Creation began on 03-16-20
Creation ended on 05-24-20
Neon Genesis Evangelion
Hope from the Sky: Penance is Overdue
A/N: But whose?
Although it was still a few miles away from the island, it was a horrible sight to behold. All Kaede could think about the Titans approaching her home was that they were minute compared to the one that surpassed their height by ten extra meters. Her step-grandfather had really crossed the ultimate line most people weren't supposed to cross…and accessed a power that would be intoxicating to lesser minds that possessed no respect or morals on how to best use it. But it was his new Titan form that would, undoubtedly, give her and other people nightmares if he wasn't stopped here and now.
It's different from Eren's Founding Titan form when he took the power and made his dark choice, she thought as she ran faster to the coastal city. It's got flesh and more brutality to it. And worse, it could still be sculpted into any shape he desires. It's like he's accessed the power Ymir Fritz possessed when she dwelled within the Eldian Paths, except she's not around to sculpt his Jaeger Titans. He's the one sculpting them.
When she made it onto the streets of the city, she saw Shinji's Eva by the beach and stopped, removed herself from the Titan body and ran over to where Commander Erwin was.
"How many of those Jaeger Titans are out there?" She asked, panting as she tried to catch her breath, looking out at the enemy Titans.
"I counted over one-hundred-fifty," he told her, "but our main concern is that Titan that may be Grausam Zanki. I've never seen a Titan of that magnitude before. I mean, I have seen a larger one before, but that was in another lifetime that isn't as relevant, anymore. This thing makes your Dark Titan look more like a teenager, even at its greatest height of one-hundred meters."
"Tell me about it. I've seen a Titan comprised of nothing but bone in a dream-like memory, but it was a nightmare because of what it was intended to do in that other life. But this one…probably can't move as quick as the smaller Titans can when motivated to do so."
Suddenly, the fifty-meter Jaeger Titans started to move faster across the water.
"Oh!" Kaede gasped. Shinji, spread that field thing of yours through the Wall Titans!
The Eva rose up and stretched out its arms on the two Wall Titans beside it, grabbing their shoulders and spreading out its AT-Field through them. Its barrier expanded across the island's edges where most of the Wall Titans were positioned.
Then the Jaeger Titans stopped less than eight feet from where the barrier just brushed against their ugly faces.
The largest Titan from afar then released a cackle, no doubt Grausam finding this amusing.
Oh, don't bother with them, Kaede heard his voice in her head, looking around herself and seeing that she was still where she needed to be. They're just living lead, expendable pieces on my new chessboard. Larger-than-life-sized pawns! Fortunately, the original owners of these new Titans have been suspended for a while until I need them to be divided!
"Is he talking to you, too, Ms. Sogen?" Erwin asked Kaede, who nodded in the positive. "But…how is that possible?"
Did you really think that the little bitch was the only one with a taste for such power that she received from these relics of the past that you rely on so much? They heard Grausam ask. I may not have any influence over any Eldians capable of becoming Titans, but I can at least speak with them. Control, while limited to whoever took my later versions of the Jaeger Titan Serum, is still afforded to me. But still, I must ask you meaningless people that dwell on Paradis… Is he truly worth protecting amongst your numbers? You're not the only ones finding themselves plagued with a recent recollection of memories that belong to another lifetime where things transpired differently due to different choices, actions or even people getting dealt with differently from what has transpired in the here and now. So, I ask again… Is he truly worth protecting amongst your numbers? Is…Eren Yeager…worth keeping alive?
"Can somebody tell me what's going on out there?" They heard Shinji ask through the Eva's speakers. "Is he talking to any of you?!"
Kaede grabbed Erwin's radio and spoke to Shinji.
"Grausam is somehow talking to all Subjects of Ymir, Shinji," she revealed to him. "We don't know how he's doing so."
"He probably overdosed on his own serum."
"He asked about Eren Yeager, wanting to know if he's worth protecting. He claims to have recollection of events from the other lifetime, but that could be a falsehood."
"Ask him what he knows. Verify his recollection."
"Shinji…I wish I could hit you for suggesting that right now."
"Kaede, I'd let you knock my teeth out if this were all over."
"I prefer you with all your teeth," she told him, and then focused on Grausam. You claim to have memories of this other lifetime, huh? What happened in the other lifetime, Grausam? What would make you question us about one of our own?
What, indeed, Kaede? You and I both know that he disgraced himself in an unforgivable fashion far worse than anything I could've done before. He destroyed the world beyond Paradis in that other lifetime by releasing the Titans within the Walls. His actions caused the deaths of countless people. How can you continue to keep him around, knowing what he did?
