"Challenges are what make life interesting; overcoming them is what makes life meaningful."

Joshua J. Marine

Chapter 20: Test Your Might

"So when they finally caught up to me, I shifted my attention to fighting all of them. A lot of Eldians were turned into Titans, but only for a minute. The power left every Eldian when... when Mikasa killed me."

"..."

Ymir sat in silence as Eren finished the long story of his adventures on Paradis. When she last saw him there, Ymir learned that Eren had the strength to protect his friends, even Historia. But the power to fulfill a prophecy older than her, the power to make the world a stomping ground... this was something Ymir could never imagine the one person to do that would be Eren Yeager. His will was strong, but she never knew Eren himself was just as strong. This realization led to one question.

"So... it was all just an act?" Ymir asked. "To make Eldians the heroes?"

"And make me the Devil," Eren answered. "And, well... I don't think an act is the right word."

"..."

Eren saw that Ymir was paying attention, so he explained further. "Being out there, beyond the walls... I took the world's freedom to achieve my own. Even though I knew I was going to die, there was never a time where I felt as free than I did on that day. It was everything I ever wanted."

Ymir nodded in understanding. "So that's why he chose you, huh? You have the power to do it all again?"

"I have the power to stop Salem," Eren reiterated. "But I'm not going to make another Rumbling." Eren turned and smiled to Cinder, who was sitting on a bed next to him. "Fighting for my friends takes something different. Something better." Cinder smiled back at him as she moved her hair from her eye. "Besides..." Eren turned back to Ymir. "I like Remnant. Not everything about it, but I don't think I could have asked for a better home."

"By 'not everything', do you mean the Grimm?" Ymir asked. "Salem, too?"

"Pretty much. And I'm sure Winter knows a couple of other things I'm not a fan of."

"What do you-?" Ymir then remembered how she met Eren once again, what they were doing when Atlas came to Mistral. "Oh. Right. But it's just Salem we're after, right?"

"Atlas isn't hurting anyone right now," said Cinder. "They're just looking out for themselves. We can live with that... to an extent."

"And you're okay with him, by the way?" Ymir asked when she pointed at Eren. "After everything he just said?"

"I am," Cinder replied as she locked her eyes on Winter. "Eren did what he did, but he never wanted to say he was better than Marley. He never wanted to be a king or a tyrant. Atlas, on the other hand, is full of people who think they're on top when they see something to look down on." Cinder looked back to Eren with a smile. "And there's no such thing as freedom without him."

Eren nodded. "Thanks, Cinder," he said as he turned back to Ymir. "She's right, you know. I know what I am, I know what I've done. What about you?" Eren then walked away, heading outside the Dark Wing with Cinder following.

"The hell did I do?" Ymir asked. "You think I care about Atlas?"

Cinder turned back to Ymir. "He wasn't talking to you," she calmly said before rejoining Eren, leaving Ymir to lay down on the bed she was sitting down on.

"Damn," she said out loud as she shut her eyes. "And I thought him being a Titan screwed him up."

"I told you he was dangerous."

Ymir opened her eyes as she sat up. "Oh, there you are," she said. "Those two seconds of quiet were fun."

"You shouldn't be joking," Winter replied internally.

"Sorry for trying to lighten the mood." Ymir moved upwards. "It's not every day when you find out you're right next to someone who had the whole world at his fingertips and chose to trample it."

"Like I said, Eren is dangerous. We can't possibly trust him, let alone-"

"Whoa, whoa, trust? Who said anything about trust? I'm just gonna help him, not lay my life for him. Besides..." Ymir laid back down. "He's got one enemy, not the entire world. And from what we saw back there, that bitch deserves a good beating."

"Don't talk about what we saw."

The events from both the real world and the vision from Darkness still upset Winter more than Ymir, or anyone else, could ever know. Ymir knew it was a sensitive topic, but she wasn't afraid to talk about it like Winter was. "Ease up, Winter," she said calmly. "It could be worse."

"Could be worse?!" Winter shouted. "She! Destroyed! My home! Killed my sister and everyone there! I have nothing, Ymir! No, you know what?! Tell me! How could it possibly be worse?!"

While Winter was ready to explode, Ymir remained as cool as a cucumber. "Well, she didn't destroy your home," she replied. "It was just a dream, you know. Far as we know, you're family's still sitting pretty on the rock above the rest of the world." Ymir then chuckled. "I guess those two weren't too far off, huh?"

"You don't know what you're talking about."

"I dunno, you all tried to burn Eren's home once just to get something you wanted. Apparently, the last people to try that ended up being crushed."

"..."

"And Eren's girlfriend seemed as serious as she was pretty." Ymir chuckled again. "And she's very pretty." She then burst out laughing.

"Will you stop thinking like that? It's making me sick."

"Okay, okay." Ymir stood up. "Maybe this will make you feel better; I think we can agree that Eren's got balls to do all of this and everything else."

"Please stop."

Ymir scuffed. "You're hopeless, Schnee." She began to walk towards the exit, passing the unconscious young girl Eren and his friends had successfully rescued.

"We should keep an eye on her when she wakes up," said Winter. "She may be able to help us."

"Ah, you're still thinking," Ymir noted. "Guess you're up to speed now, huh?"

"I have to be."

"Yeah, no arguments there." Ymir stepped outside to see everyone doing their own thing. Mercury was with Emerald, looking over one of her weapons. Ren was meditating while Nora was fixing the ponytail he had tied behind his head. And Eren was joining Ren in his meditation while Cinder was looking over Watts' Scroll.

"Let me out," Winter demanded. "I have a few things to say."

"What's the magic word?" Ymir asked sarcastically, unresponsive to an order like that.

"Please," Winter relented.

"Atta girl."

Ymir gave up her control over Winter's body and let the Schnee take over. Her first idea was to walk over to Cinder, who saw that she had company. "What up, buttercup?" Cinder asked as she put away the Scroll.

"Brutal, honest, and she's even got a sense of humor," Ymir noted. "I like her."

Winter pretended not to hear Ymir's thoughts when she finally spoke. "Since it seems we are on the same side, for now, I was hoping to ask Eren what our plans for the next step are," she said.

Cinder looked around at her friends, who were each doing their own thing. "Oh, we're doing it," she said calmly. She then looked down at the Scroll.

Winter repeated Cinder's earlier action and looked back to her. "You... have to be joking."

Cinder looked up with a sigh. "Look, Schnee-"

"My name is Winter."

"Fine. Look, Winter, we all need a little R and R after everything." Cinder pointed her finger at everyone around her. "Emerald broke one of her guns after all those Grimm, Mercury needs some practice with his Titan before taking it back to Salem, Nora and Ren are still tired after fighting the punching bag that punches back, and Eren's the one thinking over everything." Cinder looked back to Winter. "And I'm trying to see what else that guy's Scroll can show us." She then looked over Winter's ripped clothes and loose hair. "You're looking worse for wear yourself."

"I'll like it if she does," Ymir joked.

Winter once again ignored the joke and continued to talk to Cinder. "I'm fine," she replied.

"Fine or not, we're not going anywhere or doing anything until we all talk it over. So why don't you-?"

"Don't you mean until Eren gives you your orders?"

Cinder scuffed. "No," she replied. "Once I see what this Scroll has and once Eren has an idea, we're going to share it with everyone. And then we'll make a plan together."

A sense of unease washed over Winter. Before her apparently stood humanity's hope against the Grimm, and they were all pathetic. They may be warriors and Titans, but anyone on Remnant could fight Grimm once they were shown how. Stopping Salem would require something more, something that these children couldn't provide. A mission like this required Huntsmen and the Atlas military, both of which were ignored by everyone's stubborn nature.

"You sure that's going to work?"

Winter walked away from Cinder and finally paid attention to the voice in her head. "I'm positive," she said. "You saw how all of us tried to fight Salem and her forces. Look where we are now."

"And you saw how Atlas tried to fight her too," Ymir argued. "Look what happened to them."

"Whatever happened to that being a dream?" Winter didn't wait for a response when she continued to explain her logic. "The... god, for lack of a better word, said people would fail if they didn't fight with Eren. So I say Eren fights with Atlas."

"There's no way Eren will work for those people."

"Wasn't he a soldier? Like you?"

"He and I enlisted, he didn't-"

"Then I'll see to it he joins the Atlas military. We need the technology and brains behind it all if we're going to win this."

"Were you listening to what Eren told us? There's no way he would be lying about crushing Marley and the world for what happened on Paradis."

Winter was indeed listening to what Eren said about the war between Marley and Paradis. She was given hints about how rotten and arrogant the nation was from what Ymir and Eren told her. However, the revelation wasn't enough to shake the Atlesian's resolve. "If the nation of Marley was as bad as he said it was, then I can guarantee Atlas is nothing like it," Winter argued with confidence. "And I'm going to convince him today. With or without your help."

"...Don't say I didn't warn you."


"Wow. I don't think I've ever seen you work this fast."

"You'd be surprised what else I can do pretty fast."

"Is that really necessary?"

"Yep."

Emerald groaned as she watched Mercury fix one of her weapons in silence. He had been working on the broken chain since they decided to step out of the car, and he had made remarkable progress. Thief's Respite was one weapon that Mercury didn't create, one that he had no previous understanding of the firing mechanisms or moving sickles. Emerald didn't understand too much of them either, given that she stole them from a Huntsman who tried to stop her from robbing a mansion in Vale. The reason for this failure was Emerald's Semblance, which also contributed to stealing the weapons.

"I gotta say though, these are really cool weapons," said Mercury, who was looking at the undamaged weapon for reference in order to reconstruct the other weapon. "What made you keep them after you stole them? I know someone who would pay a few hundred for something like this."

