Jake sat on the edge of Wall Maria, legs swinging over the side, his bare feet cold against the stone. Below him, Shiganshina was being torn apart.
Titans smashed through streets like giant toddlers with rage issues—grabbing, crushing, devouring. Smoke poured up from burning homes. Screams echoed everywhere, sharp and endless.
A child's cry rose… then cut off. Just silence.
Jake didn't move. His face was still, almost bored. Not because he didn't care—he had cared, once. But fear, shock, even guilt… those emotions had burned out long ago.
That life was gone.
He'd been Jake—a nobody. Died under a truck. Forgotten.
Now, he was Lucifer—the Morning Star, dropped into the world of Attack on Titan with the powers of a god: fire, flight, immortality, time control, body mastery. He could bend reality if he wanted to. And yet, here he sat, watching people die.
"What now?" he muttered, voice low and too deep to be his old one.
He could stop this. Wipe out the Titans in seconds. Be the hero. But what was the point?
This world wasn't his. These people weren't his. He knew the story. Knew who would live, who would die. If he stepped in now, sure—he could save lives. But then what? Pretend to be a Scout? Tag along behind Eren and Armin? Wait around for the next crisis just to feel useful?
No. That wasn't him.
But there was someone who mattered. Someone who could change the game and entire timeline.
Frieda Reiss.
She was the key. Holder of the Founding Titan. But locked away behind Wall Sina, buried under her family's lies and the curse of the First King. She wasn't living—just waiting to die when Grisha came to take her power.
Jake's plan was different.
Let Grisha come. Let him open the truth, break her down. And then, when Frieda was at her lowest, He would appear. Not as a savior, but as a dealmaker. Offer her a way out—freedom, purpose, power without chains—in exchange for her.
But why bother?
He didn't need her power. He could take the world himself, crush anyone who got in the way.
Still… even gods get bored.
That's what he was starting to realize: raw strength wasn't enough. He could win every fight, sure. But power without legacy, without meaning, felt hollow.
He didn't want to just rule the world.
He wanted to rewrite it.
And for that, he needed her.
A scream broke through his thoughts. He looked down.
A boy—no older than seven—was cornered by a Titan. Its hand reached down, slow and certain. The kid was frozen in place, wide-eyed.
Jake hesitated.
One life. It didn't matter.
But before the thought finished, his body moved. He stood up.
He stepped off the wall, floating down soundlessly. The Titan's fingers were inches from the boy.
Jake raised a hand. A line of black fire tore through the Titan's arm. It staggered, howling.
He snapped his fingers. The creature exploded into smoke and ash.
The boy stared at him.
"Run," Jake said. "Inner gate. Now."
The kid ran, too scared to even look back.
Jake floated back to the wall and sat down again.
Below, Eren, Mikasa, and Armin were running too—tiny figures sprinting through the chaos. He watched them go. He already knew their paths.
"You're not my play eren and armin," he muttered.
His eyes turned east, toward Wall Sina.
He closed his own.
And next second jake smiled. "Got you."
He floated off the wall, invisible. Untouchable. Titans, soldiers, walls—nothing stopped him. He flew straight through the night sky like a phantom.
Shiganshina shrank behind him, fading into silence.
He passed through Wall Sina's defenses like mist and slipped into the secret chapel. The air inside was cold and dim, torches flickering.
There she was.
Frieda Reiss. Young. Tired. Beautiful. Surrounded by family. Her hands shook. Her eyes twitched.
Jake hovered above, hidden in the shadows.
He watched.
She was already breaking.
Good.
He could give her something better than fate.
And in return… she'd give him everything.
Grisha burst into the chapel like a man on fire—sweating, panicked, eyes wild. "Frieda Reiss!" he shouted. "Shiganshina's gone! The Titans are killing everyone—use the Founding Titan! Save them!"
The Reiss family flinched, gasping, crowding together. But Frieda held up a shaky hand, trying to stay calm. Her voice came out soft, too soft. "Who… who are you?"
Jake watched from the shadows, high above, completely still.
Grisha started pleading—talking fast, desperate, explaining that he was an Eldian from beyond the Walls, that the world was bigger, darker, more dangerous than they knew. That this was the moment to fight back.
But Frieda… she was off. Every answer she gave sounded hollow, like she wasn't really there. Like she was reading from someone else's script.
Fritz's will, Jake thought. It was obvious. He could almost see it—like strings inside her mind, jerking her thoughts around. Karl Fritz, long dead, still controlling her like a puppet.
Grisha's face twisted in frustration. "If you won't save them… then I'll take the Founder myself."
But he hesitated. His eyes flicked to the children behind her—her younger siblings, crying. His hands shook. He didn't want to do it.
Then he screamed—at no one in the room. "Eren! Please! You have to stop me!" He bit his hand and transformed in a flash of smoke and muscle, his Titan form bursting from his body with a roar that shook the chamber.
Frieda responded, triggering her own transformation. Her Titan was smaller, graceful—almost beautiful—but weak by comparison.
They collided in an instant. Grisha's Titan slammed her into the stone floor, claws pinning her down. His mouth opened, teeth stretching toward the back of her neck, about to bite her out and end it all.
Jake didn't move. He didn't think.
He felt.
And the world stopped.
Literally—stopped.
Everything froze. Grisha's Titan locked mid-lunge. Frieda's body still, pressed into the stone. Her family caught in place, mouths open in frozen screams. Dust hung in the air like glitter. The torches didn't flicker.