Creation began on 05-31-24

Creation ended on 06-02-24

Attack on Titan

The Dark Titan: Heart of Loss

The Dark Tree. That was what some people came to call it. It stood around thirty-six meters, was dark in all its colorations, including the leaves that grew from the branches. As they stood in front of the mountain the tree grew beside of, Historia and the Yeagerists wondered how a tree like this even existed…and how it seemed like the town that used to reside here was ignored by the people that tried to resettle. There were some people around, but upon seeing them, they each just went inside some shelter-like structures and closed their doors. In fact, many of the buildings looked like they had been made using the remnants of the buildings that used to be around; with the world destroyed, there were fewer resources available, forcing the people left to make do with very little to practically nothing.

Historia noticed a woman walking around with a cane and slowly approached her.

"Excuse me," she says to her, trying to get her attention. "Can you help us here? We're trying to find someone. A woman with grey hair. She'd probably be around my age. Goes by the name of…"

"Kaede Sogen?" The woman responds, and Historia steps back upon seeing her face turn to meet her gaze. "What do you want with her?"

It was Carla Yeager, older and wrinkled, her hair graying and everything.

"Missus Yeager?" Historia asks, and the woman frowns.

"I've been Mrs. Cutler for the last years of my life," she states.

"We're…just here for…"

"You won't find her here," Carla tells the queen. "Why even come here? Everyone that left wants nothing to do with Paradis, anymore. Even I want nothing to do with you. What do you want?"

"We're here for the Dark Titan, ma'am," a male Yeagerist addresses. "We're here to take it back to Paradis."

"Good luck with that," Carla states back. "Nobody here has seen it since Ms. Sogen left."

"Was she here?" Historia wants to know.

"Why do you want to know if she was here or not? It's ancient history now."

"It's imperative that we know where she is," the Yeagerist insists. "The Dark Titan is Paradis property, and she had no right to leave with it."

Carla frowns and turns away from them.

"The Dark Titan," she utters, "was never any of yours to start with. The Dark Titan doesn't belong to any of us, no matter what you think. And the young woman who had it first…everyone knew her story of how her faith in the queen of Paradis became her undoing. How it became everyone's undoing. And don't think I've forgotten that unforgivable day that boy decided I was in the way. You were going to have me killed were it not for Ms. Sogen. What kind of person does that? And what kind of people decide to do that?"

"He didn't tell me," Historia claims.

"Would you have stopped him if you'd known?"

"There was no stopping him. You were his mother; you knew how stubborn he was."

"I was his mother. Past tense. I'm not his mother, anymore. She's a ghost of the past, just like Paradis is. If you seek her mural, look around you. People can leave behind different legacies before and after they go out. Different ways to remember them for who they were or what they did. She didn't have much at the end, but Kaede Sogen was like the rest of us because of you people. She was a woman in grief because you decided to take from her and everyone else. All because you feared a war and potential retaliation. Well, here's my retaliation for you: I have nothing for you. Any of you. Nothing."

Carla walks away, leaving Historia to wonder exactly just how bad things had gotten for Kaede.

"How did she die?" She asks her, stopping her in her tracks.

"When we came here, she would sit by herself," Carla explains. "She wouldn't eat, had few tears left to shed. Her feelings were even reflected by the Dark Titan. She felt like she failed the people she loved, the people she would've traded her life for to have back. Then one day, her Titan went around the mountain and dug a hole in the ground. Some of us believe she simply went mad, but…we know what really drove her to her breaking point. She had nothing left to give…and just wanted to see them all again. Anyone that says there are fates worse than death is right to believe in that notion, but I bet none of them were in pain like Kaede was because of you and Eren. I bet none of them felt like they had to do something before their suffering drove them to do something they would regret later. My only regret…was that I never got to thank her for saving me all those years ago on that forsaken island that used to be home. It's been over ten years since that time she succumbed to the darkness you drove her into after escaping from her own darkness."

Historia couldn't believe this. The person they had been looking for, the same person that they were hoping to meet once again…had been dead for years. While the Yeagerists were upset because this meant the Dark Titan was no longer around, Historia was devastated because she lost someone she couldn't make up with. And now, she had to live with this guilt, knowing that she could've done something to stop it, however futile it might have been to try.

"I planted that tree with my daughter that you see growing out of the ground," Carla informs her, and she looks up at the Dark Tree. "No tombstones or memorials, so we made do with a tree. Not really the best idea at the time, but Kaede deserved something benevolent from the people she saved, that were inspired by her to leave that island that is no longer home. We all felt for her. Now, anyone that wants to know of her legacy, all they need to know is what she believed in…and look at the tree that stands above her grave."

A tear fell from Historia's right eye. She turned to leave the shantytown ruins, knowing that there was nothing for them here. There was nothing…but a tree meant to serve as a marker for a girl whose legacy was different from what had been expected to be discovered. The people that left with her from Paradis…were her legacy…and the story of her life and how it ended…was her legend…and she had one of the grimmest roles in it.

