The ghoul awoke to a foul stench. Where the hell was she, and what exactly was she doing? The ghoul thought. As she opened her eyes, she found herself inside a hot liquid that had steam raising from its body. That's when the events came flashing back into Kaya's head. She'd been eaten alive and right now, she was inside a titans stomach.
Hesitantly, Kaya tried to raise her arm, but grew frustrated when she found herself struggling to carry out basic commands. It felt as though some unknown force was holding her in place, demanding that she weren't to move. On the other hand, her desperation to get out of the liquid only grew, she felt as though she was being cooked alive but had no way of getting out of the situation.
"What?" She croaked in confusion as she tried to move her hand once again, her neck just managing to reach above the acidic fluid. "I can't die here. I promised I wouldn't die here." She began to plead to whatever god was forging her fate.
"Look, I can't do this. Everyone around me dies, that's just how it is."
"You forget, it's actually quite difficult to get rid of me. I promise, I won't leave you behind."
The words of the previous night eagerly repeated themselves in her head. She needed to get out of here, she made a promise.
.
.
.
Meanwhile...
Levi swirled around the beat titan, taunting yet decimating as he enacted his revenge, no, as he enacted the scouts revenge. The captain swore that he'd make the beast pay for killing his comrades, for killing his friend and commander. He wouldn't let him get out of this alive.
Turn after turn, Levi sliced the beast, tormenting it until it was finally time for the shifter to be revealed. "What's wrong not enjoying yourself anymore?" He asked the titan, after receiving no reply, he continued to provoke it. "Cmon, let's have some fun."
Levi dived down from above. His enemy couldn't fight back anymore, not without any of its limbs in tact. So Levi took the opportunity to land over the nape and deliver dozens of attacks. The two opponents shouted at the action, but the beast was the one in true pain. Swiftly, he uncovered the beasts identity by providing one final slice at the nape, taking a blonde man from the corpse and placing his blade inside his mouth.
"After transforming, if your body's severely damaged, it's too busy healing to let you resume your titan form. Isn't that right?" Levi asked, pushing the blade deeper into the blondes mouth. "Hey, I asked you a question, it's only polite to answer." Levi paused, thinking of his options and how to deal with the human form of the beast. Until suddenly, the ground began to shake around him.
Kaya felt it too, the environment around her started thrashing and moving uncontrollably, but there was nothing she could do. Levi was in danger because of her failure and now she was about to die. The world must have had a strong resentment in order to give her such a gruesome end.
Levi jumped out if the way, using his gear to land safely away from the cart titan. That's when he realised. Kaya was fighting the cart titan, if the carts alive then that must mean, Kaya was dead. His eyes widened at the assumption.
"Huh? Hey,where are you going? Stop." Levi said, knowing the enemy couldn't hear him. "Where is she? What did you do?" He asked another set of questions. "Hold on, she made a promise that she'd live. You promised!" Levi shouted in anger.
"Go now! Rip him to pieces." The ghoul heard an unknown voice shout from outside. "It hurts. They were right about you Levi. You are dangerous. But you must have used all your weapons up by now. You'll die like the rest of them. It may have been a hard one fight, but victory is ours."
Kaya's heart skipped a beat, Levi was in grave danger and there was nothing she could do to stop it. The liquid in the titan body stopped thrashing for a moment but soon began to bounce around again shortly later. The ghoul was confused she needed to get the hell out of there but she just couldn't move, what was holding her back. Suddenly, she managed to twitch a finger, it wasn't much, but it was a start.
"Damn it." She heard Eren yell. "Just try and come closer. Make one move to take him and I'll slit his throat."
"I found you. Eren Yeager right. You don't look a thing like your father." The blonde man said.
"What?" Eren asked in confusion.
"Believe me Eren, I get it. I know how you feel. The both of us were just victims of your father. I'm sorry, but he's brainwashed you."
"What're you talking about?" Eren asked.
"Ugh, you're kidding. He chased me all this way? What a monster. Let's call it a draw Levi, we're in no shape to fight now. Bertholdt, I'm sorry, but this is the end for you. Eren, some day I'll come back and save you from this." The voice said before Kaya felt herself being moved away again.
"Levi's alive?" She smiled. "Of course he's alive, he's way to stubborn to die at the hands of those idiots. Makes me look like a fool." The ghoul brought her hand above the water, seeing the burn marks that littered it. "Pathetic. I told myself I wouldn't let a shitty titan kill me and look at me now! I broke my damn promise! I'm on the verge of death! And my entire race is about to die because of me! Damn it!" Kaya shouted in frustration, beginning the feel the numbness in her legs disappear.
