Attack on Titan: A New Path Chapter 33, an Attack on Titan/進撃の巨人 + RWBY Crossover fanfic

"If you know yourself, but not the enemy, for every victory gained, you will also suffer a defeat."

Sun Tzu

Chapter 33: Killing Ground

It was almost hard to believe. It was practically impossible to believe. And yet, here it was, right in front of her eyes.

Cinder Fritz was witnessing Winter's plan to use Raven Branwen working perfectly.

After she woke up and learned what was needed to be done to survive, Raven used every ounce of her Maiden powers to kill every Creature of Grimm before her. Beowolves were burnt alive, Creeps were blown away, and Ursai were exploding after being hit by sharpened icicles.

As for the new Grimm Titans, Raven used her own personal experience to deal with them.

Despite the fact that she once again lost to Eren Yeager, Raven could tell that her attack on him and his friends was quite lethal. She had managed to slice and hack off pieces of their bodies with her katana, as well as a sword she had made herself. Unlike her katana, this sword was made of ice and it was almost three times as long and durable.

And it was making a good habit of cutting off Titan limbs.

The elemental sword was powerful, but Raven knew it couldn't replace her own katana. Ymir was right about the blade, how Raven relied on it with her Semblance. When she first unlocked it, Raven discovered that using her Semblance was easier with her katana, which she named Omen. Any attempts with another blade, or her own hands, had proven to be disastrous. Either the portal would close as soon as it was open or it would taken Raven far from where she wanted to go.

It seemed as if Raven's Semblance had some connection with her sword, something she had possessed for as long as she could remember.

And so, that was a major reason as to why Raven found herself unable to leave the Land of Darkness. Her fate, it seemed, rested with the people who put her to this task.

Even though Raven had proven herself to be a force to be reckoned with for the Grimm, her current company knew that she couldn't handle this fight alone. Cinder, Emerald, and Winter knew they could help, and that they had to help. Given that there were still Grimm on the ground that could just as easily go to the castle if Salem demanded it, clearing the grounds of as many Grimm as possible was a top priority for everyone.

And so, each of the women began to fight their own way. Cinder had transformed into the Incinerator Titan again, though she kept her distance from Raven. With her Titan, she was able to turn Grimm into ash and ensnare Titans in rope made of fire before she killed them.

While Winter had never recovered her own sword, she had found Raven's weapon to be quite useful. The blade was twice as long as her former weapon, and she managed to kill twice as many Grimm as well. Fortunately for her, the new weapon didn't prevent Winter from creating Glyphs with her Semblance. These Glyphs either spawned Grimm of her own that fought with her, or helped her leap off the ground and attack from above.

Despite not having too much Aura at the moment, Emerald was also able to fight. Thief's Respite was either firing all kinds of bullets at the Grimm or slicing through them with the blades at the end. Emerald had launched herself above the battlefield and onto a rock so she could shoot from above, which was a wise choice.

However, it didn't leave her very fulfilled.

As she stood on the rock and watched her friend and temporary allies fight the Grimm, Emerald began to have doubts. Not about fighting the Grimm or Salem, she knew that this had to be done for the people of Remnant. But rather, Emerald was beginning to have doubts about herself.

Here she was, standing above the battlefield rather than fighting side by side with Cinder, Winter, or Raven. She didn't have power like Cinder or Raven, and she didn't have proper expertise or a Semblance like Winter. Her own Semblance was powerful, but it wasn't very favorable in combat.

For the first time in a while... Emerald felt useless.

Emerald felt weaker than Cinder, Winter, and Raven combined. She couldn't just charge down and kill the Grimm like they could, and that made her feel discouraged. Emerald wished she had the ability to do so, to have the same amount of strength as all three women combined.

Despite the feeling of discouragement, Emerald immediately found a way to gain this strength. One glance at Cinder was enough to give her hope that maybe, just maybe, she could be as strong as her.

Maybe... Eren could give her a Titan too.

Back before the battle, Emerald had never wanted a Titan of her own. The mere idea of Titans was enough to scare her, given what had occurred in the forests of Vale recently. And she didn't understand why Mercury wanted one of his own. Eren had a burden, a responsibility to carry that required a Titan. Cinder, Ren, and Nora had chosen to carry it with him, and carry Titans of their own.

"Should I be carrying it with them?" Emerald asked herself. "Should I... have my own Titan?"

*GROWL*

Emerald turned around fast when a familiar sound reached her ears. A pack of Beowolves had climbed up the rock she was standing on and were slowly approaching her. As soon as they leapt towards the young girl, Emerald pointed her guns at them and opened fire.

*BANG*

*CLICK*

Emerald had run out of bullets, but she was quick to use the chains in her weapons to swing her blades at the Grimm. She had plenty of more bullets, which she had taken from the Dark Wing before she left. So Emerald wasn't worried about running out of ammo any time soon.

However, she was more worried about the large number of Grimm that continued to scale the rock.

Emerald looked back towards the battlefield to see that just about everyone was just as preoccupied as her. Winter was killing Grimm on the ground while Raven focused more on large Nevermores that began to descend from the sky.

Cinder, on the other hand, was focusing more on the Titans. Fire and her fists were her main arsenal, and she used both magnificently. If she wasn't throwing punches at the Titans' faces and chests, she was burning their necks to ash. Normal flames and balls weren't cutting it this time, so Cinder continued to use the whips of fire she made to ensnare the arms, legs, and necks of all the Titans. And with a mere thought, Cinder could make the whips burn whatever they had just wrapped around.

And now, the fiery woman had just finished burning a pack of Titans. Cinder didn't have any opponents at the moment, so Emerald decided to give her some.

"CINDER!" Emerald yelled at the top of her lungs. When she saw that she had captured the Incinerator Titan's attention, Emerald pointed to the incoming Grimm on her position. "Shoot here!" She then jumped off the rock. "Now!"

The last thing Emerald saw before she landed on the ground was a ball of fire crashing into the rock with all the Grimm still on it.

*BOOM*

The structure exploded and unleashed small pebbles onto the red ground.

Emerald managed to land on the ground safely, but it cost her some Aura to protect her from the explosion and the rough landing. And to make matters worse, a large Ursa had just crashed into her and made her slide on the coarse ground. Emerald raised her guns to defend herself, but the familiar clicking noise reminded her that she didn't reload Thief's Respite.

The Ursa took this disadvantage as its chance to charge at Emerald again and slash at her with its enormous paw.

*SWISH*

The creature's paw fell off its arm when a blue blade moved across it. Along with the paw, the Ursa lost its head as it began to turn into ash.

"On your feet," said Winter, who offered a hand to Emerald. "We're not finished yet."

Emerald took the hand and felt herself rise off the ground. "I have to reload," she said as she let the empty bullet casings fall to the ground.

"I'll cover you." Winter turned her back to Emerald as she scanned the area for more Grimm. When she saw them, Winter used her Glyphs to intensify her attacks. They were mostly short-ranged, but her greatest attack came in the form of multiple Glyphs surrounding an Ursa Major. Winter then leapt onto each Glyph and quickly slashed at the Grimm until there were no more Glyphs to jump on.

There was no more Ursa Major either.

"..."

Winter looked back to Emerald and saw that she was staring at the aftermath of the attack with wide eyes and a dropped jaw. "Stay focused," Winter ordered as she summoned a new blade from Raven's sheath. This was a new technique to her, but it had become easy when Winter saw the capabilities of the weapon.

Emerald quickly shook her head as she joined Winter while shooting at the Grimm. "Better save some skill like that for the Titans," she said. "And Salem, when we get to the tower."

"Agreed," Winter said as she cut another Grimm. "But they just keep coming."

"That's what we want, right? To buy Eren some time to surprise her."

"That's the plan, yes. But we don't know what's happening at the castle."

Emerald realized this was true, but she was able to see the bright side of this case. "They're all on top of us," she pointed out. "Salem hasn't called them back to help her."

"True. But how do we know if she's even watching us?"

"..."

Salem was indeed watching events unfold right outside her castle.

As soon as she heard the explosions, Salem made her way to the nearest window in order to see what was happening. There, she witnessed just about every Creature of Grimm move towards a specific spot that was miles from her castle.

The Land of Darkness had been breached once again.

Salem was annoyed to see that she had intruders once again, given how she had made changes to the area. The biggest change was the creation of her own Titans as a means of security, which she was certain would be helpful.

Despite the fact that her first Titan, which was somehow revealed to be Eren Yeager, escaped while it made a mess of things, Watts' proposed method of control was miraculous. The collars that responded to the terminal in Salem's castle indeed managed to prevent them from acting outside preprogrammed orders.

However, time spent alone with the Titans had shown Salem that she didn't need the collars to control them after all. While she was commanding some of her creatures to move beyond her castle, to roam the rest of the land, a Titan followed the Grimm. This led Salem to experiment with the other Titans and see that she could control them just like any other Grimm.

What made Eren Yeager different from this, Salem had no idea. And she still had Watts' collars placed in their necks, just to be safe.

Right now, Salem proved to herself that she could control all of the Grimm right now, given that she was sending them out towards the source of the explosions. However many intruders there were, they couldn't handle the multitude of Grimm coming their way.

Nothing could stop her now.

"Salem!"

The witch looked away from the window to see that Rod Reiss had rejoined her, despite the fact that he had been ordered to stay with Nora.

But this was for good reason.

"The castle has been breached!" the specter reported. "They rescued the girl you captured!"

Salem softly gasped at this revelation. When she looked back towards the wasteland with a scowl, Salem made a horrible discovery.

"Whoever's out there... they're the diversion!"

Salem may have uncovered the truth, but Eren and his friends already had the perfect head start.

Thanks to Midori and her familiarity of the castle, Eren and his friends were able to find the best way down deeper into the castle. Rather than elevators, the castle had many flights of stairs that led both downwards and upwards. Given that Watts had said his lab was five floors down, everyone rushed down the stairs as fast as they could.

Though it was no easy feat.

"Who the hell... puts the one thing we're looking for... down so many flights... of stairs?" Vernal asked as she stopped running and gasped for air.

Everyone understood her plight, though most of the group found the descent not as challenging. Mercury even found the sentiment his girlfriend shared to be humorous.

"Hey, come on, babe," Mercury said in encouragement. "This isn't the worst thing in the world."

"No... I'm with Vernal," said Midori, who was also out of breath. "This... is worse than Mantle."

Mercury looked at the condition both of the girls were in, but he still couldn't believe that they were out of shape like this. Midori was still new to the concept of fighting, but Vernal should have had some experience like this.

When this was over, Mercury saw a lot of training in their future.

"Don't worry, guys!" Nora yelled up from where she was. "Maybe this lab will have something to get you back to speed!" She then saw the chance to make a joke. "Maybe it'll have pancakes!"

Mercury couldn't help but laugh at the idea, which earned him a slap to the back from Vernal. "Jerk," she said as she decided to get back to moving down the stairs.

Eren, however, stopped moving when he found himself in front of a certain doorway.

"This is it," he said. "Five floors." He pressed his hands against what appeared to be a Grimm-like door, just like the one that was in Nora's cell. It didn't seem to open with a push, so Eren looked back up to Nora, who was at the top of the last flight of steps. "Nora, can you open this?"

"On it," Nora said as she readied Magnhild in its hammer form. With a mighty yell, Nora struck the door with her hammer and watched as it broke into pieces of bone and tar-like liquid.

"Nice one."

Eren was the first to step on the other side of the door, where he was followed by Ren and Nora. Soon, everyone else found themselves in another hallway, one that didn't seem to have any windows or natural lighting.

The only kind of light it had was from very dim candles.

"Jeez," said Mercury. "How come it's so dark in here?" He quickly took out his Scroll and turned on the built-in flashlight he had. Vernal followed suit, but not without taking one of her guns in her other hand.

"This is a long hallway," said Ren. "How are we supposed to find the lab?"

Eren looked at the first door he saw, which was a few steps away from him. "I would have preferred Watts being here," he said as he stopped in front of the door. "But it looks like we have to search these rooms one by one."

Nora flashed a cocky smirk as she readied herself to smash through more doors. "Got it," she said confidently. With that, she swung Magnhild at the first door she saw.

*BAM*

Nora looked inside the room she had just opened, but it appeared to be empty. It looked just like the room she was once in, so she was sure it was just another cell.

"Nothing here," she said as she looked away from the cell.

*BAM*

Eren had just used his Semblance to destroy another door, where he also saw an empty cell. "Not here," he said.

Mercury saw his chance to help by kicking at a door he saw with his weapons.

*BANG*

It took a few kicks, but the Grimm door finally dissolved and revealed another empty cell. "Empty," he said.

Midori also saw her chance to help, especially with Scalpel in her possession. After she deployed her blades, Midori ran to the first door she saw and slashed at the object.

*SWISH*

It proved to be a clean cut, as the door began to dissolve into ash. When she looked back to her friends, Midori smiled in pride at her ability to use her new weapon.

"Did you see that?!" she asked.

"Excellent form," Ren complimented. He then looked inside to see yet another empty cell. "We'll have to keep looking, though."

Vernal had joined Mercury, who was kicking another door with the weapons connected to his ankles. With a smirk of her own, Vernal took her own guns in her hand and turned around to face another door.

But a shock of pain in her body caused Vernal to drop the guns and kneel.

"Whoa, babe!" Mercury yelled as he noticed that his girlfriend had fallen. He immediately kneeled down with her to help her stand. "You okay?"

Everyone heard Mercury's yell and quickly looked over to see Vernal kneeling. Eren was the first to join them, and he also helped her stand up. "What happened?" he asked.

Vernal had a good idea as to what happened. She had experienced a feeling like this before on multiple occasions, and it never brought about anything good. The Grimm inside her blood had begun to boil, to come to life and ascend to the surface.

While this feeling normally came out of the blue, just as it did now, Vernal couldn't help but feel that this experience was different. That it had been triggered by an outside force.

"That... That one," Vernal said as she pointed to the door she had almost destroyed. "Something about it... making me turn." When she stood up, Vernal clenched her fists and turned away. "Gotta... force it down."

Everyone was looking at the door Vernal had pointed at, but they started to become concerned when they heard that Vernal might be turning into an abnormal Grimm once again. Mercury was the most concerned of all, but he stood right where he was. "I'll stay with her," he said. "You guys check out that door."

