Attack on Titan: A New Path

by The Court of Talons

Ozma and Salem have been at war for millennia. The fight has taken many lives and taken many years. The champion of the Brother of Light has failed countless times to complete his task. Now, more than ever, Remnant needs a new protector. It needs a man who knows the cruelty of life. A man who doesn't falter in doing the unthinkable. A dark guardian. Remnant needs... Eren Yeager.

19. Chapter 19

"For he today who sheds his blood with me shall be my brother."

William Shakespeare

Chapter 19: The First Battle

While he was laying down in his bunk, Eren found himself thinking back to his time in Paradis, hoping to use his experience in war for tomorrow's attack. He thought back to all the times he used his Titan to fight and destroy, since that was going to happen at the Land of Darkness. He also thought back to the strategy meetings he had with Commander Erwin, how they would appropriately ride outside the Walls and contact each other about danger. Eren understood that a Scroll worked by establishing a connection to a nearby electronic tower or a Kingdom's Cross-Continental Transmit system, something he doubted Salem had. So he would have to stay close to his friends to fight Salem.

While he was pondering this, Eren found himself thinking back on the plan he made on his own, how he would obtain the Founding Titan and commence the Rumbling. He knew there wasn't a chance he could commence another Rumbling on Remnant, but the guilty conscience he had unwillingly developed returned to him at the strangest times.

And now, it was returning him to the day he convinced Mikasa and Armin that they were nothing more than slaves.

The scene felt so lifelike, it was almost as if Eren had actually returned to that room rather than just observing the memory. He could see and feel the terror and disbelief in their faces, but he could tell that he wasn't finished with Mikasa. There was one thing he had to do, one last thing he had to say.

Eren really didn't want to say what he was going to say, but he was prepared to do so for the same reason he said it before.

It had to be done.

"Ever since we were kids... Mikasa, I've always hated you."

"..."

Mikasa looked up at Eren in shock. Tears were forming in her eyes as he spoke those words. And even though he wanted to apologize more than anything, Eren stayed exactly how he was. Calm on the surface, not even batting an eye. And all the while, he was waiting for Armin to unleash his fury and hopefully remove him from this-

"What makes her special, then?"

Eren completely lost his calm demeanor. He looked back to Mikasa, who was holding back tears while staring daggers at Eren. "What?" he asked out loud, since this didn't happen the first time. Something was wrong, and Eren was going to find out what it was. "What did you say?"

Mikasa leaned closer to Eren and spoke. "I said... what makes Cinder special?"

Eren gasped. "How do you-?" He quickly realized what was happening. "Oh, no. I'm dreaming, aren't I?"

"Answer the question."

This time, Armin had turned against Eren, and he too was staring daggers at Eren. The girl who shot Sasha simply said nothing.

"Answer the question, Eren," Armin repeated. "Why would you want to hurt Mikasa instead of the real slave? What's so special about that girl you called your best friend?"

The cards had turned against the young man, and all he could do was talk nonsense.

"I... Cinder is... She's... I don't-"

"Answer me!" Mikasa yelled as she stood up. Her tears came down her cheeks as she suddenly threw the table to her right, catching Eren off guard. "I gave my life to you, Eren! Just like the other girl did! I told you what you were to me, and you threw me away like an unwanted toy!"

"Mikasa, I-"

"Why?! Why does an actual slave get to be with you instead of me?!"

"Maybe he's forgotten us," Armin said as he stood up, also glaring daggers at Eren. "Did you forget us?"

"If I did, I wouldn't be here," Eren replied, trying to reestablish his dominance from before. But when he looked at his hand, it wasn't bleeding like it was before. No cut was on his palm.

"You replaced us, then," said Armin. "It makes sense." He turned to Mikasa. "You found another troubled girl to protect, who spent your whole life with you." He then turned to Eren. "You found another smart guy, who lost nearly his entire family."

"No, I... I didn't replace you!" Eren screamed.

Mikasa pointed behind Eren. "What about them?" she asked calmly.

Eren turned around and found himself in the company of everyone he left behind. And they were all just as unhappy as Mikasa and Armin.

"You told us we were important to you!" said Jean Kirsten.

"You told us we mattered too much to die!" Connie Springer screamed.

"And then, I was the one who died!" said Sasha Blouse, who was bleeding onto the floor. "I died so the rest of the world could follow!"

Before Eren could protest, before he could offer any kind of explanation, another voice called out.

"You're not the only one who died."

Eren turned around to see a burnt corpse standing behind him, with black and red flesh wearing a green cloak and a broken pair of glasses. When it spoke, the voice of Hange Zoë escaped its mouth

"Look what you did to me!" she screamed. "Look what's going to happen to your fake friends!"

Suddenly, two more people moved from behind Hange; Captain Levi Ackerman and Commander Erwin Smith, who were also enraged.

"I once said humanity had no hope of reclaiming our land without you," said the deceased soldier. "I dedicated my heart just so I could sacrifice everyone else for your genocide! Now what do we have to reclaim?!"

"No!" Eren cried out. "No, I-!"

*BAM*

Levi quickly ran up and kicked Eren's side, throwing him to the ground. "Unbelievable," he said as he watched Eren bleed from his mouth. "How can you stop a walking corpse that makes monsters when you can't even take a kick?" Levi suddenly kicked Eren again, causing him to roll onto his back.

"I... have to do this," Eren said as everyone began to circle around him. "You... don't know... what you're talking about."

"Heh, heh," the burnt Hange chuckled. "Who do you think you're trying to convince?"

"I think he's being delusional," said Mikasa, who kneeled down and grabbed Eren's shirt. She quickly raised him up and slammed him into the ground.

"Those kids who beat me up were right, Eren," said Armin. "It's time to stop living a dream. And wake the fuck up."

"Do what he says," Mikasa said as she slammed Eren into the ground once again. "Wake up and see what's right in front of you!"

"Wake up!" Jean cried.

"Wake up, Eren!" Sasha screamed while continuing to bleed on the floor.

"Wake up and smell the roses, you brat!" Hange yelled with a laugh.

And then, Eren could only do two things; reach his arms out to make Mikasa stop hurting him over and over again out of sheer heartbreak and listen to the voices around him.

"Wake up, Eren!"

"Wake up, Eren!"

"Wake up, Eren!"

"Wake up, Eren!"

---

"Wake up, Eren!"

A dull gray color suddenly appeared in front of Eren as he opened his eyes and moved his head.

*BAM*

Even though he hit his head on the metal above him, Eren didn't care about the pain on his forehead. He continued to throw his arms around and scream as he fell out of the bed.

"Eren!" a familiar voice called out as two arms tried to pick him up.

"Get off me!" he screamed as he took deep breaths on the ground, trying to regain his temper. After a few seconds, he looked up to see a frightened Cinder staring at him, along with everyone else who had woken up.

"Eren..." Cinder whispered, her hands covering her mouth.

"...Cinder?" Eren asked as he stood up. Once he realized where he was, and that his nightmare was over.

"You... You were thrashing around in the bed," said Nora, who walked up to Cinder. "She was trying to wake you up."

"S-Sorry," Eren said as moved closer to Cinder. "I just... had a nightmare."

Cinder moved her arms as she prepared to give Eren a hug. But then she remembered how he wanted some personal space, so she backed away. "Are you okay?" she asked.

"Yeah, I'm fine." Eren walked to Cinder and hugged her. "Thanks for waking me up." He looked back to his friends. "What time is it?"

"Sunrise," Mercury replied. "Was just about to make breakfast, then you started screaming."

"Waking me up too, thanks for that," Ymir sarcastically called out. "I was having the best dream, too."

"No one cares!" everyone shouted to Ymir, since it was too early to listen to someone whine. Everyone was awake, so they decided to prepare for what the day had in store for them; stopping Salem.

After Mercury and Ren cooked breakfast for everyone, Eren decided to use the surrounding woods for some practice with Soaring Freedom. So he used the gear to fly through the green forest and used the quiet to clear his head.

Eren naturally decided not to tell anyone about his nightmare, how he was turned on by just about everyone he cared about. He didn't want to reveal how weak he was in that moment, or how he felt in their presence.

But more importantly... he couldn't say what he already knew.

They were right.

Everything that everyone had said to him was the truth. He had said what he said to Jean, Connie, and Sasha. And Sasha was the one who died for his freedom. If he were still alive, Erwin may not have been able to reclaim anything beyond the walls after the Rumbling.

But the one thing Eren couldn't deny was the idea of replacing Mikasa and Armin. He may have talked about them enough, but their absence left an opening for new friends. And Eren felt that he took it without hesitation.

But did they do the same with him?

"When I die, throw the scarf away. You'll live long after I'm gone... and forget about me... please, Mikasa... forget about me."

Eren doubted that his wish came true. He had a good feeling that if she was still alive, Mikasa hadn't forgotten about him. And he knew that she didn't replace him.

But instead of coming to terms with what he lost, Eren replaced it with the first thing he found.

The realization made Eren stop flying in the air and land on the ground. "No," he said as he stood up straight. "No, they're not replaceable. They can't be."

But was that true?

The more Eren thought about it, the more he saw how he surrounded himself with replacements.

Mercury's sarcastic attitude and gun-ho attitude wasn't too different from Connie.

Emerald was loyal and dedicated to any cause she saw fit, but had a phony approach to it like Historia when she was being Krista Lenz.

Nora's big smile and even bigger heart weren't too different from Sasha's.

Ren wasn't exactly a dreamer, but he was always full of wisdom and smart ideas like Armin.

And though he hated to admit it, Mikasa had been replaced by Cinder. Eren remembered what he told Dina one night, how his relationship with Cinder had become better than his relationship with Mikasa.

"Why?! Why does an actual slave get to be with you instead of me?!"

It wasn't Mikasa's fault, far from it. But it was Eren's.

He had learned to focus on the parts of himself that he found on Remnant, but this nightmare had shown him not to forget the rest of himself. Not to replace anyone, or to see his new friends as replacements, just see the rest of himself.

No matter how much it hurt.

---

"Ren!"

"..."

"Ren!"

Nora walked through the woods and continued to call out her friend's name. A small yet nutritious breakfast of scrambled eggs left the eager young girl bored. When everyone else wanted to leave, they realized that Eren and Ren were missing. Since Eren said he would be back soon, Nora decided to look for Ren.

And as soon as she walked through a heavy bush, Nora found Ren sitting in a small clearing with his eyes closed. And he immediately opened his eyes to see Nora.

"Oh, sorry!" she said as she got her foot out of a branch. "Were you having some quiet time?"

"Just a little," Ren said as he stood up. "I didn't want to keep everyone waiting too long."

"Well, I think you can have a little more time. Eren's not back yet." She turned around and began to walk through the same bush that she entered. "I need to eat something again."

"Oh, it's second breakfast already?"

Nora turned around to see Ren walking towards her with a smile and a soft chuckle. She began to laugh as well. "Was that a joke?" she asked.

"I was hoping for it to be a joke," he replied. "But with you, I'm not so sure." He laughed again, with Nora laughing along.

"Two jokes in one day?" Nora asked. "That's so unlike you."

"Well, I'm attempting to remain positive, given where we're going." Ren began to walk towards the new mobile home. "The mission won't be easy."

Nora silently nodded. "Easy's no fun, anyway."

"..."

Ren was always a quiet teenager, and nobody in their group really gave it a second thought. But Nora had known Lie Ren long enough that there were different kinds of "quiet" when it came to him. And she easily knew that this silence was troubling. "You okay?" she asked calmly.

"A little," Ren replied calmly. "I'll be more okay when we finish what we set out to do."

"Yeah, that's all everyone wanted to talk about at breakfast," Nora replied. "Winter's still on the fence about it, but she'll understand. I hope."

"Me too. But I think her antics are going to be the least of our worries. Hence the idea for us to stay positive."

"Well..." Nora wrapped her arm around her friend's waist and pulled him closer to her. "Let us help with that."

The friends found themselves back at the camp, where Eren was helping clean everything up. "Hey, Eren!" Nora said with a smile. "We ready to go?"

"When you are," Eren said as he moved back into the truck. Once everyone was inside, the engine sprung to life and the car drove through the woods. And soon enough, everyone found themselves at a body of water.

"End of the line, Eren," Mercury said as he turned to the navigator of the voyage. "We surfing now?"

"Just a straight path across this ocean," Eren confirmed. "Let's go."

The truck was soaring just above the ocean at an impressive speed. During the time it took to reach the Land of Darkness, Eren and Cinder decided to fill everyone in one their plan of attack. Since Winter and Ymir still didn't believe in what they called ludicrous, Mercury suggested she sit in the front seat while he was driving so he could keep an eye on her. Since they needed to go straight across the ocean, according to Eren, watching her would be no problem.

"Once we reach the shore, we're leaving the truck," Cinder stated. We'll be moving on foot before we go in by Titan."

"This place is going to be crawling with just about every Grimm possible," said Eren. "Only kill when its absolutely necessary and try to stay as calm as possible."

"I can mask two people with my Semblance," Ren pointed out. "Should that be the case, we should stop moving until everyone calms down."

"We might actually need you to do more than that, Ren," said Cinder. "Eren remembers most of the land, even where Salem's castle is. But we don't know how to get inside."

"I'm going to make a Nevermore scout with a Scroll," said Eren. "It'll fly around the castle and we'll see where the best way to get inside is. When we do, we were thinking Ren could use his Titan to turn invisible and carry us to the castle."

"We could give it a shot," Ren agreed. "But I don't know how many people I can carry."

"We'll make more than one trip if we have to. Then we just need to get close to Salem."

"Hold on, hold on," Nora demanded. "This is a great plan, but we're still forgetting something; how do we stop Salem?"

"She's right," Ren agreed. "You said it yourself, Eren. We can't kill Salem."

"I know," Eren confessed. "But we're not going to kill her. I need to get close to her so I can finish her off."

"How? With your Titan?"

"That's right." Eren sat down. "Let me tell you about a girl named Annie Leonhart."

Eren proceeded to tell his friends about the time he and the Survey Corps learned that Annie Leonhart was the Female Titan, one of three Titans that were all trying to bring him to Marley. When a fight inevitably broke out, Eren described how it went down, leaving no detail out. But the most important detail was how the story ended.

"When Annie knew that there was no escape, that she lost the fight, she had two options; surrender or die," Eren explained. "Everyone was gathered around her Titan, prepared to execute either option."

"So what happened?" Nora asked. "Did Annie surrender?"

"No, she didn't."

Nora quietly gasped. "You killed her?"

"No, we didn't. We didn't know it yet, but Annie chose a third option. In a way... she actually chose both."

"What do you mean?"

"When we looked past the nape of the Female Titan, we found Annie encased in a large crystal. Somehow, she used her powers to harden part of the environment around her, making a shell around her body. She was still alive, but she looked dead."

"Intriguing," said Ren, who was beginning to become invested in the plan. But then, he had one question. "Did you break her out?"

"Not on that day, no," Eren explained. "We tried everything to break the crystal, but it wouldn't open. I later found out I could do it when I became the Founding Titan. So I did."

Ren stood up. "Let me see if I understand this; our plan is to get you as close to Salem as possible in your Titan. And then you want to make a crystal shell, something only you can break, and leave her in there."

"That's the plan. Salem wouldn't break herself out. Annie stayed as still as a statue for four years until her crystal broke. But since we're in no hurry to let Salem out, she could be trapped in that crystal forever."

"How can you pull it off?"

"My Hardening's been improving whenever I trained with it as a Titan. If I grab her and then activate my Hardening, I should be able to form the shell." Eren looked at everyone who was around him. "This is the best shot we have. Unless anyone has a better plan or questions, this is what we'll do."

Cinder, Emerald, Ren, and Nora looked at each other and nodded. They then nodded at Eren, giving him their blessing for the plan.

"Wait, I have a question," said Nora.

"Go ahead," Eren said calmly.

"Not about our plan, I just don't get one thing. Did you say that Annie had a Titan called the Female Titan?"

Eren didn't see how the question was relevant, but he answered it regardless. "Um... that's right."

Nora wasn't satisfied with the answer. "Eren, I'm a Female Titan. Cinder's a Female Titan too. What made Annie different?"

Before Eren could answer, Ren spoke up. "Nora, how is this relevant?" he asked.

"It's not," Nora confirmed. "I just wanna know, that's all." She looked back to Eren, who had a puzzled look on his face.

"In her abilities... I guess," Eren answered.

"Are you sure? I mean, what would happen if a boy inherited the Female Titan? What happens? Does he become a girl or something?"

"I... don't... I don't know." Eren thought about the idea of a boy inheriting the Female Titan. It wasn't impossible, any Eldian could inherit any of the Nine Titans when they were a Pure Titan. Each Titan changed with each person, but Eren never thought of something like this. Now, all of a sudden, he wanted to know. What would happen if a boy inherited the Female Titan?

Cinder was just as confused and curious as Eren, but didn't want to think about it much longer. "Maybe some mysteries are better left unsolved," she offered. Everyone suddenly nodded, agreeing on the same idea.

"Uh, Eren?"

The sound of his name caused Eren to turn around. He moved towards the source, which was Mercury. When he saw that his friend was with him, Mercury pointed out the window and asked another question. "What's that?"

Eren looked out the window to see what Mercury was referring to. The truck had just stopped in front of a thick wall of fog. It wasn't just any fog, it was crimson. And it almost seemed like it was reaching the sky.

