Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

The first thing Tewi noticed was the scenery of endless bamboo trees had been replaced by a sea of sentinel spruce trees whose peaked forms peered down at the rabbit from above. In Gensokyo, there wasn't a single red pine that she knew of, and more worryingly, Tewi had no idea how she hadn't noticed something happening.

"Well, this is currently new,” Tewi hummed.

Tewi said as she looked up through the leaves of the closely packed tree at the starry sky and the distant silvery light of the full moon.

Tewi clicked her tongue in annoyance, guessing that Kaguya had decided to play a mean prank of her own on the rabbit Youkai. Nobody else Tewi knew of could transport someone in under an instant; it was the smallest measurement of time, and only Kaguya could perceive and manipulate it due to her control over the Eternal and Instantaneous.

“KAGUYA, EIRIN, MOKOU!”

She called out into the moonlit forest, not expecting anyone to answer but hoping that someone would. Her lop rabbit ears strained to hear any reply, only for her to find the sound of rustling animals and chirping crickets floating in the cold night air.

Sighing to herself theatrically, the youkai rabbit decided to rely on her last resort.
“REISEN! I’m sorry for whatever I did. You shouldn’t put Kaguya up to this sort of thing, ya' know! Eirin and the Inaba will be mad!”

Tewi again strained her ears before over-dramatically hanging her head in defeat.
"Well, you probably aren't to blame Reisen. Well, I hope you're not."

Tewi decided she'd have to apologize to her always-beleaguered co-worker for presuming the worst of her. But when Tewi would skip work and offload it onto Reisen’s. that sort of conclusion was natural for Tewi to assume when she found herself suddenly kidnapped and left in some random forest in the outside world.

“Usa~ Well, I hope you aren’t behind this princess. Otherwise, Eirin and I will have to give you a stern talking to.”

Tewi said as she walked along the forest floor, leaves, grass, and twigs undisturbed by her presence.

'The princess does love her fun. I hope she and the rest can wrangle my Inaba while I'm gone; those kids just love to slack off.' Tewi thought without a hint of irony as she trotted through the forest.

“Well, if things become a bit messy while I’m gone. But I’m sure they can handle it.”
Tewi dismissed with one hand as she pushed off the ground and ascended in between the trees and through the air, the familiar and comfortable weightlessness of flying tempered by the effort it took when outside of Gensokyo.

Flying between the branches, then through and above the treetops, Tewi’s eyes widened as she looked up into the starry night sky.

Suspended in the air and looking down upon the Earth in place of the moon was a thing that bore not even a passing resemblance to the moon.
Tewi didn't know how she missed it. While long conquered and perverted by the Lunarians, the moon was intrinsically linked to youkai, causing insanity and bolstering their strength.
Due to this connection, all Youkai were more aware of the moon than any human and could detect its slightest fault.
But even a human could tell that the thing in the sky wasn’t the moon; its surface was uniform and featureless, unlike the cratered and valleyed moon of the Earth that bore the form of the lunar rabbit painted onto its surface with mountains.

“Huh?”

But now that she’d seen it, she could feel it. The difference in the moonlight. Warm and sickly, an Impurity compared to the cold and pure light of Earth’s moon and the insanity it brought.
Tewi scrunched her nose up. She wasn’t like the Lunarians who despised Impurity in all its forms, But seeing that noxious object in the sky taking the place of the moon caused disgust to swell inside her.

It was then her train of thought was interrupted. Suddenly, Light flashed off in the distance underneath the cover of trees, and not a second after the flash of light Tewi’s rabbit ears heard the explosion, and then she felt the wave of pressure roll over her along with a stinging sensation as she was sent flying through the air.
Tumbling through the air Tewi struggled to right her course and float up straight. The explosion had been so close and she was so weak right now she hadn’t had the time to avoid the shockwave or use magic to defend against it.

As Tewi focused on righting herself, she distantly registered that the fact the explosion hurt her meant that it was supernatural. Using conventional weapons against youkai was like trying to cut through the air. You could displace the matter, but it's not like you damaged it.
Just as Tewi had managed to right herself midair, the air was pierced by a howling scream that split through Tewi’s head like a hot knife through butter.
Tewi shut her hands over her ears and scrunched her ears and eyes closed, her teeth gritting as she blocked out the sound until it passed before waiting a moment longer and cautiously opening her eyes.

“Right, mental attacks. How could I forget?” Tewi complained sarcastically as the headache set in. It was the only other weakness of youkai, and annoyingly enough, far easier to do accidentally when compared to spiritual attacks.

“Usa~, it’s not like I’m the one who’s in trouble here.” Tewi sighed, looking to the clearing as the pillar of black and white smoke began to disperse. As a youkai, she had seen the type of mental damage that it took to make a human scream like that, and it was never pretty.

The smell of a youkai and the blackness in the smoke were similarly ominous, tell-tale signs of a newly born youkai, unable to keep their form together and mostly made of a black mist.
Gliding across the tops of the trees, Tewi studied the scene before her. Kneeling and passed out on the grass of the clearing was a boy in torn clothes huddled underneath a gigantic malformed skeleton as both it and the boy emitted the strange black and white smoke. Scattered around the boy were a briefcase and medical equipment strewn on the floor of the clearing alongside splatters of blood and a bitten-off arm.

'All in all, not the weirdest thing I've seen.' Tewi mused to herself.
Tewi was annoyed by the circumstances, but the kid took priority, counting both of them lucky that he didn’t smell fully like a youkai. As she floated to the forest floor, she remembered the half-youkai pawnbroker, Rinosuke. Although he didn't have the easiest, being born a half-youkai was better than transforming into one. Unlike some animals who became youkai through old age, for humans, it was almost always some form of trauma.

Kneeling to get a better look at the huddled-together and sleeping boy, Tewi could see an expression of sorrow carved onto the boy's face, faux scar-like tears streaming down his face and his expression contorted. In one hand he held a shoe, and in the other a, pair of glasses.
Stepping away from the boy, Tewi went to the dropped open briefcase to inspect its contents. There were vials, medical equipment, and a collection of syringes with a conspicuous empty slot in the middle. For Tewi, it didn’t take a genius to make a safe assumption about what happened, and she had known her fair share of geniuses, savants, and total idiots.
Tewi sighed.

'The way some people just foist their problems onto the youth, some people really are no good, aren't they?'

Tewi mused as she looked into the night sky and the noxious light of the full not-moon.
“A moon that isn’t a moon, on an Earth that isn’t an Earth, landing right near a boy who isn’t quite human, usa~”

It also didn’t take a genius to figure out that Tewi had been sent here for a reason. Tewi picked the boy up from the ground, cradling him in her arms and ignoring the medical equipment and giant skeleton as it dissolved into black and white smoke.

“I guess this is karma, huh?” Tewi asked no one.

“Whelp it has been a while since I raised a child, looks like I’ll just have to do my best while spirited away in another world.” Tewi was certain there was a collection of books with titles like that in Rinosuke's shop, some of her Inaba were rather fond of them.

Tewi’s rabbit ears twitched as she heard footsteps in the distance. A human, Tewi hoped she hadn’t been detected. But the pillar of smoke was conspicuous, and she doubted that any nearby humans would be fond of a youkai and some half-youkai child. Looking back up to the moon, Tewi promised.

“Eirin, Kagura, Reisen, Daikoku, I’ll be back soon, okay?”

Before taking off and floating just under the canopy she held the sleeping boy in her arms.
Tewi felt the boy shiver in her arms as the cold night wind blew through the forest before closing her eyes. In place of sight, she used her hearing, youkai senses, and extraordinary luck, carrying the boy even as he clutched his morbid mementos in the form of a pair of shoes, a pair of glasses, and a key strapped to her hand.

Sight wasn’t one of her more useful senses right now even with her night vision it lacked the range and sensitivity of her hearing or the supernatural benefits of her youkai senses so blocking it out while using her luck to help her stumble into a beneficial situation was her best bet in this sort of situation where she was stranded and without any help.
She could even hear the steady heartbeat of the boy she held in her hands, and feel the Impurity and youkainess in his being. A malignant power that fed off instability in humans, as it wormed its way around his spine and the faux-tears carved into his face slowly faded into nothing.

“Hmmm, I’ll have to check that out later.” Tewi mused to herself. After finding a place to stay, finding a hospital and medical equipment to evaluate his condition was second on her list.
Tewi’s ears twitched at the distant sound of many humans carried on the wind. Gently, she swerved, changing direction towards the source of the sound, weaving through the trees and floating down to just above the forest floor.

