Creation began on 02-12-24
Creation ended on 02-21-24
Attack on Titan
The Dark Titan: Mother against Mother
Dot Pyxis had thought he'd seen it all, but this…was a completely new level of bizarre for him when his squadron of Garrison soldiers arrived in Trost District upon learning that it had been attacked by Titans…and one was still there, sitting by the breach made by the Colossal Titan that appeared five years ago. And what a Titan this one was, too; over fifteen meters in height, dark skin and long hair, an androgynous framework, but based on its appearance alone, this Titan clearly belonged to the gentler sex, and from what a rumor was stated about it, this Titan was the same one that had killed over a dozen or so Titans from five years prior to this attack, ignoring the humans.
"I don't believe it," he utters as he comes closer to the young cadets that were gathered near the Dark Titan. "You cadets have been around this Titan ever since the attack?"
"Yes, sir," Armin responds, and Pyxis notices the etchings of words on the ground around it. "It's intelligent, sir. It doesn't seem to be able to speak, but it understands communication."
"And that right there (he points over to the etching that was directed towards someone)?"
"The Dark Titan dislikes one of my friends, Eren Yeager, who resents the Titan because it destroyed his house in Shiganshina five years ago."
"The Titan specifically opinionated this young man?"
"Yes."
"What do you know so far about it?"
"It killed sixteen Titans with its hair, is probably eighteen meters, give or take, may possess some dance skill of some sort, and is smart enough to communicate with people. It's been two hours since it appeared, and it hasn't tried to attack any one of us after it sat by the breach and periodically looks out past it. It may be waiting for more Titans to appear so it can kill them."
"Have you attempted to ask it such a possibility?"
"No, none of us have asked it anything further than what we felt we needed to ask it, which wasn't much."
Pyxis looks up at the Dark Titan, which looks down at him, surprising him.
"It hasn't attacked anyone here?" He asks again.
"No, sir. There was, however, a minor assault."
"A minor assault?"
"Former Cadet Yeager tried to engage the Dark Titan when none of us would attempt to harm it…and it shoved him to the ground."
Pyxis looks over to where the washout, Eren Yeager stood, clearly needing to be held back from the Titan that sat against the wall, and he couldn't understand why the young man resented the Titan that may very well be all that stands between them and extinction.
"Can you demonstrate how it shoved him?" He asks Armin, who raises his right hand to show his index finger, which he used to poke the elder man softly. "Just like that?"
"Exactly like that, sir," Armin answers. "If this Titan wanted to, it could kill us without any hesitation, but that's only if it wanted to. Cadet Connie Springer asked if it ate humans, and it revealed that it doesn't. If I could, I would ask why it chose to destroy Eren's house after saving his mother from being killed by another Titan."
"Grr," they heard the Dark Titan as it moved its hand to the previously etched message directed towards Eren Yeager.
"Perhaps he did something to offend the Titan," Pyxis suggests, which makes Armin shake his head in the negative. "Unless you have a theory you wish to share?"
"It's nothing I can prove without directly asking the Dark Titan, and if I'm right, it will only raise more questions than answers."
The Dark Titan turns to look out the breach…and then gestures with its right thumb pointing out the breach while looking down at the soldiers.
"Everyone, step back!" Jean yells, and the Dark Titan slowly gets up and goes through the breach. "Whoa!"
It was one thing to see the Dark Titan face the other Titans, but just watching it rise to its incredible height was another thing. No doubt that it was eighteen meters, three meters taller than the other Titans they had seen or faced, an inhuman monolith after the Colossal Titan. But unlike the previous Titans, this one felt like a tiny sliver of hope; not only were they able to go near it without some sort of casualty, but it never exhibited any goal, no drive, whatsoever, to harm or kill any of them, like it lacked the will to intentionally harm humans. With the minor exception of it shoving Eren to the ground.
"If I was any younger," went Pyxis as the Titan walked out the other side of the wall, "I'd be soiling my pants right now."
"The Dark Titan… I wouldn't have believed in it had I not seen it," Armin expresses.
