Creation began on 10-16-24

Creation ended on 12-08-24

Attack on Titan

The Dark Titan: Time to Rebuild

Kaede opens her eyes and hears the birds tweeting outside as the sunlight hit her face.

"Huh?" She reacts as she rises up. "Hey, hold on a minute… Oh…it's today."

She quickly gets out of bed and opens the window in her room, looking out at Trost District.

Down below on the streets, she could see wagons full of building supplies being pulled towards the outer gate.

"Kaede, are you awake?" She hears her mother ask outside her room.

"Yes, Mother," she replies as she closes the window and quickly gets dressed for the day. "Today's the day."

"Yes, it is."

Tapping her boots, she brushes her hair and then goes downstairs to the kitchen, seeing her stepfather setting down a plate of food.

"Hungry?" He greets her with a smile, and she nods. "You're awfully excited today."

"Because it's an important day," she says. "I mean, every day is an important day, but today is a big day. It's the day Shiganshina begins its reconstruction program. To think that it took two weeks to get to this point."

"Well, patience is a virtue, sweetie," Christine tells Kaede as she sits down at the table with them. "Good things come to those that wait."

"But wait, won't you be in your Titan form for the rest of today until tomorrow?" Sig questions Kaede; there had been more tests conducted on her Titan abilities after she returned from the last expedition, and the time she spends as the Dark Titan has increased from twenty hours to twenty-four hours, most likely because of Eren Yeager's unprovoked attack on her almost three months ago after the Survey Corps had returned from the encounter with Zeke Yeager and his horde of Titans waiting for them in Shiganshina.

"A whole day starting from the moment I change," she explains. "But if I did it in the afternoon today, I'd be myself by the next afternoon."

"And you're really okay with that?" Christine asks her daughter. "Being a Titan for one whole day? That sounds like something nightmarish, though."

Kaede thinks about it, and while it was something she was uncomfortable with to a degree, she tries to see the positiveness of this recent development. True, it stems from her being attacked by a young man that hates her, who she would rather have nothing to do with at all, but her attack was something he brought upon himself.

"No, but it's still a necessity for the reconstruction efforts," she tells her parents. "I'll be able to help them better when they establish the foundations of each building. I just think, the sooner Shiganshina can be rebuilt, the sooner people can move back into the district."

"But," went Sig to her, "what, then?"

That was a question that Kaede couldn't avoid answering, and neither could anyone else when the questions that related to it were just as relevant. After rebuilding Shiganshina, there was always going to be something else that needed to be dealt with. The speedy trial of Eren Yeager, in which Kaede had to testify to what she knew the moment she met the two children Eren used to lure her into a false sense of security, the goal to talk with the people beyond the island of Paradis, the hopes of establishing some hopes of peace between Paradis and the rest of the world, ensuring that the misuse of the power of the Titans would end because too many people had suffered because of their existence, and removing the corruption within the government of Paradis that was only because of the nobility's hold on their political power. Most of these were beyond Kaede's sense of awareness, but, being the only Titan Shifter that would remain a Titan Shifter until she passed away from other causes, be they sickness or old age, she had a stake in each plan Frieda Reiss and the Survey Corps were involved in, mainly because she had people she wanted to protect from harm, not all that different from any other person that has someone that matters to them.

"One day at a time," she tells her stepfather, trying not to worry too much about the future. "One day at a time. If we worry too much about the future before it even happens, then we miss out on the things we have right now."

Sig smiles, as that was something similar to what Kaede's father had said to him once or twice.

-x-

It was a risk, but one that had to be taken on account of needing to ensure Paradis had more Titan allies rather than adversaries. And since it was decided by a matter of trust and seniority, this meant that Hange Zoe would be the one to gain possession of the Colossal Titan, something she took to immensely because it would give her the power to look over the Walls.

"Are you not the least bit worried about what you're doing?" Levi asks Hange as they had dragged over the bound, gagged and blindfolded Bertolt Hoover in the large chamber.

"Nope," Hange responds. "I'm actually looking forward to this."

"Of course, only someone like you would."

"Mmm!" Bertolt groans, unable to properly voice out his objections or opinions due to the gag around his mouth. "Hmmm!"

"I don't know why he's protesting; after this transference, he'll get to live out the rest of his life without a death sentence," Hange utters.

Unfortunately, Bertolt knew nothing about the transfer of the Beast Titan from Zeke Yeager to Erwin Smith, and was simply afraid of being fed to another Titan and killed.

