Creation began on 12-28-23

Creation ended on 12-31-23

Attack on Titan

The Dark Titan: Choices and Regrets

A/N: I'm always looking for ideas to give twists and turns that create different plots in my works. This is no different.

When the Colossal Titan disappeared after kicking a hole in Wall Maria and the lesser Titans entered through said hole, Eren Yeager's first reaction was to run home to get his mother, finding her half-buried under the rubble.

"Mom!" He gasps as he runs over to try and get her out.

Mikasa Ackerman came along to try and help out, but noticed two Titans coming towards them. Even though it seemed hopeless, she knew Eren wasn't going to leave without Carla.

Carla saw the Titans and begged Mikasa to take Eren and run.

"I'm not leaving you!" Eren tells her, still trying to shift through the rubble.

One of the Titans, a fifteen-meter one with a creepy smile, came over and reached down to the rubble with its left arm. It was about to grab Carla…when the other Titan, much larger than fifteen meters, probably just under twenty meters, dark-skinned, a combination of lithe, muscular and androgynous, grabbed its arm and pushed the Smiling Titan away into another building, knocking it aside. If this was a fight to decide which Titan got to eat the most, this Titan was likely the top of the hill under the Colossal Titan. But something was off; the bigger Titan was looking at the three…but it hadn't made a move on any of the three people under its head, as if studying them…until it made a choice. With its left arm, it grabbed Eren…and brushed away much of the rubble atop Carla, looking at her and Mikasa with a strange expression on its face; the look was akin to the way a person aggrieved by something they had either done…or was about to do.

Then, the dark-colored Titan rose up and walked away, just as several other Titans came towards it, which it cleaved into pieces by whipping its long, dark hair at them, cutting through their flesh and bones like a knife through butter. Stomping over their heads and backs like they were less than pulp, it went down the street where other Titans gathered, holding Eren, who was yelling his lungs out, in its hand, unable to let him go.

"Why?" Carla asks as she was able to get free from the remaining rubble of their house. "Why did it take Eren?"

Even Mikasa was curious as to why. It could've taken all three of them, but it only took Eren and enabled Carla to get free with just a minor injury. She couldn't make sense of why this Titan would do what it did. It was almost…as though the Titan had contemplated its choice before it made it.

-x-

The abnormal Titan holding Eren stood before another fifteen-meter Titan that looked as though it was covered from head to toe in hardened skin plates with short, blond hair.

"Aaah!" Eren yelled, unable to get free.

"Rrrrraaaurgh!" The dark-skinned Titan roared at the other Titan that suddenly charged towards it. "Rrrraaurgh!"

It suddenly charged towards it and leapt into the air, going over the opposing Titan and using its right leg to strike its head, forcing it to crash into a nearby building.

Eren couldn't believe that this Titan was capable of such moves! It was like something out a dream that had become a nightmare. If he hadn't been afraid before, he was now, and of this particular Titan he was in the grip of. It looked at him and then over at the waterway where a ship was being loaded with people as fast as possible before walking over to where the breach had been made, just as more Titans were coming in. It raised its arm up, getting their attention before showing the little boy it had its hand.

"Rrrrraaurgh!" It shrieked, much louder than before, and Eren wished he could cover his ears because he felt like his eardrums were going to burst.

"Aaaaurgh!" He yelled, seeing the Titans, between four, five, eleven and thirteen meters, all charging towards this dark-skinned Titan.

It whipped its head back and swung its long hair at them all, cutting through them with no resistance, sending them falling to the ground.

"Rrrrrraaaurgh!" It roared again.

-x-

"What the Hell is going on here?!" A man questions on the boat as the civilians watched as this mysterious Titan was cleaving away at other Titans with its long hair or stomping them to pieces with its feet.

Among the people on the boat, Armin and his grandfather could see the Titan looking the other, and saw the Titan that had charged towards it earlier starting to get back up. It shook off the weariness it must've had before looking at the larger Titan that had just cleaved several more Titans with its hair…and ran towards it. If this was a rivalry, it was the strangest one the blond-haired boy had ever seen, and these were the first Titans he had laid eyes upon.

