Creation began on 11-18-18
Creation ended on 12-03-18
Neon Genesis Evangelion
Hope from the Sky: Muchina Akuma, the Devil without Remorse
A/N: I had to look through Google Translate to get the best title for this chapter. Here we go, the moment you've been waiting for.
Within his Titan, Grausam had lost any sense of time, enraged by Kaede's ridiculous accusation that he was something he wasn't, and he wasn't sure what that word was she used on him. Well, he was going to show her and all that followed her just how dangerous he was when he really got loose from all sense of restraint. He wouldn't spare a soul from his wrath; all would experience a pain far greater than the Titans could unleash. Removing his arms from section of the nape he was positioned on, he reached down to a pouch on his left leg and pulled out a syringe filled with a fluid of some sort.
It's an ongoing experiment, people, he thought, jabbing himself in his leg with the needle. I always wonder what it would be like to be as tall as the Walls had once been. Fifty meters might seem insufficient, but against adversaries no bigger than mere mortals, it'll have to suffice.
Injecting himself with the fluid, he felt a rush of adrenaline surging through his muscles as he pulled his head free of the layers of Titan flesh.
"Aaaaaurgh!" He groaned as he used the injection in his leg as the spark to his new transformation. "Ah-ha-ha!"
-x-
Kaede, in her Female Titan-endowed Dark Titan form, ran as fast as she could towards the Titan Forest to the base Grausam was being detained at.
BOOM! Some sort of explosion was heard and Kaede stopped in her tracks.
Somewhere deep within the forest, she could see light that wasn't artificial.
Oh, no! She panicked, reaching the base, but was completely unprepared for the sight in front of her. Damn you, Grausam!
At least half the base was damaged and on fire, several of the tall trees were ablaze and Eavangelion Unit-01 was down.
"Rrrrrrrrraaaurgh!" The roar of the Akuma Titan was heard as Kaede saw his head emerging from within the flames. "Carnage will spill out into the night!"
But what caught her off guard was that he was still growing, not a fifteen meter Titan at all. He reached almost the height of the trees themselves.
"Shinji!" She called out to the Eva and at the base. "Armin! Sasha! Mikasa! Hange!"
"I see you, Kaede," Grausam's voice uttered to her as his Titan reached its fifty-meter height limit. "I'm guessing a transformation is disastrous to any that get too close to the person that commits it."
"If anything has happened to them, I'll…"
"You'll, what? What will you do?"
"She'll tear your very life to shreds," they heard Shinji's voice as the Eva moved to rise up, revealing a small hole where several people started emerging out, "just like I'll tear your body to shreds for thinking about killing members of the Garrison and Survey Corps."
"I still managed to get one of you," Grausam told them.
"And you're going to pay with much more than your life."
What Kaede feared came to pass: Grausam had killed again before she got here. Someone from the Garrison or Survey Corps had their life ended by the Devil of the Titans and wouldn't be going home to their loved ones, anymore.
"A lifetime of confinement, five years of freedom…with a reign of suffering upon you worthless people, and I intend to ride the carnage," Grausam expressed. "Freedom is the path to power, and power is out there, waiting to be seized by any with the will to take it."
Within her Titan, Kaede's eyes glared as sections of the flesh around her legs began to crystallize. Right now, having only eight of the Nine Titans might've been insufficient in dealing with her step-grandfather, but protecting the people that remained was Kaede's concern. She needed to be hope for her people, to keep proving it to both them and herself that she and her Dark Titan were nothing like Grausam and the Akuma Titan and the Jaeger Titans that attacked them. And most importantly, she needed to show this madman she would be his worst mistake because he turned her first instead of using himself as the guinea pig of his first serum.
FLASH-BOOM! The Dark Titan suddenly caused another explosive transformation, increasing in height to sixty meters, the same height as the Colossal Titan was, tall enough to look over the fifty-meter Walls once upon a time, but now was just striving to be intimidating to the Akuma Titan's fifty-meter height.
I guess Kaede can call upon height change at will, thought Shinji, surprised and impressed by this ability his girlfriend was demonstrating; as far as he could tell, this was just a new ability Kaede suddenly came to possess, with the maximum height she had as Titan so far being one-hundred meters, which surpassed the Colossal Titan's sixty-meter stature. You never cease to amaze me, girlfriend.
"Do you really think that just because you're taller than I currently am, you're a match for me?" The Akuma Titan asked, stepping out of the ruins of the base, moving with a fluid grace, absolutely nothing like how the other tall Titans had moved. "I learned how to improve upon the mobility of Titans larger than fifteen meters. In short, even the largest of Titans can move with ease! I think I'll pay the closest village a visit and express myself!"
