God of Hate
AN Big News! This story now has its own TV Trope Page! That's my fourth fic to get a page there!
Eren found time flowing in a pleasant blur now that he had his friends to stave off the boredom. Be it the Scouts studying him, the inane yet hilarious moments with Connie and Sasha, Marco meditating arguments where Jean pretended to understand Eren's insults, the enjoyable silence from Annie and Reiner, or the peaceful normalcy of being around Armin and Mikasa. He had something to distract him, to look forward to.
Speaking of normalcy…
"Good morning, Trips!" a random soldier greeted from a few rooftops over as Eren made a stroll through Trost.
Eins grunted while Zwei nodded and Drei chirped back a warm reply. The soldiers had grown increasingly accustom to his presence. They were almost at ease when he passed them by in the streets, but not completely. Not that he blamed them, his tails still nipped buildings sometimes.
He looked up to the walls, noting that it would be some time before the sun rose high enough to shine into the city.
"What do you think he's looking at?" Marco asked idly, watching Eren stroll about, the three heads appearing to be scrutinizing the most random of things before moving on.
"Anything to pass the time," Jean mused, munching on a piece of bread he had brought along from breakfast. It was a bit stale, but not that bad. "All he can do now really is walk around and have us guess what he's trying to say. Blockhead or not, anyone would be bored in his state."
Marco silently agreed with that assessment, even if he felt like Eren was actively looking for something specific instead of just trying to kill time. A frown reached his face as he looked upward. "Hey, Jean? Have you thought about what you're going to do once this is all settled?"
"Hmm?" Jean questioned wordlessly.
"I mean, are you still planning on joining the military police?" Marco asked curiously.
"What do you mean? Of course I am. Why wouldn't I?" Jean retorted, letting that hang in the air before groaning heavily. "Is what I'd like to say."
Marco looked to him in surprise, silently waiting for more of an answer.
"I earned that spot among the top, and I survived Trost. I should just head off to the interior and never look back," Jean muttered, rubbing his forehead. "But I'm not sure that's even an option anymore."
"What do you mean?" Marco asked with a furrowed brow.
"I'd like to just blame it on...our golden friend here. After all, they might draft us all into some group formed to help deal with him regularly," Jean started before clicking his tongue in self-annoyance. "But honestly, after everything that happened, I don't know if I can just run off to the interior anymore."
"Run off?" Marco asked with a frown.
"Don't kid yourself, Marco, that's what I was always trying to do before. You're going because you really want to believe in it. That's a better reason than me," Jean stated with a frown. "I don't know what I'll do, not until I've seen how this plays out- and where did the blockhead go?" Jean asked, eyes wide as he realized Eren had...disappeared. Something as big as a titan shouldn't just vanish! Well, not without being dead, but that wasn't the point!
"Jean?" Marco said cautiously, his smile a bit awkward now.
Jean deadpanned at the expression, feeling a very soft current on the back of his neck; a very soft, very warm current. "He's right behind me, isn't he?" Jean predicted, getting a slow nod. With a deep breath, he turned and managed to barely keep from jumping out of his skin when he saw the three heads peering at him. "Dammit! Why the hell are you so sneaky!?" Jean swore in annoyance.
"I think you just adjusted to the ground shaking a little bit," Marco supplied idly, watching the giant curiously.
Jean was about to snap at Marco before he realized the way Eren was looking at him. The middle one was on edge, eyes twitching off to the side, while Eren's right one appeared to be in a mood more sour than annoyed, and the left one was looking over to the side constantly. "What's wrong? What is it?" Jean asked with a frown.
Eren gave a quick squall before jerking his heads to the side, leading them on.
"What's gotten into him?" Marco asked in concern.
"I don't think it's him we need to worry about," Jean said with an uneasy feeling in his gut, jumping off the roof to follow after Eren with his gear.
It wasn't a long trip, just a block over. Jean realized that whatever Eren saw, he must have spotted it from his previous spot. But Jean knew they had arrived when Eren stopped at a corner and stared at something down a street while waiting on Jean.
As he got closer, he heard something: Crying. Someone was crying. "Oh jeez, what now?" Jean said under his breath as he landed on a roof on the opposite side of the street and got a good view.
His blood ran cold at the sight.
