Creation began on 07-05-24
Creation ended on 07-10-24
Attack on Titan
The Dark Titan: An Angry Heart, an Angry Soul
The discovery of the Survey Corps returning from Shiganshina District with the maimed and disgraced man that was the current Beast Titan of the Nine Titans, it just made the people within Trost wonder just how something like bringing back a man that could become a Titan that was associated with animals was even possible. Not only possible, but the fact that, just like the previous time they left for Shiganshina, they returned with each of their members alive and well. While some of them believed that it was mainly because they had the support of the royal family, others believed that it was because of Kaede Sogen, the Dark Titan, the ally of Paradis.
"It feels so unreal," Kaede says as she sits in a wagon being pulled by the horses. "It just felt…too easy because he was the only enemy capable of free will."
"Easy or not, a win's a win, Kaede," went Connie. "I'll take the win over what could've been had he been allowed to run amok and turn our friends and loved ones into Titans."
Of course, that reminded Kaede of what could've been had Zeke Yeager so much as got past Wall Maria and was aided by Marleyans that made use of his spinal fluid and infected the people here with it. It also reminded her of the horror of the former future Ymir Fritz had shown her in an attempt to discourage her from interfering. As she looks out at the people that greeted their return, her eyes catch the sight of Eren Yeager, who carried an expression of contempt directed towards her because she was with the Survey Corps instead of him being affiliated with them. Turning her gaze away towards the rooftops, she saw some members of the Garrison division looking down at them…and one such member that was on duty again.
Julietta, resuming her job as a member of the Garrison, had been reassigned to Trost District, watching the wagons pulling the returning Survey Corps members back, seeing Kaede among them, alive and well.
Despite it seeming like an easy win, Kaede did feel at ease because she had people to come back to. If things had gone the other route, she would've likely lost the people she loves more than anything because of Zeke's self-loathing towards all Eldians.
The Hell with that, she thinks. I'll take this win for all that it's worth to me right now.
-x-
Blindfolded and bound by straps with metal braces over his stumps where his limbs used to be, Zeke Yeager was transported to where he had been told was the presence of the current ruler of Paradis.
"Not quite how you expected to meet us, did you, Zeke Yeager?" He hears a male voice say to him. "Maybe not how you expected to meet anyone here, but it is what it is right now."
"I came to Paradis with a purpose of saving the Eldian people from the discriminatory attitudes of the world," Zeke responds, unable to see anything with the blindfold on his head. "You failed to do right by the people. Your predecessors failed to do right by the people for over a century. You could've changed everything back then."
"No, I couldn't have," the voice says back to him. "The power you were seeking was compromised, and the end result would've been for nought. But things have changed. Things are going to change. Just not the way you or anyone else intended for them to change. We can't afford to have more unnecessary bloodshed due to half-truths and false promises. But we won't need your help to resolve these matters."
"Now, what makes you so sure of this?"
"In the absence of light will the darkness lead you to salvation, and within the darkness shall you find the light that will set you free. Sometimes, it takes a different kind of darkness to lead you into the light, and such a darkness could only be found here. We know what you had planned, how far you had intended to go, and your fate was sealed the second you made your choice. However, that would've been the case…were it not for the powerful deviation that came from the darkness…and now your fate will change."
Zeke became concerned. Just what did this person intend to do with him?
"Rest assured, I will not have you killed," they say to him, "but we cannot risk the Beast Titan running rampant across the island. We have found a suitable and trustworthy candidate for the power of the Beast Titan. Are you prepared to accept the responsibility of such a power…Commander Erwin Smith?"
Under the blindfold, Zeke's eyes widen.
"I am," he hears the voice of the Survey Corps' current leader.
"You can't take the Beast Titan without eating the current holder of it," Zeke informs them.
"That was then," the voice of the current ruler replies, "and this is now."
Flash! Zeke finds himself standing in the middle of a vast desert in the night, whole and wearing nothing but his pants.
In front of him was the Beast Titan, but its coloring was a dull gray, making it look like it was made of stone or marble. Then, three seconds later, it fractures and collapses in front of him, revealing the man that led the Survey Corps to defeat him.
"The Beast Titan has been taken from you," he tells Zeke. "This…is the Beast Titan as it exists now. Bear witness."