Then, like a bullet, the Akuma Titan broke into a run and went the opposite way the Eva and Dark Titan were standing, going further into the forest, but knocking aside as much of the burning or burnt trees as it could.
"Son of a bitch," Kaede grunted, and went after him. "Go around the forest, Shinji!"
Since the Eva was much faster than most Titans, it was possible for Shinji to get to the other side of the forest and corner Grausam while Kaede blocked his way back.
The fire would have to take care of itself since they were too far from any villages or districts.
-x-
"…We shall be by the crack of dawn, ma'am," a Marleyan soldier informed a woman who sat at the back of the ship they were on as they headed towards Paradis.
"Thank you," she responded.
-x-
"…Tea, Historia?" A little girl asked the young queen as she came to an hour ago, holding a small cup.
"Yes, please," Historia responded, accepting the cup.
"Do you think Mr. Shinji and Ms. Kaede will be able to stop the bad man you spoke about?"
"Yes, they'll be able to deal with Mr. Zanki."
"He sounds like a monster. A real one, scarier than how the Titans used to be," a boy expressed to Historia, holding a bowl of cookies.
You have no idea how right you are, Historia thought, recalling her nightmarish vision of the Akuma Titan in a city set ablaze with people running in fear of it as laughed like a maniac. He's barely human, anymore. It was only one conversation, but he was completely devoid of any heart. There was nothing left of any light in him.
Boom! A distant noise was heard from afar, and the orphans got worried.
"Something really bad is happening out there?" Ymir expressed, worried about whoever's dealing with the situation out there.
From a distance, it looked like some smoke could be seen in the air.
-x-
It must've been overconfidence on his part, but Grausam up and brought his Titan's right fist and attacked the Eva as soon as he could see it at the end of the forest.
Shinji, who was able to make it to the other side of the forest, blocked with his AT-Field, but felt the brunt of the attack.
Kami, he thought as felt the Eva take a step back, only fifty meters tall and it forced me back one step. This is like the Colossal Titan, only worse.
It felt like something worse than an Angel or another Eva had attacked him, only with something worse than mere hatred or some unexplained vendetta. It was as though the Akuma Titan was fueled by the very wrath of Hell itself.
Raising his damaged arm up to examine it, the Akuma Titan simply smirked as it began to regenerate, as if unfazed by the fact that it just hit an invisible barrier. In truth, he just wanted to test his newfound enhancement; going up against a behemoth that wasn't a Titan, but was very powerful…seemed like a grand way to demonstrate how he had progressed.
"I guess I'm still not powerful enough to inflict harm upon you," he expressed.
"You're twisted, Grausam," Shinji responded. "You're already powerful as it right now…and yet you want more…like you don't have enough at all."
"Titan power is only a small taste of what is yet to be grasped by anyone with the will to seek it. Tell me, don't you ever feel like what you have is never enough for you?"
"Yes, and there is a reason for it, and it's not a lack of power. It's a lack of stability within the primary roots of one's relationships that are too estranged to the point where they cannot be mended, even with time. They can only waste away to the point of where they're better off forgotten because they can no longer matter."
"Is that so? What, you lost someone dear to you?"
"With what happened before I met you, I wish it was something as simple as loss."
-x-
"…I wish it was something as simple as loss," Misato and Ritsuko heard Shinji's voice as they monitored his activity right now in Central Dogma.
"Who do you think he's talking about?" Misato asked, already certain that she knew who it was, but wanted to hear from Ritsuko who she suspected.
"From the way he answered Grausam, he's likely referring to Commander Ikari," the faux-blond answered her. "With what happened due to the ultimatum, their relationship, or rather, their lack of a relation, has become, more or less, severed in its entirety. Whereas Shinji chose to protect these Eldians with the Eva and even found a relationship with this Kaede Sogen who possesses power that could rival an Eva's, his father tried to kill them and acquire the girl because he saw her as a research specimen."
"It also seemed as though Commander Ikari just wanted to hurt Shinji by trying to have his girlfriend taken from him and her parents, who seem like Shinji's ideal future in-laws if those two get married."
"I find that hard to imagine with what had transpired. I'd imagine anyone wanting nothing to do with him after learning of what he knew about his father and his attitude."
"Try saying that Kaede herself; she knows about Commander Ikari…and still wants to be with Shinji…because she loves him deeply."
