Hope from the Sky

by Traitor of All Traitors

Inspired by the works of other writers that took to it, this is my first attempt. Shinji and Unit-01, victims of the Twelfth Angel attack, find themselves in another world with giants that crave human flesh. Can Shinji offer his Eva's assistance in allowing mankind to cancel their extinction, or will he be joining them? Finally Finished. Bonus lemon chapter now uploaded.

42. New Wings of Freedom

Creation began on 10-06-18

Creation ended on 10-22-18

Neon Genesis Evangelion

Hope from the Sky: New Wings of Freedom

More Jaeger Titans emerged from the ocean onto the beach, attacking in waves. Sometimes, it was eight of them, other times, it was ten of them, but there seemed to be no end to them in sight. This left Shinji feeling like war was undeniably without end unless everyone was down and out for the count, and left Kaede wondering just how many people did Grausam inject to attack the island for what was no longer within anyone else's ability to obtain.

I want to keel over right now, thought Kaede, feeling like her Titan form had been overworked because of her improvised stunts, but remained active because of the power of the Cart Titan, but I can't until they stop. My new endurance isn't helping much.

SLAM! The Jaeger Titans that managed to get by the Dark Titan and Unit-01 were caught by the Wall Titans that Kaede controlled, being body slammed into the water.

"Son of a…" Shinji grunted and grabbed one of the fifty-meter Jaegers by their heads, ripping it off. "None of you are getting past us!"

-x-

"Unbelievable," went Asuka as she saw the fight that looked as though it were trying to be contained to just the beach. "It looks like a war."

"It is a war," said Misato to her as she and the rest of Central Dogma (minus Gendo, that is) watched the fighting that Shinji was involved in with his girlfriend and these giants that seemed to be the invading army of this Marley, "and this is an enemy that is filled with hate."

They watched as Unit-01 used its Progressive Knife to hack some of the giants to pieces while the Dark Titan looked as though it was on fire on the inside, overheating from its actions.

"And this is only because there is a larger nation that hates the one Shinji has allied himself with when they asked him to help retake a wall that they lost to giants," Hyuga stated. "What drove a nation like this Marley to come after this smaller nation called Eldia?"

"Based on what Shinji found out from the people, including his girlfriend, who found out more than what could be expected to find out about, the nation he aids was once a powerful empire until a man that was the king at that time betrayed his people to the other nation and condemned as many of them as he could save to imprisonment on an island while the ones left behind became slaves," Maya explained. "The crimes of the past reflect upon the present."

"Yeah, but in the enemy's mind, all of these Eldian people are guilty of these crimes," said Shigeru, "and it doesn't matter who they are or what they did, whether they killed someone or just spat on the ground."

"When people let their hatred consume them," went Fuyutsuki, "there's nothing they won't do to justify their actions toward others, the targets of their hate."

"Worse, these are people that have thrown their lives away just to get back at the people they've never met out of hatred, and they're not even going to see any of them so long as Shinji and Kaede have something to say about that," Misato expressed, just as Unit-01 impaled its knife through at least three of the fifty-meter behemoths. And Shinji really tried to prevent something like this from happening. He didn't want to fight a war, even though he knew to expect a war. But it's just as the sub-commander stated. When people let their hatred consume them, there's nothing they won't do to justify it, and that includes war.

"Rrrrrrrrraaaurgh!" They heard the Dark Titan shriek, looking like it was catching on fire.

The Eva knocked the other fifty-meter enemy Titans aside and rushed to its aid, jamming its left arm into the nape…and pulling out the girl that controlled it.

In its palm, Kaede was damp, steaming and panting.

"Kaede!" Shinji yelled. "Kaede! Are you alright?!"

"That body was overworked," she panted. "I'll live."

-x-

It was quite a surprise for Grausam to see the disgraced Warrior Unit present. Whether they were allied with the Eldians or just out for revenge against him didn't really matter; he had become much too powerful since revising his Jaeger Serum variants and injecting himself with them. They'd just be walking to their graves earlier than usual, but he didn't mind carrying out their death sentence. He would grant each of them deaths befitting warriors.

"Well, isn't this one, big gathering? Zeke Yeager, Reiner Braun, Bertolt Hoover and Annie Leonhart," he uttered. "I'm surprised that Marcel Galliard isn't with you. Let me guess, he couldn't leave his mother and brother alone to die?"

