Creation began on 03-07-24
Creation ended on 03-13-24
Attack on Titan
The Dark Titan: Agony in the Darkness
Knock-knock! Christine Sogen hears a knock at the front door and gets up from the table in the kitchen and answers it.
"Hello," she greets the people outside, but then notices that they weren't just any people. "Mimi? Julietta? Julietta Pritchard and Mimi Hayes?"
The two young women, surprised that Christine Sogen still recognized them, even after five years of distance, bowed their heads to her.
"Ma'am," the Garrison soldier holding the little girl in her arms greeted back. "We heard about Kaede and was wondering if she was still here."
"No," Christine explains. "She left with members of the Survey Corps yesterday and… I'm sorry, but is he with you?"
Christine points to someone behind them, and they turn to see a young man that was none other than Eren Yeager.
"No," the other girl responds, recognizing him due to his face. "He's that boy from before! Yeager! We have nothing to do with him, Mrs. Sogen! I swear! We're just here to make sure that Kaede was alright! I know we didn't see each other for five years, and that can leave feelings of grief that everyone was feeling, but some of us weren't sure how to move past losing Shiganshina and went wherever we could to make do with what we had left."
"And then we heard that Kaede was in military custody here and wanted to make sure she was okay," the Garrison girl expresses their reason for being here. "There was talk about her and the Dark Titan that saved some people and…"
"You were worried that she was going to be executed?" Christine asks them, cutting them off.
"Yes," they answer back.
"So far, it hasn't come to that. So far, she's with the Survey Corps in the hopes that she can help them reclaim Shiganshina. If that works out, they have to let her go."
"She's really with the Survey Corps?" The civilian girl questions. "But…doesn't Kaede…dislike the military?"
"Yes, and still does. Uh…Julietta…what's with the little girl?" Christine feels the need to ask the Garrison girl holding the child.
"She's mine," Julietta answers her. "This is Charlotte."
"So…you two were really worried about Kaede?"
"She's our friend," the other girl, Mimi, responds. "I mean…we hope she still is."
Christine was about to say something else when she has to look at Eren Yeager again, seeing him glaring at them.
"Maybe you three should come inside," she offers them, just wanting to get away from the boy.
They turn to look at him and agree on stepping inside.
-x-
It was one thing to encounter another intellectual Titan that meant to harm them, but it was another thing altogether to hear the Dark Titan speak for the first time, and in agony before it retaliated against the fourteen-meter Titan. And then, there was the results of the difference between the two Titans that were evident from the view of the Survey Corps members. While it appeared that this strange Titan with prominent feminine features exhibited a combination of flexibility, agility, even martial arts capabilities that were not so different from regular people, the Dark Titan's greater height, its razor-sharp hair…and unleashed rage…made it the greater threat of the two. This…and the fact that, just mere moments ago, the feminine Titan hardened its hands and feet against the Dark Titan, it demonstrated no fear of losing any of its body parts and tackled the enemy to the ground…and was a lot stronger than it appeared when it came to rage unleashed.
Armin could only watch in horror and awe as the Dark Titan pummeled the other Titan with a sense of fury that he had seen in Kaede once before when Eren provoked her. It was the same fury that came with the likelihood of crossing the line, and Kaede was nearing that line again.
"God, this girl is pissed!" Sasha gasps as the Dark Titan was kicked in the face by the enemy's left foot, shredding its cheeks, but all that did was make the Dark Titan grab its leg and tear it away. "Aaah!"
"You like that?!" The Dark Titan yells at it as it tears away its right arm and tosses it aside. "You like that, whoever you are in there?!"
If there was a reason to fear Kaede Sogen's Dark Titan, it was now as it was dismembering this enemy Titan with mere brute strength.
"Rrrrraaurgh!" The Titan shrieked loudly, but then had its scream silenced by the Dark Titan jamming its left hand into its mouth.
Snap! Kaede must've intended to use extreme force when she jammed her Titan's hand into its mouth that it practically tore the upper portion of its head off!
"What the Hell?!" Bertolt gasps as the Dark Titan gets up and jams its right hand into the back of the headless Titan and tears out its spinal cord. "Gaaaah!"
Thud! The Dark Titan collapsed onto the ground, panting heavily as it raised up the damaged piece of bone to examine…and then set it down.
"It…hurts," it utters as it feels a sense of calmness overtake it. "It hurts…no more."