"Gaaaahh!" They heard Grausam gasp as he was attacked from behind in Shinji's perception.
"…But with everything everyone has gone through because of actions made in the past…and these questionable repercussions we respond with in the present…nothing is simple, anymore," they heard Shinji say to him. "Wouldn't you agree with me…Kaede?"
-x-
She was supposed to stop trying to make use of the Armored Titan's power creatively due to the measure of strain it puts on her to do so and because of how much it weakens her once her use of her Titan bodies are exhausted, but Kaede had to gamble because it was necessary to recapture Grausam and minimize the threat he posed. So she produced a large spear of hardened flesh from her Titan's left arm and fired it at his nape while Shinji had him distracted with talking. Even if the spear hadn't killed him, she hoped that it would've at least crippled him to a degree; Titan Shifters might've had the ability to regenerate from their injuries so long as they had the will to keep living, but injuries that occurred while within a Titan body could hinder the person and restrict generating another body until after they've regenerated completely. And since Grausam had been using his Titan power since he'd been captured to keep in his Titan, he'd be unable to transform again.
At least…that was what Kaede was hoping.
"Yes," she told Shinji, looking down at the fallen Akuma Titan, "I would…because nothing is simple, anymore, no matter how much we wish they were."
Grumble. The Akuma Titan started to move subtly, as if trying to get up again.
"You gotta be kidding me," Shinji reacted. "I saw you strike him right through the neck!"
A section of flesh on the right side of the neck burst opened and revealed Grausam, minus both his left arm and leg, dropping to the ground.
"Aaaaurgh! Aaaaurgh!" He groaned, dragging himself away from his Titan. "Damn you! Kaede! You bitch! I'll get you for this! I'll kill you! I'll kill Sig! I'll kill your mother for having you!"
Slam! Kaede's Dark Titan reached down and grabbed him, lifting him up into the air.
"You're crippled right now, so you shouldn't be able to pull anything like that stunt you did earlier that killed one of us," she told him, "and we'll see to it that you never get loose again."
"I don't know what makes me sicker," Grausam told her. "You looking down at me like you're in control…or that you think you can get justice for one worthless life I ended five minutes ago. Am I supposed to feel afraid of you, sad because I killed two people that meant nothing to me? Well, I don't. I cared nothing for that man…just as I cared not for Zeke Yeager. Oh, he was very pathetic, just like the rest of the Warrior Unit. Even one life killed by me right now is just blood spilt onto the soils. I would say that my attempt to invoke fear within you was successful."
"Kaede," went Shinji, "let me rip his other arm off, let him heal as much as he possibly can from having been deprived of both his arms."
"I always wanted to see him armless."
-x-
Awakening to the light of the sunrise, Christine Sogen felt rested…but was also concerned for her daughter after having what felt like an intense nightmare regarding Grausam, Paradis and another invasion force from Marley. She saw Grausam, more monstrous in his Titan form, allied with a Titan that was the most unusual she had ever seen, suspecting that it was the War Hammer Titan Kaede told her about from the memories of previous Titan Shifters that bore witness to its might in previous generations before Karl Fritz turned upon his people in favor of letting Marley be in control. Fifteen meters in height, slim-but-muscular, wielding a large, mallet-like hammer, but was completely featureless in its aesthetics; the head looked as though it were wearing a mask that covered all but its eyes and mouth in partial rips, almost reminding Christine of a picture of a large, masked man that wielded a large axe to perform the most horrible form of capital punishment in front of people: Decapitation of people deemed guilty by ruling bodies of power.
An executioner, she thought, as the appearance of the War Hammer was how her daughter described it, making her perceive the behemoth as a literal executioner of the Titans. How will Kaede and the others be able to take that Titan from Marley if they ever come here?
"Christine?" She heard her second husband's voice as she turned to see him lying beside him.
"Good morning, Sig," she greeted him with a smile.
"Good morning, dear," he responded. "Did you sleep well?"
"Yes…and no. I have a bad feeling that…something is going to happen soon."
-x-
Because the land surrounding the Titan Forest was comprised mainly of parched soil, the fire couldn't spread any further, and when Shinji and Kaede handed Grausam over to Levi and the Survey Corps, they were able to take care of it so that it couldn't burn any more of the forest. And Levi cut off Grausam's remaining leg just to see him scream in agony because he couldn't transform for the time being.
"Aaaurgh!" Grausam screamed as his newly-severed leg wound cauterized and steam began to emit from it as regeneration slowly took place. "Why not just try and decapitate me?"