Sasha. Sasha was crying, a sobbing wreck as she sat and hugged her knees to her chest. And next to her was Connie...Connie wasn't moving. He was laying limp on the roof.
"Connie!" Jean yelled as he shot over to the building.
"J-jean?" Sasha whispered as she looked up, seeing him land beside them.
"Sasha? What happened?!" Jean demanded instantly, kneeling down to check Connie's pulse. It was there. In fact, it was fine. "Connie, can you hear me?! Can you-?!"
Connie immediately lurched up and started vomiting on Jean's leg.
Jean froze, his expression completely blank as Connie finished hurling. Of course it was a stupid prank. Why did he think it could be anything else? Any moment, the three of them would start laughing their asses off. Or five of them, since Eren had three heads to laugh with now.
"Jean?" Connie asked weakly, wiping his mouth off. "W-what are you doing here?"
"Ruining my uniform, apparently," Jean remarked dryly. "Real funny guys. Come on, laugh it up already."
No one laughed. The uneasy feeling returned, and he wished they had laughed.
"Jean," Sasha spoke, her voice steadier but still sad. He looked at her and saw a sorrowful expression that looked so foreign on her face. "Over there," she said, pointing over to an open window perched out of the building, likely to an attic of some sort. "There's, um...there's a kid in there."
Jean winced. They had all dealt with bodies the past few days. And yes, child corpses were objectively the worst to handle emotionally, but it definitely wasn't Sasha's first one anymore. Had she just seen too many bodies or...
"The...the kid's mother is in there too," Sasha continued with a whisper. "Jean, she...she killed her. She killed her daughter, and herself."
Jean flinched, gritting his teeth; Going out by suicide instead of being eaten, even putting down a child as a mercy. In the face of the inevitability of the Titans, Jean couldn't blame someone for taking that route, he really couldn't. That didn't make it any easier for the living to stomach, the hellish situation where doing something so terrible made an uncomfortable amount of sense.
With a deep breath, he walked over to Sasha, wrapping one arm around her and placing his head against hers. "Just give me your mask. Me and Marco will deal with them. You take Connie to a medic or something," he instructed softly. He didn't know anything better to say, all he knew was that he had to be strong for his friends.
Sasha nodded mutely as she turned to look at Connie, prompting Jean to do so as well. Marco was there, helping Connie to his feet. Jean shared a look with his friend: Marco had heard everything; he knew what was going on.
"S-sorry," Connie said, rubbing his head. "I was a dumbass. I opened the window without my mask on. I got a full blast of the rot in the face."
"Idiot. You're lucky if you don't catch some disease from that," Jean muttered, trying to sound more berating than concerned.
Connie didn't have a comeback for that. He heard everything too, sending Sasha an apologetic look for passing out on her while she dealt with...that.
Jean's gaze shifted to the side, seeing Eren watching on solemnly. There was no deviation in the three heads, the same look on each on them. Jean understood now. Eren called them over because, in this state, Eren couldn't do or say anything to help them. But he knew Marco and himself could.
Jean knew life for Eren was often dull right now, but he could only imagine the kind of hell these moments were for him. The times when, due to his own size and lack of speech, could do nothing for a friend in need.
It was one of the few times Jean would admit, even just to himself, that he genuinely felt sorry for Eren.
Meanwhile
"So, while I can't say anything until witnessing it myself, all accounts of witnesses that saw Trips' regeneration make it sound less like a Titan-regeneration and more accelerated healing," Hange rambled on as she paced the room. "While it is slower than a Titan's would be, this is outweighed by his overall durability. It's also possible that the healing would be faster in a less exhausted state, as most testimonies are in regards to the wound to the middle neck sustained from the Shifter. Further-"
"Section Commander?" Armin spoke up, as politely as possible. "While this is all very fascinating, I think we've gone a little off-topic."
Mikasa nodded silently. Hange had rattled from one theory or observation to the next, some almost completely unrelated beyond involving Eren himself.
The woman fell silent, blinking. "Ah," she said in realization. "Right. Sorry about that. I got a little carried away. No, there was a reason I called you here. It's about one of my theories, just not one I mentioned yet. And it's...mostly about Eren himself."
"You mean how he became this?" Mikasa asked in interest.