"I dunno," Emerald confessed. "They were my color, y'know? And they got me out of a jam once. Who's to say they couldn't do it again?"

"True, true."

Mercury continued to look back and forth between the weapons as he quickly tightened multiple screws to put the metal together. Even though the young craftsman was working quickly, he refused to break a sweat. His hands were growing sore, but his spirit was far from broken. It was almost as if there was some kind of force or some kind of will that made Mercury work quickly without relenting.

"Jeez, what's your hurry?" Emerald asked. "None of us are going anywhere."

"Speak for yourself," Mercury replied. "I'm going outside the camp once I'm done."

"Why, are you hunting?"

"No, I'm gonna be training." Mercury looked back to Emerald with a smile. "I finally did it, Em."

"Did what?"

Mercury sprang off his seat and landed on his feet. "I became a Titan! I got what I wanted outta this fight and we're just getting started!"

Emerald mentally sighed as she remembered what had happened to Mercury. She was glad to see that he was okay, but the circumstances of him inheriting a Titan weren't something to look fondly on. She couldn't understand as to how he could still be himself when he came so close to dying. One would think he would need time to process a near-death experience, that he wouldn't be himself for a while. And yet the boy hadn't changed a bit, for better or worse. Emerald began to see that she was understanding Mercury less than she did the day she met him.

"Oh, yeah! How was it?!"

Mercury and Emerald looked at the source of the question to see Nora standing next to him with a smile. Cinder had joined her as well, curious as to how the transformation went. "How was being a Titan?" she asked again. "What did it feel like?"

"What did it feel like?" Mercury set down his tools and focused on the audience he had acquired for himself. "It was... really trippy and disorienting, if I'm being honest."

"Oh? How so?" Cinder asked, leaning against Nora's shoulder. She was soon joined by Ren, who was curious to learn more about his friend's experiences in a Titan's body. Eren simply continued to meditate.

"My whole body felt like it was stuck inside a hot and soft vice," Mercury confessed as the memories returned to him. "But I was fully capable of movement." With a cocky smile, he picked up a screwdriver and began to spin it between his fingers. "At first, there were times where I felt like I was going to trip over myself. I kept confusing my human body with my Titan body, sending all sorts of mixed signals and almost messing up my control."

"I see," Ren muttered, nodding in agreement. "Nora and I had a similar experience when we started training our Titans."

"Luckily, I managed to rein it in, if only temporarily, and once I did I felt... so empowered." Mercury let out an awed breath. "Like I could blow up the whole goddamn world and no one would be able to touch me."

"I'll say!" Nora cheered as she plopped down next to Mercury, startling him for a moment. "You were like a speed demon out there! Punching and clawing all those Grimm in your way, then zoom!" Nora made excited gestures with her arms as she recounted the memory of seeing her friend become a Titan. Suddenly, she gasped. "Oh! We could call it that! The Zoom Titan!"

Everyone looked at Nora, brows raised. Cinder was the one who finally spoke. "The... Zoom Titan?"

"If the Titan had sniper scopes for eyes, maybe," Emerald confessed. "But for speed? Yeah... that name doesn't really sound right."

"What? Oh come on!" Nora whined, slumping over dramatically. "Okay, how about the Speed-Demon Titan?"

"Too long," Cinder, Emerald and Mercury said in unison.

"The Soaring Titan?"

"That sounds too close to Eren's weapons," Ren chimed in. "How about... Quicksilver?"

"Oh, that's good," said Mercury. "But it's taken."

"Uh, I..." Nora stammered, trying to come up with something. "Flash... step?"

"I don't thin-Wait a second." Mercury paused and looked up at Nora. "What was that last one?"

"Flashstep," Nora repeated.

"Flashstep... the Flashstep Titan," Mercury repeated, testing the name out. "Hm... not terrible. I think I'll give it a shot."

"Woo-hoo! Alright! Another one for Nora!"

"Another? What was the other one?" Emerald asked.

"My Titan!" Nora smiled as she turned to Emerald. "I thought of the name for it in that dream!"

"Dream? What dream?"

"When Eren gave me and Ren our Titans, I had this really weird dream. I was stuck in this freaky electric storm!"

"I too had a strange dream like Nora," Ren explained. "One minute I was on a trail with my horse, and then I was stuck inside a deathly looking forest." The young man shivered a little at the thought of that place. "It was a little unnerving, I still can't explain why I had a vision like that one."

"I was scared at first too," Nora confessed. "But the coolest part was that I got to see my Titan! It showed me what I can do with lightning, so I called it the Electro Titan!"

"Wait, seriously?" Emerald asked as she looked wide-eyed at Nora. She looked at Ren for confirmation, and he nodded. "Wow, that must've been something."

"Heck yeah, it was! It was like one of those born-again things, ya know?" Nora turned to Mercury. "Hey Merc, did you have... one... too?" Nora suddenly lost her smile and her excitement died down as she looked over at Mercury. Cinder, Emerald and Ren looked over and became as worried as Nora.

Mercury was hunched over at the table, his screwdriver was dropped and forgotten. His face had a haunted look, his eyes were unfocused and he was breathing shaky. His hands were flexing as if he was going to clench them into fists, but he was actively stopping himself from doing so.

"Mercury?" Cinder softly called to him. "Mercury, are you okay?" She reached out and put a hand on his shoulder and was surprised when Mercury jumped. He simply stared at Cinder, as if he was surprised she was speaking to him.

"...Yeah. Yeah, I'm fine." Mercury picked up his screwdriver and turned around.

"Fine?" Emerald raised an eyebrow. "Merc, you look like you're about to panic, what's-?"

"I said I'm fine, okay?!" Mercury snapped, his face set in a scowl. Everyone jumped back in surprise. Mercury took in a few deep breaths before suddenly walking away. "I'll be... somewhere else," was all he said.

Everyone looked at the retreating Mercury's back. Confusion and concern were both present in their minds. "I'll go after him," Cinder said.


Mercury didn't know how long he was walking. A few seconds? A few minutes? He honestly didn't know. His heart was racing like he ran a marathon, and his mind was such a blur that he had lost track.

But the one thing he could focus on was what Nora had said; the dream of the Titan.

*BAM*

"Gah!" Mercury shouted, instinctively whirling around and threw a punch at the invisible noise. He cursed colorfully as his fist impacted with a tree, causing the bark to break and his knuckles to split.

Mercury took a deep breath. One hand gripped his hair as he stared at the other, watching as steam emanated from his palm after black blood covered the minor injury. The sight caused him to calm down, as he believed the black blood to be one part cool, one part freaky, and one part strange. Eren had explained that due to the Titans they possess being part Grimm in nature, his human body adopted similar traits such as his blood going from red to black and his skin becoming slightly paler.

Well, he was already pale to begin with, so it didn't really make a difference to him.

"Mercury."

Mercury turned at the sound of his name to see Cinder walking towards him. He groaned under his breath as he tried to play off the reason for storming off. "Fixing the weapon got boring," he said. "I'm fine."

"Yes, fine," Cinder repeated. "So you decided to go and storm away from camp before preceding to punch a tree so hard you broke it and a part of your hand." The snark and sarcasm dripping from her voice was potent enough that it could easily be detected a mile away. Mercury simply scoffed as he looked away, but Cinder didn't give up. "Mercury... what's wrong?"

"..."

Mercury was about to speak, but was quickly cut off. "And don't say it isn't anything!" Cinder begged. "I've seen you pull all kinds of crap back home, but I never saw you on the verge of a panic attack." Cinder stepped forward, resting a comforting hand on his shoulder. "Please... you can tell me."

"..."

"..."

The shared silence gave Cinder a reason to give up and simply give Mercury some space, but he was the first to break the silence and cause her to stay after all. "...You remember when Nora was talking about seeing a vision? When she got her Titan?"

"Well, it just happened," Cinder replied. "And then she asked you if-" Cinder paused as she quickly connected the dots. "You saw something? A dream like Nora and Ren?"

Mercury nodded, taking a seat on top of a nearby rock. "Yeah. But, it didn't feel like a dream... it felt like Hell on Remnant."


Hours ago

"Huuuuuuhhh!"

Breath quickly came into Mercury's throat as he sat up and coughed. The breathing soon became natural and controlled as Mercury regained his strength. He also gained a sense of pain throughout his body, it soon became concentrated on his spine and ribs.

"Ugghhhh... Walk it off, Merc," Mercury groaned, rolling over slowly and trying to push himself up. Once he was off the ground, the boy shook his head before finally getting into a fighting position. His memory had come back to him quickly, and he knew who was responsible for his injuries. "Alright, chuckles! I'm about to kick... your... what the...?"

Mercury's taunting voice died down and his blood began to freeze as he finally became aware of his surroundings. Somehow, in someway, he wasn't in Salem's castle anymore. He wasn't even in the Land of Darkness anymore.

It was that damn shack. The very same one his father took Nora and Dina all those years ago.

"W-What? How am I..." Mercury trailed off when he noticed something else. The entire forest surrounding the shack was colorless. It honestly felt like he was in one of those old school films he and Vernal would watch when they were stuck in the Mistral hospital. The leaves in the trees and the grass outside were a dull gray rather than lush green. The trees themselves were a dark gray bordering on black, and the lights from inside the shack were a dull white rather than a soft yellow.

But the most disturbing part was the sky itself. The sky seemed to... warp and distort between a normal night sky and an ominous red and purple like in the Land of Darkness. The shattered moon above seemed hazy.

*SNAP*

Mercury whirled around and dropped into a fighting stance, eyes darting around for the source of the sound. "Who's there?!" he shouted.

*WHOOSH*

Something moved. And whatever it was, it was fast. Almost like a speeding vehicle passing by.

