Creation began on 07-13-19

Creation ended on 07-15-19

Attack on Titan

Faye Yeager's Merciful Angel

A/N: Suppose that harsh act of cruelty inflicted upon by the arrogance of human inhumanity…never happened to an innocent life?

The Marleyan man was about to sic his sons' dogs on her without any mercy…when the dogs started whimpering; they had clearly detected something that frightened them.

"What's wrong with you?" The man demanded, wanting to see the little girl get mauled by them. "Just kill her already!"

"How depraved can you be, wanting to see an innocent girl be killed like it's nothing more than a game?" They heard a man say, stepping out of the shadows of where they were, a secluded alleyway where nobody could see them. "You call her a devil-born child…when it's you that behaves like a demon, wanting to inflict suffering for the sake of being amused. You're the devil-born, Gross, you and your racist prejudice toward Eldians just for a history you don't even know is true or not, because all you seem to buy into is the propaganda that's been spun about the past. I, for one, don't believe in that hype. I believe that people can be cruel and unusual when they choose to be, but you're just cruel and depraved, even willing to kill a little girl just to get off on the inhumanity of your crime."

Gross saw the man was dark-skinned, clearly not a Marleyan, and wearing strange clothes that weren't like the ones that they and the Eldians wore; the pants were blue and the shirt was green with some sort of image of a landscape.

"Who are you?" Gross demanded. "What are you?"

"I'm just a passerby," the man expressed, walking over to stand in between Gross, his dogs and Faye. "I'm just another guy that's trying to find his place in this vast and infinite universe, whether it's with God's good graces that I shine like the sun or fall to the Earth and live in the darkness like a demon afraid of the light, and I'm just another Good Samaritan that doesn't like it when good people suffer for what was never their fault to begin with. I'll be taking this girl home now…and you'll not lay a violent hand upon her so long as you live."

"You take her? Like that's going to happen! Get him!" Gross ordered the dogs, but they didn't make a move against the dark man or the girl. "What's wrong with you?! Get him! Get the girl!"

"Go home," the dark man told the dogs…and they ran out of the alley. "When people and animals are presented with something much greater than themselves and are made to demonstrate fear before them, desperation and self-preservation can shift one's loyalty. Now you see how loyal your sons' dogs are to you. Now tell me, just how desperate are you to live through this encounter with me?"

But Gross… Gross couldn't let this man interfere with his business of ridding the world of one more Eldian scum that could threaten the people in the future. He had to deal with this now!

"I'll kill you myself!" He declared, and charged towards them with the intent to choke the life out of the girl after beating the man up.

-x-

As Grisha Yeager returned home, he was surprised by the sight in front of him.

There was a man he'd never seen before, sitting at the table with his parents and sister, enjoying a small cup of tea.

"Thank you again," he told his father getting up out of his seat. "I'm glad that I was able to make sure your daughter got home safely. That man that said he was going to get her back here was not very honest or showed any remorse in his actions. I must really recommend that nobody, no matter what their intentions are, venture outside the walls unless they have a permit to do so. These are bad times with Marley displaying a worse attitude because of their poor communication skills with other races. Have a nice evening."

"Yes, yes," said Grisha's father to the man. "Thank you again."

-x-

Gross ended up in the hospital with his legs broken. He never told his superiors what happened to him in that alley. Not that they'd ever believe him. How could he say that a dark-skinned man showed up and beat him to a pulp and then stomped on his legs with such force that they were crushed? He may never walk again, making him an invalid.

That man, he thought as he lay in his hospital bed, trying to get over the loss of his ability to walk. He wasn't human. He wasn't a Subject of Ymir, but he was clearly something else. His eyes, there was something in them that you don't see in other people.

"You threaten the life of another Eldian girl again," the man had threatened him after beating him up and breaking his legs, "no matter how much you think they deserve it, even just thinking about harming one…and I will be paying you a visit, and trust me, you don't want me to come see you a second time. Your first penance of pain is a merciful blessing. Your second penance of pain will be an agonizing curse, one you will never be free of. If you want to live to meet your grandchildren one day, you'll back off. Remember this warning; it's the only one you'll ever get from me."

Looking at his mangled feet, Gross knew his chances of walking were nonexistent. He would have to resign from his position, make up a story that some Marleyan hooligans were up to no good and pray that his superiors would believe that over a lone stranger causing the harm. Because Marley had gone to war with other nations and people of other ethnicities, there were dozens of people that would infiltrate Marley and cause harm to a handful of them affiliated with the military just to get payback for their pain and suffering. It was a believable story that other non-Marleyans would develop hatred towards them and show sympathy for the Eldians due to their suffering and because some heard of a different history that reflected nothing of the one Marley educated the young people with.

But there was something else he saw as he lay there on the ground, awaiting aid from whoever came and found him. It felt like a dream or a glimpse of the future, and in it, he saw an older man that reminded him of the little boy he met by the airship base, beaten and bloody, standing atop a wall overlooking a desert-like terrain, and then he himself was being fed to a Titan. The stories he heard from several soldiers that came back from the wars had to have been true, about how your life either flashes before your eyes as you know you're going to die, or you see a glimpse of a different future as a form of near-death experience. Since he didn't see his life flash before him, it had to be the latter, a glimpse of the future.

-x-

Looking down at the Liberio internment zone that he had visited, the dark man sighed as he hoped his one, good deed would result in a different future now that Faye Yeager would live.

"Good luck, Faye," he uttered, and then disappeared.

Fin

A/N: Sometimes, we're not allowed to know what becomes of us, but if you could save just one person, would that be enough for you to move on? Would saving that person put your soul at ease, knowing that they would live to see another day?