Flash! The man was replaced by a blinding light that lasts for four seconds, and then Zeke sees a Titan unlike the previous ones that have been recorded by Marley's military.
It stood seventeen meters, looking nothing like a Titan and more like a…a giant bird of prey, with white and brown feathers, its arms outstretched by the greatest of wings. Eyes of gold and silver piercing into his very soul. If Zeke thought himself to be fearless, this was something he was now afraid of; nowhere in Marleyan history had any holder of the Beast Titan look anything like this, even though said Titan always assumed the form of some kind of animal, but never the same kind of animal.
Flash! He was back in the darkness of his present state.
"Take him away to his cell," he hears the voice order, and Zeke was taken away.
If only he could've seen that the person he had been speaking to was Frieda, using the power of the Founder to alter her voice to sound like her father. The young woman wasn't taking any chances with Zeke holding onto the Beast Titan and made sure to have Erwin Smith inherit without the conflicts of interest the previous holder demonstrated, but she was surprised to find that his Beast Titan took on the characteristics of an eagle, one of the largest and mightiest of winged predators in the world. She was in the paths when the transfer took place, and had to consider that the new Beast Titan, due to the feathers and the arched legs, had to be a little taller than seventeen meters. Not eighteen meters, but close enough.
"He may have royal blood," Frieda utters, "but he has no honor if he loathes his own people to the point of wiping them out of existence."
"If things went the other way, he might've succeeded," Erwin states, "but only if we didn't know then what we know now."
-x-
The day felt like one of those pleasant days where there was no danger present, and Kaede was just spending it walking down the street. It was quiet, the breeze was soul-soothing, and she just felt like she could breathe again after holding her breath for a long time.
"…Uh, excuse me, miss," she stops walking and sees a little boy on her right, looking sad. "Can you help me, please?"
She walks over to him and looks down.
"How may I be of aid to you?" She asks him.
"I'm looking for my sister," he explains.
"Oh, dear. Where did you last see her?"
"Over there (he points to a nearby alleyway, and then takes her right arm). I don't know if she's hiding or playing games with me."
She let him take her into the alleyway and found it was a dead end with large crates, most of which were large enough to hide a child in.
"Help," they hear a small voice from one of the crates. "Help me."
Kaede goes over to them, looking for a way around them.
"Help me," the voice says again, a little louder than before, and was clearly female.
"Where are you?" Kaede asks her.
"The crate by the wall on the left."
"Going in or out?"
"Out."
Kaede turns to her right and goes over to the crate at the end, finding a little girl cowering inside.
"How'd you get in there?" She asks her as she reaches down to get her out.
"It's not my fault," the girl declares. "He put me in here."
"Your brother put you in this crate?"
"No, the man did."
Lifting her out, Kaede questions, "A man? What kind of man puts a little kid like you in a crate?"
"He was about your age," the girl describes, "maybe a little shorter. Dark hair and mean-faced."
"Mean-faced? How so?"
As she puts the girl on solid ground, she fails to notice someone behind her. But the girl sees and begins to shudder.
"What is it?" Kaede asks her.
"It's…" The girl utters, but it was too late.
Wham! Something heavy struck Kaede on the back of her head, sending a series of painful sensations to her brain.
"Aaah! Aah! Aaah!" She groans as she falls to the ground beside the crate, and the girl backs away from her.
"Always the helpful one, aren't you?" She hears a voice that is full of spite, and her eyes widen as she slowly turns her head up, feeling the blood on her left hand.
"You," she utters, and a second blow is delivered to her head.
"You're not a hero!" They yell at her, bashing her head in. "You're nobody's hero! You're a nobody! A fake! A fraud! A monster! You turned people against me! You ruined my life! Just die! Die, die, die!"
"Aaaah!" The little girl screams as her brother pulls her away from the alley.
"Stop!" The boy yells. "You said you wanted to talk to her! This isn't talking to her at all!"
When they were done, Kaede wasn't sure how many times she'd been struck, but she was down and barely moving.
"You breathe a word of this to anyone, you and your parents are history," they threaten the kids and runs out of the alley.
"Aah…" Kaede groans as she struggles to breathe.
"Oh, no," she hears the little boy say. "Someone help! Help!"
-x-
"…So, your mother has never spoken to you?" Christine asks Historia upon learning that her mother, this Alma, was not a social person in any sense. "Like…ever?"