"Are we ready to begin?" He hears a female voice say, sounding angelic to some degree.

"Yes," Hange replies.

"Then here we go."

Bertolt is raised up and he feels a finger on his forehead.

Flash! He finds himself standing in front of a large tree of light.

"Bertolt Hoover," he hears his name being used by that voice again, turning to see a young woman with long, ebony hair and eyes that seem sad. "Starting today, you have the rest of your life to live on your own terms without being under a death sentence. The Colossal Titan has been removed from your possession. You are free to live your life once more."

He then feels a hand on his right shoulder, and he turns to see Hange…and a…large Titan that was…similar to the lunatic woman, minus her goggles. At first, he expected the new Titan to be among the lesser members of the Nine Titans, but when he saw the feet, the elephantine feet that he understood were needed to support the massive structure and weight of the Colossal Titan…that's when he realized that she now possessed the power of the Colossal Titan. But unlike his Titan and all the ones that came before him, this one possessed a skin covering and hair; none of the previous Colossal Titans ever had skin or hair, just exposed muscle and bone.

"You're the second person to get off lucky because of the changes that have occurred lately," she tells him, "and I hope you won't be the last. You're young, meant for something other than a life of conflict."

"I don't expect you to understand," he replies to her. "If you think that you can change things, you're wrong. Nothing…ever…changes."

"Change…is a matter of will, of choice and effort. You thought Ms. Sogen was going to kill you and your friends, but she chose not to. Even when you refused to answer her questions of why you attacked Shiganshina, she didn't choose to kill you, instead just letting you be taken captive because you're just another victim of manipulation."

"Nobody manipulated me into coming here! I chose to attack that day! I chose to breach the Walls! I did!"

"And for what? For what did you choose to do those things that carried repercussions? Was it really because you believed that you were protecting the world from an enemy that simply doesn't exist? Or maybe it was the promise of being made Marleyans if you brought back the Founding Titan to the mainland?"

Bertolt's eyes widen in disbelief over the fact that this woman, this nobody, knows what he was operating on. There was no way she could know of this! No way at all!

"Bertolt…we know why…and I won't tell you that it's wrong…but you don't know if Marley will even honor such a promise. Say you were successful? Say you brought them the Founder? What, then? Hmm? Do you honestly believe that you will all be able to move on with your lives after the horrors you have witnessed, experienced, inflicted upon others? Can you move on?"

Bertolt thinks about it for a short while…and while he believes that he could move on from the horrors he witnessed and committed, he knows that there would be some people that couldn't or wouldn't be able to do so.

"It's nothing personal," he tells Hange, "but if it's between Marley surviving or dying because of the people of Paradis, I have to fight for Marley's future, which means that Paradis has to be destroyed for the good of the people, down to the last islander."

"You're very fortunate that we won't kill you just yet, then," Hange replies, slightly disappointed by his response.

Flash! Bertolt feels himself back in his body, but something was different this time.

Fluttering his eyes, he finds he is back in his prison cell, his arms and legs showing signs of recent regeneration…and Hange sitting outside his cell on the ground, watching him.

"Finally awake?" Hange asks him. "You were asleep for three hours after the transfer of the Colossal Titan. We thought it best to let your limbs grow back. We might be part of a military, but we're not soulless monsters."

-x-

It was so quiet now when people were pulling horse-drawn wagons around. With the sole exception of the Dark Titan carrying larger amounts of building materials with her arms and hair strands, nobody really hears any ruckus when there was no danger roaming the terrain. There were no other Titans anywhere to be seen, no people with a vendetta against the Survey Corps, or any other kind of possible threat to any of them. The quiet was just a reminder of what was among the benefits of what they were each after.

"…If we begin construction on the outer grounds near the wall," Kaede hears a veteran member of the Survey Corps say as a construction worker was viewing a blueprint of the destroyed town, "we should be able to complete twenty or thirty of these buildings within the next three months."

Except that when the veteran mentioned three months, it was because the operation revolved around the use of the Dark Titan. It was unheard of for any to be building anything with the aid of a Titan, but Kaede's careful approach was deemed a necessity for the reconstruction effort. In addition to this, it wasn't really like Ms. Sogen had much else to do as a Titan for an entire day; the more use that could be gotten out of the Dark Titan's power, the less time it would likely take to rebuild Shiganshina from the ground up.

"Are you sure you can handle this all, Ms. Sogen?" The man holding the blueprints asks Kaede; he and a bunch of other people in the carpentry business have heard about Kaede and how she used the Dark Titan to build makeshift sealants for Trost and Shiganshina, but they were not looking to be overdependent on her or overwork her.

