The Dark Titan: Minus One

by Traitor of All Traitors

Even with the abandonment of just one district, what remained of the human race behind three concentric walls was still at a state of zero. A young man driven to anger over having his dreams unfulfilled. A young woman trapped in the darkness of her grim reality. A second attack will force one to confront the ravages of what was and change what can become into something more.

3. Trials and Outrage

Creation began on 02-27-24

Creation ended on 03-03-24

Attack on Titan

The Dark Titan: Trials and Outrage

It was disturbing, but people were worried…and had every right to be. Even Eren Yeager, despite his dismissal from the Cadet Corps, decided to show up to see the silent grim that was Kaede Sogen sitting before several men that wanted to decide her fate. Unlike what he had normally heard of, the gray-haired girl was not restrained to a pole, but she was bound by heavy manacles chained to the floor. The girl didn't even look like she was trying to resist.

"So, she's the Dark Titan?" A woman asks. "She's…so young."

"Yeah, fourteen or fifteen years old," a man states. "She can't be a Titan; she doesn't even look like a threat."

"I've heard about the Dark Titan, but I never believed in what it could do. Is it true that that it only killed Titans?"

"I heard it was over fifteen meters."

"It actually stopped a Titan from eating someone once."

"Why isn't she trying to escape?"

Eren found the civilians' questions to be ludicrous. Whatever Kaede's reasons for just cooperating, he hoped that she got the full measure of what she deserved.

"All rise," one of the men tasked with deciding the girl's fate utters, and everyone rises in attendance. "Now sit."

Everyone did as instructed.

"The accused?" Another man utters, and a woman sitting beside Kaede raises her hand.

"Kaede Sogen," she says.

"And the accusation?"

"Miss Sogen stands before us…accused of being this infamous Dark Titan that appeared in Trost District more than three days ago."

"Any additional charges?"

"There is the assumption that Ms. Sogen has been the Dark Titan ever since the day the Colossal Titan appeared in Shiganshina District five years ago."

There were several murmurs as Kaede simply sat where she was chained.

"And we're to understand that her parents are being detained to prevent any possible misdirection in this case?"

"Voluntarily detained; her mother is adamant about her innocence of any wrongdoing."

"I just have one other thing to question before we begin: The hair?"

The woman, Kaede's public defender, simply chuckles.

"I don't follow," she responds.

"Why is her hair gray?" The man clarified.

"She's a gray head, sir. Always has been."

The men looked to one another in confusion; this was supposed to be about what had happened, and they were questioning her hair color at a time like this?

"Uh, Ms. Sogen," the man in the middle utters, "as you stand before this panel, accused of being the Dark Titan, do you deny this accusation?"

"No, sir," Kaede responds, and the people behind her started murmuring again.

"Can you explain how this is possible?"

"No, sir."

"Why not?"

"If I knew how, I would have nothing to be suspected of hiding because I would say how."

That was not something any of them expected to hear. If the girl knew how, she would tell them. This implied that she was in the dark on how she became a Titan.

"Do you remember anything from your time as a Titan?" A second man on the far left asks her.

"Just a little."

"Such as?"

"Walking down the street, attracting the Titans that were present, going to where the breach was to Trost's outer gate, my interaction with the people that approached me, and my writing words on the ground to get my responses expressed."

"It was recently brought to our attention," went the man on the middle left, "that, while a Titan, you expressed dislike towards one individual. Do you deny this?"

Kaede lowers her head and responds, "I do not deny this, sir. I do dislike someone."

"The same person who filed the claim for unlawful destruction of property?"

"If it's who I think it is, he's the only one I dislike in every sense of the word."

"Eren Yeager?"

"Yes."

Again, the people in the background murmur over what they were hearing.

"Eren, you need to let this go," went Armin to his friend. "You're going to make trouble when trouble is already bad here."

"It's her fault," Eren responds. "She needs to be held accountable."

"You can't give her the benefit of the doubt? She probably doesn't even remember what she did at the time."

"Whether or not she remembers anything, she has to answer for it."

"Damn, Yeager," went Jean to him. "I'm starting to see why this girl doesn't like you at all."