There was that other human earlier. She could have tried to talk to whoever that was, but at such a suspicious scene, she’d rather leave. Even if Tewi managed to put on a good show for other people, she lacked the confidence to bluff her way out of a situation where she was stranded and had no information.

But stranded in another world, it was better to retreat and observe from a distance first before choosing what to do. Besides, if the human was harmless and helpful to her, Tewi’s luck would have led her back to the man, and her divine luck was an ability she trusted implicitly after relying on it for thousands of years.

Setting her feet down on the forest floor and looking through the trees, Tewi could see that she was near the end of the tree line, with a distant gathering of lights shining through the trees.
Nodding her head, Tewi found a comfortable enough-looking tree and gently set the boy down against the trunk before taking the mementos from him. The glasses were the easiest due to how delicately he held them, followed by the shoe, and last was the key on a string wrapped around his hand. Luckily, it wasn’t intertwined with his fingers. Tewi slipped the items into her dress and draped the key around her neck, alongside her carrot necklace. Studying his face, Tewi then began softly speaking to the boy.

“I’m going to leave you here, don’t wake up, ‘kay?”

Tewi waited a moment as if he was to answer her and then nodded her head.
Floating just above the ground, Tewi scrunched up her face and dissipated into a formless cloud of black smoke, shapeshifting into formlessness, a skill possessed by all youkai. Only one person known to Tewi ever trained in it to such an extent she could split herself into multiple bodies and change shape mid-action or combat for an advantage.

But for Tewi her usage of this skill was merely mundane for a youkai, changing into a formless apparition whenever needed. This formlessness weakened, compounding upon the weakness she felt from being outside of Gensokyo.

Slinking away in her gaseous state, Tewi moved through the trees and to the edge of the tree line, towards the distant lights and sounds of humans. Her sensitive rabbit ears twitched as they picked up on the commotion, the crying of children, people screaming and shouting, worried and anxious masses of people. Tewi was immediately on guard as she stood on the edge of the forest, looking out onto the town, the lights as being from human-made fire and gas lamps, which was certainly a bit odd, human societies that purely relied on them instead of electric lamps often didn’t see much nighttime activity which only compounded on Tewi’s worries about the humans.

Although, it wasn’t only a town. Alongside the nearby farmsteads, shops, and houses, there were wagons and tents, countless horses to go along with the mass of people she could see shifting within the town.the first thing that came to mind were refugees, people quickly and recently displaced from their homes and livelihoods.

Flatting herself down to the grass, Tewi zipped across the field between the forest and the town as fast as she could, sneaking up behind an empty barn and then moving through the gaps between the boards. Looking around, Tewi confirmed the barn was unoccupied before she resolidified and landed in a loose pile of hay.

Jumping to her feet, Tewi walked lightly towards the barn door, the light shining through the gaps in the boards as the sound of the people beyond the door echoed.
Pressing herself up against the bar door and looking through a gap in the boards Tewi could see the people beyond the door. There was a mass of people just beyond the door, young, old, strong, and weak, some in rags and others in finery. All of them were in panic or utter despair as they sat up against something in defeat. All the while a man in a military uniform stood on a makeshift platform and tried to yell out orders to them.
Their clothes were European? Tewi wasn’t exactly a fashion expert, but it seemed to be a mix of military uniforms, scraps worn by the less fortunate, and linen and cloth clothes that were uncommon in the modern era.

Although she couldn’t make it out entirely due to the numerous overlapping voices and shouting, she could tell that their language was English. Not the most helpful to Tewi but she would be able to figure out where they were when she approached them openly.

“Usa~”
Tewi sighed, it was just as she had suspected. She was hoping it’d just be some strange local festival or something. Situations like this were always so chaotic and could bring out the worst in people; it’d make her self-appointed task of helping that boy out much harder.

Situations like these could also bring out the best in people, but as a youkai, Tewi was inclined to believe the worst about humans, even if she was technically on their side.

Quickly, she disappeared into an apparition of smoke and returned to where she had left the boy lying against a tree trunk and resolidified as she landed next to him, with a new appearance, keeping the Japanese features she had been fond of for quite some time; Only changing her pink doll-like dress to something more in line with the style the people in the town were wearing and hiding her rabbit ears. Tewi kneeled and touched a hand to the boy's forehead, allowing her power to flow into him.

"Just gotta make sure nobody notices anything, not-human about you, just a little blessing."

Tewi felt her gathered faith expand into a blessing and removed her hand from the boy. It was a power she wasn't keen to use outside of gifting people with luck and greater chances of romantic success, but the situation called for its use. Tewi took the boy on her back, putting his arms around her neck as her hands went around to hold him; then she set out to the refugee camp smiling internally as she started to make up her cover story.

She was Tewi Inaba, a widow who found a boy passed out in the woods and saved him. He could be in trouble, so she needed to go to whatever hospital they had set up.

Eren clawed at the ground. After he heard the explosion he tried to rush out of the house as soon as possible to make sure that they were okay, but just as he opened the door a searing pain overcame him and the next thing he knew, he was trapped clawing the ground trying to get free.

He had to get away, to find them, to make sure they were safe.
There were heavy footsteps in the distance and it was only then that to his horror the two of them round the corner, the first shock written on their faces only to be taken by horror. He tried to scream at them to leave, but as the footsteps grew closer they rushed to his aid, trying to lift the rubble of their home off of him to no avail.

He screamed at them to get away as the footsteps of the titan grew even closer.
But the only person who heard them was a soldier, his ODM gear signaled his arrival and Eren screamed, and yelled at him to fight, you only ever died when you gave up and there was only one titan. If the soldier could kill it, then maybe they could all escape.

But Eren knew that wasn’t what happened. It wasn’t yet for him to fight, and that man was never going to fight in the first place.

Eren could see the two of them cry as the soldier took them over his shoulder and flew away, but all he could feel was relief that they survived.

But that was when the Titan picked up rubble off of him and raised him into the air. The titan was gigantic, fifteen meters tall, and with skinless smiling lips, long and pointy ears, and a bone-white ribcage that broke through the flesh of its chest.

As it opened its mouth Eren could swear he saw a head at the back of its throat.
Then there was a brief feeling of weightlessness and falling for a long time. The last thing Eren thought was that he hoped those two escaped unharmed, but before the Titan’s jaws could close around him Eren jolted awake.

“Armin! Mikasa!” Eren screamed as he jolted awake, the lingering panic from the nightmare fading just as soon as it appeared, the memories having already left Eren.
Sitting up with the rustling of fabric, Eren’s chest heaved as he blinked against the soft light and realized that he didn't recognize any of his surroundings. Eren was on a small cot laid atop bare Earth inside a triangular tent held up by a pair of wooden poles at each end that marked the exits from where the distant light of a sunrise streamed through.
There were no towering walls, no smell of blood, no titans, no-

“Hey’ya!”

Eren’s thought was cut off as the front flap of the tent flew open, and a woman wearing pink bound into the tent and struck a pose, raising one of her feet into the air behind her.
“Great to finally see you up sleepy head. You had me real worried you know?”

“Huh?”

Eren ignored the woman’s words as he stared in shock. She was small, only a head taller than Eren, and wore a pink doll-like dress that reminded Eren of something his mom had made for Mikasa once, but what stuck out to him the most was her round face and short raven black and almond-shaped eyes. The only people Eren had seen with similar features were Mikasa and her mother.

“Well, it’s nice to meet you too mister ‘Huh,’ my name’s Tewi, Tewi Inaba.”
“Right,” Eren said, resolve and an uncanny determination overtaking the panic that briefly eclipsed him, but also not processing what she had said nor caring. “Where am I? Where's Armin, Mikasa?”

“Woah, woah, slow down there, don’t be in such a rush, everything’s fine,” Tewi said, gesturing with her hands and almost comically taking a step back,

“Anyways, as I said, you can call me Tewi; last night I found you in the forest and took you back to camp. I don’t know who you are or who Armin and Mikasa are, but I can help you find them if you give me a description.”

Eren nodded his head in affirmation but then froze again in confusion.

“A forest, the last thing I remember is…” Eren scrunched his brow together, straining his head to remember anything, but the last thing he could remember was Mikasa’s face and boarding a ship with a crowd of people.
“My name's Eren Yaeger, my mother’s name is Grisha, and my mom’s name is Carla.”