"..."

Everyone slowly approached the door as they raised their weapons. Eren chose to use his new swords instead of his Semblance to open it, given that he wasn't expecting another empty cell. While he was hoping for a lab, Eren was ready to say that it was something else.

*HISS*

*SWISH*

When the door dissolved after one swing, Eren saw that he was right. This was no lab.

"What the-?"

"..."

As Eren and his friends stepped inside the room, they took in every haunting detail of it. The first detail was that the room was much bigger than the empty cells. The second was that there was a sticky, tar-like substance all over the floor that made it difficult to walk on.

The third, and most disturbing of all, was that the walls were covered in black, oozing pods.

"Wh... What?" Ren asked as he examined the hanging pods. "What is this?"

"Guys... I don't think we're supposed to be here," Nora timidly said as she looked at the pods.

Eren couldn't take his eyes off each of the structures, but he was able to talk to Midori. "Have you... seen something like this before?" he asked.

"...No," Midori whispered. "Never."

"..."

Eren was drawn to the nearest pod, which he believed looked very similar to a butterfly cocoon. Despite the fact that he shared Nora's sentiment, Eren was curious as to what was inside. His first idea was Grimm, but he knew that Grimm came out of pools instead of cocoons like these.

Eren knew the only way to see what was inside was to cut the pod open, which was something he was ready to do.

*SCREECH*

An abnormal sound, akin to a creature howling in pain, caught the attention of everyone in the room. Even Vernal and Mercury could hear it.

"What's that?" Nora asked as she gripped her weapon tighter.

Though it wasn't like anything Ren had heard before, he was able to identify it. "An alarm!" he yelled. "Salem knows we're here!"

Eren lowered his swords as he turned away from the cocoon. "We're wasting time," he said. "Let's get out of here!" Everyone both inside and outside the room agreed with Eren as they ran down the hall and turned left. While they didn't know, and didn't want to know, was what was inside that room. Everyone became more determined than ever to find Watts' terminal and kill all the Titans before they could find and beat Salem.

It was this focus and determination that caused everyone to miss Rod Reiss appearing where everyone once stood.

Rather than pursue the children, the black specter turned towards the room that everyone had fled from. Reiss stepped inside and examined each Grimm-like cocoon, but he didn't turn away from them in fear. Instead, he reached out and touched one with his own hand.

"No," he said as he moved his hand back. "It's not ready."

"..."

With this in mind, Reiss turned to the next cocoon and placed his hand on it. "Yes," he said. "This one." After he pulled his hand away from it, Reiss reached into his chest and pulled out a black shape. The shape took the form of a Chill as soon as he let go of it, and it moved inside the pod he had touched.

"This will be easier than I thought," Reiss said as he watched the pod begin to shake.

*SCREECH*

"Wonderful. As if I didn't have enough problems already."

Watts was still inside the operating room Salem had left him in. The door was still locked, and Watts didn't have anything strong enough in the room to destroy it. And ever since he had reunited with Salem, the Atlesian found himself at one of the most important crossroads of his life.

Since he was known to think best when he was working, Watts decided to focus on the task he had been given: helping Hazel.

After a brief examination, Watts saw that the majority of the damage inflicted on the abnormally tall man was to his face and head. His arms and legs appeared to be as scarred as his torso, but Watts knew this was normal for Hazel. His head, on the other hand, looked like someone had thrown it inside a shredder and left it there.

The first thing Watts noticed was a hideous mark on Hazel's neck. He couldn't be sure, but the doctor believed that it looked like a human bite. The flesh appeared to be healing, but the tissue beneath the skin was visible.

The next things Watts looked at was Hazel's face, which was riddled with scars and protruding bone.

"How in the world did someone accomplish this?" Watts asked. "It'll take weeks before Hazel can look remotely human again." Watts let out a heavy sigh as he turned to a bag of medical tools he had kept in the room before he left for Atlas. "Better get started," he said out loud.

Watts did the best he could to tune out the alarm as he worked on reconstructing Hazel's face. He was forced to make even more cuts and incisions on the man's face so he could see where the bones were broken. Once this was done, Watts used a drill, small screws, and other metal implants necessary to reconnect the bones and cover spots that couldn't be fixed.

Unfortunately, nothing could replace the lost and scarred flesh that comprised Hazel's face.

As he worked, Watts began to ponder more on his dilemma. He knew that Eren Yeager was relying on him and his knowledge of the terminal he created to control the Titans. While he was able to reveal its location, Watts was sure that Eren didn't know how to make it work.

Only Watts could do that.

Salem, on the other hand, now knew that Eren was here. If she defeated him for good this time, something that seemed very likely to happen, Salem might learn of Watts' attempt at betrayal. The consequences for such a thing would be severe.

But the consequences for betraying Eren would also be severe.

Watts knew that he was stuck in a rock and a hard place right now. Eren and Salem were both extremely powerful, and today was the best chance to prove how much damage they could inflict on each other. They both showed the ability of healing themselves from any wound, and they had incredible resources at their disposal.

The only thing that seemed to outclass both of them was the god that Eren was acting on behalf of.

Watts had the rare chance to see that apparently there really was a god. As a man of science, Watts easily dismissed the notion of an omnipotent creator of the world. Such a thing didn't make sense to him. However, Eren's memories showed that he did indeed meet a god, and that god wanted him to stop Salem.

The scientist was able to conclude that helping either Salem or Eren would result in death should the other party win, but the idea of an afterlife was hard to think about. If Watts died now, it was possible that this god would judge Watts based on his actions. He could either be rewarded for his efforts and achievements, or he could be eternally damned for what he had done and did not do.

"One way or another... death and defeat are inevitable," Watts thought to himself. "Should I be the one to die... I would be better off knowing I have a chance to be recognized and rewarded for my actions." As Watts began to wrap Hazel's face in bandages, he made a decision. "I will assist Eren. But first, I have to get out of here."

Watts was so lost in thought that he hadn't noticed Hazel's eyes had opened. But a large hand holding his throat and tightening its grip had gotten the doctor's attention.

"Ha... Hazel!" Watts choked out. "St... Stop! It's me!"

"..."

As soon as Hazel could see that Watts was hovering over him instead of an enemy, the large man let his ally go. The first thing Watts did was breathe heavily and cough as the feeling of being in a vice-grip faded away.

"Wh... What... happened?" Hazel groaned as he moved his hands to his face.

"Eren... Yeager," Watts replied as he stopped coughing. "That's what happened. I wouldn't touch that if I were you."

Hazel was feeling the bandages around his face as he heard Watts warning. Beneath them, he could feel severe scarring and pieces of bone that felt misplaced and misshapen. Eventually, he took the doctor's advice and let go.

"You've suffered quite the injuries," Watts said as he moved back to Hazel. "But the extent of it all seems to be at your face. How does the rest of your body feel?"

"..."

Hazel groaned as he tried to move off the table, but he felt incredibly weak. He didn't have the strength to sit upright or move his legs.

"Just as I thought," the Atlesian said without moving. "You won't be going anywhere any time soon."

*SCREECH*

The inhuman screaming had finally caught Hazel's attention. "What... is that?" he asked.

Watts looked to the door. "Ah, that," he said. "It seems we have a lot to catch up on."

The Atlesian scientist spent the next few minutes explaining how he had crossed paths with Eren Yeager and almost died. Watts described how he had cut off his own arm and regrown it, his origins as a man from another world, and how he had come back to stop Salem.

"Once he kills the Titans with my terminal, this will be anyone's game," Watts finished as he looked back to the door. "You're better off where you are now, but I need to find a way out of here." He then moved across the room. "There's got to be something here to open that door."

"..."

While Hazel had been listening to Watts' story, he found himself quite displeased with it. It was true that he had lost to Eren and his friends, but giving up and changing sides wasn't an option he was happy with. What he wanted now was the reason why he was fighting with Salem, and it would certainly help him make peace with looking like a freak under the bandages.

Hazel wanted revenge on the boy who did this to him.

"I want... my strength back, Watts," Hazel groaned. "Help me... fight Yeager. Now."

Watts looked back to Hazel with a surprised look. "Were you not listening to what I said?" he asked. "That man isn't what he seems to be! The strength and power he has are literally out of this world! Any attempt by either of us to stop him would only end in disaster!" Watts moved closer to Hazel so he could be clear. "Even if I could restore your strength, get you on your feet again, I don't see the wisdom in putting it to use against Eren!"

*CRACK*

Watts groaned in pain as one of Hazel's hands grabbed his shoulder and squeezed tightly. Despite being unable to fight, Hazel's natural strength was enough to hurt someone as physically weak as Watts.

"Do it!" Hazel yelled through grit teeth as he pulled the doctor closer. "Salem only needs you for your brain. Get me off this table or I'll crush your limbs so hard, you'll be the one laying here next."

The pain served as an example for Watts, and he was certain Hazel's threat wasn't an empty one. While Eren's threat to his survival was still existent, Hazel could snap him like a twig at the present moment. The only way for Watts to survive now was to help Hazel.

"Alright!" he said. "Alright!"

"..."

Hazel let go of Watts and allowed the doctor to run his shoulder and engage his Aura to deal with the pain. And rather than suffer an experience like that again, Watts moved towards the medical bag he had been using. There, he found a needle and a small vial of liquid.

"I can't do anything about your face," Watts declared as he stuck the needle in the vial. "But I can help you get off that table." Once the syringe was full of the liquid, he moved back to Hazel and prepared to inject him with it.

But he suddenly felt his arm caught in Hazel's strong grip once again.

"That better not... be poison," Hazel warned the doctor.

"No, no!" Watts groaned as he suffered once again. "It's a steroid! It'll help you!"

"..."

Hazel let go of Watts once again and allowed the doctor to explain himself.

"This will restore your natural strength," Watts promised. "But only for a short while. I won't stop you from looking for Yeager, but just remember my warning."

"..."

Watts couldn't see past the man's bandages, but he was sure that Hazel was intent on killing Eren. "Very well," he said as he moved the needle into Hazel's arm and injected the steroid. "It's your funeral."

"..."

About thirty seconds had passed until Hazel felt a change in his body. The muscles in his arms and legs began to swell and stiffen as he felt a surge of energy forming within him. The sudden change also brought about a sense of pain, which caused Hazel to growl as his body grew accustomed to the steroid flowing through him.

Despite the pain being a kind he had never felt before, Hazel noticed that the feeling in his legs had finally returned. For the first time since he was attacked by Mercury, Hazel could move his whole body without complications.

The first thing Hazel did was pick himself up off the table and nearly break the floor as he jumped down. He then turned to the door behind him and saw it as his only way out. So as he recklessly threw the table out of his way, which crashed and broke against the wall, Hazel ran to the door and punched it with his newfound might.

*BAM*

The door had not only been unlocked from the strong punch, but it had been completely obliterated. Hazel breathed heavily as he left the operating room and looked around. When he didn't see any sign of Eren, the large man quickly turned to Watts with a growl.

"Um... that way?" Watts assumed as he pointed in the direction of his lab.

"..."

The last thing Hazel did before he left was let out an inhuman roar. For better or worse, he was back in the fight. And now he was running down the dark corridor as he began his hunt for Eren Yeager.

Alone once more, Watts looked out the doorway and examined the aftermath of Hazel's actions.

"Bloody Hell," he whispered to himself. "I've created a monster."

*BANG*

*BOOM*

*ROAR*

*WHOOSH*

*BOOM*

*BANG*

If they weren't the ones on the receiving end, the Creatures of Grimm would find these noises attractive and pleasurable. But since they were currently being destroyed by the source of these sounds, there was nothing pleasing about this.

Cinder had lost track of how many Grimm she and her current allies had killed, just as she had lost track of how long she had been out here fighting. But there was one thing for sure.

Everyone was certainly packing a punch.

Cinder and Raven had managed to kill about twenty Titans on their own. Despite the fact that she took a few hits and her face was somewhat mangled, the fire of the Incinerator Titan had burned many Grimm Titans alive. She had used her fire so much that some of the flames had begun to turn blue.

Raven and her elemental powers had done a number on the Grimm in the sky and on the ground. It had gotten so bad for them that the Nevermores had chosen to keep their distance rather than risk moving closer. But lightning in the sky, courtesy of Raven, had started to kill them where they were flying.

Winter and Emerald were holding their own on the ground, but Winter was arguably doing a better job at that. She had used her Semblance countless times and was running low on Aura, but the former soldier was making up for this with her finesse with Raven's katana. She discovered that changing the blades had helped inflict new kinds of destruction on the Grimm. The smallest Beowolf and the largest pack all felt the sting of the blade as Winter triumphed over her foes.

Emerald was also holding her own, but she was badly hurt.

A decline in Aura and a deadly strike to her face had left a deep cut on Emerald's head, which caused warm blood to nearly obscure her vision. Some of her Aura helped heal the cut, but not entirely. The worst thing was that Emerald was feeling lightheaded from the wound.

This and her near-blindness were enough to miss a Boarbatusk from charging and crashing right into her.

"Gah-Oof!" Emerald yelled and groaned as she flew and hit the ground.

Fortunately, Winter was able to recognize the sounds of distress and see that Emerald was in trouble. She also saw the Boarbatusk was beginning to spin for its second attack, which put Emerald directly in harm's way.

To prevent this, Winter stabbed the katana into the ground and concentrated on creating a special kind of Glyph. Rather than just a snowflake, the symbol of the Schnee family, the Glyph produced a sort of clock. The clock had numbers and two hands that were spinning faster and faster by the second.

When Winter opened her eyes, she found herself able to move just as fast as the Boarbatusk. And she killed it right before it could crash into Emerald once again.

Emerald looked up to see nothing but ash and Winter extending a hand to her. As she took it and came off the ground, Emerald was about to thank Winter for saving her.

But instead, she repaid the Atlesian by quickly shooting an incoming Sabyr.

*BANG*

Winter turned around just in time to see the Sabyr begin to turn to ash. She knew that Emerald had just saved her life, so she turned back to the young girl and nodded. "Thanks for that," she said.

"Don't... mention it," Emerald said as she grabbed her cut and staggered.

Winter quickly readied her katana and turned her back to Emerald. "Use your Aura for that. I'll cover you."

"I don't have too much left. And we might need my Semblance again."