"Do you have any recollection of the events that transpired in Shiganshina District five years ago on that day the Colossal Titan appeared?" The man in the middle asks Kaede.

"Only the morning and evening, sir," she answers. "I have no recollection of that afternoon, which I'm told was the time the Colossal Titan appeared."

"How is that possible?"

"I do not know, sir. However, I have minor recollection of how I felt when the Yeager home was destroyed by me."

"How you felt when their home was destroyed?"

"I felt that Eren Yeager deserved it in the end."

People murmured over this revelation.

"He deserved it?" The man on the middle right questions.

"I haven't felt safe from people like him ever since the day he provoked me into almost killing him. While I don't feel anything negative towards his parents and I do feel remorse for their loss of home, I felt that Eren needed to realize that his actions carry consequences when he pushes people to misbehave. It was the only time I ever felt righteous in what happened to him."

"But…you didn't possess any feelings of personal vengeance towards him?" The man on the far right asks her. "Even as a Titan, you felt no drive to…execute him or anyone else?"

"No. Why would I want to do that to people?"

"Anyone is capable."

"Even so, I wouldn't want to do that to anyone. People that go up against the Titans are just people that are in a hurry to die before they can actually get to live. Rather than fear sickness or old age, they fear monsters that look like giant people that, for some odd reason, want to eat other people and ignore animals like birds or deer. Rather than just live behind the Walls where it was believed the Titans couldn't get us, they constantly left just to face something that could kill them. While I don't have any right to tell them not to or how to live, I want nothing to do with people like that."

"You once threw a fit when someone suggested that you enlist in the military?"

"That was me expressing my right to decline any and all suggestions that I go join any military factions for any reasons. There is more to life than that of a soldier."

"Point taken. However, the point of this trial is to decide your fate regarding your position as this Dark Titan. In the end, we must consider the safety of the people."

"But do we consider any option that is that…harsh?" The man on the far left of the panel questions, to which Kaede does feel the need to worry.

If they felt she was a danger for any reason to the people within the Walls, they would have her executed…and she didn't want to die. She didn't want to die before she could truly live her life on her terms.

"Just because she hasn't made any attempt to harm others," the man in the middle right states, "it doesn't mean that she won't later on. She could be affiliated with the Colossal and Armored Titans for all we know."

Kaede wanted to raise her hand to question something, but due to being restrained, she couldn't ask anything without raising her voice, and she didn't want to raise her voice and give the wrong impression to anyone.

"Gentlemen," went someone from the background, and everyone stepped back to reveal the young man that Kaede had met outside Trost District the morning after she was revealed to be the Dark Titan, "based on what we had witnessed, there's nothing to indicate that Ms. Sogen knows of anything regarding the Colossal and Armored Titans. And based on the witness accounts of people that have had regular contact with the girl, she doesn't exhibit any actual hostility towards other people, excluding this Eren Yeager that had provoked her into conflict once, earning his first strike."

"And what does the Survey Corps have to prove of this, Captain Levi?" The man in the middle wanted to know.

"I looked her in her eyes, and she lacks any measure of absolute apathy towards other people. When asked if we were going to kill her when she saw us, she made zero attempt to fight back or flee. Even when being escorted to her cell, she never made any move to try and get away or talk her way out of being confined. In addition, not once during the time she was watched by the prison guards did she ever complain about anything said or done to her."

The men look at Kaede and didn't know whether to be impressed or more concerned with her behavior. From what they understood about people being incarcerated or detained, they raise fits, their voices, protest about their cruel treatment, or even just being denied access to a restroom. But from what they were hearing about Ms. Sogen, the girl was nothing but cooperative.

"So, basically, she's a cooperative young lady," the man in the middle spoke. "That doesn't say much about what she's capable of if she felt provoked or endangered by someone and then she becomes a danger to the public."

"However," went a man that was older than Levi, with blond hair and a different type of expression on his face, "someone like Ms. Sogen could demonstrate an opportunity against Titans in the future."

"Commander Smith," went the man of the middle right. "What do you mean by, 'an opportunity against Titans in the future?'"