There was something that Eren couldn’t quite place, but he continued speaking anyway. “The last thing I remember is a ship, Mikasa and I were boarding a ship, because…” Eren strained his mind again, trying to retrieve those memories.

“Okay, okay, I can see this is a bit hard for you right now. How about just giving me descriptions of Armin and Mikasa, maybe they can help?”

“Right,” Eren said, shaking his head in affirmation before continuing. “Armin has blond hair, and he’s short and Mikasa, she looks…”

Eren’s words failed him as he looked at the black-haired woman with her short hair and almond-shaped eyes. Within the walls, there were people with brown hair, blonde hair, and even red, but nobody Eren had ever seen besides Mikasa and her mother ever had the raven black hair he was told came from the ‘oriental clan,’ although Eren didn’t understand what that meant.

“Like you, Mikasa looks like you.”

Eren said, repeating himself as he couldn’t find any better way to explain what he meant other than to say the plain truth. The woman pursed her lips together before making a popping sound.
“Huh, small world, isn’t it?”

Eren didn’t know how to respond and just shrugged before tossing the sheet off of himself and standing up in the tent.

“Oh yeah.”

Tewi said as she grabbed one of the string necklaces that roped around her neck and disappeared into her dress, fishing it out and revealing a key.

“I almost forgot, you had this wrapped around your hand when I found you. Any idea what it’s for.”

Eren stared at the key. It was familiar, but he couldn’t place where he had seen it before. So much happened the previous day: Titans, Armin, Mikasa, the boat, and…
Eren’s memory faltered, grinding to a halt as he tried to process the rest of his memories, the key he then realized was-

“Mom!”

Eren exclaimed as he lurched forward, losing his balance and falling over, a brief feeling of weightlessness and fear overtaking him. But before he could land face first on the bare Earth beneath the tent, Tewi hopped forward, catching Eren.

“Woah, take it easy there, okay?”

Eren’s knees buckled as the memories came flooding back that day. His father’s promise to show him the inside of the basement as he wore an unreadable look on his face, a colossal titan with its skinless face breaking down the wall. Rubble falling from the sky flattening everything in its wake, his mother’s half-crushed body and the titan that smiled as it ate her, a titan covered head to toe in armored plates that destroyed the second gate by just running.
Armin, Mikasa, and the boat. But everything after that was a murky haze of indistinct memories with faces he couldn't recognize and locations he knew nothing of.

“M-muh, muh, M-”

“Eren?”

But one memory stood out to Eren the most. The smiling titan as it ate his mother. The look of pain on her face burned into his memory, it was all that he could see as his vision grew redder and whisps of black smoke emanated off of him.

“Eren.”

Eren Bled his hands and his hands bled, his fingernails digging into the flesh of his hand.

“Eren!”

Eren’s world, consumed by red, flashed white with pain and shock as Tewi’s hand slapped him across the face.

“Eren!”

Eren’s eyes were wide with shock as he staggered back and landed on his rump.

‘What was that’

Both of them thought. The memories that flooded his mind mere moments ago were already growing distant again, but in his mind’s eye he could still see the smiling titan as it devoured his mother,

“Eren, are you okay?” Tewi asked, kneeling down to his eye level.

“I.. My..”

Eren grabbed at his head as he looked at the image of the smiling titan burned into his memory, the look of pain on his mother’s face. Breathing in and then out, Eren swallowed his fear and uncontrolled murderous intent as he transformed it into conviction.

“My mother, she was… Eaten by a titan.”

Tewi nodded her head in understanding and moved forward, surprising Eren as she embraced him. It took only a moment for Eren to respond in kind, embracing this woman he had just met as tears welled in his eyes.

Neither of them spoke nor did they need to for unbeknownst to Eren, Tewi being a youkai, naturally possessed power over the mind and used that ability opposite of how it was normally applied, naturally aligning herself and people under the effect of this ability.
Eren’s instability and sorrow only made it easier as those negative emotions were things that amplified the power of youkai.

“Do you feel better?” Tewi said as she smiled kindly, breaking away from Eren’s embrace.

“I’ll kill them.”

Eren said, raising his head as his eyes filled with red even as tears fell from them. His fists still clenched in rage even after the spell of his memory and Tewi had passed.

“The Titans, I’ll kill them all, until not a single one remains!”

Tewi smiled as she stood, her eyes full of life. But whatever emotion lay behind her eyes was unreachable to him. Standing up, Tewi cut through any remaining indecision as she beckoned him to exit the tent.

“Well, you aren’t going to kill them all sitting in some tent. So, come on Eren Yaeger, let’s get you out there so you can kill some Titans.”

Tewi said, splaying open the entrance to the tent and allowing the sunlight to beam its way through and slam into Eren’s eyes, blinding him as the light of a new day looked down upon the town turned refugee camp he and Tewi Inaba had found themselves in.

Chapter Text

The sun shone on Tewi as she exited the tent and walked onto the grass. She had set up the tent away from the town, even if the other doctors objected.

‘Revenge. Not the best motive, but it’s better than nothing.’

The fact that he fully retained his human form pointed towards him still being more human than youkai. Revenge was something Tewi was intimately familiar with but never agreed with. After the trouble with the Lunar Capital years back, Tewi had met with someone who’s entire life was consumed by vengeance after hearing of her from Reimu; Junko had told Tewi that the only proper type of vengeance was an act of pure vengeance that didn't needlessly involve others. And loathe Tewi was to admit it; that was a mindset not entirely alien to her.

‘Although revenge can be an awful weak basis sometimes. Not everyone can be as strong as Junko.’

Junko wasn’t even a Youkai. But, as Youkai are creatures of desire and ego, they require justification for their continued existence. Just like a human requires nourishment, a Youkai requires a reason for being and must act to reinforce that reason if they wish to continue living.

‘Hopefully, I can get him focusing on preserving life. The humans here seem to think that the last of humanity lives within the walls. Still need to get some exact details on that.’

Tewi had heard some humans talking like that but doubted it was true. Unlike many of her younger youkai kin, she had lived for millions of years and could remember what the world felt like before the rise of humanity. Then she would have been able to feel it; the world itself would be different in such an intrinsic way that she would have sensed it immediately.

While Tewi had never been in this situation, she already hated it, stranded on some otherworld mimicking Earth due to an unknown incident with no culprit in sight.

“Anyways! C’mon Eren. We’ll have to check with everybody else first to see if they can help find your friends.” Tewi called as Eren trailed behind her, looking at the town in the not-so-distance.

“Everybody else?”

“Oh yeah, yeah,” Tewi said, waving her hand in the air, “There’s a bit of a crisis at the moment, ya’know how people are.”

“They don't have anything to fight over; their enemy is out there.”

Eren frowned as he spoke, stopping where he stood and pointing off into the middle distance as the wind swept across the forests, plains, and over the walls.

“Huh?”

Intellectually, Tewi knew that he meant the being she had heard being called Titans, but instinctually something felt off about Eren's statement.

‘Just because there is a common enemy doesn’t mean the hatred in people’s hearts will disappear.’

“Armin! Armin!”

Armin’s eyes fluttered open as he felt himself shake, weariness and half-remembered dreams leaving him as the sunlight shone through the windows and into his eyes.

“Eren? What are you doing…”

He mumbled, not realizing what was happening or remembering the the previous day. But then he realized who was shaking him and that neither of them was in his or Eren’s house. Suddenly Mikasa's face came into focus, panic written across it, and Armin felt his blood run cold and his throat dry from fear.

“Mikasa, where are-” Then, it all came rushing back to him, a colossal shadow towering over Wall Maria, its face hidden and backed by the sun. Boulders flew through the air and flattened people, buildings, horses, and everything he had ever known into a thin paste like too little butter across too much bread.

The faces of his father, mother, and grandfather turned from shock to horror and desperation within a second, and then they ran. Armin tried to keep up in the mass of screaming, rushing bodies as they all ran towards the boats.
Wall Maria had been breached.

“M-Mikasa.” Armin choked out as he held a hand to his face, trying to come to grips with what had happened the previous day. But seeing such an unfazed person like Mikasa in panic disturbed Armin. Not helped by how Mikasa was frantically shaking him and continuing to plead as everybody stared.

“Armin. Eren, I can’t- I can’t find him.”