"Caution and secrecy are out the window now. Use that Aura to help yourself."

After taking a second to think about it, and after seeing how serious and honest Winter was being, Emerald realized that she was right. There wasn't much need for illusions or tricks now, just survival. And so, Emerald used the last pieces of her Aura to heal the deep cut on her head. The wound disappeared, but her Aura had completely shattered.

Emerald was vulnerable now, but that didn't seem to be a problem at the moment. There were hardly any Grimm around her.

"I thought there'd be more of them," she said as she looked at the barren field.

"So did I," Winter agreed as she examined the lack of dangerous creatures.

"Did... we win?"

Winter looked around for a clue as to why there weren't any more Grimm, and she found it with the Incinerator Titan pointing out into the distance. "I don't think so. Look."

Emerald turned to where she saw Cinder was pointing and saw that the Grimm that were left had started to run away. Beowolves, Ursai, Creeps, Saybrs, and even the Titans were all making their way towards the large crystal that acted as Salem's castle.

"She knows," said Winter. "Salem knows we're just a diversion."

"That means... she knows Eren's inside!" Emerald realized. "We gotta go!"

*WHOOSH*

A large fire in front of them stopped Winter and Emerald from trying to catch up to the Grimm. At first, they believed Cinder was responsible for this fiery wall, but a familiar voice said otherwise.

"Not so fast."

Winter and Emerald turned to see Raven moving down in front of them, with the intent to kill.

"Seriously?!" Emerald yelled in frustration. "Now you wanna do this?!"

"Raven, stop it!" Winter ordered as she took the katana in hand. "Let us through!"

"No," Raven replied bluntly. "You give me back my weapon."

Winter moved back as she put the katana back in its sheath. "I won't let you have it. Not until we go and get everyone."

Raven looked directly at Winter, Emerald, and even the Incinerator Titan that was preparing to attack. She knew she was in great danger from this Titan and every second she spent here, so Raven did her best to make everyone see reason.

"The only ones you can save now are yourselves!" Raven said as she pointed towards the spire behind the flames. "You see that place? That place is death! I know what happens to people who go there, I know the things Salem is capable of! I don't care what kind of half-baked scheme you or Eren have made, but you'll only get put into the ground if you go there! There is no possible way to beat Salem!"

"Oh, yeah?!" Emerald yelled back. "How would you know?"

"..."

For a brief moment, everyone standing before Raven saw something they didn't expect. One brief shift on her face revealed an emotion that they didn't know Raven was possible of feeling.

A brief frown displayed just an ounce of sadness within the hardened bandit.

"You... You wouldn't believe me if I told you," Raven said. "All that matters is that I know this is pointless." As her eyes continued to burn, Raven lifted one of her palms towards Emerald and formed a fireball. "Now give me my sword. Or else."

"..."

Winter briefly considered giving Raven the katana. She knew that one powerful attack at Emerald, who had just lost her Aura, would be enough to kill her. Winter or Cinder could jump in the way, but that wouldn't stop Raven from trying again. And Winter was still catching her breath from all the fighting, so she wasn't ready to fight someone with Magic of all things.

She might have to give up.

"Winter, let me out."

A familiar voice in her head caught Winter's attention, but she didn't welcome it. "Not now, Ymir," she whispered.

"No, just listen," Ymir retorted. "Let me out and I'll make Raven stand down."

"But you can't fight her."

"I won't have to. Trust me."

"..."

Despite knowing her practically her whole life, Winter wasn't sure if she could fully trust Ymir. Nearly every waking moment of her life was spent arguing or disagreeing with her, and Ymir knew it. But Winter knew that she couldn't fight Raven like this.

So even though she had her doubts, Winter allowed Ymir to emerge.

"You really want this, huh?" Ymir asked as she took the sword from the sheath. "If you want it, you're gonna have to get out of the way."

Raven rolled her eyes at the poor attempt of negotiation. "Were you not listening?" she asked rhetorically. "Why would I-?"

Ymir quickly held the blade and hilt in her hands as she pressed the sword on her knee. "I'll break it!"

"..."

Ymir could see that she had Raven's attention, so she continued to talk. "If you don't move right now, I'll break this sword! If you throw that fireball at us, I'll make sure that the sword gets hit first!"

"..."

Everyone was looking at Ymir now. Emerald was still standing by her, but she raised her guns at Raven for a means of security. Cinder had taken the time to muster enough strength to be ready to create more fire, should she need to convince Raven in a different manner.

Raven could see that Ymir was serious about this threat, and she knew a fireball would be a poor choice on her part. Flying down there as fast as she could would also be unwise, since Ymir needed only a second to break the sword.

But she couldn't go to that castle. Raven wasn't lying when she described it to all the women, and she knew nothing good would come of this.

And yet, Raven decided to lower the wall of fire she had made. She had realized that the only way to retrieve her sword would be to play along. When the time was right, when she had her chance, Raven would seize it from Ymir. So as she watched the two girls running after all the Grimm, Raven knew her chance would come soon.

If it weren't for the fact that Cinder had just grabbed her.

The large hand of the Incinerator Titan made a quick lunge for Raven and caught the woman in its grasp. Cinder wasn't ready to let Raven simply fly around while she still posed a threat. She had even begun to squeeze her enemy so she wouldn't have the strength to break out. It was a risk, but a calculated one.

As for Ymir and Emerald, Cinder lowered her other hand and allowed for them to climb on it. Once she moved her hand towards her hair, which Emerald and Ymir grabbed so they could stay on, Cinder took off running so everyone could catch up to the Grimm faster.

"Good job, Ymir," Winter complimented. "Good job."

"Get ready! Here they come!"

*ROAR*

*BANG*

*SWISH*

The alarm that had sounded in Salem's castle not only affected the Grimm outside the structure. But rather, there were Grimm inside the walls and halls that had been alerted as well.

Eren and his present company were still looking for Watts' lab, but they encountered resistance along the way. Beowolves and Saybrs emerged from the walls and came running out of rooms with the intent to kill the intruders. However, Eren and his friends taught the Grimm how difficult it would be to kill them.

This even gave Eren the chance to test his new Hard-Light swords on the Grimm. He was pleased to say that they seemed to work just as well, if not better, than the metal blades he constantly had to change and discard. These blades cut through Grimm and required Eren to use less strength than he normally needed to; the heat of the Dust made cutting through bone and flesh easier than before.

And Eren noticed that the bone plating that acted as reinforcements for some Grimm would offer no protection from Hard-Light Dust. This had been a problem with the metal blades before, but it was history now.

Everyone else seemed to be normal while they were fighting Grimm. They had done it every night before they made camp, but something about the Grimm coming out from everywhere in such an enclosed space made things a little more challenging.

"Aw, man," Mercury said as he began to take a short rest. He rested his hands in his knees as he breathed heavily. "Is this... the kinda shit... Huntsmen have to do?"

"Maybe... out in the open... like we did," said Ren, who also took a short rest. "But I don't know about this."

"Damn." Mercury had enough rest, and he began to stand upright. "Maybe if they weren't such assholes, I'd thank them for what they did."

"Don't let Cinder hear you say that," said Nora, who had just crushed a Beowolf with her hammer. "Otherwise, she'll never forgive you."

Midori had just cut a Beowolf's arms off and then decapitated it before she joined in the conversation. "I don't know if it's just me... but this isn't so hard," she said. "I mean, with the right weapons, anyone can kill Grimm."

*BANG*

Midori turned around to see that a Creep was lying dead on the ground, courtesy of two shots from Vernal. "Don't get too cocky, hun," she said with a smirk. "You still got a lot to learn."

Midori cursed herself for not seeing or hearing the Creep behind her. "Aw, man," she said. "I really do, huh?"

"Hey, it's no big deal!" Nora said in encouragement. "And you're right; anyone can kill Grimm once they know how!"

"That's right," said Ren. "Even Eren had to learn how to kill Grimm. They weren't like the Titans for him."

"Yeah, I remember you guys telling me about that," said Mercury. "I was in the hospital a lot, but Eren was saying that-" He suddenly stopped talking before he turned around. "Wait... where is Eren?"

"..."

Everyone looked around the immediate area, but they saw no signs of their friend. However, they were able to recognize his voice.

"Guys! Guys, come quick!"

Everyone followed the sound of Eren's voice through the hall, where they found decaying Grimm and a few more cell doors open. But inside one broken door was a room much bigger than a cell. There were books, vials, and even mechanical parts all laying on tables in the room.

Eren was also in the room, and he was standing right next to a computer that stopped at his chest.

"I found it!" Eren yelled as he pointed to the computer. "This has to be it!"

Everyone gasped as they stepped into the room and observed what Eren found. "That's it!" Ren said as he rushed over to the computer. "The terminal!"

"Just like Watts said!" Mercury yelled as he ran inside. "Well, what do ya know? He was useful for something!"

"Awesome!" Nora yelled as she raised her hammer. "Now let's break this thing!"

All three men grabbed Nora and Magnhild before both of them could do any harm. "Nora, wait!" Ren pleaded. "We can't destroy it yet!"

Nora stopped moving, but she didn't understand why this happened. "What?" she asked. "What's wrong?"

"We have to destroy the Titans first," Eren explained. "This thing should cause a chain reaction with those collars we found."

"Once we kill them all, then we can destroy it," said Mercury. He then walked over to the computer and looked it over. "We just, uh... gotta figure out how to use it."

"..."

Everyone was now in the lab, and they were all looking at the terminal. None of them knew computers too well, given that the only technology they knew was their Scrolls. Mercury had some experience with the computers in the Dark Wing, but something about this terminal looked... different.

"Um, alright, uh..." Mercury stammered as he looked at the screen. It was mostly black, except for a small white rectangle they kept flashing on and off. "Looks like we can just type whatever in here."

Eren gave the first idea. "Try 'Kill the Titans,'" he said. Mercury typed in the command, and received a message.

"Invalid Command"

"Try 'Self destruct,'" Ren suggested.

"Invalid Command"

"Lemme try 'Destroy,'" Mercury said as he entered the word.

"Invalid Command"

"Dammit!" Mercury hit the side of the computer.

"This isn't good," said Midori.

*GROWL*

*ROAR*

Everyone turned to the door, where they could hear the familiar sounds of Grimm. "Neither is that," Ren said as he took out his guns. He had to reload them, but he was ready for a fight.

"Keep trying," Eren ordered as he made his way to the door. "Maybe one of these books can help you use it."

This seemed like a strange idea, but the books certainly had a purpose here. So Mercury grabbed the first one he saw and began to flip through the pages.

"I don't know how that's gonna help," said Nora.

"It could, but it would take too long," said Ren. "Watts is the only one who can help us."

"I know," Eren said as he activated his swords once again. He then turned to the source of the noises. "As soon as we deal with these Grimm, I'll go up and find him. You guys stay here and protect the terminal. We need it."

"Got it," Nora said as she transformed Magnhild into a grenade launcher. She then saw a pack of Creeps charging at the end of the hall.

"I'll go with you, Eren," Ren suggested as he prepared to fire at the incoming Grimm. "My Semblance can help us hide from the Grimm, it should make things-"

All of a sudden, the Grimm stopped running. After they stood completely still for a moment, they ran in the exact direction they came from.

"...Wow," Nora said as she lowered her weapon. "I forgot how great your Semblance works!" She then looked to her friend with a smile. "Nice job, Ren!"

But Ren wasn't smiling back.

"What?" he uttered as he stared at the retreating Grimm. "That... That wasn't me."

Nora stopped smiling as she turned to her other friend. "Um... Eren?" she asked hopefully.

"Not me," he replied.

"..."

Midori emerged from the lab when she heard nothing but silence. It was mostly concerning, given that she didn't hear any gunfire or blades when the sounds of Grimm came. "Guys?" she asked. "What's going on?"

"The Grimm..." Nora said as she pointed back towards the hall. "They just... ran."

"Ran?" Midori repeated. "From you?"

Eren turned around when he noticed the Grimm were gone. "I... don't know," he admitted.

"And I don't think so," Ren confessed. "I didn't even use my Semblance, and Eren didn't try to control them."

Midori looked around the area, but didn't see anything sticking out. "Well, there's nothing else here," she said as she moved in the direction they all originally came from. She had to look past a corner to continue her investigation, but she couldn't see anything. "It looks like we're all alone in-"

*GROWL*

*WHAM*

A black shape jumped down from the ceiling and crashed right into Midori. Before she could recover, a strong jaw grabbed her leg and began to thrash the young girl around. Midori hit the walls twice as she screamed, and suddenly fell to the ground.

"Midori!" Ren called out in shock as he watched the Grimm attack his friend.

Midori kicked the beast that had attacked her in desperation, but the apparent Grimm kicked her and stepped on her until her Aura broke. After it let out a triumphant roar over its prey, the Grimm moaned and thrashed its head as all four of its limbs began to change. Its front legs transformed into arms as it paws became hands, and its back legs morphed in a way so it could stand like a human.

As it picked up Midori in one hand, the Grimm finally turned towards the three shell-shocked intruders to reveal its face. A large skull with no eyes and multiple red veins revealed itself in the process, as well as two dog-like ears on its head.

Everyone realized two things as they looked at the new Grimm. The first was that it was unlike anything they had seen before, and the second was that their friend was in danger.

"MIDORI!"

Eren quickly shot his hooks into the wall behind the Grimm and felt himself fly forwards. He then readied his swords to strike the Grimm as if he was about to cut the nape of a Titan.

But when the dog-like Grimm moved Midori in front of it, Eren hesitated and tried to move out of the way. Unfortunately, all it did was give the Grimm a chance to swat Eren like he was a fly.

*BANG*

Ren shot at the Grimm's torso multiple times, but the bullets seemed to be absorbed by its skin without doing any harm. Nora fired two grenades toward the beast before she charged and transformed Magnhild into her hammer. The grenades fazed the Grimm, but it recovered fast enough to grab Magnhild and throw Nora right at Eren.

*BANG*

Ren fired again to get the beast's attention, and he too charged at the Grimm. This time, he decided to see if the blades at the end of his pistols could be useful.

The Grimm seemed to recognize the intended attack, so it moved Midori right in between it and Ren.

"Wait!" Eren yelled. "It's protecting itself with Midori!"