"Miss Sogen is believed to be capable of turning into a Titan, although she has only been seen as a Titan twice in her life. Because of this, we know next to nothing about what she's capable of. But if something like this ability were to be studied, she could prove to be an invaluable ally against the Titans instead of a threat to the public."

"What exactly are you suggesting?"

"Release Ms. Sogen into the custody of the Survey Corps for observation and evaluation. We'll monitor her actions. If at any time she demonstrates hostility, we'll execute her on the spot."

Even Kaede had a reason to feel worried about this now.

"And if she's not a threat?" The man on the far left asks. "If she's…cooperative as she has been described as being since her incarceration?"

"Then we request her aid in retaking the Shiganshina District of Wall Maria where the initial breach was made."

Retake Shiganshina District? Kaede thought as the people in the background murmured over what this man, Commander Smith, had suggested.

"You're suggesting that we entrust a girl that has demonstrated zero interest in the military…with the very possibility of retaking a district that had been abandoned five years ago when the Colossal and Armored Titans appeared? The same girl who, in question, has no knowledge of how this ability to turn into a Titan was even bestowed upon her?"

"If she steps out of line once, gentlemen," a strange woman with goggles on head went, "even just once, she's a goner. But if she values her life above all else, she's bound to cooperate. Even if a deal were to be setup in front of her in exchange for her cooperation."

Unfortunately, Eren didn't like this idea; the very thought of Kaede Sogen being allowed to join the Survey Corps as some sort of…Titan agent…just to take back Shiganshina and bring people back from the status of minus…just infuriated him. He'd rather see her executed.

"What have you to say of this, Ms. Sogen?" The man in the middle right questioned, and Kaede turns to face the three people that more than likely wanted her to join their cause…when she felt the need to question something that may have meant something else was going on that she didn't know about.

"Uh, Mr. Smith sir," she utters, "your branch of the military, the Survey Corps, has gone out on multiple expeditions past the Walls since before the Colossal Titan appeared, right?"

"That is correct," Smith responds.

"But when you were out during the expedition to Shiganshina District, not once did you or any in your expedition encounter the Colossal Titan when it appeared outside Wall Rose, did you?"

"No, we did not."

"That…doesn't make any sense, don't you think?"

"Excuse me?"

"The Colossal Titan? It stands about sixty meters in height, right? That's almost two-hundred feet. Based on those that saw it when it first appeared five years ago, it looks like a man that has been skinned alive and emits steam from its body. Nobody that ventured out past the Walls has ever reported anything even close to such a monster before the Shiganshina breach. And then, it appears just outside of Trost…and it disappears just as quickly as it appeared that day. I'm not suggesting that any of your people overlooked where it was or missed it whenever you went out on your expeditions; even if it were crawling on its arms and legs, you would have to still be able to see it…and it would have to make noise to indicate where it was or where it was going. You don't find this to be unusual at all? A Titan that massive, not to mention hideous, and nobody sees it since the first time it appeared five years ago…and then it just appears again…just to kick a hole in the wall?"

Commander Smith looks at the gray-haired girl like she knew more than they wanted to know. When he thought about it, it didn't make any sense at all. The Colossal Titan, based on its description, would be impossible not to notice due to its size. His unit had encountered over a dozen Titans in the last five years, most of which were fifteen meters or less, but not a single one of them resembled the Colossal Titan or the Armored Titan. And when he thought about it some more, a Titan kicking a hole in the wall…and then disappearing right afterward…wasn't all that different from a kid breaking a window and running away before being caught.

"Are you inferring something?" He asks her.

"Just one thing," she replies. "Not an error on your part, whatsoever, but what if…these two Titans that haven't been seen by anyone since they appeared five years ago…and just a few days ago…are like me?"

Everyone looked at Kaede like she had said something beyond insane.

"What if these Colossal and Armored Titans…are just people that can turn into Titans?" She suggests. "If such were possible, then that would mean an expedition, with the exception of reclaiming Shiganshina District, would be moot in apprehending such monsters…because the monsters would be under our noses."

"She's right," the woman with goggles expresses. "If such were the case, that would mean that anyone…everyone…would be suspected of such dangerous behavior."