But Eren… Everyone else might've seen this Titan as some sort of savior, but he saw it the same way he saw every other Titan. It was nothing more than a monster that needed to be dealt with.
-x-
The civilians that had gathered at the inner gate of Trost District were wondering why there hadn't been any further Titan sightings near them, and one woman, who had been fortunate enough to survive the onslaught a second time, wondered if her son was alive.
"…Excuse me," Carla Yeager hears a voice nearby, a desperate woman, and turns to see a dark-haired woman that she recognized from her past, talking to a pair of people nearby. "Have any of you seen my daughter? She has gray hair, fourteen years old, wears a dress with trousers."
It was Christine Sogen, the mother of the gray-haired Kaede Sogen.
"Your kid is missing, too?" Carla asks her, getting her attention.
"Missus Yeager," Christine greets with calmness; she had no ill will towards the woman, but when it came to her troublesome son, she had to keep her distance to avoid reopening old wounds that stung like a splinter in the finger. "This has not been a good day."
"It has been an unpleasant few years for me since that day in Shiganshina."
"Have you seen Kaede?"
"No, I haven't. Have you seen Eren? I was informed two days ago that he was to be dismissed from the Cadet Corps."
"I have neither seen nor heard from your son since that wretched day we were forced to leave Shiganshina District. Why was he dismissed from the corps?"
"He couldn't use some equipment he was practicing for in order to join the Survey Corps."
"So, he's just a civilian now? He should've come to the inner gate as soon as the outer gate was destroyed. Unless…"
"No, I don't believe he's dead. I hope he's not dead. We didn't part on good terms the last time I saw him."
Christine had once heard a rumor that Mrs. Yeager had threatened to disown her son if joined the Survey Corps because she didn't want to hear that he had died because of the Titans. But because he was unable to complete the training program and pass, her son was another washout, a civilian that couldn't cut in the military and would be fortunate enough just to find a job. However, that would've been difficult because he still carried a strike on him for his crime of harassing another child into conflict with him, and he was still rumored to be troublesome when around other people that he simply didn't get along with.
"Where is she at a time like this?" She wonders, still worried about her daughter.
-x-
There were only twenty-three Titans approaching the breach, but they were spaced out and none of them fifteen meters; the majority of them were less than ten meters with the rest between under thirteen meters. And due to being spaced out, this enabled the Dark Titan ample time to decapitate or stomp each one before they could reach the breach, and the smaller ones that did manage to get through didn't live past a minute of entering Trost. It took a less than fifteen minutes, but this wave of Titans had been dealt with.
Crush! The last thirteen-meter Titan had its head stomped on by the Dark Titan, whose loud howl of victory made Eren, who watched from the safety of the breach, frown over humanity's would-be savior being admired by the soldiers.
"Those Titans never stood a chance against this one," Eren hears Connie say about the Dark Titan. "Bigger, fiercer, prettier, the whole deal."
"A Titan is still a Titan, no matter how it looks or how it behaves," he tells him, making no hint that he despised this Titan.
"It's not our fault it doesn't like you for some reason," Jean expresses to him, though it did make him wonder why this Titan despised this young man that clearly had an attitude problem or two. "Maybe you pissed it off by doing something to someone you weren't supposed to go messing with in a past life."
"That's bull."
The Dark Titan looked up into the distance, not seeing any other Titans yet…but not willing to underestimate the possibility that there could be more on the way as it turned around to re-enter Trost, where it sat back down beside the breach.
"Grr," it went, sounding a little restless, tilting its head back against the wall.
Armin looks at it, then at the message it wrote to express its dislike towards Eren, a little suspicious of what he was thinking about it. In the years past, Armin had been observant of certain aspects of other people, but it was a point of personal pride for him when he could tell someone was hiding something that was either personal or hurtful. And he noticed, when he wasn't in the Cadet Corps, certain people had changed over the five years since relocating away from Shiganshina, including… But then…he found such a belief to be ridiculous and beyond irrational because it made no sense due to its series of impossibilities.