"Show yourself!" Mercury shouted as sweat dripped from his brow. "Where are you?!" Out of the corner of his eye Mercury saw something.

*WHOOSH*

A gray blur shot forward. And it was faster than Mercury's ability to defend himself or move out of the way.

*WHAM*

"Aaugh!" Mercury cried out in pain as he was sent flying back. Quickly scrambling back up, he quickly began searching for what just hit him. "What the fuck?! Where are-?!"

*SHIK*

"Rrrgh!" Mercury was struck from behind, tumbling forward trying to stay upright. His shoulder was bleeding from a large cut.

*WHAM*

*WHAM*

*WHAM*

*SHIK*

*WHAM*

Mercury collapsed to the ground, unable to withstand the barrage any longer. Bruising began forming around his eyes, blood was dripping from his mouth and nose, and a large cut bled down the side of his face. His breathing was coming out as a weak wheeze as his whole body screamed in pain. It was as if his bones were inches away from fracturing or breaking, and his muscles felt like they were burning along with the bleeding from a litany of cuts.

"Bastard..." Mercury weakly choked out. The pain he felt, while unbearable, was strikingly familiar to the young assassin. He suffered beatings like this countless times in his youth, and they were all from one man. "You... rotten... bastard!"

*WHOOSH*

A brief gust of wind blew over his face. A shadow loomed over Mercury as he weakly looked up.

It was a Titan. It appeared to be around seven or eight meters tall, making it slightly bigger than Ren's Predator Titan. Unlike Ren's Titan, which had a dark gray scale-like skin, this Titan possessed the same Grimm black skin as Eren, Cinder, and Nora. Its hair was a silvery-gray color similar to his own hair and not the stark white of the other Titans.

But there were two things about the Titan that stood out to Mercury. The first, on both its hands were a several rough and pointed bones sticking out from it's knuckles, along with a series of plated bones along the back of its hands and fingers. The tips of the fingers were capped with a pair of viciously sharp claws, revelaing itself to be the one hitting and cutting Mercury.

The second thing that stood out were a pair of wing-like fins that were jutting out from both arms and legs, and a two more that were by his shoulder blades. It almost reminded Mercury of airship wings or stabilizing fins he had seen on certain vehicles.

Mercury didn't know why this Titan attacked him, why it put him through so much physical and mental pain. And he didn't care either. All he wanted was out of the Hell he was taken to. So with a loud yell, Mercury mustered whatever strength he had, barely stood on his legs, and sent a wild punch at the Titan.


Present

"The only times I ever felt fear like that were with my dad. The fear of whatever was gonna happen to me today, and then the next day. It was like being near a demon. After that, he was finally outta my life. I just thought... that I wasn't gonna be afraid like that, y'know? That I could finally let it go."

Mercury looked up to Cinder, who was still offering a friendly ear to him. The confession made the assassin feel disgusted, which caused him to turn away. And yet he couldn't help but continue his speech.

"But when I was left before my Titan in pain... it felt like I was in Hell," Mercury concluded. "My perfect Hell, actually."

There was a stiff silence in the clearing once Mercury finished speaking. His eyes were kept firmly on the ground, his body was slouched in a vulnerability that was rarely seen. The silence from Cinder only seemed to make him feel worse, a part of him wanting her to just say something rather than nothing. He was expecting a fifty-fifty chance of either Cinder assuring him that it would be okay to be afraid or that he should suck it up and continue to help fight.

A moment later, Mercury felt something rest on his shoulder. Looking up he saw Cinder giving him a comforting look.

"And I thought my first time was bad."

That threw Mercury out of a loop. Of all the things he expected her to say, he certainly wasn't expecting that from her. "Huh? What are...?" He trailed off, unable to complete his sentence.

Cinder took a deep breath before sitting next to Mercury on the rock. "I remember back when Nora and Ren first told me and Eren about their 'dreams' when they first got their Titans," she said. "Eren was definitely surprised, since he never had any kind of vision."

"But you had one?" Mercury deduced, picking up on what wasn't said.

"Yes... but I never told anyone. At the time, I thought it was just a nightmare or a hallucination. I didn't put it together until Nora and Ren told us about theirs."

"And after that?"

"...I still didn't tell them."

"Why not?"


Years ago

Two young amber eyes shot open, the rest of Cinder's body became fully alive. Before she could do or say anything, the little girl fell victim to coughing very heavily. As she pulled herself up and felt sweat trail down her brow, Cinder remembered the last thing she did before waking up; running to help Eren.

"Ugh... Eren? she called out weakly before coughing again. She was trying her best to look for her friend, but all she could see was a thick gray cloud around her. The cloud continued to make her cough. As she tried to make her way out of the cloud and find her friend, Cinder remembered that Eren had agreed to give her a Titan. She didn't feel any different, and she looked nothing like the large behemoth Eren could transform into.

"Was that supposed to happen?" Cinder asked herself. "And why is it so... hot?" She then noticed a glow in the distance, what appeared to be daylight. Cinder, forgetting that it was supposed to be nighttime, rushed over to the light, believing that she could escape whatever was the cause of the gray, toxic cloud she had trapped herself in.

However, Cinder realized she found the cause of it when she stopped herself from falling into a wave of fire.

Cinder shrieked when the flames brushed against her arm, and then she stumbled back before falling on her back. Cinder looked to her arm and saw that her shirt was partially burned away and left a small burn on her skin. Quickly scrambling back to her feet, Cinder looked around to see multiple burning trees and the ground turning black. She forgot about the pain in her arm when she realized there was someone who could be in worse trouble than her.

"E-Eren?" Cinder called out, looking around for any sign of her companion. "Eren! EREN!"

*WHOOSH*

"No, no, no, no!" Cinder screamed as she continued to run through the burning forest. "Not again. Please, not again!"

*BOOM*

"AHHHHHH!" Cinder screamed as she was sent flying towards a tree from a sudden pressure, her ears pounding from the sudden noise. "Ow..." Cinder rubbed her shoulder that hit the tree. Looking behind, Cinder froze as she saw what caused that sudden force.

Standing before was a towering being seemingly made up of fire. There were no distinguishing features that she could see, other than that it appeared to be a female of sorts. The hourglass figure and mounds on its chest made that clear. But what Cinder took notice of more were the eyes that were on it's featureless face. They were red.

A familiar glowing red that she had seen before.

Then... could this thing be...?

Gulping, Cinder shakily stood up. Never once taking her eyes off of the being before her. "Those eyes..." Cinder's voice was barely heard over the roar of the fire around her. "If you have those eyes... and that height, t-then a-are you... are you a Titan?"

To her surprise, the figure nodded. It understood her.

"A-A-Are y-you m-m-my T-Titan?" Try as she might, she couldn't stop herself from stuttering. Whether it be from nerves or from fear she did not know.

The figure nodded once again.

Suddenly, the flames engulfing the forest vanished, almost as if they were never there to begin with. The charred trees and ashes that should have remained turned to smoke, leaving a clearing between Cinder and the giant. The control the beast had over fire made Cinder calm down and reach her hand up, offering friendship and displaying no means of harm.

And to her surprise, the Titan mirrored Cinder's actions and raised a hand towards her. Cinder decided to show it that she could create fire too, but on a much smaller scale. When she activated her Semblance, the Titan followed suit and made a large fire in its palm.

Cinder's fears disappeared like the burning forest as she saw a remarkable beauty in the beast. It was like... a fiery goddess.

And if this was her Titan, Cinder was indeed that fiery goddess.


Present-day

"After that, I woke up in my Titan, just like you did, "Cinder said. "It was like how you described it; my whole body felt like it was stuck in something hot and soft, but I was perfectly capable of moving. And I found out Eren was right beside me."

"...Wow," was all Mercury could say.

"Wow, indeed," Cinder said as she nodded in agreement.

"You kept all that a secret? Why?"

Cinder looked down. "The night I became a Titan, I shared a story with Eren and my mom. How my parents died in a fire and I was sent to an orphanage. I was scared shitless when I saw all that fire, I thought the same thing had happened to someone I lov-" Cinder quickly changed the subject before she finished her thought. "But more importantly, Kuroyuri was under attack and we needed to hurry. After that, we had to help with making the moat and the drawbridge."

"...And then deal with my dad," Mercury finished for her. "Again, my bad."

"Don't worry. With everything that came after, it just didn't seem important to talk about anymore."

Mercury understood Cinder's logic, and definitely understood why she didn't want to talk about her vision. But there was one thing he couldn't wrap his head around. "That was... pretty gruesome," he said. "Why'd you tell me of all people?"

Cinder smiled as she stood up and stretched. "Well, why not?" she asked.

"I would have been okay once I processed everything. Don't get me wrong, I appreciate you checking in with me. But you didn't have to drop all that on me. I'm not a little kid anymore."

"Did it help you?"

"Well... yeah, but-"

Cinder continued to look down at Mercury and continued to smile. "I'm not trying to look down on you or anything, I just wanted to help you the best way I could think of."

"..."

"Besides, I know you would have been okay after a while. Between you and me..." Cinder turned around and realized they were alone. "It's Ren I'm still worried about."

"Yeah, no doubt," Mercury said as he stood up. "Well, for whatever it's worth... thanks."

"No problem."

Cinder turned around and made her way back to the Dark Wing. Everyone was still doing their own thing, including Eren. Instead of meditating, he was sitting on a log and drawing in the dirt; he appeared to be strategizing for the next battle with Salem and her disciples. But when he heard the sound of Cinder walking towards him, he turned and smiled. Cinder returned the smile and began to step inside the Dark Wing.

"Hey, Cinder."

Cinder turned her head at the sound of her name to see Eren gesturing for her to come over. "Can I talk to you?" he asked calmly.

