Creation began on 10-12-24

Creation ended on 10-15-24

Attack on Titan

Grausam Zanki, Condemned to be Redeemed: Fight back against Doom

By now, the whole of Paradis' outer and middle districts and villages of Walls Maria and Rose were aware of the Jaeger Titan Corps, meaning that it didn't bother certain people atop Wall Maria when they saw a dark-skinned Titan approaching the outer gate waving its hand at them or having a person or two on its shoulders; this meant that the Titan was a Jaeger Titan, an ally to combat the Titan infestation that had been mitigated to a substantial extent. And rarely, this was how Grausam was escorted back to Shiganshina District when he couldn't walk much. As the Jaeger Titan stops in front of the gate and kneels down to let off Grausam, the elderly man sighs as he holds his right knee, reconsidering the need for a cane.

"Alright," he utters, "I'm putting in for a cane. I need a cane."

"Why not just get a wheelchair?" A Survey Corps soldier recommends.

"Wheelchairs are for those that can't move one or either of their legs at all. I can still walk and support my weight, just not as much as I used to. A cane will help support my spine. Believe me, if you ever get to be my age, you'll come to see that a cane will be like your best friend when you need it to get around."

"I'm pretty sure if I ever live to be sixty, I'll be happy just to have lived a good life."

"Good meaning happy, I assume?"

"Exactly."

"That's a good ambition to have."

"Is that him?" Grausam hears a man say to someone close by, and turns back to the outer gate, seeing a man in a suit talking to a Garrison soldier, and the soldier points toward him, then the suit approaches him. "Grausam Zanki?"

"Yes?"

"I need your help."

This was a first for Grausam; normally, he was the one helping the Survey Corps, but never did anyone, inside or outside the branch, approach him with the request for his help. And he didn't know this man, so he wasn't sure what he could do to help him.

"Can you elaborate?" He asks him.

"I was told about you from one of the people you saved," the suit explains. "Dina?"

Now, Grausam knew who this man was upon hearing that name. This was Grisha Yeager, her husband. But why was he here to see him? What did he want his help with?

"How exactly may I help you?" He questions as they walk into the district.

"You were able to turn mindless Titans back into people again, is this true?" Grisha requests to know from him.

"Yes. It wasn't easy, but yes, I was able to turn them back. Why do you wish to know of this?"

"I need to know something hypothetical. Whatever it was that you did to return them to human form, can you do to save someone dying from a sickness that has no known cure to treat?"

"Like an unorthodox method?"

"Yes."

"Hypothetically, maybe it's possible. I would need to know what it is that afflicts the person dying. I'm not a doctor, just an old man with a specialty in chemistry."

"Chemistry is just one of the routes to medicine, and that will suffice for me."

Grausam tilted his head to the right and got suspicious about Grisha. Despite being asked a hypothetical question, he was starting to wonder if the hypothetical had some measure of reality mixed in. If so, then Grisha was beating around the bush instead of giving him a straight question in search of a straight answer.

"Tell me something," he decides to press. "The person that is dying…is you, isn't it?"

Grisha didn't say anything, but the way one of his eyes ticked made Grausam suspect that he was in the right neighborhood.

"I'm guessing you probably kept it quiet because you didn't want anyone to worry, but now you're looking for a solution…because you don't want to let anyone know until you really have to. Am I right so far?"

"Has anyone ever told you that you talk too much?"

"Just my father at one time, may God have mercy on him."

"I just want to know, hypothetically, if your method of returning Titans to human form can save a dying person?"

"Hypothetically, I would need to try."

"Where and when?"

"Come to my research tent outside Shiganshina tonight…and we'll see what we can do to help the person dying."

Grausam was starting to understand why people hated trying to promise things like saving someone's life. Sometimes, trying to save someone's life was a promise that couldn't be kept, whether it was because of a lack of resources or a lack of medical history…or just a lack of motivation in saving their life. But in this case, it was merely a lack of medical history; because of the hypotheticals and lack of understanding of whatever it was that ails Grisha Yeager, Grausam couldn't promise anything to the man, even to save his life. However, if he was going to attempt such a challenge, it was going to cost this man.

-x-

As he boarded the ship, Levi looks out at the ocean and wonders just what lies ahead of them all in this endeavor to end the conflict. He, Commander Smith, Hange and a handful of soldiers were coming alongside the Warriors of Marley and the ship's crew, but as a precaution, they decided not to say just how many of the soldiers were of the Jaeger Titan Corps. Among the best way to avoid conflict was to have a deterrent, this way nobody would dare risk provoking someone else. As the ship pulled away from the docks, he realizes that, in doing this, the Survey Corps was continuing its main task, which was to venture out into the world and record what they discover.

"This is exciting, isn't it?" Hange asks him.

"You and I find anything to be exciting very differently," he tells her.

-x-

In his research tent just outside and beside Wall Maria, Grausam, even with his limited equipment from the lab in Shiganshina, had ample means to generate more of his Jaeger Titan Serum, and often felt like he should be stockpiling more of his blood for later use. And as of lately, he felt his vision starting to become blurry, causing his head to hurt as he stains his eyes.

"Pride," he hears Grisha's voice say behind him, and he turns to see him standing outside his tent. "Everyone that has it feels that they're nothing without whatever it is that makes them feel greater than others."

At least from a distance, he recognizes the man…and sighs.

"As of lately, I am forced to accept that my pride may become my downfall if I try to pick up where I left off in the past…and I can't go through that again, as it would ruin the progress I've made already. So, I must accept that I am like everyone else at my age."

Grisha then utters, "The sickness I have is one that only nine random people get every thirteen years. If you know about the Titans, then you know about the Nine Titans…and what they do to their holders after thirteen years…don't you?"

"Yes. And I have to say, it's a shitty deal in every sense of the word. To have such power, a piece of power, and only for thirteen years…is an unfair thing to force on anyone, and it doesn't matter if the person forced to bear it is thirteen years old, twenty-five years old…or even a newborn forced to become a monster that has no conscience. So…which one are you?"

"The Attack Titan. The only one of the Nine Titans that refuses to obey anyone in favor of freedom. However, ever since I found out about it and got possession, I've rarely used it…and have feared what it could do if placed in the hands of someone that may be…incapable of any basic humanity or empathy."

"Basically, the Attack Titan is a power that comes with bad karma attached?"

"More or less."

Grausam stands up from his bench, grateful that he has a cane nearby to aid him, and approaches Grisha and finds that they are nearly the same height…if Grausam wasn't a little hunched over.

"How long do you have left?" He asks Grisha.

"Less than a year," Grisha answers.

"Well, then…we have less than a year to save your life…and I need to know as much about you as possible to find the right solution."

"Well…the doctor that is not a doctor is in."

"I guess a little humor is in order. The patient has been diagnosed with a life-threatening illness. To understand the illness and treat it, we have to learn what the patient has gone through and find the right route to treat the illness and save the patient's life. The illness is comparable to doom, and treating it is comparable to fighting back against it."

Grisha wasn't sure how this counted as humor, but he suspects that he has had very little need for humor in his past.

"Laughter is the best medicine, but I'm no good at making people laugh," Grausam explains.

To be continued…

A/N: Well, I have to say that this is another case where I made a former antagonist come to accept one of the most inescapable aspects of all existence, which is their own mortality. When he accepted that he needed a cane just to walk, that alone made him more human in that moment. And now, comes the poll that will decide what happens later: Should Grausam save Grisha by turning him into a Jaeger Titan? I'll let you decide.