"It's a simple task, isn't it?" She asks back, just wanting to make sure she understands her involvement in the project. "I double-check everything before you can get started."

"But can you handle this all?" He reiterates. "We don't want to overwork you."

Kaede looks at the men that were looking at her in the wagon, each of them just wanting her honesty in what they were all here to do today. She smiles and nods her head.

"We got this, ladies and gentlemen," she replies.

-x-

Eren had his good days and his bad days due to being incarcerated, and for him, almost every day was a bad day that only got worse for him every time Mikasa visited him to inform him of what was going on outside his lowly cell. It was especially trying for his mother because of his actions against Kaede Sogen, something he didn't even bat an eyelash towards; he remembers one of the last few times they spoke before he decided to try and kill the Sogen girl that resulted in some degree of conflict, which he started, of course, because it was always about the same thing: How he felt towards the gray-haired girl he blamed for his shortcomings.

"Just admit it!" He yelled at Carla. "You wish you had a daughter like her instead of me! Because she's always kind and open-minded! She doesn't like to make trouble and always listens to people!"

It was also the last time his mother reacted harshly towards his choice of words. A slap to the face followed by a contemptuous response.

"What a hateful person you are!" Carla tells him before leaving the room.

It was also the only time Mikasa had witnessed how his animosity towards the Sogen girl seemed to know no bounds; the more he focused his mind on the gray-haired girl, the more he let his drive to want to make her life difficult consume him in all that he did.

"She paid a visit to our house in Trost two nights ago," Mikasa has just informed him, and he looks at him from across the cell with scorn, "where she confesses to painting over the graffiti left by other people after your mother asked if she had anything to do with it."

"Why?"

"Simple: Miss Sogen has no animosity for people that do her no wrong, and she doesn't let anyone else's opinions or feelings sway her views on other people."

But no matter how many times anyone tries to tell him, Eren would never see Kaede as anything other than the soulless, heartless monster he persisted in making her out as, despite his own actions being what put him behind bars to begin with.

"No matter how much you hate her," Mikasa tells Eren, "no matter how much you wish it were a falsehood, you can't deny that Ms. Sogen has done nothing but try to ease the concerns of your mother, Eren. Even if she dislikes you, she doesn't have any animosity towards her. Even after you tried to kill her, she still has it in her to talk to her about how her day has been."

"I can still hope that she lives to regret not dying," he responds to her, making it clear where he stands regarding Kaede.

Personally, Mikasa has no qualms about Kaede; the girl was a strange person for as long as she could understand, and this was before learning that her gray hair was something unusual due to her age, but excluding Eren's contempt towards, as well as her ability to become a Titan at will…there was no doubt in her mind that the girl was not an enemy to anyone here. Not once did she stoop to harm people, either to protect herself or escape from the threat of death, even when she was afraid to death of being killed by someone else. A strange girl with a power unlike any nobody would ever possess…and a resolve that was unrivaled by any that would ever be around to be witnessed.

"He who can't let go of his hatred of others is he who will never know the acceptance of others," she says to him.

-x-

Due to the fact that they know next to nothing more about what the Dark Titan is capable of, Marley was unwilling to let Reiner, Annie or Pieck return to Paradis and squander their hard-earned Titan powers. It wasn't truly Reiner or Annie's fault that they know nothing more than what they had witnessed with the gray-haired girl's unusual Titan power that didn't make any sense to any of them, but the nation's military refuses to risk losing any more of their Titan powers if Paradis' people up and took possession of them, giving them not just the Founding Titan, but the Jaw, Colossal and Beast Titans, which would leave Marley with only four Titans of their own left.

"We have other matters that require our attention," Magath had informed the three Titan Shifters of their situation. "As we know nothing of the status of Hoover or Yeager, we have to consider them lost, which means that the Colossal and Beast Titans are gone. Our enemies across the ocean in the east are amassing their resources and putting aside their own differences in favor of defeating our forces in order to protect their interests from being undone. In a week from today, you three will be expected to defend these seven bases from the Mid-East Alliance."

What other choice did they have but to get ready to be sent out to take part in another war after the operation to take over Paradis Island was at a standstill, presumably a failed mission, and all because of a Titan they know very little about? There was very little any of them could do against a potential foe that may possess abilities they were in the dark on. An enemy they don't know what else is capable of is what makes Marley's military so afraid of them and unable to risk losing more resources against a small island. While they were not all that concerned about Paradis making any plans of attacking them, they were unable to guarantee such an attempt would not be made.