"You'd like that, wouldn't you?" Levi questioned, not really answering his question. "Until you fully recover, you can kiss any ideas of being the Akuma Titan goodbye. By then, we'll have found a way to deal with you permanently."
"I doubt you will. I'm the Devil incarnate. I can't be killed by the likes of you."
"We'll see."
Dragging the crippled man back to what was left of their base in a small wagon because none of them wanted to be bothered with carrying him, the Survey Corps had successfully recaptured Grausam…but had to be ready to deal with something else that was a definite: The possible arrival of the War Hammer Titan and the second Marleyan Invasion force.
"You two better get to the beach," Erwin instructed Shinji and Kaede; Eren, Mikasa and Armin had informed him of what Historia had told them last night. "We'll be there to help you as soon as we can."
"Yes, sir," Shinji responded, carrying Kaede in the Eva's right hand so she could recover a little from last night's small mayhem.
"And Ms. Sogen… If the War Hammer has come to Paradis, you know what must be done to obtain it from Marley. Be careful."
"Yes, sir," Kaede responded, and the Eva left to the coastal city.
It wasn't really stress on getting the ninth Titan from Marley, but it was becoming crucial to get this task achieved because of Grausam and his increasing presence on the island he previously escaped from at the cost of so many lives that got either harmed, uprooted or just ended when Marley began their attack on them. And for Kaede, despite having a chance to at least try and kill the guy when he was outside his Titan form presented itself, certain that he wasn't as impervious to death as his Titan had demonstrated…but the girl had refrained from doing so…and she wasn't sure why. She could've stepped on him, crushed him in her Titan's hands, maybe even attempt to cause death by airsickness if she thought that would inflict the brutality he deserved to have upon his life, but she held back, letting him live a while longer. It probably bothered her boyfriend a little to have to do very little to keep her in check from crossing the line.
"You wanna talk about it?" She asked him, looking at the scenery around them as they walked down the coastline to the city's beach.
"It's just a bit concerning that you didn't try to kill him while he was outside his Titan," he explained to her. "I was prepared to keep you from having to do it, but you kept yourself in check. You didn't even yell at him."
"Really, I wanted to make him hurt for everyone he harmed, including the life he took last night…but I want to deal in the retribution after we get the War Hammer out of Marley's possession. All nine of Ymir's Titans should equal a fate so terrible that even Grausam wouldn't be able to escape it, no matter what he tries."
"Turn his hope into despair."
"Yeah."
This reminded Shinji of when he faced the Angel that attacked him when he was on Marleyan grounds, how it tried to make him despair his presence in this world by creating a harmful and heart-wrenching illusion of the world if everything and everyone was either dead or near it in cruel ways. While he might've had Kaede to save him from that despair, he knew there would be a different outcome for Grausam if they were able to pull it off on him. He knew that in the end, there would be nobody, not a friend, ally or even a family member…that would come to save him from such a fate that would seal his doom.
As much as I know he deserves his fate, how can we make sure it won't be something he can escape from? He wondered to himself as the city's skyscrapers came into view. "Oh, no."
It was only the early morning, with people waking up to the day to begin their routines, but the sight of ships from a grand distance that weren't theirs had Shinji and Kaede feeling the concern they had for the people they had to protect from this invading force.
"Persecution of the Eldians by Marley," went Kaede, unsure if this fleet of ships was as large or as small as the previous fleet. "If this war spawned by centuries of hatred for past crimes long forgotten continues to persist because they can't let go and move on…"
"The violence, the bloodshed and suffering will never end," Shinji agreed with her.
The coastal alarms went off and a voice on the broadcast system went to work.
"Attention, people, we're about to be attacked by a second invasion force from Marley!" A female voice uttered across the whole settlement. "Evacuate to the underground shelters, immediately! I repeat, evacuate to the underground shelters, immediately!"
FLASH-BOOM! Something on one of the ships from afar had a bright light and a sound that seemed like an explosion, but neither Shinji nor Kaede saw any Titans appear on the decks of any of them.
"Where…where is it?" Kaede asked, expecting to see the Titan they needed to face.
The Wall Titans present remained immobile until Kaede instructed them to do something…so one of them didn't react to the pillar of spikes that shot from the ground beneath it, forcing it to fall forward into the water.
"Over there!" Shinji gasped, seeing something emerge from the water right next to the Titan. "Oh, Kami!"
It wasn't a fifteen-meter Titan like they had expected it to be. No, this was a fifty-meter version of what they had expected to face today. Massive like the other fifty-meter Titans, but slim and muscular, able to perform efficiently like a human conditioned to work optimally, and looking as though it was wearing a form-fitting bodysuit that covered all but the eyes and mouth completely, leaving those parts partially obscured by flaps or small rips in a mask.