As it sat there, the scattered pieces of the enemy Titan started to evaporate while its own injuries began regenerating. Its eyes darted to the right where the spinal cord lay wasting away…and it grabbed something near it.
"Kaede Sogen!" Erwin yells as they came over with their blades brandished.
Slowly, the Dark Titan brought its right hand in front of them and opened it up, revealing what surprised them.
"Does anyone…belong to this person?" It asks, releasing the girl that was covered in layers of evaporating Titan tendrils.
A tall, blond-haired girl, dressed in the uniform of the Military Police!
"No way," Armin gasps; he recognized this girl from the Cadet Corps, one of the top ten to qualify for the Military Police. "That's Annie!"
As she got up, Annie looked at the Survey Corps and up at the Dark Titan, her expression one of disbelief. She didn't expect this being to be such a force because she was a lot more dangerous with her Titan power, but this girl, this civilian that people saw as some sort of sliver of hope…was something else. Maybe not a significant threat to people…but a force to be reckoned with if she were to continue unchecked.
"Identify yourself!" Erwin orders the girl. "Who are you?!"
Annie glares at him with refusal, just as several strands of dark hair rise up around her.
"Answer him, please," the Dark Titan utters, looking down at her. "I just ripped your Titan to pieces. How long do you think it'll take to rip you to pieces? Will you recover? Can you survive that? Should we see about it?"
Grip! The hair strands wrap around her wrists, binding her.
"What do you want me to do with her, sir?"
-x-
"Please, tell me you're not trying to bother the Sogens, Yeager," Eren hears Shadis say to him as he was behind the youth. "The last thing we need is another complaint from someone about someone else causing problems."
"I'm not doing anything," Eren speaks up, "and I'm not the one facing scrutiny from people."
"I'm only going to say this once. Whatever animosity you feel towards the Sogen girl, drop it and move on. Just walk away and never look back. Do you need a reminder of what happened to you the first time you bothered her?"
"I didn't do anything! She attacked me!"
"Because you provoked her. If I have to, Eren Yeager, I will file a restraining order against you. What is it about the Sogens that make you feel like you have to bother them at every opportunity? What is it about Kaede Sogen that makes you feel like you have to…hassle her?"
"Everyone thinks she can be this ally when all she is is a…is a…"
"What, Eren? What is she?"
"She's a failure of a person that will never amount to anything of value because she refuses to fight for something worth fighting for. All this time, she had this ability to fight the Titans, and instead of using it to help years ago, she hides it. She hides herself everyday, pretending to be what she isn't, thinking she can go back to the delusion that she can be like everyone else when she's not like everyone else. I honestly don't know what she is…other than some freak."
Bash! Eren was hit on the back of his head by someone…and Keith saw that it was one of the two girls that had gone to the Sogen home, the one in the Garrison uniform.
"You're the freak, Eren Yeager!" She calls him. "Say one more thing wrong about Kaede again. Go ahead, say something. Because your opinions are poison, and they will get you killed or worse if you keep running your mouth like that, and they just make me want to put you in the ground for the world to look down and see. Now, say something."
Eren looks at her in fury…but finds himself unable to come up with a response, and sees the other girl holding the little girl, looking at him with contempt. He recognizes them from years ago in Shiganshina…where they had to pull Kaede off of him before she killed him in anger because he refused to step out of the way.
"I'm with her," the girl holding the child says, "and I'm willing to help her do just that, because I really don't care much for your opinion towards Kaede. So what if she put you on the registry after you harassed her? So what if she destroyed your house because she felt that you deserved it? That's on you. But if you persist, if you so much as hound her because you can't get past it all…I hope they throw the book at you."
Eren just backed away and walked away. And Keith went with him.
"Ladies," he addressed them with a bow of his head.
"You don't need to follow me," Eren tells him.
"Considering the fact that you still have a problem with the Sogens, I do need to follow you. To keep you out of trouble."
Mimi and Julietta look at one another and sigh. They just stood up for Kaede, a girl they hadn't seen in five years, hoping she was doing fine because they wanted to reconcile for the years of distance and absence from her life. They didn't care that she was the Dark Titan. They cared about her.
"How long is your leave of absence from the eastern division, Julietta?" Mimi asks, handing her back Charlotte.
"Just for this month," she answers.
"We should get the band back together. We need a reunion for one of our own."
-x-
With Annie now their prisoner, the expedition to Shiganshina resumed its course, and everyone was in awe that the Dark Titan was able to run with such grace and speed that it felt more like they were…sliding across the terrain. Not even their horses could move them this far.
