God of Hate
Disclaimer: I do NOT own Godzilla or Attack on Titan
A rumble went through the building as the cadets busied themselves with filling their gas tanks, some giving uneasy or grinning faces at the sounds of a destructive battle that was hopefully going in the favor of their golden savior.
"So, should we be at all worried about Trips?" Connie asked curiously. "As helpful as that roar was, it sounded kind of bad."
"Don't you know the rule? Don't name it, you'll get too attached!" Jean scolded, just a tad annoyed by the overeager desire to call that creature an ally of humanity. He was a pessimist, after all. Why would something like that have any care or regard for humans?
"Hehe, I don't think we'll have to worry about that," Sasha said with a strained grin.
"Hmm? Do you know something about this, Sasha?" Reiner asked with a raised eyebrow.
"About giant golden reptiles? No, no I do not. But I do know roars," Sasha assured, confident yet uneasy. "I know death-throes roars. I know mating roars. I know roars of animals fighting over a mate. I even know roars of wolf pups trying to imitate their parents."
"There is a story to some of those," Connie observed. "And I...don't want to know."
"And what kind of roar was this?" Mikasa questioned.
"You look a bit nervous," Armin pointed out, listing intently.
"Oh, it's just, that roar? That was basically one massive "I Hate You!" to all the Titans," Sasha explained, scratching her cheek. "Last thing you want being what something like that hates."
End of Flashback
'If that's true, then anger isn't enough. So what triggered it last time?' Armin thought with a determined look as he stared up at the massive golden creature. 'This thing hates Titans, but that isn't just it, is it?' Armin's thought ran back to Eren's death, and further back to hearing Eren's account of his mother being eaten. 'That's right. It's intelligent. It has emotions. And for intelligent creatures, what we hate more than people or Titans are their actions. And this thing has been trying to save humans lives, so...'
"Is that Armin?!" Connie called over the wind, seeing his blonde friend glaring up at the green eyed beast.
"What is he thinking now?" Ymir grunted in annoyance.
Mikasa, slaying another Titan, merely watched Armin with mild concern. She was sure he had a plan, Armin always did. But with so many Titans around, it was hard not to worry.
"You...you get it, right?!" Armin called out, forcing his voice to sound like it was trembling in anger. "The road was never going to break!"
"The fuck is he yelling about?" Jean muttered with a scowl, dodging out of a grasp of a fifteen meter.
And noticing that every muscle and scale on their new "ally" was tense, coiling all over as it stared intently at Armin.
"There was never any risk of it collapsing under the boulder!" Armin continued to spit rage forth from his mouth as the dragon's form before to tremble, beginning to bare its mighty teeth.
"Umm, guys?! I don't know what Armin's trying to do, but I think Trips is getting pissed!" Sasha pointed out in worry.
"No, what gave it away, that murder glare it's giving Armin or the snarling fangs that are bigger than our swords?!" Ymir yelled.
"Cadet Arlert! Whatever you're doing, cease and move away from the creature!" Rico yelled, glaring at the pack of Titans beginning to build up in front of the bolder.
"Everyone, right now, is dying trying to help you, to protect you!" Armin continued breathing hard from the yelling and trying to sell the act.
"Armin! We get it you're pissed, but knock it off before it knocks you out of Rose!" Connie called urgently.
"Cadet, that's an order!" Rico called, using her gear to head to his location.
"Trying to clean up your mess because you couldn't wait another damn min-!" Armin froze as Rico landed next to him.
But not from her arrival.
Now, they were both staring up with growing dread and fear as they heard a new, different noise.
A rattling noise.
The twin tails of the gold beast shook like a snake's, the spikes beating against each other and the center point of the tail. His green eyes were dilated in unholy rage, his entire body and all three heads reared up to accent the intimidation factor.
But the important thing everyone noticed, was that every Titan in the immediate area stopped whatever they were doing and looked in the direction of the noise.
"Cadet Arlert...?" Rico whispered, as the reptile inhaled suddenly.
"EVERYONE! COVER YOUR EARS!" Armin screamed out to the battlefield.