"That's still the War Hammer Titan, right, Kaede?" Shinji asked.
"No doubt about it," she answered back, just as something emerged from the Titan's hands, merging together into something much larger than itself. "No doubt about it at all. This is who we've been waiting for since the first invasion fleet."
The construct the Titan had formed in its hands had resembled a large, simple hammer attached to a long base, almost like a sledgehammer, only not as effective in its aesthetics when it came to intimidation as a weapon.
"You're the giant that isn't a Titan that sided with the Eldians," they heard it speak, and in a female voice, indicating that the person inside it was a woman. "You took the Eldians from Marley's internment zones, the ones that wanted to come here, and you serve a descendant of the First King, Karl Fritz. Your servitude to the remnants of Eldia is under-appreciated and rewarded with small gifts from people of such low lineage. Why not switch over to Marley instead? You could be rewarded greatly."
"To betray the people of Paradis would be to betray my conscience, and to betray what's left of Eldia…is to view the people that make it what it is right now as being lower than the insects we often step on because we're disgusted by them." Shinji expressed his refusal to join Marley; even if they thought they could reward him with living like a king, Shinji couldn't and wouldn't turn against the Eldians, no matter what happened. "You should be able to understand, as you're an Eldian that has lived their whole life in Marley, probably overlooking the hatred your people receive from the Marleyans because you think they deserve it for what people from the past did, which makes absolutely no sense, whatsoever! That's like hating a child no older than four…just because their father's a sick bastard…or some little girl because their great-grandparents committed a taboo that had nothing to do with her."
"Oh, the hatred is justified."
"Maybe once upon a time in the past," went Kaede to the Titan Shifter, "but the people here know the truth about why they were forced to live on Paradis, why they had to live behind the Walls in such cramped spaces, and they don't want to live that way again, forced to hide away from the world because of what their ancestors did and they had no knowledge of. Nobody here today is responsible for what the Eldians back then did…and they're not going to let you or Marley come at them like they're responsible for their own faults and misfortunes."
"And do you two speak for everyone?"
"We can't speak for everyone; that would imply everyone, not just Eldians," Shinji stated. "We just protect the people here on the island from those that would harm them out of spite."
"Out of spite? People like the Eldians don't deserve to be protected from anyone. You can try and deny it all you want, that they're not responsible for their ancestors' sins against the world or the actions of the First King, but they will always be the Devil's children."
"So far, we've only met one that refers to himself as the Devil, and he's not one of us at all," Kaede told the Titan Shifter. "Is he the reason your Titan is much larger than we had expected it to right now?"
"If you're referring to Grausam Zanki, the Titan Doctor and self-proclaimed Akuma Titan, then yes. An increase in height was all we asked of him, and he was most happy to oblige. Although I never met him and the request was anonymous because the very identity of the War Hammer Titan is to be protected at all times."
"Really?" Shinji asked. "Except we're certain we know exactly who you are from a distance. The War Hammer has always been wielded by members of the Tybur family over the generations…and they're the ones that conspired with the First King to overthrow Eldia in the past, meaning you have to be a member of that family. An Eldian family that turned their back on their people just so that those that suffered could overthrow instead of trying to seek peace."
-x-
Her illegitimacy as royalty didn't deny Historia the right to know what her paternal ancestor, Karl Fritz, had done to undo much of the original Eldian nation and who aided in this reversal of power. As Kaede grew more accustomed to the increase in her Titan abilities and access to the past memories of previous Titan Shifters, the keeper of the Dark Titan informed her and everyone else with the mental capacity to comprehend this ancient knowledge of Karl Fritz's deception and the identity of the Eldian family he conspired with to make Marley strong enough to overthrow them. While she praised Kaede for revealing this information to her, Historia still had to live with the fact that her ancestor, a man consumed by guilt for what his ancestors and people did, didn't consider all his options and instead chose to take their freedom and renounce conflict should Marley ever arise to tear them down.
"Except you're the one in control now, Historia," said Shinji to her, as he was present when this past atrocity was being shared. "You are not bound to the First King's sense of guilt or what he chose to do to rectify past sins. Nobody here is bound to whatever crimes were committed back then and are anything like the monsters parents tell their children about at night."
"Seek peace," said Kaede, "real peace, not violence."