"That... is where we're going," Eren replied, knowing beyond the shadow of a doubt that the fog was the barrier between this world and Salem's. "Move in."

"But... what the hell is it?" Mercury asked, starting to gain a very bad feeling about driving through the cloud.

"He's got a point," said Ymir, who was sensing not only Mercury's fear, but Winter's as well. "Do you normally have fog like this?"

"No, I've never seen anything like this," Winter answered in her head. She then turned to Eren. "What's in there?"

"What I've been telling you all this time," Eren replied before turning back to his other friends. "Ren, could you come up here?" Once his friend obeyed, Eren gestured to Mercury. "I think we're gonna need you sooner than we thought."

Ren silently nodded and placed his hands on Mercury's shoulder and Winter's shoulder. Concentrating on his Semblance, his hands turned pink as the bodies close to him turned a dull gray. Eren was the only exception, who was standing behind Ren.

"Move in, Mercury," Eren repeated calmly. "This is it."

Mercury complied and moved the floating truck into the fog. The fog soon surrounded the Dark Wing and Mercury began to relax. "Sorry," he said. "This was, uh... not what I really expected to see."

"It's fine," Eren replied. "It was going to happen to one of us sometime." He then looked to Ren. "Good job, Ren. It shouldn't be much long-"

"I don't need a pep talk," Ren said as he closed his eyes tighter. "I need to focus."

"..."

Eren silently moved away from Ren as he mentally prepared for battle. He didn't know it, but the idea of using his Semblance before they even arrived was beginning to push Ren over the edge.

---

The fog disappeared after ten minutes of moving in a straight line. Once the path became clear, the Dark Wing found itself still hovering over the ocean, but in uncharted territory. Just as Eren described, the immediate surroundings were pure red. The water itself was red, but this was merely a side effect of catching the red light of the sky above. And soon enough, the ground beneath the truck was red as well.

"We're here," Eren said as he looked at the first piece of earth he could find. "Okay, set it down."

Mercury obeyed once more and landed the car as silently as he could. The pads beneath the car disappeared as the wheels shifted to touch the ground. And once they were confident their ride wasn't going anywhere, everyone stepped out of the car and became aware of their surroundings.

"Holy crap," said Emerald, who was looking at the sky and clouds above her head.

Cinder looked down at the ground and kicked some of the dirt beneath her. And sure enough, it was just as red as the sky. "You were right, Eren," she said as she looked closer.

"This... This is impossible," said Winter, who kept moving her head to capture every detail the Land of Darkness was providing her.

Mercury's attention was captured by something that wasn't red. Instead, he was looking at a large purple crystal just a few feet in front of him. "Whoa," he said in amazement. "What the heck is that? Dust?"

"I don't know," Nora replied as she joined her friend. Suddenly, she took out Magnhild and changed it into its hammer form. "But I bet I can smash it!"

"Whoa, whoa, wait a second!" Eren cried out as he stood in front of Nora. "Glad to see you're still positive about all this, but let's save the smashing for later."

Nora grumbled as she lowered her hammer and moved back from Eren. "Okay. Just show me where we'll be doing the smashing."

"Nora's right," said Ren. "We should get moving."

"Right, let's do that." Eren looked around and began to gain a sense of familiarity about the environment. Along with that, a large set of footprints was visible from where he was standing. He knew immediately which way to go. "Follow me," he said as he began to walk. Everyone soon followed, but Winter stayed right where she was.

"I'm not going anywhere until I'm untied," she boldly declared. "Look, it's clear I won't be leaving soon. And I know you don't trust me to stay and guard what should be the property of the Atlesian military. But I can't be walking around in a place that's supposed to be crawling with Grimm with no way to defend myself."

Eren knew what kind of risk he would be taking if he untied Winter. But he also knew the negativity she was creating by being treated unfairly would also be a risk. So he chose the lesser of two evils and cut her hands free. "Don't make me regret this," he said.

"Then don't give me a reason to fight you."

"Then I'll start by asking again; follow me."

Winter reluctantly obeyed and walked with Eren. Everyone else followed with their weapons drawn, and Cinder made sure to walk by Eren's side. "So this was Darkness' home, huh?" she asked. "Looks a lot like the Coordinate."

"I guess in his mind, he didn't want to improve on perfection," Eren replied. "Not that I can see what would be perfect about this place."

"You can say that again. All this red is really giving me a bad vibe."

"Me too," said Emerald, who stayed close to Cinder. "Eren, did anyone die here?"

"I don't think so," Eren thought. "The only kind of death that comes to mind is the first age of humanity."

"The what-now?"

Eren stopped walking and looked back to Emerald. "Oh, right." He then cleared his throat. "Merc, Em, Winter... I should probably tell you what we're dealing with here. Cinder, Ren, and Nora are the only people here who saw my memories. Not just about Paradis, but Darkness' time here too. He showed me the people he and his brother created and then destroyed."

"Destroyed?" Mercury asked. "The hell are you talking about?"

"Darkness and his brother left Remnant because Salem led a rebellion against them. Because of that, Darkness committed a world-wide genocide while Light just watched. They left Salem alive as punishment."

"Whoa, what?!" Emerald asked. "Why are we fighting for someone who blew up the world?! Who the hell would want-?!"

*BAM*

Eren quickly lunged forward and hit his head against Emerald's. It wasn't hard enough to make her fall down, but it had enough force to make her stop talking. "Emerald, calm down!" he said as he moved back. "I'm not fighting for Darkness. He and I just have... an agreement. I also wanted to... make some things right."

Emerald rubbed her head as she asked another question. "But what if he comes back? After we stop Salem?"

"If he wanted to come back, he would have done it already. Salem's strong, but she's not a god. And the moment he steps foot here, his plans get ruined. Okay?"

"...Okay." Emerald stopped rubbing her head. "Sorry. I got a little carried away."

"So did I. I'm sorry too."

Emerald nodded and began walking again, which was when Mercury walked up to her. "Hey, you good?" he asked.

"Yeah, fine," Emerald replied. "Nothing my Aura couldn't heal. And Eren was right."

"Okay, then." Mercury continued to walk close to Emerald, who suddenly became worried.

"Are you okay?" she asked her friend. "This is some scary shit."

"Yeah, no doubt," Mercury agreed. "I'm good, though. Don't worry." He then followed everyone's silence and walked silently while remaining as calm as possible.

The walking stopped when Eren raised his left hand so the back of his palm was facing everyone. Once they stopped, Eren walked closer towards a set of stone stairs. At the foot of those stairs was a decomposing human skeleton with a sword in its chest.

"Well... that's appropriate," Mercury replied. "Is she up these stairs, Eren?"

"Yeah," he replied. "Along with the pools of Grimm."

"The what?" Winter asked.

Eren turned around and gestured to the stairs. "Come and see." He then began to walk up the stairs while everyone else followed. Rather than going down the flight of stairs that followed, Eren got on his chest and looked out into the distance. This was where he saw the land beyond filled with Grimm and all kinds of black pools.

Eren saw one pool close to him and looked to see Winter close to him. "Watch this," he said as he pointed to the pool. Winter looked to see the tar-like substance moving upwards before it broke and revealed a Beowolf.

"My Gods," she whispered. "It's... just like you said. Just like you did back in the woods."

"I know. Winter, I never lied to you. This is where the Grimm come from."

"I... I understand that now." Winter looked beyond the pools and creatures. "Where is their... creator?"

"That's what we're going to see." Eren turned around and saw Ren holding onto Mercury and Emerald while using his Semblance. Eren understood why they were scared, given they never saw anything like this before.

"Sorry," Emerald replied. "We... We just need a minute."

"No, this is perfect," Eren replied. "Everyone go back down." His group obeyed and found themselves at the foot of the staircase again. "Okay, this is where we act. Ren, keep watch on the stairs when you're done. If Grimm get too close, give us a holler." Ren obeyed and let go of his friends. "Cinder, looks like we're up."

Cinder nodded and took out her Scroll while Eren bit into his hand. The blood formed a small pool onto the ground and a small Nevermore leapt into Eren's hand. He then answered the call Cinder made and gave the Scroll to the Nevermore. Once it took the device in its talons, Cinder looked into the screen. "It works," she said as she put the Scroll on the ground.

When the Nevermore flew, everyone huddled around the Scroll and watched the screen. And sure enough, the screen was capturing the land beyond the stairs.

"That's a lotta Grimm pools," said Nora.

"That's a lotta Grimm," Mercury added. "More of those crystal things too. Seriously, what the hell are they?"

"No idea," Eren confessed as he continued to look at the screen. "Wow. I can still see the footprints I left here."

"This looks like a lot of land to cover," said Winter. "Are you sure we can't use the transport?"

"Oh, so it's we now?" Eren thought to himself, surprised that Winter apparently wanted to help. "I'm sure. We should be seeing big Nevermores soon. I don't think Ren's strong enough to mask a whole vehicle." He didn't see it, but Ren shot a glare at Eren before looking back into the distance.

Suddenly, the small Nevermore started flying in a circle instead of a straight path. In the center of that circle was the biggest crystal of the land. It was a light purple and jagged structure, one that caught the eyes of everyone.

"I think this is it," Eren said. "This is where Salem is. We just need to get inside."

"Look, there's a door!" Nora said as she pointed to the screen. And sure enough, there was a wooden door on the structure. Even though this was a good way to enter, Eren saw a problem.

"This door looks like it's thirty feet in the air," he said as he saw the crystal spire underneath the door. "That's no good. We should keep looking." The Nevermore flew around the crystal some more.

"Hey, is that a window?" Cinder asked as she pointed to the screen. Everyone looked to see not just one window, but a set of them forming a semi-circle. "Let's see what's inside."

Eren nodded and looked back to the screen, which showed the Nevermore flying towards the window. It wasn't the kind of window that could open, but the bird had no trouble flying close. And it got the perfect view of what appeared to be a meeting room, one with a large table and multiple chairs. And some of the chairs were filled.

There were three men inside, sitting down. One had his hair tied in a ponytail and was squatting on the chair, grinning like a mad fool. The other was a large man dressed in green, his arms were crossed and he was sitting calmly at the table, almost meditating. The third was a scrawny man dressed more formally in a dark suit, looking at a black Scroll in his hand.

"Looks like Salem's not working alone," said Mercury.

"I recognize those two," said Eren, who pointed at the big man and the one sitting abnormally. "I saw them when I escaped. They tried to stop me."

"Who's the third guy?" Emerald asked.

"I don't know. But Salem's the main target. Doesn't look like she's here."

Emerald pointed to the screen. "Is that her?"

Eren looked closer. "What? Where?"

"There. Next to the weirdo."

Eren was able to press his fingers on the screen and zoom in. He kept the fingers there so the screen wouldn't go back to its default setting. As he looked closer, he could see that there was indeed someone sitting next to the squatter. But she wasn't sitting still like the others. She was squirming, as if she was trying to get up but something was stopping her.

"Wait a minute," Eren said as he looked closer. "Guys, back up for a sec. Cinder, you come closer."

Everyone obeyed while Cinder moved closer to the screen. "What's going on, Eren?" she asked.

"Take a look at this girl. Does she look... familiar to you?"

Cinder looked at the screen and studied the girl's appearance and behavior. "She looks like she's trapped or something. But familiar? I don't think... Wait a minute." After another moment, she looked up at Nora. "Nora, take a look at this."

Nora walked over and looked at the screen, getting a better look at the girl. "Hold on a second," she said as she looked up. Once she did, Eren and Cinder joined her with equally shocked looks on their faces. "Guys, is that... is that Midori?"

"I think it is," Eren replied as he looked back at the screen. "That girl looks just like her."

"But what's she doing here?" Cinder asked. "She's not working for Salem, is she?"

"Guys?"

The trio looked up to see Mercury and Emerald staring down at them. "What's going on?" he asked.

"Yeah, and who's Midori?" Emerald asked.

"Someone we know from home," Cinder explained. "Someone we haven't seen in years."

---

Years ago

It was a warm summer day in the town-turned-city of Kuroyuri. Everyone mostly saw the weather as an excuse to stay indoors and find any way to cool themselves off or go swimming by the large lake outside the first wall. Eren meanwhile, decided there was one way he and his friends could spend their time: training.

Nora was more than excited for the training, because she finally had the chance to try out the new weapon that Mercury had made her while in the hospital. Impressed by the weapon, Ren decided he would ask Mercury to make him some too. But first, he was going to watch Nora test her weapon.

"I'm sorry, what did you say you called it?" Ren asked as he watched Nora look over the grenade launcher.

"Magnhild!" Nora screamed as she pressed a small button on the side. The grenade launcher transformed into a large hammer, with the grenades at the head of the hammer. She then lifted it over her head with just one arm.

"Magn... hild?" Ren asked as he looked at the weapon. "What does that even mean?"

"I don't know." Nora lowered the hammer and took it into two hands. "But it sounds awesome!"

"Whoa, is that it?!"

Ren and Nora turned to see Eren and Cinder walking towards them. Cinder picked up the pace when she saw the large war hammer. "I've seen some crazy things in my life, but I think this takes the cake!" she said.

"I know, right?" Nora asked. "He's gotta tell me how he made it!"

"He's gotta tell me if he can make me a weapon."

Ren stepped closer to Nora and Cinder. "I too would like an upgrade," he said. "Kuroyuri's current weapons aren't quite what I had in mind."

"Let's see what it can do before we ask for more," said Eren, who gestured for Ren and Cinder to stand back. Once they did, Eren looked to Nora. "Okay, Nora. I can make a Beowolf, and you-"

"Come on, Eren!" Nora groaned. "Beowolves are too easy! You remember the time I broke its arm just by hugging one?"

"No one really hugs like Nora, huh?" Cinder asked Ren, who nodded with a hum.

"Um... okay, yeah," Eren said. "I just thought it would be easy."

"It is," Nora confirmed. "But Magnhild wasn't made for easy Grimm! Come on, gimme a hard one!"

"Nora, maybe Eren is right," said Ren. "Mercury said he wanted to see if there was anything he could troubleshoot, so let's just-"

"Booorrrrriiiinnngggg!" Nora screamed as she lifted her hammer. "Okay, Eren. If you don't wanna make me a Grimm, I'll see if I can hit a person instead! And see how your healing powers work after a big swing!"

Cinder moved closer to Eren. "Give her something to hit, Eren," she said in an attempt to save her friend.

"O-Okay," Eren relented as he cut his hand with a knife he brought and backed away. "How about a Creep?"

"That sounds fun!" Nora said. Eren watched the dark pool grow as a dark, quadrupedal figure rose from the tar-like water. White, bone-like spots came into vision along with a white head. The Creep moved its narrow eyes onto Nora as the Grimm water disappeared. It then pounced in her direction.

"Fore!"

The end of Nora's hammer struck the Grimm's face, causing it to fly towards the surrounding trees and break some of them. It then turned into a cloud of black dust.

"Whoa!" Eren said as he witnessed the act of destruction. "Mercury's not holding out on you, huh?"

"Nice one, Nora!" Cinder said.

"Well done," Ren replied. "Though it could easily be considered beginner's luck, given you've never held a weapon before."

"What?!" Nora asked. "No way!" Nora proudly pointed her thumb at her chest. "I'm a pro!"

"Is that a challenge, Ren?" Eren asked as he prepared to make another Grimm.

"I'm afraid I have no weapon to challenge Nora with," Ren replied. "But Mercury may help with that."

"No doubt!" Nora said as she pressed a button on Magnhild. It suddenly transformed from a hammer to a special kind of gun. "Wanna see me hit that rock?"

"With what?" Cinder asked.

Nora simply smirked and squeezed the trigger. "Behold!"

*CLICK*

Nora looked at the gun in confusion. "What the heck?" she asked. After shaking it, a frown formed on her face. "Oh, no. Is it broken?"

"No, it's not broken," Eren said. "Looks like it's jammed."

"Jammed? Wait, isn't that the same thing as bro-?"

*BOOM*

The space around Nora had erupted in a large smokescreen and caused dirt and earth to fly everywhere. Everyone around her was caught in the smoke and dust, which caused them to cough and try to fan the smoke away. Once it dissipated, all three teenagers could see Nora on the ground next to a broken weapon.

"NORA!" everyone screamed as they moved around her. Across her body were cuts and bruises along with severe burns on her hands and torso.

"Oh, Gods!" Cinder screamed as Ren moved down to her. "Is... Is she-?"

"Unconscious," Ren said as he moved back up. "But this still isn't good."

"Why isn't her Aura healing her?" Eren asked.

"It can't. Not until she activates it herself. And with her out cold-"

"She can't heal herself." Eren quickly moved to her head and knelt down. "We need to get her to a doctor! Ren, grab her legs, I'll grab her shoulders!"

Ren obeyed and helped Eren pick up Nora. Cinder quickly ran ahead of them to get the gates open and clear the road to get to Kuroyuri's doctor. Once they were able to put her down, Eren and Ren watched as the doctor looked her over.

"How did this happen?" the doctor asked.

"Weapon test gone wrong," Eren quickly explained.

"She's unconscious, she can't use her Aura," said Cinder. "We can try waking her up-"

"No, don't touch her," the doctor ordered. "If she sees herself now, helping her will be harder. And I don't think a fully charged Aura can heal these kind of burns."