"You," uttered Reiner to him, speaking again after yelling his name, "are going to pay for what you did."

"You do realize that I'm far too powerful for any of you to best. I know all about your Titans and their strengths and weaknesses. The Colossal isn't capable of multiple transformations and moves too slow, and its size is the only advantage it has. The Armored can't move as fast as its unarmored allies without shedding its plates for more mobility and isn't such a threat since there are now weapons that can pierce its armor. The Female, while being an all-purpose Titan, can only call forth Titans, and they turn into a frenzy of eaters that she can't control. And then, there's the Beast, good only with its hands, but only if it has something to throw at you. I may have never fought any of you, but I know what to expect from each of you, so bring it on."

"It might come as a surprise to you," said Bertolt, holding a rifle, "but we don't have our Titan powers, anymore. We're as human as you used to be, Grausam Zanki."

"Oh, is that so? Hey, Warchief, is what Mr. Hoover say is true? The whole unit is without their Titan powers?"

"It's all true," Zeke responded, holding a rifle of his own. "The Eldians took the Titans away from us and gave them to people they could trust never to use them unless they had to."

"Oh, that's just depressing and embarrassing. It looks like you've lost your worth to Marley."

"And you're about to lose yours," went Annie, deciding not to waste time talking and raised her rifle up to fire at the man; she didn't care about Eldia, Marley or the world's problems, anymore.

She just wanted revenge for what Grausam did to her father.

BLAST! She fired from her rifle and hit Grausam in his left shoulder.

"Aaaaurgh!" He screamed, feeling something burning in his chest just near where the girl shot him. "This isn't the first time I've been shot at, but this is the first time I've felt an irritating pain of this sort!"

BANG! Bertolt opened fire at his right leg.

"Aaaaaurgh! Uuuurgh! Do you really think buckshot is going to stop me?!"

"I think if you had wanted to transform, you would've done that by now," went Reiner, taking aim at his head. "I think our buckshot is having the intended effect on you."

Grausam glared at the Braun teen boy and uttered, "Every transformation is like taking a step into Hell. Allow me to share with you what I tasted when I learned the means to escape from this wretched Hell you wanted so desperately to break into."

The air around them began to heat up as a ring of fire formed around him, obscuring his body from their perception.

"You think what I did to your families was bad?!" They heard him roar. "I got no problem with killing any of you! It is time for the Warrior Unit to fall!"

From behind the flames, the head of the Akuma Titan emerged, its face now adorned with a pair of fang-like markings on its eyes, which were now brimming with fire!

"Aaaaaaauurgh!" He roared, unleashing a blast of wind at them.

Zeke and Reiner fired again at him, but all that did was cause the markings under the Akuma Titan's eyes to become added on by pronounced, vein-like markings on its shoulders and upper body as they were formed.

Something is wrong, thought Reiner, wondering why the bullets they were shooting at Grausam weren't doing what they were supposed to.

"I'll be honest about what I always thought about you kids," they heard the Akuma Titan say as he was now fully transformed into his fifteen-meter state. "Marley wasted their time on some people that actually bought into the propaganda that people from this island were monsters…when the truth is that anyone, Eldian, Marleyan, or just some foreign stranger speaking a different language from the one you're familiar with, is capable of anything you deem monstrous. But you bought into the assumption that Paradis was a forsaken place where wickedness reigns, never seeing how the people live here, giving them a chance to show you how life is behind walls with limited space. Well, as you went and attacked first, I guess that makes everything everyone else did afterwards your fault, including my opportunity to escape from here, so while I thank you for that, there is an old saying that remains to be proven by me. 'You reap what you so', and that's what you four are going to do."

Stomp! The Titan made its advance towards the closest person it could reach, and that ended up being Zeke Yeager!

Zeke opened fire again before trying to flee, but Grausam didn't flinch at the buckshot hitting his Titan's chest or neck due to the armored plates that protected him. Then, the former Beast Titan was grabbed at by his right hand and gripped as he was being lifted into the air.

"Aaaaurgh!" He groaned as he looked up at the Titan that resembled the man that harmed his grandparents, seeing them as one and the same, completely inhuman. "Grrraurgh!"

