Chapter 8: The Origin of The Crystal Titan

A/N: More answers this time, get ready!

The beach had remained calm for quite a while. That silence was broken by the waves slowly giving way to a leviathan. Godzilla had followed his senses to this location, searching for that strange yet familiar force. After a few thundering footsteps, he made his way onto dry land. It took him a while to look around. He knew what he was looking for was here, but he couldn't see it. Finally, it arose.

From the ground, a crystal tower emerged from the sandy beach. Standing about 240 feet, the crystal glowed with power.

This was it. This is definitely what he sensed. It smelled and felt like the radiation he had fed on before arriving in this primitive world. Craving variety, he decided to test this new energy source.

Grabbing hold of it with his claws, he drained the energies within as his spines glowed. Yes, this was definitely similar to the radiation he fed from before. As the tower became drained completely, it crumbled to a black dust at his feet. He could get used to this new food source.

But as he finished, he sensed it again. There was more of this power here. He advanced forward, slowly entering the forest towards another tower.

Meanwhile…

Reiner looked into the Things eyes, Berlot's eyes. Same face, same amount of teeth, there was no denying that the face he was looking into was that of the Colossal Titan.

While he was a lot thinner than usual, the changes were drastic. Every exposed muscle on his body had been changed to a purplish red. Bits of skin scattered on his person was pure white. Most drastic of all, purple crystals emerged at random points on his body.

"It..it just… it can't be!" he said, "I saw you die. I watched as you burned to cinders from to the Predator's blast."

The Colossal Titan's eyes suddenly blazed brightly as he roared at Reiner with a primal rage. Obviously, he was still a little touchy about the subject of his own demise. The Titan looked back at Reiner, who gazed in terror at was once his friend. Carefully, the Colossal Titan placed Reiner onto the ground.

"How could this even happen?" Ymir said, still trying to grasp what was going on.

Slowly, The Colossal touched the enormous Crystal tower with his hands. The tower glowed brightly as the ground shook. Right at their feet, a small, blue tower about six feet tall emerged from the ground beneath them.

The Titan gestured his hand at the new construct, as if telling them to look at it. Reiner and Ymir gazed into it, watching as images started to come together.

It showed the battle between Berlot and Godzilla a year ago. They saw once more as the heat beam cut the legs off the most powerful Titan on the planet. Godzilla came closer to the downed Colossus, readying his final blast. Reiner looked away, not wanting to relive that moment. But Ymir turned his head back, there was something more he had to see.

While the majority of Berlot was being obliterated, a small chunk of flesh was launched upwards, thanks to the force from the blast. It continued its way upward due to a gust of wind. It eventually reached the pull of an unseen force than no human noticed that day.

Due to an uncontrollable side-effect of Dimension Tide, a dimensional warp was left in the sky were a black hole once entered. The pull from this tear in the universe wasn't strong enough to pull anything noticeable, but the piece of Titan flesh was light enough to be sucked into it.

Inside the wormhole, Berolt's flesh floated freely. The only other thing inside this void were streaks of pink lightning that scattered about and pieces of crystalline fragments. As time passed, the healing factor kicked back in, but due to the strange energies the chunk of Titan began to heal unusually.

Eventually, the flesh seemed to find a solution to this dilemma. Microscopic, Crystal organisms attached themselves to Berlot's remains, forming a symbiotic relationship. As time passed, Berlot's cells and the crystal organisms evolved side-by-side as the healing factor continued to reform his shape. From his cells and the crystal structures, a new life-form was created; The Crystal Titan.

The Crystal Titan swam through the void, searching for a way back home. To his fortune, a white hole in space opened the void and set him free. Floating through space, he formed a stone covering, protecting him from the elements of space. When three months passed on earth, he made his way back to the planet of his birth. After a crash-landing, he treated himself to two local humans, which provided him with a familiar sustenance.

Once the image ended, the small structure collapsed in on itself. The two shifters thought on what they just saw.

"So," Ymir said, "You went through the same portal the great predator emerged from, then you healed alongside those…things… and returned here. But what's with the crystals?"