"So... there's nothing we can do?" Ren solemnly asked, which earned the attention of the doctor.

"Don't worry, young man," he said calmly. "You're just in luck, actually."

*CLICK*

The sound of a door opening caused everyone to look behind them and see a girl around their age. She was a petite, fair-skinned girl with a slender figure, along with moss green colored hair that reached down just past her shoulders. The hair had two bangs framing her round shaped face, and she had almond shaped-cerulean colored eyes. She was wearing a short-sleeved black leather crop top jacket over a teal and white shirt with black leather pants and black and green boots. As soon as she walked into the room, she put on a white doctor's jacket and walked over to Nora.

"You're just in time," said the doctor. "We need you to work some magic."

"Yes, Doctor," said the young girl.

"Huh?" Eren asked. "Wait, who is this?"

The girl ignored Eren's question and placed her hands on Nora's head. "Could you all stand back, please?" she asked politely.

"Do what she says," Cinder whispered as she backed away. Eren and Ren joined her and watched as the new girl closed her eyes and took a deep breath. Suddenly, a soft green light appeared on Nora's forehead. The light slowly but surely began to travel down the rest of her body.

"What's she doing?" Eren whispered.

"Looks like using her Semblance," Ren replied. "But as for what it does-"

"Quiet, please," the doctor requested.

The boys obeyed and watched as the green light continued to shimmer around Nora's body. After a few more seconds, the burns on her body began to fade. Everyone save for the doctor watched in amazement as the girl's Semblance worked almost effortlessly to save Nora's life.

The burns and bruises faded more and more until there was no kind of damage to Nora's body to be seen. The green light disappeared and the young girl stepped back while holding her head.

"Careful, now," the doctor said. "This was a lot."

"Yeah, it was," the girl confirmed. "I just need a minute."

"Of course." The doctor looked back to the other teenagers. "She should be fine now, but I'd like to see her when she wakes up. We were all very lucky."

"Of course," Ren said. The doctor walked out of the room, leaving Ren to walk over to the young assistant and offer a hand to her. "Thank you. You saved Nora's life."

The girl looked at Ren's hand for a moment before shaking it. "It's no problem," she said with a smile.

"Are you sure?" Cinder asked. "You don't look so hot."

"It'll pass. Healing Wish just leaves me a little sick after a long time."

"Healing Wish?" Eren asked.

The girl looked over to Eren. "Oh, yeah. That's what I call my Semblance."

Eren looked over to Nora and then back to the girl. "It's... fitting. Thanks again."

"Of course," the girl said with a smile. "It's why I'm here."

"Are you new here?" Cinder asked. "I don't think I've met you before."

"I am, actually. I came here a couple of days ago, and Doctor McCoy offered me a job when he saw what I can do." The girl moved her hand to Cinder with a smile. "My name's Midori."

Cinder returned the smile and offered her own hand to shake. "Cinder." She looked over to Ren. "This is Ren..." She then gestured to Eren. "And this is Eren."

Midori smiled and stood up, feeling much better. "Nice to meet you all," she said. The sound of Nora groaning caught everyone's attention. "Oh, perfect! I'll let Doctor McCoy know she's waking up."

Ren suddenly had an idea as to how he could repay the kind girl. "My friends and I were going to get lunch together," he said. "Would you like to join us?"

The girl softly gasped. "R-Really?" she asked.

"Yeah, that sounds fun," Cinder said. "We can give you the proper welcome to Kuroyuri."

"We'll buy too," Eren offered.

Midori smiled even bigger. "I'd... I'd really like that."

When Nora was awake, she thanked Midori with a big hug and was ecstatic when she joined them for lunch. Everyone learned she came to Kuoryuri on her own to look for work, and her Semblance was just the thing the town-turned-city was looking for. Everyone was happy to get to know her, but were somewhat concerned as to why Midori didn't like to talk about where she called home. All they knew was that she was from the city of Argus.

Seeing as Midori didn't have a lot of friends, everyone decided that she had four new friends now. After work, they would walk around the city and talk about how they were planning on fighting for the city. Midori took this option to describe that she was in the process of acquiring a weapon of her own, one that she would show when she found it.

But the chance never came when Midori disappeared one day.

"I haven't seen her," Eren said after wiping his brow of sweat. Everyone was working at the farm when Nora brought it up, concerned as to why she hadn't seen her new friend in a while.

"Yeah, me neither," said Cinder. "Why, did you see her?"

"No," Nora replied. "Ren and I went to the doc's place today, and she hasn't been to work in three days."

"I heard that too," said Ren. "But there was one thing I heard as well."

"What's that?"

"As we were leaving, I overheard a woman talking to the doctor about Midori."

"Did she get hurt bad?" Cinder asked. "Did she need Healing Wish?"

"No," Ren answered. "It's stranger than that. I can't be sure, but I think the woman said that she was Midori's mother."

"Wait, what?" Eren asked. "Midori has a mother?"

"Yes, Eren," Cinder sarcastically replied. "That's how life works." This earned a soft punch to the arm.

"What I meant was that Midori never talked about her home, or anything about her parents."

"I remember," said Ren. A bad thought came to mind. "You don't think... Midori is a runaway, do you?"

"A runaway?" Nora asked. She too was beginning to share Ren's bad idea. "That... would actually explain a lot."

"And if she heard her mother was in town..." Cinder began.

"She must have run away again," Eren sadly finished.

"Alone. In the wild."

"With no intention of coming back."

"Oh... Gods."

Everyone silently lamented the loss of their friend. And soon, nobody found a reason to talk about Midori, unless it was that they missed her.

And that's exactly how everyone felt.

---

Present-day

"Wait, what?"

Everyone turned to Ren, who quickly came down the stairs and moved to the Scroll. "Midori is here?" he asked. "Where?"

"Right there," Nora said as she pointed to the screen. "She's at the castle."

Ren took a closer look at the girl, specifically her behavior and physical appearance. "She looks bound and gagged," he observed. "And exhausted."

"Midori has a powerful Semblance," Cinder noted. "Maybe they're using it for themselves."

"But if they use her too much, Midori will get sick herself," Eren noted.

"How do we stop them?" Nora asked. "How do we rescue her?"

"Rescue?" Ren asked. "We can worry about that later. Salem's the reason why we're here, and we're so close."

"Your friend is right," Winter said to Eren. "I don't know everything yet, but it seems your target is within range. It'd be better to consider your friend a secondary objective."

"But Midori's in trouble!" Nora pointed out. "She saved my life before, and now I'm supposed to do the opposite?" Nora looked away from Ren and Winter. "Eren, we gotta do something for her."

"Yeah, I'm with Nora," said Mercury. "Something about them keeping a girl like this makes my skin crawl."

"Maybe we can do both," Cinder suggested. "What if some of us warm up Salem while the rest get Midori out of here?"

"I can help with that," said Emerald. "My Semblance can hide me and Midori from one person. Two... might be a stretch, but I can manage."

Eren began to draw in the dirt. "Okay, okay. Let's see if we can plan this out."

---

"Mmph! Mmmph!"

"Quiet, child." A hand ran across the young woman's face. "I would almost hate to crave up that pretty flesh of yours." The hand backed away and a man's face took its place. "Almost."

"I hope you'll have the common sense to start with the tongue," a well dressed man said from the other side of the table his present company was sitting at. "This place was just fine without her prattle." A grunt from the tall man beside him caught his attention for a brief moment, but he paid no further attention.

"Mm, I'm afraid I was making an empty threat," said the man closest to the bound girl. "Her Grace has specifically requested me not to touch a hair on her body."

"Based on our plans, I still don't believe we'll need her to speak," the well dressed man replied.

"Orders are orders," said the tall man, who looked over to his company.

*CLICK*

The sound of a door opening from the end of the table caught everyone's attention. Everyone became silent, even the young girl being held against her will. The men stood up when they saw another figure enter the room. This figure was another woman, one wearing a long black dress that reached the ground. Both her hair and skin were as white as snow, which was the defining feature everyone couldn't take their eyes off of. They couldn't even take their eyes off the bright veins on her face or her blood red eyes.

Salem had long been aware of the unease her appearance had brought to the room, and she always welcomed it. But now was the time for her to speak instead of letting her appearance speak for itself.

"Watts," she said as she looked out the window behind a dark purple chair. The well dressed man flinched for a brief moment as she turned around. "Do you find such malignance necessary?" She then gestured for her company to sit, but the well dressed man stayed standing for a moment.

"I apologize, ma'am," the man known as Watts said as he finally took his seat. "I'm not particularly fond of loose cannons."

"Loose cannons?" Salem calmly asked as she looked across the table. "Surely, you're not talking about dear Midori."

Watts slowly nodded as he continued to speak. "With all due respect, ma'am, placing this much power into someone we don't trust is risky."

"Yes," the tall man agreed. "What's to stop her from taking the power and using it against us?"

"My thoughts exactly. With the power you spoke of, it should be effortless."

Salem slowly turned to Watts. "Not to me," she said as turned to Midori and smiled. "Make no mistake, child. You hold the key to our victory. But the strength you will soon gain brings with it a crippling weakness. And we are well aware how you are with weaknesses."

"..."

Midori had stopped struggling when Salem walked in the room, but the idea that the witch had placed in her mind had made her begin her fruitless resistance once again.

"Ah, I see," Salem said as she lifted her hand. The black binds around the girl's mouth and arms had tightened, causing her to recoil and let out a muffled scream. After a few seconds, she closed her eyes and fell limp in the chair. "She'll learn soon enough."

"Oh, yes!" the madman said with a giggle. "Please, your Grace. Let me witness your demonstration!"

"Not today, Tyrian," the witch softly replied. The man frowned as he stared at the unconscious teenager. "When she recovers her strength, when she believes she can live through this experience, then I will remind her of her place. And you will join me." The words gave new life to Tyrian as he found his happiness. "But first, we have matters to discuss."

"We have our Maiden candidate," said Watts. "What is our next step?"

Salem turned to Watts. "Dr. Watts, you are to meet with our assistant in Vale."

"Very good."

Salem looked to Tyrian next. "Tyrian, I want you to continue your search for the Fall Maiden."

"Gladly," Tyrian replied with a laugh.

Salem turned to her next disciple. "And Hazel, I'm sending you to Vale as well. Find the one called Adam Taurus. The boy holds much spite against places like Beacon Academy. See him, convince him to join us."

"As you wish," the tall man replied.

Salem looked at each of her minions as she spoke again. "Your efforts have done so much for us. And now, they will ensure that Beacon will-"

*CRASH*

The sound of a window breaking caused everyone to look behind Salem. Along with the broken pieces of glass, a young boy dressed in gray and blue came flying into the room. He jumped on the back of Salem's chair and landed in the center of the table. Everyone, including Salem, stared in awe and silence as the boy dusted himself and stood up while observing everyone at the table.

After a few seconds, the boy smirked while looking at each member of Salem's group. "I have come here to chew bubblegum, and kick ass," he declared while still smirking.

"..."

Hazel and Watts looked at each other in confusion, and mentally wondered if the boy in front of them was being serious. Tyrian, on the other hand, looked at the boy while preparing to attack.

"And I'm all out of bubblegum," he said while looking at Salem.

Tyrian looked to Salem, who waved her hand to the intruder. Laughing, the maniac leapt off his chair and prepared to grab the boy.

But the young man performed a split onto the table while ducking his head as low as he could. In turn, Tyrian failed to grab him and instead collided into Watts. Mercury took this opportunity to swing his leg at the large man, making contact with his face and firing the weapon on his heel. Hazel fell out of his chair after he underestimated the boy's speed.

However, Salem quickly pushed her crystal throne back and raised both her hands to Mercury. A black orb formed in her grasp and shot multiple beams of light at the boy, causing him to scream in pain as he flew back and broke the wooden doors while hitting the wall beyond them.

Salem quickly pushed the large table with a mere fraction of her strength, and yet succeeded to make it move from her path. She then walked forward and raised her hand while clenching her fingers. A red circle with a seal in the middle formed behind Mercury, where three black arms grabbed him by the chest and arms to pin him against the wall. As he struggled to break the grasp, Salem leaned closer while forming another orb in her left hand.

"Oh, okay," Mercury said as he stopped moving. "You're into the rough stuff, huh? Alrighty, but the safe-word is-Ow!" The boy felt the arms grow tighter around his body as Salem moved closer.

"Who are you?" she demanded.

Mercury knew what his plan was, and he knew that he needed Salem's undivided attention. "My friends call me Merc," he replied. He then fell silent.

"Very well... Merc," Salem replied without removing the scowl on her face. "How did you-?"

"I didn't say we were friends. You call me Mercury." He smiled again. "Or Mr. Black. Yeah, call me Mr.-" Mercury suddenly stopped talking when another black arm ran its three abnormal fingers around his throat. After a second, the cold grip loosened.

"How did you find this place?" Salem asked.

"I'm gonna go ahead and assume you don't go out much. So lemme tell you about something called the Internet. If you just go to the website 'Wing', and then go to 'Maps', this place is kinda obvious. Thought I'd take a look, and experience the company, if you know what I-"

Salem made the arm's grip tighter to make Mercury fall silent before turning to her subordinates. "Watts, is this true?" she asked.

"Absolutely not," said the well-dressed man. "This ruffian is correct about the website and maps, but this location has never been exposed to the common man. Finding this castle by doing what he said is impossible."

Salem silently pondered any other ideas as to how the intruder found his way to her castle. Inevitably, one solution came to her mind. "It was Ozpin," she said. "He instructed you to come here, didn't he?"

"Hell no!" Mercury replied. "I don't take orders from no one! I do what I want, when I want, and I ain't gonna be stopped by some corpse in a dress and her backstreet boys!"

"This is a waste of time!" said Watts, who walked up to Salem. "Your Grace, you cannot listen to this nonsense!"

Salem didn't take her eyes off Mercury, but addressed her subordinate. "Tell me what I can and cannot listen to again, Watts... and I'll feed you to the Grimm. Alive." Just as she made her threat, Watts backed away from the Grimm Queen. "And you..." She moved the dangerous orb closer to Mercury's face. "Will speak the truth."

Mercury chuckled. "Lady, you can hit me," he said. "You can pin me on a wall. You can even use... whatever these things are to keep me pinned to this wall. But if you think I'm gonna give you what you want without some protection... you got another thing coming."

"I doubt that. Very much." Salem backed away and prepared to fire the orb. "Now, I said tell me the truth."

"And I said... protection."

Salem barely lowered her orb and looked back at the boy. "Are you paying attention?" she asked in annoyance.

"No, I mean... protection," Mercury replied.

Salem finally lowered her arms to her side. "What is this? An attempt to negotiate?"

"I said protection!"

"..."

Mercury was able to move his head just enough to look out the window he flew into. "Protect me, dammit!"

Before anyone could reply, a new voice was heard. "Oh, yeah, protection! That's my cue!"

Everyone in the room all turned to the window that Mercury had broken. Hazel was the first to react by slowly walking over to the broken window. He stood in the frame and looked across the other windows. When he saw nothing there, he looked up and then down. Although he could still see nothing, he had a feeling that someone was still outside.

"Someone's outside," he said to his allies. "But I can't-"

*SWISH*

"ARGH!"

Two curved pieces of metal had latched into both of Hazel's shoulders, causing the man to bleed. A weight pulled down on the blades, which were connected to chains leading downwards. Hazel tried to pull back, but he had begun to lose his balance when the sickles delivered an unexpected pain. And when the weight pulled, Hazel failed to prevent himself from moving forward and falling out the window.

In his place stood a young girl with green hair and two weapons in her hands.

"How about the next time we do codewords, we don't make them into a joke?" she asked sarcastically as she looked at Mercury.

"Just get me outta here," Mercury ordered.

The spell of disbelief over Salem and her remaining forces had broken when the witch sent a beam of light out of her hand and towards Emerald. In turn, Emerald jumped down and took cover behind the table.

"Destroy her!" Salem cried to Watts and Tyrian. Watts pulled out a gold and silver revolver with multiple rounds loaded into it while Tyrian rushed over to the table. But when he landed above the spot his prey was hiding behind, Emerald used her Semblance to hide herself in plain sight and leave the madman confused.

Confident that she wouldn't be spotted by him at the moment, Emerald moved over to Midori, who could still see her. Emerald worked quickly to cut the Grimm arms that bound the helpless girl to the chair. When her arms and mouth were free, Midori couldn't help but fall to the table and cough as she gasped for breath. However, this caught Tyrian's attention, which in turn made Emerald realize that she needed to help her.

"How did you-?"

*BANG*

*BANG*

*BANG*

*BANG*

Emerald fired four shots at Tyrian, blowing her cover and causing the man to fall to the ground. His Aura blocked out the pain, but he needed to stop Emerald's chains from coming at him as fast as lightning. And he was able to do so by rolling backwards and watching the blades get stuck in the stone. Tyrian saw his opportunity and quickly pounced on Emerald, pinning her to the ground.

"Surprise!" the man shouted with a sadistic smile on his face, one that made Emerald disgusted enough to look away.

"Indeed," said Salem, who walked over to Tyrian and patted his head. The man giggled in glee, proud to have pleased his Queen. Emerald, however, was about to receive no praise from Salem. Instead, she received a neutral glare. "I suppose I should be impressed?"

Emerald, despite feeling uneasy in the presence of Salem and Tyrian, was able to hide her fear. "Well, we were able to find you, weren't we?" she asked.