“Huh?” Armin gaped as he tried to stand up with shaky legs and looked left and right, only seeing more children and unfamiliar faces. He had thought Eren had made it. He remembered lying next to him and falling asleep; his father had found Eren and Mikasa on the boat as the two hugged each other.

Mikasa stopped shaking him, leaving Armin to his memories but gripping him by the shoulders tight enough to hurt.

“Armin, we need to find him,” Mikasa pleaded again, her voice hoarse and eyes watery. “Eren... he could be anywhere.”

Armin shook as he took a large breath, calming himself even as Mikasa gripped him tightly and his hair stood on due from the gazes of everybody in the room on him and Mikasa. Armin’s eyes hardened as he grabbed one of the arms Mikasa gripped onto him with.

“Mikasa, can you let me go?”

Mikasa nodded in response, letting go of Armin’s shoulders.

“Okay, do you know where Eren’s dad is?”

“No, I haven’t seen him,” Mikasa said, shaking her head but calmer than she was previously. Armin’s even tone and connectedness caused some of her anxiety to dampen.
Armin swallowed, shoving his fear and anxiety down as he stood. “Okay, we should find mine. I was with my parents and grandpa last night, they should be nearby.”

Mikasa shook her head again and rose with Armin as he stood up The two of them quickly exited the room, and most of its inhabitants turned their eyes away. Except for three children of the same age, one of them a boy with short blonde hair, another boy with short black hair, and last a girl with golden blond hair that reached down to her neck.

The soft grass had given way to dirt as they entered the town. Eren looked around at the riverside village turned refuge. In the distance he could see farmers tending to their crops and children playing in the grass, the river that passed by the town lazily flowing, and across on the other bank sat lonely trees sitting atop small hills and fences standing tall in the daylight as birds sang and butterflies fluttered through the sky.

But the town itself was bleak with shuffling crowds of people, their faces empty of emotion or full of despair; all of them gathered around the town hall as muffled shouts echoed from within.
The scene was eerily out of tune, the suffering of others continuing even as other people's lives continued unaffected and the world continued to spin.

Tewi stopped as the crowd in front of the town hall began to part for the two of them; turning to Eren, she asked.

“You know the full names of your friends?”

“Armin Artlet and Mikasa Ackerman.”

“Good, now all we need to do is get these dumbbells to listen to us instead of arguing with each other,” Tewi said smiling mirthfully, the situation wasn’t humorous at all, but in Tewi’s mind, it was better to make fun of it and try their best than wallow in human misery and failure.

But Eren just solemnly nodded, staring forward with a hard gaze that did not relent.
‘Geeze, what’s with these kids these days?’ Tewi complained internally, exasperated by the dark determination expressed by Eren and uncharacteristic of children.

But the two continued onwards, the crowd parting for them like butter making way for a hot knife. Eren and Tewi could hear the arguing better now, base insults and worse making their way through the air.

A young man stood neck to the door, weedy and thin with large round glasses and shaking hands, trying to put on a brave face as he stepped forward to talk.

“Miss Inaba, it’s good to see you again. I’ve tried to air our problems as well. But none of them will give us the time of day.”

Tewi nodded, smiling to reassure the man. “Don’t worry I’ll handle this; I just have some other business as well.”

The man’s eyes darted over to Eren.

“It’s fine, he’s not gonna make a scene. I just need to talk to the military head here so I can help him find his friends.”

With that, Tewi hoped and then kicked open the door to the town hall. The room shook with a boom as the doors slammed against the wall, silencing the various farmers, important displaced peoples, others, and the military representative who stood around the circular table that dominated the room.

“Hello Everybody I-”

Unfortunately for her, Tewi was abruptly and rudely interrupted by everyone simultaneously re-commencing their arguments, hurling insults towards each other.

‘These people.’

Tewi's irritation stemmed from her hypocrisy; she had barged in and interrupted them. But for Eren, this was an intolerable act of rudeness which he would pay back in full force.

“What are you even arguing about? Can’t you see the enemy out there, all you're doing is screaming at each other while ‘they’. For all anybody knows right now they've already breached the Wall Rose.”

Tewi felt her ears twitch as the entire room froze at Eren’s proclamation. She hadn't been expecting that.

“If the titans breached Wall Rose we would know, now ge-”

“That doesn’t matter.”

“Excuse me-”

“Shut up! People are dying, fighting to protect as many lives as they can as the Titans hunt down the last of humanity and devour us, and you’ve been sitting here, doing nothing.”

“I-” One man tried to speak up, only for the military representative to raise his hand and silence him.

“No, I hate the brat as much as you.” The man said, glaring at Tewi as she stood next to Eren smiling, “We’ve spent the entirety of yesterday night and this morning arguing and not getting anything done; trading insults solves nothing.”

The man at the head of the room said with a steely gaze and through gritted teeth. Tewi resisted the urge to grin at the fortunate circumstances, she knew this man’s type; he hated admitting when people who he considered beneath him were right, along with undisciplined children, and swallowing his pride. But for the sake of his pride, he could either be the first to admit fault or dig in his heels and not budge an inch, but even this prideful man understood he’d get nowhere by holding his ground. Just by coincidence or fortune they military representative who hastily rushed out here was just the sort of person she and Eren needed.

‘I’ll have to thanks myself for being so lucky when I get the chance.’

“Well, if you're all in the mood for being productive…” Tewi said as she brushed in front of Eren. “As a doctor, I have something to add.”

“Fine. Make it quick.” The man said, the disgust so evident that Tewi felt the need to put a hand on Eren to prevent him from speaking out again.

“In short, we don’t have enough space, enough supplies, casualties and wounded are lower than expected but still not low enough, and we can’t exactly work for free.”

“And?”

“We want money, without pay; most of us will probably be headed either towards Trost or Ehrmich within a week at most.” Tewi smiled internally at the amount of information she had been able to extract despite the difficulties. Now all she needed was teaching supplies and school books to help research this world’s common sense.

The man at the head of the table sighed and looked at her in disgust. In his mind, she was a hypocrite, extracting money for her personal use. His assessment of the Lunar Hare was not incorrect, though neither was it correct.

“I'm a doctor; I can't just offer my services for free. I barely have what I need here, and I'm sure the others are in the same predicament. Unless the government steps in or someone here decides to start paying us all we'll, eventually, just end up going to The Capital."

“Fine, but I can’t do anything about that.” The man said, holding his hand in the air. “I’ll have a recommendation for you by the end of the day, using that you can talk to Commander Pixis on behalf of the doctors, he should be in Trost right now overseeing the defenses and military operations.”

“Thanks.”

“Anything to get you two out of my sight.” He said, retrieving a cigar and lighter from his coat.
“Actually, this young man I found also has something else to say, Eren?”

At that, Tewi asked, hopping back as she continued to smile externally while frowning internally. The situation was abnormal and she didn’t expect Eren to speak up, she just needed him to plead for help finding his friends to give them something to sympathize with and feel guilty over. Instead, Eren took the initiative and showed his resolve, but that was odd for a twelve-year-old; Tewi’s suspicion of him only deepened.

“I’m looking for my friends, ErenMikasa, and my dad, his name is Grisha Yaeger.”
Tewi clapped her hands together to get the room’s attention again. “So, ‘first one is male, blonde, and named Armin Artlet, the other one is a female with black hair who has the same features as me and is named Mikasa Ackerman,” Tewi said, hopping a little as she stood behind Eren.

The military representative just nodded his head warily. “Thank you for your and your son's input, Miss Ackerman.”

“Ah, no, she’s not my kid, and neither is Eren. I’m just looking after him.”

It wasn’t a lie, but it would be harder for Tewi to explain that she had found him deep in the forest and that Eren's friends likely weren't in this camp. It was tempting for Tewi to flex her luck, but she didn't have the power to spare and her ability wasn't limitless.

The man shook his head, not caring for their exact circumstances. “Very well, I’ll talk to some others and have a look around Miss…”

“Inaba, Tewi Inaba.”

“Right, Have a good day Miss Inaba.” The man said through grit teeth as the others around the table grew more restless.

“You too!” Tewi said, hopping back as she grabbed Eren’s arm, dragging him with her but somehow not toppling him over.

“Come on now Eren, I have some work to do and you can search around here for your friends while I'm busy.”

Armin had found his grandfather sullenly sitting on a wooden crate in the entrance to one of the alleys in between the shelters, accompanied by a similarly dower-looking Survey corp member, neither Armin nor Mikasa could make out anything else about the man due to him standing in the shadow of the alley.