Right now, I could care less about what he did before and focus more on what you have done, which is you making yourself into a monster.
The only real monster is the one that seems like a former member of society that sought to protect his people…and instead condemned them to an inescapable downfall. Heh! You can't forget what he did, can you? The people that thought they knew him can't forgive him for his transgression, can they? Admit it, you know that I'm right. Eren Yeager is no better than the rest of his bloodline, and he's the last one that needs to pay for his arrogance. He, just like his half-brother, Zeke Yeager…must die for their arrogance in thinking their ways were the only ways that mattered.
You killed Zeke Yeager simply because you felt threatened by him, just as I'm sure he felt threatened by you, simply because he couldn't offer a more beneficial way for Marley to exploit the Titans back then. But Eren… His fate will be decided by the ruling body of Paradis, not by a deranged lunatic that received memories of another lifetime that cannot happen because everything has changed. Those that still feel threatened by what they witnessed…are those that can't let go of what they can no longer fear happening. And what, were you even alive in that other lifetime? We both probably died before Eren Yeager even became a Titan Shifter, but we'll never know for sure, because nobody's allowed to know everything.
You and I both know that is far from the truth. Unlike everyone else, we're the only ones that can know all. We've gone beyond the past Titan Shifters and are more evolved. But unlike you, I embrace the power my Titan has unlocked for me…and I have you to thank for that.
What are you talking about?
I may not possess the same degree of power as you do, but at least I can put to use what I can achieve, such as speaking to all Subjects of Ymir. I don't need to hear everything from them, but they can hear everything from me. Does Eren Yeager, the last of the former Attack Titan inheritors and the former outside inheritor of the former Founding Titan…deserve to live after what he did to all of you in the other lifetime? You all know what he was capable of and how far he went. He ruined your future of freedom from oppression. A few of you were led to side with him because of his beliefs in a better future. Some of you had your future cut short because he made decisions behind your backs in favor of carrying out his will. Most of you even lost friends and family because of his actions. It's true, none of this has happened yet and can't repeat itself because things have changed…but can you forgive him for what he did to each of you when he had the power to help you…and instead twisted your faith in him to his own ends? I know I wouldn't trust him as far as I could tolerate him. What about you…Sasha Blouse?
This surprised Kaede to hear him ask a specific person among countless people either on or off the island, which implied that he really was able to reach out to all Subjects of Ymir, no matter where they were.
He invaded Marley and intentionally attacked the people, causing countless casualties, including your own death at a result of a bullet to the chest. He didn't even bat an eyelash at your passing. What about you, Levi Ackerman? He allowed his half-brother to poison your comrades with his Titan spinal fluid, turning them into mindless Titans that he unleashed upon you, forcing you to kill them. How you, Reiner Braun? He endangered your family in a twisted attempt to even the suffering you, Bertolt Hoover and Annie Leonhart caused when you attacked Wall Maria five years ago, and that was mainly because in that other lifetime, his own mother ended up being eaten instead of dying a slow and painful death. He didn't even flinch when turned into the forgotten Attack Titan and devastated your segregated town. People, who exactly is the greater monster you know that exists? The one known as Grausam Zanki, the keeper of the Akuma Titan, a man that found the means to create Titans with intelligence without the shortened lifespans…or Eren Yeager, the former holder of the former Attack and Founding Titans that destroyed your hopes for peace and freedom in one other lifetime because he couldn't control his emotions or his temper? I ask you to decide…because I already know who's worse. It's true, I am a monster. I won't deny it…but the same is true with him…when you can't overlook his actions. Bad decisions and indecisions make for painful outcomes.
-x-
With her hands shaking on the table on the ship they were in, Sasha became angry over reiterated fact that in at least one other lifetime, Eren had caused her death because of his arrogance and stupidity.
"Sasha," went Armin, trying to calm her down. "Sasha, that man's a monster. Even if what he says is true, none of that matters, anymore."
"I still died because of him!" She yelled. "What the Hell is his problem?!"
What is your friend's problem indeed, Armin Arlert? He heard Grausam's voice say to him. Isn't Eren Yeager your friend? Didn't he betray you one time? Didn't you once possess the power of the Colossal Titan when he severed his bonds with you and Mikasa? And he claimed the memories of Bertolt had shaped you into an echo of him? How treacherous is that?
