The Dark Titan: Grief and Betrayal

by Traitor of All Traitors

Post-Rumbling. It was bad enough that the Rumbling was implemented, but worse to come was the aftermath revelation of how lives are shattered and the pieces can't be put back together. Enter Kaede Sogen of the Dark Titan, who abandons Paradis and everything she used to believe once she loses what she values above all else, leaving others to be concerned about what she could do.

5. Before and After I'm Dead

Creation began on 07-11-24

Creation ended on 07-23-24

Attack on Titan

The Dark Titan: Before and After I'm Dead

A/N: A soul lost in the darkness is a soul looking for the light, and a soul that tries to escape from the darkness is a soul seeking absolution from its shackles of sin.

Three weeks. Three long, agonizing weeks, and Paradis was unable to find any stability with the world that refused to associate with its people because of the major loss of life. The only reason nobody sought war with the island was due to a lack of resources and manpower. In addition, most countries were were disinterested in Paradis when knowledge of the Dark Titan running around at night, doing nothing but building buildings and paving roads got the majority of people's attention. This, of course, left the island's queen and military force wondering what was going on.

"Every night, it's always the same story," a Yeagerist informs Historia. "The Dark Titan appears in places destroyed by the Rumbling…and builds something new there to the best of its capabilities. But the only pattern is that the places it goes to are all unaffiliated with us or Hizuru. In fact, two countries neighboring Hizuru have been visited by the Dark Titan, but not once did it show its face around Hizuru's borders.

"The Dark Titan is going to these other parts of the world, but neglecting us and our overseas allies?" An official questions. "Just how is it that this Titan is able to move around at night?"

"The Dark Titan could cover a great distance within a half-hour, making it faster than any horse," Historia explains.

"And the crafting it performs? Some sort of inherent ability from the War Hammer Titan?"

"No. Kaede Sogen learned of building craftsmanship from her father and stepfather when she was little. She had a talent for building things that helped people."

"If this is the same Dark Titan…and it's being controlled by a ghost…then why is it disregarding Paradis and Hizuru? Why is it only helping people from other parts of the world that were left in ruins after the Rumbling?"

"You knew!" Historia recalls Kaede's words of pain and contempt. "You knew!"

"Because Ms. Sogen is a woman who is ruled by her conscience, her sense of morality," she tells them. "She believes Paradis was in the wrong for allowing the Rumbling to happen and cause the pain and suffering of people that had nothing to do with our past problems. She basically holds the island responsible for the suffering of others. This is probably her way of atoning for the wrongs committed by Paradis."

"But if we didn't use the Rumbling, we would've been killed," a young man expresses. "How could she not know this?"

"Morality isn't the same as righteousness. For Ms. Sogen, it was never about survival or claiming victory at any cost or even our future. For her, it was about right and wrong, and in her mind, we were wrong to use the Rumbling. Even more so because she lost her family and friends before it even started."

"But if Marley's military killed them, weren't we in the right?" Another official questions Historia, ignorant of the truth.

"Except that it wasn't Marley that killed them," she reveals. "It was the Yeagerists."

The silence that consumed the room was agonizing for most of the people in it, but the cold truth was just as hurtful upon the realization that their original assumptions regarding the infamous Dark Titan were based solely upon what they believed to be the best of intentions for Paradis. But a being that possessed the power to become a Titan and do incredible things with it, losing her loved ones by the very people that she once saw as her own people…was no different from someone that decided to throw a stone at some stray animal on the street looking for something to eat. The people that she lived for and used her power for…were simply something in the way of what was viewed as being more important than they were to the being of power.

"Then…in her mind," a civilian official for Paradis utters, "we're not worth her time. The only time she ever paid this island any attention was when she brought those Yeagerists back from that town that was built where she took her own life out of grief…and that was because they were going to attempt to rob her grave."

"It really is your fault she abandoned you," the Marleyan official says to Historia. "It was your Yeagerists that killed her loved ones. That makes this issue with a ghost Titan your problem if you can't even manage it properly."