It was just in time.
All three heads looked towards the sky and from their mouths came a long, screeching, screaming roar. It was like a thunder that would not end, creeping further and further past the pitiful barriers of their hands and seeking to destroy their eardrums. THe roar of each head echoing and amplifying the other two.
But to the stupefied amazement of every soldier, the Titans all appeared to scream in pain as they grasped their own ears. Blood and steam gushed from the auditory holes, the Titans nearly collapsing as they fell to their knees.
The stunned silence lasted only a second before the three headed beast charged the Titans at its back.
It was like a frenzied animal, a spinning mess of death and blood as giant body parts flew all about.
And Mikasa was right in the fray with him, slaying a titan even as the creature tore away the neck of one next to her.
Without further prompting, all the soldiers took advantage of the momentary weakness in the Titans, to kill as many as they could before they recovered from the roar.
For once, when the streets ran red, it was with the steaming blood of Titans instead of humans.
[[[That was crazy! He doesn't even know who we are!]]]
[KILL!KILL!KILL!KILL!KILL!]
[[Well played, Armin, well played.]]
Eins, Zwei, and Drei were unanimously pissed to say the least. Drei knew that Armin might have been lying for a reaction, this exact reaction, but the possibility that it was true, that these people died because he was an idiot...!
They spun around, their tails ripping through the front of three, four buildings as their foot came down on the head of a four meter Titan. With a snarl, they raced forward once more, slamming into the boulder once more. Several humans made quick escapes from their attempts to kill the Titans in front of the rock, before said rock nearly squished them along with the Titans themselves.
"Okay, I'll admit, that was a great idea," Connie said loudly in amazement, over the ringing in his ears as he bore witness to the greatest turnabout he could have ever dreamed of: Titans dropping like flies, to humans.
"Cadet, that was beyond reckless," Rico remarked through gritted teeth as she rubbed her ears. "But also brilliant. You might have just saved us half the casualties with that stunt."
"Thank you, Ma'am," Armin remarked warily, watching as the golden dragon pushed onward with its cargo, for lack of a better word. Soldiers were flying around it in an attempt to keep it safe and let it focus on its mission.
And none more so than Mikasa, bringing down a fifteen meter Titan just in time for the corpse to be crushed beneath the rolling stone. 'Whatever you are, you truly hate Titans,' Mikasa thought as she flew through the air, watching as each head pushed the boulder along with a steadfast determination. 'Humans have never seen something like you. But Titans try to kill and eat you just like us. Perhaps we're the same, you and humans,' She thought, coming down to kill a ten meter Titan on a roof, watching as the golden scales passed, catching a glimpse at the focused yet wrathful green eyes. 'Perhaps you're even the same as me. Your kind nearly wiped out by them and now you're here, fighting them...and protecting us. Why? Is it to spite the Titans? Or maybe you understand the concept of the Enemy of my Enemy is my Friend? Or maybe you just have more sympathy than most humans,' she wondered before changing her current blades for new ones. 'Whatever the case, Eren would have loved to have seen you...' she thought, focusing on the battle at hand, and the scarf on her neck.
Pixis watched from atop Rose, giving orders as reports came in. Things were turning out better than he expected with the rush job on sending everyone out to make the situation more manageable. While the beast rushing the plan had made everything more dangerous for those protecting the golden reptile, it made things easier for the other teams.
The force dedicating to distracting the Titans, luring them to the walls had low casualties due to the low amount of Titans already near the walls, who they might otherwise accidentally stumble upon while leading another Titan to the wall.
The soldiers trimming away at the Titans still heading for the creature were less lucky, but lucky all the same: many of them were able to get sneak attacks on the distracted giants before being noticed. But that was balanced against the Titans that did notice them often being in groups.
Then the soldiers in the frying pan, the ones sent in to give their all to distract and/or kill the Titans closest to their new ally as the dragon moved the boulder. He sent in some of the best they had; of the veterans, the soldiers and even the new recruits.
