Creation began on 01-18-24
Creation ended on 01-21-24
Attack on Titan
The Pale One: From the Bitter Heart come the Darkness
It was a rarity, given his position as the Restorative Horseman of Death, but Pēruwan was no stranger to walking around in unusual places. And this place was all but unusual to his soul as he stood within it, despite having earlier been walking atop the innermost wall named after the third daughter of Ymir Fritz, trying to find the Unity. He was now within the realm of the paths that connected all Eldians to the nexus that was the Founding Titan, and, in his silence, stood before a man that looked like he was walking towards his death.
Grisha Yeager, just as confused as he had been when he last remembered being in his study, looked at this pale stranger and felt an air of fear and retribution from the sight of him.
"Who are you?" He asks him.
"I am…the loss of the forgotten," Pēruwan states cryptically. "I am the Pale Rider of the Heavenly Damned. The blood that decays over times of hatred and retribution. Who are you?"
"Grisha Yeager. A doctor."
"Is that all you are?"
"What?"
"Are you only a doctor? What is a doctor? A healer? A scientist? Someone that does all that they can to know more than what is required to save lives…or someone that is willing to defile the sanctity of life to pursue their own self-interests? Who are you really…Grisha Yeager?"
"I am…a disgraced patriot. I was a member of the Eldian Restorationist Movement in Marley…before I failed everyone that looked to me."
"The Eldian Restorationist Movement… That group was doomed to fail from what I heard. A man that sent his son into the lion's den, thinking he could take out the king and usurp his throne…only to find that the boy he sent was not able to live up to the expectations that were set upon him…and sent the pride to hunt his pack down to the last man and woman. And I to assume that you…are the father that disgraced his son and drove him to turn against you for such expectations? Are you that man…or did he die some time ago?"
Grisha sighs and responds, "I am the failed father. My son, Zeke, exposed the movement to Marley…and had everyone sent to Paradis to become Titans left to wander around the island for all time."
"And yet you're alive…and still able to talk about it. How is it that you are still human and not a Titan condemned to walk around Paradis?"
"Because the previous holder of the Attack Titan saved me and gave me his power…and his mission to capture the Founding Titan from the royal family of Paradis."
"The Attack Titan. Well, have you?"
"What?"
"The Founding Titan. Have you taken it from the royal family?"
"No."
"Why?"
"I am a doctor. I swore an oath to do no harm. If I try to take the Founding Titan, that will mean having to kill someone for it…and I don't want to do that."
"Your undesired penalty of being turned into a Titan by the Marleyans…was it done through injection of the spinal fluid?"
"Yes."
"But the previous Attack Titan spoke to you before you turned?"
"Yes."
"Were you a doctor before…or after you took his life?"
"What?"
"Did you take the oath to do no harm before you ended his life…or after you ended his life?"
"I was training to become a doctor…but I didn't complete my doctorate. I rely on my skills learned from before I came to Paradis. Still, I follow the oath…but I killed him to live for thirteen more years."
Pēruwan walks over to him, looking him in the eyes.
"A man that is not a doctor…but practices medicine to save lives…condemned only by the fact that he took one life to live…is still a man condemned," he tells Grisha. "I should kill you right now, even in this realm we currently inhabit…but then I would deprive the people of a doctor, a person that took an oath to save lives, not take them. How long do you have left to live?"
"Less than four years," he reveals; whatever memory he had received from the future had said he had less than a year to live, but that had to be further from the present, not right now.
"Have you seen anything of the future?"
"I…used to. But I haven't been able to receive memories of anything yet to transpire."
"Then I shall tell you what I do know. Marley no longer has the Titans Colossal, Armored, Female or Cart; I killed the last people to hold them in order to cripple their forces, leaving them with only the Beast, Jaw and War Hammer. I am here on Paradis with the mission to find the Unity, a device that will enable the Restorative, the group I serve in the goal to achieve coexistence, not genocide or domination, and to do this, I must infiltrate Wall Sina and obtain it. Once I have the Unity, I can remove all hatred in the world, returning the hopes of coexistence and returning negative emotions back to zero. Do you know of the Unity?"
"I don't know anything about something called the Unity. Is it valuable?"