"No," she answers. "There was one time, but…that was only after I jumped onto her lap while she was sitting. She wasn't happy, but at least she spoke to me."
"That's… Your mother is… She doesn't sound like…"
"Her mother doesn't sound like, what, Mrs. Sogen?" Delilah asks her as she and the twins were helping to watch Charlotte until her mother got off from sentry duty with the Garrison. "Be honest, please."
"Honestly, Historia," Christine admits, "your mother doesn't sound like the motherly type. There, I said it."
"What is mother type mean?" Charlotte asks, curious.
"Uh, yes," Historia decides to say. "What does that mean? What is the motherly type?"
"That's basically a woman that has a…warm and caring-ness to her," Christine tries to clarify. "They are devoted to their children, wanting to know who they are, how they feel, even willing to suffer for their safety and welfare. This Alma woman…doesn't seem to have this at all. I know I only met her once after it was revealed who you are, Historia, but she…just doesn't strike me as the type of person that cares about you."
"I don't blame you for saying any of that," Historia tells Christine, saddened by hearing this revelation. "My mother is…not like you or Frieda's mother…or even Ms. Julietta, and she has a great daughter."
"Miss Alma lady…bad mommy?" Charlotte questions, confused.
"Not exactly," Delilah tries to explain, "just a little…absent."
"But…Mommy is absent, but she's not bad. Just working."
"Your mother is a good person, Charlotte," Historia says to the girl. "One of the good ones. Mine is just…hard to talk to about anything."
"Christine! Christine!" They heard the twins yell from afar on the playground; it was a nice day to spend it inside the house or any building.
Rachel and Amanda came over to Christine, Julietta, Delilah, Historia and Ymir.
"It's horrible!" Rachel utters.
"What is it?" Christine asks.
"Kaede's in the hospital!" Amanda reveals, and all eyes were on the twins.
-x-
"…Two kids found her in the alley…"
"…This wasn't an accidental fall…"
"…Someone bashed the back of her skull in with enough force to cause brain damage!"
The doctors were chatting over the attack and wondering who could've done this to Kaede.
"Will she recover?" Christine asks the primary doctor assigned to Kaede's care.
"Right now, most of her skull looks like a jigsaw puzzle, and her brain looks like someone took a mallet to it," she tells her as she walks into the room assigned to Kaede for her care. "But I will say this about your daughter. She's got a heart like a Titan. Even though the attack to her head was the primary cause of her injuries, she hasn't given up living. I haven't seen anything like this before, and we know members of the Nine Titans possess remarkable regenerative abilities, but your daughter isn't one of them at all. It might be a day or two before she recovers physically…"
"But will she be the same after she recovers? Will she wake up?"
"We're not sure right now. All we can do is wait and see."
-x-
"…You think they saw who attacked her?" Levi asks Sig as he watches the two children that found Kaede.
"I think they know something they're not saying," he tells the Survey Corps captain. "But whoever they saw probably threatened them if they say anything."
"As ridiculous as it sounds, Mr. Sogen…I think you're right. Whoever they might've saw that attacked Kaede likely threatened to hurt them if they say anything, but we need to know who did this. Someone has to answer for this."
-x-
By the time their parents came to get them, it was already late in the day, and they still wouldn't say who attacked Kaede Sogen.
"What makes you think she was involved in some sort of attack?" The father asks. "Couldn't she had fallen down?"
"If she had fallen from somewhere of a significant height," the doctor explains, "there would've been other significant injuries. No, this wasn't a fall. Whoever assaulted Ms. Sogen dealt major blows to her head with some kind of heavy object."
"But there wasn't a weapon of any sort located in that alley," says the mother to the doctor. "Why do you think our children saw anyone do this?"
"They were the first ones seen with Ms. Sogen, making them the outcry witnesses. We have reason to believe that they saw someone attack her and likely threatened to harm them if they tell anyone what they might've saw."
The parents became concerned that their kids might've seen the culprit, but they were afraid to say anything about it. However, because this was someone else's child, and the Dark Titan that became their protector against those that would threaten to harm them, it meant that it was more than likely that the culprit responsible was someone from within Trost District, meaning one of their own attacked the girl. They went over to where their son and daughter were sitting at the table and sat beside them.