Even Armin had to admit that in that other lifetime, Eren had managed to screw things over by tearing down their social bonds before he tore the Walls down.
-x-
Everyone was looking at Eren like he had become the bad guy all over again, as if questioning his behavior after Grausam got inside their heads and reiterated what he had done.
"Hey, I can't do any of that now," he tried to defend himself. "I don't have the power of the Titans, anymore! I'm just a regular guy!"
"That doesn't change the fact that you betrayed us at least once," said Levi to him, "and you have a severe tendency to lack restraint in many of your decisions. So eager to do as you will against a presumed enemy…and reluctant to see other alternatives in handling the situation. Still, we're not allowed to play executioner, no matter how much contempt we have towards you right now. That's for Historia and her advisors to decide."
Even though he was being permitted to continue breathing, Eren was probably only living on borrowed time until his fate was decided. Execution or imprisonment were his most likely fates. If he was lucky, he would probably face the rest of his life behind bars…or less, depending on whether or not fate was unkind to him.
-x-
The massive Jaeger Titan that was Grausam then did something that Shinji found unusual. It looked like it was…expanding on its left and right side, growing large portions that resembled…cannon apparatuses.
"This is a whole new level of weird here," he uttered.
Suddenly…
BOOM! The pieces the Titan grew on its body started firing explosives at the expended AT-Field, trying to break through.
"When the Hell did he learn to do that?!" He wanted to know.
Down below, Erwin and Kaede were surprised to see Grausam's Titan demonstrating abilities that were new and unlike what the Nine Titans were believed to be capable of.
"I don't suppose you can do what he's doing, can you?" Erwin asked her.
"I never tried to create weapons like that," Kaede revealed; throughout the training sessions Hange Zoe had her perform to test out her Titan abilities, the creation of projectile weapons was not among the abilities she exhibited. "I could throw rocks in a scattershot and was able to produce two spears, but that was before we defeated the War Hammer Titan during the second failed invasion by Marley."
The projectiles Grausam's Titan shot at the Eva and the Wall Titans kept coming and kept failing to penetrate the expanded AT-Field. If Grausam was trying to tear down a barrier that proved to be very effective against Titans, he was failing.
"Shinji, how long can you last with your Eva's field being expanded?" Erwin asked Shinji.
"Until the Eva runs out of power," he explained, "which won't happen for over a month."
"Shinji, I don't think Grausam's going to waste his time and ours with hammering at your field if he knows he can't break it."
"Whatever he does, it can't be any more monstrous as what he's done already."
But Erwin got the impression that Grausam wasn't done being monstrous. Not by a long shot.
BURST! Something shot up into the air from behind the massive Titan.
It was a…Titan. A regular-sized Titan of fifteen-meters with dark skin. The Titan shook its head and limbs, and Shinji saw that it resembled the Titan form that Grausam usually took.
"Oh, shit," he gasped, as the AT-Field being expanded through the Wall Titans wasn't covering the entire island like the last time it was attacked.
If the Titan was Grausam's, meaning the bigger Jaeger Titan that he had initially become was like some empty shell, then it was likely that he was exhibiting abilities that were a lot greater than they were before he was buried in Titania's Abyss.
"RRRRRRRRAAAAAURGH!" The Jaeger Titans all shrieked as they moved closer and brushed against the invisible barrier, looking like they were smashing their faces against a wall.
"Shinji, keep these Titans from getting through," Erwin ordered as he and Kaede ran to investigate the Titan that did manage to get onto the island.
"Yes, sir," he responded, noticing that the face of the Titan in front of his Eva started to resemble his father's, down to the cold, soulless stare. "Ugh!"
Even as a Titan, Gendo (if this Jaeger Titan was indeed him) was a monstrous person that could no longer hide his cruel and immoral behavior towards others.
-x-
Crash! The Titan had impacted onto the ground in between Paradius City and the land near the former Wall Maria…and emerged from the crater.
"Aaaurgh!" The Akuma Titan groaned as he stood up and observed his surroundings. "I am here…and those behind are left to waste their time trying to get through that wall I couldn't get through back in Liberio."
Within the Akuma Titan, surrounded by a shell of Titan flesh, Grausam Zanki inhaled through his nose and exhaled out his mouth. He was impressed further by his newfound power to control the Jaeger Titans he produced from his serum. While it was limited to his latest subjects, they would suffice until he no longer needed them. There was no splitting headache, no sense of distracted focus, not even a feeling of being displaced. His control was…refined.
"Where are you, Kaede?" He wondered aloud through his Titan mouth.