"In a word, yes. But does this mean a price tag can be placed on it? No. It is valuable and worth more than even the power of the Titans. Even worth more than all manner of life put together. It is basically invaluable…and I must find it."
Grisha felt concerned; he had his doubts that this person was capable of killing four people that possessed the power of the Titans so easily when he looked more like he could barely hold his own in a brawl. But there was something about his dark eyes that carried a dark revelation that even he couldn't escape from.
"Are you…human?" He found himself asking Pēruwan.
"What is human in this day and age? What does it mean to be human?" Pēruwan replies. "Some would define it as looking exactly like everyone else to the point of where you are like everyone else. Others define it as being capable of thoughts and emotions like they are, able to feel, to see, hear, taste and smell…or just having a soul. Is that what it means to be human?"
Grisha got the impression that Pēruwan's intelligence was more emotional than intellectual, something that some people look down upon. But if this person was human like himself and others, he was simply incapable of giving a straight answer due to how he lived.
"Some would view any with the power of the Attack Titan as being anything but human," Pēruwan tells him.
"What?" He questions.
"The Attack Titan is a rogue factor in existence due to its violence and unruly behavior. It is neither friend nor ally against any enemy; its only purpose is to fight against any oppression of Eldian freedom, which is nothing more than a belief that has been long since outdated by the rest of the world. Anyone that fights for freedom with the Attack Titan is in themselves a slave to perpetuating a lie that continues to be poisonous to other people. It doesn't matter the reason; once you choose to fight for freedom, it becomes all you care about and all you desire at the cost of all else that matters. Freedom is an illusion that we tell ourselves is important because we don't want to be limited to what we know or have. So, tell me…are you a slave to freedom, Dr. Yeager…or are you able to let go of such an empty desire and search for what really matters, which is peace and coexistence? Is freedom all you desire for Eldia…or is it something else that you want? Something that only you want, not someone else?"
Then, for just a brief moment, Grisha saw someone behind Pēruwan. It was the same person he saw before. His second son, older and colder. And then Pēruwan turns around…and kicks the man to the ground, surprising Grisha.
"Ah!" He gasps as he sees his son fall to the ground.
"He is nothing more than a ghost from a future that clings to existence that depends on you doing as he wants, doctor," Pēruwan informs him. "But if the past can be altered, then so, too, can the future. This is where I ask you if can make your own decisions and not have them based on someone else's intentions. Can you choose for yourself what it is that you want? Or will you bend to the will of another that has no faith in nothing and nobody else but the drive to fight for a goal that is impossible to accomplish because what he wants never existed?"
As the older incarnation of his son rose back up, Grisha looks at Pēruwan and says, "I don't want genocide. I don't want…whatever future Eren ends up in to be one where a lot of people die."
"Fight or die," the older boy, Eren, expresses. "If you don't fight, then you don't deserve to…"
Stomp! Pēruwan kicked him back onto the ground and sighs.
"I just met you," he says, "and already, I don't like you. It's no wonder you're alone."
He got back up and looked at the pale-skinned man, his cold expression colder.
"You're going to die," he warns him.
"I've been dead for years, it's nothing new to me," Pēruwan responds.
"I will get what I'm after for all of Paradis, no matter what you try."
"Only if your father gives you the power of the Attack Titan. If you don't possess that disgrace, you can't exist. You won't exist. Ever."
"You…don't know that."
"Then why do you hesitate from the fact that I said so with much conviction? Are you afraid that I'm right? Are you fearful of your life being ended before it can even begin?"
That surprised Grisha to hear. Was this incarnation of his second son from the future afraid of being erased from existence because what he saw wasn't happening?
"To protect the people, we need the Founding Titan," he tells Grisha.
"No," Pēruwan counters, "to ensure peace for the next couple of generations, the Unity must be found and used to return hatred and despair to zero. Only then will the world begin to heal from its wounds of misery."
"Wrong!" The man yells at him. "No matter what you or that woman say, there is no way for peace and coexistence to be achieved! The only way this world can heal is by destroying the enemies of Paradis!"