"Hm..." Salem mumbled as she looked back to Mercury, who was still bound by Grimm arms. "Indeed you did." She looked back to Emerald. "So... you know who I am."

"You're Salem. Leader of the Grimm."

Salem was still unimpressed, but she was taken off guard by the knowledge her intruders possessed about her. She also knew that nobody except Ozma and his allies knew anything about her. This idea led the witch to believe that Mercury was lying about his earlier claim. And since he had lied before, the assumption was more than logical. And Salem knew just what to do.

"It seems he is on the offensive," Salem surmised with a quiet laugh. "Strange... so unlike him." The old woman abandoned these thoughts as she pressed on Tyrian's shoulder. Her subordinate moved aside and watched as his Queen moved at unnatural speed and an inhuman extension of her arms to grab Emerald by the neck and pulled her off the ground. "Let's see what else it is you can tell me."

Emerald refused to let her fear show once more. Instead, she spit in Salem's face. A deep scowl formed on her face as she threw Emerald next to Mercury, where she collided into the wall and felt Grimm arms appear beneath her and grab her.

"Tyrian! Watts!"

Both men turned to the direction of the sound, where Salem was walking towards the children. "After you restrain Midori, take the airship and search for their reinforcements," she ordered without hesitation. Another orb formed in her hand as she looked at Mercury. "I will join you soon."

Emerald could see that she was in trouble. It was at this moment that her fears began to reveal themselves all over her face. But Mercury was able to remain calm and composed as he spoke once more.

"I don't think you'll need them to do that."

Salem raised her hand closer to Mercury's face. "Do you think me a fool?" she asked. "Do you honestly expect me to believe you came here alone?"

"No," Mercury replied. "I just don't think the search will take too long."

*BUZZ*

*BUZZ*

*BUZZ*

Another noise began to find its way into the meeting room. Unlike the breaking glass, this noise was faint, but detectable. And it seemed to be coming closer.

"What's that sound?" Salem asked as she looked around. As she did, the noise became much louder.

*BUZZ*

*BUZZ*

*BUZZ*

Tyrain was able to see that the noise was coming from the windows once more. "What in-?"

*BUZZ*

*BUZZ*

*BUZZ*

The noise reached its highest frequency when three wasp-like Grimm found their way to the windows. All their eyes were locked on everybody in the room, specifically Salem. "Lancers?" Watts asked in confusion as he turned to Salem. "Madam, I don't mean to question you, but do we need them?"

The doctor didn't see it right away, but Salem was just as confused as he was. But for a different, and more intimidating, way. "I... I didn't summon them here," she said. Quickly shaking her head, the Queen refused to let this distraction get the better of her. So she simply waved her hand to the Grimm.

But they continued to hover outside the windows.

"Leave," Salem ordered.

"..."

The noncompliant Grimm sent a shiver down the spines of Salem's followers. "I said leave!" she repeated. But the giant Grimm continued to stay where they were.

"...Why don't they leave?" Watts asked.

Before Salem could answer, the Lancers lifted their stingers to a certain level, one that they would normally do if they were prepared to attack.

And everyone knew that was their plan when the Grimm fired their stingers into the room.

Watts took a hit that was protected by his Aura while Tyrian flew to the ground. Salem, however, was pinned to a wall by one stinger that had lodged its way into her throat. This caused her to lose focus on the arms that bound Emerald and Mercury, who quickly got away from her.

"Man, that was close!" Emerald said as she took deep breaths.

Mercury turned to the windows to see the Lancers move their stingers. "Okay, this is it!" he said. "Here they come!"

The Lancers quickly turned around to reveal Eren, Cinder, Nora, Ren, and Winter on their backs. Each person jumped into the castle and immediately became aware of their surroundings.

"This is real," Winter said to herself as she looked around the room, taking in each detail she possibly could. "How can this be real?"

"Eren made us these Lancers and now you're doubting what's real?" Cinder asked as she rolled her eyes, annoyed by Winter's constant need to wrap her head around the current situation.

"Hey, guys! Over here!"

Everyone turned to Emerald and Mercury, who were helping a tired young girl stand on her feet. As soon as she saw this, Nora ran up to her. Gently moving the girl's head, Nora looked at Midori's face. "Hey, Mimi," she said with a soft smile.

When Midori's eyes were finally able to see clearly, her heart skipped a beat at the sight before her. "N... Nora?" she weakly asked. This weakness soon lifted when the joy of seeing a familiar face caused her to hug the girl in front of her. "Nora!" Her strength came back tenfold when she hugged Nora and felt the hug reciprocated. After a few seconds, she saw the other people in front of her. "Ren? Cinder? Eren? How did you-?"

"We'll explain later," Eren promised. "Right now, we came for two things and two things only."

Nora nodded and finished what Eren wanted to say. "Stopping Salem and getting you out of here." She gently took Midori's arm and put it over her shoulder. "Can you walk?"

Just as Midori was about to answer, a voice cried out. "Not so fast!"

Everyone looked to see Tyrian standing on the table and spreading his arms. Twin pieces of metal on each of his brown gauntlets appeared as he growled and jumped to Midori. Eren and Cinder were fast enough to pull two swords from their equipment and block his arms. Once he pulled his arms away, Tyrian sent a kick towards both of his opponents. While they were able to dodge his leg, Eren and Cinder felt a harsh cut to their chests when Tyrian quickly attacked again. Ren fired his guns at the assassin, but Tyrian dodged these and kicked Ren back. Nora swung her hammer, but Tyrian dodged to make the girl hit the table instead.

"He's fast," Eren noticed as he pulled out his second sword.

"And he's not alone," said Cinder, who was looking at the wall. Watts came off the ground with a groan while holding his shoulder, and Salem had just pulled out the Lancer stinger with a painful yell. And the bloody scar on her throat was beginning to disappear. "It's time."

Eren nodded and looked back to Salem, who stood next to Watts. Tyrian quickly joined her side, crouching and ready to attack again. Cinder prepared to merge her swords into a bow while Eren stepped forward ahead of everyone.

Salem noticed this gesture and could only interpret one thing; this was their leader. While she was still taken off guard by more intruders and the defiance from the Lancers, Salem put her rage aside in her quest for knowledge. "...You know who I am?" she asked with a scowl on her face, focusing just the slightest amount of anger in an effort to intimidate her new enemies.

"Yes," Eren replied calmly.

While that may be true, Salem had a feeling the young man before her had no idea what kind of trouble he was in. And yet, there was something about him that seemed off. He and his friends had stepped into the dragon's den, and yet they seemed to have so much resolve. Their strategy of invasion was without flaw, and Salem knew to expect more. But if they wanted her dead, surely the black-haired boy knew that was impossible. So what hope of victory did they have?

"Then you know your chances of survival are unlikely," Salem said, ever curious about their endgame.

"We're not too worried," the boy replied.

"...Is that so?" Salem knew she had the perfect chance to prove him wrong, to show that he had good reasons for being worried. But she needed to know more about him, specifically how and why he came to be here. It was at this moment she knew what the best course of action was. "Tyrian, Watts... keep this boy and Midori alive," she ordered.

"..."

"...Kill the others."

Tyrian growled as he let out a wild laugh and lunged at everyone. Watts fired his revolver at the children while quietly counting out loud, starting at the number "nineteen." Salem simply watched the chaos unfold and formed an orb in her hand, ready to strike when the warriors got too close.

Eren swung his sword at Tyrian, who used his gauntlet to block the strike. He then kicked Eren's gut just in time to deliver another kick to Cinder. Both of them were sent flying back to the walls while Ren fired his guns at the madman. Once again, Tyrian was able to block the attack and kick Ren away from him.

Watts focused his fire on Nora, who was protecting Midori from their enemies. "Stay down, Mimi!" Nora said as she pointed her gun at Watts. "Think fast, Moustachio!" She then pulled the trigger, sending a rocket towards the doctor. The rocket hit the ground in front of him and sent him flying out another window. Fortunately for him, he landed on a large ledge not far from the window.

"Bloody hell," Watts said as he stood up. He noticed a large portion of his Aura had been drained from the explosion and that he had fourteen bullets left. "Well... this certainly won't work." He was about to put his weapon away and attempt to climb back inside, but noticed one of the Lancers was leaving. And on its back was the girl who shot him, along with Midori, the girl in white, and the boy in green.

Rather than firing and drawing attention to himself, Watts took out his Scroll and looked at the screen. He saw a picture of Hazel with his Aura in the yellow, and it was beginning to recharge quickly. So he sent a quick message before finding another way inside.

"Meet me at the airship."

---

"HAHAHAHAHA! In the name of our Goddess I will grant you a swift death!"

Tyrian was still in hysterics, regardless of what happened. When he saw that Watts was returning and that some of his new enemies had taken Midori away from the castle, Tyrian had one thought and one thought only.

Nothing was going to stop him and him alone from doing the will of Salem.

The only people in the room besides Tyrian and Salem were Eren, Cinder, Emerald, and Mercury, who had their own ideas about their given situation.

"Wow... what an absolute fruitcake," Mercury deadpanned as he shifted into a stance, ready to leap into action. "Hey, Salem! This guy's seriously a friend of yours?"

"Are you really surprised?" Emerald snarked, though she seemed a little unsettled at the psychotic man. "Anyone who would work for her has to be crazy."

"That's enough," said Cinder, who joined Eren in a similar battle stance, moving her swords out of their holster. "We can talk once they're in the ground."

"Tyrian... don't leave them waiting," said Salem. The man quickly launched himself like a missile towards Mercury.

Thinking quickly, Eren shoved Mercury away and swiftly block an incoming one-two strike. Soaring Freedom's blades sparked against the pincer-like blades before they sent slashes at Tyrian. The maniac continued to jump and dodge while trying to pierce Cinder as he landed. With a burst of Wind Dust, Cinder dodged the body-strikes. However, the lack of open space made movement a problem, and she hit the wall behind her.

"Well, isn't that ironic?!" Tyrian yelled as he leapt once more and prepared to stab Cinder. But he missed his chance when Emerald grabbed Cinder with one of her chains and fired at Tyrian. Each shot hit his protected body, but he was able to close in and quickly strike again.

The Grimm Queen was enjoying every second of Tyrian's punishment, and decided to deliver her own judgement. Salem found her chance to use Tyrian's speed and strike his enemies when they were facing him. Most people would say the act wasn't very sporting or honorable, but Salem wasn't most people. And she was more than angry at the interference. It was time to end it.

*BANG*

"Argh!"

A bullet struck Salem's face before Salem could use her Magic to attack. A piece of stone hit her in the same place, but she quickly healed the wound. Salem then formed a scowl and turned to the direction of the attack. Eren and Mercury had been able to slip away from Tyrian and find a common target.

"Looks like the girls found themselves a man," Mercury said with a chuckle. "And we found quite the lady, huh?"

Eren was never used to humor on the battlefield, but couldn't help but smirk at Mercury's comments. "After you," he said as he put away his guns and took out his swords.

Mercury nodded and quickly kicked up more pieces of loose stone. Careful not to fire any bullets, he kicked stone after stone to Salem. The witch was able to deflect each one with her Magic, but her vision became clouded when the dust from one stone got in her eyes. Eren used a burst of Wind Dust to propel himself forward with his swords. With a scream, he impaled one blade into Salem's stomach and moved it upwards. The second blade formed a bloody path into her neck. Black goo fell to the ground as Salem's head and intestines poured onto the floor.

"Damn," Mercury said as he looked at the floor. "Never knew someone like her had guts."

Eren quickly looked around his surroundings, observing the size of the room. "I can't transform," he said. "Not here, not without crushing you guys."

"Yeah... how about we spare ourselves from being buried alive and figure out what to do?" Mercury noticed that the goo had begun to travel back to Salem. "Thinking fast can help too, ya know."

"I know, I know." Eren quickly looked around. "We gotta get out in the open, somewhere I can-"

*GROWL*

Eren and Mercury turned back to the windows, while Cinder and Emerald did the same thing. At least half a dozen assorted Grimm, mainly Beowolf and Ursa, began to climb inside the broken glass and stone. Emerald tightened her grip on Thief's Respite and followed Cinder's lead as they killed multiple Grimm. With another growl, a Beowolf charged with a vicious swipe of it's claws. Emerald swiftly ducked under the attack, the claws barely grazing her hair, and quickly jabbed her weapons down the Grimm's throat and pulled the trigger.

*BANG*

The Grimm's head snapped back as black blood splattered across the red floor. The gunshot and subsequent death seemed to act as a signal for the rest of the Grimm; all of them were roaring in anger and charging at the girls. Emerald merely smirked and took aim as Cinder formed a bow and fired multiple arrows.

At the same time, Tyrian quickly moved one hand across Cinder's back and stabbed his pincers into the same spot.

Cinder screamed in pain as she felt the spot on her back sting in pain. Her Aura was supposed to have protected her, but it was as if her Aura had left a small hole on her back. She didn't know it, but Tyrian's Semblance had left an opening to attack. While he was delighted to have finally struck a blow, Eren found himself enraged. His rage was strong enough to awaken his Semblance once again, leaving his body glowing yellow. His strength had increased tenfold and gave Eren the chance to move the large stone table with a simple kick. The table found its way to Tyrian and two more Beowolves, who became trapped under the weight.

"Cinder!" Eren cried as he ran over to her. Emerald helped her move as Eren quickly kneeled down.

"I'm okay," Cinder insisted. "I'm-Look out!"

*ZAP*

A beam of light hit Eren in the back, but his Aura prevented a fatal blow. The beam took more and more of Eren's Aura, but he was able to stand and take a piece of the table and throw it at Salem, who had fully regenerated.

*CRASH*

Salem dodged the broken slab and ended her assault. Eren's Aura finally broke, but he was far from exhausted. Salem noticed this as well, but sensed the opportunity to strike him while he was weak.

"Not here," she thought to herself. "Not with the others." Salem made a split-second decision and ran down the hallway.

"Dammit!" Eren screamed. He looked back to his friends and saw more incoming Grimm. The crossroads Eren found himself in left him angry and uncertain what to do. "We... We can't let her-"

"Go," Cinder said as she pulled out another blade. "We got this."

Eren nodded and turned to follow his prey. However, a soft grasp on his hand caused him to look back and see Cinder with a serious expression on her face.

"Be careful," she said calmly. "And... And don't die, okay?"

Eren nodded and slowly moved his arm to make Cinder's grip break. "I won't. I promise."

---

"I don't like this."

Nora looked back to Ren, who was standing on the head of the Lancer that they escaped on. "We should be back with Eren," he said for what felt like the millionth time. "We need to help him."

"We are helping," Nora insisted as she looked at the girl on her side. "Midori's really hurt, Ren. Whatever Salem wants with her, we can't let that happen."

"So Mercury and Emerald should have gone instead," Ren argued. "You and I both know we have a better chance of holding our ground than them."

"Better them than us."

Nora and Ren turned to Winter, who was currently being controlled by Ymir. Winter was still trying to make heads and tails out of who and what she saw, so she decided to let Ymir take the reins. Instead of protesting or arguing, Ymir stated the situation as she saw it. "I don't know why you're complaining," she said. "If I were back at that... castle, or whatever, I would've killed to be here."

"Then I suppose we were right to take you with us," said Ren. "And it seems you'll be watching Midori while we go back."

"I don't know, Ren," said Nora. "Midori's tired, Winter's scared, you've forgotten about being positive, and Ymir's... the way she is." Nora quickly looked to Ymir for a moment. "No offense."

"None taken," said Ymir.

"What's your point?" Ren asked.

"My point is that Grimm might be drawn to all of this," Nora pointed out. "If your Aura breaks, there could be who knows how many creatures coming down on us. It could be Kuroyuri again, but a hundred times worse."

"Something tells me that much negativity will be at the castle, not here," said Ren. "Which is why we need to be there, not here."

Nora sighed when she failed once again to break Ren's stubborn nature. Nevertheless, she tried again. "Ren, what if Midori was An?" she asked. "Or Li?"

Ren clenched his fists as he quickly turned to face Nora. "Father's not here anymore. And Mother's still at home."

Nora knew how angry Ren was at the mention of his father, but she could care less. She had more than enough of his stubborn mind and was ready to break it to pieces. "That doesn't answer my question."

"...I-"

*BAM*

The Lancer suddenly took a hit and began to fall. Rather than wondering what could have hit them, everyone screamed and held onto the Creature of Grimm as it flew faster and faster to the ground.

"We're gonna crash!" Nora yelled.

"Grab Midori and jump!" Ren screamed as he jumped off the beast's head. Everyone obeyed his command and rolled onto the coarse, rocky ground and heard the Grimm crash away from them.

Fortunately, their Auras were strong enough to block out the damage, but Nora dropped Midori when she hit the ground. When she scrambled to her feet and dusted herself off, Nora ran over to her unconscious friend and kneeled down. Ren followed suit and placed two fingers on her neck.

"She's fine," he said calmly.

"Good," said Ymir, who ran over to the two teenagers. "Because we have our own problems. Look."

Ren and Nora followed Ymir's gaze and saw what appeared to be an airship landing twenty feet in front of them. The machine was a common airship from Mistral, one that should be in ruins if it was all the way out in the Land of Darkness. But once it landed, everyone knew that it belonged to Salem.

Because the large man, Hazel, was walking towards them with clenched fists.