"Sure," Cinder said as she turned the rest of her body to Eren and walked over. "What's up?"

"I was thinking about our fight earlier. After everything, I realized that if we're gonna take each of them down, it has to be on our terms. Which includes getting them out of the Land of Darkness."

"I think we already did that. I'm sure they'll be coming after us once they're back up to speed."

"I wouldn't be surprised. But without some way to get off the island, it'll take them longer to get to Mistral. In the meantime, I was thinking how Tyrian and Hazel really held their own."

"It was the Huntsmen." Cinder looked at Watts' Scroll, which she was keeping in her pocket. "They've had plenty of experience fighting and killing them. Call them what you will, but Huntsmen are the best fighters in the Kingdoms."

"Yeah, no doubt. But something tells me that the Scroll gave them an edge."

Cinder opened the Scroll and looked at the first Huntsman she found. "You're right," she said. "Age, weapon, Semblance... they're all here." She turned back to Eren. "Did that guy with the moustache spy on them or something? Find out who they were and study them from a distance?"

"Maybe," Eren thought out loud. "If that's the case, they already know something about all of us. Mainly how we fight."

Cinder realized that Eren was right. By leaving their foes alive, they may have some idea about their Semblances and fighting. When they met with Salem's followers again, they would be prepared, and possibly more deadly than ever. "...What can we do?" Cinder asked.

"Well, I have one idea," Eren replied. "There's a chance these Huntsmen were working alone, not with a team. So I was thinking, what's the one thing the both of us are good at?"

Cinder smirked as she flipped her hair and looked at Eren. "Being easy on the eyes?"

A heat rose to Eren's face when he heard the compliment. "I, uh... Thanks?"

Cinder playfully slapped Eren's chest. "Don't mention it." She was doing her best to keep the same heat from showing on her face. "I'm sorry, lemme think for a minute." After a few seconds of thinking, Cinder had an idea. "Are you thinking about our weapons?"

"Yeah, I am. I never told you this before, but there was a time when I helped the military prepare for war." Cinder listened in silence as Eren explained. "When the Survey Corps found my father's journal, when we knew there was a whole world outside the walls... it changed everything. Like a lot of radical changes, it just scared the hell out of everyone. Historia handled the citizens and government, and the military took matters in their own hands. Mostly more emphasis on fighting against people."

"Did that become the rest of the training?" Cinder asked. "When all the Titans on Paradis were killed?"

"Yes and no. Instructors still taught recruits about Titans, but things like firing a gun and sparring became more common as the years passed. They even asked soldiers from all three branches to help. I wanted to help pretty bad, so I did something... different." Cinder slightly tilted her head while she listened. "I worked with Armin to develop a new fighting technique, something I wanted to do that my Titan could do; deal a lot of damage with a single blow."

"How did it go?"

"Not too good. A lot of people thought the move was dangerous, so Armin decided to think of some other way he could help. But I wanted to stick with the move we made, and I eventually met two recruits who wanted to give it a try. When I showed them what to do, they called it... the Iron Whirlwind."

Cinder smiled again. "Cool name," she said. "How does the move work?"

Eren held out his hand. "Let me show you," he offered.

Cinder took the hand without hesitation and saw the woods disappear. After a few seconds, she found herself still holding Eren's hand, but not in the same place. Instead, the duo found themselves at what appeared to be some kind of training ground. There was a clearing of dirt besides the outskirts of a field of trees. And in that training ground was a different Eren Yeager, wearing a brown vest and white leggings under a pair of shorts. On his back proudly rested a symbol of two wings, one white and the second blue. Cinder recognized them as the Wings of Freedom, a symbol that always caught her eye.

At the moment, the uniformed Eren was with two younger people wearing the same clothes as him. They were also wearing their own vertical maneuvering equipment, which they were going to be using soon.

"So far, so good," said Eren, who pointed at the group with his free hand. "In a few seconds, he's going to attach to that tree right there." Sure enough, the first recruit jumped with his gear and attached it to the bark above his head. He then flew in the air as Cinder watched with a smile and Eren continued to talk. "The move is pretty simple. The next recruit is going to shoot her hook in the air, and be swung in the air once it's caught. She'll then spin around whatever enemies are in her way before being let go." Just then, the girl shot one of her hooks in the air, close to the man above her. "See, they almost have it, until-"

*SHICK*

"AAAAAUUUGGHHH!"

The first recruit fell to the ground, along with the hook that was shot in the air. He saw it coming and was prepared to catch it, all in order to send his partner spinning in the air. But instead of being caught, the hook had travelled fast enough to embed itself in the young man's arm, causing blood to spill onto the soil at his feet.

"Whoa, what?!" Cinder yelled as she let go of Eren's hand and covered her mouth. The memory disappeared and the duo returned to the camp ground. Cinder continued to hold her mouth in shock as she continued to witness the mental image in her head. She was no stranger to injury, but the idea of her hook in someone's arm was enough to scare her half to death.

"Yeah..." Eren slowly replied. "Nobody tried it again after that." He then jumped out of his seat. "But now we can try it together!"

"Are you nuts?!" Cinder asked. "Th-That's crazy!"

"I know, I know!" Eren then smiled. "But after all these years, I know what went wrong! They weren't Titans, like you or me! Even if one of us doesn't catch the hook, we could spin the other person across a field of Grimm, let alone Tyrian or Hazel."

Cinder began to rub her chin while she contemplated the idea. True, their Titan powers could heal any wound if the hooks got stuck in their bodies. It sounded unpleasant, but swinging someone with a hook in her hand may be possible, if she could heal herself later.

"Maybe," Cinder said calmly. "But what if the hook gets close to our heads? Or our hearts?"

"We'll just practice enough to make it happen," said Eren. "I was thinking I could toss one hook in the air instead of firing it."

"And let me do all the heavy lifting?"

"C'mon, we both know you're stronger."

"Either that, or you're just lazy."

"You're the one who doesn't want to do the work. Wouldn't that make you the lazy one?"

Cinder admitted defeat with that last question, along with the smug grin Eren was shooting her. "Alright, alright," she relented with a smile of her own. "I'll help you with the Iron Whirlwind. But on one condition."

"Don't kill you?" Eren sarcastically asked.

"...Okay, two conditions." Cinder drew a circle in the dirt beneath her. "I wanna try out a move I've been thinking of too. Since you know this gear better than me, you should know if it's possible." She then drew a line that connected to part of the circle.

Eren looked down on the ground, intrigued by the idea. "What're you thinking?"

"Well, I wanted to see if we could use the hooks to make a trap. If we make one end into a circle and throw it down, anyone or anything in the circle would have their leg caught when we come down and use a tree or something to to leave them their."

Eren studied the move on the ground and the idea Cinder told him. "Hey, I like this," he said. "Needs a lotta quick thinking and opportunity of the environment here." He looked up at Cinder, who was inches from his face. She quickly looked away, hiding a heat on her face.

"Thanks," she said. "I was hoping you'd say that."

"We could practice this too. Got a name for it?"

"I was thinking... the Fox Trap."


The rest of the day was simply a lot of rest and recuperation for Eren and his friends. Emerald had begun to reorient her feelings with the weapon that Mercury had fixed while the craftsman was playing a videogame on his Scroll. Deciding that he wanted to focus on his Titan another day, Mercury decided to spend the rest of his free time on his own. Ren continued to meditate with Eren while Cinder and Nora were preparing an early dinner.

All around the camp was a load of good feelings, and these feelings were emphasized when a new guest of the Dark Wing finally woke up.

Cinder was the first to notice Midori walking out of the car, slowly but surely. "Hey, guys!" she called out to her friends. "Midori's awake!" She, Nora, Ren, and Eren all ran over to their old friend as she carefully stepped onto the ground.

"Hey, guys," she said with a weak smile. "What's up?"

"Not too much," Cinder replied. "Are you okay?"

"How many fingers am I holding up?" Nora asked, who was holding up two fingers.

"Yeah, how are you feeling?" Eren asked.

"Just... really happy to see you again," Midori replied with a smile. "Though a bit light-headed."

Ren moved Midori's arm over his shoulder as he walked over to the campfire. "Here, let me help you," he said as everyone behind him followed closely. Mercury and Emerald made room for the new member of their team.

"Was wondering if you were gonna wake up," said a sarcastic Mercury. This earned a hard nudge from Emerald and a puzzled look from Midori.

"I'm sorry... do I know you?" she asked calmly.

"Uh, no," Emerald replied with an extended hand. "But we're friends of your friends. I'm Emerald." Midori shook the hand and introduced herself. "The idiot is Mercury."

"Hey!" Mercury yelled. "That's the thanks I get for fixing your weapon?"

"I can work with a broken weapon. What I can't work with is your prattle."

"Oh, yeah? Well, look who's talking!"

"Both of you, cut it out!" Cinder ordered. "Gods, how can you two still argue after everything we went through back there?"

"Sorry, Cinder," Emerald replied, ignoring the eye roll Mercury was giving off.

Eren tapped Midori's shoulder to get her attention. "Midori, I was actually hoping we could talk about what Cinder was just saying. You know... about Salem." Midori gasped at the sound of the name as the memories of her castle came back in a heartbeat. "I know, it's probably gonna be hard to talk about. But we could really use your help."

"...Yeah," Midori answered. "Yeah, okay. But, uh... can I have some water, please?" Nora ran into the Dark Wing and grabbed the first bottle of water she could find. After Midori took a long drink, she looked back to Eren. "What do you need to know?"

"A few things. First off, how did you find her?"

"She found me, actually. About a couple of years after I left Kuroyuri." She looked at each of her friends. "I, uh, guess you know about that, huh?"