Still, it's only a theory, he wonders, until it's not, anymore.
He carefully approached the Dark Titan as it continued to sit by the breach. It's facial structure, although feminine, clearly a female shape, even when a state of rest, looked as though it was masking an inner pain. Then, the Titan turned its head to look down at him, its expression one of disillusionment…and curiosity, which Armin found surprising. And the eyes… It was the Titan's eyes that caught Armin's attention in this moment.
It was like they could see into your soul, but it was a two-way street, for it felt like Armin was able to see into its own soul, seeing someone that was there, lost in the darkness. In the darkness, not like the night, lost and alone, searching for salvation, for some kind of absolution, a hand trying to reach out for what was sought after.
"You rotten boy!" He remembers Eren being yelled at by Kaede after she manages to overpower him and bruise his face up with her hands and bloody his nose and lips. "I asked you to step out of the way so we could go down the street! Why do you act so weird?! Aaaurgh!"
That was really the first time I saw Eren make a girl so angry that she almost crossed the line because he wouldn't stop, he thinks as he sighs.
The Titan brings its right arm to the ground and etches something into the dirt with its index finger, getting the boy's attention. It was another name: "ARLERT". This made Armin gasp as he looks up at the Titan's face.
"Do you… Do you know who I am?!" He asks the Titan.
Underneath his name, the Titan etches "I DO", surprising the boy.
"Are you…someone I've seen before?!"
"YES".
Several of the cadets and Garrison soldiers gathered around Armin, seeing the etched words of communication between him and the Dark Titan.
"What the Hell is going on here?" A Garrison soldier asks. "How can this Titan…be someone you've seen before?"
"I asked, it answered," Armin explains, unable to change his sense of curiosity.
"But…how is that possible?" Sasha wants to know. "You can't possibly know this Titan from before, right? I mean, it didn't show up until five years ago when Shiganshina was attacked."
"It could be lying to you," suggested Eren to him, and then the Dark Titan stuck out its tongue, which was also dark, but with bits of purple; it was blowing a dry raspberry at him.
"Damn, this Titan seriously does not like you, Yeager," went Jean to him.
Even Mikasa could see that this was evident; whatever the reason, the Dark Titan despised her friend and made no attempt to hide this disgust. But then, she was reminded of something Eren had mentioned a while ago after her parents were killed. It was something about the Sogen girl that got his first strike out of the community's three-strike system; however, she suspected, based on what Carla Yeager had explained to her about the situation, that the Sogen girl was the actual victim that day Eren received his first strike, not Eren himself, who was injured because he pushed the girl too far and got what was coming to him. The way the Dark Titan, albeit non-verbally, admitted to disliking Eren, the only person that was actually disliked personally by any Titan, it just…reminded her of what she understood as holding a grudge against someone else for a wrong they committed.
"Are you… Dark Titan, are you…" Armin was finding difficulty in getting his words out, but he found his courage to get past the bush. "ARE YOU KAEDE SOGEN?!"
The Dark Titan's eyes widened in response to his question…and it pointed to the last word it etched onto the ground: "YES".
Even Eren reacted with shock as he remembered the gray-haired girl that he hated for causing him to have a strike on his record. There was no way that this Titan was that…that girl! It had to be lying!
Dot Pyxis was surprised to hear this revelation! He had heard rumors about a little girl that stood out among the people because she was born with gray hair and was a member of the Sogen family, but since he never met the girl before, he didn't put much stock in the rumors. But after hearing Armin ask the Titan and the Titan "responding", it raised more questions, such as how did a person from inside the Walls become a Titan? Or better yet, how did someone from inside the Walls become a Titan…and did not pursue any humans to devour, but instead elected to aid them against the other Titans? And if so, did it mean that the Titans themselves were…also people once upon a time?
-x-
Christine had reached a dead end. Not a single person she asked had seen her daughter anywhere since the outer gate was breached. But just because nobody had seen Kaede, she refused to believe that she was dead until all the deceased were located and accounted for. Until then, she had to follow her maternal instinct that her daughter was alive somewhere.