Everyone took out their weapons and Winter told Ymir to let her fight this battle. And Hazel was ready to fight on his own, as the pilot of the airship suddenly took off the ground as quickly as it landed.

"I don't know how exactly your group came to find this place," Hazel grunted as he approached the trio. "Nor do I know how you even gained the knowledge of Her Grace's existence."

"You'd be surprised!" Nora called out in her serious tone, tightening her grip on Magnhild.

"I can't believe you'd actually sell out humanity by serving the leader of the Grimm," Winter scowled as she deployed her second, shorter sword from her main weapon.

"I can," Ymir drawled, though Winter ignored her. "Probably trying to save himself from something. I wouldn't be surprised."

Hazel sighed. A seemingly saddened look appeared on his face. "I don't wish to fight any of you."

"Nor I you." Ren replied, readying StormFlower. "You seem to be the most reasonable of the group."

"But if you stand with her, then we will." Winter stated firmly, shifting into stance.

"...Very well, then."

Ren made the first move by slashing at Hazel's torso, but the man simply dodged or used his arms to block each strike. Given that his Aura had completely recharged, he engaged it when his body came into contact with the blades on the green guns. However, his Aura wasn't required when he struck Ren in the face, or caught Magnhild in the air. He simply tossed Nora aside and stepped out of the way when Winter swung her blades. Actions such as these were done over and over again when Ren, Nora, and Winter attacked Hazel.

"This isn't working!" Ymir shouted when Winter was struck in the face.

"I can see that!" Winter shouted back. She then planted her sword in the ground and created a Glyph. The Glyph then spawned a large Grimm, a Manticore. The Manticore flew to Hazel and collided into him when he caught Magnhild a second time. When he was forced to let go of the weapon, Nora transformed it into a grenade launcher and fired multiple blasts at both the Grimm and Hazel.

Winter walked over to Nora when pink smoke surrounded the abnormally large man. "It... wouldn't keep him... too busy..." she said as she kneeled to the ground.

"I'm not questioning your decision," said Winter. "You made the right call."

Nora smiled at Winter. "Heh, heh," she chuckled. "Thanks."

Ren rejoined the girls when he saw the pink smoke disappear. "We're not finished," he said when he saw Hazel stand up.

The blast had ripped some of Hazel's clothes, but didn't hurt him. The tall man knew that he wasn't hurting any of his enemies with his attacks. He regretted the idea, but he knew that it was time to stop holding back. Some would say that his next plan of attack was unthinkable, that it was cruelty itself. But everyone who dared to intrude on this land had made their choice, and their blood would be on their own hands.

So Hazel cracked his neck and reached into the pouches at his sides, revealing two decently sized Lightning Dust crystals. With a yell, he performed an action that sent shivers down everyone's spines.

He stabbed the crystals directly into his arms.

"HUH?!" Nora squawked, eyes wide and jaw dropped. Winter momentarily stumbled in surprise, her stoic demeanor faltering briefly.

"D-Did he just...?!" Even Ren was stunned by this action.

But what came next only added to their shock, and perhaps a hint of fear. Hazel's arms briefly bulged as his veins and blood vessels turned a fluorescent yellow and nearly popped out from his skin. Small bolts of lightning began to arch around them. His eyes, normally like his namesake, also began to glow yellow. His normal, calm looking demeanor began to fade away as an almost feral looking rage began to form, and he let out a bellowing roar.

"Oh, Hell," Ymir cursed.

---

Eren found himself running through dark hallway after dark hallway. Salem's trail wasn't hard to follow, given that she shot lethal beams from her hands every time he came on a corner. Eren responded by firing his pistols a few times, but made sure to conserve the ammo he had.

The chase ended when Eren came across a set of doors that led into what appeared to be a large amphitheater. As he looked around, Eren saw that it was familiar to the room that Salem had tested his abilities as a Titan in. It seemed that she wanted to separate him from his friends, but Eren knew this plan would be a terrible mistake on her part.

"Alone at last," the witch said as she stood in the middle of the room. Eren's attention returned to Salem as she began to walk around in a circle. He approached closer while also walking in a circle. "Your skills are impressive, young man. But you assume too much of yourself. Your arrogance has cost you much."

"Funny," Eren said as he removed a blade from his equipment. "I was thinking the same thing about you."

"It seems I rest my case." Salem continued to walk around in a circle. "And yet, I must admit I am at a disadvantage. In war, it is wise to know your enemy as you know yourself. And I seem to know very little about you. Not even your name."

"And I plan to keep it that way. This is going to be over soon."

"Agreed. But I don't see the harm in just a name." Salem replanned to hoard as much knowledge as she could before finishing the band of ruffians, and was truthful when she saw no harm in names. "You've met Tyrian and Watts, and your friend threw poor Hazel out the window. And as you know, I am Salem."

"...Eren Yeager," Eren reluctantly introduced himself, also seeing no harm in saying his name. But that was the only thing he planned on giving Salem, other than a brutal defeat.

And yet the witch seemed unafraid when she stopped walking and smiled. "See?" she asked as she titled her head. "That wasn't so hard... Eren Yeager."

"Not really," Eren agreed. "But I didn't come all this way to make your acquaintance."

"I am aware. I am also aware that you and your friends are a long way from home, wherever that may be. You took a wild risk by coming here."

"I know. But it'll be worth it in the end."

Salem stopped smiling. "I doubt that. Very much." She could tell her initial interrogation would be over soon. "So let's make this easier on yourself. Starting by telling me who sent you here."

"I did," Eren replied. "Everyone else decided to come along for the trip. It was going to be just me. Just me trying to find you."

The emotion in his voice made Salem see that the man was a spiteful one, someone who had a vendetta against her. Given all that she did as Queen of the Grimm, Salem knew she shouldn't be surprised that the Creatures of Grimm would have vengeful enemies. There was only one thing that surprised her.

"And how exactly did you find me?" Salem asked. "By following my disciples?"

"No," Eren replied. "Let's just say I've been here before."

A small portion of Salem's breath was taken away by the claim. Walking on the surface of Remnant for so long had no impact on her memory, and she knew that she had never met Eren Yeager before. Something was wrong. And she found a new resolve to probe further, regardless of the fight in her castle.

"Have you now?" Salem asked. "Well... that explains how you found the path to my castle. And found a way inside. That must have been... quite the journey."

"..."

Eren decided to listen as Salem talked. All the while, he was planning on how he could use his remaining blades and Dust to grapple himself around the room and avoid Salem's attacks and Magic. It might wear her down enough to leave an opening for an attack by his Titan.

"Yes," Salem continued. "Approximately fifteen of your 'miles' from the nearest body of water. All covered by Grimm. And the land beyond this castle is much larger than fifteen miles." Salem stroked her chin. "Yes. Much larger."

Eren's attempts to form a strategy were cut off by Salem's claim. He had the strangest feeling that her observations weren't just for passing the time. "What's your point?" he asked.

Salem looked back to Eren. "My point is this; while I am unable to determine how you avoided my forces, I have every confidence you cannot avoid them now. Not when I summoned every creature within twice the distance you crossed to come here." Salem decided to walk closer to Eren instead of her circle. "And if you and your friends were challenged by fighting Tyrian... well, I can only imagine how he must be child's play compared to them."

Eren softly gasped at Salem's claim. "You're bluffing," he surmised. "A few Grimm, I could believe. But all of them? Lying's second nature to you."

Salem gently shook her head. "That would be my better half. And this is my home. I know how to defend my home." Salem stopped walking when she was two feet away from Eren. "Think, Eren. How can you fare against a legion of Grimm?" She was leaning close to his face when she made this claim. "How can you protect your friends from every Grimm on this land?"

Eren knew there were numerous Grimm at this place, and he knew that Salem had the ability to summon them to her side. He began to realize how stupid he was to think that she was bluffing, that it was unwise to do some wishful thinking. However, he knew everyone still had strength to hold on, given he hadn't heard any transformations. Nevertheless, he knew he shouldn't be wasting time.

"We'll survive," he replied. "We always do."

Salem leaned back. "Trust in me, Eren," she said. "Your little group will be hindered. Those boys and girls, especially..." Salem smiled as she recalled one other name. "Cinder?"

"..."

The witch relished in the anger she could sense in Eren, proud of herself for striking a nerve. Salem sensed there was something special between the two of them when she was in her meeting room. And now she was doing a good job of putting that to her use. Seeing how angry he was, Salem decided to finish the job with Eren.

"I don't care about your friends, Eren," Salem declared. "I only care about how you know me, how you were able to lead an assault on me. Here is my offer; I will call off my attack, I will show your friends mercy. All you must do is surrender yourself to me."

"...Why?" Eren asked.

"I have questions for you. And it will be much easier to be rational instead of being violent."

"You just want to know more about me?"

"You and only you."

Eren lowered his sword and put his hands to his side, contemplating the idea. He formed a small smile as he looked back to Salem. "Call off your Grimm first. Then we'll talk."

Salem smiled once again as the red in her eyes began to glow. After a brief moment, the glowing disappeared. "Excellent," she said as she walked to another door in the room while placing a hand on Eren's shoulder. "Now please... tell me more."

"Sure," Eren said as he stopped walking. Salem looked back to him to see why he stopped moving.

Only to meet the end of a gun barrel in her face.

"Listen up."

*BANG*

The bullet and the blast exploded in Salem's face, causing her to fly backwards and hit the wall. Eren took the time he gained to briefly cut himself on his sword, finally ready for his endgame. And when a black goo shot at him and wrapped around his arm, Eren knew he had the perfect chance to hurt Salem again when she involuntarily healed her face and pulled him closer to her. She walked away from the wall and back towards the center of the room.

"That. Was. Unwise," she said as her eyes glowed once again.

Eren felt his transformation begin, and knew it was time to end this. "So. Was. This!" he said.

*BOOM*

---

"Dammit! How many of them are there?!"

"Too many! They just keep coming!"

Cinder couldn't help but listen to everything that Mercury and Emerald were saying, and she knew that they were right; the Creatures of Grimm just kept coming. Beowolves, Ursai, and even small Nevermores were coming through each window and making the small meeting room a living Hell. While she was able to use her Titan powers to heal minor scratches and bites, Cinder was on her last pair of swords from Dancing Midnight and couldn't use it to fly. Mercury was running out of ammo for his weapons and Emerald was having trouble with her chains.

"Em, c'mon!" Mercury shouted. "Keep swinging those things!"

"I can't!" Emerald protested. "The chain is jammed!"

With every word her friends shouted, Cinder felt the hope around her dwindle and dwindle. And they only had themselves to blame for not having a contingency for nearly endless Grimm. While she knew this to be true, Cinder also knew that their only hope rested in the Incinerator Titan. The fire she could make and the amount of Grimm she could kill would be unmatched by anyone or anything Salem threw out. But the enclosed space made the threat of being buried alive all too real, and Cinder knew that she couldn't transform.

Except... maybe she could.

Cinder was beginning to have a risky idea. She had practiced transforming and fighting as a Titan before, and had perfected the ability to grow full scale. However, the idea she was thinking of, while possible, was never something she tried before. Nevertheless, it was their only hope of escape, of survival.

So with a heavy heart, Cinder cut her hand and screamed to her friends.

"Merc! Emerald! Get behind me!"

The adrenaline both teenagers were experiencing caused them to quickly obey and get behind Cinder. It was when she raised her hand to the Grimm and closed her eyes did they realize what she was planning.

"Cinder, no!" Mercury screamed. "Don't-!"

*BOOM*

*CRASH*

Mercury and Emerald closed their eyes when they heard the explosion. They were able to hold their ground, but they stayed as still as statues as they expected the ceiling to cave in on them.

They waited.

And waited.

And waited.

After another second of waiting, Mercury opened his eyes. His stillness broke when he saw what Cinder had done. Instead of a large Titan or a broken ceiling, Cinder was in front of an abnormally large arm. The arm extended all they way to the back of the room, where the windows were. Screaming and cries of Grimm could be heard as the outside gave off an orange glow. Mercury and Emerald, who had also witnessed what happened, raced over and saw that the flying Grimm were burning and the Grimm on the base of the tower no longer had a feasible means of entry.

"I... I did it!" Cinder screamed with pride as she pulled her real arm out of the extension.

"Holy crap," said Mercury, who looked back at the arm. He began to laugh to himself. "Man, this thing's as big as my-"

"Don't wanna hear it!" Emerald said as she covered her ears. She suddenly lowered them and began to catch her breath. "But... nice job, Cinder."

"Thanks," Cinder said as she flipped her hair. "Come on, that won't keep them busy for long." Her instincts told her to run down the halls, but she was still tired from fighting the Grimm to move very quickly. So she walked quickly down the halls with her friends following her.

"Hey, just curious," said Mercury, who was behind Cinder. "You knew that you could make a giant arm instead of going full-Titan... right?"

Cinder stopped walking and awkwardly smiled at Mercury. "Of course I knew!" she said as she began to walk again. But an incredulous stare from Mercury caused her to rethink her words. "I mean, I, um... hoped?"

"Hoped?!" Mercury repeated. "Wha-What the hell? We could have been buried alive! Or worse!"

"Hey, come on, Merc!" Emerald protested. "It was risky, yeah, but it worked!"

"Yeah, but Nora and I are the ones who take risks! Eren and Cinder plan things out, not improvise!" Mercury looked back to Cinder. "What, this was your first time, right?!"

"Lay off, Merc!" Emerald put a hand on Cinder's shoulder. "Thanks for saving us, Cinder."

"Oh, um... no problem," said Cinder, who didn't really think "saving" was the right word.

"Oh, my God," Mercury grumbled. "You are such a kiss-ass."

Emerald gasped as she looked back. "Am not!" she said.

"Are too!"

Cinder quickly turned around. "Guys, stop!" she said. "You can argue later. Let's just pick up the pace and find Eren." She began to pick up her pace and went down the halls, hoping to find Eren.

Mercury noticed something on the wall in front of them, as if it had partly been destroyed. "Looks like something hit that wall," he said. "Maybe we can-"

"..."

Cinder picked up on the immediate silence and finished Mercury's sentence. "Follow it to Eren?" she asked.

"..."

The continued silence caused Cinder and Emerald to turn around and unexpectedly see Mercury standing about five feet away from them, not moving an inch. "Mercury?" Emerald called out as she moved closer. "Hey, are you-?"

*SPLAT*

Warm liquid gently splashed on Emerald's face. After she blinked and stepped back, she raised her hand to her face and moved the liquid. When she looked at her hand, the sight of blood caused her to softly gasp. Cinder's gasp was louder when she saw that it wasn't Emerald's blood, but Mercury's. He had unwillingly spit it out of his mouth as he walked forward.

"Come now. You three couldn't possibly forget about me, could you?"

Mercury finally fell to the ground, revealing that Tyrian was standing right behind him. And he had stabbed something into Mercury's back, something alive and moving as if it had a mind of its own. When it escaped Mercury's back, the object revealed itself to be a large scorpion tail, one that was connected to Tyrian.

"He's... a Faunus?" Cinder asked herself.

"Mercury!" Emerald screamed as she ran to her unconscious friend. She was forced to retreat, however, as Tyrian's tail quickly moved towards her. It then struck her in the face and made her hit another wall.

"And then there was one," Tyrian said as his tail moved back behind him. A purple drop of liquid formed at the tip as he laughed once more and leapt towards Cinder. Unfortunately for her, he was fast enough to move behind her back and use his Semblance to create an hole in her back and hit her again. Cinder fell to the ground and tried to reach for her swords, but Tyrian was too fast once again. He had just wrapped his tail around her neck while laughing again.

"It's been far too long since I chose to kill my prey like this!" the madman cried as he watched Cinder grab the tail and try to pull it off. "It's just my nature, you see. I don't have to squeeze the life out of those pretty yellow eyes of yours, dearie. No, no. It's a simple pleasure, watching how people show themselves when they die. How they show who they really are." Tyrian leaned closer at the choking girl and studied her features. His smile disappeared as he looked deep into her eyes. "Oh, you're a strong one." He tapped his head. "I can almost hear you in there. 'Don't black out. Don't black out.' Don't worry; it will be over-" Tyrian stopped talking and began to smell the air.

He couldn't explain it but something was... burning.

A sharp pain travelled up the tail and directly into Tyrian's spine, causing him to flinch as he looked down to Cinder. He saw that her hands were glowing right on his tail, causing it to burn. "Hey!" he screamed as he tightened the grip. "Let go!"

"..."

Cinder continued to gasp for breath and hold onto the tail, focusing every ounce of energy into burning the bone-like structure around her neck. But no matter how hard she burned the tail, it pulled tighter and tighter on her neck as Tyrian continued to scream.

"Come on!" he shouted. "Die already!" He couldn't see it, but Cinder's vision was starting to turn to black. "Die! Die! Di-!"

*SWISH*

*CRACK*

"AAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHH!"

Cinder felt the tail sudden loosen its grip. Her instincts kicked in as she grabbed the tail, pulled it off, and took a large gasp for breath. Once she took three more deep breaths, she saw the stinger on the ground, bleeding more purple ooze. Another piece was on the ground, also bleeding. And the final piece was still on Tyrian's back, broken and moving uncontrollably.

"You... bitch!" Tyrian screamed.