"We had the idea that you were a runaway," said Ren. "Is that true?"

"...Yeah." Midori looked down in shame. "I ran away from home around the time you met me."

"But why?" Nora asked.

"It's actually because of my Semblance. You know how some people say your Semblance is connected to your personality and character?" Everyone nodded simultaneously. "Before I unlocked Healing Wish, I used to get sick really easily. And I always had the worst symptoms. I almost died from getting the flu one time."

"Damn..." Mercury whispered.

"But you got better when you unlocked your Aura?" Nora asked. "And your Semblance?"

"They helped, but the damage was already done," Midori explained. "My mother, she was... for lack of a better word, overprotective. When she knew how easily I could get sick, she practically locked me in the house. I couldn't even go outside to play." Eren and Cinder shared a lingering glance at each other, given that they could relate to Midori's story when they were slaves in Atlas. "I wasn't just cut off from the world. I was... I was cut off from God."

Everyone's heart began to ache when Midori finished the prologue to her story. Ren understood what had happened when he heard that Midori was nowhere to be found back in Kuroyuri. "So you ran again," he said. "You knew your mother had found you."

"I wasn't ready to go back to Argus," Midori continued. "Doing everything outside home, meeting you all, was everything I wanted and more. I didn't want to trade it all for a crummy room. And I know she's my mom, but I also know the childhood I had pushed her past the point of no return. So I left, and bounced around a few villages like Kuroyuri."

"And then you met Salem," Eren reasoned.

"One village I came across was attacked by Grimm. When I escaped, Salem found me. Seeing her, a Grimm like that, was enough to send the fear of God in me. I tried to run, but I used up my Aura trying to heal a few other people who managed to escape. When it finally broke, I was too exhausted to do anything but pass out. When I woke up, I was with her. In a place far from here."

"The Land of Darkness. That's what it's called."

"Salem could have killed you," said Cinder. "Why did she take you with her?"

"She said I was her... Maiden."

Everyone slowly looked at the people closest to them when Midori gave her explanation. All of their faces spelled confusion, none of them could make heads-or-tails out of Midori's claim. So they all looked back to Midori and asked a single question. "Her what?"

"I don't know what she meant either. All she said was that I was going to be strong and powerful, but not like her. Before that, she wanted me help her servants."

"Healing Wish," Cinder said as she thought back on the names she saw in Watts' Scroll. "You had to heal them after their missions."

"You were her slave," Eren continued. "She used you for your Semblance."

Midori nodded. " In order to make sure I wouldn't try to leave, she used those... arms on me," she said. "They would scratch me, bound me, and punch me all over so I would use my Semblance until it broke!" Midori began to cry. "And the smell! I could barely breathe when they were around me! And all that time, I realized... I realized this was my life now!" Midori covered her eyes as she wept, leaving an opening for Nora to hug her.

"It's gonna be okay, Mimi," she promised. "We'll make sure they don't hurt you, or anyone, ever again."

Cinder tapped Eren's shoulder to get his attention. "Eren, I think we asked enough tonight," she said.

"Just one more thing," Eren said. After waiting until she called down, Eren asked his question. "Midori, is there anything you can us about Salem's plans?"

"Her... plans?" Midori asked.

"We found a Scroll with all these names on it. Salem has it out for Huntsmen, apparently. But is there anything beyond that? Anything else she said to you or you may have heard?"

"All she told me was that I was her Maiden. And she always told me to heal her servants after a mission."

"But, what about-?"

Cinder pushed in Eren's shoulder and made him look at her. "Eren, that's enough," she said, almost scolding him.

"Yeah, okay," Eren relented. He then looked at everyone around him. "Alright, guys. I think now's a good time to come up with a plan for next time."

"Next time?" Midori asked. "You guys aren't going back there, are you?"

"No. After what we did back there, we're sure they'll be coming after us. We need to prepare."

"I got a Titan now," Mercury reminded everyone. "When I start training, taking care of those guys should be no problem."

"A Titan?" Midori asked, oblivious to the existence of Eren's power and his past.

"It's a long story," Eren said as he changed the subject. "But Mercury is right. We can fight them out in the open now, rather than risk a building falling on us."

"Salem might tell them about the Titans, since she saw them herself," Cinder reminded everyone. "They'll be ready, regardless of the advantage we have over them."

"So what should we do?" Emerald asked. "How should we fight them?"

"Well, that's what I've been trying to figure out," said Eren. "I have a few ideas, some of them I shared with Cinder. But I wanted to see if anyone else had any ideas."

"I have one idea," said Ren. "I'm still thinking about what I said when we left Salem's castle."

"How we're not ready for this?" Eren began to feel a light disappointment in Ren for believing that.

"No, no, not that! We managed to see their list of targets in Mistral, specifically Councilman Lionheart. Perhaps we can attack her in a different way."

"Like?"

"What if we warn him about the target on his back? He's the Headmaster of Haven Academy, he can spread the word to the Huntsmen too. We won't have to tell him everything, just enough to make him safe."

"Hey, that's not a bad idea," said Mercury. "If we show him that Scroll, and if Midori tells him who he should be looking for, Mistral would be a No Man's Land for them."

Everyone was beginning to see the logic of the idea and silently praised Ren's thinking. They soon began to offer their own thoughts on the subject. "We'll need a good cover story," said Emerald. "I've escaped cops before, I can think of a good lie for them."

"Make sure there's some truth in there," said Nora. "We're gonna need to be on their side if we wanna win this."

"We should make a copy of all the stuff on the Scroll too," said Cinder. "The police might want to keep it for evidence when we show it to Lionheart."

"Why not put it on all our Scrolls?" Eren suggested. "In case one gets lost or broken when we fight again?"

"Yeah, okay." Cinder took out Watts' Scroll and began to type. "Okay, you should be getting the goods... now."

*BUZZ*

*BUZZ*

*BUZZ*

*BUZZ*

Everyone's Scrolls went off at the same time when Cinder sent everything to them. When they made sure they got every file, they put their Scrolls back in their pockets. "Okay, this looks good," Eren said as he put away his Scroll.

"There's just one thing I wanted to point out," Cinder said while looking at the Scroll. "Mistral wasn't the only file on this thing. I saw some stuff for Vale too. There's a folder for Vacuo and Atlas too, but not as specific as Mistral or Vale."

"Looks like we have a long road trip ahead of us," said Mercury. "Or sea-trip, depending on how you look at it."

"Yeah," Emerald agreed. "Not to mention Salem's goons will be on our tail once they recover. We should try to stand our ground here, or at least slow them down."

"Oh!" Nora shouted as she stood up. "We'll break their legs!"

"We'll make sure not to leave without a fight," said Eren. "Only question is, where should we go after that?"

Everyone fell silent as they pondered the idea. Cinder was ready to suggest Vale, mostly because she wanted to visit it again. There wasn't much logic behind her thinking, but she was confident everyone would agree with her.

"Atlas."

A new voice caught everyone's attention and made them look upon Winter Schnee, who was still wearing her torn uniform, but had tied her hair back in the way she had it the first day she met Eren.

"Atlas?" Eren repeated. "You sure about that? Cinder said Salem's not doing much there right now."

"All the more reason to go there and help the Kingdom prepare."

"...Maybe. But how?"

Nora was interested in Winter's counter-argument, but her attention shifted to a tapping on her shoulder. She turned to see Midori lean over and whisper.

"Who's that?" she asked.

"Winter Schnee," Nora whispered back. "She says she wants to help us, but some of us are still on the fence about her."

"Wait, Schnee? As in-?"

"Yep," Nora answered while popping the "P", expressing her distaste with the situation. "You know she helped attack Kuroyuri?" Midori softly gasped before Nora continued. "I can only imagine what brilliant scheme she has-"

"You want me to what?!"

Nora and Midori quickly looked back to Eren, who had shot out of his seat and stood close to Winter. His body language was screaming the fact that he was surprised and off guard, yet Winter was calm and collected when she spoke again. "I want you to join the Atlesian army, Eren."

Cinder was also taken aback by Winter's idea. "You gotta be joking," she declared.

"Do I look like I'm joking?" Winter asked without looking at Cinder. "Eren, you're a soldier, like me. Part of that is-"

Eren's shock slowly made its way into becoming the rage that powered his Semblance. "I'm nothing like you," he said.

"I don't believe that. You trained, you fought your enemy, and you followed your orders to the letter. You should be doing that again."

"For Atlas? Never."

Now it was Winter's turn to be angry. "My Gods, people!" she screamed as she backed away to look everyone in the eye, ignorant to Eren's growing rage. "Are you really letting the actions of my father validate the childish idea that everyone in Atlas is evil?! He's corrupt as they come, but he doesn't own the whole Kingdom!"

"Maybe not," said Ren. "But that didn't stop him from trying to take what wasn't his."

"And nobody tried to stop him, either," Nora spoke up. "Not the Council, not the army, and not even you."

Cinder felt her confidence rise with the arguments from her friends. In turn, she also joined in. "And it's not like anyone would've cared either," she said. "Nobody in Atlas cares about anyone but themselves."

"You haven't even been in Atlas!" Winter argued. "You don't even know that!"

"Yes! I! Do!" Cinder reached into her vest and moved her hand around. After a brief moment, she pulled out a small necklace with a yellow crystal on it. "See this?! It's a shock collar! Something I had to wear when Eren and I were locked away in Atlas, working for people like you! People who didn't give two shits whether we lived or died!" Tears formed in her eyes as Cinder relived the traumatic time she shared with Eren.

Winter wasn't expecting to hear an argument like Cinder's, but it didn't shake her resolve. "That's... That's not possible! Every Kingdom on Remnant outlawed slavery, Faunus and Human!"