Ren had stopped running, but he readied his guns again. "This can't be real," he said. "How is it smart enough to do that?"

Nora didn't care how smart the Grimm was, only that it had Midori as its prisoner. She transformed Magnhild into its grenade launcher form again, but found herself unable to shoot the Grimm when it used Midori as a shield again.

"Put her down!" Nora yelled in frustration.

The Grimm brought Midori closer to its torso instead, and it began to change once more. Rather than its arms or legs, the creature's neck moved in a way that didn't look natural. It then opened its mouth, but it didn't let out any animalistic noises.

What came out instead was an impossibility.

"No."

"..."

Nora dropped Magnhild in shock while Eren and Ren stared at the beast in silence. Nobody said a word, but they were all asking themselves the same question.

Did that thing just talk?

To answer this question, the beast opened its mouth again after it sniffed in the direction it was looking in. "Eren... Yeager."

"..."

Nora and Ren looked at Eren, who had finally broken his streak of silence. "...What?" he whispered. Despite the shock of it all, Eren found his courage again as he asked another question. "How do you know my name?"

"I told it."

Eren and Nora turned around to see another black figure approaching the two of them. Unlike the beast behind them, this figure was more humanoid. But like the Grimm, it appeared ready to fight.

"Reiss," Eren growled as he forgot about the Grimm. "You're alive."

"I was hoping that explosion killed you," Nora said.

"As I told you once, girl, some Grimm do not die easily," Reiss said as he stopped walking. "Take the Hound, for example." He gestured to the beast behind Eren and Nora. "Did you really think your swords and guns could kill such a thing?"

Eren looked back to the Grimm before he took another look at Reiss. "You did this," he concluded.

"Yes. But also no."

"..."

"I woke it from its slumber, but my new ally is responsible for its creation. Salem taught me much, Eren. Namely that whoever controls the Grimm, controls the world." Reiss smiled under the battle mask he was wearing. "Once I control you and anyone else who possesses a Titan, I will do what the Queen has been trying to do; rule this world."

Eren gripped his swords tighter. "I thought all the royal family wanted was to make its people suffer for things they didn't do."

"Which is why I'm telling you all this; to show you how much has changed. I have changed too, Yeager. But you won't be around for long to see how much." Reiss looked back to the Hound. "Finish them."

*GROWL*

The Hound threw Midori aside, directly at Ren, in order to charge at Eren and Nora. Nora fired more grenades at the beast to slow it down, and then used her hammer to fight it. Eren turned his attention to Rod Reiss, who he had just begun another duel with.

The specter was originally going to rely on the Hound to fight Eren and his friends, but he didn't back down from a challenge such as this.

Reiss had possessed many Huntsmen and Huntresses in his life, and he was able to use all of their battle experience to fight Eren. The swords were too hot to block by the blades, so Reiss hit Eren's hands so that he would drop them. He then proceeded to kick Eren repeatedly.

The noises and voices from the hall had become too loud for Mercury and Vernal to ignore. They both ran outside and couldn't believe what they were witnessing.

"Holy shit!" Mercury said as he looked at the Hound. "What is that?!"

"It's just a Grimm!" Vernal said in an attempt to ease her boyfriend's mind. But honestly, she had never seen a Grimm like this. It was intimidating, but she didn't back down from a fight.

The first thing she and Mercury did, however, was help Ren stand up.

"Are you okay?" Mercury asked.

"I'll feel a lot better when that Grimm is dead," Ren said as he picked up his guns. "Come on." His friends obeyed and moved closer to the Hound, which was fighting Nora at the moment.

"Wait a sec, is that a Chill?" Mercury asked as looked at Eren fighting the specter.

"Um... Chill?" Vernal nervously asked. She recalled the reason she was in a coma and had become a mutant, and she never got over it.

"It's Rod Reiss," Ren confirmed. "He sent that... thing to find us."

"And he's here?!" Mercury realized as he looked at the ghost Eren was fighting. "Shit, this just went from bad to worse!"

"Then let's not waste any more time with talking!" Vernal growled as she readied her weapons.

"No bullets," Ren ordered as he removed his father's knife from its sheath. "That thing just absorbs them. You have to use your blades."

"No problem."

With that, Vernal threw her bladed weapons at the large Grimm. The guns acted like boomerangs for Vernal, so they returned to their owner after they cut the Hound in the back. Its attention had finally been drawn away from Nora, who had been struggling in the beast's grasp.

The Hound didn't have a shield this time, but it swung its abnormally large arms to block Vernal's flying weapons. This gave Ren a chance to slide in between its legs and cut its belly with his father's blade. His aim was true, but it didn't seem to have any effect. Nora yelled as she jumped and prepared to swing her hammer again, but a third arm appeared from the Grimm's back and caught the weapon in midair. It then threw Nora right into Mercury.

"You gotta be kidding me!" Nora yelled as she stood up. "This thing cheats too?!"

Mercury also groaned as he stood up. "Man, can this bullshit get any worse?!" he sarcastically asked.

*BAM*

*CRASH*

His answer came in the form of Eren crashing into the wall.

"Eren!" Nora yelled as she ran to him. "Eren, get up!"

Eren struggled to do so, but he managed to get off the ground. "Dammit!" he groaned as he looked back to Rod Reiss. "He wasn't lying about knowing how to fight."

Mercury looked back towards Reiss, who was taunting Eren by gesturing him to come back and fight. But Eren had other plans.

"Nora, I need you to get in there for me," Eren said as he grabbed Mercury's arm. "Merc, come here."

"Huh?"

Mercury didn't have time to argue as he was dragged out of immediate danger. When they were in front of the lab again, Eren explained his actions.

"I need your help," he said. "Whether we like it or not, we need Watts' help."

Mercury hadn't made any progress with the terminal, so he knew Eren was right. "What do you need me for?" he asked. He was willing to help, but he wasn't sure how to do so.

*CAW*

A familiar sound caused Mercury to look down and see a small Nevermore was emerging from a small pool of Grimm that Eren had made.

"I told this Nevermore to find Watts," Eren explained. "It'll guide you, then you have to bring him down here to help us."

Mercury fully understood what was asked of him, but there was just one thing he'd like. "Let me bring Vernal too," he said. "She doesn't stand a chance against that thing."

"Merc, you're the only one who can run fast enough to find him. Bringing anyone else would only slow you down. I need you on this."

"..."

Mercury suddenly understood that what was being asked of him wasn't easy, but it was also necessary. Without Watts, the Titans would kill Cinder and everyone else outside. And once they came here, they would be next.

Everything depended on him and him alone.

"You got it," Mercury decided. "I won't let you down." As soon as he saw the Nevermore fly away, Mercury followed it as fast as lightning. While this gave him a good head start, Mercury missed Eren say something else.

"...I know."

*HUFF*

The sound of Mercury's breathing echoed through the halls as he ran through them. The small Nevermore he was following had led him out of danger, but that didn't make him very content.

The rest of his friends were all buying him time while fighting for their lives. Mercury knew he could be helping, and a part of him felt ashamed for running away. All he wanted now was to find that fool of a doctor, drag him by the hair if necessary, and make him work the terminal so no Titans could come to Salem's aid.

In his mind, nothing was going to stand in Mercury's way. No Grimm, no Titans, and not even Salem could stop him from accomplishing his task.

*BOOM*

But an exploding wall might do the trick.

"What the hell?!" Mercury yelled as he recovered from the blast. His Aura did its job of protecting him, but one look at the source of the explosion made Mercury think of one thing.

He was going to need a bigger amount of Aura.

"RRRRRAAAAAAHHHH!!!"

A loud scream emerged from the hole in the wall as the dust disappeared, which revealed a large man in its place. The man was shirtless, riddled with scars, and his entire face had been wrapped in bandages. But Mercury didn't need to see the man's face to know who he was. The sound of the yell and the mere shape of the man was enough to tell Mercury that only one person on Remnant could fit the description of what he was looking at.

It was Hazel.

"Wha... You?!" Mercury yelled in surprise as he got up.

Hazel was also surprised to see the young man before him, but the surprise was nothing compared to his rage. "You!" he yelled as he swung his fist into the wall.

*BAM*

Mercury dodged the punch just in time, and he instinctively retaliated with a kick to Hazel's side. The attack only aggravated the man and gave him reason to grab Mercury's leg and throw him into the wall he had just emerged from. Mercury's head hit some of the wall, which forced him to activate his Aura again. The pain had subsided, but Mercury knew this wasn't enough.

Hazel had entered the room and screamed again, which caused Mercury to sweat nervously. He remembered his fight with Hazel like it was yesterday, and how he came so close to losing his life. Only through anger and giving up self-restraint, which nearly turned the young's man into a wild animal, was he able to stop the abnormal warrior. Mercury doubted he could retaliate like that again, and it only made him think that defeat was inevitable.

However, as Hazel charged at him, Mercury noticed that this room was quite larger than the hallway and cells he found. Perhaps their was hope after all.

Without a second thought, Mercury bit his hand just as Hazel was about to hit him.

*BOOM*

Hazel was forced backwards by the sudden explosion, but he wasn't hurt. Instead, he was angrier than ever when he found himself in the presence of the Flashstep Titan. And he was even more motivated than before to kill the boy who nearly killed him.

The Flashstep Titan and Hazel charged at each other with the intent to kill. Other than this, they also shared the belief that they couldn't repeat the same mistakes as before. Whereas Mercury was overconfident with his Titan abilities, Hazel underestimated how the boy could turn into a savage at the flip of a switch.

But still they fought.

*BAM*

Fists and hands were swung at each other with different results. Mercury's attack were much faster than Hazel's, but the bandaged man had strength on his side. Hazel possessed no Dust at the moment, but the steroid Watts had given him compensated for this factor.

And his Aura protected Hazel from most of Mercury's strikes.

One such strike resulted in Hazel in catching Mercury's large hand. He was ready to squeeze it with both of his hands, but Mercury simply swung his arm against the walls and watched as Hazel hit them each time.

Hazel managed to free himself by breaking two of Mercury's fingers, and he launched himself at the Flashstep Titan's face. In a fit of rage, Hazel repeatedly punched the Titan's face with both of his hands. As black blood and flesh sprayed the area, Hazel hoped the young man inside could feel every strike he dealt. His face had been ruined by Mercury, and now he was repaying the deed tenfold.

However, despite being blinded and losing part of his hand, Mercury realized that he still had one thing he could use against Hazel. It was the same thing that he used against Hazel to give him an edge.

Mercury could use his mouth.

*CHOMP*

"Aaaugh!"

Mercury had opened his now larger mouth, which was what Hazel was standing on while he was punching Mercury. His leg had fallen in and Mercury quickly closed it so Hazel would be trapped. With that, Mercury squeezed harder and began to thrash his head around so Hazel would fly around too.

But with his enhanced strength, Hazel managed to open the Titan's mouth enough to free his leg and hit the Titan again. Mercury's clever attack, as well as the thrashing about, had taken a decent amount of Hazel's Aura away. And with his Semblance blocking out the pain, Hazel knew that he had to finish this fight quickly.

And so, with another series of punches, Hazel continued to make his way through the Titan's flesh until he hit bone. With a smile and mad laughter, akin to Tyrian's, Hazel tore through the flesh and reveled in his victory.

"You're mine now, boy!" Hazel screamed as he tore through the front of the Titan's neck and jaw. "You'll pay for what you did! You'll feel every bone break, every muscle ripped from your body, and you'll never see those pathetic friends of yours! Do you hear me?! Never!"

With one last punch, Hazel broke through the neck and looked inside for Mercury. But what he saw instead was another hole.

"...What?"

*CLICK*

A clicking noise reached Hazel's ears just in time to see Mercury with a smug look on his face.

"Gotcha," he said as he swung his leg.

*BANG*

Hazel couldn't help but fall back as a kick and bullet hit his face. Having escaped the blinded Flashstep Titan while Hazel was freeing his leg, Mercury patiently waited for the large man to use all of his energy to break the Flashstep Titan just like last time. Once he was vulnerable, Mercury took his chance to attack Hazel.

"How do you like me now, asshole?!" Mercury asked as he continued to kick Hazel while he was down. "Really think you can take me on now?! Well, you got another thing-!"

"QUIET!"

Hazel grabbed Mercury's leg and threw a hard punch as he stood up. Mercury groaned from the pain and soon became helpless as Hazel grabbed him and ran into one of the walls. More specially, ran through the wall.

*BAM*

Mercury was suddenly thrown to the side as his Aura finally gave out. Hazel was about to kick the boy while he was down, but Mercury quickly rolled out of the way and got back to his feet.

*BANG*

Mercury dealt a series of kicks from a distance and watched bullets shoot out of the weapons on his ankles. Each bullet hit Hazel's torso, but the man was too enraged to care. Mercury couldn't tell if he was doing any damage or not, but he knew keeping his distance was the best course of action.

But when his back was against the wall, Mercury leapt above a charging Hazel and kicked him in the back.

*BANG*

Hazel crashed into the wall and broke part of it, which he used to his advantage. He took pieces of the wall that he had broken and threw them to Mercury. Stone and brick flew towards the young man, but Mercury used his feet and weapons to prevent them from hitting him.

Unfortunately, the dust from one brick got in Mercury's eyes and stunned him. When he opened his eyes again, all he could see was Hazel grabbing his whole head and picking him off the ground.

Hazel had finally caught Mercury, but he was unsatisfied. After punching him again with all of his might, Hazel decided to savor this moment by pinning Mercury to a wall with his arm. He then used his other arm to grab Mercury's throat and prevent him from moving his head. His next, and final step was to squeeze the life out of Mercury by choking him.

In the process, the last piece of Hazel's bandages finally fell to the ground. And despite his air passage being blocked by Hazel, Mercury couldn't help but gasp at the sight of the man's face.

"Look!" Hazel ordered as he continued to choke Mercury. "Look... what you did to me! You call yourself a hero... after doing this?!"

"..."

Even if his neck was being crushed, Mercury didn't have an answer for this.

"And for what?!" Hazel asked. "You think... you can stop us?! You think... you can win?!" Hazel squeezed tighter and felt Mercury's hands slapping his arms in desperation. "It's time you learn... that actions...even foolish ones... have consequen-!"

*SHICK*

"Ugh!"