"Perhaps it's a side-effect," Reiner explained, "we are inside a crater right now. His landing may have caused a chain reaction, resulting in this tower. Over time the crystals must have grown and spread, like mold on a piece of meat."

"And the giant creatures?" Ymir asked, looking to the Crystal Titan.

Berlot shook his head.

"So they're not yours?" said Ymir confused.

"It doesn't matter," Reiner interjected, "The point is that our greatest asset is back. More than that, our friend is back! Our mission can continue. With Berlot back at our side we can finally-"

The Crystal Titan roared at them once more, interrupting their celebration. Then he had a glaring look on his face, looming down on the shifters.

"I believe he just objected." Ymir said.

"But the mission…" Reiner began trying to convince the Crystal Titan. But the colossus just stomped hard on the ground, the force knocking the two down to the ground.

"Fine!" Ymir yelled, "What do we do then?"

Berlot paced his hand onto the tower once more. Like before, it glowed brightly as another structure began to form in front of them. But instead of a tower, this one seemed to resemble…

…Godzilla

They looked to the human-sized replica. Berlot lifted his foot and smashed it mercilessly into small shards with a single step.

Meanwhile…

The campsite was not very busy with activity. Soldiers, Clergy, and even a monster sat within groups. After what had happened, they needed a rest and time to eat their rations. The only sound that could be heard was the sound of utensils and chewing, the loudest being from Sasha. That changed very quickly though.

Anguirus had been struggling with a large tree branch. As he pulled and tugged, twigs and leaves fell onto Sasha, covering her with plant debris. There was more leaves than stew in her bowl at this point.

After one final pull with his teeth, he managed to dislodge it from the tree. He then dragged it to a spot right beside Sasha, accidentally pushed her off her seat in the process. He gnawed away at the leafy greens as she picked herself up.

"Ok that's it!" she shouted, "Why me?! Just answer me that, why am I stuck with this thing?"

Anguirus backed away slowly like a child being scolded at. He was a little frightened by her tone.

"Geez Sasha," Connie said, "You could cut him a little slack. He did just save your life an hour ago."

"But why am I the one stuck with him?" she demanded.

"He likes you." Miki answered, barely keeping her eyes off her bowl.

"And here I thought Sasha became an adoptive monster-mother." Jean laughed.

Right before Sasha was about to strike Jean, Miki continued.

"Imagine you're an infant," she said, "alone in an alien world without any of your kind in sight. Who do you associate with? Not anything that'll try to eat you, that's for sure. But you come across someone who doesn't attack you, and eats the same things you do. You'd associate more with them than anything else."

"What does food have to do with it?" Mikasa asked.

"When I read his mind," Miki continued, "he said how much you smell like plants."

"Scent and diet based imprinting!" said a very excited Hange. "This place has EVERYTHING!"

"So because I eat produce and landed in a vegetable stall yesterday I'm some kind of lizard-nanny?" Sasha groaned.

"More or less." Said Lara.

"I think we're missing the big picture here." Said Eren. "Instead of discussing parental instincts, we should be focusing on the crisis involving gigantic monsters roaming our forest."

"Hard to tell what's causing them to wake up," Mobilt answered, "But the good news so far is that they aren't that hard to kill. At least they won't be too much trouble in the future."

"Thank Deliverance for that." Moll said, taking another bite.

"So that's it?" Eren said, his voice getting more and more furious. We just go back without stomping them out for good? Live like cattle all over again?"

"You shouldn't be talking about stomping them out," Jean said smugly. "After all, it doesn't seem like you're able to do any more than the rest of us against these things. Thanks to your recent handicap you're just another human with a sword."

Eren's tolerance just reached the boiling point.

"Arrogant son of a BITCH!" he yelled. If it weren't for Mikasa and Armin holding him back, he would have covered the forest floor with Jean's blood.

"Eren," said Armin, "You need to calm down!"

"There just words Eren," Mikasa said, "You're better than this. You know you are."

Eren pulled himself free from his friend's arms, running the opposite way. He needed space to cool off.