And now this roar...it made him frown grimly. He couldn't see the perfectly situation from here, but he could see the golden shape trudging along in the distance. It was hard not to notice that. The lack of smoke signal meant either that the operation was proceeding still...or there was no one left to report the failure. But until that golden beast collapsed, he'd consider this entire gamble still had a chance.
Besides, there was a lot of Titan steam rising from the area. That was a good sign as far as he was concerned.
Meanwhile
"Did you feel that?" Bertolt asked nervously as they watched the event from a faraway rooftop, the strange beast pushing the boulder onward.
"That pulse, like I was almost forced to transform, and that my ears feel like they're about to start bleeding?" Reiner asked rhetorically with gritted teeth of pain.
"I was hoping I imagined that," Annie said with a pale complexion on her fraying calm expression, eyes trembling. "What is that thing? That can't be one of the Nine."
"The devils must have found a way to make a new kind of Titan with the Coordinates," Reiner said with a grimace. "Dammit, at this rate, I'll have to use my Titan-"
"Shut up!" Annie hissed in alarm. "Are you insane, talking about that so openly?!"
Reiner looked ready to snap before stopping, eyes wide for a second. "Yeah, what was I thinking...?" he asked distantly, getting a worried look from Bertolt before he snapped out of it. "Still, we need to stop that thing."
"Reiner, I know it's not the mission, but...if that is some kind of shifter?" Bertolt started with an uncertain look. "Should we just take whoever is inside back with us? Finally go home?"
Annie scowled. "Assuming that thing even is human inside, would they accept that kind of consolation back home?"
"Y-yeah, but this is...a pretty big development, something they have no idea about," Bertolt reasoned.
Annie scowled, unconvinced but seeing the point. "...Is it possible it's the Coordinate, forcing itself into a very bizarre Beast-variant?" she wondered with a scowl. "It does have a roar, almost like a scream..."
Reiner went wide eyed at the connection, before his eyes hardened. "Something doesn't make sense. Why now, not five years ago? Why stun them instead of control them?" Reiner mused, shaking his head.
"And if we leave now, and we're wrong, our covers will be blown," Bertolt admitted, despite his own feelings on the matter.
"For now, we stay the course; find out how this thing was made if we can. If there are more," Reiner said grimly. "Annie-"
"Hey! What are you three doing?!"
The trio of infiltrators turned in alarm to see Kitz Woermann staring at them.
"Captain," they all greeted on instinct, even if they were all tense and rigid.
"What are you yammering about in the middle of a battle?! Are you three trying to hide on the side lines and avoid your duties?!" he demanded with his usual haunted look tinged in anger.
"No, Sir," Annie answered calmly, pointing to Bertolt. "Our friend here was disoriented from the roar. We got him away to recover and rejoin the fight."
"R-right, I didn't cover my ears in time, Captain," Bertolt agreed.
"I don't care for your excuses! Just get back out there and keep the Titans off that thing," Kitz ordered before giving them a stiff nod. "As you were, Cadets."
"Sir."
All three stood there, motionless with very vacant eyes, sharing an uneasy look...
Meanwhile
Eins, Zwei, and Drei could feel their muscles burning now as they kept pushing on. They were tired…which was strange to Zwei's mind. They had been in pain and frustrated, but they still had energy to spare up until a few minutes ago.
[[[Roaring too much makes us tired?]]]]
[That kind of roar, apparently.]
[[We only use that once a day from now on.]]
[[[[Agreed.]]]]
"Come on, Trips! Last corner! You're on the home stretch!" Sasha called encouragingly, narrowly dodging across the roof to escape the reach of a fifteen meter Titan.
Everything went slow for her as she realized there was now a ten meter Titan directly below her, just over the edge of the roof. She could feel her death approaching, horror building at the sight of the mouth opening and knowing she wouldn't be able to maneuver away in time...
Until a golden blur of scales and fangs rushed in, knocking her back onto the roof. Sasha stared up in awe, seeing one of the heads had shot over from the other side of the building, snapping its jaw down on the Titan.