Two sharp feelings of pain in his back came out of nowhere for Hazel, as did the feeling of dizziness and exhaustion. He was forced to let go of Mercury, who breathed heavily as he was freed from the chokehold, and he soon found himself kneeling on the floor.

All because Arthur Watts had stabbed two syringes into Hazel's back.

"Sorry, Hazel," Watts said as he helped Mercury up. "But like I said; using your strength against Eren and his friends is unwise."

"..."

The Nevermore Eren had created was able to find Watts after all. He had been moving through the halls to his lab as well, but the Nevermore found him first. It then led him to Mercury and Hazel, which then led to Watts choosing to assist Mercury instead of the man about to kill him.

The room began to spin for Hazel as Watts watched Mercury continue to catch his breath. Once he was able to breathe normally again, Mercury looked to the doctor and said one thing.

"...Thanks."

Watts stepped back from Mercury. "Don't mention it," he said. "No, really. Don't."

Mercury didn't question the sarcastic reply, but he did question what was happening to Hazel. "What'd you give him?" he asked.

"A mild sedative," Watts replied as he pointed to a medical bag he brought. "It was the only thing I had remotely close to a weapon." He then pointed back to Hazel, who was still conscious. "If you're going to kill him, do it fast. He'd need enough sedative to take out a rhinoceros to be unconscious."

"..."

Mercury's choice was simple, but not an easy one. Right now, he wanted to kill Hazel more than anything. After kidnapping Midori, hurting everyone in the Forever Fall, and serving Salem of all people, Mercury truly believed Hazel deserved to die for the choices he made in life.

But something about this line of thinking made Mercury feel... sick. Not just sick, but somewhat disgusted with himself. He knew he could kill Hazel, but something was telling him not to.

Maybe it was because of the disgust and fear his friends held for him after what happened in the Forever Fall, or maybe it was just looking at Hazel's face that made Mercury think differently. It could also be what he heard while he was being choked.

"Look... what you did to me! You call yourself a hero... after doing this?!"

"..."

With a heavy sigh, Mercury turned away and walked to the hole in the wall. "He's not worth it," he spat as he grabbed Watts' arm. "And we don't have the time."

*BAM*

*GROWL*

*CRASH*

The lower halls of Salem's castle were filled with all kinds of noises as Eren and his friends continued their battle. Like Mercury's encounter with Hazel, they had crashed through walls as the combatants moved to different areas. The lab had been spared of any damage, but more cells and empty rooms had been entered in the conflict.

Nora, Ren, and Vernal all had the attention of the Hound while Eren had the attention of Rod Reiss. Despite having great power and skill, all four humans were on the verge of breaking while they were fighting the Grimm.

Nora, Ren, and Vernal were each panting and recovering from their fight with the Hound, but the monster wasn't resting. Instead, it staggered into the room it had just thrown its opponents in.

"Kill... them all," it said as it charged. Given that it was under control by one of Reiss' Chill, the ghost of a man was able to communicate with it and give it new orders. And now, its orders were to kill Ren, Nora, and Vernal.

Nora stood in between her friends and the Hound, where it grabbed on her hammer and pushed. Nora pushed back while Ren and Vernal breathed heavily some more.

"This... isn't working," said Ren.

"Yeah... no shit," Vernal replied as she stood upright. "Got any... other ideas?"

Ren cursed the fact that the room and halls everyone was in were so small. More specifically, too small for a Titan.

"If only we were in an open space," Ren wished. "We could use our Titans to crush this Grimm. In here, we're just sitting ducks."

"...Maybe not," said Vernal. "You fought that Reiss guy before, right? And you won?"

"With our Titans. But yes, we did."

"Then I have a plan. Leave."

Ren looked back to Vernal with surprise on his face. "What? No, we can't-"

"Not 'we,' Ren." Vernal walked towards the Hound as it wrestled with Nora. "You take Nora, found that ghost Eren's fighting, and kick its ass." She then threw her guns aside. "I'll take care of this thing."

Ren immediately objected to this plan, and he wasn't going to stand around and let this happen. "Vernal, you can't!" He reached out and grabbed her shoulder. "You've seen how strong that Hound is, you're not-!"

Ren couldn't help but stop talking and let go of Vernal when he noticed that something was wrong. Vernal noticed it too, as well as the reaction on Ren's face. And so, Vernal pulled her shirt to show Ren the darkening features on her body. It wasn't fur like a Beowolf, but hardened skin like that of the Deathstalker that nearly killed him.

"I can't hold it back anymore," Vernal sadly confessed. "I can use it to buy you guys some time, maybe even fight that Hound long enough. But you gotta get the hell out of here."

*BAM*

Nora slid across the floor as she was forced back by the Hound. Ren was about to rush to her side, but then he remembered what Vernal had just said.

"Just... go," Vernal ordered as she moved to the Hound. "And don't look back."

"..."

Ren looked back to Nora before he looked at Vernal one more time. This time, he saw her transformation advance even further; up to the point of having a pincher for an arm. Ren realized that he couldn't stop Vernal even if he wanted to. And so, after he told Nora it was going to be okay, he and his friend fled the room to find Eren.

The Hound seemed to sense this, since it turned its head in Ren and Nora's direction.

"Kill... them all," it said as it began to run after them.

*SHICK*

[Play Reckless Love's "Monster"]

A painful grab at one of its legs caused the Grimm to stop and howl. When it looked away from the hole in the wall, it saw Vernal growing closer and closer to her full transformation. Her head was the last thing to change, and it gave her the chance to say one more thing.

"Don't think I'm going to let you take the easy way out."

The Hound growled at the newly-formed hybrid, and it practically ripped its arm out of Vernal's grasp. Pieces of Grimm from its arm fell to the ground, but the Hound didn't seem to mind. Instead, it formed a third arm as it attempted to grab Vernal's head.

But the stinger on Vernal's back struck the arm and injected its venom into the beast.

The Hound roared as it got down on all fours and lunged at Vernal. Once she was pinned to the ground, the Hound bit her chest with nearly all of its teeth. Vernal relied on her pinchers. Her second arm had turned into one as well, so now she was able to grab the monster's head with both of them and squeeze tightly.

The Hound finally let go, but only after it picked up Vernal and thrashed its head to the side. Vernal slid across the ground and watched blood spread on the floor, but she got back up. The Hound charged again and jumped when it was in front of Vernal, but this proved to be a mistake.

Vernal had managed to grab its front legs this time and tackle it to the ground. After she stung the beast once again, she put all of her strength into keeping the beast down as her venom coursed into its chest.

But the Hound simply kicked Vernal with its back legs to get her off it.

The Hound was incredibly strong, given that Vernal had lost her grip on the beast. Her stinger formed a cut in its belly, however, one that the Hound took notice off by putting its hand over the cut.

*HISS*

Vernal couldn't talk in her current state, but she could still make animalistic noises. She made more of these noises as she leapt onto the wall and crawled upwards to gain some distance from the beast.

The Hound retaliated in a more unorthodox manner. It began to squirm and thrash its body after it stood up, and stopped moving when something exploded on its back.

*SPLAT*

A pair of orange, bat-like wings emerged from its back and allowed the Grimm to fly up to Vernal as fast as it could. Vernal jumped at the Hound in retaliation, but the beast caught Vernal in its hands and flew right into the wall.

*CRASH*

The Hound bit Vernal once again, which caused Vernal to cry out in pain. She relied on her stinger again, but started to repeatedly stab the beast. Vernal planned to do this as many times as she needed to, and the monster eventually let her go. Unfortunately, Vernal couldn't catch herself as she fell to the ground.

*BAM*

The Hound landed on top of Vernal this time and bit her tail, which led to the beast being able to tear it off her body. Vernal screamed this time as she laid on the ground in pain. Venom sprayed across the floor and soon found itself spread across the Hound's torso.

[End music]

Once again, the Hound had made a mistake. For as the venom spread across its torso, the substance found its way into the cut that Vernal had made earlier. The Hound staggered away from Vernal as the poison began to take effect on the beast, which led to Vernal attempting to crawl away from the monster.

She had made it to the hole in the wall the Hound had made earlier before deep claws sank into her skin and grabbed her.

The Hound didn't have much strength for a final attack, but it managed to strike the hybrid's face and bite her arm. This time, the teeth threatened to rip Vernal's arm off her body.

It would have done so, if something hot hadn't stabbed the Hound in its side.

*SHICK*

"That's enough!"

Midori had finally arisen from her unconsciousness, and she took her chance to get revenge on the Hound for attacking her. Scalpel had been loaded with Fire Dust, and she used this to land a palpable hit to the unique Grimm. Unfortunately, she wasn't strong enough to hold on as it shook her off.

The Hound looked at its new wound, which had been instantly cauterized, before it looked back to Vernal. The young girl had started to revert back into a human, which revealed heavy scarring or her face and a deep bite wound on her arm. After nudging the girl with its nose, and seeing no movement, the Hound became content with its work. Forgetting about Midori, it staggered out of the room and began to follow a new command from its master.

"Eren... Yeager..."

Midori looked up to see that the Hound was gone. But rather than chase it, Midori rushed over to Vernal to examine her injuries. The Grimm transformation had fully worn off, so Midori could see the wounds clearly.

"Hang tight, Vernal," Midori said as she retracted Scalpel's blades. She then kneeled down and put her hands on Vernal's shoulder. Healing Wish began to do its work, and it started with Vernal's arm. The bite wound disappeared as the bone and tendon that were nearly torn apart became whole once again. Vernal's face began to heal as well, which made Midori feel satisfied with her work.

She may have missed the fight, but Midori knew her skills were at their best when someone needed help.

*CAW*

Midori was forced to stop healing Vernal when she heard the sound of another Grimm. As a small Nevermore entered the large hole in the wall, Midori ejected Scalpel's blades and prepared herself to fight once again.

But when she saw Mercury and Watts join the bird, Midori sighed in relief.

"Yeah, good to see you too," Mercury said with a grin. But when he saw Vernal laying on the ground, he stopped smiling and rushed over to her side. "Vernal? Babe, can you hear me?!"

"She'll be okay!" Midori quickly promised. "Just gotta get back to it." She then put her hands on Vernal again and continued to heal her wounds.

As Mercury watched her work, he sighed in relief and patted Midori's shoulder. "Thanks."

Midori smiled. "It's what I'm here for."

Mercury looked back to Watts and pointed down the hall. "We need those Titans down for the count."

"Right," Watts agreed as he made his way to his lab with the terminal.

Mercury looked at the hole in the wall before he looked back to Vernal. "Was it Hazel? Did he do this?"

"Hazel?" Midori asked in confusion. "No, Hazel's dead."

Mercury made a quick groan as he rolled his eyes. "Oh, I wish," he said. "I found him when I was looking for Watts. He's ugly as fuck right now, but he's still alive."

Midori gasped at the idea, but quickly regained her bearings. "There was a Grimm," she explained. "A big one. Vernal tried transforming to take it down, but it didn't work."

"As long as you guys are okay, we're solid." Mercury looked around again. "Wait, where are Eren and Ren? And Nora?"

"They went after Rod Reiss. But I don't know where."

Mercury pointed to the Nevermore that Eren created to find Watts. "Eren made that thing, it might be able to find him. But we gotta kill those Titans first. Be right back."

"..."

Mercury jogged into the next room, where he saw Watts looking at his terminal. He was ready to ask what kind of progress the doctor was making, but Watts asked a question first.

"Did you really think commands like these would work?" Watts asked as he quickly typed on the computer.

"What?" Mercury asked as he shrugged. "Don't they sound pretty straightforward?"

"Nothing about computer code is straightforward!" Watts groaned as he observed what he deemed to be stupidity on Mercury's part. "What is wrong with you people?"

Mercury rolled his eyes as he walked into the room. "I'm a mechanic, not a computer whiz," he replied. "Just do your thing, will ya?"

"Yes, yes." Watts waved Mercury off as he continued to type. "The Titans should all be destroyed... now."

Eren and his friends had made quite a mess inside the castle, but there was another scene going on outside as well.

It had taken her a while, but Cinder had finally reached the base of Salem's castle. Raven was still in her grip while Emerald and Winter were holding on to her hair.

The Grimm they had been chasing, however, had beat them to the tower. Once they did, all of them began to climb up the crystal to heed their master's call. Beowolves, Ursai, Creeps, Sabyrs, and the Titans were all climbing the crystal tower to reach Salem's castle.

One look at this and another at Cinder showed that Emerald and Winter were thinking the same thing; Cinder was going to have to climb up this tower as well.

The only problem was that Cinder would have to let go of Raven. Fortunately, Winter had a plan.

"Emerald, get to the other side of Cinder's head," Winter ordered. "When she brings Raven up, you'll have to guard her."

"Right," Emerald agreed as she looked at the chambers of Thief's Respite. "I'm locked and loaded."

Winter nodded as she watched Emerald jump across to Cinder's other shoulder. She then moved closer to the Incinerator Titan's ear. "Cinder, hand Raven to Emerald," she said. Cinder did as she was told and carefully moved Raven to Emerald. When she slowly opened her fist, Emerald grabbed Raven and put her blade and gun to her neck.

"Don't try anything," Emerald warned.

"..."

Raven was confident that she could use her powers to knock Emerald off the Titan, but she knew she had to play along for now. Everyone was still on their guard, and they needed to be vulnerable if she could reclaim Omen.

With that, Cinder dug her hands into the base of the tower and began to climb. It wasn't easy to break the crystal with her finger tips, but some of the Titans had left holes in the structure as they climbed. So Cinder dug her fingers into those holes as she made her way upwards.

But even as she climbed, Cinder could see how far ahead the rest of the Grimm were. She managed to kill some with her fire when she first arrived at the base of the tower, but the rest had made significant progress.

"They got a good head start," Winter observed. "Some of them may have already entered the castle."

"That doesn't mean we still can't help," Emerald pointed out. She lifted one of her guns and aimed it high, but the Grimm were either too big or too far away to be affected by a bullet. "I can't shoot. There's gotta be something we can do."

"You could let me go," said Raven. "That's something."

"Not a chance."

Raven shrugged. "It was worth a try."

Winter was looking back at Raven as well, but she diverted her attention when she noticed something was wrong.

"Why did we stop?" she asked.

"..."

Emerald looked around and noticed the same thing Winter did; they weren't moving. For some reason, Cinder had stopped scaling the wall and remained completely still.