I'm sorry, Kaede, she thought as she apologized to a person that was no longer around to be apologized to.

-x-

"…So, she was already dead?" Jean questions when Historia returned from investigating the rumor about the tree. "Dead over ten years ago?"

"If she had a grave marker, it would probably read, 'Here lies Kaede Sogen, killed by grief'," went Connie, not the least bit pleased to know that the girl was dead. "At least here on Paradis, it would say something like that."

Armin was sympathetic towards the girl's end. If she wasn't going to go down a path of vengeance, she decided to simply put an end to her pain by ending her own life. If she had nothing left to live for, she had nothing left to lose, and this included her life.

"Where do you see yourself in the future yet to come?" Kaede had once asked. "I don't mean tomorrow or a week or even a month from now. I mean, where do you see yourself when you're older? Do you see yourself being some sort of somebody that people talk about in some positive way? Do you see yourself doing something you love? Do you see yourself with someone you love and settling down, maybe with a family of your own? Where do you see yourself? Where do you want to see yourself?"

Unlike Eren, who saw things before they happened, Kaede, who didn't see anything of the past or future, was simply a girl that was just open to the possibilities that people could achieve if they tried their best. Chuckling, Armin allowed himself the small pleasure of having imagined Kaede as an older woman with someone to settle down with somewhere in Trost.

"What's so funny?" Historia asks him.

"Just something Kaede had once asked," he explains. "Where do we see ourselves in the future yet to come? She didn't mean it in a literal sense, but in a potential sense; where did we want to see ourselves instead of where we are right now. I just imagined her being alive and married to someone in Trost. Nothing fancy or special. Even with a kid of her own that inherited her hair."

"Eh-heh-heh," Connie chuckles, moved by the fantasy. "That's a good fantasy. Who wouldn't want a life like that?"

-x-

Mikasa was at a loss on how to process this turn of events. Not only had Carla renounced her connection to Eren, but she had remarried and started over with a new family. She didn't want to resent her for doing so, as she was nearly victimized twice by her son, but to know that she only did so because of him, it felt like a betrayal.

"Did you know?" She asks the small grave. "Did you know that she would move on because you tried to have her killed twice? She replaced you, started anew, just to forget about you."

Of course, there was no answer to be expected. The dead kept their silence from the living. All Mikasa had were her thoughts on this revelation.

-x-

The shantytown that the Paradis defectors lived in was a little livelier after the sun went down, but some Yeagerists hiding in the shadows outside the limits of the debilitated ruins had other ideas on to operate. Because Kaede Sogen was no longer alive, some of the Yeagerists believed that, if her body was still intact, she still possessed the Dark Titan, and they had to remove her spine and ingest it to obtain it. They needed to ensure Paradis' survival, even if it meant desecrating the grave of a traitor. It was still as they believed; the Dark Titan was the property of Paradis Island, not Kaede Sogen.

"Everybody ready?" A female Yeagerist asks over a radio.

"We're all set to begin," a male Yeagerist replies on the other end. "We'll dig up the tree and uncover the grave before sun… Gaaulgh!"

"What was that?" She questions, hearing a strange sound.

Crack! Snap! Strange noises were being heard over the radio.

"What's happening?" She demands.

"Go away," a new voice utters. "Take what's left of your people and go away. Leave the people here alone. This is your only warning."

It was a girl's voice, but it seemed devoid of hate, instead sounding more annoyed than anything else right now.

"Identify yourself, whoever you are," the Yeagerist demands.

"You wouldn't believe who I am, even if I did tell you my name," the voice tells her. "Leave now…or face the end of the path you've taken."

"I'm afraid we can't do that. We're here on an important mission."

"Anyone that thinks they can simply come here and lay claim to that grave is only condemning themselves to an inescapable torment. Go away and live while you still can. If you stay, you will have chosen your fate."

"We'll kill you."

"I guess you're staying."

Click. The radio went silent.

"We're moving now," the Yeagerist tells her comrades. "Let's take that grave!"

"Yeah!" The Yeagerists with her yell as they move towards the town. "Aaaah!"

But before they could even enter the outer limits of the destroyed buildings, a darkness enveloped them from within the trees.

Amidst the large pyre the people were gathered around, just to enjoy each other's company, Carla looks up…and sees a tall, dark figure walking past the trees just outside the ruins' limits.

"Mother?" A little girl speaks up, holding an apple in front of Carla.

"The night lives again," she tells her.

"The lady that walks alone walks again?"

"Walking a lonely path throughout the night."

"Why?"

Carla picks up the girl and sets her on her lap.