"Hmpf!" Grausam's voice uttered through his Titan form's mouth. "I still can't believe that you, Zeke Yeager, the infamous Beast Titan and Warchief of the Warrior Unit have been reduced to this. I heard once or twice that you betrayed your parents due to conflicting issues…but what your grandfather told me, just as he was getting bled dry, was that you sold your parents out because you hated your father's treatment of you, always telling you that you had to do something, that you would restore Eldia to its former glory or something of the sort. You hated one of your parents…but lost both of them in the process. And yet, you knew what was to be expected to befall them if you turned on them. Oh, shame on you for being the nail in their shared coffin and the cause of so many other Eldians' suffering. Your sin is many times greater than any of my own because you committed it when you were a little boy, and so I'll rectify the injustice you caused your parents…by sending you to them in the depths of Hell."

And then…the Akuma Titan tightened its fist, which became covered in a layer of evaporating pulp comprised of mashed flesh, bone and blood.

Zeke Yeager never even got any last words to express. He never even got to scream his last scream. The last thing he ever saw…was not the Devil of the Titans…but his mother and father before they were taken away from him, welcoming him back into their arms.

-x-

Gasp! Eren shuddered as he and Mikasa got ready to takeoff on the carrier.

"Eren," she spoke to him as she flipped some switches and grabbed the controls, "is something wrong? Do you need to step out?"

"No," he lied. "I'm fine, Mikasa."

Eren wasn't sure why, but he got the feeling that something bad had happened.

"We're set to takeoff," he told Mikasa.

-x-

He had lost his knife and was reduced to his bare hands now. While the Eva's power was still lengthened to the point where he could fight the enemy Titans for a month, Shinji had his own limits, and he couldn't do this alone and protect Kaede until she was rested enough to transform again. He was starting to feel the strain of having to deal with so many of these Jaeger Titans that he wished they were just mindless ones; the giants without thought were simple and easy to beat without much difficulty, but giants able to think, that actually knew what they were doing and who they could harm, were proving to be a challenge. Not only that, but they were reminding him that they were people that grasped power for the wrong reasons, wanting to serve their country, but wanting to hurt people that they didn't even know.

So far, only twelve minutes have gone by…and Kaede needed eighteen more minutes before she could change again; they couldn't risk her doing so with little to no time to recover her strength.

"Shinji," went the girl, and Shinji looked at her face, not as scarred by the power of the Titans now, and she seemed concerned. "We bit off more than we could chew, didn't we, Shinji?!"

He wanted to say that they had, but he couldn't find the words with which to do so. How could he? If he had, then it would mean he'd be admitting defeat for them, and that the people they protected had relied upon them too much that they had no other means to defend themselves.

Suddenly, there was a loud, roaring noise from afar, which caught their attention and the attention of the Marleyan Titans. What was it and where was it coming from?

"Attention, Marleyans!" Levi's voice was heard on a loudspeaker as eight aerial machines appeared in the sky, resembling birds to a degree, but bigger and made of metal. "This is your only warning! Leave Paradis or you will be dealt with by deadly force!"

The eight machines all seemed based off either F-22 Raptor or F/A-37 Talon series of fighter jets (A/N: Think Transformers and Stealth, respectively), and they all had a recent paint job on their sides or wings, as they all now sported the Wings of Freedom insignia, representing how they had been appropriated by the Survey Corps.

"Rrrrraaaurgh!" Some of the Jaeger Titans roared as they tried to reach out and grab the jets.

One of the four F-22s dodged a fifty-meter Titan and Levi's voice shot out again.

"Okay, people, let them have all of it," he ordered, and the jets unleashed a barrage of missiles at the Titans and the ships in the back.

BLAST! One of the missiles collided with a fifty-meter Titan and unleashed a dust cloud that spread across the other seven Titans beside it or behind it.

"It looks like they finally got them working again," Shinji exhales a breath of relief.

With their technological advances and their knowledge expanded, the Eldians were able to research and get to work on making the preserved artifacts that Shinji had identified as the jets they were using and making them battle-ready for the Marleyans. It had been a shocker to find that the machines, similar to the buildings in the coastal city, were made with bits of Titan flesh in their design and were preserved remarkably because of such an addition. Not only that, but Hange, Sasha and even Eren found a way to incorporate Kaede's Dark Titan spinal fluid into their weaponry, so even if they didn't harm an enemy Titan as intended, they'd still end up defeating them.