Historia sighs as she knows Paradis has no positive standing with Kaede Sogen; with their falling, they had no claim to the power of the Dark Titan. Whatever value Paradis could have gained from having the Dark Titan after the Rumbling was undone, null and void with the gray-haired girl's death…and there was no reconciliation between them because of what was done…and couldn't be undone.

"It's not like we can talk to the people of that town," a Yeagerist utters. "Talking to a ghost? Can anyone do that? And this girl has no understanding of how a military works. How far we're willing to go to protect the people."

"Even if it seems like the biggest concern is a dead girl that doesn't seem to give Paradis the time of day, anymore?"

Most wanted to believe that as long as Paradis and its allies stayed away from the Eldian people that abandoned the island, they would be left alone, but several Yeagerists didn't believe in this assumption due to one simple fact: The Dark Titan was not in their possession, no longer an ally, and it made them look like they were in a position of weakness.

-x-

It was like something out of a nightmare for most, but to those that took notice of its activities, the sight of the Dark Titan sculpting buildings from the ground up or paving walkways was something to be praised and appreciated for because the Titan never bothered with chasing down people or making time for a conversation after it was learned that it didn't do any of what it was doing to represent Paradis. No, the Titan was trying to do these things for the countries unaffiliated with Paradis or Hizuru because they had been victimized by Paradis for using the Rumbling to destroy the world. While this would not give Paradis any advantage, it would give the survivors some hope because they were learning that not everyone from that island supported the use of the Rumbling to begin with, and lost everything because of those that did support its use, including the queen that got what she wanted in the end, but at the cost of what she already had to start with.

"Moon hangs around, a blade over my head… Reminds me of what to do before I'm dead…" Some people could hear a young woman singing as the Titan had finished sculpting together three more buildings that looked like they could house a total of thirty families due to being four stories in height. "Night consumes light…and all I dread… Reminds me of what to do before I'm dead… To see you… To touch you…"

A little girl points to a young woman beside the Dark Titan's right leg, noticing that she could be seen through like a glass of water.

"My God," a man gasps as the Titan turns to face the people.

"You should," the Titan utters, in the same tone as the voice they heard singing, "be able to house at least twenty families in these buildings if they are families of four or five people."

"Why?" A woman asks the Titan. "Why are you doing this?"

"Well, nobody from Paradis that is alive is offering to do anything for any of you, are they? And besides, Paradis and Hizuru are not even what I can consider to be righteous in any fashion. They are like parasites, always taking and never giving back…except pain and misery. But I don't blame them as a whole. I blame the people that lead them, that manipulate them into believing what they want them to believe. But that little island that was once my home…is nothing but a memory for me and everyone else that made the choice to leave it behind, never to return. What I do…is for the sake of redemption, not for retribution. The ultimate salvation is the salvation one should seek…for their own soul that wanders in the darkness. You can't be lost in the darkness…unless you have lost all you hold most dear to yourself."

They could see the girl walking away, just as the Titan stood up and walked away in the same direction as she, disappearing in the sunlight.

"Who…was that?" A little boy wonders.

"Probably another victim of Paradis," a woman suspects.

-x-

"…I don't think there's any other way to describe the work of a wandering ghost, Your Highness," a man informs Historia of the latest news of a former city in the east being rebuilt into a town by the Dark Titan, which condemned Paradis with hurtful words of how its people had nothing give but pain and misery. "Even in death, the Dark Titan is a traitor to Paradis."

Except to Historia, this belief wasn't as one-sided as some might think. The loss of her loved ones was what drove Kaede to abandon Paradis, taking with her the few that also chose to abandon the island after the Yeagerists took over. It was a betrayal, but one that was caused by the people that wanted to protect the island against reprisal, which was now looking like it wouldn't come due to the surviving countries wanting little to do with Paradis at all, preferring to contend with their own issues rather than talk with the people that brought ruin to their world. Except now, those places that were left in ruins were being mended by the ghost of a woman that possessed a power that had once been used on Paradis…and would never return to Paradis to offer them aid again.