And it was staring rather intently at her…glaring, more like. It was a rather creepily familiar. Still...
"Thank you! You're amazing, Trips!" Sasha cried out in tears of joy, flying off before she got attacked again.
[[[[Same old Potato.]]]]
The three heads shared some fond annoyance over that exchange before finally pushing the boulder on, making sure to slam their tails down on any Titan they flattened under the boulder, by some strange chance they managed to regenerate even from that.
They were mere blocks away now.
But Zwei was still troubled. There was still no Armored Titan.
[[How do they vanish like this, or appear?]]
[[[We turned into this.]]]
[Could a Titan turn into a variant like that?]
It would explain a few things. They knew the Armored Titan vanished years ago, but were too far away to make out what exactly happened. And the Colossal today? If it turned back into a regular Titan and ran inside the hole...no, something about that didn't make sense. Something tugging from the gaps in their memories, something said it would have been noticed.
Something didn't add up. Zwei knew Armin was the smarts of the group, but Zwei's head was almost the sum total of the intellect of whoever they were, all but unhindered by rage or emotions. Thinking was his purpose. And his thoughts were painting a very uncomfortable puzzle that he just didn't have all the pieces to yet.
So, the question remained: Where was the armored titan?
"Hey, Armin?" Connie called as they hung on the wall for a second to survey the situation- and distracting three Titans below them, fruitlessly trying to claw towards their higher position. "How the hell is Trips going to lodge that rock in there hard enough with Titans trying to get through?" he asked in bewilderment
"...I think I know," Armin said under his breath, recalling how the boulder got loose in the first place.
"Everyone! Be careful attacking Titans around the boulder!" Rico called as the three headed beast pushed the rock towards the hole. "One miscalculation and you will be crushed!"
"Yeah, no kidding!" Jean grunted, taking out a Titan trying to climb on top of the boulder even as its feet were being crushed. He made eye contact with the scaled giant. Getting a nod from those intelligent eyes was somehow more terrifying than any Titan he had seen, but also relieving, paradoxically. 'Still...why do those eyes feel so familiar?'
Eins, Zwei, and Drei had slowed only because of the Titans getting in the way again, but they were begrudgingly grateful this time around. In the midst of everything, they had almost forgotten about the double-moats surrounding the gate, forming two semi-circles.
[[[It's too big to fall down there.]]]
[[But just small enough to get stuck if it slides into the side.]]
[We might break it, trying to get the boulder out.]
[[[[Then we won't let it slip!]]]]
Thankfully, the stream of Titans had died down, allowing them to be more careful as they marched forward. Zwei and Eins were both very skeptical about the bridges holding them, but were pleasantly surprised as they did.
Drei, however, was too busy tossing a four meter down into the deep ditch as they passed, hoping it would stay there until someone, anyone killed it.
The trio of heads sagged a little as they finally placed the rock against the hole, but didn't truly relax.
"Yahoo! He did it!" Sasha cheered.
Rico narrowed her eyes, not quite ready to give the signal for success yet.
"Is it over?" Mikasa asked with a scowl, knowing there were more Titans in Trost, but something about this scenario didn't feel like it was complete.
The golden beast narrowed their six eyes as they heard the Titans beginning to build up on the other side. Keeping their weight off it, they could feel the slight nudging the Titans caused. It wouldn't be easy or quick but the Titans could indeed break through again, their sheer numbers pushing the rock aside.
[Not my side this time, dammit.]
[[[Fine by me.]]]
[[We're not doing it that hard either way.]]
They ran.
"Is it running away? Or just going after more Titans?" Krista asked in concern as they flew by the side of the wall, watching the golden beast run away from the boulder.
"I don't think so," Ymir remarked with a scowl, her doubts confirmed as the beast jumped onto a ten-meter Titan, just at the edge of the nearest buildings and came to a halt.
The eyes of Eins gleamed with angry determination, the mouth on Drei quirked into victorious delight and Zwei stared with a stony expression.
They bolted forward.
"Yeah!"
"Go for it!"
"You got this, Big Guy!"