One of the Talons flew over towards the ships in the far back and fired a missile at one of them, which pierced through the hull and traveled through six more ships behind it, causing them all to explode and sink into the ocean, their crew either dead or deserted.

More Titans emerged from the ocean, presumably the survivors from the shipwrecks, ranging from either fifteen meters or fifty meters.

"This Grausam Zanki must've given these Marleyans different serums to trigger different Titan transformations that are Colossal-like and Armored-like," went Connie as he took out the ships. "I can't believe this guy was able to do something like this."

"Hey, he might've done some new work based on the Titans," went Armin over the jets' communications system, "but we've been busy with everything we need right here on Paradis."

"We got wings of steel," added Sasha. "Titans can't fly or grab us in the air!"

"Let's take out the remaining ships," Levi's voice uttered. "Shinji, do you read me?"

"Loud and clear, sir," Shinji's voice responded.

"How long until Kaede is recovered enough to transform a second time?"

"Twelve more minutes."

"Can she still control the Wall Titans while she's catching her breath?"

"Based on the behavior of the Wall Titans since before I had to rip her out of her Titan body, I'd say they're still doing what she told them because they haven't deviated at all yet."

"Can you still fight?"

"I can."

"Then I suggest you keep your girlfriend safe until she can get back in the battle to end this war."

-x-

The three teens were left in shock at what Grausam had done to Zeke. It wasn't just the way he did it, but how he looked when he did it. They watched as he took what remained of Zeke's bodily fluids and dripped them into his Titan's mouth like a sadistic savage.

"Killing a Warchief wasn't like how I had expected it to be," the Akuma Titan expressed, looking at the three Warriors. "It wasn't exhilarating… It was gratifying."

Their eyes widened at how…insane this guy was. He justified his killing of Zeke by enjoying the fact that he himself had done it.

"Who's next? I'm in no rush. Each and every one of you will get their chance to die by me."

"We gotta run!" Bertolt yelled, grabbing Reiner and Annie by their arms and pulling them away. "We gotta run now!"

Reiner and Annie ran with him.

"Go ahead and run," the Titan told them, not at all concerned about them running away from him. "Like I said, I'm in no rush. Each and every one of you will get their chance to die by me."

Slowly taking a step forward, the Akuma Titan gave a slow chase towards the three. He was truly in no rush to go after them. His current agenda was to see where his path would take him while Marley was dealing with the Eldians that were fighting back. He didn't really care who prevailed in the end; it was nothing more than a matter of who had the most to gain from fighting…and was willing to risk everything to take home the gold.

Survival of the fittest…and most ruthless, he thought, watching the three teens disappear behind a large rock. Though, I guess in your case, it'd be survival of the least expendable…except each and every one of you is expendable. Nobody's gonna give a damn when you're gone.

FLASH-BOOM! He saw a faraway flash of light and an exploding noise, realizing a Titan transformation had been triggered.

"I guess they went through all their pawns and are left with their bishops, knights, castles and queen to protect their king," he uttered. "Long live the king."

-x-

Kaede, once fully rested for thirty minutes, returned as the Dark Titan and knocked over some Jaeger Titans before entering the water to go after the smaller ones that were just floating around the larger ones.

Unlike last time, I don't intend to wear myself out this time, she thought, wading under the water, seeing the expanse of terrain that reached deep down beyond the shallowness, and saw something that she hadn't seen since before and after Historia was crowned queen. Oh… It's you guys again. We didn't expect to see more of you to be out there in the world. I guess it's a good thing we encountered you when we went out into the world beyond this island.

Through her Titan's eyes, Kaede saw the underwater Titans that looked as though they were naturally hybridized versions of the Colossal and Armored Titans she saw when she went diving for the Survey Corps to investigate the possibility of Titans living underwater. There were a couple of them, possibly a few more, but the girl wasn't afraid of them, anymore; she had come to accept the power of the Dark Titan and the other Titans into herself and had no problem with using her power to help others now.

"Rrrrrrrrraaaurgh!" She roared, hoping the power of the Founder would influence them to do her bidding and aid her in facing Marley.