"A power like this should belong to Paradis and the Yeagerists!" A Yeagerists believes. "Your Highness, give us authorization, and we'll bring it back to serve the island!"

"No," Historia decrees; the mere thought of what could transpire if that town was visited by the Yeagerists again. "The Dark Titan doesn't belong to Paradis. She doesn't belong to anyone she will not belong to. She's completely independent. Leave her alone. I'd rather have Paradis ignored by her than endangered by her if she were ever crossed."

"But how can you guarantee that this traitor will not try to come here to get revenge?"

"Miss Sogen isn't driven by a desire for revenge. She understands the difference between revenge and redemption. Vengeance doesn't heal any wounds inflicted by the people responsible for one's personal losses. Everyone that chose to defect from Paradis after the Rumbling were people that lost people because of Eren Yeager and the Yeagerists, no matter what the reason was. They didn't care about freedom if it came at the cost of their loved ones. They wouldn't trade the ones they love most for freedom. And I can only guess what Ms. Sogen would do if given the opportunity to do so. If she could bring those lives ended back at the cost of freedom or maybe trade the people she believed were most directly responsible for the deaths of all those people in the Rumbling…she probably would…but only if it meant having the people she loved alive and well."

"If any of that had been possible, Eren or anyone with the Founder would've done it when they had it!" Reiner had once yelled when regarding the possibility that anyone with the power of the Founding Titan could've brought back anyone that died long ago. "The mere fact that they never did so show that they weren't even gods! None of them were gods! They were nothing more than frauds! Nothing more! Maybe Sogen was a better choice in the end!"

It seems that no matter how much anyone wanted to look the other way, there was no way to forgive and forget the transgressions that befell those that lost people.

-x-

Hizuru was met with disinterest by its neighbors that wanted nothing to do with them after learning that the Dark Titan had paid their territories multiple visits in the night and gifted them with new buildings to call their homes and gardens to grow their food. It made the Azumabito Clan look even more desperate than they already were after the years following the Rumbling, seeing that the Dark Titan was outright ignoring their plight in favor of the other parts of the world that suffered.

"The sun reclines as it eats my mind," Kiyomi hears a voice she hasn't heard in over a decade, looking at the shadowed corners of a ruined building, seeing a young woman that was sitting on the ground. "Reminds me what to leave behind."

She and her guards approach the shadows and see the woman as best they could…and Kiyomi gasps as she steps back. It was Kaede Sogen, and she was see-through!

"Light eats night…and all I never said," Kaede continues to sing, looking up at the older woman. "Reminds me what to do…before and after I'm dead."

"Who are you?" She asks the girl.

"I'm nobody," she answers her. "I'm just a face without a name, a body without a grave, a life lost to the ages."

"Historia mentioned something about a ghost Titan going around that resembles the Dark Titan. And how the young lady that controls the Titan committed suicide out of grief."

Kiyomi must've hit a sour nerve in the girl, because her guards backed away from the sight of a large Titan head that appeared from the shadows behind the girl.

"Grief, anger, heartache," Kaede utters, "Everyone repents in their own way…and everyone answers for their sins in their own way."

"You paid the neighboring nations around Hizuru visits from your Dark Titan, granting them remarkable boons…but you deny us and Paradis the same. Where is your allegiance, Ms. Sogen? You used to be a member of Paradis' protectors. You used to be an ally to Hizuru."

"That's right," the girl responds, sounding indifferent to what she was saying, "but that's just it: I used to. Past tense. I'm not a protector of that little island, anymore. I'm no longer your nation's ally. Look around you. It doesn't matter what you think of me. I don't owe either your people or the people of that island anything, anymore. You got what you longed for. As far as I'm concerned, you got what you paid for, and I'm glad you're happy with the results. It doesn't mean I'm happy for you. Enjoy the fruits of your labor. You've more than earned them."

It was the way Kaede spoke, like she was displeased with them.