"But then the question becomes more difficult to answer because of the reason behind the actions," Kaede adds.

"The reason behind the actions?" Levi echoes.

"The why, sir. If the two Titans that attacked five years ago are people, why did they do it? Was it an accident of some sort? Or…was it deliberate?"

Even this made Eren upset with the girl further because of her responses. If Titans were just people pretending to be monsters, and they attacked Shiganshina that day…on purpose, why did they do so? Why attack a city walled off from the Titans? Why enable Titans to kill or threaten the people that were forced to flee from their homes? It made no sense at all to do this.

-x-

Excluding the Sogen girl's parents, only one other person vouched for Kaede's cooperation with the Survey Corps in exchange for her right to continue living and walk away from any life of military duty if she was disinterested in such a life. That was a former member of the Survey Corps, Keith Shadis, who, despite his transfer from the Survey Corps to the Cadet Corps, demonstrated a willingness to see the gray-haired girl as being particularly special because of her current situation as the Dark Titan.

"If the girl lacks any desire to actually harm other people, and only destroyed one family home after saving someone from being killed by a Titan," he claimed when he vouched for Kaede, "I doubt she'd be a threat to anyone except other Titans. For five years now, she's never bothered anyone that has never bothered her. Honestly, if she were being evaluated in the military, she would seem like the kind of person that doesn't really seek conflict with others and would rather be left alone by those that do seek conflict. That's…basically who she is, someone that wants to be undisturbed by the troubles of other people and live her life peacefully, and if it means staying out of trouble, all the more reason not to turn her into a soldier."

It was like he saw the girl for who she really was instead of what she could've been or what others wanted to see her become, and it was only because of his opinion that the judges agreed to let her go in the custody of the Survey Corps. Strictly put, they would evaluate her Titan abilities and then make a plan to reclaim Shiganshina District. If at any time she demonstrated hostility, even by accident, they would put her down. However, if she proved her worth and was able to help reclaim Shiganshina, Kaede would be allowed to go free soon after; there would be no further exploitation of her, no harassment, no attempt to guilt-trip her into continuing, and whatever charges that were brought against her would be dismissed in the interests of justice.

"I don't like this, Kaede," Christine tells her daughter, not wanting to let her go with these people from the Survey Corps.

"I don't, either," Kaede admits, holding her knapsack full of her personal items, "but if I can help them reclaim Shiganshina, they have to let me go soon after. If do this, then I can get on with my life. I won't have to…look over my shoulder every now and then."

"Except, perhaps, for that boy," Sig expresses. "And if what you suggested is also true, then that means that there are other people out there, people that can turn into Titans…and they might've attacked Shiganshina on purpose. Do you really not remember anything that happened that afternoon the Colossal Titan appeared? Anything?"

Kaede nods her head in the negative; she only recalls events from the morning and evening, but the afternoon was a complete blur.

"I'm sorry if it makes me seem like I'm hiding something," she apologizes to them.

"No, it's not that at all," Sig states. "That day…before the Titan appeared…it was the last time I ever saw or spoke to my father. I said some really hurtful things to him."

Kaede's expression became blank as the thought of her step-grandfather made her feel…uncomfortable. She wanted so much to shudder at the mere sight of the elder.

"Kaede, are you okay?" Her mother asks her, noticing that her skin tone changed slightly. "You seem paler than you did after you were found in the aftermath."

"I… Just old memories," she claims, but in truth…the girl was trying not to think of that man at all. "I promise to keep in touch with you two."

Christine hugs Kaede tightly, not wanting to let her go, fearful of never seeing her baby girl ever again. Even Sig knew of this fear and wished that it would just be an impossibility instead of a possibility. But Kaede had to be hopeful of returning to these two when all was said and done with the Survey Corps. Once she did what she needed to do, she would be let go of, and that was what she wanted more than anything right now.

-x-

"Keith," went Carla to the embattled man after it was learned that the Survey Corps had the Sogen girl in their custody. "You vouched for her…but you don't know her. Why?"

Keith looks at her and responds, "She saved your life once, didn't she? How can she be a monster when she stopped a monster from trying to eat you? True, she destroyed your house…but not to hurt you. Wouldn't you have vouched for her?"