"Sogen!" She hears a man yell from the side of a building. "Christine Sogen!"
Looking up, she sees several soldiers from the Garrison division flying through the air above the streets, swinging from the buildings.
"We're looking for Christine Sogen!" Another soldier yells. "Is there a Christine Sogen here?!"
Christine raised her hand up and announced her presence to the soldiers.
"Right here!" She yells back, and one of the three soldiers above descended to the streets. "Yes?"
"Your presence has been requested at the outer gate," he explains to her.
"Have you found my daughter?"
"I know nothing about a missing person, just that I was instructed to locate and bring you to the outer gate. Shall we?"
Christine wasn't sure why she was needed at the outer gate that had been breached, but she was just hoping that it wasn't to identify a corpse.
-x-
Eren had to be removed from the scene because of his temperament towards the Dark Titan, which had been asked a personal question to verify its, or rather, her identity as Kaede Sogen…and the response only made Eren more enraged towards monster that destroyed his home after saving his mother. The question, asked by Armin, was if Kaede remembers what Eren did to cause her to attack him…and the Titan pointed to the damning words it etched towards said boy that gave her a hard time…but then it pointed to the word used to answer his question.
Mikasa went with Eren, just to make sure he stayed out of trouble and away from the Titan; she had never met the Sogen girl before, but from what she had learned in the short amount of time since Armin mentioned her, the girl had to be of some significance if Commander Pyxis ordered for his squadron to locate the girl's mother and bring her here.
"What is it about the Sogen girl that Yeager has a problem with?" Pyxis asks Armin.
"Eren has always been rather…uneasy with others," Armin explains. "But it was Ms. Sogen that he was especially combative towards because he hassled her, which led to a dispute which ended with Eren receiving his first strike for harassing her."
"Women and girls are different from men and boys; they're not after the same things for any of the same reasons. Some men will seek conflict while women will seek joy in anything that doesn't involve unnecessary conflict. Does Ms. Sogen seek conflict?"
"No, sir. Kaede isn't like that. She's…practically a gentle soul that despises conflict. The only time she ever demonstrated violence was when Eren provoked her. How she became a Titan is beyond my comprehension."
Still on the lookout for Titans outside the wall, the Dark Titan turned its head periodically to look out the breach. As boring as it was, it didn't move from where it sat unless there was an enemy Titan nearby. But as she sat and waited, she thought back to that day she met with Mr. and Mrs. Yeager. It was shortly after she had nearly beaten their son to death for his provocation of her…and they had apologized to her on their son's behalf. While she had been grateful to them for owning up to their son's misbehavior, it was clear that they all knew that Eren was not going to let up, which was why he was registered into the three-strike system, the youngest ever, to try and set him straight or deal him his final fate.
Kaede would never forgive Eren for making her fight him just to walk down a street, but she had nothing against the Yeager parents…except for not reigning in their son. If he wanted to enlist in the military and die, that was his choice, but she wouldn't do anything for him so long as he continued to act so wretchedly when there were other ways to behave.
"Ahh," her Titan sighs.
"Thinking about your past?" She hears someone say to her, and she turns her head to look down at Armin…and simply nods. "I'm sorry that Eren gave you a hard time all those years ago."
Even if she could say something in response to him, like she understood, and she did understand, her Titan form likely lacked the ability to vocalize like people could with enough experience. Instead, she etched into the ground what she could've said, keeping it simple.
"THANKS".
Unlike Eren, Armin knew better than to incite some sort of disagreement with anyone and just own up to one's faults. And then, there was looking out at the open terrain and seeing its beauty. What he wouldn't give to see more of this and just know that his longings for a better tomorrow had been validated.
"It's quiet right now," he says.
"Grr," the Dark Titan growled softly.
-x-
"…Can someone tell me what this is about?" Christine asks as she notices an elderly man with the symbol of the Garrison on his coat and several young teens nearby where the breach was, confused by why she was brought here.
"Christine Sogen?" The elder responds.
"Yes."