-x-
"If that was a Titan that got through the coastal defense, what do we do?" Jean asked Levi as they saw the object in the sky crash somewhere in the unclaimed wilderness between the coastal city and the former districts.
"First, we deal with Yeager," he told them, just wanting to put Eren someplace where he could be dealt with later, "then we do away with this Titan."
He looked at Mikasa and sighed.
"Can I trust you to relocate Eren back to Paradius while the rest of us go deal with the Titan?" He asked her.
"You can," she responded; just making sure that Eren was in her sights meant that he couldn't get away from her.
The rest of the Survey Corps group left to investigate the Titan that was most likely an enemy, and Mikasa was left with insuring Eren was taken to Paradius.
"Mikasa, I…" Eren spoke, but she silenced him.
"We need to go back to the city now," she told him and pushed him towards the southern edge where the city was. "If that was Grausam Zanki, he will most likely try to kill you, and I can't have that on my conscience."
Between looking for him after finding out some unpleasant things about a previous lifetime that was irrelevant and having to deal with a threat from people that were after Shinji and Kaede more than the rest of them on Paradis, nobody was looking to be distracted further by anything Eren either did or didn't do that didn't matter right now. The former Titan Shifter's fate would be decided at another time after this matter with this SEELE group and Grausam was over. For now, Mikasa was just relieved to have found Eren and wasn't up to talking about what he felt needed to be done, for better or for worse. Even if in some previous lifetime where her father's side of her family was bound to serve someone they viewed as someone that needed to be protected was true in some sense, she wasn't that person…and refused to believe in such a belief.
-x-
He could've headed for a village or a district that had been housed by the former Wall Maria, but instead Grausam chose to head towards the coastal city. The reason being that Kaede was there…and she was the only threat to him and his vengeance upon her. Other people could try and stop him, but he had evolved beyond them due to his Titan power.
Stop, he heard his Titan self say to him.
"Why?" He asked him.
You're about to have unwanted company in the form of those Survey Corps fools. Behind you to the west.
Grausam turned the Titan body around to look to the west, looking into the distance and seeing those foolish youngsters that threw their lives away when the Titans were the presumed enemies of the human race.
"I guess I can use them to break in my power," he decided, willing his Titan body to generate hardened portions of flesh on its upper torso, wrists and knees. "Okay, you lousy, wannabe heroes…come and face your doom."
-x-
Evacuating to the underground shelter was one thing, but not that many people expected to see the sight of large Titans being prevented from getting into the coastal city. They didn't even expect to see a Titan so large that it made the former sixty-meter Colossal Titan, the fifty-meter Wall Titans and the Dark Titan when at her augmented height of one-hundred meters seem like babies or toddlers.
"That thing's monstrous," Christine and Sig heard one of their neighbors say as they all went down the entrance to the underground shelter.
"Yes, it is," Sig agreed with them; if that big Titan was his father, he had managed to scare the civilians with his mere presence.
"Sig?" Christine questioned, and he turned to face her, her expression that of concern more than fear. "Are you alright?"
"Just wondering how the military will deal with them if they can through the primary defense line," he told her; for now, it looked like Shinji and his Evangelion were keeping these enemy Titans from storming onto the city.
"They'll find a way," she assured him.
-x-
"…Yeah, that's definitely Grausam Zanki's Titan," Jean expressed, looking through a pair of binoculars. "He's on some twisted crack or something that upped his aesthetics."
"All we have are our ODM gear and small capsules of Ms. Sogen's Dark Titan spinal fluid," Petra informed of their present inventory; because they usually dealt with regular Titans, they were armed lightly, but with Grausam Zanki's brief history as a Titan Shifter with a unique reaction to Kaede's Titan spinal fluid, there was little they could do to actually harm this old guy that despised his own people. "None of this will stop him."
Levi then held up one of the small capsules of the spinal fluid and thought back to what had been reported the last time the Akuma Titan was exposed to the fluid. If they went and exposed him all over again and he just reacted the same way he did the last time, they would just have the same problem of ineffective methods. And with their ultrahard steel blades effectively useless against the hardened flesh of Titans, they'd have better odds using their aircraft against the Akuma Titan.
"Why is he just standing there?" Floch questioned.
"He's waiting for us to make the first move," Levi revealed, and then recalled a memory of a different tactic that Erwin had used against the Beast Titan when they had to reclaim Wall Maria. "Do we have any flares?"
"Yeah, ten of them," Petra explained.
"Can we modify them with acoustics?"