"Well, nobody even tried to call the police! Hell, Eren and I had to serve the police that stopped by there! Your Kingdom is rotten to the core, Schnee! It doesn't deserve our help!"

Winter could tell she wasn't getting through to Cinder, so she turned around to Eren. "Eren, you can't believe that's... true..."

Winter's throat began to close in when she stared at the expression on Eren's face. He was looking in her general direction, but his vision was obscured by his eyebrows and eyelids closing on themselves due to the young man's rage. Eren had been angry plenty of times in his life, before and after coming to Remnant. But this kind of rage came naturally to him only once; the day he watched Frieda Reiss condemn Paradis to death when she refused to use the powers of the Eldian Founding Titan to stop the Titans. That day, she and her family condemned hundreds of lives, including his mother, to a fate they didn't deserve. And when they refused to lift a finger, Eren let his vengeance free upon the Reiss family through his father. To say that it felt like justice was nothing but the truth, according to Eren.

And now, he had found a chance to deliver justice on the woman who was trying to steal his freedom. But he had learned to wait for the right moment to do so instead of acting blindly. While he watched her in silence, Winter slowly tried to rebuild her confidence while everyone else cautiously backed away.

"Eren... I know you're upset... but I'm not going to change my mind," Winter declared as she lowered her hand to her hip. While she was away from the rest of the group, she had managed to recover her sword, which she removed after leaving the Land of Darkness. A hunch told her she would need it when she presented the idea to Eren, and now she was prepared to use it so she could complete her next objective. "I'm going to Atlas... or I'm going to die trying."

"...Do you intend to fight me?" Eren asked.

"I do."

Everyone who decided to keep their weapons on them began to prepare themselves for the duel to begin. Eren had removed Soaring Freedom so he could eat and talk without a large weight on his waist. And yet, he stood in front of Winter while the threat on his life was out in the open. But now, he had found the perfect way to handle it.

"Cinder... I need you to get my weapon," he said without looking her way. Before she could ask why, Cinder and everyone else paid attention to Eren's next sentence. "Okay, Winter. We'll have our fight. If you win, I'll go with you to Atlas."

Cinder quickly moved over to Eren. "Eren, no!" she protested. "We can't-!"

"I'll go," Eren reiterated. "You'll be fine without me." Eren turned to the rest of his friends. "All of you. If there's anyone who can stop Salem, it's all of you. With or without me."

"..."

Eren looked back to Winter. "You said your orders were to bring me in if you could. If you win, I'll go with you to Atlas."

Winter was happy to hear that, but wasn't getting her hopes up just yet. "And we'll avoid Atlas if you win?" she asked.

"That's right." Eren stuck his hand out. "Agreed?"

Winter didn't see any other choice laid before her. She knew she could simply walk away, but she also knew another chance like this wouldn't come again anytime soon. So she stuck her hand out and shook. "Agreed."

Eren looked back to Cinder. "I need my weapon."


"Eren, please. You can't do this."

"I have to."

"No, you don't! You've put the Schnee in her place before, you can do it-!"

"If I do it again, I won't win this argument. I'll just make her shut up for a few more hours. If I win, it'll be over."

"But if you lose? I know you're not going to use your Titan for this, and who knows what kind of tricks she has up her sleeve?!"

"..."

Eren had finished putting on his gear while Cinder was begging him to change his mind. He was near the Dark Wing while everyone was waiting with Winter not too far away. And now he was on his way to meet her.

"Ignoring me isn't proving anything!" Cinder argued as she joined him.

"I never said it was," Eren replied as he continued to walk. "Cinder, I have to take this risk. If I don't, Winter won't let it go. My freedom is on the line."

"But it doesn't have to be!" Cinder ran in front of him and spread her arms, causing the young man to finally stop in his tracks. "I can count on all four of our hands how many times Winter broke the rules you gave her!"

"..."

"You promised, Eren! You promised if she tried anything like this that she wouldn't be with us anymore!"

"I know," Eren replied calmly. "Why do you think I'm doing this?"

"..."

"Look, I want to talk to you later, alone. Now I have another reason to win this, okay?"

"..."

Cinder slowly lowered her arms as she understood what Eren was saying. He once again walked in silence, moving past Cinder and deeper into the woods. Cinder followed him after he disappeared from view and she soon found herself in a clearing. Winter was in the center of the clearing while everyone else was watching from the side. Winter was facing the opposite direction, but turned around at the sound of footsteps.

"He's here," she whispered. "Let me focus." She then stepped closer to the center of the space. "You're only using your weapon?"

"Like we agreed," Eren confirmed. "No Titans, no Ymir, just weapons and Semblances."

"And the match is done once an Aura breaks."

"I'm not limited by my Aura. Are you?"

Winter furrowed her brow slightly more than it was before. She wasn't limited by her Aura either, but continuing a fight without Aura wasn't fighting in the name of honor. And yet, Eren didn't seem to care. "A yield, then," she said as she raised her blade to her head, letting her smaller sword fall into her second hand.

Eren quickly removed two blades from Soaring Freedom. "Agreed," he said before looking over to Ren and nodding.

The young man didn't move away from Nora, who was standing next to him. Her fear of the outcome was evident, despite her confidence in Eren. This fear led her to taking Ren's hand, who decided to return the embrace. He wasn't worried like Nora, but he had no reason to turn her away. Instead, he held the hand and looked directly in the center of the field.

"Fight!" he shouted.

Winter moved as fast as lightning towards Eren, who used the Volant on Soaring Freedom to shoot himself in the air. The Atlesian's blade just missed his body, and it was fast enough to block the double strike Eren sent Winter's way when he struck down. Winter then pushed on the blade and made Eren land backwards. She stumbled when she pushed him away, but her recovery was fast as her sword movements. When she saw Eren lunge towards her with his swords, she used a black Glyph to launch herself in the air and create five white Glyphs. With a yell, she sent five icicles from the Glyphs towards Eren.

In retaliation, Eren shot a hook from his gear into a tree and swung himself in the air, missing the icicles easily. All five struck the earth below as Eren threw both his blades towards Winter. The blades took out two Glyphs, but Winter used another black Glyph to dodge the strikes. Eren then put away his hilts and removed the two pistols from his gear. Multiple shots rang out from both pistols, but Winter was able to either block them with her Aura or dodge them entirely. She then stabbed her sword into the ground to make another Glyph, one that unleashed a swarm of small white Nevermores towards Eren. The birds relentlessly attacked Eren and caused him to crash into the ground.

Everyone around the combatants, who were obviously hoping Eren would win, all gasped and looked in horror as Eren crashed into the ground and the Nevermores turned into a cloud of white dust. Winter was satisfied with the attack and prepared herself to lunge forward again while Eren was disoriented.

*HISS*

The sound of gas escaping into the air caught everyone's attention, along with a grapping hook flying towards a tree. Suddenly, it changed direction and flew towards Winter. The hook missed her completely, but the wire quickly wrapped around Winter's torso. When the cloud of dust finally cleared, Eren revealed himself to be glowing and holding onto the rest of the wire.

"Get over here!" he shouted as he pulled on the wire. His unnatural strength had come when he activated his Semblance and allowed him to pull on the wire with ease. Winter was unable to stop herself from moving towards Eren, just as she was unable to stop a fist colliding into her face. She flew to the other end of the clearing just as fast as she moved towards Eren. Winter was able to stand up, but fell to the ground when the wire moved back to Eren's gear, scratching her leg and torso in the process. Applause and cheers filled the area as Eren walked over to Winter.

"Had enough?" Eren asked as he looked down on the Atlesian.

"Not a chance," Winter replied as she moved her hand off the ground. A small white Glyph shot an icicle at Eren's face. He shouted as the ice stabbed him just below his eye. He was too late to engage his Aura, to block out a cold, sharp pain that barely missed his eyeball. He had lost his eye before, and it was never a pleasant experience. He was grateful that Winter's aim was off by an inch, but he was also enraged that he left himself vulnerable like this. And vulnerable to Winter sliding her foot and knocking him to the ground.

Winter quickly moved and raised her longsword over her head. With a yell, she sent the tip downwards to Eren's face. Her attempt, however, was foiled when Eren quickly removed a blade from his gear and struck the sword to divert it from its path. Instead of hitting his face, the blade struck part of Eren's gear, leaving a deep scratch in the steel. However, it also knocked the sword from Winter's grasp. Soaring Freedom's Volant then sprang Eren off the ground fast enough to send another fist to Winter's face. After he landed one blow, he sent another one that was blocked by Winter's hand. She then returned the attack with her own-hand-to-hand combat, which comprised of flat-handed strikes instead of punches. One strike hit Eren's arm and made him drop his blade.

When they saw the tide turn like this, Ren and Nora shared a lingering glance at each other. "I can't remember the last time I saw Eren fight hand-to-hand," she said.

"I think it was when we were training as kids," Ren replied. "He was our teacher, after all."

"Do you think he remembers it all?"

"He has too. Otherwise, he's at a disadvantage."

Mercury and Emerald also looked at each other. "Man, Cinder looks really worried," he said as he looked past Emerald.

"Can you blame her?" she asked. "Her best friend is fighting for his life." Emerald took another look at Mercury. "You don't look nervous."

"You kidding? Eren's one of the toughest bastards I know. If he's got the balls to take on Salem, he can handle a Atlesian soldier."

Emerald looked back at the fight. "Wish Cinder and I had your confidence."

"C'mon, Em. It's just one babe he's fighting, not a pack of Grimm."

*GROWL*

A low growl behind the teenagers caught their attention, causing Emerald and Mercury to turn around to see a pack of Beowolves approaching them. Everyone else looked to see the same thing, and even more Grimm coming from different directions. Everyone took out their weapons while Cinder made two fists and moved close to Midori. Mercury simply sighed as he looked at the multiple creatures.