"What enemies? Most of the world wants nothing to do with Paradis, except for Marley, and that because of their need for resources to maintain their position as a superpower. All Paradis has in terms of worth are resources that nobody's making much use of, only Marley doesn't wish to share this with the world and is willing to wage war in order to obtain what they're after. However, my fellow horsemen and their allies are hard at work to turn the tide and keep the violence and death to a minimum. Once the Unity has been found, we can remove the desires for war and bloodshed."
"I refuse to believe that."
"I want to believe that," went Grisha, surprising his son. "Can you find it?"
"It's behind Wall Sina. That narrows its location down. It's just a matter of finding it now and putting it to use."
"Then please…find it."
-x-
"…Find it," Pēruwan's recollection of Grisha's plea echoed through his mind as he stood atop Wall Sina, looking down at the land below.
The Unity is somewhere behind this wall, he thought as he held up a construct he built during his time in the factories of Wall Rose. I will find it, and nothing and nobody…will stand in my way. From the darkness shall come the truest of lights.
He leapt from the wall and glided in the air, his simple construct slowing his descent by using the wind currents to his advantage. For him, this was the closest he could get to flight. And for now, that was enough for the Restorative Horseman of Death…until he had earned his true wings with his final act. The grand sight of the trees and the remarkable expanse of land below that lay away from the districts seemed like the best place to start looking for the Unity; as it couldn't be destroyed, only hidden, it was all a matter of time and patience before it made itself known to him and he would use its power to return all manner of negative thoughts and feelings back to zero. If he succeeded, the world would know in the space of a heartbeat, all souls losing their collective hatred towards whatever they possessed the capacity to hate and want to destroy, enabling them to build or rebuild the lost or damaged bridges that return to the relationships long forgotten, reforging the covenant of coexistence for generations to come.
Landing as gracefully as his glider would allow, Pēruwan touched down on the grass and looked up at the night sky.
-x-
Grisha shudders at the memory of his son, who wasn't even in his teens yet, but was clearly stubborn to the point of being a threat if he ever possessed the power of the Attack Titan, and in that moment knew that he couldn't let that future come to pass. If that was the same guy he examined at the village, and he was exactly who he said he was, and he was looking for something that could erase hatred from people's hearts, then he hoped he would find it in due time. And if time wasn't on his side, he needed to do something that would enable him to choose a successor that would carry the power of the Attack Titan, rather than let it transfer across time and space to an Eldian child yet to be born, even though it was probably the better of the two evils than let his son gain possession of it. But that one thought would always be lingering in the back of his mind: What if the world needed the Attack Titan, but under someone that could be trusted due to having a better mindset than those that came before them?
I won't let it happen, he steeled himself in his resolve, and closed his journal. If there is another way to save lives, I have to believe in it over what was once the future that can't be allowed to happen. No matter what happens to me, any future where people live is a future I can close my eyes forever, knowing that it will be a better future.
-x-
It didn't matter if they were only with two of their remaining three Titan powers. The operation to invade Paradis for the Founding Titan was still a sound one, just needing to be tweaked in order to run smoothly. For Zeke Yeager, the power of the Beast and Jaw Titans would have to suffice since Marley couldn't afford to use the War Hammer Titan in case these…horsemen were more dangerous than their Mid-Eastern Alliance foes that were amassing to take advantage of Marley's power losses.
"Are you confident that you can take the Founder from the island devils?" Magath had asked Zeke the day before he and the Jaw Titan boarded the boat that would take them to Paradis.
"I will find a way, sir," Zeke had stated; it wasn't an answer to whether or not he was confident, but it was enough to lessen the concerns of potential failure.
But the price of failure was not any better if they failed to take the Founder. Should Zeke return empty-handed or lose the Jaw Titan, he would be relieved of the Beast Titan and sentenced to death. Either way, he had everything to lose and only a few years left to live, and the current Jaw Titan only had twelve years to live, something they wanted to enjoy the majority of without the fear of death since their to receive the Titan power wasn't even due to their loyalty or commitment, but due to their dispensability to the cause. While such a fate was cruel, what Marley would do their families was just as cruel if they failed to take the Founder.
It was probably better if they used a soldier that had no family left to use as leverage, Zeke thought as he sat in a corner of the boat as it departed from the docks.
To be continued…
A/N: Any guess on who the Jaw Titan currently is in this story? And any guesses on who will likely be the new Attack Titan should be when Grisha is nearing his end?