"You know there was no stopping Yeager," Kiyomi says to her. "He was going to do whatever he felt was best for everyone. He had no other choice. He…"

"Stop that," Kaede utters. "Just stop it."

"Stop what?"

"Stop defending him. He is not a hero. He is not a saint or a martyr. He's not even a victim. She's not even a victim. They were the real victims. Everyone that died because of them, because of you. They were victims of your arrogance, your bitterness, your greed. So, I give them what I can, returning some of what they lost because of you all. Do I feel concern for any of your people? Do I feel sad that you have to be jealous of the ones that lost their homes and loved ones because you made a deal with some devils? The boons I try to give are reserved only for those that never asked to lose everything. But you… Your nation asked for the struggling. Her island asked for the slaughter. All I had asked for…was the one thing nobody from either was willing to give a chance to. My suggestions were ignored by those that didn't want to believe in me, to really believe in me. So…I must be blind, deaf and mute to any that aren't in the consideration for peace or coexistence. As for why I'm here, I'm just waiting for the sun to go down. There are other victims to meet elsewhere. Other people that have lost loved ones that they'll never see alive again. The many that deserve more than the handful of the few that don't deserve anything except what they decided to take from everyone else…in ugly spades."

Kiyomi could see that this ghost of the infamous Dark Titan that once resided on Paradis was not in a happy mood if she was not supporting either said island or Hizuru with her abilities. The personal loss that Ms. Sogen suffered was enough to drive anyone upset with the people that allowed this devastation to befall many people that were displeased with the aftermath they were forced to adjust to. And there was no convincing her to look the other way. What was done couldn't be undone, and once a mind was set on a decision, there was no changing that decision.

"Do you know the worst thing about dying?" Kaede asks her. "Everyone believes that it's easy…when it isn't easy at all. It's just as difficult as it is to live with the choices one makes following a war. The hardest part is just wanting to end peacefully. Cutting off the air to your lungs as you bury yourself in the darkness, not even trying to escape, just hoping that your next breath is your last so you can stop fighting to escape. I had nightmares of what befell everyone. No matter what anyone says, no amount of right today can change that one, rotten choice of wrong made all those years ago. What I do now is another thing to do after I'm dead. There were things I couldn't do before I died, and many of those things are what I can't do, even in death. I can't fall in love with anyone among the living. I can't get married. I can't even have a family, many of the things most take for granted. And one of the things I detest about death is one of the things that has yet to change: There are still people ruled by distrust and hatred that think the only way to survive is to remove the ones you don't like for any reason. And Paradis has become the breeding ground for hatred. I'm beginning to wonder if Hizuru is also ruled by hate."

"That's not true," Kiyomi tells her. "We don't hate."

The skies became dark, indicating that the sun had gone down. When Kiyomi saw Kaede get up from off the ground, she backed away as the ghost girl steps out of the shadows, followed by her Titan, reminded that it was still larger than the fifteen-meter Titans that were the standard Titans.

"Epochs fly and reminds me…what I hide reminds me…what to do before…and after I'm dead," Kaede sings as the Dark Titan holds her in its left hand and walks away. "If you don't hate, then leave the people that want nothing to do with you alone. You're still the dragon and Paradis is the treasure. You want wealth so much, sell to those affiliated with either or. If you can find any."

As the Dark Titan walked away, many people saw it and scattered around the streets, trying to avoid its steps, unaware that it wasn't even trying to go after them.

Kiyomi and her guards watch as the Dark Titan actually walks right through several buildings like they're not even there, just as though it were truly a ghost, intangible.

"Incredible," she says as it disappears into the night.

"She really is dead," one of her guards say.