Cinder looked away from the Faunus to see Emerald holding Thief's Respite, which was also bleeding purple ooze. Realizing that Emerald had just saved her life by cutting off Tyrian's tail. Cinder quickly stood up and pulled out her swords, pointing each end at the former Faunus.

Tyrian tried to stand straight and attack the girls once again, but the pain in his tail was too intense to focus on a fight. "She'll forgive you," he whispered to himself. He then turned heel and ran away.

Cinder let out a sigh of relief. "Thanks, Em," she said sincerely. "And you say I saved you?"

"Don't worry," Emerald said as she quickly hugged Cinder. "I'm just glad you're okay."

Cinder returned the hug, grateful that she was alive to give one. But she was forced to break it once she remembered something more important. "Mercury!" she shouted as she quickly ran to him. He was still on the ground, unable to move an inch.

"Is... Is he... alive?" Emerald asked as she stood beside Cinder, putting a hand over her mouth.

Cinder quickly put two fingers on his throat. "He's breathing," she said. "Barely. He's hurt bad."

"It was the stinger. It poisoned him, didn't it?"

"It had to be that." Cinder moved Mercury's body, getting his back off the ground. "He's not bleeding too much, but I think that poison's coursing through just about every vein in his body."

"...What do we do?"

"..."

"What do we do?!"

Cinder quickly looked back to Emerald. "Eren," she said firmly. "There's only one way Mercury's gonna get outta here alive." She picked up Mercury and put him over her shoulders. She struggled at first, but managed to hold the boy in a fireman's-carry. "And Eren's the only one who can do it." She moved past Emerald and followed the signs of struggle on the walls. "Come on!"

---

"...Impossible..."

Words couldn't describe the feelings that had come over Salem. But they left her at a standstill, unable to obey her instincts to move, or fight, or do anything. The reason behind the numbness that had washed over her was that the boy that once struggled in her grasp had just transformed into a giant, hideous beast.

And not just any kind of beast.

It was her creation.

The one Grimm that got away.

She couldn't explain how or why... but Salem's greatest creation had returned home.

And it had just swiped her off the ground. It took the witch in its palm and raised her to its face, breathing heavily on Salem's flesh.

"It's... you," Salem finally said. "My... My creation."

"Yes..." said Eren, feeling an urge to speak. He felt proud of himself at the moment, as he had finally been able to do what he came to the Land of Darkness to do. Salem was within his grasp, quite literally, and now she was about to be a block of crystal. She would never be able to hurt him or anyone ever again.

"I understand now," Salem said. "You... You tried to destroy me. Now you aim to finish what you started."

"Yes..." Eren confirmed. He no longer felt the need to prolong the inevitable. So with a deep breath inside the warm flesh, Eren closed his eyes and focused all of his energy on his hand. Thinking back on the shape and structure of Annie's crystal shell helped Eren picture what he wanted to do to Salem. With the Hardening ability of the new Founding Titan, Eren would finally make a prison fit for someone as malignant as the witch in his palm. He planned to block out any screams and any pleas for mercy.

However, the Founding Titan found itself distracted not by screams, but by a sudden hesitation.

Before he died in Marley, Eren was able to learn that Annie wasn't a complete prisoner in her shell. Despite everything, she was able to hear Armin and Hitch talking to her. Even though she didn't age a day, Annie was conscious for four years. If he did the same thing to Salem, she could still hear everything around her.

Did that mean... she would still be connected to the Grimm? Would the prison really stop her from destroying the world?

"Wake up, stupid!" Eren yelled to himself as he shook these bad ideas out his head. Quickly remembering what he came here to do, Eren focused on his powers again. If his theory was true, he would focus on that later. Just as he promised before, he wouldn't be distracted by Salem's screaming or begging.

But it wasn't screaming he heard.

It was laughter.

Eren opened his eyes to see Salem still in his grasp. And she was indeed laughing loud enough to fill the entire room with the same sound. Instead of creating the shell he wished, Eren watched Salem as she continued to laugh.

"You brilliant, arrogant fool!" she screamed as she ceased the laughter. "Do you truly believe that you possess the power to destroy me?! There is only one force that can make me leave this ruined world, and it is certainly not you!"

"..."

The claim confused Eren enough to make him listen to Salem. "You are but a peon!" she screamed. "A failed experiment! A childish fool who just gave me the chance to remove you once and for all!" Salem closed her eyes and looked down at the giant palm holding her in place. It suddenly exploded in a flash of purple light, leaving Eren to look at the recently freed Queen of the Grimm. "I did not expect you to return in such a manner, but I did expect you to return someday! And now that you have..." Salem's eyes glowed red as she raised her hands over her head. "You. Are. MINE!"

*RUMBLE*

The ground beneath Eren began to shake uncontrollably. Soon enough, the shaking had reached the walls and caused them to crack. But the ground cracked first, and it soon became unstable. Rather than creating a large hole beneath his feet, a large white body came out of the ground. Multiple red eyes opened and stared at the Founding Titan. After a silent exchange, the ground continued to break apart more, causing eight new ruptures in the ground. The ruptures broke apart and caused large, black spires to appear. The spires moved and turned, causing Eren to realize that they were heads.

And not just any heads; they were the heads of abnormal King Taijitu, much larger than any King Taijitu on Remnant.

One by one, the giant snakes lunged at Eren. Two had just bit into his torso, too fast for Eren to move out of the way. Thinking quickly, Eren moved his handless arm to hit the heads. He then sent a hardened fist to their faces, hoping to loosen their grip. He was able to grab one more head and prevent it from biting him, but another had just bit into his handless arm.

Eren looked down and saw that all eight heads were connected to the Tentacle Grimm at his feet. But when he moved his foot and prepared to crush it, another head bit into his leg. His second leg was also grabbed, causing the Founding Titan to fall to the ground. Eren quickly rolled onto his stomach so he could exit his Titan and leave. He didn't have much of a plan, except try to run and get as far away from the King Taijitu as possible. But as soon as he came out of the opening on his neck, a sharp pain hit his back and caused him to fly out of the Titan.

Salem laughed as she swopped down and stopped using her Magic on Eren. "Young fool," she said as she watched him get up. "Only now, at the end, do you understand." Rather than let her contingency plan finish him off, Salem sent another beam of Magic at Eren, pinning him against the wall and causing him to scream in total agony. His flesh soon left his torso, but Salem didn't care. She simply reveled in his pain and continued to puncture his body with Magic.

And then she stopped.

As Salem walked to the wall, she could hear Eren grunting in pain as steam moved across his body. She noticed that the muscles by his exposed flesh was growing at an extremely slow rate. Slowly but surely, Eren was healing.

"Intriguing," she said as she put a hand on Eren's cheek. "Your body is healing. Is this your Semblance... or are you like me?"

Rather than answer her, Eren defiantly spit in Salem's face.

"Charming," she said as she pulled him out of the wall. She then threw him on the ground behind her, watching him roll over and over again. Confident that he wouldn't be able to do anything, Salem picked him up and formed an orb of Magic in her other hand. "It seems there is only one way to find out," she said. A small smile formed on her lips. "In case you are indeed mortal, Eren Yeager, I do have one question." She leaned closer. "Do you have... any last words?"

Despite the intense pain in his chest, Eren did have something he needed to say. Something that he knew he needed to say the moment he saw the right opportunity.

"...Do it now... Cinder."

Salem stopped smiling and followed Eren's gaze. "What?" she asked as she turned around. And sure enough, Cinder was standing at the door. "Cin-?"

*BOOM*

Another flash of light caused Salem to close her eyes and quickly turn away. When she looked back, her jaw dropped once again when she saw another Titan standing where Cinder was standing. "What?!" she screamed. "No!" She quickly dropped Eren and looked back to the Tentacle Grimm that was fused with the multiple King Taijitu. "Attack!"

The snakes obeyed and quickly moved as they moved when they attacked Eren. But instead of meeting no resistance, each snake head met a large wave of fire from Cinder's hands. Salem was too focused on the attack to notice that Emerald had picked up Eren and used her Semblance to hide themselves from the witch. They escaped the room just as Cinder had spread the fire on all the walls and the floor. Before she exited her Titan, Cinder looked at the fire in her hands and quickly grabbed them by their ends. The fire had just turned into whips, and she sent them to Salem, causing her to scream as she burned alive.

"Eren!" Cinder screamed as she left her Titan. She began to cry as she hugged him. "Oh, Gods! Oh, Gods, you could've died!" She quickly let go of him and started hitting his chest. "You promised! You promised that you weren't going to die!"

Eren sighed as he leaned against the wall and felt Cinder punch his chest. "I didn't die," he said calmly.

Cinder stopped punching and looked at Eren. "Gods, you idiot," she said as she dried her eyes. Before she could say anything else, Eren quickly pushed her aside and stood still. Cinder looked back and saw a horde of Beowolves were coming closer and closer to Eren, causing her to panic once again. "EREN!"

The boy silently threw his palm towards the Grimm, spraying black blood on their faces. The gesture caused each Grimm to stop running and look straight at Eren, who pointed into the burning amphitheater.

"Attack," he said.

The pack suddenly ran into the fire, hellbent on attacking Salem.

Satisfied with his work, Eren looked back to Cinder and smiled as he offered a hand. "Still not dead," he said.

Cinder silently took the hand and stared in awe at Eren as she stood up. "That was amazing," she said. "How did you know that would work?"

Eren shrugged. "I didn't."

Cinder's surprise quickly left her as she chuckled. "Such an idiot."

Eren laughed as well as he stared at Cinder, not moving his hand from hers. The two felt a sudden connection, and not just by their hands. They were both tired and scared, but they were more than happy to see each other once again, as if they had met for the first time in ages. The moment was perfect, exactly what the two of them needed.

"Uh, guys?"

Eren and Cinder looked back to Emerald, who pointed at Mercury. "He still needs help," she said.

"What the hell?" Eren asked as he quickly kneeled down to Mercury. "What happened?"

"That maniac poisoned him," said Cinder. "I don't think he's gonna make it." She moved Eren's head to make her look at him. "Not without becoming a Titan."

Emerald gasped at the idea, since Cinder didn't tell her that part of the plan. Eren simply picked Mercury up and looked back to Cinder. "I can't do it here," he said. "We need to be out in the open."

Before Cinder could say that they needed to leave, the sound of propellers caught their attention. A nearby window showed what looked like a Mistral airship coming towards them. "You know, we thieves have a saying," said Emerald. "Follow the money."

---

The airship turned out to be easy to steal. The well-dressed man known as Watts had landed it at a landing pad, careful to avoid more incoming Grimm. Emerald, using her Semblance to mask herself, quickly knocked him out and took the airship for herself. Eren and Cinder carried Mercury inside as they quickly took off. However, the hard part of their plan revealed itself to be flying, given that nobody knew how to fly an airship.

It wasn't until five minutes later that the team had managed to barely control the airship and fly it back towards the Dark Wing. Unfortunately, the Grimm seemed to realize that their prey was flying away from the castle and were now following the ship.

"I don't think I can land this thing without crashing into Grimm," said Emerald. "Hell, I don't think I can land this thing without crashing period. But the Grimm are gonna be a problem."

"Eren, I have an idea," said Cinder. "Maybe we can kill two Nevermores with one stone."

"Meaning?" Eren asked.

"We have no idea what kind of Titan Mercury's gonna be, but any Titan can do a number on Grimm. If we get close to the Dark Wing, regroup with everyone else-"

"I can give Mercury his Titan, and push him outside." Eren looked out the open door. "I don't think we're far. Emerald, tell me when you see the car and then I'll push Mercury out. Let's just hope he turns into a Titan before he hits the ground."

"Guys?" Emerald called out. "I don't see the car... but I see something."

*CRACKLE*

*CRACKLE*

Eren and Cinder could hear what sounded like lightning not far from the ship. They quickly ran over to Emerald so they could see what she was seeing. And sure enough, she was seeing something else.

On the ground below them were the Predator Titan and the Electro Titan, Ren and Nora. Nora's Titan looked exhausted, as if it had summoned multiple bolts of lightning to deal with the Grimm at her feet. Ren appeared to be on the verge of defeat as his head was desperately trying to heal. His damage wasn't caused by Grimm, but rather the large man currently pounding at the Titan's body. Winter was trying to help and protect Midori at the same time, but was having trouble with both.

"Oh, no," Cinder whispered. "They need help."

"It's now or never," said Eren, who walked over to Mercury. "I don't know if you can hear me, Merc... but I'm sorry about this." He closed his eyes and concentrated on his hand, which was on Mercury's chest. Suddenly, a black tar escaped from Eren's arm and latched itself onto Mercury's chest. The substance moved all across his body, giving Eren the signal to push him out of the airship.

And that's exactly what he did.

Cinder joined Eren and watched as their unconscious friend fell closer and closer to the ground. When they saw no flash of light, they grew worried.

"Is he gonna make it?" Cinder asked.

"He'll make it," Eren promised, although he was unsure if this was true.

"..."

Three seconds passed and Mercury's body continued to fall, with no sign of changing.

"Oh, Gods," Cinder said as tears poured down her face. "We're too late."

Eren said nothing as he hugged Cinder. As she wept onto his shoulder, Eren began to cry himself, regretting not doing anything sooner. He silently mourned the loss of his new friend, hating himself in the process. He had promised that things would be different on Remnant, that he would be a better person when he fought Salem. And yet, he had just let another one of his friends die for him, and he knew that nothing could change the fact that it was all his-

*BOOM*

The sound of an explosion caused everyone on the air and the ground to look at its source. A large red light shined in the sky and quickly disappeared, revealing a new Titan. It wasn't as big as the Electro Titan, but it was slightly larger than the Predator Titan. It had Grimm black skin and silver hair, with a series of bones along its knuckles and sharp claws on its fingers. It landed on the ground with ease, letting out a loud roar as it suddenly attacked.

Moving at tremendous speeds, partly due to wing-like fins on its body, the brand new Titan began to slice every Grimm at its feet to ribbons. Each step it took crushed even more Grimm, doubling its kill count in a matter of seconds. The feats it performed caused Hazel to forget about the broken Predator Titan and let out a loud scream as he approached his new target.

But Mercury moved his leg with tremendous speed and power, causing Hazel to fly in the air and collide into a series of rocks not far from the horde of Grimm.

Eren, Cinder, and Emerald cheered him on from the airship and yelled down to Mercury.

"Go Mercury!"

"Show those Grimm who's boss!"

"Hell of a Titan, Merc!"

Eren was the first to stop cheering and look back to Emerald. "Em, we're done with this thing," he said. "Get ready to jump with us when we get to the ground."

"Got it," Emerald said as she aimed for a clearing down below. "We're gonna get the others outta here?"

"We're not leaving anyone behind." The ground began to come closer and closer. "Jump!"

Everyone obeyed and landed safely from the airship, which slid across the clearing. It was close to the Electro Titan, who looked down at everyone. "Nora!" Cinder cried. "Grab that Titan and tell everyone to get outta here!"

The Titan obeyed and suddenly grabbed Mercury. Ren and Winter got the message and began to run away. Ren quickly escaped his now useless Titan and grabbed Midori. And despite her exhaustion, Nora was able to grab Mercury and make her way back to her friends.

---

After Eren and his friends helped Mercury get out of his Titan, they quickly made their way to the Dark Wing. Winter was able to find its autopilot feature and had make her escape with everyone on board. The reunited team had shared their stories as to what happened when they were separated. After the stories, Nora informed everyone that Midori was sleeping in one of the bunks. And once the Dark Wing was underneath a blue sky instead of a crimson one, Mercury took this as a chance to share his thoughts on the battle.

"Well, looks like nobody else is gonna say it. That... was a horror show."

"No arguments here," said Emerald, who struggled to stand up. Mercury helped her stand and move over to the chair next to the driver seat. "I think I broke one of my guns." Emerald turned back to Eren, who was sitting on the ground with Cinder. "I really let you guys down. I'm so sorry."

"Don't apologize," Eren said as he stood up. "I should have thought things through more."

"Nobody's blaming you, Eren," said Cinder, who was unable to see how Eren could have expected Salem's defenses and contingencies to be so strong.

"It's, uh... not all bad."

Everyone looked to Mercury, who flexed his muscles in the air. "I mean, yeah, it was a close one," he said. "But I got my own Titan! And literally kicked some ass with it!"

"...You got a point there," said Cinder. "I think you almost scared me with that thing."

"Me too," said Emerald. "Guess you got what you wanted after all."

"Yeah, and that strongman didn't know why hit him!" Mercury said. "And Eren, you were saying that Salem came this close to being Queen Nothing, right?"

"Uh, yeah," Eren replied, remembering what he said as they left the Land of Darkness. "If I knew she planned on me returning, I know I could have done it."

"And that's not all," said Cinder. "I bet they're still trying to put out that fire I made."

"And I bet it's spreading across the whole castle!" Nora said. "And did you see the way I sent that lightning all over?!"

"Hell yeah!" Mercury said. "You plus me, Nora, equals the best!" The two friends shared a high-five. Cinder and Eren were beginning to gain hope once again, and saw the sky was the limit for them when Emerald said something.

"Hold on. I got something better."

Emerald reached into her pocket and pulled out a black rectangular object. Eren looked closer at it, and began to see what she had. "Emerald, is that a Scroll?" he asked.

"Yeah," Emerald replied. "I stole it from the mustache guy."

