Creation began on 07-23-24
Creation ended on 08-02-24
Attack on Titan
The Dark Titan: Desperate Onslaught
Reconstruction projects of any kind anywhere often required time, resources, and manpower, just to repair damaged or destroyed areas. And most often took months, years or decades to complete. But the Dark Titan, relying solely on its only holder's memory of basic building structures, its own sculpting methods, and the ability to generate additional Titan flesh to produce the materials needed to make sturdy and durable structures…was able to turn ruins into operable towns and cities, a veritable miracle in and of itself…in less than five months. This alone was capable of causing people to feel a semblance of relief from the stress of what the Rumbling that shattered many lives in less than a week had caused.
But in the process of rebuilding the ruined homes for the people of the ravaged world, Kaede Sogen, even as a wandering ghost, has become a symbol of disgust with the Yeagerists and their supporters, along with the people of Hizuru for outright ignoring them. In their eyes and collective mindset, she had inadvertently made it easier for the people of the world to plan reprisals against Paradis sooner rather than later. But in all honesty, she could care less about what the people left on Paradis Island thought of her and her actions; in her mind, the use of the Rumbling was wrong…and the power she was using to make up for some of the wrongs committed was the right thing to do. Whoever possessed the power to make some wrongs right had the right to choose where, when, how…and why such power would be used.
"…If they start gathering their bearings," said a male Yeagerist on a boat heading towards Hizuru, to his comrades, "they could begin planning a strike in a matter of days or weeks."
"This is all that dead girl's fault," another male Yeagerist says. "She was supposed to be on our side, and instead of helping us to defend Paradis, she chooses to go and do something completely reckless…all because she felt guilty for what Eren Yeager did."
"He set us free from the hatred of the world," utters a female Yeagerist, "and she refuses to see it that way. What is her problem with the way things were before she decided to rise from her stupid grave?"
"Kaede Sogen of the Dark Titan. Girl with gray hair whose Titan was eighteen meters in height, making it bigger than the seventeen-meter Beast Titan…and dark in color. Long hair that covered its body like a dress. I think its feminine appearance made it attractive to look at."
"I don't know what is worse," the female Yeagerist says, "that a Titan like this exists…or that a girl like this had possession of it and wouldn't use it to aid us in our struggles against the world. She was a weak girl with little ambitions and no drive to fight."
"And she was once friends with the queen?" The older male Yeagerist questions. "I guess the saying's true: Nothing lasts forever."
-x-
It probably only felt right to the people that lived here to name the town after the person that made it feel like a place to call home after the recent months of further adjustments in the way the world had been made and remade. As she stood in front on the small path leading to the small town in the night, Kaede Sogen saw the large sign that bore her name to the eyes of any that saw it. The sign was simple, made of wood with the name carved into the planks affixed to each other. It confused her a little; why would they do this? Why would anyone do this?
Crossing the threshold into the little community that appears asleep, Kaede walks down the road her Titan had carved and paved with its bare hands as she makes her way to the Dark Tree. Everywhere she turns on the road, it was quiet, like the whole town was asleep. She knows a chill is in the air, but she couldn't feel it as it sweeps past her body. The shrine dedicated to her memory was within her perception, and she could see someone standing in front of it, and she slowly approaches.
"Excuse me," she utters, and the person turns around to face her, revealing that it was Carla, draped in a blue shawl over her pale dress.
"You're back," Carla greets with a smile.
"Yes," Kaede replies. "I saw the sign on my way in. Why?"
"Because…you're the only person that has really made this former shantytown feel like it has any worth to the people who live here. After you died, we had nowhere to go…and nobody willing to tolerate us because we were defectors. And then, you came back, even though it's only for a time, and you did what only Ymir Fritz was said to have done…only you did better than what those with the power of the Titans ever did after her death. You gave the people buildings to live in. You gave them land that can support the growth of crops. You gave us a place where we can actually live on our terms. You gave us a home to call our own, so it's because of you that we name this place after the one that gave us hope to live again. Real hope. Thank you, Kaede Sogen. Thank you."
She was moved by what Carla had told her. Everyone that followed her when she chose to abandon Paradis had dedicated this town to her memory. For as long as she dared to think about it after making her last decision in life, that her mark on the world would be nothing more than her position as a Titan Shifter, a monster that some people claim could pretend to be like everyone else, or what others could make up whatever they wanted to about her because she was no longer around to say otherwise. But here she was, dead and damned to walk the in between until her soul was redeemed…and proven wrong by someone that didn't see her as a monster pretending to be like everyone else. Her mark on the world…had been far greater and more beneficial to those than what she originally believed herself to be capable of leaving.
"In the words of a young lady I knew from a distance," she utters to Carla, "if you can make people smile, make people smile, but if you can make them laugh, then do so without hurting them as you play around."