Carla thought about it…and admitted that she would've if she had to. Even when the gray-haired girl was revealed to be the same Titan that rendered her family homeless in Shiganshina, she knew that it was only to punish Eren, who still carried resentment towards the girl for putting him in the system.

"Honestly, Ms. Sogen is probably every mother's dream child," Keith expresses. "Polite, caring, friendly, basically nice."

While that claim might've been true, Carla had to consider the likelihood that, if Kaede was a mother's dream come true, that made her Eren the complete opposite of her, being the nightmare child because of his behavior and attitude towards the girl.

"Either way, thank you for vouching for her," she tells Keith, and he nods his head in understanding. "You're really a good person."

-x-

It was one thing to evaluate the girl and learn how her Titan power worked, but getting another girl's attention was something Kaede was put off by due to this particular girl's somewhat-disturbing fascination with Titans.

"So…when you turn into a Titan, you become larger than fifteen meters?" Hange Zoe asks Kaede, getting too close in her face.

"So I'm told," she replies.

"And it's always the same one, right down to the tiniest detail? Dark skin, dark hair, petite and muscular all over?"

"That's how it was described to me."

"And for real, you have no idea how this all happened to you?"

"No, I don't…and do you really need to be this close to me?"

Hange then noticed how Kaede was becoming tense from her close proximity and backed away.

"My bad," she apologized. "It's so exciting to meet you. There's a lot about Titans we still don't know, and your little speech about the Colossal and Armored Titans has raised concerns."

"It…just doesn't make any sense, how something that massive could get around unnoticed by anyone for such a long time and then show up out of nowhere just to kick a hole in the wall and then disappear again. If such a possibility of 'how' is true, it still raises the question of 'why'. Why…would someone do this? Was it just an accident…or deliberate?"

"Well," went Commander Smith to the girl, "now, we need to find out. Do you recall how you became a Titan during the Trost District attack?"

"Yes, I was injured by the debris that fell from the sky when the Colossal Titan breached the outer gate. I remember being in pain and wanting to sleep for a long time. I felt like I was dreaming…but then I got back up…and I was a Titan…but I was aware of everything I was doing the whole time. Except most of the time, it felt like I had tunnel vision; I could only see what was in front of me, not beside me. Still, I was conscious of everything I was doing and what I wanted to do while I was able to."

"And what did you want to do at the time?" Levi asks her.

"Protect the people and the place I know as home."

"There was a report that stated that, as the Dark Titan, you were dancing a little, drawing the other Titans that were in the district towards you before you killed them with your hair as a weapon," Commander Smith informs her. "Was that some sort of ability you possess, drawing Titans to you by dancing?"

"No, sir."

"Then…what, if anything, made you believe that the other Titans would come towards you?"

"Some people have a natural curiosity and a passion for dancing, that's all. Don't some people like dancing?"

That question was beyond unusual, mostly due to the fact that none of the members of the Survey Corps actually had much interest in dancing. But Kaede Sogen, the person behind the Dark Titan…was the only one that seemed to possess such a passion for it.

"What kind of life do you lead?" He asks her.

"Just a simple one," she explains. "I get up each day and I'm out and about. I follow a routine that I rarely deviate from. I try to avoid unnecessary conflict with other people at all times. Anyone that tries to drag me into something I want no part of, I avoid at all costs…unless, of course, they find an excuse to be irrational and overly intrusive of my personal space and question my sense of priorities or personal beliefs, then I feel I have no other choice but to lash out against them."

"Like how that Yeager boy forced you to lash out against him?"

Kaede sighs and nods her head.

"Since all we have on him is gossip and his dismissal from the Cadet Corps, what do you know about him?" Levi asks her.

"Other than the fact that he idolizes the Survey Corps, regardless of the difficulties you face every time you leave the Walls and return with fewer people from the expeditions, he's a stubborn brat that constantly gets into trouble with people. It's because of this behavior that led him to being on the three-strike registry; he crosses the line two more times, and he goes away, and for a long time."