"You know, one these days... I'm gonna learn to shut my fucking mouth," he said.

"Keep them off Eren!" Cinder shouted as she punched a Beowolf. Everyone complied and began fighting off the Grimm, each of them in their own unique way.

Eren and Winter were momentarily distracted from the fight when the Grimm revealed themselves. Eren began to think that this was Salem's doing, that she had sent every Creature of Grimm to find them. But then, he remembered that he was using his Semblance to fight Winter. His anger was making him stronger, but it was also putting everyone at risk. He needed a new strategy.

"Hey, Schnee!" he called out. Winter turned to face her opponent, but soon stumbled backwards when a bullet hit her Aura. Eren quickly put the gun away and grasped his blades. "I didn't hear any bell."

"Neither did I," said Winter, who quickly retrieved both her long and short sword. She launched herself towards Eren and met multiple strikes from his swords. She was able to block each one with her blades with ease. She then moved on the offense when Eren missed a wild strike to her head. Winter then sent multiple strikes towards Eren, which were also blocked. However, when Eren dodged some of the strikes, his damaged gear was struck a few times. While one would hate to see their weapon in such a state, Eren remained calm as he backed away and continued to block Winter's strikes. And unlike him, she was refusing to soothe her anger.

"Almost there," Eren thought as he continued to back away. He caught a quick glance of Cinder, who was doing her best to stop the Grimm. Realizing he couldn't move back any further, Eren held his ground and crashed his blades with Winter's. The combatants stood at a standstill as they pushed on their blades, trying to make each other lose their balance. Eren then looked up at a tree not far behind Winter. It's height and extended branches were perfect for his plan, which he needed to perform now... or never.

"This is gonna hurt," Eren thought to himself. He then took a deep breath and moved his leg, firing his grapping hook at the tree.

*BOOM*

The piece of gear attached to the hook suddenly exploded, due to the damage Winter had inflicted on it. Eren was able to use his Aura to block out some of the pain and prevent machinery from piercing his leg, but his leg was sore from the force of the explosion. But that didn't matter; what mattered was that Winter had been blown away from the force and the other end of the wire was free.

Eren quickly dropped his blades and grabbed the freed end of the wire, which he tied onto Winter's leg. When she recovered, she swung her short sword at him. The strike hit the thin air when Eren used his Volant to fly towards the other end of the wire. Rather than shooting it at the bark of the tree, Eren aimed above a branch not too far from the ground. The hook had begun to plummet to the earth, but Eren was able to catch it mid-air and pull down while he fell.

When he pulled, Winter found herself thrown off the ground and hanging upside down, trapped and hanging like a hunter's prize.

Cinder couldn't help but look upon Eren when he landed near her. When she looked at what Eren had done, she felt her breath being taken away. "Did he... get that from me?" she wondered as she stared in awe. When Eren looked over to her and smiled, she knew that the situation was exactly what she thought it was. Of course, it wasn't an exact execution of the Fox Trap like she showed Eren, but the final touch was the same. And Eren couldn't have done what he did if it wasn't for his best friend.

When he planted the hook in the ground, Eren sent a barrage of fists at Winter's gut, which eventually broke her Aura. Along with the blood rushing to her head, Winter could feel each blow to her chest, stomach, and ribs. The pain was unbearable, but it was partially relieved when the grapping hook became unearthed and released the tension on the wire. But all she could do at that point was fall to the ground in pain.

The last Grimm was eventually killed by Emerald, leaving Eren to let go of the wire and watch Winter try to get up. She had dropped both her blades and Eren quickly kicked the larger one away. However, he picked up the small one and ran over to Winter, preparing to stab her with it. The Atlesian quickly moved her hands to stop the knife in its tracks, along with Eren's arms. But he didn't stop pushing down.

"Winter, that's enough!" Ymir shouted from within Winter's mind. "It's over!"

"I'm... not... quitting!" Winter said as she continued to push on Eren's arms.

"Me... neither!" Eren shouted as he focused all of his strength on his arms.

"Winter, he's going to kill us! Just stop, dammit!"

"No!"

Eren continued to push on the blade while everyone watched. They knew their friend was going in for the kill, but none of them did anything to try and stop him. Midori, however, was the only exception. "Eren!" she shouted. "Eren, stop! You're gonna kill her!"

"...She... didn't yield!" Eren shouted back. "It's not over... until it's over!"

Midori looked over to everyone else, who looked back at her with blank faces. While she wanted to stop the fight, she was too afraid to go in herself and try to get Eren off Winter. Ymir, however, wasn't going to give up. "Winter, if you don't stop this, I will!" she said.

"Try it!" Winter said. "If... you come out now... you can't... stop Eren!" The blade continued to come closer to Winter, and Ymir knew that she was right. The split-second of transference would make the force on Winter's arms disappear and let the knife come down before Ymir could beg for mercy.

"Listen... to Ymir!" said Eren, who could tell Winter was talking to her. "If you don't... you die!"

"I... won't give up!" Winter replied as she continued to push. She then closed her eyes as the knife came closer. Even though the knife was close, Eren was having trouble keeping up his assault. But Winter was the one suffering more, since her failure was laid right in front of her.

"Why won't you just die?!"

"Why won't you just give up?!"

Both of Eren's and Ymir's voices filled Winter with anger and sadness, which left her vulnerable not to the small blade, but to expressing herself for the first time in what felt like forever.

"I just... I just want to go home, dammit!"

"..."

The scream was louder than anything that had had been said in the makeshift arena. It reached everyone's ears and caused them to divert all their focus on Winter instead of Eren or looking out for anymore Grimm. Even Eren himself was taken off guard. He was so surprised to hear something so simple, and yet so powerful, that he stopped pushing on the small blade. An invisible force made him move off of Winter, who sat upright with open, teary eyes. And she wasn't finished.

"I don't care just about the army, Eren!" Winter shouted. "And Atlas isn't just the Kingdom I serve! I was born and raised there, I have people I care about there! I have a mother, a sister, and a brother that I won't see again because of you! Because of you, I have to move farther and farther away from my family! How can I be there for them if you won't let me?!"

"..."

Winter looked at everyone around her when she saw that Eren was too dumbfounded to speak. "All of you! I had to do what all of you said because I didn't listen to you! I found out everything we thought about Remnant was a damn lie! Everything I learned in Atlas is a lie! And now that I know the truth, I can't do anything about it! If I die out here, helping you fight the real fight, I can't stop my father from hurting people even more than he has already! I'm nothing now! You made me nothing!"

"..."

Winter could see that everyone had the same reaction as Eren. Even Ymir was silent. Winter had to admit, this was the first time she could let her feelings, or anything for that matter, off her chest. She finally voiced her opinion, something she hadn't done since she was younger. This was what Ymir wanted her to do ever since the two of them met. And she knew how it felt, how it made her look. After all this time, she could describe how it was.

Disappointing.

Winter felt like she had just lashed out like a spoiled child. When she didn't get what she wanted, she screamed and cried at everyone, claiming that she deserved better than what life had just handed her. She was confident that this was the direct opposite of what Ymir had in mind, but it was the best she could offer. And just like she showed in her fight, Winter's best wasn't good enough. She wasn't good enough. So with a heavy heart, Winter looked back to Eren and said one final thing.

"Eren... I yield."

"..."

The last thing Eren saw before he finally spoke was a quick flash in Winter's eyes. The color changed from a light blue to a dull gray, and Winter suddenly looked confused. She slowly got off the ground while groaning before putting a hand to her cheek.

"Dammit," she said. "I told her this was a bad idea."

"...Ymir?" Eren asked as he cautiously raised his blade.

Ymir suddenly remembered what was happening, so she dropped her weapon and raised her hands. "It's me," she confirmed. A puzzled look on her face formed when she started snapping her fingers to her ear.

"What's wrong?" Eren asked as he held his blade tightly.

Ymir looked to everyone around her. "She's... gone."

"Oh, my... What a bitch!" Cinder shouted as she walked over to Eren. "She runs off after losing a fight?!"

"Yeah!" Mercury joined in. "Being homesick is one thing, but this is bullshit! Tell her to get back here!"

"No, this is different!" Ymir shouted back. "I... can't feel her anymore." She looked down at her hands. "I can feel her lingering behind me when I'm in control, but there's... nothing."

Everyone looked at each other in confusion, since they couldn't share Ymir's experience. Eren finally lowered his sword and looked at Ymir. "Did I...?"

"I don't think so. It's like, she locked herself in my head or something." She looked back to Eren and his friends. "Or our head, or... whatever."

"So she's just gone?" Emerald asked.

"Good riddance," said Mercury.

"What if she comes back?" Ren asked. "What's to stop her from coming back in our sleep?"

"So what do we do now?" Nora asked.

*WHEET*

A loud whistle caused everyone to turn back to Ymir, who was walking back to the camp. After a serious moment of consideration, everyone followed her to the campfire. There were no weapons there, save for the utensils everyone was using to eat. "I'll tell you what's gonna happen," she said as she kneeled down, looking through the various items on the ground. "I, for one, am sick of Winter's crap. I tried to talk her out of her idea, but she didn't listen."

"How do we know we can trust you?" Ren asked as he removed StormFlower from his sleeves.

"Just watch," Ymir responded as she stood up and revealed what she was looking for; the pair of handcuffs she had before going to the Land of Darkness. She walked over to Eren and threw them to him. "Darkness will still give me what I want after I help you with Salem. And if this counts as helping you..." Ymir threw her arms towards Eren, waiting to be chained once again. "Fine by me."

"..."