"Are you happy now!?" The ghoul stood on her feet. "The scouts died and for what? Petra, Oluo, Gunther, Eld, they all died for what? To watch me boil to death inside a filthy ass titan? I don't think so." Kaya ranted, cursing herself for being so eager to give up.
"Screw that!" The ghouls eyes changed to their unnatural red irises, illuminating her surroundings and motivating Kaya further. Finally observing that her usual dark hair had been gradually changing to a unique white. After quickly comprehending the change, she unleashed her kagune, preparing to get out of the hell hole she couldn't escape before. "I didn't realise it at first. But I want to live, not just because of the promise I made, but because just like him, I'm a stubborn bastard!"
Kaya unleashed a determined shriek as her kagune collided with the walls of the titans stomach, it pierced it with effortless success. Once one of her spikes made it through, she drove the other two next to it and opened up the small hole created, giving her access to the daylight she'd been deprived of. She tore it open and released herself from capture.
The cart titan let out a grunt in response to the recent pain and looked Kaya dead in the eyes. The ghoul was pissed off, it was obvious by the glare she was giving Pieck in the brief contact. Her ODM gear may have been gone but she still had her kagune and her raw power to back her up in the fight she was about to have.
"A ghoul?" The blonde man said in disbelief. Kaya made a quick note of her surroundings, Hange, Connie and Jean looked surprised by her recent appearance, but we're grateful nonetheless.
"He's got Reiner!" Connie shouted.
Kaya used her kagune to chase the enemy that was now retreating, Connie following close behind with his gear. "Get back here you son of a bitch! You killed them all!" The ghoul screamed as she attacked the carts jaw, forcing it to release Reiner.
The cart managed to catch the armoured in its hand before it turned to face the monster that was about to decimate them all. Luckily, Peick managed to find a weakness just in time. Not wasting a second, the cart turned around and grabbed Connie in its free hand, he didn't even have time to react to his capture.
"Let him go!" Kaya declared, using her kagune to shoot her from a nearby building onto the nose of the cart.
"Throw him." The blonde man with glasses ordered. "We don't have time to waste, either she kills us, or she'll keep us around long enough for Levi to catch up." He analysed.
"I hope you're right." The titan obliged, throwing the unconscious boy far enough for the ghoul to be able to save.
"Damn you." Kaya spoke. She didn't have the time to give a lengthy threat to the enemy, Connie was in her squad. It did cross her mind that she could leave him to die, but she pushed that through away almost as quick as it was suggested. "I'll find you, and when I do, I'll be sure to return the favour." She muttered as she stood on two of her spikes, catching Connie with the third.
"Kaya, what the hell's going on?" Jean shouted.
"Where's Levi?" Kaya ignored the question. "He's alive isn't he? I heard that bearded shit say it." She continued. Hange paused for a moment before pointing in the direction of where they thought Levi was stationed. Kaya looked over at her squad, they were scared of her, she didn't really blame them though. She was towering above them on three spikes, her eyes were abnormal, her hair had been stained white and she was covered in titan blood. The ghoul looked a scary mess.
"I don't have time to explain things." She stated, using her spikes to travel towards the captain. But when she arrived, she saw him in quite the predicament. Mikasa had him pinned onto a rooftop, her sword rested against his neck.
"Get off of him!" Kaya ordered, she jumped to a new building, deactivating her kagune and diving onto Mikasa. The ghoul instantly managed to pin the ravenette, gaining a few questioning looks from her comrades on the rooftop.
"You're alive?" Levi said in disbelief.
"I made a promise didn't I?" The ghoul replied with a smile. She may have looked psychotic given her state but her intentions were clear. "I may not have the slightest clue what's going on here, but Erwin said it was your decision. You'll make the right call." She reassured.
Levi took her advice and opened the box, leaning towards Erwin, prepared to inject the contents. Mikasa screamed in protest, Kaya had to admit that she was stronger than expected but it didn't compare to her ghoulish strength. "Why are you being so difficult?" Kaya said, irritated by Mikasa's outburst.
"It's not fair! Armin should be the one!" Mikasa cried out.
"That's Armin?" Kaya turned to look at the burnt body near Erwin. "Shit." She spoke. In her heart, she wanted to save Armin too, but it wasn't her decision and it would be wrong for her to go against what she had told Levi.