-x-

Even though it had only been an invitation and not a demand, Historia had been, more or less, denied by Reiner Braun and Annie Leonhart, regarding the matter with Kaede Sogen and her afterlife actions with the world, two weeks later. They were done with it all because it seemed to be the same with Paradis ever since it was learned that Kaede committed suicide and had returned from beyond her grave to visit other parts of the world ravaged by the Rumbling and mend them as best as she could with her Dark Titan, something that Marley was now hoping to benefit from, as they lost everything because of the Rumbling and had nothing to gain from a continued association with Paradis. Even the Marleyan representative had to announce that the damaged nation was cutting its losses with the island in hopes that this Dark Titan, even if only by a little bit, would offer its hands to rebuild parts of their ravaged homeland, as it was clear that it was only doing so for those unaffiliated with Paradis and Hizuru. And when Historia sought the assistance of Armin, Jean and Connie over this, all three men had to draw the line with the young queen and say that it was hopeless to bother with the matter and just leave it alone.

"Even if we could talk to her, what would I say to her?" Connie had told her. "That she's doing excellent work? That Paradis is upset with her actions? Maybe she could offer her hand to Paradis for old times' sake?"

"There's no point in talking to a ghost of someone that doesn't want to talk to us," Jean had told her. "It's the same or similar with Eren all those years ago, and the only time he ever spoke with any of us for the last time…was to say that there was nothing left to talk about. I'm not going to bother with Ms. Sogen's ghost. Just leave her alone. She's free to do whatever she wants to. She's not bothering me, anyway, so I have no reason to bother with her."

"If she's ignoring Paradis and Hizuru," Armin had stated, "then she must have her reasons for doing so, even if they don't make any sense to you or the Yeagerists. Even if she only killed one Yeagerist, it was on them for trespassing on that shantytown where the people that defected to and built their little community. So long as they're left alone by Paradis, I feel Ms. Sogen has no reason to come back here. This place isn't home to her, anymore. It's hard to call it home after what's happened in the last few years. I'm considering turning in my resignation as an ambassador; peace doesn't seem to be on anyone's mind if they don't want to talk about it."

Am I allowed to be concerned about how Paradis will move forward regarding Ms. Sogen's restless ghost? Historia wonders, looking at a lockbox on her desk in her office in Mitras. I feel like I'm still getting the third degree from everyone when it comes to her. She chose to leave. And then Ymir left.

"I think we need…time apart, Historia," Ymir had told Historia upon learning that the Yeagerists had been the ones responsible for the deaths of people that, more or less, simply didn't support the new regime, which included the friends and parents of Kaede, along with the little girl that looked up to Kaede. "I don't believe my presence around you would be…helpful to your reign right now."

Right now, Ymir? More like, not at all! She thinks as she opens the lockbox and takes out a photograph of a different time from over ten years ago. I didn't even know they were going to kill them! If I had known, I would have stopped them! They didn't have to kill Charlotte! She wasn't even ten years old when they killed her! Why kill a little girl that didn't even bother anyone?!

In the photo, taken by a man that had a camera with him, depicted Historia, Ymir, Eren, Armin, Jean, Sasha, Mikasa, Levi, Kaede and even Frieda. Each of them just posing in their own way in front of the camera, with Charlotte piggybacking Kaede on her shoulders because she asked if she could. It was just a simple day and a simple picture of people that were just trying to enjoy themselves. Well, almost everyone that day; Eren was the only person that seemed incapable of enjoying anything because he focused so much on what nobody else knew at the time and wouldn't know until it was too late to turn back.

"You're awesome, Kaede!" She remembers Charlotte's cheerfulness towards Kaede as the camera flashed.

"Yeah," she finds herself saying in the present, "you were the best, Kaede. You were…better than most of us desired to be."

-x-

It was reasonably questionable that the Dark Titan was making its own assessment of Marley when it showed up one night before doing anything as unrealistic as building anything. All the people left within the nation could really do was wait and see if she would do anything for them to make use of after having to sever their ties with Paradis.

"If I could rewind," they heard the girl sing as the Titan continued to walk around, "I would take back the lies…and all the times I hurt you."

"If only we could rewind, Ms. Sogen," she hears a man's voice as she turns around to face them; whoever they were, they addressed her so formally. "If I could rewind, I would have never gone to that island with false hopes and dreams of a better future."

She sees an older and emotionally wounded Reiner Braun.