"Oh no, we are still completely in the blind on that one," Hange explained, sounding way too cheerful to be giving that answer. "No, this is more to do with personalities. Tell me, you've noticed how his heads all act...different from one another?"
"You mean how Eren argues with himself, Ma'am?" Mikasa asked bluntly. Armin winced but nodded despite the questionable wording.
"Well, yes," Hange agreed with a shrug, somewhat happy for the bluntness. "You see, it's been bugging me. He is one person with three heads. Most of the time, the heads all appear to be in sync, in agreement, but other times it's like each is its own person. The only explanation that makes sense is, well, hard to explain without making Eren sound...crazy," she stated cautiously.
The fact that Hange was the one using the word "crazy" made it all the more clear how strange this whole situation was.
"I think I know where you're going with this, Ma'am," Armin cut in cautiously. "You think Eren's personality is somehow...divided among the three heads."
"It would explain the internal conflict. The one on his left appears to be the one most concerned for humans and almost affectionate to some, as you've confirmed it was the one to return your scarf, Mikasa," Hange stated with a nod to the red garment. "And the right one is, well..."
"The angry one," Mikasa supplied knowingly. "Eren had a lot of that at times."
"Yes, well, that makes sense as all three heads have shown aggressive personalities at times," Hange agreed with a shrug. "The middle one is up for debate, but it seems to be the intelligence, the one guiding the other two."
Armin didn't react to that but did admit that he was curious. Eren was a passionate person that often thought with his emotions first, be they negative or positive. He couldn't help wondering just what that version of Eren was like, his intelligence thinking while unclouded by rage or other intense emotions. He wasn't sure he liked the idea to be honest, and was therefore glad that Eren's other aspects were in the other two heads at least.
Eren's current mental state was strange to think about really, many being as one.
"Thankfully, again, the heads are often synced as just "Eren" but I am mildly concerned but intensely curious if Eren retakes human form, and the effect it will have on his mind," Hange mused.
Mikasa frowned at the use of "if" from Hange but didn't speak up.
"Why are you bringing this up, Ma'am? If you don't mind me asking?" Armin asked curiously.
"You two are the ones closest to him," Hange explained. "And we have no idea when he might change back, if he can. It might be in an hour, it might be in a year. But when it happens, we don't know the mental state he's going to be in."
"You want us to spy on Eren to see if he's going insane after he changes back," Mikasa stated coldly.
"I want you to help us make sure he is okay," Hange corrected simply. "I'm sure that's what we all want here."
"So I suppose you were just checking his temperature through the other end then?" Mikasa retorted coldly.
"Can't you let that go? I've already been banned from being around the beautiful bastard without someone else present," Hange protested with a pout.
Mikasa did not look amused.
Armin glanced between the two women awkwardly. Mikasa had taken a certain dislike to Hange since meeting her, and it was somewhat obvious why, if not a bit...ridiculous. "Ma'am, all this talk about the future..." Armin said meaningfully. "Does that mean the higher-ups have decided Eren is still an ally of humanity?"
"Hmm, not officially, but it's a formality at this point," Hange explained idly. "Pragmatically speaking, Eren is too valuable to attempt to eliminate. And we're not sure how to attempt such a thing at this time. Realistically, it's more of a risk to even try."
Mikasa scowled in confusion. "What do you mean?"
Hange sighed. "If Eren went berserk, he could unblock the breach or even destroy the gate into Wall Rose, letting the Titans through. I don't think he would, but we're not about to start poking him in the eye and hope he doesn't bite."
It was a very disturbing image. And Armin had to admit, he had imagined that possibility before he knew it was Eren inside that creature's mind. Mikasa, however...
"...You're saying this, but I've heard you talking about ripping his scales off," Mikasa pointed out neutrally.
"That is for scientific purposes! And I have his consent anyway!" Hange insisted before coughing into her hand. "You know, as long as I warn him this time."
Mikasa's fingers drummed on the blade carrier of her ODM gear. Armin wanted to calm her but was morbidly curious if Hange knew how half the stuff she said sounded like.
"Anyway, yes, your friend is safe with all the testimony to his...benevolence, shall we say," Hange continued on with a wave of her hand. "The only things to iron out is whose jurisdiction he falls under, what to do in terms of...housing him, and other such details."