And yet, before we can seek peace, we have to take from the Tybur family what was once Ymir Fritz's, Historia thought as she checked on each of the children as the morning started for everyone. I'm hoping that Kaede won't become less than human when she has all nine of them. It won't matter if she's anything like the original Titan was in the beginning or as time went on, if she starts to lose her humanity, it'll be my fault she lost herself and Shinji lost the love of his life.
"Have faith in Kaede, Historia," she heard Ymir say to her as she carried a basket of bread and corn. "If she didn't succumb to the ideology of the First King when she took the Founder, she won't become a monster that will destroy the world or something. She's…not likely to do that when she'd rather be who she is already."
"And who is she?"
"She's one of your advisers, one of your friends, Shinji's girlfriend, the Dark Titan and one of the protectors of Paradis."
Historia nodded in the positive, yet she still had her lingering fear that something unlike what she had already seen from Kaede. She merely worried that something more or less worrisome than Karl Fritz's ideology would just take possession of Kaede the instant she gained all nine of Ymir's Titans, that she would lose herself to the repossession of them. She probably wouldn't be so concerned if it weren't for the most unexpected of requests from some of the children a few days ago that she had yet to inform her advisers about: They wanted to play with a Titan Shifter.
-x-
They were getting a taste of the strength of the new-and-improved War Hammer Titan firsthand! Its increased size wasn't just the only thing new about it, but its reaction time was made faster, too. Not only was it skilled in the use of a hammer, but it was able to unleash tendrils ranging in the double-digits and having them strike at the Eva. There were at least fifteen of them at once, and at random, as well, forcing the larger behemoth to erect its AT-Field to defend itself and Kaede from attack.
"I don't believe this!" Shinji groaned, keeping the tendrils and hammer at bay for now, but saw the ships from the second invasion force getting closer to the island's shoreline.
Kaede looked back at the city behind the Eva, fearing she was too close to transform and would cause collateral damage if she assumed her largest state. Then, she looked up at the sky, and an idea formed in her mind.
"Shinji!" She yelled. "Throw me up into the air!"
"What?!" He gasped. "I'm not gonna throw you up!"
"Trust me! I know what I have to do!"
"Aaaurgh! Okay!" He obliged, and made the Eva throw the girl as high as it could.
The move in and of itself was most likely Kaede's most reckless, most stupid and most dangerous one by far. She felt the pressure from the gravity pushing against her body as she went as high as she could. Then…the pressure lessened as she felt frozen in time, still somewhere within the blue as she slowly turned to look down at the Earth beneath her. It was so much bigger than what she had realized, giving her a view of a vast ocean on the left of her perception and a large landmass that covered much of the right side of her perception, obscured partly by the small formations of clouds she was propelled through by Shinji.
Shinji…it's beautiful, she thought, smiling at the impressive sight, unafraid of the fact that she was now descending back towards it all.
It felt like a cold breeze brushing past her hair as she returned towards Paradis as fast as her body and the gravity permitted her. The sunlight and clouds making her feel as though she had slipped into Heaven for a brief moment before going back to Earth. She could see the invasion force, massive in its numbers…and knew that whatever she was going to do…would have to be bigger than what they were, as big as she could possibly make.
Find me later, Shinji, for I am falling from the sky like you once did…only I'm fooling myself that it's like flight. This is my hope that I'll at least maim the fleet while you and the Wall Titans protect the island.
She brought her right hand to her mouth and bit down on the side of her thumb as hard as she could to draw blood, calling upon all of her Titan powers.
FLASH-BOOM! She transformed and felt herself falling faster; the increased mass from her Titan's massive size was guaranteed to give her the edge necessary to do this.
"CANNONBALL!" The Dark Titan yelled.
Inside the Eva, Shinji could see and hear the insanity of his girlfriend's idea.
"Oh, you gotta be kidding me!" He gasped, realizing what was going to happen.
The Eva then grabbed two of the nearest Wall Titans and erected and channeled its AT-Field through the other Wall Titans. He only tried this once, and it was on a small scale with at least thirty Wall Titans, and this was just to test out Hange's theory on whether or not the Titans could be used to circumvent and expand the Eva's AT-Field, and was considered a success when repeated cannon fire failed to touch the Titans, exploding against an unseen barrier.
The Dark Titan's largest form fell further towards the water, and the crewmen on the Marleyan ships started to panic. But there was little they could do as they were surrounded by water.
SPLASH! Impacting the ocean water with the force she gathered in the descent, Kaede's Titan body had caused a massive displacement of the surrounding water as it was being pushed away on all sides.