These Titans suddenly stopped their advancement towards the island shore and looked at the Dark Titan…and they found themselves realizing without wanting to that this creature they had never seen, had never heard of before…was someone that had dominion over them…and whatever it told them, they had to obey.

"Rrrrrraaurgh! Rrraurgh!" The Dark Titan roared again, and now these Titans knew what to do.

They resumed their advancement towards the island shoreline and surfaced, looking at the Jaeger Titans that they were "told" were the enemy and roared as they suddenly charged towards them.

"It looks like Kaede found us more allies," went Shinji as he ripped off another Jaeger Titan's head and threw it across the sea.

-x-

"…The children are worried that they will have to stay down here forever," Ymir told Historia as they and several people from the former districts of Wall Sina were in the Underground City under Mitras for the duration of the Marleyan invasion, "and I'm running out of reasons to tell them that it isn't true."

"They're just scared," Historia responded, holding a little girl in her arms to calm her nerves. "We're all scared. We only know that some people from across the ocean want to hurt us, but not when they would be forced to leave or surrender."

Ymir looked at the way Historia was holding the little girl…and was reminded of how the orphans here all looked up to her…and the way she looked when they were around her. To her, Historia was a radiant young woman that had a big heart and the children loved her. And then…she remembers what Shinji had disclosed to them and Kaede what that Angel had showed him when it tried to break him…and what he saw of Historia in some dark, would-be future that he was seeing of their world. Even though what he had shared with them was something he would go to whatever lengths he could to ensure that nothing like that would ever befall them, what Ymir didn't share with them, not even with Historia, that the mere thought of being killed in front of the queen, and then what befalls her because of her royalty…hurt her.

"Ymir," Historia spoke, breaking her out of her train of thought, "are you alright?"

"Uh, yeah, I… Just thinking about what Shinji had confided in us after the failed attempt to resolve things with Marley because of the Angel that attacked him."

"You mean, what it showed him in an attempt to break his sense of hope? That dark perception of what could've been had he'd been absent from our future or if people like his father helped Marley to hurt us worse than what he attempted with that ultimatum? That's not something you quickly forget because it was recent, but none of that has happened, and it was only what he saw, as it was a mere possibility that we can keep from happening in even the slightest degree. What brought this up?"

"The way you are around the kids."

"Oh?"

"It just made me want to ask… Do you ever think about having any kids of your own one day?"

"Yeah…one day," she answered Ymir; just because Shinji had seen a dark possibility of what could've been for her if things went bad or he failed or something, Historia wasn't going to let any fear of Marley coming after her for her royal blood hinder her right to choose how she herself would live, "but not right now…and not until the situation with Marley has been resolved. What about you? Do you ever think of having any of your own?"

"I, uh… Someday, if I ever meet the right person, yes."

Of course, Ymir only said her answer to Historia like that because nobody except Shinji and Kaede (both co-ruling advisers by accident and due to seeking knowledge for the young queen) knew that the two ladies were seeing where their relationship was progressing romantically. Since such a thing was known to be accepted and/or tolerated by a measure of people from Shinji's world, they couldn't risk that something of this sort of relationship wasn't accepted in their own world.

"Hey, if we took the Wings of Freedom of the Survey Corps as universal, that would mean that we'd be capable of anything," Historia stated to Ymir.

"I'm pretty sure it's literal, not universal."

"Is there a difference between the meanings behind both words?"

Ymir decided not to argue over words.

"Ooh," they heard some of the children snicker at the two from behind a building corner; as of late, some of the orphans thought it was funny to see their queen and royal guardian be friendly towards her lady bodyguard, who seemed to be very friendly towards her in turn.

"What?" Historia joked. "Jealous?"

Neither Historia nor Ymir could say for certain if they were aware of the two being a thing, but it gave them something to laugh at when they needed to be positive instead of worried.

When the children ran off to hide from them, Historia looked up to Ymir and said, "When I'm older, like, maybe my mid-twenties or early-thirties, that's when I want to have children of my own. What about you?"

"Same here," she responded, and she wasn't going to let anyone force Historia into a difficult position just because of her royal blood.

-x-

BLAST! The last of the ships invading the island were totaled by the four F-22s, leaving any survivors in the water, clinging onto anything that could float and support their weight as they struggled to stay above water.