Armin looks down at Annie, wishing that the encounter from less than half an hour ago had been nothing more than a dream or a nightmare they were just trying to wake up from, but her silence and refusal to speak up on what she was doing and why…made him suspect that Kaede's claims of there being people that were capable of becoming Titans like her…but were willing to cause harm because of something as cruel as choosing to…made him ponder what else they were left in the dark about.
Why, Annie? He wonders to himself as he looks at her ring in his possession, seeing the small, curved blade that she likely used to harm herself with in order to become a Titan. Why would you do this? Why hide it? I thought we were all on the same side.
"Incredible," they all hear Levi say as they were now in front of a wall they hadn't seen in five years; it had felt like only a few minutes, but they had reached their destination that would take more than one day to reach on foot. "We're here."
Wall Maria's Shiganshina District.
"Welcome home, Kaede," the Dark Titan says as it walks through the inner breach that had been made by the Armored Titan, stepping out onto the land that was different from what they had last seen from five years ago. "Welcome home."
Everywhere they looked, houses and buildings covered in dust and weeds. The streets were littered with debris whatever was salvageable had been in disuse since the day this place had been abandoned. Everyone climbed off the Dark Titan's back and hair and started to look around in case there were Titans around, all while the Dark Titan had the job of gathering large pieces of rock or debris to use to make a makeshift sealant for the outer breach to keep any other Titans from getting inside.
"I can't believe that we actually made it here," went Connie as he looks down from atop the wall. "It's almost unreal."
"Yeah," Sasha agrees with him, seeing the Dark Titan exit the district through the outer breach, "it really is."
There were some nearby trees that were large enough to use, so Kaede had her Dark Titan rip them up from the ground and carry them over to the outer breach where she began digging a trench around the breach.
-x-
"How did it feel," went Reiner to Annie, keeping watch over her with Bertolt as everyone else was on sentry duty in case of the Titans, "facing the Dark Titan?"
"What do you think?" Annie responds, bitter and beyond upset over the whole thing. "This Sogen girl is not to be taken lightly. She's just full of surprises that even she probably has no clue about. Just who is she?"
"From what everyone else says about her," Bertolt expressed, "she's just a nobody. Nobody gives a damn about the nobodies."
"Well, this nobody came this close to killing me (Annie gestures with her left index finger and thumb). This close! And that look in her eyes… At first, I thought that Yeager was just a stubborn brat with an attitude problem, but after hearing about this girl that put him on a three-strikes registry because he hassled her a few years ago, I'm starting to see where that anger comes from with her. Anyone that upsets her in any way that goes too far…is like lighting a match or releasing a dangerous animal out of a cage…just for the Hell of it."
"Just for the Hell of it?" Bertolt questions, confused by her choice of words.
"When you decided to enlist in the Survey Corps, was there a reason behind your choice? Or did you do it because everyone was doing it?" Annie clarifies.
"I joined because I wanted to go home."
"Doing something for the Hell of it implies not having a reason at all to do it. There's no reason, no thought of why to do it…except for one's own amusement in seeing what happens afterward. But not with this girl with gray hair. You so much as cross her line once…all you can do is pray that she won't kill you…because she can if she wanted to."
"That's only if she wanted to," Reiner states. "She didn't kill you, even though she could've…because she understands that someone that can turn into a Titan at will is more valuable alive than dead…and she'd want to know why they did what they did five years ago."
"If the attack here was nothing more than an accident, she would try to make it so that the ones responsible got help to make sure that they don't do it again," Bertolt reminds them of the girl's sense of reasoning. "But if the ones behind the attack had done so deliberately, knowing of the anguish they would cause by doing so…then she'd want to make sure that…they get exactly what's coming to them for doing so."
"Look, you two…when we get started on returning to Trost…I want you to go back home."
"What?" Annie questions Reiner.
"Before we head back to Trost, you two are gonna make a run for it," he explains what he wants them to do. "Go home, tell them what we know, make them send backup or something."
"What about you?" Bertolt asks.
"Whoever's got it coming, right? That's what the girl will do if the people behind the Shiganshina attack five years ago did so deliberately. If she gets them, the ones that chose to do what they did…she might not think much about it if they're the only one that chose to do it all, right? She might not think about second guessing anything."
"And what if you're wrong?" Annie asks him. "What if just one person does nothing to satisfy her quest for vengeance?"