"Eighteen meters…"

"Dark skin and long hair…"

"A young girl with gray hair…"

"Despises the military lifestyle?"

"I wouldn't consider someone like this a threat if left alone…"

Practically everyone within the Marleyan military that had an opinion on Kaede Sogen all had the same thing to say about her: She was an unusual person because of her gray hair…and her possession of a Titan power that made her stand out more so than the Colossal and Beast Titans did due to their sizes and appearances. But the opinion of her being a threat was tempered by another aspect of her existence that had been provided by Reiner and Annie, and that was how much the girl seemed to prefer a quiet and peaceful life over one of violence and warfare.

So, yeah, a girl with strange hair that prefers a peaceful life over the life of a soldier is not really much of a threat if left alone, Reiner thinks as he sits in his room inside his home in the internment zone. I never faced her, but if I had, I'd probably be dead if she's stronger than she seems when as the Dark Titan. Still, she's likely a greater threat than Eren Yeager if he ever had any Titan abilities, but he's just a stubborn fool that can't think straight worth a damn. Oh, what am I thinking here? That guy wouldn't shut up about the girl, like he was obsessed with her, blaming her for everything that ever happened to him and everyone around him.

Reiner once had a nightmare about the two. Just one, and it was based upon how different they were in terms of how they interacted with the world. On one side, he saw Eren Yeager, as a Titan of unobtainable size and inhumanity, leading an army of Titans that emerged from the Walls on a slaughter across the planet…and on the other, he saw Kaede Sogen as the Dark Titan…using the same army of Titans he saw Eren unleash…but to create bridges across the oceans, turn wastelands into gardens, ruins into towns and cities, and not once attacking any man, woman or child with any measure of malice, as if she had none, whatsoever. Within this nightmare, he saw how everything was split between hope and despair, light and darkness, and compassion and heartlessness. And Reiner wasn't sure if his nightmare was anything other than just a nightmare; if it was a premonition of what was possible or not, he did fear what anyone with an attitude and personality like Eren's could do if they had a horde of Titans to ravage the world.

"There is more to life than that of a soldier," he remembers Kaede saying during her trial that led to her joining the Survey Corps to reclaim Shiganshina. "There is more to life…"

How did someone like her end up being born on that hopeless island? He wonders as he looks outside his window at the streets below. Kaede Sogen. You could've been an aristocrat, a political leader, a princess, even…if only you had been someplace else…and not an Eldian. If she lived here, she would learn that the race of Eldians is synonymous with "one of God's mistakes". Because that's what we are! We're God's mistakes!

-x-

It was a strange sight to behold, but one that was to seen in order to be believed. The people that came to Shiganshina to rebuild it were doing so alongside the Dark Titan, whose hair strands provided aid in more than one way expected. Whether as safety ropes, additional hands, or just a form of security, the presence of the Dark Titan enabled the builders to get more work done than they could've done on their own. And on two different days, a quarter of Shiganshina's foundations had been repaired and rebuilt…and Kaede had demonstrated another ability recently acquired by her Dark Titan. In a manner similar to the aforementioned War Hammer Titan, the Dark Titan could use its own flesh to generate constructs limited only by the holder's imagination, ranging from simple shapes to complex forms.

"This is incredible," Armin expresses as he looks down from the wall at Shiganshina whilst the sun sets in the distance. "We got here four days ago, and in that time, we've gotten more than thirty percent of the reconstruction started."

"Never underestimate the power of dedication and conviction," says Julietta as she and several members of the Garrison were present with the survey Corps, "and never underestimate the tenacity of a creative mind that can see things others often don't."

Seconds later, they could see several specks of light down below, illuminating sections of the rebuilding town; several lanterns had been installed earlier on the reclaimed pathways.

"It's starting to look a little like home again," Julietta expresses with a smile.

-x-

"…Old blueprints and people that know what they're doing," went Sig as he picked up his cup of tea for the seventh time that evening. "How far do you suspect Kaede and the workers have gotten with Shiganshina?"

"It's only been four days since they left," Christine replies as she sets her cup down, "but based on the conviction of the workers and Kaede's own recollection on building tactics because she watched you and her father, they probably started on eight different homes. Who knows, maybe even twelve of them."

"Eh-heh-heh… If it's Kaede, it's possible. Tell me…what Kaede told us after she woke up from her coma…do you think something like that could still happen?"