"He sounds like he has it out for you, though," Hange states. "He filed a complaint against you after it was revealed that you were the Titan that destroyed his house. Maybe his attitude towards you is more personal than a casual dispute."

"I have nothing personal against the Yeager family, whatsoever…although, I don't like the son as a person at all. It's difficult to see someone like that as anything but a person when they demonstrate… When they demonstrate…"

"When they demonstrate?" Commander Smith says.

"When they demonstrate rotten behavior all the time," Kaede finally states. "When they want to question everything that is instead of just being content with the way things are. People like Yeager are constantly in a rush to throw their lives away and want others to join them in doing so. Me? I have no problem with people that make personal choices on what to do with their own lives…so long as it's their own lives they want to gamble with, but when they try to make choices for other people, without their permission, knowing that something could go wrong, it's asking for too much over something that they may not even agree with at all if it doesn't go their way. If you want to fight something that can hurt you or worse, that's your choice…but don't expect someone like me to come to your rescue when you realize that you're in over your head and it's too late to go back. You basically make your bed…and you sleep in it with whoever is going to put you down."

Kaede couldn't believe that she said all of this, and it stemmed from how she felt towards the young man that was on the registry. But in the end, she was a simple girl with simple interests…and no desire for a life of conflict…and had no space in her life available to those that sought conflict, whether it was necessary or unnecessary. If Smith, Levi and Hange had to consider such a possibility, the Sogen girl was not too different from members of the nobility; she preferred a quiet life over one of war, and trying to drag her into war would turn her into someone she couldn't stand to be. Fortunately for her, if she could use her Titan power to help retake Shiganshina, she wouldn't have to worry about anything after that.

If she could help them retake that district.

"Where do you see yourself?" Smith asks her. "Several years from now?"

"Older, probably being a dance instructor," Kaede responds, "maybe married to the right person that gets me, with a small family. Nothing fancy or magnificent, just simple and stable."

"Sounds like the ambitions of someone from the nobility," Levi states.

"I wouldn't know of any nobles, and from what I heard of them, they have a refined sense of taste that I doubt I could ever follow."

"A refined sense of taste?" Hange questions.

"They eat fancy," she explains. "I doubt the tastes of a common girl is of any interest to someone behind Wall Sina where they live."

"No offense, but with your hair…you don't strike me as a commoner. Honestly, you look like a princess or an angel."

"Thank you."

-x-

The Garrison division was looking for civilian volunteers to help with the project to repair the outer gate of Trost District after a security grid was established to ensure the safety of people from the Titans if they returned, and Eren, due to having no choice or luck in the matter, volunteered to aid in clearing the debris.

"So, you're working now?" He hears Shadis' voice behind him as he moves a wheelbarrow full of debris.

"I heard you vouched for the Sogen girl to be released into the custody of the Survey Corps," he replies. "You know what she is, don't you?"

"I only know that she's the reason you're on the registry because you set her off and you were almost killed because you set her off. I know that I needed to be unbiased towards her potential service to the people and her own desire to live her life when I vouched for her. I understand that you're prejudiced towards her."

"She was a Titan the whole time…and she destroyed my home."

"She's right, you know."

"What?"

"Your actions, like everyone else's actions, carry consequences when you go too far. And while she confessed to the crime of destroying your home, she only felt remorse for what she did to your parents. She didn't feel anything but righteousness towards what she did to you, the person she wanted to hurt because you hurt her."

"She was trying to be a weakling, I was trying to make her see that being nice is a coward's move when asking people to do something."

"You were trying to turn her into a bully…and you nearly died because of your choice. All she did was ask you to step aside…and you decided to make a scene of it. Even though you were the one with the bruises and scrapes, you were not the victim, Eren. She was the victim. She was the victim because you refused to move out of the way, thinking you didn't have to, even when asked to."

"What does she have against the military?"

"More like what she has against people like you, and it's obvious to everyone except you."

"And what is that supposed to mean?"

"Are you that stubborn to understand that not everyone is like you? You keep trying to get others to do things that they don't want to consider doing at all, you're going to wind up in the ground…or worse, in a cell for the rest of your life, and that's if you're fortunate enough to live to see old age. So, I'll say what everyone tells you to do: Stay away from Kaede Sogen. You're better off not messing with her."