An answer to this question came in the form of steam coming out from the Titan's nape. Cinder emerged from it, but not completely.

"You're right, Emerald," she said. "There might be something we can do."

"You have a plan?" Winter asked.

Cinder turned to Winter next. "Yeah, I do. But you have to hold on tight." She then turned to Emerald and Raven. "All of you." With that, she returned into the Titan and began to climb again.

Emerald wrapped some of the Incinerator Titan's hair around her hand and instructed Raven to do the same. If she wanted to live, that was. And since she did, Raven complied with the request.

"Better do what she says, Winter," Emerald called out.

Winter mimicked Emerald's action, but asked a question as well. "They all have a head start," she said. "And there's a lot of them. Are you sure this is a good idea?"

"If it's coming from Cinder, you bet it is."

"..."

Winter was impressed by how much trust Emerald placed in Cinder. Rather than question this trust, since she was sure Emerald had her reasons, Winter stayed silent as she watched the Incinerator Titan move its hand. But rather than form a strong grip in the crystal, Cinder extended her palm out towards a pack of Grimm climbing above her.

A few seconds after a fireball was created in the palm, it shot upwards and made contact with the pack.

*BOOM*

If the Grimm weren't killed on contact, they were falling with the crystal that Cinder had fired at. When she saw the results of her work, Cinder fired at another pack of Grimm at her right.

*BOOM*

When they fell, Cinder looked at the Grimm that were closing in on her and formed another fireball.

*BOOM*

Winter and Emerald saw the results of the plan and praised Cinder for thinking like this.

"Way to go, Cinder!" Emerald yelled.

"Well done!" Winter joined in. "Scale up some more before you fire again! You'll have a clear shot at the Titans!"

Cinder nodded as she scaled the crystal once again. As she climbed, the Incinerator Titan fired at more and more packs of Grimm that were close to her. Cinder was even able to breathe fire from her mouth at one point. This feat left everyone, even Raven, awed and impressed.

"Always wanted to try that," Cinder thought as she continued to scale the crystal.

When she saw that she was close to one of Salem's Titans, Cinder stopped moving and raised her right hand. Winter, Emerald, and Raven all watched as another ball of flame formed in Cinder's hand. And after a few seconds, they turned to the Titan and waited for an explosion.

*BOOM*

The Titan Cinder was looking at suddenly let go of the structure and fell downwards. Its limbs and head all hit the crystal as it fell towards the ground and took more Grimm with it.

But even though this was what everyone wanted to see, something was very wrong.

Cinder hadn't thrown her fireball.

"What the heck?" Emerald asked as she looked back to her friend's hand. When she saw that the ball of fire still remained, Emerald looked down at the falling Titan.

Winter also shared Emerald's confusion. "What just happened?" she asked. "Cinder, what happened?"

Cinder partially emerged from the Incinerator Titan once again and looked down. "I... I don't know," she said as the falling Titan grew smaller and smaller. "I didn't do that... did I?"

"..."

Nobody noticed Raven's eyes burn once again as she looked directly at Omen. One small leap would be enough to take it from Winter and escape this place, where she would never return. Not even if her life depended on-

*BOOM*

Two more explosions caught everyone's ears as they looked up. There, they saw two more Titans had begun to fall down the slope and to the ground. As they fell, Cinder noticed that steam seemed to be escaping from the back of their necks.

But when they came closer, Cinder saw that it wasn't steam; it was smoke.

"Wait... that's it!" Cinder yelled with a smile.

"Huh?" Emerald asked as she looked back to Cinder.

"What's it?" Winter asked.

"Watts' computer!" Cinder yelled to Winter. "Eren must've found it and used it to destroy them!"

Emerald gasped as she looked around to see more falling Titans. "That means... we did it?" she asked.

"We did it!" Cinder confirmed. "The plan worked! We killed all the Titans!"

Winter couldn't help but smile as she watched the Titans fall down again and again as they took more Grimm with them.

"Well, how about that?" Ymir asked from within. "We killed all the Titans. Isn't that something?"

"It's... amazing," Winter said as she saw that a threat had been eliminated from the world. And she even helped to do it.

But the job wasn't over.

"Okay, everyone!" she said to Cinder and Emerald. "We did good here right now. But we're not out of the woods yet."

"Winter's right," said Emerald. "We still got a witch to stop."

"Then you better hold on," said Cinder. "Salem, here we co-"

*WHAM*

"Whoa, whoa!"

The leg of a falling Titan hit Cinder's hand, which caused her to momentarily lose her grip on the crystal. Emerald, Raven, and Winter held Cinder's hair again before they could fall as well, and Cinder regained her grip after sliding for a second or two.

"...Whoa," Cinder said again as she caught her breath. "That was close."

"Too close," said Raven.

"Yeah," Emerald agreed as she looked up. "We should keep-"

"..."

Emerald's silence caught everyone's ears and caused them to look in her direction. When they saw that the young girl was looking up at the sky, they couldn't help but join her and see what she was looking at.

As they did, they couldn't help but share in her moment of silence. For Emerald realized they right here, right now... they were as good as doomed.

All of the large Grimm Titans were falling. And they were falling right on top of them.

"They're coming right for us!" Winter yelled. "Move!"

Cinder didn't need to be told twice. After she hastily moved into the Incinerator Titan once again, Cinder looked up to see how close the Titans were falling and where they were falling to next. This allowed Cinder jump and dodge each Titan and the crystal that followed.

The act wasn't easy, given that Cinder had to dig deep into the crystal to get a good grip while also looking at the sky. And her work wasn't perfect, given that small pieces of purple crystal hit her body and some of the Grimm landed on her as well.

Emerald and Winter held on as tight as they could, but they also made an attempt to kill the Grimm that fell on Cinder. Where Emerald shot at every creature she saw, Winter was able to summon Grimm of her own to kill the ones loyal to Salem.

Raven, however, had an idea of her own. Using her powers, Raven leapt off Cinder's shoulder and floated in the air. Instead of grabbing her sword from Winter, Raven kept her distance and decided to ascend further.

"Raven!" Winter yelled as she saw what was happening. "Raven, stop! You can fly all of us out of here!"

"Find your own way out, Schnee!" Raven retorted. "You'll only slow me down!" With that, Raven continued to ascend and fly far away from the Incinerator Titan.

"Raven!" Emerald yelled as she pointed one of her guns at her. "Come back here!" Emerald wanted to shoot, but she knew that Raven was the only one who could help. "Don't... Don't leave us."

"..."

Raven looked up to the sky as she flew upwards. While it seemed counter-intuitive to fly even closer to Salem's castle, Raven knew flying to the ground would only be more dangerous. The rocks, falling Titans, incoming Nevermores, and Grimm that didn't climb up proved that moving downwards wasn't the best idea.

But once Winter and Emerald fell with the Incinerator Titan, Raven would reclaim her sword from their corpses.

The sight of a Titan finally hitting Cinder and causing her to slide down the crystal made Raven believe her plan would work faster than she believed.

Cinder desperately tried to form a strong grip as she slid down the structure, and it was almost to no avail. But when her chance finally came, when she finally dug her fingers deep enough to form a strong grip, Cinder realized that jumping about from place to place wasn't doing her any good. With more Titans and pieces of crystal falling, Cinder saw that she had little choice by to hold on tight and stay right where she was.

Emerald and Winter moved as close to the stone under Cinder's head as possible so they would be spared from injury. And just as a precaution, Winter ordered Emerald to stick her blades into the base of the castle just in case they needed something to hold on to.

The strategy of staying still and holding on tight proved to be efficient at first. Many Grimm and rocks fell downwards, and some did hit Cinder's Titan. But the damage she sustained was minor and the Grimm weren't able to hold on to her like they did before.

But another falling Titan made Cinder momentarily lose hope. She managed to form another fireball and hit it, but the Titan's foot knocked Cinder's hand loose and caused her to slide once again.

Without something to stand on, Winter and Emerald were left dangling in the air by their weapons.

"Oh, Gods!" Emerald screamed as she held on for dear life. "Oh, Gods, no!"

Winter was also holding on to the weapon she stabbed into the crystal, but she was also thinking of another way out of this situation. Cinder had caught herself and was desperately reaching out to her allies, but she was too far away to reach them.

Winter had two ideas based on what she saw. One was safe and the other was incredibly dangerous. And so, she chose the safer path first.

"Emerald, don't let go!" Winter ordered. "I'll get us out of here!"

"Why on Remnant would I let go?!" Emerald screamed back.

Winter ignored the sarcasm and concentrated on making a Glyph. Just as she did before, Winter used the Glyph to summon a Creature of Grimm. This Grimm wasn't like any she had seen in the Land of Darkness today, but it was something she had seen before. A large Grimm with wings, one that possessed four legs, horns, and a face that resembled a lion, emerged from the Glyph and flew in the sky.

The people of Remnant called it a Manticore.

"Reach out to it!" Winter called over to Emerald. "We'll use it to fly out of-!"

*WHAM*

Another purple crystal fell from above and crushed the glowing Manticore where it was. The first option had been eliminated, and Winter didn't see the logic in setting up another Manticore to fail.

"Do you have a plan B?!" Emerald called out as she continued to hold on.

Winter indeed had another plan, but it was incredibly dangerous. And yet, it seemed to be their only option.

"We have to let go!" she said.

"What?!" Emerald yelled back. "Let go?! Are you crazy?!"

"Look down there!" Winter pointed at Cinder who continued to desperately save the two hanging women. "Cinder will catch us as soon as we let go!"

Emerald looked down and saw what Winter was seeing. But that didn't make her feel much better about the proposed plan. "I don't know about this!" she said.

"We have to trust her!" Winter told Emerald. "She hasn't let us down yet! I'll go first!"

"..."

Rather than let go of the sword, which she would need in the future, Winter pulled it out and felt herself fall with the Grimm and crystal. And just as she believed, Cinder caught her.

Winter thanked Cinder with a nod. It was strange for her to trust someone she had argued with over and over again, but Winter knew that Cinder wouldn't let her down. They were here for the same reason after all.

"Emerald, let go!" Winter yelled. "You have to let go!"

"..."

Despite seeing that Cinder had indeed caught Winter, Emerald was still scared about letting go. She hadn't been this high off the ground by herself since she and Mercury killed the Wyvern that almost destroyed Kuroyuri. And back then, she didn't let go either. She feared the feeling of falling from such a height, just as she did with the Wyvern.

Fortunately, Emerald had a solution that she forgot about.

After pushing a button on both of her weapons, Emerald slowly released the chains in Thief's Respite. Using these chains, Emerald was able to slowly descend closer and closer to Cinder and Winter.

"Yes, that's it!" said Winter, who saw the caution and wisdom in Emerald's plan. "Keep doing that, don't let go!"

"Oh, now you don't want me to let go!" Emerald replied. She cursed herself for almost sounding like Mercury, but Emerald had to admit that the humor was helping her relax.

"Just keep going! You're almost there!"

Emerald obeyed as she slowly and steadily moved down to Winter and Cinder. The sight of a giant hand being inches away was welcoming and almost tempting to make her let go, but Emerald kept on the same path she was and saw herself coming closer to her allies.

And closer.

Close enough that they could almost grab her.

*BOOM*

*WHAM*

Just above the three women, an Ursa Major exploded after it had been hit by multiple Grimm. The explosion was not just enough to knock Thief's Respite from the base of the castle, but it sent dangerous spikes down to Winter, Cinder, and Emerald.

The spikes blinded Cinder as they also hit Winter, but Emerald had it the worse of all. She had been hit by the spikes as well, and she wasn't able to use her Aura to protect herself.

But what was worse than that was that Emerald failed to grab on to either Winter or Cinder. She could do nothing else... but fall.

"EMERALD!" Winter yelled as she desperately reached down to grab her. But they were too far away.

Cinder also tried to reach down, but she was too late. Nobody could hear it, but as she watched her friend fall faster and faster while hitting the base of the structure multiple times, Cinder let out an agonizing scream.

"NOOOOOOOO!"

*BAM*

"Gah!"

*WHACK*

"Oof!"

*CRACK*

"Argh!"

The sounds of pain and a violent beating were all too pleasing for Rod Reiss. It was true that he was outnumbered, that he lacked a signature weapon of his own. And yet, he was in the middle of doing something he once would have thought impossible back on Paradis.

Rod Reiss was fighting Eren and two of his friends while holding his own.

Ever since Ren and Nora reunited with Eren, they made it their mission to beat the ghost of a man before he could hurt anyone else. Unfortunately, this proved to be easier said than done.

As he described in Mistral, Rod Reiss was able to use his unique abilities to possess multiple Huntsmen and Huntresses. In the process, he learned how to fight like them, and how to use their kind of fighting on his own. Reiss could now punch hard enough to break bones unprotected by Aura, he could kick fast enough to surpass the reflexes of any warrior, but most of all, he had the ability to win.

Which was what he was doing right now.

"I had forgotten how entertaining this is," Reiss said as he watched Nora Valkyrie stand up.

"Oh... Oh, yeah?" Nora asked as she prepared to swing her hammer again. "Well... you're not the only one... who likes to fight!" With a yell, Nora swung her hammer right where Reiss was standing.

But he was able to dodge the predictable swing and kick Nora in the back.

"Fight?" Reiss asked sarcastically. "I was talking about winning." He leapt into the air and kicked Nora once again, who crashed into the wall behind her.

Eren and Ren got off the ground once again, and found themselves low on Aura and stamina. As they watched Nora get attacked once again, they knew this wasn't going to be easy.

"And I thought... the Hound was bad," said Ren. "I never knew... he was so powerful."

"It... doesn't matter," Eren firmly stated. "We can't... let him stop us."

"I know." Despite the fact that Ren knew he was outclassed by Rod Reiss, he was far from ready to give up. "We've beaten him before. We can do it again."

"We will. But we need help."

"..."

Eren had stopped using his Aura while fighting Reiss, despite the fact that he was badly hurt and bleeding all over the floor. But it was this blood that gave Eren an advantage; from the pools of black blood came Creatures of Grimm that were loyal to Eren.

"Stand back," Eren told Ren. "You'll know when to shoot." Ren simply nodded as he watched the Grimm charge at Rod Reiss.