"What?!" Cinder screamed as she looked at it. "Em, why didn't you say anything?!" Before Emerald could apologize, Cinder opened the Scroll and saw various files. "This thing is a Dust mine! There's gotta be all kinds of things about their plans here!"

Eren looked over her shoulder at one particular file. "Click on the one that says 'Mistral'," he said.

Cinder obeyed and saw various pictures of men and women. One of them was a man with a big brown beard. "Hey, I know that guy," she said.

"That's Councilman Lionheart," Eren said. "Looks like he's a target or something." He looked over to Mercury and smiled. "And you said you were the best, Merc?"

"Aw, shut up," Mercury replied. "But seriously, great job Emerald."

"Really?" Emerald asked. "I was expecting to see bank codes or something, but this thing can really help?"

"Definitely," said Eren. "When we get back to Mistral, we'll make a better plan for next time."

"There's not going to be a next time."

All eyes turned to Lie Ren, who was staring daggers at Eren. "Are you kidding me, Eren?" he asked.

"Huh?" This was the only word that Eren found himself asking when he heard what Ren ask. Soon after, he was able to ask a better question. "Ren, what are you talking about?"

"We set out to do one thing," Ren said as he stood up. "Just one! And here we are, running with our tails between our legs! We're lucky just to be alive!"

"So what?" Eren replied as he stood up and walked to Ren. "I'm not saying this was what we wanted, but we scared the hell outta Salem and her slaves! And we know what there plans are! Ren, this is huge! Why aren't you seeing the bigger picture?"

"Here's the bigger picture! We stay alive and take that Scroll to someone who can actually do something!"

Cinder stood up and quickly put her Scroll to her ear, but didn't dial a number. "Hello, police?" she sarcastically asked. "Right, we have a Scroll we stole from an immortal lady that can control Grimm without a Semblance? We need every available officer and money-sucking Huntsmen to help protect the Council and stop her. Okay, bye!" Cinder removed her Scroll and looked back at Ren. "Yeah, that's gonna go well."

"Your friend is right," said Winter, who finally stopped observing the argument.

"What?" Eren asked.

Cinder rolled her eyes. "I thought we finally agreed on something, Schnee," she said.

Winter stood up. "Don't mistake me, I'd be more than happy to help stop someone who controls the Grimm, makes them attack our homes," she promised. "But I'm only saying that we need to find someone who can do better than what we did." Winter looked to the side. "This isn't a war we can fight alone."

Ymir quickly took over Winter's body. "Speak for yourselves," she said. "I'm not fighting those things again. I don't even know how to kill Grimm."

"You see?" Ren asked. "We're in way over our heads here."

"Oh, bullshit," said Mercury. "Are we really supposed to believe that from the guy who got his ass kicked all over?"

"Mercury!" Nora shouted in surprise, trying to defend Ren. However, her heart was torn between helping him and continuing a fight she felt confident in.

"Didn't you almost die?" Winter asked Mercury. "What if Eren wasn't there to give you a Titan?"

Mercury looked over to Winter. "The grown-ups are talking, lady."

"She's not wrong," Ren replied. "And you cost Eren one less Titan he can give because of it."

"The fuck's that supposed to mean?! You'd be happy to let me die?!"

Eren quickly pushed Ren's shoulder and pinned him on the wall. "Ren, that's enough!" he declared. "Mercury's not the liability here!"

"I'm not being a liability!" Ren argued. "I'm trying to be rational!"

"Rational is making a plan while saving lives! Not giving up when we take a hit!"

"Guys, let's just calm down," Cinder said. "We shouldn't be fighting right now."

Eren let go of Ren, and took a deep breath. "Look, I get you're pissed. I'm pissed too. I wanted Salem gone today. But we can fight another day." Eren looked at everyone in the room. "The Survey Corps took more hits and lost more lives than anyone. And in the end, they finally managed to kill every Titan back home."

Some heads began to nod in understanding, but Ren was still being stubborn about his ideas. "We're not the Survey Corps, Eren," he said. "We're kids. Kids who are in over their heads."

Eren quickly looked back to Ren and prepared to bark at him once again.

*BAM*

For one brief moment, everyone saw a great flash of light. And then, the light disappeared to reveal a barren wasteland. But unlike any wasteland, there was red and purple as far as the eye could see.

"The hell?" Mercury asked.

"Oh, no," Nora whispered, having immediately recognized where they were.

"No!" Ren cried out. "What are we doing back here?!" He immediately began to panic, seeing that the team was in no condition to fight once more.

"Guys, wait a second!" Eren said, who saw something unordinary. "Look over there."

Everyone turned to see a large white tree before them, with its leaf-less branches reaching and expanding across the sky.

"I've seen this before," Cinder said as she developed a sense of déjà vu.

"We're not back with Salem," said Eren. "This is how I came to Remnant. This is the Coordinate."

"The Coordinate?" Winter asked, still unable to believe what was right in front of her.

"Eren, why'd you bring us here?" Cinder asked, remembering that Eren was the first one to bring her here.

"Wait, you brought us here?" Emerald asked. "Why, what for?"

"I didn't," Eren replied, who had only been using his Titan powers to heal himself. "But I should have. Unless..."

"Unless what?" Winter asked, on edge about being transported to somewhere she never even heard of.

Before Eren could speak his mind, a new voice answered for him.

"Unless someone else brought you here, I assume?"

Everyone turned to the direction of the voice, which was directly at the large tree. And standing in front of that tree was a purple man with hands behind his back and horns on his head.

Everyone was speechless at the sight of the man, but Eren looked away in frustration. "Oh, no," he said. "Now we really are screwed."

Emerald quickly looked over to Eren. "Who's that?" she asked.

Eren looked back to the figure. "The reason I'm here in the first place."

"Indeed I am, Eren," the man replied. "But I don't think 'screwed' is the right word in this case. Think of my presence as a simple favor between friends."

Eren was ready to declare that he and Darkness were the furthest thing from friends, but Winter spoke up first. "This is completely outrageous!" she said. "Who are you, sir?"

"I'm known as the God of Darkness, and as Eren recalled, the reason that he and you all are here, fighting our shared enemy."

"This... This isn't happening, right?" Ymir asked, feeling unnaturally afraid at the predicament she found herself in. "Just a Semblance, right?"

Winter was listening to Ymir, and accepted her logic. Not only did she accept it, but she decided to put it to the test. "God of Darkness?" she asked incredulously. "Please. There are insane asylums all across Remnant with people who think they're a god."

"Winter, shut up!" Eren warned the Atlesian. But she refused to be silent.

"For all we know, you could be a Faunus creating some kind of illusion with your Semblance."

The purple man found amusement in Winter's argument, and had an idea as to how he could prove he was real. "Quite right, madam," he said. "But tell me; can an illusion do this?" He raised his hand and a purple orb came into shape. Then, a strange light covered Winter and began to burn her, causing the woman to scream in agony and fall onto the ground.

Darkness was satisfied with his test for Winter, so he turned his focus onto Eren's group. "What about this?" he asked as Winter stopped burning. Suddenly, Ren was lifted off his feet and began to fly closer and closer to Winter.

"Ren!" Nora screamed as she began to run after him. But as she moved, a tightness around her throat caused her to stop running. Looking down, she saw that she had some kind of metal collar around her throat, preventing her from moving.

"Hey!" Mercury screamed. "I got one too!"

Everyone looked to see a collar around Mercury's neck, and too more around his legs. Everyone looked to see that they were also wearing collars around their necks.

"Please calm yourselves," said Darkness. "The chains are only temporary, they will not harm you." He then turned to Winter and Ren. "I simply can't allow you to interfere at the moment.

"What are you doing with Ren?!" Eren asked.

"Wha-What do you want?" Nora asked.

"I simply want a few minutes alone with them," Darkness explained as he gestured to a chained Ren and Winter. "They say a chain is only as strong as its weakest link. Despite the pyrrhic victory you won at my... humble abode, these two seem to resist seeing your bigger picture. I have no doubts you all wish to continue fighting Salem, but your friends require the same vision as you." He began to walk closer to Ren and Winter. "I won't be long." With a wave of his hand, Darkness created a thick, circular wall of crystal between Eren and himself.

"Ren!" Nora cried out. "REN!"

---

"There."

Darkness admired his handiwork and turned back to Ren and Winter. "Now, where were we?" If he had a mouth, the god would be smirking. "Oh, yes. I believe you were refusing to fight."

"You think bringing us and chaining us to the ground against our will is going to change our minds?" Ren asked. "It won't."

"I never believed it would." Darkness moved his hands behind his back and walked around the two people. "Lie Ren. Winter Schnee. Ymir." Winter gasped at the last name, surprised to see that the supposed god knew about Ymir. "You all possess extraordinary gifts and abilities. The Predator Titan, the Summoning of my fallen creatures, and impressive observation skills. So tell me... why do you refuse to join your allies?"

Winter and Ren found themselves giving the same answer. "They're in over their heads." They quickly looked at each other when they said that.

Darkness was amused once again. "Ah, so you can agree on something. But in over their heads? I find that dubious."

"If you know so much, then you know how we failed back there!" Ren argued. "We couldn't handle that many Grimm, not without running with our tails between our legs! And Salem was prepared that time, she'll be prepared again!"

"Which is why we have the Atlas military," Winter argued. "Eren and his friends are too few in number to fight something like this. They need help. Help I know General Ironwood will provide with the military."

Darkness laughed. "You believe Salem is afraid of your flying machines and mortal soldiers?" he asked. "She almost scared me with those creatures. And I have no doubt your general will also, as Mr. Ren said, run with his tail between his legs."

"You don't know what you're talking about!" Winter asked. "General Ironwood isn't a coward! He's strong, intelligent, he can prevail over any enemy he sees!"

"Hm... any enemy," Darkness mused as he turned to Ren. "More on that later. Now, Mr. Ren. What made you believe this battle would be easy? Didn't Eren tell you that this was a war, not simply a battle?"

"What difference does that make?" Ren asked.

"Anyone can lose one battle. Despite your retreat, your fighting was impressive, as was your count of fatalities. This war can turn to victory, if you choose not to give up so easily." Darkness leaned closer. "Think, boy. Think of your father. Whatever would he think of his son now?"

Ren's anger became violent at the mention of his father. "You bastard!" he screamed as he threw a fist at the God of Darkness. The fist collided with Darkness' head, but it burned when it made contact, causing Ren to move back in pain.

"Ah, yes!" Darkness grabbed Ren by the throat. "Your weakness, young man, is your guilt! It's choking you. Can't you feel it?" Ren gasped for breath in the iron-like grasp as he tired to break the hold the god had over him. After a few more seconds, he gave up and seemingly begged for death to come.

But Darkness let go and watched Ren drop to the ground.

"Hm... is this it?" he asked calmly. "Have you simply lost your will to fight and survive?"

"What's the point?" Ren asked as tears fell down his face. "I let my father down, I let my friends down... and now I let the world down."

"So you wish to give up? When it's just as easy to try again? To simply keep living?"

"But I have nothing to live for. Not after everything I failed to do."

"Then motivate yourself another way. If you cannot find something to live for, then find something to live against. Something to hate." Darkness magically lifted Ren to his feet. "And beyond this Coordinate is a woman who is worthy of more hate than you can possibly imagine. I'd suggest you start there."

"..."

Satisfied with his work and advice, Darkness turned his attention to Winter. "Now then, Ms. Schnee. You insist on using your military rather than helping Eren yourself."

"What can he do that an army can't?" Winter argued. "That's why we have any army."

"Salem has an army herself. Her army is immortal, and superior. I should know. I created the Grimm."

"And we created people who can kill any kind of Grimm. We've been at war for years with them, and we've triumphed over and over again."

"Triumphed?" Darkness laughed. "You call making four Kingdoms, mere fractions of the entire world, a triumph? It is you against the world, Winter. And Humanity cannot triumph. Here, let me show you." Darkness lowered part of the wall to show Winter the Coordinate. "Do you know what this Coordinate is?"

"I didn't even know it existed until today."

"On the surface, it connects the Grimm together. Makes them think and act as one, if you will. But it is capable of more than that."

Darkness pointed to one branch in the sky, different from the rest. At first, it started off like a normal branch; strong, thick, incapable of breaking easily. But the rest looked out of place. It was abnormally long, crooked, thin enough for it to break with ease. It was almost as if something terrible happened along the way, something to make it seem like the branch would have been better off not existing in the first place.

"What is that?" Winter asked.

"A story," Darkness explained. "Let me show you one of my favorite parts."

*SNAP*

Winter suddenly found herself no longer at the Coordinate. Instead, she found herself in a land of ice and snow, where a cold wind was blowing. In the distance to her right was a large land mass floating above a city on the tundra.

"Atlas," Winter whispered. She turned to the God of Darkness, who walked next to her. "You took me home?"

"Yes and no," Darkness replied. "This is the Kingdom of Atlas, you're correct. However, this is another world. Another time. One where Eren Yeager never came to Remnant, and where one poor decision after another has led this story to the point of ruin."

"Why, what's happened?"

"Look to the left."

Winter hesitantly obeyed and turned. When she did, something new came into view. It was a large black cloud in the sky, one that shined with red lighting. Just outside of that cloud was a large and dark shape. It almost looked like a large head, with eyes on its side and multiple sharp teeth. And it was just outside the Kingdom.

"What... is that?" Winter asked.

"In this time, that would be Salem's latest creation," Darkness explained. "And its goal is the total destruction of Atlas."

Winter quickly looked back to Darkness. "But... it can't! Atlas has its air fleet, a wall around Mantle, and shields around the city above!"

"The machines may provide a good means for a fight. But I'm afraid the wall and shield will be no problem for Salem. Watch your step."

Winter felt her right foot begin to stumble, which almost caused her to lose her balance. Quickly regaining it and looking behind her, the Atlesian saw pieces of the tundra fall into a chasm, filled with a tar-like substance. A substance that looked familiar to Winter.

"It's... Grimm," she realized. "A river of Grimm."

Darkness pointed towards Atlas once more. "Heading straight for the Kingdom," he said. "Let's see now." With a wave of his hand, the river began to grow rapidly. And it continued to move towards Atlas. However, the time seemed to be changing as well. The evening soon turned to morning, and the river was much closer to Atlas.

Darkness also moved himself and Winter closer to the end of the river. Winter was still in shock over what happened, and it took the sound of an airship overhead to make her regain focus.

"Ah, there we are," said Darkness.

*SNAP*

Once Darkness made the noise with his fingers, he and Winter found themselves aboard the airship. The Atlesian looked around to see three individuals in the back. There was a large woman with a hammer, a pale man with a shaved head, and a young woman with a mohawk. All of them were wearing different clothes, but they resembled the uniforms of the Atlas military.

"The Ace Operatives," Winter realized. "At least they're still around." She then noticed two of them were missing. "But where's Operative Ebi? And Operative Tortuga?"

"No longer with them," said Darkness. "In time, they found a new one to fill the missing number." Darkness gestured to the front of the airship, where a young Faunus was sitting in the front seat, flying the ship. "And quite recently, they gained a new leader."

Winter gasped when Darkness pointed to the new leader. Or rather, a reflection of herself. "Me?!" she asked. "The leader of the Ace Ops is me?!"

Darkness laughed once again. "Indeed. Let us see what becomes of this leadership."

*SNAP*

Once again, Winter and Darkness found themselves on the tundra. But the airship containing the Ace Operatives had just landed by the river. However, they were joined by a trio of teenagers on what appeared to be some kind of bike. And now they seemed to be talking with the soldiers.

"Who are they?" Winter asked.

"One of them is Lie Ren," said Darkness. "Again, this is what happens when Eren is not here."

"And the other two?"

"Nobody of importance."

Winter observed that the conversation had become an argument. "Then why are we arguing with them?"

"Let's just say this is the result of poor judgement. On both parts."

"Both parts? What did I-?"

*RUMBLE*

The ground began to shake violently, causing Winter to lose her balance yet again. She then heard screams from what sounded like people in Mantle. Although why they weren't evacuated to Atlas, she didn't know.

And just as the shaking stopped, it started again after a brief moment.

Suddenly, a jet of Grimm water shot up from the river and attacked the Hard-Light shield of Atlas. It didn't relent when faced with the shield, but it managed to seep onto the earth below. Then, a swarm of Centinels moved along the perimeter and towards the shield generators. Despite one large airship shooting at them, the Centinels burrowed into the earth and successfully destroyed two generators. And when they fell, the shield surrounding Atlas disappeared.

"It's time," Darkness said as the scene changed from the tundra to Atlas' agricultural district. Just then, the large Grimm Winter saw had just flown out of the cloud and landed onto part of Atlas. It then opened its mouth, letting more Grimm water onto the soil. And where there was Grimm water, there was Grimm.

"Oh, Gods," Winter whispered in shock as the creatures charged towards a line of soldiers.

"No gods," Darkness said. "Only Salem." Winter looked back to Darkness as he explained. "If she isn't stopped, she will become your only god." Darkness moved his hand again, depicting the Battle of Atlas going on for hours and hours, with both sides losing forces. However, the Grimm were coming closer and closer to the city wall.

"How long?" Winter asked. "How long does this last?"

"Not long," Darkness answered. "Not even a full day." The scene changed from Atlas to a dark abyss. "Whoever fights Salem, without the power of Eren Yeager... will fall."

"AAAAAAHHHHHH!"