The ships close to where the Dark Titan had cannonballed were pulled into a maelstrom as the displacement tried to resolve itself.
Shinji watched in both fear and amazement as the other ships in the water started to rise with the waves. He'd only seen small waves before, but this was no wave his girlfriend made. This…was a tsunami, a wave so powerful that it could leave devastation wherever it hit if strong enough.
The War Hammer Titan looked and its possessor probably couldn't believe what they were seeing. There was no way in history a Titan could produce tidal waves of such size.
"You damn monster!" They yelled as the ships were getting partially sunk as the water levels of the wave increased. "Aaah!"
"Oh…" Shinji gasped, bracing for the worst.
The wave and the ships collided with the Wall Titan-expanded AT-Field, creating a friction sufficient enough to push the field against the Titans' faces like pressing up against glass, but they stood their ground. Water spread across the field as it tried to get onto the island while the ships, unable to withstand the combined pressure from both the wave and field, shattered under the pressure, obliterating their crew along with them.
Kaede, this is extreme, even from you! Shinji panicked, unsure of how much longer he could maintain the field that was keeping the island protected, as he had barely managed the first attempt for ten minutes before feeling like he had to stop, and that was just with thirty of the Wall Titans!
-x-
"…That girl must be crazy if she thinks the survivors are going to let this get overlooked," said Asuka as she saw what Shinji had of Kaede's latest exploits with the tsunami, "or just unbelievable."
"And this was only possible because Shinji threw her up into the air as high as he could," Ritsuko reminded her. "Not even an Eva could provide the extremity necessary to produce a tidal wave of such force."
"And this girl has eight of these different…Titans that they're gathering for the people they're protecting," added Misato, both impressed and terrified that a girl like Kaede was capable of something like this on her first try. "All she needs now is this one they're facing."
-x-
"…Oh, my goodness, everyone," a little girl gasped as she looked up at the sky above the orphans, "look at the ships up there!"
Historia and Ymir looked and saw some ships flipping across the sky as they were getting ripped to pieces. Just a moment ago, they saw what looked like a wall of water that cascaded across the air, unable to fall upon them or any of the settlements on ground; somehow, Shinji and Kaede were doing an unusual job of protecting the island and people with the Eva and Titans today.
-x-
"…Hmm?" Grausam went, looking up at the single lit candle in the small room he was being housed in. "What is this power that has been unleashed into the air beyond my grasp?"
To make sure that he couldn't heal, the Survey Corps made sure that his stumps couldn't regenerate by placing iron braces on them to suppress their regrowth for as long as possible. In this state of being, not even Grausam would be able to cause further harm as a Titan until all his injuries had recovered.
"Probably just wishful thinking, old man," went Eren to him, standing outside the cell, ready to fire the cannon aimed at the damn fool. "Or maybe you're getting senile in your age."
Grausam looked at Eren and smirked. He was many things, but senile wasn't one of them, and he'd seen people older than he was that were senile, claiming they'd seen strange animals called elephants that were pink and purple or accusing random people for being spies and dressing up as demons or other types of monsters.
"Senility is next to deniability," he told the young man. "I'm not even seventy-three yet, and my mind is still as sharp as it was the day I injected myself with my Jaeger Serum."
"Only after you used Kaede as your guinea pig, your worst mistake ever. But if she doesn't kill you, make no mistake, I will…and I won't be subtle about it. I'll cut your eyes out and crush them right in front of you before I cut out your heart."
"You can't kill the Devil, boy. You can try, but it's impossible."
"And it's impossible for anyone to become the Devil just because they can turn themselves into a Titan. You'd just be an acting representation of someone we won't see until after we die. You'd be nothing but a simple…or rather, a not-so-simple…pretender. And the worst part of that…is that nobody would give half a shit for someone who's just pretending to be what they're not and can never be. Hell, I wouldn't even fear you."
Grausam's smirk soon turned into a frown. There was something about this boy that just…yanked at the nerves of his brain in a way that was…similar to someone he had seen not too long ago. He just couldn't place where right now.
"Who are you, boy?" He found himself asking instead.
"I'm just a member of the Survey Corps," Eren responded; he wasn't going to give this man that murdered his half-brother the satisfaction of learning his identity. "I joined this organization to free the people from life inside the Walls and the fear of the Titans, to get revenge against the Titans for the death of my mother, and see the world beyond this island."
"Who are you?" Grausam asked again, making no hint that he was dying to know.
"I just told you," Eren told him, "I'm just a member of the Survey Corps."
In the darkness, even with the single candlelight, Eren could see Grausam's eyes glowing red like a demon's.