Reiss had made the mistake of thinking the Grimm were loyal to Salem. As he felt a Beowolf leap onto him and bit at his torso, which was followed by more, Reiss pushed back with all of his might as Nora finally escaped and fell in front of Eren and Ren.

Eren took a few steps closer to Reiss as Ren helped Nora off the ground. Eren pointed his finger firmly at the Grimm as he looked down at Reiss with anger.

"Those Grimm... are going to devour your heart," he promised as he relayed the command to all of the Grimm he had created.

"They will find nothing there!" Reiss declared as he finally leapt to his feet and grabbed two Beowolves by the neck. After he smashed their heads together and tossed them aside, Reiss was welcomed by another Beowolf and bullets from Ren's guns. While he was able to block some of the bullets with the Beowolf, Reiss was still wounded by them.

Eren jumped back with the help of Soaring Freedom and landed next to Ren and Nora. "No offense, Eren... but do you have any other bright ideas?" Nora asked.

Eren looked back to Nora with a calm and determined look on his face. "I got a few," he said. "Ren, keep him distracted." Ren silently obeyed as he kept firing at Rod Reiss.

Reiss was indeed busy with the multiple Beowolves and the bullets, but he knew a way to eliminate the distractions. After he reached into his chest and began ripping out his hands over and over again, Reiss watched as multiple Chill overtook the other Grimm and possessed them. Just like the Hound, this pack of Beowolves was Reiss' to command.

"Eren?!" Nora called out to get his attention. "The Grimm are turning on us!"

"Take them out!" Eren commanded. "Leave Reiss to me!"

Nora had more or less recovered from being beaten by Rod Reiss, as was Ren. After he reloaded his guns, Ren focused on the possessed Beowolves with Nora. The normally energetic girl didn't have the energy to swing her hammer this time, so she settled on using her grenade launcher to kill the Grimm.

*BOOM*

Out of the pink smoke came Lie Ren, who slashed at the Grimm with the blades on his pistol. Each one turned to ash after being cut a few times, and they were too slow to stop Ren from moving on to the next Beowolf.

But he wasn't fast enough to dodge a fist from Rod Reiss. And neither was Nora.

*CRACK*

"Ugh!"

*BAM*

"Aah!"

Both of Eren's friends hit the ground as Reiss turned to the one person who he wanted to kill the most. "Leave Reiss to me?" the specter mimicked in amusement. "Foolish child. You should know when to rally your allies against your superiors."

"I'll remember that for Salem," Eren promised. "But I'm not done with you yet."

"Nor I you." Reiss moved into another fighting position, but Eren did nothing. Reiss didn't seem to care however, as he moved to Eren as fast as he could. When he was about five feet away from his foe, Reiss launched himself in the air and extended one leg out towards Eren.

But instead of hitting the boy's face, Reiss made contact with the air as Eren ducked out of the way.

This didn't prove to be a problem for the ghost-like man, as he was able to land safely on the ground and turn around back to Eren. "So you can dodge," he said mockingly. "I thought you and your friends simply liked being living punching bags."

"...I can dodge," Eren said as he got back to his feet. He then raised his right palm, which seemed to have a black cord embedded into it. "I can strike back too."

"..."

Reiss looked down to see that the cord Eren was holding extended to the ground. It then flowed on to the floor, all the way up to Reiss' back. The specter turned around fast to see what had been put on him. He was expecting a weapon, or a bomb of all sorts.

What he saw instead was a small insect hanging on his lower back. He didn't think much of it at first, but Reiss gave it every thought he had when he felt horrible pain.

Eren had created a Grimm Beetle while Ren and the Beowolves had captured Reiss' attention. While he originally planned to use it against Salem, Eren had realized that he would need the Beetle against his Chill-like foe. Reiss said it better himself; not all Grimm die easily.

But take away the Grimm from Reiss... it would be easy to kill a mortal man.

Reiss kneeled to the ground as Eren sucked the Grimm out of his body. The specter desperately reached back and tried to pull the Beetle off, but the pain and the iron-like grip it had on him made this impossible. With no Aura to protect him or Semblance to use, Reiss' only means of defense and offense were being sucked away from him.

And through it all, Eren felt himself grow stronger. Just like his experience with Vernal, taking the essence of Grimm gave the young man a sense of renewed strength and energy. His wounds began to heal and Eren had regained a decent amount of his stamina.

"It's over, Reiss," Eren said as he approached closer. "Nothing's going to make that thing stop. Just... give up."

Reiss looked up to Eren, who was standing over him triumphantly, with contempt and rage. The memory of losing his family, Historia, and his entire kingdom to Eren Yeager, his father, and everyone who fought with him came back to him tenfold, and sharpened his will to fight and take his revenge.

Despite being eaten alive, in a way, Reiss still had one trick up his sleeve.

"Never!" he yelled as he jumped up and grabbed Eren's shoulders. With his last ounce of strength, Reiss did what a Chill did best; he moved into Eren's body.

Eren gasped as he felt his body become taken by Reiss. He became cold all over as he crashed into the wall behind him, and then he fell to the floor. Suddenly, Eren's hands began to turn white as they moved on their own.

They each grabbed Eren's throat and began to choke the young man.

"Poor Eren Yeager," Reiss said from within Eren's body. "You tried so hard, didn't you?"

Eren groaned as he rolled on the ground. "Get... out..." he uttered. The only response he got was his own hands tightening their grasp on his throat.

But that didn't stop him from fighting.

Eren stood up and looked at the nearest wall. "I... said... get out!" he yelled as he charged at the wall as fast as he could.

*BAM*

Eren fell backwards after he ran face-first into the wall. His head was bleeding from the impact, but his hands freed themselves from his throat. Eren quickly noticed this, and he saw that his right hand was starting to turn back to its natural color.

But his pale left hand reached for one of his swords and activated it.

Eren caught his hand just before the sword could make contact with his body, but the hand moved closer to his waist and threatened to cut him.

"You can't stop me, Yeager!" Reiss yelled. "No one can!" Reiss continued to push Eren's hand as their fight for control continued. "Frieda was right! The Eldians are a disease, they destroy everything they touch! Our own deeds and actions, even now, only prove this point! If I have to die to finally kill you, so be it! We belong dead!"

Eren pushed as hard as he could against his own possessed hand, but Reiss' strength was impressive. Or his own strength, since it was his hand. The blade was moving dangerously close to his heart; it seemed Reiss preferred a quick, clean kill at this point.

As for making Eren suffer, Reiss had another idea how to do this.

Eren's mind became flooded with memories, both new and old. The oldest memory he saw was the day that he promised to kill all of the Titans, while the latest memory he saw was talking to his friends in the Dark Wing. "Look at all of this," Reiss mocked as he examined Eren's memories. "Not replacements? Special and unique, are they? Thieves, assassins... and slaves."

"Hrrrrrr!" Eren growled as he heard Reiss laughing in his head.

"Is this supposed to be your life, Yeager?" Reiss asked as he moved the sword closer to Eren's heart. "I've lost count of how many lives and memories I've seen from others, so believe me; I've seen better."

"..."

Eren knew he couldn't fight his own hand for much longer; even if he could grab his other sword, he wouldn't be able to stop the first one from stabbing him. And yet here he was, continuing to fight for his life.

But just like the Beetle, just like the day he claimed the War Hammer Titan, Eren had to think abstractly. He had to think outside the box if he was going to prevail.

Eren had part of an idea, though it wasn't much of a plan. Possession like this had to require some kind of concentration and focus, given that Eren was also giving concentration and focus of his own.

Maybe, just maybe, he could break that focus.

"You... want... a memory, Reiss?" Eren asked as he continued to fight his own hand. "Here's one... I know you'll like."

"..."

Eren concentrated hard on a certain memory he had. He had to multitask with fighting his own hand, but he could recall the memory like it happened yesterday.

It was the night Reiss' whole family died.

Eren remembered the time he and Zeke walked down their father's memories the day the Rumbling occurred. There, the brothers eventually found their way to the Reiss underground chapel. The entire family was waiting for Grisha there, where they heard his heartfelt plea to protect the people of the walls from the Colossal Titan and the forces of Marley.

Eren remembered exactly how Frieda Reiss refused his pleas for salvation, and how Grisha was supposed to react.

That night, Grisha told himself that he was ready to kill everyone in the chapel, and claim the Founding Titan for himself. He told himself that this had to happen to save his family, to save all of Eldia.

But at the last moment, he refused.

Rod Reiss remembered how Grisha Yeager lost his will to fight, how he said he couldn't find it within himself to commit such an atrocity. For the life of him, Reiss couldn't understand how the doctor lost his way and suddenly found it again. How he found it within himself to pick up the scalpel he dropped, stab himself in the hand, and destroy Frieda with the power of the Attack Titan.

But now, Eren was ready to give Reiss the answer he desired.

"What are you doing?"

Reiss saw the memory unfold just as it did that night, but he saw two new faces. One of them was Zeke Yeager, who was unknown to him. But the second was Eren Yeager, who was slowly walking over to his father.

"Stand, Dad," Eren ordered as he kneeled down to his father. "Did you forget why you came here?"

"Wh... What?" Reiss uttered.

"Isn't it to get revenge? For your little sister, who was eaten by dogs?"

"But-"

"For Dina? For Kruger?"

"He wasn't here that night. How is he-?"

Reiss suddenly remembered what else happened that night. Namely, how the Attack Titan had the ability to transcend time, to see the future memories of its inheritors.

And if it could do that... it could manipulate the past.

Reiss found himself having a hard time breathing as he began to understand what was happening. Seeing the true face of his family's killer brought him back to how panicked and traumatized he was that night. He thought he knew who was responsible for that night, that Grisha had all the power.

He was wrong.

"You have to keep moving forward to avenge them," the past version of Eren said. "Even if you die. Even after you die. This is the story you started... isn't it?"

*SHICK*

"Aaaagh!" Reiss screamed as he felt a sudden jolt of pain. It wasn't from the Beetle this time, but a spot in his left hand that was bleeding.

Eren's plan had worked.

By distracting Reiss with a single memory, by reminding him of the worst day of his life, Eren was able to break Reiss' concentration on his possession. And rather than simply move his sword away from his heart, Eren took the blade in his free hand and stabbed it in the one that Reiss was holding.

Eren too was in pain from this, from the heated blade in his hand. While he didn't scream like Reiss did, and while he had done something like this before, it still hurt.

And it seemed to be hurting someone else too.

"What's wrong, Reiss?" Eren asked as he took hold of his sword once again. "Did that hurt?" Rather than turning off the blade, Eren moved it upwards so it would continue to cut his hand.

"Hhhhrraaa!" Reiss screamed from within. As he did this, it told Eren two things. The first was that whatever Eren did to himself, Reiss could feel it as well.

The second was that, despite being strong and powerful enough to throw a punch... Reiss didn't seem to have a high tolerance for pain.

"That's why... you wanted to... stab my heart," Eren gasped through the pain. "To make it... quick." Eren took his sword in hand again and took deep breaths. His next idea wasn't very smart, and it wasn't going to be easy or pleasant.

But it was wholly necessary to be free.

"Try this," Eren said as he lifted his sword. A cold feeling moved up his arm as Reiss tried to stop him, but Eren managed to swing his sword down into his knee.

"Aaaargh!" Reiss shouted. Eren wanted to scream too, since this hurt just as much as the time he cut off his own leg. But none of this could stop until Reiss was gone for good.

So with that, Eren looked back to his bleeding hand. And with a swift movement of his right leg, Eren violently stomped on it to make it hurt even more.

"Grrggh!"

When this wasn't enough, Eren pressed his foot harder.

"Aaaah!"

Eren moved his sword along his leg.

"Hrrrraaaaah!"

Eren then ripped it out.

"Aaaaaugh!"

Eren knew he was losing strength and consciousness from this self-mutilation, so he knew he had to make this last attack count. And so, after pressing his leg against his bleeding hand one more time, Eren lifted his right arm with a scream. Despite Reiss desperately trying to stop the action, Eren hit his left arm hard enough to break it.

"EEEEAAAAUUGHH!"

The final strike proved to be too much for Reiss to handle. For when Eren finally fell to the floor, Reiss finally left Eren's body and fell to the floor as well. He squirmed in pain as he tried to move back to his feet, but he too was recovering from the pain he had unfortunately been a part of.

Eren laid on his side as he felt every part of his body scream in agony from what he had done. It was as if the whole world around him was screaming, pressing down on him with enough weight to crack the strongest substance known to man.

But was it worth it?

"Yes," Eren thought to himself as he laid on the floor.

He knew that Reiss had been cast out of his body. He knew that he had secured his freedom once again, just like he did against the world. Freedom to live, to feel, and most of all, to see that his friends didn't suffer like he had suffered just now.

Only Eren could withstand this much pain, and then some.

And yet, with each passing moment, the pain within seemed to fade. Eren opened his eyes in surprise, since he was expecting to lose consciousness at this point, as he felt the pain in his body disappear.

His wounds were all healing themselves, the blood in his body began to flow naturally once again. And most surprising of all, Eren's broken arm seemed to be moving back into place.

Eren immediately asked how this was possible, but the sight of a familiar cord on his right hand answered this question for him.

"The Beetle!" Eren realized as he turned around to Reiss. And just as he expected, Rod Reiss was changing right before Eren's eyes. Not just changing, but decaying. The Grimm in his body was disappearing by the second, and it was all coming to Eren. It was this Grim that was healing him, making him as strong as he was earlier.

Eren had won.

Reiss awoke with a jerk when he felt new pain in his body. He was able to lift his head off the ground, and now he was able to see the effects Eren's regeneration was having on his body.

As Eren grew stronger, Reiss grew weaker.

Instead of strong and durable legs that he once had, Reiss was looking at old and decaying bones that were turning into dust. This decay was beginning to spread all the way up to his torso, which revealed more parts to a seemingly mummified body.

And this was all Eren's doing.

"No!" Reiss groaned as he reached out to Eren. He tried to pick himself up off the ground, but there was nothing for him to walk on. All he could do was crawl as his body withered away. There was a time when Reiss feared death, when he dreaded the day that he would be killed and have even less than nothing.

But all he could feel now, as he desperately crawled on the ground, was even more contempt and hatred for Eren.

"You think... this makes you better?" Reiss growled as he moved closer. "That killing me... makes you any different than before?"