"What did you have in mind?"
"Annoying his eyes and ears."
-x-
Taking their positions on the rooftops of the tallest skyscrapers in the city, Dot Pixis and the Garrison members present watched in waiting as Shinji and the Eva continued to keep the enemy Titans from getting onto the island and tearing down the city with their arms and legs. But they knew that the only way this could end was for one side to either give up or give out…and their reinforcements from the young man's world would be until who-knew-how long to show.
And not a single one of these new Jaeger Titans is attractive, Dot thought as he looked at the Titans that were kept from getting through that barrier the Eva erected. Why is the Dark Titan the only one that has looks, smarts and guts to fight against an enemy?
Each of the Jaeger Titans continued to press their faces against the barrier, but they weren't making much progress…until they stopped and backed away.
"What are they up to now?" Dot wondered.
Each of the Jaeger Titans looked at one another and backed further away from the coastal city.
Inside the Eva, Shinji, not liking this shift in their behavior, knew it was too soon to lower the AT-Field while they were a threat.
"Third Child," they heard the Jaeger Titan that resembled Gendo utter, "surrender immediately…or we will kill everyone on this island."
"You'll kill everyone no matter what I do," Shinji responded, "so I won't surrender and have their deaths on my conscience. And you'll kill me along with them, anyway."
Each Jaeger Titan's face began to reshape into various facial styles, each representing the men and women that had taken the Jaeger Serum.
"You can't stay in that Eva forever, boy," the Jaeger Titan further away from Gendo's Titan expressed, looking like the guy with the visor, only with white eyes, told Shinji.
"And you people can't stay in those Titan bodies forever, either," Shinji responded. "Titans Shifters that try to do so risk getting absorbed into their Titans and become mindless monsters. How long can you stay in those Titans? An hour? Five hours? A day? A week? However long you can stay in them, you're still at risk of getting eaten by them…and when you do, when you find yourself losing yourself to the monsters you chose to unleash…just remember that you were warned about the deal you chose to make with the man behind the Akuma Titan."
"And how long can you stand to be inside that Eva without food? The last anyone ever heard, you mediocre pilots can't stay inside them for more than sixteen hours. The stress it must put on your spine and nervous system."
"I've gotten used to it while I'm living here."
"And all because you found new masters to serve…that you prefer over the ones you turned away from."
"No one can serve two masters or more…and the people on this island…appreciate me more than one of you ever could for doing something so extreme and possibly degenerating. And they asked for my help. They didn't force me like he did back then. All you sought out was control over those that wanted nothing to do with your agendas…and they backfired on you and blew up in your faces."
"No, your betrayal ruined everything," Gendo's Titan expressed.
"And now you want to kill me because you can't have everything you want, including me as a pawn for your twisted schemes."
"Because you don't deserve the life you have here, including that girl that gave you her heart."
"You're the ones making this personal, Father."
"It became personal the day you refused to return to NERV."
"And coming from you, it sounds more like it was personal before I even showed up that day. If you want to wage a war against the people here, that's your downfall, but you will fail. In the end, you will always fail. I hope each and every last one of you gets reduced to withered sacks of brittle bones and dried organs."
The Jaeger Titans all frowned at the Eva, but didn't try to approach it because of the AT-Field.
"Way to infuriate them, young Ikari," went Dot in applause for the young man's refusal to stand down to these people that were here to harm them. "Very impressive."
-x-
Beep! Shinji was receiving a transmission from someone.
"Hey, Third," he heard Asuka's voice on the intercom, "up in the air like a comet."
The Eva looked up and saw something in the air, probably close to the stratosphere. It looked almost like a falling star…until it broke apart to reveal something new that Shinji hadn't seen before: An Evangelion unit, different from Units-00 and 02, but painted red like the Production Model Eva had been, albeit dully, carrying something on its back that looked like a jetpack.
"What is that on your back?" He asked her.
"Untested S-Type equipment," she answered, and the jetpack ignited, expelling a stream of white fire behind the Eva, sending it flying, armed with a rifle. "So, these are the Titans that that madman that was banished helped to make? Why does one of them look like your old man?"
"Because it is my old man. The Titans all standing in the water away from the coast are all members of SEELE. They're the enemy. That big one is Grausam Zanki."
"Gott im Himmel, that one's a monster."
The flying Eva aimed the rifle and pulled the trigger, firing at the Jaeger Titans.
"Please, tell me you're not the only one NERV sent to help," Shinji needed to know.
"Unit-00 is en route," they heard Rei's voice.