Whatever fifteen-meter Titans remained did their best to gather the survivors. And whatever fifty-meter Titans remained that weren't Eldians aided in gathering them, as well.

SPLASH! The Dark Titan emerged from the water in front of them, holding the severed head of a fifty-meter Jaeger Titan…with a Marleyan soldier hanging from the remnants of evaporating Titan flesh by his arms.

"We don't want to fight with you if it means we have to kill you," she told them, making it clear that this war and their deaths were weighing heavily upon her conscience, even if they were the ones that attacked first by invading with their Warrior Unit and the former Titans that had belonged to her people, "but we will because we have people we want to protect from you. Do you surrender? I can do this all this day, if I have to, but it doesn't seem like any of you can."

Behind her, the jets and Unit-01 were ready to continue if the Marleyans persisted.

Seconds later, one of the fifteen-meter Titans raised a white flag.

"Damn you Eldians," a woman grunted. "You're monsters."

"No," went Shinji as Unit-01 came up from behind the Dark Titan, "a monster's what you call something you don't recognize as a person or animal. If I was to address you as a monster, I wouldn't be able to see people as people. I see you…the same way I see Eldians: Just people. The only exception…is the guy that gave you this power to fuel your ridiculous vendetta and spite towards the Eldians. Where is he right now? He's the only monster that exists that needs to be dealt with."

"That's what I want to know, too," the Dark Titan expressed, dropping the severed Titan head, along with the soldier, into the water. "Where is Grausam Zanki? Where is your Titan Doctor and the Akuma Titan himself? Where…is…the Devil himself?"

"We don't know where is he," said another soldier clinging to driftwood with eight others. "As soon as we started engaging you Eldians, he took off on a rowboat and ditched us to get on the island on his own."

"Captain Levi, we have a new problem," Shinji told Levi through the intercom. "Grausam Zanki might already be on the island."

"You and Kaede mop up here," Levi responded, "and if any of them try anything that indicates a false surrender, you have complete discretion to do whatever you feel you have to."

"Understood, sir. Do not underestimate this guy."

The F-22s and Talons flew away from the destroyed Marleyan navy fleet as the Dark Titan flicked her arms in the air, releasing streaks of her saturated spinal fluid at the remaining Jaeger Titans, watching them begin to evaporate as they lost their Titan powers.

If Grausam is already on the island, Kaede thought, already concerned about the villages and districts of the former Walls because they hadn't been completely evacuated to safety locations, he could hide anywhere, go wherever he chooses, harm whoever's close by.

"Hey, Dark Titan," she looked at Unit-01, at Shinji, who got her attention, "we're going to get him, and he's going to pay for his crimes. All of his crimes."

She slightly nodded in the positive in understanding, but she still worried about what that creep was capable of.

-x-

"…Well, well, what do we have here?" Grausam questioned, seeing a nearby village that had once been within the grounds between Walls Maria and Rose, which were gone for some reason, leaving only debris littering the grounds where they once resided, and several large Titans that were seeded throughout the land. "No Walls, but a lot of Titans and a small village. I guess there's no shame in embracing the power of destruction."

He raised his arms up and brought them down on a house, obliterating it. It felt good, but something was missing from the exhilaration.

"If this village is empty, there's no point in feeling excitement in destroying it," he told himself; he could've trashed the entire settlement, but it wouldn't have made any difference on what he was going to do later. "There is so much to do and so little time to do it all."

And so he abandoned the village, unconcerned with the possibility that there were people hiding around. They didn't matter to him. Eldians were a thing of the past and belonged there…while he was aiming towards the future.

And the Earth shakes to open its gateway into Hell…and swallow up the light Heaven showers us in, he thought, trying to perceive the current state of things through a measure of…metaphorical thinking that most people didn't use.

-x-

"…There's a Titan walking around near a village," Armin informed the others in the jets, seeing the very Jaeger Titan that was Grausam. "It's the Akuma Titan."

"What the Hell is he doing?" Connie questioned.

"Probably looking for people to harm," suggested Hange.

"I get the feeling that he might've done so with someone," went Eren.

"…Is someone listening to me out there?!" They heard Reiner's voice over the intercom. "This is Reiner Braun, Bertolt Hoover and Annie Leonhart! We tried to incapacitate Grausam Zanki before he could transform into his Titan form and failed! Our bullets had no effect, whatsoever, on him! Also, Zeke Yeager is dead, killed by Grausam! I repeat, Grausam Zanki murdered Zeke Yeager of the Warrior Unit!"