The dark-skinned Titan quickly moved out of the way and let the charging, hardened-skin Titan lose its footing and crash into the riverbank, damaging the sides and sending several dozen gallons of water into the air. After its maneuver, it looked at a nearby building, placed something atop its roof, and went over to where the hardened-skin Titan crashed and jumped over the river to its other side where the upper body of the opposing Titan was wedged into the side.

"Grrr…" The Titan growled as it started to move, but the dark-skinned Titan pinned its arms with its feet and started trying to pull its head off.

"Holy God," a woman gasps as the hardened Titan's head was slowly-but-surely being ripped out of its socket.

SNAP! The head came off like a tree's base being ripped from the ground.

"Damn!" Another man in the background yells, seeing the head getting ripped off.

Then, the Titan tossed the severed head and dug its right hand into the body of the headless Titan, ripping something out of its neck. It was momentarily transfixed by whatever it was looking at and then looked over at the people on the boat.

"Oh, no," Armin gasps, seeing the Titan now getting into the river and wading towards the boat.

The boat started moving, but it didn't get far enough when the Titan grabbed its end with its left hand and raised its right hand over it, but whatever was in its hand, it didn't let go of yet. It was as though…it was waiting for the people to move out of the way. When several people did just that after seeing it doing nothing to even try and harm them, it opened its hand and dropped something onto the deck, covered in bloody pulp.

"Aah!" They could hear a gasping noise from it as something moved around.

Upon closer inspection from a member of the Garrison stationed within Shiganshina, he unsheathed his ODM blades.

"Is it some sort of Titan?" One of his comrades asks.

"No," he answers. "It's a kid."

Covered in smoking remains, a young, blond-haired boy with strange marks on his face could be seen by them, gasping for air.

"That…that thing is something else," the boy utters as the Titan climbs out of the water and back towards the building it had left something on.

-x-

Feeling almost deaf from the roaring and screaming, Eren could barely hear anything as the dark-skinned Titan came back from decapitating the other Titan.

"Oh, God!" He gasps as it reaches down and picks him up again. "What do you want from me?!"

That was a lousy thing to say, but what else could he say? This Titan had made no attempts to eat him at all; if it was ever going to, it was taking its time doing so. Looking away, it noticed the Titan from earlier, the one with the creepy smile, starting to get up from the wreckage, and walked over towards it. It knocked it over again and pinned it under its right leg.

"Rrrraaurgh!" It roared up at it, but all it did was hold out its left hand over its head so it could see the boy, slowly lowering him down to its mouth.

"Aaaaurgh!" Eren screamed as the pinned Titan opened its mouth. "No! No! Please! Please!"

He didn't want to die. He didn't want to get eaten by a Titan. Or worse, fed to a Titan by another Titan that had just killed a bunch of other Titans.

"Please! No!" He cried, and then the hand was pulled back before the Titan could close its mouth and seal his fate.

The Titan shook its head in the negative at the smiling Titan, and then brought its left foot down on its face, reducing it to pulp. Then, it brought its hand down and set the boy on the ground, rising back up to its intimidating height and dragging away the maimed Titan.

Eren, unable to comprehend that he had almost been fed to a Titan by another Titan, just fell to the ground and started crying like a baby. The dark-skinned Titan could've fed him to any Titan or killed him by crushing him in its hand, flattening him into the ground or some other form of life-ending torment, but it didn't…and he wasn't sure he wanted to know why, either.

-x-

The dark-skinned Titan dragged the mangled Titan to where the breach was…and slammed it against a piece of debris and left it impaled as its head regenerated. Looking out through the break, it saw a handful of other Titans nearby…and two humans near a smoldering husk of a massive body of muscle and bone. As the two humans looked up at it, it glared at them…and reached down towards them before the other Titans could come closer.

Even with regrets, is there hope?

A/N: This is one of the few things I wanted to post before the year ends. I want to hear from those that actually have something to say about the deviance here. Happy New Year!