"Listen Mikasa, there's people I wanna bring back too, hundreds at this point. Ever since I joined the scouts, everyday brought a new fair well. I know that's tough to accept, it's tough for me too. It's hard to stay sane living like that. It hurts, it really hurts. I know, but even so, all of us just have to push forward." Hange held Mikasa's hand as they hoped to calm her down.
The ravenette stoped resisting, letting her tears flow down her face freely. "Hange, is Moblit dead?" Kaya asked the section commander. Hange nodded their head. Kaya silently let a tear roll down her face, she'd grown quite close to Moblit ever since he found out her secret, they were friends. But now he was gone.
Levi hesitated, slowly moving towards Erwin until he was grabbed by Eren. "Captain, do you, know about the sea?" Eren croaked out. "It's like a lake but enormous. So big that it stretches past the horizon and it's full of salty water. Armin told me-" Eren stuttered before getting interrupted by Floch.
"Hey, stop making this harder." The redhead kicked him.
"He told me there's a sea behind the walls. He said that, we'd go there together. Thing is, that's been our dream since we were kids. Only I forgot it a long time ago. I wanna avenge my mom, I wanna plunger all the titans, the only thoughts left in my head are full of hate. Yeah, and Armin's lost as much as I have, but he just isn't like me. He cares about more than fighting." Eren pleaded in desperation.
"Everyone get out of here right now!" Levi ordered. "I don't want Erwin to eat one of you instead of Bertholdt."
"Right, cmon Mikasa." Hange kept ahold of Mikasa hand, helping her up from her shocked state.
"Shit, shit." Jean muttered, following Hange.
"Bye Armin, we'll miss you." Connie cried while carrying Sasha to safety.
Eren didn't have the chance to protest any further before Floch dragged him away on ODM gear. Kaya decided to stay, the titans had no interest in ghouls anyways, besides, she didn't want to deal with everyone's questions right away. Levi didn't take much notice to her presence, he was too busy dragging Bertholdt's body over to the centre of the roof.
"Good grief, their all the same. Whining like brats about this dream or next." Levi broke the silence.
"Seem's like you've taken Kenny's words to heart." Kaya stated.
"I thought you were dead. What the hell happened to you?" He finally faced her, looking at her manic state.
"I had the cart at my mercy, I thought I killed it. But I was wrong. As soon as I turned my back, she transformed and ate me." She recalled. "I thought I was done for, it took a bit of self loathing before I finally remembered why I didn't want to die in there."
"And why was that?" The captain asked.
"Because I'm stubborn and don't like to lose. Our promise also helped a little." She added, understanding why the sudden raise of questions. "You're stalling for time, right?" She accused.
"Huh?"
"You're struggling to make the decision so you're letting fate decide. That's not what Erwin wanted and you know it." Kaya explained. "I know it's difficult but you're just going to have to choose already. No one will blame you, it's your choice, not theirs."
Just then, Erwin's arm shot away from Levi, who was preparing to inject him with the serum. "Did he just?" Levi said in disbelief.
"Excuse me, but how can we be sure, that there aren't other humans, living somewhere far away from the walls?" Erwin asked, it was clear that he'd lost his mind, perhaps he thought he was dreaming. Levi sighed, realising what he had to do. Armin was the one needing to be revived.
With haste, Levi turned around and injected Armin, not having the time to explain the reasoning behind his actions. "Cmon, you ran out of gas, right?" Kaya asked as she held her hand out for Levi. Once again, a yellow flash entered their vision, Levi accepted her hand before the two could get caught up in Armin's transformation.
"Guys please! Help me!" Bertholdt screamed in agony, Armin's titan raising the body to his mouth. "Annie! Reiner!" The boy yelled, hoping to get the help of his comrades. His efforts were fruitless, Armin already had the shifter locked in his jaw, crushing and eating him without a thought in mind.
"I don't get it, Captain, why?" Floch asked.
"Do you think, you can forgive him someday? He became a devil because he had to. We were the ones who put him up to it. And in the end, when he'd finally been set free from this hell, we were about to bring him back for more. But I think it's time we let him rest." Levi answered while the squad watched Armin transform back. "Erwin I told you I would kill the beast titan, but that'll have to wait."
"He's already dead." Kaya exclaimed, not hearing Erwin's heart beat any longer.
"Oh." The captain lowered his gaze.
Authors note : sorry I kinda put Kaya out of the beast titan fight, but I thought that throughout the story she's been so nonchalant about dying so she had to get over that and realise her own worth. Also, Levi was going through too much to go into depths about Kaya's return, I'll add some moments for them next chapter.