"When she died because of her grief…she didn't leave, even though she wanted to. Despite dying being awful because of how it affects people, grief can be just as worse, making people do things they wouldn't consider doing. And Ms. Sogen…couldn't deal with her grief and didn't want to hurt people. But in the end, she paid a price that was worse than she could imagine. And now, she has to walk the night until she can be forgiven. A servant to the darkness. Sometimes, if you look hard enough, you can see her shadow just above the trees."

Carla points up to the sky and her daughter sees the departing figure.

"Will she ever be forgiven?" She asks Carla.

"Only time will tell, sweetie."

In the darkness, three of the Yeagerists were running as fast as they could from the dark figure that was chasing them, and they couldn't believe it was the Dark Titan, an eighteen-meter humanoid that possessed long hair and dark skin. They thought she was dead because the Sogen girl was dead, but this wasn't the case. If they had some ODM Gear on them, they might've stood a chance against this Titan, but because there were no other Titans around Paradis, they had no ODM Gear to speak of, and the people that were once tasked with building them were either dead or retired.

"I gave you the chance to leave while you still could," her voice echoed in their heads, "but you chose this. You chose this. This little patch of territory is all we have for ourselves. I saw you before when you with her. Did she put you up to this? Did she order you to come back here?"

How is this possible? They wonder as they tried to hide behind some trees. How is she still alive if she killed herself?!

How can anyone be alive when they take their own life? They hear her voice in their heads. How can someone who is no longer alive still be around? The answer that is both simple and complicated: I'm not alive, anymore. I haven't been alive since the day I dug my own grave.

"You were once Paradis' protector!" The female Yeagerist yells to her. "How could you abandon us when we needed the Dark Titan to protect us against reprisal?! You can have whatever you want now! What do you want?!"

What I want? You Yeagerists… You haven't the faintest idea of what I want! What I want, none of you can even give me! You can think I want money, land, fame or some other meaningless, materialistic ambition, but none of those matter to me! Why do you think any of those would matter to someone like me. As far as any of you have ever bothered to learn about me, I am the only one that had ever been…and may ever be…the only one that wanted something as simple…as a happy life. But after the Rumbling and the fall of Paradis' soul, there is no such thing…and never will be.

Before the female Yeagerist could move, she felt herself sinking into the tree she hid behind.

"What?!" She gasps, looking around and seeing a large hand gripping onto her. "Aaah!"

You can't hide from me, her voice utters. It's part of human nature to fear what lurks in the darkness…and I am one with the darkness.

"Aaah… Aaaah!"

But you will survive this. Most of you will, that is. All I ask…is that you leave this place and these people alone. They don't want anything to do with Paradis or the Yeagerists. And there's nothing you can offer them to atone for your crimes of taking away their hearts for the sake of your wretched dedication. So, please…for the sake of these people that chose to abandon Paradis to save their own souls from the darkness…just leave them alone. Tell them Kaede Sogen gives her regards.

The next thing she knew, the darkness around her cleared up, revealing a clear night sky…and the sounds of the ocean waves. Looking up in front of herself, the Yeagerist saw the ocean in front of the scattered bodies of the other Yeagerists, all groaning as they started moving.

In the distance, she could see the retreating form of a large body with long hair, as dark as the night, disappearing into the water.

"What the…" She utters, seeing the sunrise…and the figure disappearing into the light. "Was that…really her?"

"Aaurgh!" Several Yeagerists groaned as several of their limbs were busted up.

-x-

As the morning started, simply because she felt the need to setup an offering to Kaede, Carla walked over the Dark Tree with a saucer holding an apple and orange, but upon reaching the makeshift memorial shrine her daughter had suggested as a testament to the person she had been prior to Rumbling, Carla gasps at the sight of the small shrine. Instead of being comprised of broken pieces of wood and fragments of stone, the shrine looked as though someone had spent a considerable measure of time and resources and refined it. The only thing that remained that indicated that it hadn't been defiled in any sense was the piece of broken wood that had Kaede's name carved into it. In front of it were several people, each of them examining it and looking in disbelief over it.

"Do any of you know who did this?" She asks them.

"We were here all night before the fire died out," a man informs her. "Nobody ever came near the shrine. We must've dozed off for just a few minutes, but when we woke up, it was here."

"Is this some sort of trick?" A woman suggests, feeling the wood and stone. "Nobody in the village can do anything like this."

Carla looks up at the branches above…and thought for a moment that she saw the girl this shrine was for, sitting on one of the branches, looking down at them.

"Maybe it's an offering from Ms. Sogen," she tells them, and opens the small door of the shrine and sets the plate of fruit offerings inside, seeing note on the back of the wall.

She takes it out and reads it.

"Thank you for caring even after I gave up," it read, but what bothers Carla about it was its style; she recognized people's handwriting signatures, and this one belonged to Kaede Sogen.

But…how is this… She wonders, showing the others the note.

"What does this mean?" The man asks.

"I don't know what it means."

Carla looks back up at the branches…and sees nobody there.

To be continued…

A/N: What do you think it means?