“Grandpa?” Armin ventured, stepping ahead of Mikasa as she clung to his shirt sleeve.
Armin’s grandfather began to shake as he sat on the crate, not wanting to move his gaze towards his grandson, but he forced himself nonetheless. With a shaky breath and almost lightless eyes, the elderly man spoke with a stutter.

“Armin, your- your parents, they aren’t here.”

Armin and Mikasa stood waiting for the old man to speak again, until what he meant sunk in and Armin began to stutter and panic in turn.

“But… They were on the boat, and Mom said-”

“No.” The old man interrupted. “They left earlier, I don’t know where they went, I’m sorry I- I couldn’t stop them.”

“Grandpa, what do you mean, why would they? I- I-” Armin, asked then stuttered, before finally his sentence sputtered out, in shock. He had no idea why any of this was happening, why Eren was missing, why his parents had left. Armin felt Mikasa’s grip on his sleeve tightens, heightening his anxiety.

“We’re going to be headed to a farm out in the countryside, I have an old friend there with kids

of his own willing to give you two work.” The Elderly man hung his head. “I’m sorry Armin, this is the best I can do right now.”

“Excuse me.”

A voice cut in causing Mikasa and Armin to jump as the Scout they had forgotten about took a step out of the shadow of the alley. The man was tall, towering over everybody else, and had ghoulish eyes set deep into his skull giving him half the appearance of a corpse, only offset by his black hair and thin short beard. Contrasting the level, almost kindly voice he used when talking.

Now out of the shadow of the alley, the man motioned to Armin and Mikasa.

“You two are Mikasa Ackerman and Armin Arlert, correct?”

Armin’s eyes shot open as he remembered, they still needed to find Eren, but Mikasa spoke first.

“We’re looking for Eren, his parents take care of me.”

“Yes, I’m aware, I’m a friend of Grisha.” The man said, nodding to Mikasa and Armin’s shock, before moving on. “I noticed Grisha and Erens disappearance last night. I was talking to your grandfather about that before you found him, do you two know where they could have gone?”

“No.” Armin said, shaking his head in defeat before looking at Mikasa.“Mikasa?”

Only to be greeted by the downcast girl’s similar expression and a shake of the head, they were no closer to finding Eren than they were that morning. The man’s only response was to retrieve a small notebook and pen from inside his jacket and begin writing.

“Sir, you’ll find Eren, won’t you?” Armin said, speaking up to the man

“I’ll try my best.”

The man fiddled with his pen as he gave his anxious answer before beginning to walk away, leaving the three of them as he disappeared into the crowd as Armin and Mikasa stared at his back. Despite the bustling of the crowd around them, Mikasa and Armin felt as if there was a great silence preventing either of them from speaking.

“I’ll be going to chart us a ship, you can follow me if you want.”

Armin’s grandfather was the first to speak, getting up from the crate he sat on before departing Armin and Mikasa with a nod as he gripped his cane tightly and hobbled away. Leaving Armin and Mikasa alone. As soon as he had vanished in the crowd Mikasa let go of Armin’s sleeve and before Armin could finish turning around, bolted into the crowd at top speed…

“Mikasa, I-”

Armin barely had enough time to process what was happening, seeing the back of Mikasa’s shirt and the scarf flapping in the breeze as she disappeared into the crowd. Armin did the only thing he could think of and ran after her.

“Mikasa, Wait!”

Armin screamed, trying to catch her attention as she sped ahead of him through the crowd. Both of them bumped into people left and right, although Mikasa took it much better, barely slowing down as she ran through the sea of people. Armin just managed to keep his eyes on her as she slipped between two people and into an alley, followed by Armin’s stumbling run.

“Mikasa, please, We’ll find Eren, I promise.”

Armin pleaded as he saw Mikasa turn to run down another alley. Only for her to stop in her tracks as she heard Armin’s plea. Armin weakly smiled for a moment, before Mikasa turned around and he saw the look of rage on her face. Armin tried to run, but he was too tired and too hurt from charging through the crowd, so instead of turning around or walking up to Mikasa to confront her, Armin scrambled and then fell face-first into the dirt before Mikasa could even reach him.

But Before Armin knew it, Mikasa was gripping him by the collar, holding him in the air and screaming at him furiously.

“No, you can’t promise that, don’t say that you’ll find Eren, and don’t say we can’t find him either!”

“We’ll try, Mikasa, I can promise you that, and if we don’t see him again we’ll carry on his dream and erase the Titans from this world!”

Armin gasped as he struggled to breathe and kicked his feet in the air. Not to mention that if they should fail, they would die trying. Armin felt Mikasa’s grip loosen as tears began to well in both their eyes.

“We’ll join the military, it’s only two years away, please don‘t leave Mikasa, how would Eren feel if you ran off and got yourself hurt!”

Mikasa let Armin fall back down to the ground, but he didn’t shake and his legs didn’t buckle, now even knowing how freakishly strong Mikasa was and being terrified of her didn’t change anything. Even if Mikasa didn’t like it, they were practically all each other had anymore, splitting up or running off wouldn’t help either of them,

“Armin.”

“Yes, Mikasa?”

“Never use Eren’s name against me like that again.”

Mikasa brushed by Armin, almost knocking him over, not even waiting for his response as she walked back to where they had met Armin’s grandfather and Armin quickly followed.

Tewi Exited the flap of the medical tent with a sigh as the sun's edge stood on the horizon. She had heard it said that the day went by faster when you were having fun.

‘At least I enjoy being a doctor. I’ll have to thank Eirin again when I get back home.’

She counted herself lucky she got a saddle bag and swiped some books. The saddle bag had been easy enough when she asked for one and explained she didn’t have any of her medical instruments yesterday, but it had taken until dusk today for someone to get back to her on that. Then she had to swipe to some teaching materials, but that was easy.

Of course, depriving children of reading material was pretty bad, but the sort of common sense that the book contained was useful if you didn’t want to look too suspicious asking basic questions. Tewi flipped the bag open with a click sound and retrieved the book as she walked away from the rudimentary hospital tents.

Tewi scowled at the false moon in the sky. The true face of Earth’s moon that humans couldn't see was a constant and comforting presence on Earth, even if the Lunarians had befouled its light. But that not-moon was even farther than that. A disgusting mass in the night sky that was barren of the image of the lunar hare. Denying even her existence by acting like she didn’t exist at all.

‘Actually… If they don’t know about me here, shouldn’t it be easier for me to return to Gensokyo? Gensokyo rejects what humans accept, and if the humans of this otherworld don’t even know me then I should be rejected. But since I’m still here that means…’

That something or someone was keeping her in. The fact was that if the Tewi Inaba, the Lunar Hare, had no history then she had no basis for existing in the world.

‘Luckily, I’m not just a youkai, but I need a source of power… I guess I do have some other tricks to fall back on, although it’s been a while since I've had to use them.’ But the true answer remained to be seen.

Tewi stopped walking as she passed atop the bridge crossing over one of the tributaries that fed into the large river the town was built next to. Connecting the main part of town to a road that led out onto a dirt highway. Tewi propped herself against the railing and opened the history book.
One hundred and seven years ago, all of humanity outside Wall Maria, Rose, and Sina were devoured to extinction by beings called Titans. They didn’t eat or sleep, and none of the weapons of men could hurt them, their only weakness was their nape, and when they were injured they would bleed black and white smoke into the air.
That was the basic information Tewi extracted from the book as the sun dipped further down the horizon. There were no answers about who created the walls, and Tewi did not believe humans made them for a second. Fifty-meter tall walls were insane and completely senseless. No human society would make something like that, and those who could make walls like that would never do it.

But more immediately important than that was that the smoke Eren emitted when she found him was identical to what the book described Titans as emitting.

‘Well, there was that giant skeleton, both Eren and it were emitting the same smoke and both smelled and felt close to a youkai. The description of Titans already sounds like some youkai, so Titans are Youkai or at least related to them and Eren is a titan or related to them.’

Tewi sighed. ‘I should find Eren now, the blessing I put on him still has a while before it wears off, but it’s getting late anyway.’

Tewi wasn’t surprised how easy Eren was to find he had spent the day sulking, getting into fights with other children his age, training, and generally being a menace without somebody to distract him. He had ended up sulking atop the fence opposite the bridge which encircled a large pasture.

