True Freedom
Chapter 2: Dasein
Eren almost blinked from the shock. Almost. He knew it was coming, he knew Pieck would try to outsmart him but the sudden noise that cut the tense silence still startled him slightly. It was a basic human instinct. The first thing Eren registered was that he was flying through the humid air. The second thing he realized was the sharp pain in his legs as he saw the blood gushing out of them right in front of him.
Even though it had all occurred in just a matter of seconds, Eren had already figured out his next movement. Almost instantly, he made his Titan body form, however, he didn't use any lightning to do it. It was an ability he was able to figure out a few years prior after observing the Colossal Titan's lightning-less appearance in Trost District.
With near perfection, he landed his Titan on the cracked roof of the Scout HQ as his Titan finished forming. He got on all fours as he steadied himself. Ignoring the rapidly decreasing sharp pain in his actual legs, he kicked the ground hard, creating a larger dust cloud.
He looked up to see the silhouette of his opponent through the dust cloud, the small, yet quick and fierce Jaw Titan. Eren had also read about that Titan, from both his Father's journals and from his time as a civilian in Liberio. That Titan was unique. Unlike the other Titans, whose users already had full access to all their abilities, the Jaws Titan User had to be trained in order to fully unlock all its abilities.
Perhaps that was the reason Ymir never was able to spawn her Jaw Titan anywhere as good as this new Jaw Titan User, whose name was Porco Galliard. Zeke had informed him about this. But this wasn't the time to ponder about that. The Jaws was already on the move. From his spot, he could see some dots in the sky that were getting closer.
'Marleyan Zeppelins'. Eren realized. He wasn't too surprised, he figured that there was no way Marley would let two of its Titans go into the Heart of the Enemy's land without any support.
He didn't know much of what would happen next. He knew Reiner was most likely in one of those Zeppelins, en route to join the fight against him.
Eren had already fought both Reiner and Porco before, but separately each, not against both of them simultaneously. He knew enough about Reiner and Porco's fighting styles to know that they favored a quick finish to a fight rather than a battle of attrition. It made sense, considering the Jaws was meant for a quick fight considering it's short but quick body. However for Reiner, that fighting style didn't bode too well for his Titan.
What Eren didn't know was how well Reiner and Porco could fight together. It would make his fight either easier or harder depending on the two Titan's coordination. He also didn't know too much about Pieck's fighting style with the Cart Titan.
Eren did feel a tinge of uneasiness of going up against the three Titans, considering that he did initially get caught off guard when fighting the Jaws in Liberio and almost got devoured by it. But he knew he didn't have any other choice. If he lost, his home would be lost and everything he knew cared about sincerely would be taken from his grasp if he failed.
'Just like my Mom' Eren thought.
Her death was what caused Eren to become something else. The feeling of being unable to do anything but sit and cry as his Mother was devoured wrenched Eren's heart to this day. The fact he never was able to apologize to her Mother for his outburst earlier that day nine years ago only increased the heavy feeling in his chest.
'I'm not letting that happen again' Eren declared. He thought back to Sasha's death. Back then he thought he could prevent her death after seeing a vision of it, but he gave up when he realized, no, assumed he couldn't change the future.
He was confident that when Sasha's time came to an end, he would have already gotten over his grievance of her. However, when the time of Sasha's demise in the Zeppelin did come around, his feelings shattered. That was when he realized that he was just bullshitting himself into thinking he was a slave to destiny and couldn't do anything to stop those he cared about from dying.
It almost drove him into insanity that he allowed himself to be a slave of destiny and allowed it do what it wished with Sasha's life. He had sworn he would never be anyone's slave ever, and he broke his own promise. And as a result, someone who Eren loved like a Sister and wouldn't have hesitated to take a bullet for him died.
It was almost as if he were trapped in a trance of sorts that was influencing his actions and making him believe that he was a slave to destiny. And that dream he had in the carriage was the hammer that shattered that trance, and freed him once more.