The cries of the humans fell on deaf ears, their minds fixated solely and only on the boulder.
Hit the rock too soft and it was pointless.
Hit it too hard and it might start to break.
The first was undesirable, the second unacceptable.
They couldn't get to full speed at this distance and that was the point.
With a great lurch and a spin to their left, they made impact with the boulder, unleashing a great crashing sound as the boulder was slammed hard into the gap.
The very wall rumbled from the force, and there was a short silence from all unengaged soldiers until...
Everyone started to cheer. Rico sagged in relief, giving the signal for a mission success. The three heads arched back to let out of a roar of triumph.
It was short lived, almost dying in their throats.
"KRISTA!"
Everyone looked up in shock, to see a blond figure falling from the sky, like a bird with broken wings, with another soldier trying to fly down after her.
Krista gritted her teeth in fear. Her line had come loose from the vibrations of the impact with the boulder and it refused to fire again. She fired her other line and almost felt the urge to curse as it bounced off the surface from an improper hit.
Ymir was rushing down towards her, but wouldn't reach her in time. No one was closer, having had to avoid their giant ally at the end to not get crushed.
They had won, and she was about to die. Not even to a Titan, but something as stupid as this. It felt like the world was spitting at her, mocking her for daring to try and be anything at all...
Still, it was nice to know that she was important to someone, if Ymir's frantic look was anything to go back. Maybe...maybe she'd live long enough after she hit the ground to tell Ymir her true name.
She looked down again, and her eyes widened for new reasons. She was going to crash near the three headed creature.
And it was staring right at her.
For a brief instant, she'd like to image it might save her…like it did Sasha. But it had no arms. It couldn't he-
She blinked as it rushed forward.
It jumped.
Its right most head was coming right up to her and-
Its mouth opened and she nearly fainted as she saw so, so many teeth. Not Titan teeth like humans, but sharp teeth made for shredding.
The tongue was grasping her as she passed by the lips and-
The mouth snapped shut as the beast landed.
Dead silence filled the area,
"Holy. Shit. Did Trips just eat Krista!?" Sasha asked in alarm.
"If he did, I think it was an accident," Mikasa remarked calmly. "However...have you noticed that the head is not chewing?"
The trio of heads froze, feeling a rush through them before mentally shaking it off. Eins was more than a little annoyed as he felt the tiny female squirm in his mouth while he was trying to keep her from slip down his throat. Drei was just a bit amused by his counterpart's situation while Zwei scanned the area for lingering Titans that might surprise the girl while trying to get her bearings after they let her out.
"You..."
All three of them felt their neck spines stand on edge. Something was wrong. They looked up to see something- no, someone falling down towards them. Deliberately by the looks of it.
"BASTARD!"
A great thundering noise boomed above them, the heads heads staring in at the bright light flashing above them.
All eyes, humans or beast, stared in disbelief as a small titan appeared above the three heads.
Eins, Zwei, and Drei were all dumbfounded as time seemed to slow.
[[[That was...a human.]]]
[[That was a soldier.]]
[Now it's a titan.]
[[[[...Titans can turn into Humans?!]]]]
They didn't have time to contemplate that horrifying revelation as the Titan landed mouth first on one of the necks, the extra sharp fangs sinking deeply through the golden scales as the dark blood sprayed forth.
The great beast roared and screamed in agony.
End of Chapter
Ha! Had you all going for a moment, didn't I! You thought I was going to end Trost like canon, just with Minidorah! Nope, not this fic fokes! In a moment of rage, Ymir has revealed herself to "avenge" Krista/Historia.
This is another one of the issues of having no arms and three heads, I suppose.
Well, I hoped you all enjoyed this, and have been enjoying AoT Season 4. I know I have!
Also, for anyone interested, I have two other AoT fics I update semi-regularly:
Hell Overfloweth and Ripple of Kindness.
With that shameless self advertising out of the way, I hope you all enjoyed this fic. Until next time!
PS Yes, the issue of the Attack and Founding Titans will be brought up eventually
p a treon . com (slash) akumakami64