"You two aren't in any trouble," the father tells them. "We just need to know who did this to Ms. Sogen. If you saw anyone responsible, the Garrison will find them and they're the one in trouble. Just tell them what you saw."
"But if we tell on him, he'll hurt you both," the daughter replies, indicating that a man was responsible for the attack.
"He's not going to hurt anyone here," went Julietta, taking this matter serious because one of her friends was hurt bad. "The person in trouble is whoever hurt my friend. If they're not found and apprehended, they could hurt someone else. Even a description of what they look like would suffice in getting their identity."
The brother and sister look at each other and the sister nods in the positive.
"We don't know his name," she finally says, "but he was not a nice person. He had dark hair and was mean-looking."
"Mean-looking?" Julietta repeats, confused. "What do you mean by that?"
"The man was angry," the brother responds. "Very angry at the girl. He hit her with a small sackcloth that looked heavy until she was barely moving. He said he wanted to talk to her."
"He said she 'pooened' (ruined) his life and was a monster," the sister adds. "He acted like…she was a bully when he was the one acting like a bully."
Julietta leaves the room and processes what the children told her.
"Do you have a suspect in mind?" She hears Christine ask her, standing against the wall.
"Just one," she responds, "but I worry that I'm right about who it is."
"Please. I don't care who your suspect is. If they hurt Kaede, they need to answer for what they did to her."
"Eren Yeager. He's the only person I can think of that could have done something like this. Dark hair, I can see on most culprits, but a mean face? He's the only one that has held resentment towards Kaede ever since he ended up with a criminal record for provoking her to violence. Who else would still have an unreasonable dislike of Kaede?"
-x-
Carla brought a bouquet of flowers for Kaede; she felt sympathy for the gray-haired girl, but she needed a valid excuse to get away from her son after he came home yesterday, looking like he did something he didn't want her knowing about.
"Did you find a job, Eren?" She had asked him when he returned.
"There were no job openings," Eren had responded as he returned to his room.
"Excuse me," she utters to the Sogen couple as they sat beside their daughter, and they turn to see her. "I heard she was attacked. How is she?"
Despite their own suspicions of her son, Christine and Sig didn't believe Carla had any involvement in the attack.
"Physically, she's recovering," says Sig, "but the doctors aren't sure if she'll wake up yet."
Carla looks at Kaede, her eyes in disbelief that her face was still swollen from trauma she had received, but otherwise in no need of medical attention. Unlike what those of the Nine Titans, Kaede's injuries didn't generate any steam. Instead, they looked similar to any other person's injuries, but she was recovering at a similar pace as those with the Nine Titans do, excluding those with the Cart Titan; according to Frieda, the Cart Titan's enhanced endurance, its ability to remain active for longer periods came at the expense of its enhanced regenerative abilities, which took longer to heal the body. But the trauma to her brain was the one thing most of them were concerned about; Kaede was in a class of Titan power by herself, making her a mystery they didn't fully understand because the person responsible for doing this to her, Grausam Zanki, was long dead.
"Just tell me the truth," she says to them. "You think it was Eren that did this to her?"
"We're not supposed to jump to conclusions," Christine replies quietly, "but he's the prime suspect due to his attitude. Unless, of course, you can account for his whereabouts the other day."
"I can't confirm where he was yesterday…but I think he did attack your daughter. I saw him return home with a sackcloth, which seemed unusual for him to have."
"A small sackcloth?" Christine asks.
"Yes."
"A witness to the attack said Kaede was hit with a small sackcloth that looked heavy."
"It looked heavy."
"Do you think he still has it?" Sig asks her.
"Probably."
"I told him to stay away from her. Is it that hard for him to do one simple thing?"
That was when Christine had to share her opinion on giving instructions to people younger than yourself and just hoping they would understand them properly.
"It really depends on their interpretation of what they're being told," she states, "and their ability to make sound judgments."
Suddenly, Christine sees Kaede's left hand fidget a little, moving around as if feeling for something. She reaches out to her, and her hand closes around hers.
"Kaede's a fighter," she says. "It's just that not everything she or anyone else does has to be a fight over anything."
-x-
The children were shown a sketch of the prime suspect in the attack on Kaede…and they recoiled in fear.
"That's him," the girl reveals to Julietta. "He's the one that hurt her."