A scream from above caught Winter's attention. She saw a girl younger than her with a long white ponytail falling from above. The sound and appearance of the girl was familiar to Winter, which caused her to race towards the child.

"WEISS!" she screamed in panic as she raced to catch her younger sister.

But she disappeared in a mixture of gold and black, never to be seen again.

Winter fell to the invisible floor in despair, sobbing at the sight of her sister apparently dying. She then hit the ground with a yell as tears fell down her cheeks.

"Now do you understand?" Darkness asked. "The power you can stop if you fight with Eren? Or..." Darkness lifted his hand once more, preparing to snap his fingers. "Perhaps you require another demonstration?"

"No, stop!" Winter begged as she raced to the deity. "I can't! I can't watch anymore!"

Unknown to Winter, however, the dark God's sadism had risen significantly ever since he showed the story to Winter. And with an invisible grin, he answered Winter.

"You don't have a choice."

*SNAP*

The pair was back in the tundra again, and Winter discovered there was something much worse to see; the large city of Atlas was uncontrollably falling onto Mantle.

Winter wordlessly stared as the whole Kingdom was put to an end. The only time she moved and spoke was when a tidal wave from a melted glacier was heading straight for her after it enveloped the city.

*SNAP*

As soon as they returned to the Coordinate, Winter found herself chained once more. But she didn't care about that.

The sight of Atlas, the greatest Kingdom in the world, falling and being crushed to rubble by one woman, caused everything for Winter to go completely numb. Tears fell from her eyes as she mourned for the people that would die if Atlas fell. And all the while, even as leader of the Ace Operatives, Winter would fail to stop her. And at the same time, she would lose not only her home, but her little sister.

And that blood would be on Winter's hands.

"I see you're fully convinced."

Darkness, having no pity or remorse for what he showed Winter, simply watched her cry on the ground. "It really is a shame about it all," he said. "Everything was according to your plan for life, you know. You gave your life to the General, as well as his army. And yet yours is a story, told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying... nothing." He then chuckled. "Apropos, no?"

"..."

Ren, while not knowing what she witnessed, couldn't help but feel bad when he saw Winter in that physical state. After all, it was one he shared not too long ago. Darkness, however, felt nothing but pride in his work. "Now, with that out of the way, let me ask you-"

"You're not done yet."

Darkness and Ren turned to look at Winter, who had stopped crying and was now standing. "Winter?" Ren asked.

"Winter's on sabbatical," the woman replied. "But she's not speaking for me."

The initial confusion of Darkness disappeared. "Ah, Ymir!" he replied. "Yes, of course. I still have yet to fully convince you, do I not?"

"Save it. Winter might wanna fight based on... whatever we just witnessed. But I'm not looking to die again anytime soon. This isn't my fight."

"Hm, I see."

Darkness took a moment to consider what to do with Ymir. He had witnessed much while watching Eren's life, and he knew enough about the woman that was trapped in another's body. He knew that she lived only for herself, and had little to no regrets about how she lived her life when she inherited the Jaw Titan. But before that, there were things she wished she did differently.

This was how Darkness got his next idea. A very simple idea, but effective in the case of Ymir.

"Perhaps you're right," he said. "This isn't your fight. You want no part of this, and you certainly don't want to be in your position. Am I correct?"

"You really think I'd wanna be fighting monsters when all I need to do is be happy to avoid them?" Ymir asked. "And I won't be involved with someone who can't even go take a piss without asking some guy in a suit? No, I really don't!"

"Then it boils down to one question, Ymir; what do you want?"

"Huh?"

"Please, tell me. What do you want?"

"...That's it?"

"That's it."

"...No bullshit?"

"There is no deception. Just a simple question."

Ymir thought about the question, somewhat confident that there would be no tricks. She wasn't sure what would happen when she indulged the god, but she really didn't want to stay in the Coordinate any longer. So, she decided to answer it.

"I want to be me again," she confessed. "I want out of Winter's body. Even if it's another body, I want it to be my own."

"Very well," said Darkness. "That can be arranged. What else?"

"I want to stay here. I don't want to go back to Paradis or Marley."

"Consider it done."

Ymir was about to make another demand, but quickly stopped herself. "No, wait. I want to be back on Paradis."

The outline of an eyebrow on Darkness' face moved upwards. "Do you now?"

"Yeah, I do." Ymir took a deep breath. She didn't care if Winter or Ren could hear her, she wanted to make her demand. "I don't care if Historia hates me or not. I want to see her again."

"I will make sure you do."

Ymir couldn't think of anything else, of any more demands for the god. Instead, she thought about what was needed to grant these requests. "Let me guess; I have to stop Salem first?"

"Correct," Darkness replied. "You're a smart ant. Consider this, Ymir. If you help Eren stop Salem, something I know he can do, I will grant your requests."

"How?"

"I understand you do not wish to die again. But pay attention; I do not believe Eren will give you a Titan. You will not be able to heal yourself or fight as you did before. Suppose you and Winter die when you fight Salem. Should that happen, I will do to you what I did to Eren. But this time, I will take it to Paradis. And you will be in your own body again."

"And if we don't die?"

"Then you'll die another day."

"...That's the best you can do?"

"I can't alert my brother to this deal. I'm sure you understand."

"What's the catch?"

"That depends. Do you consider Winter's death to be a catch?"

"No."

"Then no catch."

Ymir took another few seconds to think things through. "I might be able to help, and so can Winter," she declared. "But why Eren? Why did you choose him to fight Salem?"

Darkness stroked his chin. "I think I'll let Eren answer that question. I've done my part, Ymir. And now I need an answer." He turned to Ren. "I need one from you too, young man. Will you fight this war? Will you defeat Salem?"

Ren immediately nodded. "I will," he promised.

"I'll fight too," said Ymir.

Darkness, while satisfied with his accomplishment to find new warriors to his cause, felt that there was still one thing to do. So he looked over to Ymir and pretended to clear his throat.

"Huh?" the confused woman asked. "Oh, right. Hold on." She closed her eyes and prepared to let Winter take her place.

But nothing happened.

"Anybody home?" Ymir sarcastically asked.

"..."

"Winter, I don't think I can keep this guy busy for long. I'm gonna need some-"

"I'll do it," the owner of the body bluntly answered. "But leave me alone."

"...Okay," Ymir mused as she opened her eyes. "Winter's gonna fight. So if you're done, I'd really like to get the hell outta here."

"Very well," Darkness said as he raised his hand one more time. "Good luck, humans."

*SNAP*

Ren and Ymir found themselves back in their motorhome. And just in front of them was Eren and everyone else, who immediately rushed over to see them.

"Ren!" Nora screamed as she hugged her best friend. "Oh, my gosh! Are you okay?"

"We were so worried!" Cinder added, who moved closer to Ren.

"What did he do?" Eren asked. "Being alone with him isn't-"

"He didn't do anything to me," Ren quickly responded. "He and I just... talked. I'm fine."

"..."

Eren, Cinder, and Nora shared a stare at each other, surprised with what Ren had told them. But out of the three of them, Eren was the most skeptical.

"Are you sure?" he asked. "If he hurt you or showed you some-"

"I'm sure." Ren pointed to Ymir, who sat alone on one of the beds. "But you may want to check in with her. Darkness took her away."

"Where? What for?"

"I don't know where, but he wanted her to fight with us. According to Ymir, she agreed."

"I'll talk with her. And then, we'll figure out what to do." Eren began to walk over to Ymir, but stopped when Mercury finally spoke.

"Unless you still think we're in over our heads."

Everyone turned to Ren as Mercury made that claim. "...I do," he admitted as he looked down. "This is bigger than all of us. But that's not an excuse to stop fighting."

Mercury and Emerald looked at each other and nodded. "Yeah, that's true," Emerald said. "But we need some more rest. Do you need anything?"

"...Water would be good."

Emerald and Mercury led Ren to a bag with water bottles for him to drink. Nora, out of concern, decided to follow them. And in the meantime, Eren and Cinder decided to talk to Ymir and find out what happened.

"...Hey," Eren awkwardly said to Ymir, who continued to sit on the bed.

"Hey," she calmly responded while looking at Eren.

"...You okay?"

"Hunky dory. Thanks."

Cinder asked a question of her own. "Not that I care too much, but... is the Schnee-?"

"I think Winter needs a few minutes," Ymir replied. "I wasn't too scared, but I think that guy gave her a traumatic experience. Something about her home being destroyed by Salem and her sister dying."

"Her home?" Cinder asked. "What, you mean where the Schnees live?"

"Nah, it was the whole city of Atlas." Ymir lifted her hand over her knee. "One minute is was in the sky, the next..." She slapped her knee. "No more Atlas."

"Oh," Eren replied, unsure how to reply with his dislike for Atlas. He decided to change the subject instead. "So, uh... about what you said earlier..."

"Right, right." Ymir stood up and looked at Eren. "It's clear you weren't lying. And that guy, your God... he gave me a good reason to help you out. So, um... I guess we're on the same side. And I guess I'm staying with you for a while."

"Oh. Okay. And Winter?"

"She said she would help you too. But she's not talking a lot right now, I think you gotta wait for a little while."

"Sure."

Cinder nudged Eren's arm. "Hey, um... can I talk to you for a sec?" she asked.

Eren nodded and moved away from Winter, who simply looked out the window. "What's up?" he asked.

"Look, Eren; I know Salem did a number on us back there, and we could use all the help we can take," Cinder started. "But something about this doesn't feel right. First this girl's a pain in the ass, and now she wants to help? I got a bad feeling about this."

"I know what you mean," Eren agreed. "The only thing I trust Ymir to do is what she thinks is best for her. I'm not sure why she thinks helping us is best for her, but I don't think she wants to hurt us or anything." He then had an idea. "Why don't we just ask what she's getting out of this? It'll put our minds at ease."

"Okay, yeah. I'll follow your lead."

Eren turned back to Ymir. "What reason did you say Darkness gave you to help me?" he asked.

Ymir looked back to Eren. "When I die, fighting Salem or not, I'm going back to Paradis," she explained. "In my own body."

Eren knew there was only one reason why Ymir would willingly go back to Paradis. "...Okay, that I believe."

"Good. But there's one thing I don't believe." Ymir walked closer to Eren. "Why did he choose you? Don't get me wrong, you're... different from what I remember about you. But you're just... you."

Eren wasn't offended by the question, and understood why she asked him. "Well, you know I still have my Titan."

"So? I had a Titan too. It was more or less the same as yours. The God could have picked me to do this job if he wanted to. But why did he pick you?"

Eren decided to answer a question with a question. "Ymir, I know you were from a place outside the walls. I know you lived in Marley. So you know a lot about them. What do you know about the Rumbling?"

"The Rumbling?" Ymir asked. "It was the bane of Marley's existence. Just about everybody was scared of it. Why?"

"...You might want to sit down."

---

As luck would have it, Eren's team wasn't the only group who found themselves in defeat. As everyone else said, Salem and her followers were still picking up the pieces their battle had left behind. The Grimm that had attacked Salem had dispersed and the large fire was finally under control. When Hazel returned to the castle, all he found were multiple destroyed rooms and a sobbing Tyrian.

"I'm sorry," the broken Faunus whispered. "She'll forgive me." He bowed his head on the ground. "Pleeeeease. Forgive me."

"Oh, bloody hell," said Watts, who was looking at both pieces of Tyrian's tail. "Pull yourself together, you miserable-" Watts stopped his rant when he saw Hazel walk into the room. After taking a good look at the shape he was in, the doctor indifferently looked back to Tyrian. "How good of you to join us."

"What happened here?" the tall man asked.

"We lost, that's what happened." Watts examined the stinger as he carefully avoided the poison and blood dripping from it.

Tyrian quickly lifted his head off the cold ground. "But-But hope is not lost!" he rambled. "My tail, my stinger... I-I poisoned him, the boy! He will not be a nuisance to us any longer, no... no longer!"

Watts looked back at the stinger in his hand. "Yes, well... look where that got you." He then threw the dead stinger on an operating table. "It will take a solid month to make a new one." Watts looked back to Hazel. "You're quite the worse for wear. Do you require medical assistance, Hazel?"

"No," Hazel replied as he looked back to his formerly dislocated arm. He twirled his fingers around before making a fist. "I'm fine."

"Then go make yourself useful somewhere else."

"Where is Salem?"

"In the amphitheater, putting herself back together."

*SLAM*

The sound of doors opening and hitting the walls caused everyone to look down the hallway. Salem had finished her unwanted regeneration, and yet she was still worse for wear. Black smoke was seething throughout her body as she made her way to her minions. The cold, ruthless stare she gave everyone caused a chill to go down everyone's spines. Tyrian quickly lowered his head, feeling fear for the first time in he didn't know how long.

"Your-Your Grace," Watts said as he pulled on his collar. "You're back."

"..."

Words couldn't describe how enraged Salem was. In her own home, she had been beaten, broken, and humiliated. She was taken off guard multiple times, from the broken window to the fact that her creation had returned and brought with it more giants of its kind. She came so close to having it back in her grasp, only for it to be taken from her. The fact that she failed to gain what she wanted wasn't new to her, but it had caused a deep hatred within her to grow large enough to fill her entire castle. And now she had a feeling that there was something else she lost.

"Where is our candidate?" she asked.

"You mean Midori?" Watts asked. "I, um..."

"Gone," Hazel replied. "They took her with them."

Salem snapped her head in Hazel's direction. "You. Let them. Escape?"

"No. I tracked them down close to the ocean, but another giant stopped me. I wasn't strong enough to fend it off."

Salem quickly looked back at Watts and Tyrian. "And what about you, Arthur? What were you able to do?"

"I... I was... able to... hold my ground against them," the doctor nervously admitted.

"Just as I thought," Salem replied. "Nothing." Salem looked down to the sniveling Faunus before her. "And they bested you too, Tyrian?"

"I'm afraid it's worse than that," Watts admitted. "The Grimm sowed much confusion in all of us. In that confusion, one of the intruders..."

Salem leaned closer. "Speak," she demanded.

"One of them... stole my Scroll. It carried sensitive data on it."

Salem twisted her hands in a manner that caused another Glyph to appear beneath Watts, where Grimm arms were ready to pounce on him. "Sensitive data," she repeated. "Such as?"

Watts felt more and more uncomfortable in the presence of an angry Salem. "The names of our targets and contacts in Vale and Mistral," he explained. "Specifically, Torchwick and Lionheart."

Salem kept her Grimm at bay. "Was there anything about Atlas and Vacuo?"

"No, other than my incomplete projects."

Salem stated at Watts for a few more seconds, which felt like an eternity to Hazel and Tyrian. Suddenly, she lowered her hands and made the Grimm disappear. "Then perhaps this attack wasn't a total failure." Salem looked to her other two disciples. "Hazel. Tyrian. You will go to Mistral. Find those who did this to us and crush them."

"As you wish," Hazel replied. "But how do we know that's where they'll go?"

"Mistral and Vacuo are the only Kingdoms they can reach from here. If they came here to ruin our plans, eliminating Lionheart from the picture will be a good start. You will find and kill everyone." Salem then looked back to Tyrian and was about to say something, but a question from Hazel stopped her.

"You... wish for me to kill everyone?" he asked. "Even our Mai-?"

Salem twisted her head back to Hazel. "EVERYONE!" she screamed.

"..."

Hazel's shock disappeared as he simply nodded.

"I will go," Tyrian said. "But my tail, my stinger! I... I don't know if I can kill them easily."

Salem looked at the broken Tyrian and looked over to Watts. "Can you give him a new tail?" she asked.

"Of course," Watts said. "It should take no more than a month."

"You have one week." Salem began to walk away.

"One week?!" Arthur protested. "But work like this is delicate, I need-!"

Salem snapped her head back to face Arthur Watts with a scowl on her face. She didn't care how he would do it, but she expected her word to be law.

And Arthur got the message.

"Um... one week, then," he said.

Salem turned heel and left the room. She had no idea where she would go, but she needed to be alone. She needed to plan her contingencies once again. Salem was confident that some of them would die when they were found, but not Eren Yeager. He had proven himself to not only be a rival, but a possible successor to ruling the Grimm.

And Salem would be damned before someone took her throne. She had come this far in her mission, and would see the Grimm burn before they succumbed to Eren Yeager.

---

Author's notes: Hey guys it's The Avenging Titan here. This was definitely a stepping point for the story, one that both me and Court of Talons are proud of. But this is only just the beginning. There is still more on the horizon, just you wait. And I have a feeling you guys will like what we have planned.

We also have another new inclusion in the story, this time in the form of an OC: Midori Kusuri (Japanese for Green Medicine). Rather than being a throwaway like most named background characters that we made, an example being the Branwen Tribe members, Midori will have a more active role with the main group and the story going forward. What that role is you will just have to wait and see.

When coming up with the character i looked at several other characters for reference such as Haruka Sawamura and Kaoru Sayama from Yakuza, Makoto Niijima and Futaba Sakura from Persona, and Ochaco Uraraka and Kyoka Jiro from My Hero Academia. Midori's Semblance "Healing Wish" is something i came up with based off of several fictional healing abilities such as Namekian Healing from Dragon Ball, Cure Magic from Final Fantasy/Kingdom Hearts, and Recovery Girls Quirk from My Hero Academia.

We hope that you guys enjoyed the chapter and we'll hopefully have a new one soon. This is The Avenging Titan signing off.