"I'll make sure of it."
Meanwhile, having finished the makeshift sealant for the outer breach, Kaede, still in her Dark Titan, reentered the breach and sat beside the wall on the right.
Erwin and Levi landed on the ground in front of her and saw her handiwork.
"You actually made that with rocks and trees, Ms. Sogen?" Levi asks her.
"I did," the Titan responds.
"It looks very sturdy," Erwin expresses.
"My father used to say that something sturdy works best when built that way. You want it to last for as long as possible if it can't last forever…and nothing lasts forever."
"I still can't believe that you're talking in that form," went Hange as she came over from her survey of the district, finding no Titans around at all. "You never once tried to talk earlier? Before Annie attacked you? At all?"
"No…and if we're being honest right now, talking like this feels like a burning sensation in my throat. It…hurts."
"It hurts…just to talk?" Erwin asks her.
"When she attacked me…and hit my neck (she gestures with her left hand)…it felt like I was choking and had to spit up, like something got knocked out of place. It still feels like that."
"You make it sound as though," Levi expresses, "you can feel everything that happens to your Titan…as though it were your actual body."
"Isn't that how it is right now? You made your discovery when you tried to extract me from my neck, only to find that my body wasn't there. I don't know where I am in this body…but I feel as I always do. I just don't feel cold."
"Titans seem to generate a lot more heat than any other warm-blooded organism," Hange states. "Constantly. They expel the excess heat from their bodies in the form of steam."
"Which probably explains why the Colossal Titan was reported being surrounded by steam. The larger you are, the more heat you generate…and the more steam you expel from your body. Wait a minute. Does this apply to the Armored Titan, as well?"
"It was only encountered one time five years ago, so our information on it is limited."
"Then indulge this likelihood, please. If a Titan generates more heat in the form of steam, how could a Titan covered in some sort of protective material that is believed to keep it safe from harm able to expel the heat it generates? That doesn't seem possible if it's protected against harm from top to bottom. Then again, yes, it was only seen once…but wouldn't you find something of the sort unusual if it was unable to?"
Hange thought about it and did suspect that steam generation was questionable if a Titan was covered in some sort of protective material that made it impossible to expel steam. However, as Hange understood it, something generated couldn't be contained if the container was designed to let it out in some way or another, meaning that steam generated by a Titan body had to be expelled from somewhere on the body. If a Titan functioned similar to a human, their hardened skin…or something that served as a sort of skin substitute…had to make it possible to expel certain substances without impeding the body too much. But how could a Titan like the Armored Titan expel excess heat?
"What about the mouth?" The Dark Titan asks. "Or the ears, even?"
"What?" Levi questions.
"People sweat in order to expel excess heat and water from their bodies, right? But if your body was covered in armor that makes it impossible to expel anything, it has to go out somewhere else, right?"
"If the Armored Titan's protective layers make it impossible to expel heat from its body normally," Erwin suggests, "then it is likely possible that it could expel heat from its mouth instead. It can't just keep it contained if it can't operate normally, however that is. It has to let it out from somewhere."
-x-
It was becoming frustrating to Carla to have to hear that Eren had paid an unwanted visit to the outside of the Sogen home, even though he didn't really do anything beyond upsetting Christine Sogen and two young women that were there. And while Keith made sure that he got home, he had to express to Carla that Eren seemed…unwilling to overlook the current situation with Kaede Sogen, which almost seemed to border on obsession.
"What will you do if he doesn't stop?" She asks Keith that evening, having offered him tea.
"While it's not a crime to show one's face or express opinions about people," Keith states, "it is a crime to harass people, even in situations like this that are unusual. And Eren seems to… He seems to have convinced himself that the Sogens, probably all three of them, not just Kaede Sogen, are the reason he failed to graduate from the Cadet Corps…and everything else that has occurred in his life since the day Shiganshina was abandoned. While I don't want to believe that he'll try something one day to upset the peace, if he does go near the Sogens, any one of them, and they feel threatened by him for any reason… I will ask that a restraining order be made against him to keep from going near them in the future."
"Won't the restraining order earn him a second strike on the registry?"
"No. He won't get a second strike unless he has committed an act that causes problems for the people. The last time anyone on the registry got a second strike was last year when a man attacked a woman and her daughter with a knife…and then received his third strike the month after when he attacked them again."
Carla sighs as she drinks out of her teacup again.