Mikasa noticeably relaxed and showed Hange the first look of appreciation since they had met days ago. Armin too had a small smile at that assurance. "Would it be too much to ask to be kept in the loop on that, Ma'am?" Armin asked hopefully.
Hange smiled with a chuckle. "Oh, don't worry. I'm sure everyone will agree that you two at a minimum need to be kept around him."
Later
"Okay, because Connie was a dumbass, we need to switch up the groups for today so Sasha isn't by herself," Jean stated to an impromptu meeting between their little group.
"She could just skip her shift, and we can split the difference between the next two, right?" Reiner suggested thoughtfully.
"...Sasha doesn't want to be by herself," Jean repeated awkwardly, getting some looks of understanding. "So, who goes with whom?"
"I'll keep an eye on Sasha," Mikasa stated after a moment, looking to Annie and Reiner. "Do either of you want to cover with Armin?"
Annie tried not to tense. It was a small group; there weren't a lot of others to ask. There wasn't any reason to think they suspected them yet.
"It's fine. I don't mind being alone with him for the ni-" Armin stopped midsentence. "I just realize what that would have sounded like."
"I bet you did," Reiner said with a chuckle. "Annie, you up? I could use some time to catch up with Bert."
Annie looked to Reiner for a moment and resisted the urge to ball her fist. She wasn't talking to the Warrior that insisted they continue this mission; she was talking to the soldier that forgot whose side he was on. "Sure," she accepted idly. "Makes no difference to me."
Except it did; it made a big difference. She knew something was happening, and soon. Someone was coming. She didn't know who, but her snooping around made that clear. They were probably running out of time to do anything about Ymir before the islanders made up their minds of what to do with her. Kill her and the Jaw was lost, don't and she'd be all the harder to find if they took her from here. And that's if she wasn't cooperating. If she was, or if she started to, that was another kettle of fish.
But she was confident now that her cover wasn't blown after a couple nights of sneaking away from her shift while Eren slept. If there had ever been a time to try and capture them, it would have been at that moment, when all three of them were separated.
"Sorry for the inconvenience," Armin said with a sheepish smile.
"It's fine," Annie assured. And honestly, it would be. A shift with Armin wouldn't be horrible if said shift wasn't supposed to be her window to go snooping. Armin was far too observant to let her get away with any excuse that she could conjure up. And if Armin began to suspect her, she'd have to-
The loud hissing of a familiar giant reptile drew their attention elsewhere. "The hell is he up to now?" Jean muttered.
Without another word, the group made a small run down the street, finding Eren in an open area, staring down in frustration at a lot of debris from a house, scattered everywhere.
"Everything okay, Scales?!" Reiner called over.
Eren glanced to them, looking thoroughly annoyed and mentally tired.
Armin glanced around, almost expecting Hange to be nearby, but the madwoman was utterly absent from the scene.
Mikasa suddenly took off on her ODM gear, propelling her up to a roof behind Eren. "Armin, you might want to come look at this!" Mikasa called down with a scowl.
Armin and Jean shared a look behind ascending as well, Annie and Reiner following after. They reached the perch and found what Eren was so annoyed with. "Did he try to spell his name out of junk?" Jean murmured, seeing the wooden beams and such vaguely made the letters "E" and "R", but the beam that made up the back of the "R" was half-broken and bent. All around were more pieces of debris that Eren had tried and failed to manipulate with his heads.
"Not being able to talk must be getting to him," Annie observed.
"Armin and I can guess his meaning and intentions most of the time," Mikasa said with a concerned look, seeing Eren glaring down at his failed project with all three heads. "But that only goes so far."
With a snarl, Eren walked forward, stepping on and over the make-shift letters, hitting them with his tails.
"...You think it'd be too tedious just to have some soldiers hold a sign of each letter and let him point to them and spell it out?" Jean suggested in a grumble.
"We might have to try at this rate," Armin said with a headshake, turning to the others. "Annie, you mind if we take our shift now, so Mikasa and Sasha have the first night watch?"
Annie shrugged nonchalantly. "Might as well."
"Good luck," Jean said as the rest of them began to depart, Mikasa being the last to leave.
"...So, has Mikasa tried to take a nap on him yet?" Annie asked, curious but utterly serious in her question.
"Yeah, once," Armin answered with a small smile. "She kept sliding off the back though. She'll probably try the snout next."