Eren looked down at the handcuffs and Ymir's hands. He had only heard of one time she would do something as crazy as this; surrender herself to Reiner and Bertolt. On that day, she gave up her freedom for what she believed to be a noble cause. Now, she appeared to be doing the same thing. Eren had a hunch that her intentions were genuine, that she read the room and knew this is what everyone wanted. Her logic was sound, and so was Eren's at the present moment.

"Ymir... I think it's time for you to leave."

*CLINK*

Eren dropped the handcuffs and heard a collective gasp fill his ears. "Eren, what are you doing?" Ymir asked.

"Letting you go," Eren replied as he backed away from Ymir. "I'll tell Darkness you helped out, and I'll make sure he'll hold up his end of the deal. But you need to leave first."

Ymir looked down at the handcuffs in awe, unable to comprehend what was happening. Everyone else, however, was able to understand what Eren was doing. Cinder was the first to understand, which allowed her to answer Ymir's next question.

"But... why?"

"Can you control your shifting?" Cinder asked. "Can you prevent Winter from taking control?"

"I, um... I can let her out sometimes."

"Sometimes? What about other times?"

"..."

Ren spoke next. "Is there anything else you can help us with while you're here?"

"..."

Nora asked the next question. "Do you want to be here?"

"..."

With each question she didn't answer, Ymir felt her chances of sticking around sink deeper into the ground. And then she knew the chances disappeared off the face of the world when Eren spoke again. "Ymir... I can't let you stay here without risking everyone's safety. And I don't want to take anyone else's freedom. Now that Winter's not going to be here either."

"..."

Ymir looked behind her to see a path stretching away from the camp. She knew that she had been freed from her debt, and there was nothing stopping her from leaving. She knew nobody cared where she would go, but she herself had no idea where to go. Even still, the world was at her fingertips, just like it was when she was freed from her cursed Titan form. And Winter seemed to be in no hurry to come back once again. Whatever life she was going to lead on Remnant, it was hers now.

Ymir remembered what she thought that day, and now she was sharing the same idea; destiny was a fickle little whore.

With that, Ymir proudly began to walk away without a word. She was holding back a laugh while doing so, doing her best to contain her happiness at the turn of events. It was a shame that Eren condemned himself to a gruesome fate, but Ymir knew she had just been freed from it. She chose not to consider owing Eren a debt of sorts, given that she had just been freed from everything.

When she was out of sight, everyone turned to Eren. Ren was the first to say what everyone else was thinking. "You did the right thing, Eren."

"I know," he said calmly. "Guess we have one less thing to worry about right now." He then turned his head to one person in particular; Midori. Everyone followed suit, making the girl feel uncomfortable.

"Uh... why's everyone looking at me?" she asked with an awkward laugh.

"I don't want to steal anyone's freedom, Midori," Eren explained as he pointed to the path Ymir had walked down. "You can go if you want. Or we could drive you back to Kuroyuri. I think they'd like to see you again."

"Are you kidding?" Midori asked. "I'm not gonna leave you guys."

"Are you sure?"

"Definitely." Midori looked over to everyone around her. "I don't know what Salem wanted with me, just like all of you. But nothing's stopping her from trying to get me back. If I go to Kuroyuri, who knows what she'll do to take me away?"

"She has a point," Nora said. "And I don't have a problem if she stays. Anyone else?"

"Nope," Emerald replied.

"Fine by me," said Mercury.

"Me too," said Ren.

"Same here," Eren and Cinder replied at the same time.

Midori laughed at the coincidence. "Thanks, everyone. And unlike, whatever her name was, I can help out." She then walked over to Eren. "Starting with you. Looks like your Aura's recharging. And you got a lotta bumps and bruises."

"I'll be okay," Eren replied as he felt more steam escape his wounds. "It'll just take some time."

Midori took Eren's hand and closed her eyes. "No problem, I can speed it up." A green light began to surround itself against Eren's body. All of his cuts and bruises disappeared soon after, leaving Eren feeling rejuvenated. Midori opened her eyes and let go of Eren's hand. "Hope you don't mind it being short, I'm still kinda tired."

"No problem." Eren looked up at the sky and began to see that it was getting late. "Looks like all of this took up a lotta time."

"We shouldn't waste anymore, then," Mercury said as he walked back to the campfire. "Yo, Nora. What was that idea you had about Salem's goons earlier?"

"Oh, yeah!" Nora remembered as she flexed her muscles. "We'll break their legs!"

Ren followed Nora back to the fire. "First, we need to lure them out," he said. "But after that, it seems like a legitimate strategy."

"We'll just need to be back up to fighting speed," said Emerald. "I gotta test out the weapon Mercury fixed."

"Is it a fair guess that some of you can teach me how to fight?" Midori asked calmly, earning a laugh from most of her companions. Eren and Cinder were the last to follow everyone back to the fire, since Cinder had a good excuse to talk to Eren privately.

"Eren!" she yelled with a smile and a hug, almost knocking Eren over. "All of that was amazing! You were amazing!"

Eren returned the hug once he regained his footing. "You're one to talk," he said. "It was your move, wasn't it? And thanks for keeping those Grimm off us."

"You kidding?" Cinder let go of Eren. "What'd you expect, a bigger audience?"

"I guess I got carried away with my Semblance, huh?"

"I mean, yeah. Using your anger to get stronger has some drawbacks."

"Thanks again."

"No problem." Cinder lost her smile and looked down at the ground. "So, uh... you said we were going to talk after this was over?"

"Oh, uh..." Eren scratched the back of his head before calming himself down. "Yeah, I actually wanted to ask you something. I was... just wondering... why you still had your necklace. After all these years."

"Oh..." Cinder reached into her vest and pulled it out. "The powers you gave me healed my neck. I don't have that scar anymore. I kept the necklace so I... Well, I wanted to..."

"To remember," Eren realized. "You don't need to do that."

"Somebody has to. How else could I have tired to get through to Winter?"

"..."

Cinder took Eren's silence as a kind of validation of her reasoning. So she put the necklace back in her vest and looked back to Eren. She had one more thing she wanted to say, but focused on something else first. "You sure you're okay?" she asked calmly. "You still look a little sore."

"Yeah, I'm okay," Eren replied, grateful for the concern. He then began to rub some spots on his body that were still sore, specifically his cheek. "But, yeah, I guess I'm still a little sore. It's not a big-"

*SMECK*

Eren felt a small pressure on his now painless cheek, one that lasted for a split second. He had experienced the feeling before, and it caused him to look directly at the source; Cinder, who had just kissed his cheek with a smile on her face.

"I know it must have been hard, dealing with Winter's attitude and keeping us on track," she said. "I just wanted to thank you for doing your best, and you made the right call. And... thanks for keeping that promise you made me. It really means a lot."

"..."

Eren's mind was filled with just about a million things he wanted to say to Cinder, but they never reached his lips. Instead, he silently watched Cinder walk away, who also couldn't think of anything else to say. Except, despite the gratitude she had for Eren keeping the promise he made, her head was filled with just one thing she wanted to say in response to Eren's silent awe.

"Oh, why did I do that? Why did I do that?"

Her embarrassment, however, made Cinder oblivious to Eren smiling behind her, despite the confusion and uncertainty within him growing. Just as he thought, Eren felt the same way that he believed he would if this ever happened again: happy.


Author's notes: hey everyone! Hope you enjoyed the chapter, and I hope you're still enjoying the story. And I just want to mention that today is actually the one year anniversary of Attack on Titan: A New Path. Pretty crazy, huh? The Avenging Titan and I couldn't have done this without all your support and your guidance for where you'd like to see things play out (especially with Eren and Cinder). You'll be seeing much more from us in the future, thank you so much for reading up to this point. And before we close it off, here's a little something AT wants to say:

"Hey guys it's The Avenging Titan. First off, I just want to say thank you all for sticking with us. A year ago this story was barely a concept I first pitched to Court of Talons during his old Q & A story, and the Attack on Titan manga was still ongoing. Now the manga has ended and the anime is surging, and we have reached up to 437 Favs and 528 Follows. Thank you all.

Now before signing off there are two things I wish to touch on. The first is our newest Titan to be forged: the Flashstep Titan. This Titan was actually a bit tricky for me to come up with as I didn't know exactly what would fit for Mercury. I initially considered flight but later chose speed. Though I did incorporate the wing-like fins as an allusion to Mercury's inspiration, the Roman God Mercury. And of course the speed aspect of this Titan was based off of characters with speed such as Marvel's Quicksilver, DC's the Flash, and even A-Train from The Boys. While Titan's like the Cart and Jaw Titan can be pretty fast and nimble due to their size, the Flashstep Titan is faster. In fact, I think it is safe to say he is the fastest Titan out of any Titan.

The second thing is Eren's Semblance: It is called Rage Awakened, and the angrier Eren becomes the stronger and faster he turns out. However there is the chance he could lose himself in his rage and go berserk is he isn't careful. Eren's first defining feature was his rage. Even after the Time-Skip when he was more cold and stoic he still had his rage, such as his anger at Frieda Reiss when she condemned Paradis and the Eldians to die which was referenced in this chapter. The inspiration for this Semblance came from the biggest rage machine in fiction, the Incredible Hulk, who also gets stronger the angrier he gets. The name Rage Awakened came from Kingdom Hearts believe it or not, as one of the soundtracks in the series is actually called Rage Awakened.

Anyhow, we hope that you all enjoyed this chapter, and once again thank you all for sticking with us throughout this journey. This is The Avenging Titan signing off.

P.S. What do you all think of the new RWBY series RWBY: Ice Queendom?"

Hope this answers some questions you may have had. Thanks again for reading and giving your support. Enjoy the rest of your day, and we'll see you all next time.