Eren had the same down and darkly determined look as he stared out at the cows in the pasture as being herded into a barn.

“So, killing all the titans, huh? Guess you’ll be joining the scouts instead of becoming some sort of titan researcher and finding their fatal weakness,” Tewi said as she walked towards Eren and sat her arms on the fence.

“Yeah, you can’t stop me.”

Tewi laughed. “Well, I already said I wasn’t going to try, I don’t think anyone could discourage you.”

Tewi nodded, making a note to ask more about his father later. She already suspected the man was a doctor and the person who turned Eren into a half-youkai-titan, but that was almost purely intuition on her part.

“You know anything about medicine?”

“No?” Eren half asked, half-said as he tilted his head confused by the non-sequitur.

“Well I can teach you some, you never know when something like that might come in handy when you join the military. But for your friends, if we’re going to search on our own we’ll have to head to Trost, luckily I’m going there anyway. Just need to get that letter from what-his-name the military guy.”

“Why?”

“Why what?”

“Why are you doing this?”

“Helping you? You know I can’t read minds kiddo, you should be more clear with what you say.”

That was half a lie, Tewi knew what his question was about and she could read his mind with some effort. But it was better to encourage him to explain himself clearly and concisely since he had the sort of brazen personality that often didn’t explain itself.

Eren just scowled at her in response, and Tewi sighed.

“Usa~, Fine, fine, I’ll answer your question. For one thing, I don’t have much better to do now that I can’t go back home anymore. I guess a close second is that since I can’t stop you it’s better to make sure you’re prepared for the future.”

Eren nodded before looking at the empty pasture, the cows now herded into their barn. Some time passed like that, Eren and Tewi making small talk as the sun descended further down the horizon until only a half-lidded sun cast darkening purple and orange hues across the sky. Eventually, the military representative from earlier arrived, approaching Tewi and Eren tentatively as he held a letter in one hand.

“Ah, there he is. HEY MISTER MILITARY MAN IT’S ME!”

“It’s Norton.” The man said briskly before thrusting the letter towards Tewi. “Now we don’t have to deal with each other ever again.”

“Aw, looking to pawn me off already?”

“Ugh.”

Tewi laughed as the military man who had suddenly found himself a beleaguered bureaucrat shuffled off, angrily clutching his cigar in between his teeth. Eren looked between the two, unaware of the slightly delirious Tewi’s jokes. Tewi stretched, then yawned, and immediately remembered how tired she felt.

‘Right, I’m weaker than normal, I’ll have to remember that better.’

Blinking slowly, trying to stay awake, Tewi turned to Eren as she propped herself against the same fence he sat atop.

“Eren, sorry, but we probably won’t leave right when you wake up.”

Eren’s head whipped around and his eyes turned sharp, but before he could reply Tewi silenced him by holding his hand in the air sleepily and speaking.

“Don’t be so harsh, look I haven’t slept since Wall Maria was breached so I’m going to need you to drag me back to the tent.”

Eren didn’t have time to react as the youkai rabbit pretending to be a human passed out and fell in his direction.

Chapter Text

Sunlight shone onto Tewi as Eren opened the flap of the tent. The woman lay sprawled over the cot in such a way nobody else could fit on it. It was a totally un-composed, compromised, and messy way of sleeping that Tewi had only given way to due to her exhaustion. Eren almost would have found it comical if not for the fact that he was relying on her. Eren would have scowled if he could bring himself to hate her. But from his point of view, Tewi, although odd and currently inconvenient, had been almost nothing but helpful for very little reason despite falling on him and sleeping in.

“Lady.”

Eren said in an annoyed voice, his patience thin as the flap of the tent closed behind him. Tewi briefly twitched, an inkling of awareness drifting through her brain before she began to snore.

“Lady!”

Eren’s voice rose as he nudged Tewi with his foot. Prompting her to groan, roll over on the cot, mumble something unintelligible, and then splay her arms out as they begin to search for something to grab onto.

“TEWI!” Eren shouted, nudging the youkai with his foot even harder, almost kicking her.

“Huh?” Tewi mumbled irritatedly and groggy as her hands grabbed at nothing. “Eirin, Mokou? What are you doing here? The Inaba-” Tewi groggily muttered half-consciously in Japanese. As she blinked away the lingering sleepiness, her eyes refocused on Eren, and the irritation melted into recognition.

“Ah... it’s you.” She yawned, sitting up on the cot lazily and rubbing her eyes.

“What’s the hurry, anyway?”

“The ship arrives in twenty minutes,” Eren said, arms crossed.

Tewi resisted the urge to be shocked, forcing her expression to stay neutral even as the sleepiness abruptly left her. Before turning to Eren, her expression incredulous. “Ah, okay. You let me sleep in that long?”

“You’re the one who wouldn't wake up earlier.” Eren protested, folding his arms as he remembered his failed attempts to wake the sleeping rabbit earlier in the day.

Tewi rolled her eyes and looked around the tent before her ears twitched, and Tewi realized where Eren would have been sleeping last night.

“Eren… Where did you sleep last night? Actually, how did you know when the ship arrives?”

“I-”

“Wait, no, don’t tell me,” Tewi said, holding up a hand to stop Eren. Tewi sighed, then inhaled deeply and exhaled slowly, trying to shake off the remnants of her drowsiness and surprise. “ Look, I’m the adult here, if one of us has to sleep on the floor or in a chair, it should be me. Understand?”

“I asked Norton, the military guy,” Eren explained.

“Oh, right. That guy.” Tewi nodded, almost having almost forgotten the military representative existed at all, before waving the answer off.

“Well, good. I didn’t need that answer but okay. Usa~” Tewi sighed, rubbing her head and patting down her hair in the place where her rabbit's ears would have been. “Sorry for this.”
“For what, sleeping in? You were tired, and you're awake now..” Eren said, leaving before turning around and leaving the tent.
“Usa~” Tewi sighed again, remembering to check the blessing she had placed on Eren to help hide his presence. “Sometimes you just have to let an apology be Eren.”

Despite the urgency, Tewi spent extra time milling around in the tent, not wanting to draw attention to the fact she wasn’t human. As a youkai, her standards for cleanliness and dress were far lower and easier to attain when she could shape-shift. After what she deemed an appropriate amount of time, she emerged from the tent, her arms full with the rolled-up cot.

“Eren, catch,” Tewi said, throwing the rolled-up cot at him and not breaking stride, even as he caught it with a grunt. “We’ll clean it later once we get to Trost. Now help me pack the tent, and we'll return it to the camp.”

They worked quickly, packing the tent and returning it to the supply depot. The task was short and straightforward. Leaving them just enough time to rush down to the dock. As they reached the river, the first thing Tewi noticed was the white steam over the horizon.

Eren and Tewi watched the military ship glide into view, its silhouette dark against the glinting water.

The white steam that billowed from its stack floated through the air in puffy clouds, the ship itself a long, dark shape against the horizon as it sailed down from Ehrmich. Tewi’s eyes lingered on the plumes; for a moment, she felt a strange nostalgia. It had been decades since she’d last seen a steamship; those had been ocean-faring vessels, far grander than the boat, small, rudimentary, and unimpressive in comparison.

Still, the sight of the steamer cutting through the water stirred something in her, a reminder of how much the world had changed. The first time she had seen a steamship was when Japan forcefully became an open country. When she learned the town had a small dock, she expected to see more ships along the vast river, considering how it snaked from Mitras, under and through the walls, then deep into Titan territory. Although she didn’t know the details of the river or if the Titans could swim, she could make educated guesses for now.
But for now, this one lone ship seemed to hold their fate.

Eren, beside her, was focused solely on their next steps, unaware of the quiet reflection in Tewi’s eyes. She shook off the thought, her usual grin returning as they waited for the ship to dock.

Soon enough, the ship was finished loading, and they were off. Eren wobbled as the boat moved and the sun looked down upon them from its perch in the midday sky. Tewi had retrieved another book she had stolen from her saddle bag and idly reminded herself to refresh the blessing she had put on Eren to mask his presence that night.

After seeing enough of the humans, she doubted they could consciously become of Eren’s nature without him doing something obviously supernatural in front of them, even if they did feel a bit more youkai-like than normal humans they had rudimentary supernatural senses compared to a real or even half-youkai.

Despite the crew and cargo, the trip was pleasant, although it wasn’t the fastest it was certainly faster than land.