Annie nodded, less disturbed by that than others might be. "I've only had night shifts so far. What's he like in the day?"
Armin shrugged. "Nothing that interesting. Sometimes he just walks around, others he tries to "talk" with us the best he can," he explained, grimacing as he look down at the broken attempts at letters. "And sometimes he tries something new."
Annie hummed, eyeing the behemoth as it began to walk back towards them. Eren nodded his middle head to Armin but all three of them did a double-take at Annie's presence. "We switched up for today," Annie answered bluntly, deciding to be, well, what was normal for herself lately.
The three heads became less surprised after that. Eins gave her a nod, possibly of respect? Zwei gave some kind of hiss she read as a greeting. Drei...the left-most head was glancing between her and Armin for some reason.
Annie looked to Armin, who just smiled while around his friend, form regardless, and didn't seem to notice the left head's odd behavior. Annie looked back and saw that said head was now...smiling, perhaps? It just looked like an unpleasant view of too many oversized teeth to her.
"How the hell do you read him?" Annie asked with a small frown.
"It's mostly guesswork, to be honest," Armin confirmed, blinking as Eren started making noises.
"Well, time to guess away," Annie stated as Eren gestured around them before the middle head nodded twice to Wall Rose. "What, does he want to know when they'll let him out or something?"
Eren gave Annie an annoyed look, or three annoyed looks to be exact, while Armin turned thoughtful. "I think he wanted to know how the clean-up is going?" Armin tried, getting a nod from the middle head, both of the side heads giving Annie pointed looks that she ignored. "We're technically done now, I suppose? All the corpses have been collected, except for the few hidden ones. The injured are all patched up as best they can be, and there have been no other...incidents that I know of," Armin explained, Eren listening intently to him.
Annie, however, looked Eren up and down while he was distracted. His reach was far with those heads, but it'd be harder to attack anything that got up close and personal, especially at his backside. Not to mention he was top-heavy. Throwing him off his feet with his own weight shouldn't be too hard if she hit him right, or if Reiner did for that matter.
Stunning a Titan was relatively easy. All one had to do was destroy enough of the head and they'd be wide open for up to a minute. Eren's healing was slower, which would give them a bigger window, if not for one glaring issue: Eren had three heads. Ymir had tried biting one off but had only a chunk of the flesh. Perhaps the better idea was to go for the brains themselves, probably through the eyes if given the chance.
Reiner was concerned about this power awakening in another newborn Eldian, but honestly? Annie couldn't care less. That would be less dangerous than dealing with Eren having this power.
Meanwhile
"You want to give me a black eye?"
Krista sounded far less worried about this suggestion than she probably should be.
"Look kid, we're running out of time," Levi stated simply. "And you were the one that said you were fine emotionally fucking with her to get her cooperation."
Krista frowned with her arms crossed. "I'm not saying I'm scared of getting hurt. I'm just...not sure what to do after that," she explained with a sigh. "I've never done this before. Never wanted to do this before."
"I understand," Erwin assured pointedly. "But there will be a meeting to decide Ymir's fate, and soon. If she doesn't give us reason to believe she could be an ally and an asset, she'll be deemed a threat."
Krista sighed. "Fine, I'll give it a try. Just as long as the captain isn't the one to hit me," Krista stated.
"You'd prefer Petra?" Levi took a guess.
"No. Well, yes, but it's more than I'm almost certain you could...break my neck with a punch. If you wanted," Krista explained awkwardly. Neither Erwin nor Levi disputed that possibility. "Though, I know I probably need more than a black eye if I'm going to make it look convincing to Ymir..."
"Well, you at least act tough," Levi accepted idly.
"Very well, Petra will arrive shortly, and then-" Erwin stopped midsentence and Levi stood straighter.
"What? What is it?" Krista asked, suddenly on edge.
Levi made a shushing motion as both men narrowed their eyes. Then Krista felt it, a small tremor. "Is that, um, Trips?" she asked with a frown.
"No, it's too close to be him, and not strong enough," Levi countered, looking to Erwin who nodded. With that, the short Scout left the room in a hurry.
Not even two minutes had passed before another soldier ran into the room. "Sir! There's been an incident! One of the Titans is getting loose!"