"Are you sure?" She asks them.
"He said he only wanted to talk to her," the boy states. "He lied."
There was no longer any doubt in their suspicions. The children were shown eight different sketches of other men…and the one they picked out was Eren Yeager's, having adequate recall of his identity as the mean-looking man.
"…I even showed them your captain's sketch," Julietta informs Erwin Smith of the situation, as Kaede was integral to the current program that would deal with the world beyond Paradis as time passed, "and they didn't see him as being mean, just busy."
"And Arlert's and Kirstein's and Springer's?" Erwin asks her.
"Even for good measure, I showed them a sketch of my ex, and they didn't recognize him, either. Please, tell me that we have enough to at least pick him and bring him in for questioning?"
"If you find the sackcloth he used to harm her, it's more than enough to charge him."
Although it seemed like a conflict of interest for Julietta to be investigating this case, it was a conflict of interest for everyone involved in this, one way or another. Because Kaede was one thing or another to many of them, be it a friend, someone's daughter, an ally to a movement, a civilian that sought a simple future to a simple life, this was a delicate situation where the one responsible had to be dealt with in extreme circumstances.
"I'll tear his whole house down if it means finding evidence of his involvement," she tells him.
-x-
Mikasa had seen Eren angry before, but this time…she wasn't sure how to view him. As they sat against a tree, she notices that his expression was…vacant of emotion. It was like something happened recently, but he wasn't saying anything about it.
"Eren," she finally speaks up, "did something happen yesterday?"
"No, nothing," he tells her, but his tone was different from the previous days; it was less angry.
"Eren!" They look and see Armin running over to them. "Eren, say it isn't true!"
"What are you talking about?" Eren asks Armin.
"The Garrison and Survey Corps are looking for you. They think you're the one that attacked Kaede Sogen yesterday. They looked around your house and brought your mother in for questioning. Did you attack her?"
"I didn't go anywhere near that freak."
"Look me in the eye and say you didn't attack her…because everyone else thinks you did. There are witnesses that picked you out of a series of photos, you're the only one that has negative history with her. Just be honest. Did you attack her and leave her for dead?"
"I'm telling you, Armin, I had nothing to do with what happened to that freak!"
But Mikasa could see that Armin wasn't convinced. Something had happened to shake his confidence in Eren.
"Armin," she speaks up, "what happened?"
"Eren's mother let the Garrison look around their house…and they found a sackcloth they believe was the weapon used on Ms. Sogen. Once the witnesses confirm that it is the same sackcloth, it's bad news for the person responsible for trying to kill her."
"Why does it have to be bad news for the person being looked for?" Eren questions. "Why can't it be bad news for the Sogen girl? She must've upset some other people besides me. Why can't she be the one in trouble and get what she deserves?"
"Eren…she minds her own business. She never goes looking for any trouble. Even if she had been attacked, she could've turned into her Titan to remove the culprit, but she didn't do that because she didn't want to endanger people that were probably nearby, not wanting casualties on her conscience."
"Well, then, she's a fool to believe that not doing whatever it takes to survive will convince people that she's not a threat when she is. I could care less about whoever it was that hit her on her stupid head."
Armin's eyes widened…and then he backed away. He took out something from behind himself, revealing that it was a flare gun…and he raised it up into the air.
"Armin?" Eren says.
Bang! He fired the flare, releasing white smoke.
"Don't try to run, Eren," he tells his friend. "We'll find you."
Eren got up and turned to run away, but he stopped when he saw people on horses approaching the hill.
"Why, Eren?" Armin says to him. "She wasn't even a threat to you. She wanted nothing to do with you at all. You were practically nonexistent to her after she made her peace with your mother. Why attack her?"
But Eren frowns and balls his fists.
-x-
"…We tested the sackcloth," Hange informs Christine, Sig and Carla, hours later. "It had traces of Kaede's hair and blood on it. It's the weapon Eren Yeager used on her."
"I can't believe he did it," Carla expresses as she sits down. "I told him to stay away from her. Why didn't he just stay away?"
"Who knows for sure?" Sig claims. "Maybe he doesn't know, either."
"How bad is this now?" Christine asks.
"It's bad," went Erwin to them. "He tried to kill Ms. Sogen. He threatened two children if they told on him. This is worse for him because of the three-strike system he's in. It's basically his second and third strike in one day."