Eren and Tewi stood near the prow, Tewi flipping through a book as Eren kept his gaze forward until Tewi followed his gaze to see the distant wall Rose which encircled the Trost district.
The book said the walls were fifty meters tall. But Tewi had a hard time conceptualizing what a fifty-meter-tall wall looked like until she saw its peak over the horizon. With eyesight sharper than any humans, she could make out distant figures atop it, people and horses traveling along its length, artillery batteries on tracks, but what stood out the most to Tewi wasn’t what she could see, but what she could sense; Impurity. Even from this distance, Tewi could feel a massive amount of Impurity radiating off of it, there was no way that wall was made out of stone. Lifeless stone was practically the opposite of impurity, to Tewi, it was more likely that the wall was alive.

“Usa~ I guess there are some things you never get used to,” Tewi said, rubbing the back of her head, trying to cover for her sudden shock.

“They’re cages.”

“Huh?”

“The walls are cages, everybody just wants to huddle behind them and do nothing, the only people who have a chance of pushing back the Titans Are the ones brave enough to go out there.”

Tewi smiled at Eren. “That’s kinda a non-sequitur, You script these things out beforehand?”
Eren crossed his arms with a harumph. “I don’t.”

“You’re a pretty cute kid ya’ know.”

The rest of Eren’s and Tewi’s journey went by pleasantly. Although the accommodations they were offered were small, the ship was not spacious due to the crew, other passengers, and the few crates that were hauled on earlier. Tewi had read the book front to back and Eren had gotten visibly bored by the halfway point leaving Tewi time to attempt to impart some of her medical knowledge to him, she didn’t find it surprising how easy it was to motivate him when you said that what you were teaching him would either help him join the scouts or kill titans easier. Eventually, Wall Maria loomed larger and larger on the horizon. Tewi’s nose wrinkled at the feeling of its immense impurity, Tewi had lived next to Kaguya, a true immortal brimming with Impurity, for years but that failed to lessen her surprise at the walls.

Pixis rubbed his eyes as the sun shone through his office window and he stared wearily down at the paper in front of him, it seemed like days ago the world was ending with the Titans beaching wall Maria. But in such a short time it seemed like everything had gone back to normal, with the exception of the large influx of paperwork and his new temporary office in the Trost Military Headquarters.

Over the past couple of days, those who weren't eaten by titans fled into Trost and then into the refuge of Trost, situated behind Trost and against Wall Rose. Most of the people from Shiganshina and the South had either been eaten or already fled, with a smaller portion of stragglers moving northwards in the coming days. Already the Trost camp had seen itself overrun not even within twenty-four hours, resulting in the ships-turned-refugee barges taking the fleeing inhabitants north of Trost and into the interior territory of Wall Rose.

All in all, it could have been a lot worse. But nobody had any idea how they were going to resettle all of those people, not to mention the future refugees from the Eastern, Northern, and Western bounds of Wall Maria who had already started fleeing towards Klorva, Nedlay, and Karanesse hoping to get ahead of the swarms of titans headed their way.

Pixis felt bad for his fellow territory commanders who would doubtless have to deal with bigger problems due to the higher amount of survivors they would be dealing with, another part of him felt bad that the people who didn’t survivor had to die and be remembered as valiant heroes who fell in the name of humanity in the first place.

But in the meantime Pixis had been spending sun up to sun down crammed into offices, meetings with panicked officials, and members of his command, and filing countless pieces of paperwork. What time he didn’t spend doing that was spent drafting proposals and trying to figure out what to do, barely leaving him any time to eat or sleep and no chances to return home as his office proceeded to feel more and more cramped despite how spacious it was.

It was then as Pixis was consumed with his thoughts, that the door of his office creaked open.

“Hello~”

Pixis waved the woman towards him as he noted her appearance. She wore a softly colored and worn pink dress with a pair of pockets donning its front and a saddle bag slung over her shoulder and shoes that looked too expensive to wear in the wilderness and speckled with dirt, her face was almost porcelain smooth with only slight defects and entirely symmetrical.

“Ah, you have business with me?” Pixis asked, trying to remember if he had forgotten an appointment.

“Yes, I was given a letter of recommendation from a man named Norton, he said you’d hear me out.”

Smiling, {ixis stood up from his chair and reached out with his hand as the woman walked towards him. “Commander Pixis.”

“Tewi Inaba.” She introduced, as she stepped forwards and handed him a letter.

Pixis took the letter, quickly splaying it open and scanning it. Norton talked of a woman he disliked, but who had a dilemma to bring to Pixis attention regarding the doctors and other skilled professionals from Shiganshina; the district of numerous medical innovations.

“So, Norton says here you want to talk about the refugee camps forming and the doctors.”

“Yes, well, to put it frankly, a lot of doctors, myself included, have been helping the refugees and have become refugees themselves. But we can’t do that forever out of the goodness of our hearts, we want jobs, we want to be paid properly for our effort.”

“So, you want the government to subsidize your efforts.”

“Yes, not to mention some of us would like jobs as military doctors or move to Mitras.”
‘Although, if we can’t take care of them, there are people in the capital who wouldn’t mind if those people died. Even if they are doctors.'

Pixis has already been receiving letters that called for a culling of the population.

'But…’

“I suppose this benefits you as well.”

“I won’t lie and say I’m doing this purely out of altruism but I’m also not the only one to lose people during the fall of Wall Maria, and I’ll always try to save as many people as I can.”

“Fine. I’ll hire you; we always need more medics and doctors anyway; I’ll have to draft up some paperwork for hiring or subsidizing other doctors in the south and send some recommendations to my counterparts.” Pixis was not always fond of the broad and sweeping powers gifted to himself and the other four area commanders. But they were awfully handy. “But if you don’t mind, I'm surprised how well you're taking this Miss Inaba.”

“Well, this isn't the first time I’ve had to uproot, not the first time I’ve lost people either; but I guess when you get old, you just have to learn to let go of those attachments and move on with your life.”

Grief was the final form of love, the lingering attachment to the dead, and an emotion Tewi no longer felt. Even vengeance against the perpetrators of her downfall held no appeal to the ancient Youkai older than recorded history. But justice for the living and a return to the rightful order was an entirely different matter; Indeed she was a hypocrite.

“Old? You don't look a day over thirty.” Pixis squinted his eyes as he observed the short woman, her skin was nearly flawless, and combined with how short she was, her mannerisms, and her doll-like appearance, it became impossible to narrow down her age and subsequently year of birth.

“Aw thanks, I take great care of my health.”

“Maybe I should take a look into that, it would certainly make my wife happy, got any health tips?”

“Well for starters you’ll have to cut down on the wine,” Tewi said, eyeing the half-empty bottle precariously placed at one corner of his desk holding down some documents.

“Tsk, on second thought.”

Pixis and Tewi laughed.

“But there is something else,” Tewi said, raising her hand in a child-like manner.
“Oh?”

“Yes, I know you're busy but if you would entertain me further, I’ve taken on the responsibility of caring for a child named Eren Yaeger, he says his mother’s dead but we don’t know anything about his father, Grisha Yaeger or his friends Mikasa Ackermen and Armin Arlet.”

Pixis closed his head as he shook his head. “I’ll see what I can do.”

“Thanks,” Tewi said, hopping back a step before turning around. “Have a good day commander.”

“You too, Miss Inaba.”

At Pixis' dismissal, Tewi left the room and quietly shut the door; only for Pixis’ eyes to slam open and sharpen as Tewi’s last request set in, his concealed alertness coming to the forefront now that she was no longer in the room.

‘Grisha and Eren Yaeger, Mikasa Ackerman, and Armin Arlet. It’s like that, is it, Tewi Inaba?’
Pixis drummed his fingers against the surface of the desk as he thought before finally he pushed back his chair and opening up one of the desk cabinets. Browsed the manilla-colored folders until finally he picked one out and splayed its contents onto the desk.
The Folder was new to Pixis’ office, only having been made the day before, and the name emblazoned on it was ‘Grisha Yaeger.’

Grisha Yaeger was the father of Eren Yaeger, a revolutionary doctor known as the hero of, and a completely undocumented person before the year 832. That by itself wasn’t suspicious, many people lived in remote nameless villages and indeed Grisha Yaeger had passed beneath Pixis’ notice for the entirety of his life, but now Grisha Yaeger was dead.

According to the report given to him by the man’s friend and now former commander of the survey corp, Shadis. It was a rather exhaustive report on the man’s history within the last bastion of humanity and in Pixis' opinion, included far too many personal details of both of the men’s lives.