-x-
Standing in front of the portal, Unit-00, equipped with a jetpack and a replica of the Spear of Longinus, prepared to jump in. It had been decided that sending Unit-02 in alone wouldn't suffice, so sending in Unit-00 was also a necessity.
"Rei, be careful over there," Misato told her.
"Yes, Major Katsuragi," she responded, and then willed the blue Eva to leap into the portal, leaving this dimension and entering the other dimension that Shinji had gotten displaced in.
-x-
Grausam was taken by surprise when these youngsters fired their signal flares at him. Not only were they obscuring his vision, but they were loud enough to hurt his ears. His human ears, so much so that he had to move his arms within his Titan to cover them to muffle the noise.
"Aaaaauurgh!" He yelled within his Titan.
But his Titan…his Titan reacted differently than he had. It hardened its entire head and closed off the ears to silence the world around it. And then, it hardened its arms and slammed them onto the ground, creating a tremor that shook the earth.
The Survey Corps members up against him fell as there were no trees nearby to use their ODM gear to maneuver on or around.
"Son of a…" Jean grunted as he tried to get back up.
"I'm about to fire another flare at… Watch out, Levi!" Petra yelled.
Levi looked up ahead…and was nearly attacked by a piece of hardened Titan flesh that was thrown at him.
Slice! It was almost like shaped like a jagged triangle the size of a small child, and it was hurled at him with remarkable speed, but it missed his neck and left arm by mere inches, instead only causing a minor cut to the left side of his waist.
"Damn!" He cursed as he fell to the ground.
The Akuma Titan was generating fragments of hardened flesh to throw at these people.
"I can't hear you, but I can still see you!" It yelled, throwing more fragments at them, watching them try to dodge. "I'd love to stay and continue your torment, but there's only two of you that should be disposed of before the rest of you get dealt with…and neither of you are here right now! Oh, well, as I have come to realize during my time in Titania's Abyss, penance is overdue, and we all have a price to pay for what we've done."
Inside, Grausam smiled as his Titan threw the last fragments of hardened flesh at them and walked away towards the coastal city. He had already wasted too much of his time messing with these young people that used to throw their lives away every time when they were fighting Titans without so much as one independent thought that had nothing to do with being trapped in a Titan body, and none of these people had anything to do with satisfying his desire for revenge. The sooner he found Kaede and killed her, the better…and then he'd do away with the last of the Yeager bloodline because the sons of Grisha Yeager were just disgraces that couldn't see the future without condemning the past, or embracing the past to insure the future. He could still taste the blood from Zeke Yeager in his mouth…and wanted to watch as Eren Yeager become nothing more than a bad memory for everyone to forget, even if he hadn't been around the previous time that bastard up and unleashed something that was unrealistic and devoid of any real hope for anyone.
"He's no longer a threat, but he doesn't deserve to continue breathing," he told himself. "His penance is long overdue."
To be continued…
A/N: I'm continuously holding off on the suffering I want to see Grausam implement on everyone when he does do half of what he came back to. But now he's exhibiting abilities similar to some of the Nine Titans, but they may as well be mockeries of what those of the past before him had done and what Kaede has demonstrated from time to time. How do you think things are going to play out in the next chapter?
Omake (Jeepers Creepers 3-influenced)
Grausam Zanki, now that he had regenerated from his last encounter with that boyfriend of Kaede's and his one-hundred-meter-tall armored behemoth, entered the ruins of Shiganshina to find the girl that was recovering from overuse of her Titan power while leaving the Eldians left to fend for themselves. But as he looked through the eyes of his Akuma Titan, he saw that there weren't any people within any of the undamaged buildings, not even the designated shelters. Where the Hell were they?
Flap. A large piece of tarp fluttering in the cold wind caught his attention as he turned to a broken building where the tarp was hanging.
What is this? He wondered as his Titan grabbed the tarp and found some letters painted on it. What?!
"THE DARK TITAN HAS RECOVERED AND WILL DESTROY YOU", the tarp read, indicating that Kaede had recovered from her overuse of her power and was now prepared to help the Survey Corps and Garrison come after him.
No! He yelled within his mind; taking out his step-granddaughter during this period of weakness had been his one and only chance to be rid of her forever, but now that she has regained her full health, the odds were not in his favor.
"Rrrrrrrrrrraaaaaurgh!" The Akuma Titan roared in the night, enraged by the fact that the only person that was a threat to him was out there, at this very moment, preparing to face him at a later time…and possibly end him.