Within the F-22 Eren and Mikasa were piloting, the young man gasped at the knowledge that his elder half-brother had been killed by Akuma Titan. Even though there wasn't really a relationship between the two, Eren just felt…contempt towards Grausam for what he did. It was as though the man had absolutely no respect or remorse for the familial ties that existed between other people. Either that, or the man more inhuman than he was said to be by others.

"We need to kill him, Mikasa," he told her. "He can't be allowed to get away."

Mikasa got the sense that what they had heard from Reiner had affected Eren in a way that was going to cloud his judgment. This wasn't going to help them at all if he lost control over his emotions and did something to risk their lives.

"Remain calm, Eren," she told him, and took aim at the Akuma Titan on her helmet's heads-up-display. "We can't let our emotions overtake us."

Then, she fired a missile at the behemoth; whatever reason behind buckshot with Dark Titan spinal fluid not affecting the Akuma Titan, she was certain that a missile recently infused with a larger amount of said spinal fluid would take care of the job. There was absolutely no way that this man could overcome their technological strength.

The Akuma Titan looked up at the approaching missile and pulled back its right arm.

"What the… Is he going to punch a missile?!" Hange questioned, thinking Grausam was even more insane.

But Grausam didn't have time to consider the danger; he needed to act and defend himself from something intent on ending him. As the missile was two seconds away, he sent his right hand flying towards it, making impact.

BOOM! The resulting explosion created a smokescreen that obscured the Titan Shifter and the surrounding patch of ground he was on.

"Did we get him?" Armin wondered.

"We had to have gotten him," Connie suggested. "That missile was reinforced with Titan flesh and Dark Titan spinal fluid."

The smoke cleared away due to the wind blowing it, revealing the answer to their curiosity…and the horror behind the conclusion.

"What?" Levi uttered, seeing the Akuma Titan was still standing, but now looking as though its body was covered in fragments of its armored exterior with most of it crumbling off to reveal softer flesh underneath.

"He's…still in Titan form?" Eren uttered, confused by this, as Grausam should've turned back into a human due to being exposed to his step-granddaughter's spinal fluid.

The Akuma Titan then regenerated its missing plates of hardened Titan flesh that served as armor, but all along its back down to the base of its spines were now pronounced protrusions of spikes, as if serving as some added protection against being harmed, flexing and compressing against one another as they fit into place.

"This feeling of elation is greater than the one I got from being shot at before I transformed and killed Zeke Yeager," they heard Grausam say to them, flexing his Titan's right arm's fingers. "I must say, this is becoming quite… Oh, what is that old word that used to have so much innocence? Oh, yeah, fun! This is becoming quite fun for me!"

Then suddenly, they saw something emerging from his Titan's back. They looked like…like wings, wings made of hardened Titan flesh, demonic or bat-like.

"No way!" Hange yelled.

-x-

Leaving the Marleyan survivors in the custody of the Garrison, Shinji and Kaede retreated to the inner grounds of the island where the Walls used to reside to aid in dealing with Grausam and any other Marleyans that were present.

Somehow, I doubt that navy fleet we took out was even a fraction of Marley's real strength, thought Shinji as the two ran farther and further inward. As a global power, Marley would hundreds more naval ships available to them. Even if they have only obsolete technology and nothing advanced like we do, they'd still have the edge in numbers, just like the Titans did before I got here. And just like any other war, there are always calms between storms, a period of rest before the next conflict. How long does Marley think they can last against Eldia's return to grace under the light of morality and redemption? How long can they withstand the backlash of their failures? How long before they realize that they're going to fall and lose their hold on everything and everyone?

As he thought of that, Kaede, worried about what Grausam might be doing to whoever was unfortunate enough to be in his way, pondered why she didn't feel any different from before when all the people exposed to her spinal fluid.

Did none of them have the War Hammer Titan? She suspected as the scenery passed her by. Are we being played by Marley? They know we have eight of the Nine Titans and they can't risk losing their last edge? I could try seeing if I have the power, but I don't want to risk endangering anyone if I don't. This is getting to be a very off day.

To be continued…