"I'll kill you," he heard him say, but wasn't the least bit intimidated. "Do you hear me? I'll kill you the second the opportunity presents itself."
But Eren stayed silent after hearing that. So long as Grausam was unable to regenerate, he was an invalid, a useless cripple whose only real worth right now was his insane mind full of intelligence that made it possible for him to create his serum.
"I'll kill you," he could still be heard saying in the shadows, now snickering. "I'll kill you… I'll kill all of you… I'm not done yet. Heh-heh-heh… I'm not done yet."
A few feet away from Eren, unseen by Grausam, Mikasa had heard everything…and really wanted to see this man dealt with for good; he just reminded her of her worst memory of the day her childhood had ended at the hands of some people that were just as monstrous as he was, only his inhumanity was more potent than theirs had been when she and Eren had killed them.
"You're all doomed to die," he uttered once more in the dim cell. "You just don't know it yet."
-x-
The residual water from the tidal wave began to lessen, pulling away as what remained of the fleet was completely destroyed, leaving only debris that littered the surface of the shallow waters and receding further back.
I think we'll be lucky that the carriers were so close to the docks that they were spared by the AT-Field, thought Shinji as the debris from the ships that hit the field and tumbled up as high as they could across the giant sphere that resulted from the Eva and the Titans that protected the entire island tumbled back down. Kaede, please, be okay.
Then he noticed something about the War Hammer Titan. While it was slumped against the part of the field expanded by one of the Wall Titans on his left, it seemed completely lifeless, which was unusual, as it was confirmed that Titan Shifters couldn't drown in their Titan bodies or be harmed by most impacts made against them unless sufficient enough to damage their weak spots. And then, he saw something off with its right leg; it looked like a cable or something made of its own flesh, leading right into the water.
What did Kaede say about the War Hammer Titan's greatest aspect? He tried to recall at their moment. It doesn't have to have its possessor inside it to control it? They don't have to be inside it…but it still needs to be attached to them…like how a machine can operate by itself but still requires people to maintain it in case it starts to malfunction. Whoever this member of the Tybur family is that wields the War Hammer must be in the water somewhere!
The Eva reached down at the cable of flesh and pulled it up, revealing that it had been severed, which explained why the Titan body was inactive, but it didn't mean the threat had passed. It only meant the person needed to produce a new War Hammer body to do their bidding.
BOOM! Something burst from the water, sending several hundred gallons of water everywhere while the rest of the debris and water from the wave finally fell back to the ground.
"That little girl…that Titan Shifter," the voice of the War Hammer Titan as it resurfaced in the shallow water in front of the Eva and its previous Titan body, wielding another hammer, "she went and decimated the entire fleet! Not even the Colossal Titan is believed to be capable of such devastation! And you! You helped her to do this! Both of you have blood of thousands on your hands!"
Shinji didn't deny this; knowing that he and Kaede had caused the deaths of thousands of Marleyan soldiers, even though they were in the right to protect the people of Paradis from their fury, was going to follow him to his grave. But he was protecting the people that did nothing wrong to anyone from people that were going to hurt them, so he was justified in his actions along with Kaede.
"We did what we had to do," he responded. "They were going to hurt a lot of people that live here. They have nobody to blame but themselves and their superiors for their own deaths. You declared war on Paradis the day you sent your Titan allies on their front doorstep! When you decide to declare war on someone else, you must be prepared to face the eventual consequences for doing so. Maybe not today, maybe not tomorrow…but you will always pay in the end for the choice you yourself made to unleash violence on others. Nobody that does this is exempt."
Then…the War Hammer Titan swung her hammer towards the Eva. Maybe its smaller size gave it a disadvantage against the purple behemoth, but so long as its possessor still held the power, they were going to unleash pain upon this enemy that was going to burn in Hell!
To be continued…
A/N: Man, I bet none of you were expecting that! One of my most challenging areas of this chapter was the scene where Kaede was falling in the sky after being thrown up by Shinji; I kept thinking of the music they used twelve minutes and thirty-eight seconds into a Blu-ray featurette of Doctor Strange called Across Time And Space and when they showed the Ancient One falling. I also liked where it seemed like Grausam had no fear of the Survey Corps, even after being crippled and his regeneration prevented. It was like the guy was becoming crazier with every passing moment and conversation with others, and how pissed he got when Eren wouldn't tell him his name. Well, onto the next chapter, which is in I have no idea how long, but you can expect to see more results from Kaede's cannonball tidal wave on the fleet. Peace!