Carla looks at him like the worst thing one can say to her is that their child is dead or something else disturbing. But she knew he was right, and her son brought this upon himself. He had been told, more than once, in fact, to stay away from Kaede, and he refused to do so. And then he tries to kill her because of his dislike of her. There was no way to resolve this because of how serious it was due to the violence and lack of empathy he exhibited.
-x-
It was against holding policy, but Mikasa requested to keep watch over Eren while he sat there in his cell. She didn't want to believe it, having barely interacted with the Sogen girl in any degree, but here they were, and the evidence against Eren was damning.
"I don't understand, Eren," she says to him while sitting on the ground across the cell from him as he sat on the cot. "You've hated her even before the day the Colossal Titan attacked Shiganshina, but she could care less about you. She has even stated that she wants nothing to do with you, no matter what you say or do. But you have pursued a vendetta against her that has been one-sided since it was discovered she was the Dark Titan and her tribunal that only shows your increased contempt towards her, and all she's ever done is try to move on with her life. All you had to do was leave her alone, Eren. Why didn't you just leave her alone?"
"She's the enemy," he says to her. "She's worse than the Titans because of her restraint, her simple-mindedness. She doesn't want to fight, and when she does, she refuses to do whatever it takes to win unless it's on her terms. The people see her as some sort of hero when she's no different from the monsters. How the Hell does she even get to join the Survey Corps when she didn't even enlist in the Cadet Corps?! We spent years training to join the military ever since the Wall Maria breach, and all she ever did was what people not in the military do! Even at her tribunal, she confessed to everything she knew she was responsible for, but instead of executing her outright, the government decides to let her go because the Survey Corps saw her as being useful…and she goes and gets in and becomes the envy of the people. Always quietly laughing at me, letting me know that she's better than others, than me, and all she ever has to do is get people to like her. And people be talking about her, about how great she is as a person, about her kindness or her ugly gray hair, about how she's among the best people, etc. Even when she's revealed to be a Titan, they still see her as a person. What is wrong with people? Do they not have any sense? Once a monster, always a monster, and that's what she is!"
"That's not the truth, Eren. That's just your opinion. Miss Sogen doesn't have to conform to anyone's beliefs if she doesn't choose to follow them, and she doesn't seem to care much for the opinions of other people. She's just a girl trying to get on with her life, something that you might've made difficult for her to do with your attack on her. Nobody's sure if she's going to be the same…or if she'll wake up. You might've destroyed her family."
Eren looks at Mikasa…but all he saw…was that gray-haired girl he blames for the wrongs of his own life.
"And I'm supposed to feel sad for her?" He asks Mikasa. "Sorry for her parents? I don't feel sad for her. I don't feel sorry for them. Even if I failed to kill her, I hope she never wakes up."
Hearing this made Mikasa wonder who was more pitiable right now: Eren Yeager due to his stubbornness, his violent attitude and bias towards Kaede Sogen, Kaede Sogen for being the target and victim of Eren's unreasonable violence when she was just going about her day like every other person behind the Walls…or herself…for trying to understand a man that seems beyond any reasonable sense of understanding?
-x-
"…Just how long have these ladies been in the waiting room?" A female nurse asks a male nurse, taking notice of strange group of young women and teenage girls and a little girl.
"They're here for Kaede Sogen," he tells her. "Ever since they heard she was attacked, they rotate seeing her every other hour. I don't think they're leaving her side until they know for themselves whether she'll recover or not. Some of them have lived behind Wall Sina for the last five years, the rest elsewhere behind Wall Rose. From what I heard, Ms. Sogen met up with them just a few months back, and her spirits were lifted. No man or woman is a failure if they have friends by their side."
They look at the small band of young women that were here to support their fallen friend.
"For their sake, I hope Ms. Sogen does wake up," the female nurse says.
Meanwhile, in her assigned room, watched after by her mother and stepfather, Kaede, whose head had returned to its former state after several more hours, continues to sleep, oblivious to what was happening around her.
To be continued…
A/N: And now this story will intertwine with another story that takes place separately. This story isn't over, but at a stopgap for now. The other story will take precedence until completion, and we'll return here to carry it on. And to those that don't want change in a different way than what was chosen previously, either be open to the possibility of deviation or turn away.