But Eren fumed as he pushed the wheelbarrow off to empty its contents to go reload on the next pile from the breach.

Shadis sighs as he wonders what it really was about Kaede Sogen that made Eren so hostile towards her. If it wasn't the fact that he was on the three-strike registry because of her, it was something else entirely. He hardly believed it had anything to do with her being the Dark Titan and rendering his family homeless. From his perspective, if Kaede hadn't done it, someone else likely would have done it just to spite the boy.

If Ms. Sogen can help reclaim Shiganshina, we'll no longer be at our state of zero or minus, he thinks as he resumes his voluntary job of shifting through the debris for overlooked corpses. From what I heard, the list of casualties here was less than two percent. Maybe ten of twenty victims due to the lack of Titans inside the district. Kaede Sogen must be an act of God if she's a Titan that can do what she does.

-x-

All she had to do was turn into a Titan, which was difficult because they didn't know exactly how to do so, but after they managed to pull it off, it was the things that came afterwards that were difficult because of several factors. One of which was Kaede's current inability to communicate with people unless she wrote her limited responses down in the ground. The second factor was the girl's lack of knowledge on how to turn back into a person; Captain Levi attempted to extract the girl from the Dark Titan's nape, deducing that, because that was where a Titan's weak point resided, she was likely to reside there, as well…only to find, to his surprise, that her body was not there, only muscle, bone and nerves, which prompted the Dark Titan to etch into the ground beside it that he was causing Kaede pain.

"Okay, that's unusual," went Hange as she couldn't believe that she was in the presence of the Dark Titan as it regenerated from Levi's attempt to remove the girl from its body.

Then came the tests on what the Titan was capable of, ranging from running beside the wall to jumping and throwing things. Contrary to what Levi thought of the Titan when it came to running, the Dark Titan demonstrated speed that was…unnatural; once it took a breath, with its long hair wrapped around its limbs, it ran faster than the fastest horse, from one end of a district to the beginning of another district miles away. If it weren't for the fact that Levi and Hange were with her when this test took place, neither would've believed it unless they had seen it firsthand. And, as frightening as it had been, Kaede herself wouldn't have believed herself to be capable of running so fast, either.

"It was a good thing we were hanging on her back," Hange expressed, back on the ground and unable to believe that they were away from Trost District and right outside of Karanes District. "How long would you say that was? Ten minutes?"

"Fifteen minutes at the most," Levi responds, still in disbelief that they were outside Karanes District when, just a short while ago, they were outside Trost District.

Within her Titan, Kaede looked around and couldn't believe that she had run that far.

"Accept all that you are and all that you can be, Kaede," she recalls a voice she couldn't remember where she heard from, "and embrace the darkness that chose you. Release yourself from what you dread…and you will know the peace you seek from your future."

She knelt down and started etching words into the ground; she had to let Hange and Levi know what she was recalling right now so that they would understand later.

"I just remembered a dream where a voice was telling me to accept and embrace what I am and what I can be in order to know peace in my future," she etched into the ground.

"A voice was telling you to embrace the fact that you can become a Titan?" Hange asks her.

"Acceptance is a path to peace. If you can accept yourself as you are and then embrace it, you will know peace as time passes."

"Can you remember anything else?" Levi asks her, and the Dark Titan's eyes began to water.

She etched into the ground and revealed something that was her dread she needed to release herself from.

"My step-grandfather," she etched into the ground. "He's the reason I'm this way right now. I remember him doing something to me before the day Shiganshina was abandoned."

"Who was he?"

"Grausam Zanki."

Hange's face expressed puzzlement from the name of Kaede's step-grandfather; she got the feeling that she heard of his name from somewhere, but she didn't know where.

Grausam Zanki? She wonders. Who was he?

But deep within the Dark Titan, Kaede's consciousness reflected on that horrid day the elderly took advantage of her and put her in this mess she was in. It was a day she wanted to simply forget about forever, but the knowledge of the Dark Titan that would seem to follow her for the rest of her life had seared the memory into her brain and wouldn't be erased. Words that had been spoken and heard reverberated across the halls of her memory to be heard once more.