"I'm just assessing the scenery," she tells him. "Needing to understand the seriousness of what the Rumbling did here before I decide whether or not to do anything here."

"And I just needed you to know that Marley has no standing with Paradis, as they're more upset with you neglecting them than they are with anyone else in the present. Ever since you started visiting other parts of the world, leaving your mark, they had to wonder why they're among the excluded. Personally, I don't want to know the answer. I just want to know one thing, though: Are you really…gone?"

"Look at me and see for yourself."

Reiner looks and can see with his eyes that this young woman was in no way alive if he could see right through her body as though some fool tossed a wad of dirt into the air to create a smokescreen. All he did hear about her was that she took her own life because of the heartache she felt from losing the people she loved, choosing escape rather than vengeance, as it wouldn't give her what she really wanted.

"I am sorry," he says to her.

"What for?" She asks him.

"You probably wouldn't have suffered if we had never attacked Paradis."

"Heh. Even so, it's not your fault. Anyone could've attacked that day, but everyone that did were just the pawns of someone else's unforgivable game that had real consequences. The real villain is reaping the rewards for their own misdeeds in the agonizing inferno, and everyone left alive has to clean up after them. But at least I get to choose how to clean up and where to do it. Paradis, Hizuru and anyone affiliated with them won't receive the grace of creation."

"Why does it seem like it's personal?"

"Oh, it's not personal. It's just the way it is. Paradis has no place for Titans…and there's no place in this world for someone like me that was simple and saw things in a way that others wouldn't."

What Reiner decided not to say was that it felt like Kaede, even as a ghost, was still upset with Eren and Historia, holding them responsible for her losses. Personally, he didn't blame her if she did hold them responsible; anyone that knew what that boy was going to do should've had the will, the courage, to stand up and put their foot down against the Rumbling. If it had been him that day, he would've killed Eren to spare the world from the Titans.

"Does it hurt?" He asks her. "Your current state, I mean."

"Only when I think about them," she replies. "Are you in any pain, no longer being in possession of the power of the Titans?"

"Just phantom pain."

"Well, this place is in luck."

"Liberio."

"Liberio…will be graced by the Dark Titan…one night at a time."

"R…real…really?"

"Have you ever known me to lie?"

Reiner shook his head in the negative; Kaede Sogen was few things, but a liar was never one of them. The girl had been a kind, warm-hearted soul, a friendly face, an unearthly beauty…and the only one to see through situations that others were too hardened to see with an open mind and an open heart.

"You're not a liar," he says, and the Dark Titan started using its arms to pave the road in front of it. "You're just a…simple girl with better clarity."

"Thank you."

Kaede walks away from Reiner, right through the wall of shanty hut. This was also proof that she was a ghost, being able to go through obstacles those alive couldn't go through.

Thank you, Kaede Sogen, he thinks as he turns to return to his shack to let Gabi and his mother hear the news about Liberio and the rest of Marley. Thank you.

-x-

Slam! A Yeagerist slams their hand on the desk in front of Historia and the other officials of Paradis in response to a new update.

"This is beyond ungrateful!" He yells to Historia. "The Dark Titan has begun rebuilding in Marley! In three nights, it built homes and gardens for the refugees of Liberio! This is disrespectful to everything that we stand for, Your Highness! This demands action!"

"The Dark Titan," Historia utters, but then reiterates, "Ms. Sogen…made her own decision to do for Marley what she's been doing for every other country maimed by the Rumbling. She owes us nothing in return for making her own choices that have absolutely nothing to do with us."

"Except the longer she continues to do as she pleases," went a supporter of the Yeagerists, "the longer it will convince the public that she has no loyalty left for Paradis."

"Her so-called loyalty to Paradis," went Kiyomi to them, "ended the day she severed her ties after learning that the people she loved were dead! The girl didn't give a damn about freedom or what any of you think about her or her actions! Hell, she could care less about any of us as a wandering ghost that still possesses the power of a Titan unaffiliated with the Nine Titans! I spoke with her, and she has no intention of ever mending relationships with either of us. How can anyone forgive the person or persons they hold responsible for the deaths of loved ones and driving you mad with grief that you kill yourself to keep from wanting to get revenge?"