"I have nothing against the Sogens for what their daughter did…or has done," she tells Keith. "I mean, yes, she destroyed our house, but she saved my life from that other Titan. To me, a house is replaceable, but a life isn't. And if losing a house because someone that saves me feels that my son deserves to know that he made someone else feel unsafe around them or someone else in their life…then…that's something I can live with."
Keith agrees with her and finishes his tea.
"What do you suppose are the chances that Ms. Sogen is able to help the Survey Corps reclaim Shiganshina so that the people can return to the district?" He asks her.
"I'm hoping that she can help them do it, but what are her chances of just having a life afterwards? I mean…will the military allow her to go home and get on with her life if that's all she wants when Shiganshina is reclaimed?"
Keith is unsure of this. Based upon what he did know, it was unlikely that the government would permit someone able to turn into a Titan to live if they were considered a threat to the people…just for existing. But he could sympathize with Kaede; she didn't know what caused her to become this way, didn't ask for any of this and just wanted to live her life, not be some sort of…pariah or weapon.
"What do you think of her?"
"People that have seen her with positive opinions about her are probably right about her. She's an angel, a godsend, a child that would make any woman a happy mother because she's so…positive most of the time. She doesn't make trouble or seeks it. But Eren, he… I don't want Eren to go messing with her if he's only resentful of her or something worse, and it's already common knowledge that they have a mutual dislike of each other, but Kaede won't go doing something that causes someone else's end or worse than that."
Meanwhile, in his room, Eren, hearing their conversation, felt like Kaede said or did was a reason to hate her because she existed and didn't do more than what she felt was necessary. She had this power in her that could help them out in such a grand way…but she likely hated this power and would rather hide it away, like it was something to be ashamed of. If he had this power, he would be able to go anywhere and do anything for the people to be free from the Titans. To him, the girl owed it to the people to free them from life behind these wretched walls, regardless of what she wanted for her life.
And she doesn't know how she came to possess such a power? He wonders as he raises up from off the floor after he was done listening in on his mother's conversation with Shadis. How does anyone know she's not lying to try and protect herself?
But since he was nothing more than a civilian, Eren had no way to do anything but what a civilian could do with their limitations. Even if he were to apply in the military service elsewhere, he'd be limited to civilian duties, like pushing paper, something he didn't want to do.
And how does a girl like her not complain about being locked up after being found out? If it had been me, I'd throw a fit and ask to go to the bathroom.
-x-
Running. She was running through some woods, her expression one of woe. She wasn't sure why or even where she was running towards, but Kaede was worried about something. It was noon, approaching the evening…and something was wrong.
The last thing Kaede remembered was being asked by Erwin and Levi to build a sealant for the inner gate breach like she had for the outer gate breach. She had almost finished when she felt like something struck her on the back of her head.
"…Kaede…Kaede…" She hears a voice calling out to her in the woods. "Fate…change…only you…everyone will…it has to be…please…asking you to…all or nothing… WAKE UP!"
Her eyes snapped open and she rose up to her Dark Titan's feet, seeing a bright light under the dark sky.
"Kaede!" She hears Armin's voice screaming at her. "Kaede!"
She looks down at him beside.
"It's the Colossal Titan! It's inside Shiganshina! We need your help!"
She moves toward the unfinished sealant, her left arm regenerating its missing hand, enters through the breach and sees the Colossal Titan in all of its unholy glory, bathed in fire and steam, like a being born of hellfire…or a man that has been seared of all flesh, leaving only their bones, muscles and innards behind. It was really massive, like a great beast that tried to be a man, only to find that it was impossible and became enraged by this revelation. Surrounding it were the burning buildings of what remained of Shiganshina, her home. If she could cry over this madness, she would've done so now, for she was upset over this.
Her long hair wrapped around her arms and became like lances as she charged towards the behemoth with unbound anger.
"You burned down my home!" She yells. "You'll pay for this!"
The Colossal Titan looked down at her…and felt only like she was foolishly trying to achieve an impossible goal of harming it. Nobody could defeat the Colossal Titan.
To be continued…
A/N: Initially, I wanted to have Eren eventually become the Attack Titan in this, but now that this story has progressed, I don't want him to become anything other than a civilian with an attitude towards my OC. Instead, the Attack Titan in this story will be a different character that changes the outcome of what was once seen. But as with any deviation, the Dark Titan in this story is also different from the previous incarnations in other ways that could be surprising. What do you suppose will happen in the next chapter? And what do you think Eren is going to do?