The dream also freed new memories that didn't belong to Eren. They were brief and only a few seconds long each. Some were obviously from the past, while others were harder to tell when and where they were from. Eren kept getting more of them randomly while resting inside the Carriage towards Shiganshina.
Although they didn't make much sense, Eren had a gut feeling that they would come useful in the future. All of these thoughts felt like minutes to Eren, even though he was sure it was only split seconds in reality.
Eren's eyes glared hard at the Jaw Titan silhouette. He estimated that he had around less than two minutes before the Zeppelins were close enough to bring down soldiers in parachutes or Reiner. In those two minutes he had a chance to get rid of both the Jaws and the Cart Titans before the Armored Titan arrived and made the situation harder for him. A slim one, but it was still a possible chance.
'I'm not going to give them any opportunities to pull on me, I won't give them any time to take me out, I'm not going to give them anything.' Eren declared in his mind. He stopped holding back from that moment on and let out his true feelings and emotions he had repressed when he heard Sasha's death, when he saw his Mom and Hannes being snapped in half, when he saw all his comrades and friends die.
It was time to let the Devil out, the same monster that showed itself when he fought Annie in Stohess, the same one that terrified even his own comrades, who didn't dare get near him as he tore the Female Titan apart. The same one that attacked Liberio.
He didn't care anymore what the world said about him. He was just going to move forward with his goals, save his people, and win.
The War for Paradis had finally begun.
Porco let out a grunt of confusion upon seeing the cloud of dust settle in front of him.
Did-did I get him?' Porco scowled from within his Titan. He swore he heard another explosion, but thanks to the loud crashing noise he made when he broke through the ceiling, he had no idea whether he just imagined it. He could hear Pieck telling Gabi that she would never betray her comrades.
'And besides, I didn't see any lightning-' Porco's thoughts were interrupted as a spiked white fist crashed right into the back of his head at full speed. The Jaws went tumbling off the building into the ground. He crashed violently into the hard ground.
'H-how?! If that second explosion I saw moments ago was truly him, how did he get around me so fast?!' Porco's mind raced with different questions. He could feel Pieck and Gabi squirming in his right fist, which he thankfully closed instinctively when he fell.
'How fast is this bastard-' His thoughts dissipated when he narrowly dodged a foot crashing into the ground beside him. He jumped off the ground, only to be grabbed by the mane of his Titan head from behind. Before he had a chance to claw himself free from the grip, the hand lifted him into the air and slammed him right through a nearby building. As Porco struggled to stand up, he looked at his attacker, now fully visible, for the first time. He almost gasped at its appearance.
As soon as the dust cleared, he could see the Attack Titan's new form. It's skin was no longer peach-flesh colored, but rather, pale, not as much as the Warhammer's armored skin, but somewhat in between. There were long stripes that showed its secondary flesh-colored skin traveling from its kneecaps to its ankles and from its elbows to its wrists.
It's face looked like a combination of the Attack Titan and the Warhammer Titan. It's face was encased in the Warhammer Skin except for its scalp, which had the Attack Titan's long hair protruding out of the space, and its eyes, which were covered with slits that were similar to the previous Warhammer Titan, except that while the previous one had vertical slits, this new Warhammer had Horizontal Ones.
Its mouth also bore horizontal slits from the tip of its nose to the base of its neck, somewhat similar to the previous Warhammer, with the Attack Titan's jaw visible underneath the slits of the white skin of the Warhammer. Porco instinctively backed away from his opponent before standing up once more.
The Founder stared at him, almost as if it were sizing him up. It remained still for a few more seconds that felt more like an eternity for Porco before the new Warhammer rushed towards the Jaw Titan, quickly creating needle-like claws in its fingers and let out a blood-curdling scream as it lunged towards Porco.
Hey everyone, I'm back. I've been busy for awhile, but finally got enough time to start working on these stories once more. I'm going to make this a full-fledged story.
Thank you for reading this and please leave a review.