Christine sighs and thinks about it for a moment. The sheer craziness of there being another lifetime in which the Rumbling, the desolation of the world at the wrath of the Titans that lay slumbering within the Walls, caused by Eren Yeager when he usurped the power of the Titans from those that possessed them and chose to exploit them for death and destruction… Even if it was another lifetime in the form of a dream Kaede suffered in, Christine would've given anything for none of it to come true. She would've given anything for her daughter to have avoided such a cruel tragedy to befall her or anyone else.

"Sometimes," she answers her husband. "But that only happened because someone like that boy stole power and misused it. He's locked up and not getting out. We're still alive, Kaede's still alive, the Walls are still standing, and… I just pray to God that nothing like what Kaede went through in such a dream never actually happens in this life."

"I worry that as long as that boy is still around…nobody is safe," Sig expresses to her. "Nobody…anywhere."

"Well, he will likely only have two choices on how his fate will be dealt: Life…or death. His crimes were unforgivable. Personally, I'd have him locked up somewhere where he can't hurt anyone, regardless of who they are."

-x-

"…Aah," Kaede groans as she opens her eyes to the new day, her clothing damp from the steam generated by her evaporating Titan husk.

"Whoa, man," she hears a man say as she sees one slowly approaching her with a canteen. "This is like a hot spring, except there's no water around. How are you able to stand this, Ms. Sogen?"

Kaede gets up to her feet and stands in front of the man, dusting off her skirt.

"I don't let something like this get to me," she explains. "It's not really a big deal."

He hands her the canteen, and she sips the water inside it.

"Ahh… Thank you, sir," she praises, and then the steam dissipates, allowing her to see the progress that was from the continued work the night before dawn. "Wow. We did all of this?"

"Most of us had more time on our hands, so we just kept working," he answers her. "But most of this is because of you, Ms. Sogen."

Although most of the building foundations and supporting ground level structures were comprised of manipulated Titan flesh, about more than half of Shiganshina had been rebuilt. It was quite a sight to behold if you had been a resident of the town. Despite it appearing bare bones for the time being, much of the buildings that had been built were familiar to Kaede, as her father had a hand or two in repairing or updating some of them. But despite the progress, Kaede couldn't remember stopping before exhausting her power.

"Do any of you know when I stopped?" She asks the man.

"Just an hour ago," he answers her. "You crawled over to the side of the wall and laid down before you started evaporating."

This and her minor lack of recollection of what happens before she returns to her former state were the only drawbacks to her ability to become a Titan at will. While she could recall other things most of the time, there were other times when she couldn't remember what she did up to an hour, and not having any recollection of which made her cautious as to what she might've done before returning to human form. But since there was no mention of her having harmed anyone, she had to assume that everyone that was present around her were still in one piece.

"The more it looks like it had been before its devastation, the more it feels like home," she says.

"Yeah," the man agrees with her. "How are you able to sculpt the Titan flesh the way you do with your hands? It always seems like you're creating a piece of art instead of building a building. Your attention to detail is so… You have an amazing talent, Ms. Sogen."

"Thank you. My father and stepfather. Everything that I know about building buildings, I learned from watching them."

"But your stepfather… How come he didn't volunteer for the reconstruction operation?"

"A year after we relocated to Trost behind Wall Rose, he was injured during a repair job. A scaffolding was improperly secured and he was impaled in his right leg. He recovered and could still walk, but he couldn't work in carpentry again after that day. After we're done here in Shiganshina, I want to see if there's anything I can do to help give him back full use of his leg."

"I think he'd appreciate it if you did."

"Hey, Kaede!" She hears Julietta call out to her as she descends from atop the wall with others beside her. "It's looking more like home every time you help out!"

Kaede smiles as her friend come down to the ground.

"Thank you," she praises her.

Armin lands down on her left and offers her a meal bar, reminding Kaede that, after returning to her human form, she was hungry and not just thirsty.

"How are we looking here?" She asks, wanting their honesty on the buildings started on so far as she rips open the bar to take a bite out of it.

"With the way things are progressing every other day because of you, Sogen," went Jean as he looks out at the constructed buildings so far, "we'll be returning people back here in no time at all. You have a lot to be proud of."

"It's only worth being proud of…when people come back to call it home," Kaede tells him.

"Home," Julietta sighs.

"Home," adds Armin.

"Everyone goes home," Connie utters.

"Everyone goes home," Sasha agrees.

To be continued…