As soon as Eren left, there was an unease all over the campsite. Sasha, however, had her attention elsewhere. A branch landed right in her lap, startling her for a second. When she looked down at it, she noticed it was covered with apple-like fruit. She then looked back up to see Anguirus pushing the branch closer to her with his nose.

His head lowered with very sorrowful eyes. He almost resembled an apologetic child.

Sasha then let out a sigh. She took one of the fruits, biting into it. She stretched out her hand and rubbed his snout. Anguirus closed his eyes, accepting this as a sign of forgiveness.

Eren was now at least 15 feet away from the others. The words dug deep, hitting a very dangerous nerve. But the worst party was that Jean, for the jerk he was, was completely right. Now he was just another foolish teenager without special powers. He felt like all he was torn out of him in one foul swoop.

"There's nothing out here to hit except trees." Miki said as she approached. "And I don't recommend hitting them."

"If you're here to preach then I'm not hearing it," Eren said, not even looking at her.

"How about a theory then?" she said.

This seemed to confuse Eren a bit. He faced her, wanting to see where this was going.

"About what?" he said.

"Titans." She answered.

Normally a conversation on this topic would strike a nerve, but something about the way she said it made it all the more intriguing. Maybe she knows something the rest of us don't?

"What about them?" he asked.

"Well," she began, "say you're raised on a farm. You either buy food or grow it. In order to grow food, you must till the soil, water the seeds, plant the seeds, pull out invading plants, and harvest them before they spoil. If you sit lazily all day and not do these chores, then your plate would have nothing on it."

"What the hell does this have to do with Titans?" said Eren.

She continued.

"They've been hunting us for a century. So did we do nothing? No. we came up with ways to keep us as safe as possible. Walls, cannons, the military branches, 3-D Gear, all in an effort to combat them. But those without a weapon or a rank prayed. They had begged, bargained, and performed good deeds, all to get as much help as they could. Then what happened?"

"The great predator came down." Said Eren, trying really hard to follow.

"He didn't just come down," she said, "he was sent to us."

"By what?"

"Deliverance sent him," She answered. "Giant reptiles don't just fall out of the sky you know."

"Well what is Deliverance anyway?" Eren said, "A deity, a force, what is it?"

"We still don't know." She said. "But whatever it is, whoever it is, it delivered us from the Titans. I became the head of the church thanks to my abilities. With my powers, and that of Moll and Lara, we might be able to contact Deliverance and learn about it."

"But you haven't found anything out yet." Eren said.

"Not yet," she said, "But we know if we try, we'll find answers. That is the key Eren. Without the effort the crops can't grow, and without our effort Deliverance wouldn't have helped us. Yes, I know times can be harsh-whether in agriculture or Titan slaying, but all we can do is pick ourselves up and try again."

Eren was starting to see what she meant. But how could he even try without his prime weapon? Right now, he didn't have an answer. Her words did work in calming him. Guess this is the other reason the townsfolk were so fond of her, he thought to himself.

But as he was about to thank her, Mobilt came up to them.

"Armin's found something," he said, "You'd better come see."

The humans trekked a few yards away from the campsite, in shock of what they encountered. Hundreds of crystals sticking out of the ground, almost looking like a small forest of glass shards.

"By the Great Architect," Eren said, "What are they?"

"I don't know," Hange said, "some kind of gemstone maybe?"

They examined the area for at least six minutes, none of the tools Hange or Mobilt had could scratch them. Anguirus seemed upset by just the sight of it, even Sash couldn't calm him down.

A small rumbling sound came from the furthest crystal. It wasn't a tremor, but it was noticeable enough to get everyone's attention.

From the soil emerged a few small creatures. Most of them were large, grayish lizards that scattered quickly. The remaining three were pure white Tortoises with skull-like faces.

This caused Armin to gain a powerful insight.

"This must be it," Armin said. "These look like the Crystals from the vision. These crystals are what's causing the creatures to awaken!"

"That explains the quivering beast," said Jean, gesturing to the frightened Anguirus.

"Maybe they emit some kind of energy," Armin continued, "Something that disturbed their sleeping pattern."

Before any more questions could be answered, a familiar roar echoed in the distance…

To be continued…

Ps. Happy Halloween!