"I'm Dot Pyxis of the Garrison's southern squadron.
"Sir."
"When was the last time you heard from your daughter?"
"This morning when she left to get groceries. I told her that her stepfather would do it, but she insisted on going."
"Has she been…acting strangely for a time?"
"Ever since we were forced to leave Shiganshina, she hasn't been the same, but that's everyone that survived that day."
"Can you describe her behavior?"
"Nothing…that upsetting, just quiet and not as outgoing as she used to be. Except for this one time where she freaked out when some guy touched her two years ago."
"She…freaked out?"
"That's one way of putting it. She shoved him away from her and yelled at him not to touch her again before walking away. The guy tried to apologize, but she was already gone. At first, I thought it was just a misunderstanding, that maybe the guy tried to ask Kaede out and she panicked, but when I saw her face…"
"What was it?"
"I'm not sure what really happened, but she seems to have developed a… Well, I guess you could call it a…irrational-yet-rational…fear of men; I've never heard her raise her voice when a woman touches her."
"And…that's all? Nothing else that is…off?"
"No, nothing."
"No sneaking around? No disappearing for hours in any given day? No rebellious behavior?"
"No, sir, nothing of the sort. Why are you asking these questions? Did someone find my daughter? Is Kaede alright?"
"It's…complicated, ma'am."
Pyxis led her closer to the breach and Christine saw a Titan sitting nearby.
"Oh!" She gasps, but then notices the Titan's features. "What in the name of…"
Even though five years had passed since she last saw it, this had to be the same Titan that people had been talking about. The Dark Titan! Large in height and unusual in appearance; there was no other Titan ever seen with such a dark complexion, as though someone had taken the darkness of the night and molded it into the shape of a human body.
"The Dark Titan?" She asks Commander Pyxis.
"Yes," he answers.
"Is it…dead?"
"No, she isn't dead."
"She?"
"According to a Cadet Corps recruit that actually spoke with her like this, this Dark Titan…is your daughter."
Christine's eyes widened in fright as she looks at the Dark Titan again. At first, she wanted to deny this accusation as nothing more than a sick joke. There was no way that Kaede was this Titan! It made no sense at all for someone with such a gentle soul to become a monster of this magnitude and still…
"That can't be true," she says to Pyxis. "Kaede is shorter than I am, has gray hair, blue eyes, wears a dress with trousers under her skirt and wouldn't be caught dead around the military."
"You should go take a closer look," Pyxis suggests, and Christine notices a blond-haired boy nearby the Dark Titan's legs…and walks over.
Suddenly, the Dark Titan moves its head back to look inside the interior of Trost…and spots the woman, its eyes widening…and then tearing up, like it was trying to fight back tears.
Christine looked around herself and saw etchings of words that looked as though they had been done with large fingers. Titan-sized fingers. Many of which were likely meant to communicate with people, and one of which was directed towards someone that she recalls being a troublemaker, and when she sees the blond-haired boy turn to face her, she recognizes him as the boy that was with the Yeager kid that harassed her daughter.
"Missus Sogen," he greets kindly.
"Arlert's grandson," she addresses.
"I was his grandson…but now I'm the only one in my family left alive. Arlert at your service."
"The Dark Titan…"
"I asked, and she answered."
"But…it can't be Kaede. I can't believe that it's her."
"I believe she is her, ma'am."
"How? I mean… How?"
"Your daughter doesn't like Eren Yeager. While it's true that a lot of people don't like Eren, your daughter's dislike of him is particularly rational. And while she saved his mother's life, she destroyed his home. Maybe not to hurt anyone except Eren; she didn't attack any other homes or buildings in the time she was seen, and she hasn't attacked any people, either by accident or through intent towards someone else. Who else can it be but Kaede Sogen, your daughter?"
Christine looks up at the Dark Titan, still not convinced that it was her daughter. Even though the humanoid monstrosity had saved some people and likely killed dozens of other Titans, she didn't want to believe that it was her only daughter. There was no way that her daughter, her baby, was this creature that became infamous for its so-called brutality against other Titans.