Carla's eyes widen in response to hearing her say that. Those were words that she had spoken only once. It was a surprise that Kaede remembers them in such detail. It made her hope that she would eventually get out of the damned state she was forced to dwell in. At least then, she would be the only one that actually deserved peace and didn't cross lines between the forgivable and unforgivable in order to obtain it.
"Your mother was right when she said that you were special beyond what we all saw," she tells Kaede. "You're still special, even in this moment."
Kaede bows to Carla.
-x-
"…If anything," Kiyomi says to the Yeagerists present on the pier, "everyone elsewhere is just enjoying the gifts the late…and great Kaede Sogen has given them. Most were impressed by a Titan that only creates rather than destroys."
"And has anyone from other countries come here?" The female Yeagerist asks her.
"We haven't had any visitors from anyone except the Yeagerists for ten years. The only other visit we got from anyone else in recent history was from Kaede herself, and she was just waiting for the sun to go down before she could move again."
"We're going to that pathetic town the traitors built," one of the male Yeagerists says, "and we're going to take the Dark Titan from them by force."
"Are you sure that's even a good idea?" Kiyomi questions.
"We're not afraid of some dead girl."
"If I were you, I would be afraid of her. You don't know what she's truly capable of if provoked. And from what was mentioned about her over a decade ago, she was not someone to be taken lightly. She was not someone to underestimate under any circumstance."
"Well, that was then, and this is now. She's still a Titan, and Titans are vulnerable in their napes."
If only they knew that the Sogen girl was different from other people that possessed Titan powers, as hers were a unique power that made her stand out in many ways.
-x-
It was only to ensure the people that lived in the town of Kaede were protected from unwanted intruders, but Kaede was one to be creative when it came to making constructs. It was a large ring of honeycomb-like crystal that surrounded the community, the mountain, and the Dark Tree that grew where she buried herself alive. While not fifty meters in height like the Walls of Paradis, a wall that was fifteen meters in height, see-through, and deceptively creative was a wall that the people of Kaede were willing to accept because it was another gift from the young woman that inspired them to live again.
"Marie?" Carla says to the young girl that was standing on the roof of their home. "What are you doing out here so late at night?"
"I just wanted to see Ms. Sogen's Dark Titan dance," the girl tells her mother, and Carla looks in the distance, towards the open space where the Dark Tree stood, seeing the eighteen-meter Titan under the branches by the trunk, moving around.
"Y'all, too?" Carla looks to her left, seeing a man on another roof with a woman. "She's very good to watch."
It was rarity to see a Titan do anything other than walk around and be destructive, but the Dark Titan…was a different rarity because it was a Titan that looked more like a dancer than a fighter. The way that it moved its arms and legs, the way it swayed its hips, every time it threw itself into the air and landed gracefully onto the ground, not even shaking the ground. Most were uncertain of what type of dancer the Dark Titan could be identified as, as there were many forms of dance, and it seemed to incorporate several, based on Kaede Sogen's own interest in dancing, as she had once observed others dancing and picked up on it. And then, the Dark Titan performed a move that was inhumanly possible: It bent backwards almost to the ground…while still standing on its legs…and rose back up, extending its arms out on either side.
"Amazing," Carla utters, and then watches as the Titan performs a handstand on its right hand, crossing its legs while its left hand holds the outer leg, securing its position, for ten seconds, as it then fell to the ground…and sat perfectly against the Dark Tree.
"She was beautiful," Marie expresses.
"Yes," Carla agrees, "she was very beautiful."
-x-
"You, too?" Armin asks as he sees Connie and Jean as they were by the dockyards of Paradis, dressed in casual clothing.
"Yeah," Jean expresses. "I don't care what Eren believed. I'm done with it. It's not even changing the way people across the world feel towards Paradis. The ambassador thing is not for me. I had different ambitions. Not this. I'm making plans to leave Paradis. I don't intend to continue living here."
"Same here," went Connie, surprising Armin. "What? My mother's lost faith in Historia…and I don't blame her for losing faith. For the last three months, all we've been hearing about is 'Kaede Sogen' this and 'Kaede Sogen' that, 'the Dark Titan' this and 'the Dark Titan' that from people. Yeah, Kaede used her Dark Titan to go out there and rebuild most of society to the best of her ability, and all she's been getting from this island is bad lip because she won't do for here or Hizuru what she did for everywhere else. Why should it even matter, anyway? She had the right to deny us her good work whenever she chose."
"There's a saying for how the angry people feel," Jean says, "and it's called the kettle calling the pot black."
"What?" Armin and Connie question.
