you two and that blue Bumblebee ready to do this?"
"We're always ready for a good night," Kaede told them as Shinji started the engine.
Out in front of the two cars, Sasha Blouse walked to the middle in between the two as the crowds of people that knew the four were cheering for them to get it on.
"Come on, Shinji and Kaede!" Misato rooted for the riders of the blue Camaro with Pen-Pen on her back.
"Kick their bumpers, Historia!" Connie rooted for the women of the Charger.
Sasha looked to her the Charger's left at Mikasa, who smirked as she held Eren's left hand.
"Ready!" She announced, and the Charger was set to burn rubber.
Looking to the Camaro's right, Sasha faced Asuka, who had Kaji by a dog leash so that he couldn't get away from her tonight.
"Set!" She announced, and the Camaro was purring like a tiger.
The four riders couldn't wait to do this!
Sasha then walked to the back of the cars and threw her hands up.
"Go!" She yelled, and the two cars drove off! "Whoo!"