"Ask her something," Armin suggests to her. "Ask her something only she would know. Something only you would know because she told you."
Christine sighs and slowly approaches the Dark Titan, noticing that it was looking down at her.
"If you're Kaede, then you should know this about her and myself," she says to it. "She asked me a question relating to growing up. I'm guessing you can't speak, which would explain the etchings in the ground. What did Kaede ask me about that related to growing up?"
The Dark Titan leaned back, raised its arms up…and gestured to its chest area. It was the way it gestured, the way its hands were cupped, the position in which it made it look like it was flaunting, Christine felt the horrifying sense of recollection.
"I don't follow here," Armin states, just as confused. "What did your daughter ask you about?"
"How…how many years did I tell her?" Christine asks, and the Titan reaches down with its left hand and etches into the ground.
Instead of a word, it was a pair of numbers, representing the answer to the question.
"10-11", it etched.
"You have to wait until you're like, fourteen or fifteen, Kaede," she remembers informing her daughter during laundry duties.
"That long?" The young girl had questioned once, just wanting to know when she would have breasts like her mother.
"When you're a teenager, you'll find yourself with different problems than you have right now, sweetie. But don't be in a rush to grow up. Enjoy your childhood while you're still young."
Christine could've tried to deny this, to ask it another question, to find some sort of deceit, but it was pointless at this point. No matter how much she wanted to deny this, her heart couldn't undo what she was feeling. The Dark Titan…was Kaede Sogen. But how…and why?
"You're her," she accepted. "Kaede?"
The Dark Titan nods.
-x-
"…Eren, you being upset with the Dark Titan is not going to resolve this matter," Mikasa tells Eren as they walk down the street.
"That stupid girl smashed up my home!" Eren yells; now that he knew who the Dark Titan was, he couldn't stand the fact that it was that gray-haired girl that landed him on the three-strikes registry. "She should be executed for that!"
But Mikasa found no reason justifiable enough to warrant a young woman's execution, simply because they destroyed someone's home as a Titan, as it seemed unlikely that the Sogen girl had any actual intention to destroy the Yeager house to begin with. Even so, the girl had saved his mother's life that day five years ago before she destroyed the house. There was no desire to take a life, even if there had been a desire to ruin one's life. She couldn't understand why Eren hated her so much.
"All I did was try to get her to stand up for herself, and then she nearly kills me, and I get blamed for it!" Eren continues to yell. "What is her problem with me, anyway?!"
Mikasa wasn't even going to try and answer that question; Eren had practically answered it with his ramblings toward her.
"Still not showing restraint?" They heard Carla's voice down the street.
"Mother," Eren greeted, albeit not with enthusiasm.
Carla came over to them and noticed Eren was dressed in his casual clothes while Mikasa was wearing the Cadet Corps uniform.
"So, it's true, then, Eren," she says, "what I was told two days ago. You were dismissed from the Cadet Corps."
"It wasn't my fault I couldn't balance on the stupid thing," Eren declares, not exactly answering her, but close enough.
"Initially, it was thought that the reason he failed was due to damaged equipment," Mikasa explains to Carla, "however, it was not entirely true. Eren was unable to stay balanced, regardless of the condition of the equipment gear."
Even though it wasn't making Eren any happier to learn that he wouldn't be able to enlist in the Survey Corps, it was enough for Carla to hear that she wouldn't have to worry about him trying to be a soldier and die young.
"There was a breach…and I heard that Titans got in, but they're gone," she tells them.
"Very few got in," Mikasa reveals.
"That girl!" Eren yells. "That stupid, stupid girl! This is all her fault!"
"What are you talking about?" Carla questions; she had seen Eren upset most of the time, but this was a new level of rage.
"The Sogen girl!" He expresses. "She's the reason we lost our home in Shiganshina! She thinks she's some hero when she's just a pathetic coward!"
"What is he talking about, Mikasa?"
"Earlier at the location of the Trost breach, it was discovered that Armin questioned the Dark Titan that appeared five years ago and confirmed that it was this Kaede Sogen that put Eren on the registry for his harassing of her," Mikasa states.