"Put quite simply…the people upset with Ms. Sogen's ghost…are jealous of the fact that she's acting on her own interests and not representing theirs like she used to. Not that she really can, anymore. I mean, she's dead. The dead can't truly represent the living people's interests without the people twisting their ideals and truths into something else entirely. But Ms. Sogen… If she feels the people of the world that had nothing to do with Paradis' issues deserve better, then that's her belief to own. If she wants to try and give back some of what the Rumbling took away, that's her choice to make. Nobody can tell her what to do, anymore. You can't control the dead or the damned. It's all a matter of choice."
"Yeah, it is," Armin agrees with him, but mainly on the aspect of choice.
Nobody had to murder Kaede's parents or friends…but the ones that did so chose to, and it carried repercussions. Nobody had to believe that Kaede would abandon Paradis after she learned of the betrayal committed by Historia…but when she did abandon, that was also a choice, and it was the lesser of two evils, with the major being a path of vengeance. It made Armin think a lot about Kaede's reasonings for doing what she did, and why, no matter what any of them thought or did, no amount of atonement would make up for the lives taken, before or during the Rumbling. And why, no matter what any of them could or would say or do…Kaede would not forgive Historia or Eren for what they did to her.
"Has anything changed?" He asks Jean. "Has anything really changed?"
"Other than most young people behaving like Eren did, nobody seems interested in wanting to talk with anyone about peace treaties or socialism. Most people prefer to want nothing to do with Paradis or Hizuru. There's no talk about any threat of reprisals toward the island, either; nobody wants anything to do with Paradis. Oh, and the town that was built around Ms. Sogen's burial site was named after her by the people that live there."
"Now, that is something to actually be proud of," Connie says. "People name parks or buildings after certain individuals, but to designate an entire town after someone for something only they could do…is altogether a remarkable achievement, even if it's posthumous and the person is walking from beyond the grave."
"Well, Kaede's been active since her ghost appeared."
Armin has to agree with Jean on that. An active specter is a specter on the job with nothing else to do except what they were doing.
-x-
Since the wall surrounded the whole town, some people often volunteered to stand watch for several hours a day in case uninvited guests came by, and Ymir was among the sentries that were present during the noon period, walking along the top of the wall on the look for any sign of trouble. There was still an hour to go before her shift ended, but the sun had gone down, and beside the interior of the wall appeared the Dark Titan, following her like a shadow. It raised its right arm up to rest it in front of the freckle-faced woman…and stepping off its appendage was the ghost Kaede.
"You look like you have something on your mind," Kaede says to her as her Titan takes its hand away. "Need someone to talk to?"
"It's kind of hard to talk if you don't know what to say," Ymir replies.
"Say what's on your mind. Say what you mean."
"I don't think Paradis is going to ignore that you ignored them."
"And by 'Paradis', do you mean the whole island or just the Yeagerists?"
"The Yeagerists…and their supporters. You're the only person left with Titan powers, and they think, since you originated from Paradis, that they have a right to the Dark Titan and its abilities. I know that they can never take it away, but that doesn't mean they won't try to so long as they think they can. What will you do about them?"
Kaede sighs and responds, "Let them try to take what will never be theirs…and was never theirs to begin with. What was never to be obtained in life will not be obtained, even in death."
"You sound confident in that."
"Can the living really take from the dead what they didn't try to take away when they were alive? Have you known anyone to have lost something personal before dying at someone else's hands? The Dark Titan is not mine or anyone else's to simply give away."
"Because it was given to you by your step-grandfather, it can't be taken away?"
"That's right. The Dark Titan is the only thing from that man I can really consider a gift. It's mine. Only mine. You can't put a price tag on it…and no form of currency can be used to exchange for it."
Ymir looks over at the land past the wall, pondering her other train of thought.
"Is it alright if I ask you something different, Ymir?" Kaede asks her, and the other woman turns back to face her. "It's none of my business, whatsoever, but do you ever intend to go back to that island and see her again?"
"Why would you ask if I was ever going to do that?"
"Because you still pine for her. Even after all these years, I can tell that you still carry a torch for her. I may not care for whatever it is that she does, but I still care about the possibilities of romantic relationships. The heart will forever want what it forever desires."
Ymir was a little bothered by Kaede, despite being dead and all, dispensing advice on romantic matters. It wasn't something that she thought of much of the time, despite her personal feelings toward Historia, as she was sure she had waited too long to decide to go back to Paradis and see her again. The girl she loved had probably moved on from her and settled down with someone else in her life, with a family."
"I'm probably too late to change anything," she tells Kaede. "She's probably moved on after all these years. She's the queen, after all. She probably has dozens of suitors."
"But do any of them truly love her? Do they love her for who she is, not what she is? Would it matter to any of them if she never had the throne, if she was just a regular person among the rest, and still pursue her in the long run?" Kaede responds, sounding like she still sees the world through the eyes of one that has hope and wasn't a realist to any extreme. "You tell me."
"You sound like you still see us together."
"I can't see the future. I can't see any future. I'm just a… I was someone that believed in possibilities, in joyful times."