"For some," says a representative for the civilian faction of Paradis, "it is impossible to forgive the people you blame for the deaths of people that didn't deserve to die. Why else would those from over ten years ago left with Ms. Sogen when she did? For some people, freedom doesn't mean anything if they have nobody to live for."

Historia sighs at hearing this, reminded that she herself was in the same boat as those of other people that caused bloodshed and pain unnecessarily.

"Regardless," the Yeagerist iterates, "we should have sole possession of the Dark Titan, even if it means we have to take it from some dead girl."

"Oh, really?" Kiyomi questions. "How are you going to do that?"

Even Historia wanted to know how the Yeagerists intended to take possession of the Dark Titan from Kaede, which meant taking on the ghost of a young woman that knew how to be menacing if provoked or threatened, who was doing nothing but what she chose to do for those less than fortunate as they were.

"With or without your authorization, Your Highness," the Yeagerist declares, "we're going to that town of defectors and digging up that traitor's grave for her spine."

-x-

Marley had seen and heard of what the Titans were capable of as weapons, but this was the first time the people had seen a Titan that was capable of construction and agricultural work, something none of the previous Titans had ever demonstrated before. It was unlike the violence they had been exposed to. This wasn't a living weapon of great fury. This was a being that chose benevolence over malevolence and, despite having a name that was negative, it was rather positive in its actions.

Liberio and three of its neighboring towns and cities had been turned from ruins into livable areas with patches of land to grow crops.

"…Is this a dream?" Gabi asks as she looks around a room that had only been built less than a night ago in a building that the Braun family was living in with other refugees. "It feels like a dream. It seems too good to be true."

"If it is a dream," Reiner's mother says as she sits in a basic chair beside a window, looking out at the streets and other buildings that had been built in the night, "please, don't wake me from it."

As Reiner sat down on the floor that felt like wood, but was made from sculpted Titan flesh, he smiles at how much the other people in Liberio must've felt when they saw Kaede's Titan building buildings and gardens for them. It wasn't a debt that they owed Paradis now. It was an un-payable debt that they owed Kaede Sogen, as she no longer had any ties to Paradis. If he could repay her with the lives the Yeagerists took from her, he would have paid it back in full.

His mother looks into the distance and sees the Dark Titan disappearing in the sunset.

It's been human nature to be afraid of the unknowns that thrive in the darkness, she believes, and this young lady has become an unknown that thrives in the darkness. No. She hasn't become an unknown in the darkness. She is the darkness. An incarnation of the night. For a long time, I saw the Eldians of Paradis as the monsters of our existence…and yet this girl…is more like a saint, even though she's no longer alive. I pray to any god that is listening to forgive her for her sins and absolve her of shame and grant her peace.

As she walked her lonely path in the night, in the dark, Kaede looks up at the moonlight. There was no denying that she felt an inner peace that was similar to what she once felt when she was alive, surrounded by her mother, her father, her stepfather, her friends…and Charlotte. She missed them dearly, hoping that once she had atoned for her suicide, she would see them again. She wouldn't even dare to wonder how much longer she had until she had atoned; the path to absolution was a long and trying road for even the most broken of damned souls.

The moon hangs around like a blade over my head, reminding me of what to do before and after I'm dead, she sings to herself. What to do before and after I'm to see you each of you…to touch each of you…to feel each of you…to tell each of you…how I feel when I'm with you.

There was still aways to go before the parts of the world were mended to the best of her abilities, but she was getting used to what she needed to do. She got to show the world her power, once viewed as a curse, but now one of her greatest strengths outside of her morality and considerable beauty afforded by her gray hair, and the people that hated and feared the Titans saw that she was not a violent being that revels in death and destruction…but a being that takes joy in creating something essential to one's life and progress. It made her feel like dancing.

To be continued…

A/N: There may be three chapters left to go in this before it ends, but the conclusion will be a surprise to everyone.