"Kaede Sogen? Christine Sogen's daughter? Gray hair?"
"I never saw her, but the Dark Titan didn't try to deny Armin's accusation that it was her."
"The same Dark Titan that saved my life?"
"One and the same."
That sounded ridiculous to hear, but, then again, so was Eren's rambling about a girl he provoked for the wrong reasons and ended up almost getting killed because of his actions he had yet to learn from. It made Carla wonder who was telling the truth and who was spouting the lies.
-x-
Torches and lanterns were setup around the breach as the Dark Titan now sat outside the outer gate of Wall Rose at night, constantly looking out for any Titans. Inside by the breach was Christine and her second husband, Sig, her first husband's best friend up to his very death; he didn't show up until the Garrison had found him helping the elderly get through the inner gate of Trost and he was escorted to the inner gate breach where he was informed by Christine what was going on. Suffice to say, what his wife told him about the whereabouts of Kaede was something he couldn't question or even deny because of the etchings on the ground that had been left by the Dark Titan, things that he knew Kaede knew about.
"I feel like I should be throwing up at all of this," he tells Christine. "I mean, five years ago, Kaede was this sweet-natured girl…and then one day, her world gets turned upside-down and she's this Dark Titan that killed a bunch of other Titans, decimated the Yeager house in Shiganshina, and is now sitting outside the breach like some sort of…sentinel?"
"I know, it's crazy," Christine responds, fidgeting with her fingers; she was worried about how they were going to move past this all. "But how are you holding up?"
"Trying not to scream my lungs out at anyone. Also, I'm trying to understand how…how this is even possible. People can't just…turn into Titans. The chances of that are as unlikely as…as walking on water or flying."
"I don't know how this is possible. I don't even know if this is permanent. I don't even know if she's in pain right now. Whether this is some sort of…accident or an act of God, why Kaede of all people? What did she do to deserve this?"
This was going to be a long night of heartache.
-x-
Fluttering her eyes as the first rays of sunlight shone on her face, Kaede Sogen awoke to the new day. Or what she thought was a new day. And then, a dark figure loomed over her.
"If you try anything," she hears a male voice say to her, sounding cold and detached, "I will kill you. You understand me?"
She sits up and wipes her face with her left hand…and stops to look at said hand. Instead of seeing a large, dark hand, she was looking at…her regular hand. She slowly reached behind her head for her hair…and saw gray strands instead of dark strands. Looking down at her body, she saw her clothes from the previous day, a little ruined, but still wearable, although she was missing a shoe. But she smiled; she was herself again.
But around her, beside the wall where she was, were disappearing chunks of something she couldn't recognize, even if she tried to. Someone would have to tell her what was going on here.
"Could you answer me just one question, sir?" She asks, a little at ease to hear her own voice.
"Nothing funny," the man responds.
"Did I hurt anyone?"
"What?"
"Did I hurt anyone? I don't remember falling asleep. I'm just worried that I might've hurt someone. Anyone, really."
"To answer your question…no, you didn't. Eight Titans appeared last night…and you killed them. You never laid a hand on anyone taking shelter behind the wall."
"Thank you, sir."
The man was a little puzzled by this girl. From what he heard and saw last night, this girl was the infamous Dark Titan that appeared five years ago, and was the supposed reason only Shiganshina District was abandoned by people due to the decrease in Titan numbers. What puzzled him about her was her age, appearance and overall personality; she didn't seem to have a drive to harm anyone, for better or for worse.
"Who are you?" He asks her.
"I'm Kaede Sogen," she answers him as she slowly rises up to meet his gaze better, seeing that behind him were several men and women, dressed in dark green cloaks with the symbol of the Survey Corps on them, each of them brandishing these blades that were meant to kill Titans, and she takes a step back against the wall, concerned. "Are you…going to kill me?"
The man, holding a blade in front of her, as well, lowers it down and responds, "Not right now, Ms. Sogen. There are some questions that need to be answered."
To be continued…