Krista inhaled but tried to contain her nervousness. There were hundreds of soldiers here including the Scouts. Two regular Titans didn't stand much of a chance here.
"Come with me," Erwin ordered as he departed the room with purpose.
Once outside, they were treated to the sounds of roars and small crashes. It was only a short distance, but by then they could hear the screaming.
"What are you doing to my Bean!?"
The fact that it was Hange screaming instantly made the situation less worrisome.
A crowd of soldiers had gathered, making way for Erwin as he approached, Krista keeping pace behind him. Once they got to the front, they saw the cause of alarm. One of the Titans, Bean apparently, had gotten his arm free somehow. The limb was severed on the ground, steaming as it rapidly dissolved to just bones. Several soldiers had a new, regrown arm held in a large cable as others began to hammer giant nails through the arm, keeping it pinned to the ground.
Seeing the threat was neutralized, he noted that there were no obvious signs of a fatality. All the blood appeared to be from the Titan, vanishing in the dark night's air. Levi was off to one side, casually holding Hange back with one hand as she glared at the ones handling Bean.
Levi caught his gaze and half dragged Hange towards their commander. "Report," Erwin instructed stoically.
"Nothing. No fatalities, no serious injuries," Levi stated bluntly. "The others already had it under control when I got here."
"Some of the nails must have come loose. I wasn't expecting them to act up, but the sun did just go down," Hange said with a sigh.
Erwin said nothing. Yes, it was possible that this was just an unfortunate accident. It could be nothing at all. But...his eyes narrowed as he scanned the area. "Levi," he spoke up strongly. "Who is guarding the shifter?"
Levi startled, looking to the Titan again and saw that indeed all four of his squad members were here. Petra was ready to slice Bean's neck if he got loose and Oluo was at the head of the group holding the cable while Gunther and Eld were helping hammer in the nails.
"...Shit," Levi cursed to himself before he took off running.
He reached the stairs faster than humanly possible and noticed instantly that there was no one guarding the entrance. He slowed his pace as he reached the passage down. It was quiet…too quiet. He grimaced as he descended the stairs several paces- before instantly leaping down the rest of the distance, his hands on his blades.
His scowl deepened. No one was in the hallway. No one was hiding in the nearest cells.
He continued walking, more on edge than usual as he crept from cell to cell, but found all of them empty. He stopped at the last one before stepping in front.
He was almost disappointed to find the Titan-Brat was still there, sleeping.
Or presumably sleeping.
"Hey, brat, you awake?" Levi asked loudly, ready to start kicking the bars again.
Ymir groaned as she sat up. "Well, I am now," she answered with a grumble. "Where's Krista, Shrimp?"
"Enjoying some time away from you," Levi said bluntly.
"Well, get her back here will ya?" Ymir said with a sigh.
"You do remember that you're the prisoner here, right?" Levi reminded bluntly
"Yeah, and guess what? You win," Ymir said with a fake smile.
Levi almost said something before stopping as he caught her meaning. "You're finally ready to start talking?"
"Yeah, yeah, I'll fess up now. When you get Krista back, since...you know, I'd rather only have to say stuff once," Ymir requested.
"...I don't buy it," Levi said with a frown. "You refused to say anything for days and suddenly now you want to talk? Why?"
"I had a long time to think, okay," Ymir spat back. "So get Krista, your scientist, the guy with the massive eyebrows, and anyone else you think needs to hear this."
Levi eyed her, studying her. He almost believed her. This brat was bad at lying. He was sure she was hiding something, but she wasn't lying. "Fine. I'll get your lovebird."
As he left, Levi decided he didn't like this, and he knew Erwin wouldn't either. Ymir just happened to give up after a Titan almost got loose and she was left unguarded. Something happened while they were all distracted. Something, or someone, had convinced Ymir to start talking.
But who?
End of Chapter
Mostly a slice-of-life-for-a-kaiju-shifter, but the excitement kicked in at the end. Ymir has apparently decided to cooperate with very suspicious timing, and Eren is getting frustrated with his inability to communicate with others.
Not much else to say. Sad moment for Sasha and the others, Annie trying to make the most of things since she can't go snooping, and Hange is preparing for the possibiltity that human-Eren might not be that...stable after having his mind fractured three ways.
Early viewing of chapters 12-13 avaliable on my pat-reon:
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