"Regenerate," his voice had uttered as she lay strapped to a table in his basement room. "Transform from the weak and pathetic shackles of humanity and become something that is as close to immortal than anything we'll ever achieve… I'll have to up the dosage on you…"

There was a moment where she thought she could recall more of that day, but she must've been sedated or something because everything else was a blur. Or maybe she was slipping in and out of consciousness, which would explain her lack of recollection. Either way, it had to be Grausam's doing for her current situation as the Dark Titan. If only she could remember why he did it…and what became of him.

"Was there anything about him that stood out in the past?" Levi asks. "Was he balding? Did he require a walking stick? Did he move with a hunchback? Anything?"

The Dark Titan pulled back its right leg and pointed to its left leg.

"He only had one leg? He was disabled?" Levi asks again, and the Titan nods. "That's a clue."

"Let's see how long it takes to go all around Wall Rose," Hange suggests, still impressed by the Dark Titan's speed.

-x-

"…With Ms. Sogen currently in the custody of the Survey Corps," said Reiner to Bertolt and Annie during a lunch break, "we may have to reconsider the operation."

"You think she's the reason our initial plan failed?" Annie questions.

"There were fewer Titans than expected and then this Dark Titan appears again. You weren't awake when it appeared, but shortly after the Titans got in, it showed up and made short work of them with its limbs and hair. It actually made me fear for my own safety if I tried to face it, so I just broke the inner gate and made my escape. If it could cut through Titans with its hair like that, it was only a matter of how much effort it would take to break through the Armored Titan. But if we get her and bring her back, there might be a way out of this mess."

"You think she's the one we've been after all this time?" Bertolt suggests. "I'm going to have to stop you and point out some problems with this theory of yours. One: She doesn't seem to have any connection to the royal family, whatsoever, as her last name is Sogen, not Fritz. Two: She's a civilian, a nobody of any significance…who just so happens to have gray hair that makes her stand out. And three: She's, what, fourteen years old? If this were the case and she was a Titan before we showed up, then she only has less than nine years or so, which is more than what we have. And from what Eren Yeager said about her, and that's if his knowledge is even reliable, she has no interest in the military. A girl like her is next to useless, even if she's got power like that. We don't know what she's capable of."

"And that's what makes her a potential threat right now," Reiner explains, "the fact that we don't know what she can do. We have to consider the possibility that she's who we're after. The sooner we apprehend her, the sooner we can go home."

"Just one problem with that strategy," Annie reminds him. "What she said at her tribunal has made the public question the likelihood of why the Colossal Titan showed up at Wall Rose so suddenly and was unseen by the Survey Corps since the abandonment of Shiganshina. If they're taking this seriously, then it means we're all suspected of any unusual activity. That means we'll be investigated in due time."

Reiner and Bertolt sigh over this turn of events. As they had been in that large room where the Sogen girl up and suggested that that the Colossal and Armored Titan were similar to herself, this made people suspicious of each other when out of sight and out of mind. But Reiner felt there was an opportunity in this.

"They're looking for the Colossal and Armored Titans," he tells her. "They're not looking for anyone else. We have to look into the Sogen girl and decide how to deal with her."

Annie didn't like this. The original plan was to infiltrate the Military Police and attack Wall Sina. If they deviated from the plan just because of an assumption that this gray-haired girl was who they were after, there was no turning back and no way to stop what was to come later on. While Annie didn't want to risk her life over a lousy assumption, she did want to return home. In the end, that was all she wanted to do.

"If I get killed because of you," she threatens Reiner, "I will make the ground open beneath your feet and send you to Hell, Braun."

To be continued…

A/N: Okay, in this story, this incarnation of Kaede Sogen and her Dark Titan are in at least one way that's a hindrance in the neck. And can anyone take a guess at why a man like Keith Shadis would vouch for Kaede after it's revealed that she's the Dark Titan and how a deal like hers could be made in exchange for her aid in reclaiming Shiganshina? As for Eren's status, all things come full circle in time. Until the next chapter…and Hange's insane interest in the Dark Titan.