"Was? Aren't you still? Don't you still believe in any of it?"
Kaede raises her right hand up to her chest…and sighs.
"My beliefs are…not for everyone," she utters. "Who would embrace what I believed in?"
"You…you're talking to one," Ymir says, which surprises herself to hear her say. "Yeah… I used to think that your beliefs were childish and outlandish, but I had a rough childhood to the point where I forgot my real name. But after you became known to the people because of what you were capable of and how in control you were of yourself, you made me see a different kind of life that was possible with hope. You're like this dream that some people didn't want to wake up from. My decades as a Titan were an endless nightmare that I woke up from…and I'm glad I woke up from it in time to meet all of you."
Kaede smiles and feels mildly elated to hear this from Ymir. The way she was still able to feel for people was among the few things she retained in her damned state.
Wake up, she hears a voice utter, almost as though it were behind her. Please, wake up.
She turns to see if someone was behind them, but she sees nobody around.
"Uh, Ymir," she speaks, "did you hear anyone else talking just a second ago?"
"No," Ymir answers her. "Why?"
Wake up, Kaede, she hears the voice again, sounding like that of her mother.
"I think I'm hearing voices now," she expresses.
"Good or bad?"
"I don't know. The voice I was hearing…was saying for me to…wake up."
"Wake up? That doesn't make any sense. I mean, you're dead, so it's impossible to wake up…and you're here…and talking to me. That's as awake as you can get right now."
-x-
"…Hold on," a female Yeagerist utters in the shadows, using a pair of binoculars, seeing the town they were aiming towards. "That thing wasn't there the first time we were here."
"It's not in the old reconnaissance report," a male Yeagerist adds in. "It looks like a wall, but it's almost see-through, like it's made of diamond or something."
"No doubt another creation of the Dark Titan," another female Yeagerist suspects. "That creature rebuilt society, and now it can rebuild our forces to defend Paradis from reprisal."
"This town has a name: Kaede Sogen. The defectors named their new home after a traitor?!"
"A traitor to Paradis and to the cause!"
"We're taking away all that they cherish, the traitors!"
Before the large number of young soldiers could advance towards the enclosed town, they saw a young woman step out in front of them.
"Gray hair," one of them utters. "Kaede Sogen. You knew we were coming back."
"No," the girl responds. "I was informed by a helpful resident of the town of Kaede Sogen that saw you before you made yourselves known. Why have you come back here? Was I not clear about the mercy you received the first and only time we met over five months ago?"
"Do you have any idea of what you have done?!" A different male Yeagerist yells at her. "You used the Dark Titan to return the world back to a functional state! You've condemned Paradis to the threat of reprisal from the people that will seek our deaths! We need the Dark Titan to help protect our island from the enemy that is the world! Hand it over!"
Kaede frowns as a darkness rises from behind her.
"Does that woman even know you're here making trouble again?" She asks them.
"You're the one who's trouble, endangering Paradis!" Another female Yeagerist says. "It's no wonder that the Survey Corps failed because of their dependence upon scum like you! You can't dedicate your heart to anything!"
"I dedicated my heart to the people who gave me the will to live," Kaede tells these young people that knew nothing about her. "I dedicated the power I once thought to be a curse to making sure that they had a future where they could be happy! But your predecessors were misguided youths that believed in a man that was unworthy of the people he betrayed. And the people I loved were taken from me by the people that falsely believed that I was with them when I was never on any side that believed in violence! And it's not mine to give…or yours to take! The Dark Titan is mine, then, now and always. You want it? You can go to Hell before you go back to Paradis, crippled and beaten, in body and soul. This town is not for you, and you are not welcome here."
The Dark Titan appeared behind Kaede, looking down at the Yeagerists, with an expression that could only be summed up in three words: Mad as Hell.
"This is your only warning," Kaede tells them. "Leave here peacefully…or you'll be made to leave…in as few pieces as possible. I don't believe in resolving disputes with violence, but if you persist, you'll leave me with no other choice. Decide now."
"We're not leaving without that Titan," one of the women states. "It's the property of Paradis Island and the Yeagerists. If necessary, we'll take it back by force. Dedicate your hearts!"
Kaede sighs and shakes her head in disbelief over their foolishness.
"Just remember something as you go down screaming for mercy," she utters to them. "I gave you a chance to walk away. It's your own fault for choosing not to."
To be continued…
A/N: There is more to this story than you can expect. But can you guess what is to be expected when all is said and done? As for the reconstruction efforts taken by Kaede and the Dark Titan taking five months to accomplish, that's because there needed to be careful refinement of the buildings and paved roads and lands used for agriculture; it's not enough to build good as it is to do it all carefully, and Kaede's recollection of buildings have to be precise, something not promised by those that don't have the means to return what was taken. Anyway, onto the next chapter that will progress the story to its surprising conclusion.