Eren watched in silence as he picked himself up off the floor.

"I know... what you are, Eren!" Reiss continued. "You showed me... everything just now!" The lower half of his body had all fallen apart by this point. "You think you're free? Just because you stopped me? Stopped the world?" Despite the pain he was in, Reiss couldn't help but laugh. "So naive! So reluctant to admit that everything you've done... you've done for yourself!"

"..."

Reiss had finally managed to reach Eren's leg, despite the fact that all that remained of him was half a torso and a single arm. "You... will always be less than human! You'll always be a monster, a devil! Just like you'll always be a slave! A slave to your friends... your dreams... to yourself!" Reiss looked up to see that he had struck a nerve with Eren, which pleased him. "We're both driven... by our own desires, Eren. You and me... we'll always be slaves!"

"..."

Eren had heard something like this before, that all of his efforts proved that he was a slave. He heard it from Armin, just before he and Mikasa were taken away by the Yeagerists. Back then, it was easy to brush off, since Eren knew what his future held.

But hearing all of this from Reiss, someone who was driven by revenge like he used to be, changed something in Eren.

Eren chose to make the future he saw a reality, to secure his own freedom from the world, and to finally see what he promised himself to see when he was a child. He even hurt himself all for the purpose of securing his own freedom.

Was Reiss right about him? Was Eren really being a slave to himself?

"You're wrong."

Eren turned around to see Ren and Nora had recovered from their ordeal. They couldn't help Eren earlier due to more Grimm being driven to them, but the Grimm were gone now.

Now they could help Eren.

"Eren's not a slave to himself," Ren continued as he looked on the decaying remnants of Rod Reiss. "He's no monster, and he's certainly no devil. All he's done is show how loyal he is to the people who love him."

Nora transformed Magnhild into its hammer form and lifted it above her head. "And so are we!" she said as she saw Ren lift up his leg.

"Ugh... huh?" Reiss uttered as watched both objects come closer towards him.

*SPLAT*

*CRUNCH*

Ren and Nora repeatedly hit the remains of Reiss' body and watched the Grimm and dust disappear until all that was left was a broken piece of the floor.

"Well... that's that," Ren said as he took a few breaths.

"Ew, it's on my clothes!" Nora said as she tried to brush off the dried remains of Reiss' body off her shirt. "Gross!"

"..."

Ren and Nora finally noticed Eren's silence. Even though he had just been definitely killed this time, Rod Reiss had certainly left an impact on Eren.

Though what Ren and Nora said and did helped a little.

"Eren?" Nora asked. "Are you-?"

*GROWL*

Everyone turned to the end of the hall, though Ren and Nora were confused. They were certain that they had killed all the Grimm before they helped Eren, so the familiar growl came as a surprise to them.

But what was most surprising of all was what kind of Grimm it was.

The Hound had been traveling slowly since its fight with Vernal, despite the fact that it emerged victoriously. But after it moved through each of the halls and followed the scent of its enemies, the Hound had finally found Eren Yeager.

While it came too late to save the one who was controlling it, the Hound still had a chance to kill Eren.

"Aw, not again!" Nora yelled as she looked at the Grimm.

"This thing just doesn't give up," Ren noted as he took out his guns once again. "Maybe we can-"

"No."

Ren and Nora watched Eren step ahead of them with balled fists and a now fully healed body. "You've done enough," Eren noted. "Now it's my turn."

"..."

*ROAR*

The Hound moved back to all fours as it summoned every ounce of strength it had left to charge at its prey. And yet, Eren stayed right where he was as he welcomed the new surge of energy from within. His Aura had returned to him, as did his strength, and now Eren was ready to put both to good use.

Now it was time to help his friends for once.

"Aaaaaaaaaahhhhh!"

*BAM*

*CRACK*

With a loud yell, Eren threw his fist right at the Hound's face. With his strength and his Semblance, Eren watched his fist crack the Hound's skull and knock the creature back tremendously. The punch was enough to not only make the beast practically fly away, but break the wall behind it.

*CRASH*

Ren and Nora gathered around Eren as he shook his fist from the punch he just delivered. "Good riddance," he said to the Hound, despite the fact that it was gone. Not only did it create a hole in the wall, but that hole led outside the castle.

"Jeez, how'd you do that?!" Nora yelled as she looked back to the hole in the wall. She had seen Eren do remarkable things, but this was one of the times that Nora was left in shock by what she saw. "That was amazing!"

"Well done, Eren," said Ren. "Does your Semblance give you new energy as well as strength?"

"No, it doesn't," Eren denied. He then opened his palm to see the thread where the Beetle once was. Only now, without the insect, the thread simply fell to the ground and turned into smoke. "Draining Grimm like Reiss just helps me. I don't know how, but the Beetle gives me back my stamina."

"Wow," said Nora. "Can you make me one of those?"

"Nora," Ren protested.

"What?" Nora laughed a little as she smiled. "I wanna go from zero to a hundred too! Come on, Eren! Please?"

Between the danger being gone and Nora looking at him with wide eyes, Eren was able to enjoy the moment. "We'll talk later," he said with a smile. "Let's just find everyone else."

Ren agreed and began walking down the hall again. "Do you think Mercury found Watts?" he asked. "And that they destroyed the Titans?"

"I hope so," said Eren. "I'm not looking forward to killing Titans again."

"Oh, you can handle it, Mr. Muscles!" Nora jokingly replied. "Now that the Hound is gone, we got this in the bag!"

*SNAP*

*CRACK*

A sound from behind caused everyone to look at the hole in the wall Eren had made. At the very bottom of it, a familiar hand held on as another hand grabbed the floor and began to pull up.

"We're not finished," Ren said as he took out his guns.

Nora sighed as she formed Magnhild into a grenade launcher. "Me and my big fat mouth," she mumbled as she aimed.

Eren stepped ahead of his friends since he had the stamina to fight the Hound again. As he held his fists up, Eren carefully watched the Grimm hoist itself up and crawl into the hallway. Eren was sure he was ready to for whatever it threw his way, and he was sure that the Hound was weakened by the punch.

He was right, but there was something else about the Hound. There was something... different.

"Kill... them all," a weak, raspy voice called out. The Hound looked up at the three intruders, but nobody saw a Grimm's head like before.

What they saw was much worse.

Right on top of the Hound's body, there was a much smaller head. The head was covered with dark red hair, possessed a pair of fox ears, scarred with white tissue on the right side of its face, and had a single eye that was bleeding black ooze. This head wasn't that of the Hound, but it spoke the same things it had previously said.

"Kill... them all."

"..."

Eren, Ren, and Nora stared in awe and silence as the Hound's limbs began to snap back into place. As it walked even closer, the head spoke like the Hound once again.

"Kill... them... all!"

"..."

Nora was the first to back away, but she gently pulled on Eren's sleeve as she moved. Eren was too surprised to do anything else but move with his friend, and Ren too also moved back.

"Kill... them... all!"

As the hulking figure took another step, the head was covered by what appeared to be a black hood. But a closer looked revealed itself to be the top of the Hound's head. Its upper jaw and forehead was starting to cover the second head as it walked closer.

"Kill... them... all!"

The second face disappeared under the tar-like flesh and was immediately replaced with the Hound's original head. After it had been made whole again, the Hound moved down to all fours as it stared at the three shocked humans.

"Kill! Them! All!"

With a loud growl, the rage-filled Grimm leapt directly at the first person in its path: Eren.

*CRASH*

Ren and Nora were knocked back by the tremendous jump and crash, but Eren was caught under the beast. But instead of a fight or struggle, the dust settled in silence as Ren and Nora got back up.

"..."

Both of their instincts told Ren and Nora to run over to their friend and help any way they could. As they stopped running, they were surprised to see that the Hound didn't seem to be moving. Eren was still alive, he was breathing heavily on the ground as he remained pinned under the Grimm.

Ren and Nora silently rushed over to the left side of the Grimm, where they pushed on its body with all their might. Their combined efforts managed to make the Hound limply move off of Eren, where it was revealed that it had been stabbed in the chest by Eren's Hard-Light sword as soon as it crashed into the young man. The blade slowly moved out of the Hound as Ren and Nora pushed, but Eren didn't make any effort to turn it off.

Instead, Eren watched the dead Grimm fall to the ground and begin to fade away. After a few seconds, Eren picked himself up off the ground and watched all that remained of the Hound disappear.

"Guys?" Nora asked as she looked at the decaying Grimm. "You... You saw it too... right?"

"..."

Nora heard no answer from her friends. Instead, they remained absolutely silent as they watched everything that made up the Hound's body turn into ash.

Everything except a humanoid skeleton with claws at its fingertips and toes.

"It... It was a person," Ren uttered.

One look at the deformed skeleton was enough to make Nora drop a single tear down her cheek. "Who would do something like this?" she asked.

"..."

Eren offered no answer, though it was obvious at this point. He didn't know how or why she did this, but Eren knew this was Salem's work; Rod Reiss even said so. And as Eren looked down at the corpse, he knew that this was quite possibly the worst thing Salem had ever done.

It was worse than making the Titans.

Salem had to be stopped. No matter the cost.

Here.

Today.

*THOOM*

Eren, Ren, and Nora finally snapped out of their trance when they heard another sound from the hole in the wall. Once again, it appeared that someone had grabbed the outside with their hand. Only this time, the hand was much larger than normal. It had just made an even larger home in the wall with its four large fingers.

A Titan's fingers.

"Titan!" Eren yelled as he readied both of his swords. Ren and Nora followed suit as they immediately forgot about the poor person that had been their enemy this whole time. Instead, they watched as the hand remained still and waited for the Titan's face to reveal itself.

And in a way, it did. But not how everyone expected.

A human hand grabbed onto the Titan's flesh, which was followed by another one. Soon enough, another person revealed themselves by climbing up the Titan's hand and into the hole in the wall. But unlike the Faunus they had discovered, this person was familiar and well-known to them.

It was Cinder.

She had seen the Grimm that Eren knocked out of the castle, and she had also seen it pick itself up and move back inside. Since she was looking for a way inside, Cinder exited her Titan to scout ahead and find help she desperately needed.

Which had turned out to be easier than she thought.

"Cinder?" Eren asked as he watched her enter the castle. She was the last thing he expected to see right now, but he was happy that she was here.

"Eren!" Cinder yelled after she picked herself up and made eye contact with her best friend. She was so happy to see Eren alive and well that she almost forgot why she came into the castle in the first place.

Eren rushed over to Cinder and hugged her with a smile. "You're here!" Eren looked back to see that Ren and Nora also came to them with smiles on their faces. They too were relieved to see that Cinder was safe and sound, and Eren was ready to tell her this when he let go of her.

But then Eren saw the tears in Cinder's eyes. At first, he thought she was just happy to see him. But when he saw the look on her face, a look of sadness and despair, Eren knew that something wasn't right.

"What's wrong?" he asked.

Cinder didn't bother to dry her eyes. Instead, she took Eren's hand and moved to the hole in the wall. "We need your help," she said as she led him outside.

Eren silently followed Cinder and carefully moved out of the hole in the wall. As he did, Eren saw that it indeed led to the outside of the castle. The crystal structure was massive and smooth, but Eren had still broken it when he hit the Hound. And with Cinder's help, Eren was able to see that some of the crystal was jagged and acted like a floor of sorts.

On one side of the floor was the steaming remains of the Incinerator Titan, which Cinder had abandoned. On the other side was Winter, who was kneeling in front of a heavily bleeding Emerald.

"Emerald?" Eren whispered as he looked at his injured friend. "Emerald!" He quickly ran over and examined the severity of her wounds. "What happened?!"

"...She fell," Winter sadly replied as she turned away. She too had tears in her eyes, which proved her innocence in the matter; Eren almost thought Winter had something to do with this.

But when he saw that Raven appeared to be missing, other ideas came to his mind.

Eren turned back to Cinder to confirm his theory, but he had another idea when he saw Ren was looking outside the hole in Salem's castle. "Ren, find Midori!" Eren yelled. "Now!"

Ren obeyed without a word, but this didn't bring any comfort to Cinder.

"She's not with you?" Cinder asked.

"No," Eren replied. "She got knocked out by this Grimm, but we killed it. Ren will find her, and she can-"

"Eren, look at Emerald."

Eren stopped talking, but he wasn't sure if he wanted to do so.

"Look at her."

"..."

Eren looked back at his friend, at the state she was in. Emerald looked like she had broken multiple bones, and her bleeding she was experiencing looked incredibly severe. Winter and Cinder had torn some of their clothes so they could cover the wounds, but that didn't do too much.

Eren didn't need to be told what to do, but Cinder did so anyway.

"Eren... you know there's only one way we can save her," she said. "Just like with Mercury."

"..."

Eren remembered as if it were yesterday. How he saved Mercury the day they fled the Land of Darkness. Back then, they didn't have Midori's Semblance. And right now, they didn't have it either.

Eren didn't want to admit it, but he knew there was only one way to help Emerald; he had to make her into a Titan.

Even though he didn't want to do it with Mercury, Eren didn't hesitate to do what he did. And he wasn't going to hesitate now.

"What are you doing?" Winter asked as she watched Eren put his hands on Emerald's arm.

"Saving her," Eren said as he closed his eyes. But that didn't answer Winter's question.

"How? Your Semblance isn't like Midori's."

"I'm not healing her. I'm giving her a Titan."

Winter gasped before she broke Eren's concentration. "You're what?! Eren, you can't-!"

"Winter, please," said Cinder, who moved to make Winter look at her. This was yet another disagreement she had with Winter, but Cinder didn't plan on starting an argument or use her passion to change Winter's mind. "Midori's not here. We can't just let Emerald die. I'm sorry... but this is the only way."

"..."

Winter could tell that Cinder wasn't lying; one look on her face told her that Cinder fully believed what she was saying, that it was the only course of action they could take to save Emerald's life.

But she still had one more question.

"Is this what she would want?"

"..."

Cinder had no counter-argument for this. While she was certain that this was the only way to save Emerald's life, she had her doubts about if being a Titan was something Emerald would want.

"I wish I could ask her," said Eren. "I really do."

"..."

Winter and Cinder made no attempt to stop Eren as a black tar began to spread across Emerald's broken body.

"...Sorry, Emerald."