But some facts were clear, Girsha Yager was now dead. After the fall of Wall Maria and going to the Trost refugee camp he departed into the nearby forest where his arm was found alongside his belongings, before that, Shadis’ attention was drawn to the location by a strike of lightning followed by a pillar of black and white smoke rising into the air.

The same black and white smoke that Titans emitted from their bodies when they were injured or dying.

Pixis took a breath, rubbed his eyes, then read the documents and thought of Tewi Inaba.
‘So just as Grisha Yaeger suffers a mysterious death a doctor with a suspicious background comes out of nowhere to care for his son. Dammit, it's all too suspicious. But I have no idea what it means and alerting Central will complicate matters by bringing in people who can overrule me.’

He hadn't trusted Central's judgment for years and now when they were silent while humanity needed them most.
‘...I guess the only course of action for now is to keep that woman on hand and keep an eye on everybody.’
‘There’s also the matter of those children Shadis mentioned, Mikasa and Armin. It’s probably better to keep them uninvolved right now. If they’re important and that woman is an enemy of humanity, giving them over to her would be trouble, but taking Eren away from her is also difficult in my current position.’

Pixis retrieved spare paper from a drawer in his desk, and his pen from its ink well, then he began to write.

“So we’re going to be staying here for now, and I put in a word about your friends to Commander Pixis.”

Eren trotted behind Tewi as she carried the bed roll under one arm.

The room was drab and barren, only continuing two-bed frames which sported mattresses that looked inviting as bricks, Tewi instantly knew that long ago it had been a storage room or closet of some sort, then a prison, and now just a spare room nobody thought about. But it was lucky for them that such a room existed in the first place spending a single night sleeping on the impure earth or only a cot made Eren’s and Tewi’s thankful for these spare and sudden accommodations.

Eren still frowned, taking what little he was carrying and dropping on the mattress several sizes too big for him before sitting atop its hard surface.

Tewi’s smile didn't falter as she laid her possessions at the foot of the other bed, and spoke to Eren. “Well, we still have a bit until it’s time to go to bed, and I don’t have any teaching materials left on hand. So how about some combat training?”

Eren didn't say anything as he looked at Tewi incredulously, inspecting the doll-like woman.

“Hey, don’t look at me like that, I can throw a mean right hook ya’ know.”

“If you don’t believe me, try to catch me.”

“Fine,” Eren said annoyedly, before looking back and forth in the room sighing, looking back at Tewi, and then finally, lunging. Only for him to be met with the hard fabric of the bed as he landed head first, with no Tewi in sight. Eren got up, holding the cover in his hands as he looked at them blankly.

“Oops!”

“Ah!” Eren yelped, turning around in surprise faster than he thought he ever could.
“Scared, ya’ didn’t I?” Tewi said as she lounged on Eren’s bed with a smug smile on her face before hopping onto the floor in one fluid motion.

From Eren’s point of view, Tewi’s movement was instantaneous, one second she was on the bed opposite him, and the next she was gone. But from Tewi’s point of view, she had enough time to hide her presence entirely and move out of the way at lightning-fast speeds, it really wasn’t that much of a trick, Tewi could have flexed her luck, her powers as a youkai, her knowledge of Houjutsu, or her abilities as a Shinto deity.

But she had decided it was best to ease Eren into his new abilities that he didn’t even know he had. She was hesitant to and probably would never teach him something like insanity manipulation. But Tewi was determined to at least teach him the basics of asserting his mind over matter.
“Eren, If you really want to erase all the Titans you’ll need everything you can get.” Tewi smiled at the shocked Eren as she focused her intent and began to emanate a smokey black aura, turning youkai who looked like a harmless, almost doll-like woman into a sinister shadow-cloaked figure. “So how about it, Eren Yaeger?”

The horses steadily pulled the wagon forward along the road, it was stone like the streets of Trost and littered with many wagons like theirs. Loaded with goods and people desperate to escape farther inward.

Mikasa was surprised at how quickly the friend of Armin’s grandfather arrived, it had been only a day and a half by the time the man arrived. Apparently, he lived in one of the larger villages along the river and as such they had a rookery set up by the military and a few men who trained pigeons.

When he had found them, he had already acquired three more orphans. A girl with long blonde hair, the largest nose Mikasa had ever seen, and a hard look in her eyes. A taller black-haired boy with a thin face, a dusty blonde-haired boy with short cropped hair, and a strange look in his eyes Mikasa couldn’t decipher.

Something in the back of Mikasa’s mind told her they were familiar but she couldn’t remember where she had met them before.

“I was surprised when you found us, I didn’t expect you to take a few extra mouths on.” Armin’s grandfather said, not even turning around to glare at the three other children who sat across from Armin and Mikasa.

“No harm in taking a few more mouths, you old coot. Besides, they found me when I got here, and I’m sure I can find work for them. It felt rude to turn them away in such harsh times.”

“Who you callin’ old, last time I checked you had grandkids yourself.”

“That I do, that I do. Right little devils they are.” The man said, before turning to the five children in the back of his wagon. “I hope you kids back there don’t mind occasionally entraining some younger ones?”

None of them answered as he stared at him blankly, none sure how to answer.

“See, fine.”

Armin’s grandfather huffed a bit then turned back to the long road ahead of them.

“Ah, I’m Bertholt, nice to meet you.”

“Nice to meet you two, I’m Armin Arlet”

“Mikasa.”

“Annie”

“Reiner.” The blonde boy introduced. “We-”

“Don’t feel like talking, what about you two?” Annie interrupted, giving Reiner a harsh glare as she steered the conversation away from themselves.
Armin looked at Mikasa and she nodded.

“Well…”

Armin began recounting their story, and Mikasa chimed in to correct him and then tell the bewildered three across from them how she had the pleasure of meeting one Eren Yaeger.

Of course, unbeknownst to all there they had missed Eren by a hair's breadth, the previous day he had arrived alongside his new caretaker. Only for them to talk to Commander Pixis, who already knew who all but Tewi were, and chose to not inform them of each other.
Only time could tell if this was fortunate or not.

Chapter Text

Eren had fallen asleep quickly that night, Tewi wasn’t surprised, his body was still adjusting to becoming partly a Youkai. The blessing Tewi had put on him using what little Faith people had in her did its work in helping him stabilize, as well as making him luckier and his Youkai-ness difficult to detect.

Sweeping her hand above his brow, Tewi made sure to renew it before her form became indistinct and she became a black formless mass. Silently she crept to the one window their small two bed room sported, tucked snuggly in between the beds the window only allowed for the view of the adjacent building’s bare wall.

The window was hardly airtight, allowing Tewi to squeeze through it while indistinct and smokey. Quickly she dropped down into the alleyway between the buildings, hitting the ground with a burst of black smoke as she then sped off.

Tewi flew between narrow alleyways and razor thin gaps between buildings, traveling towards the base of wall Rose as she thought.

‘Usa~ Reimu and Marisa have it so easy, whenever they get an incident to solve it’s always something straightforward they can beat their way through. Well the life of a thug isn’t for me, afterall I’m too cute .’ Tewi thought mockingly

Tewi slowed down as she approached the base of Wall Maria. Buildings were densely packed along most of its perimeter, but in the military quarter where Tewi and Eren were it was kept clear for easy access to the elevator to the top of the wall, the area was also used for some shooting ranges and a horse stable off in the distance.

Seeing the open, nearly bare stretch of land in front of her, Tewi zipped off in the opposite direction, heading towards the barrier which separated the military quarter from the rest of Trost.

Vaulting herself over the wall, Tewi quickly found a secluded alley formed by a trio of buildings built too close together near the base of wall Maria. Then, in a flurry of black particles Tewi became distinct again, her feet landing on the mud and cobble street of the alleyway mere inches away from Wall Maria.

Pressing her hand against Wall Maria, Tewi closed her eyes and extended her senses. The Wall was warm, only a bit cooler than a human’s average body temperature. In the same vein, despite its stone-like hardness the texture of the wall wasn't dissimilar to that of human skin. Tewi was eerily reminded of a life-like marble statue the princess bought once, painted with such detail she half expected it to jump to life.

Combined with the sickening impurity the Wall radiated, Tewi quickly came to the conclusion that whatever it was made, the wall was alive. Or maybe existing on the barrier of life and death, either way it was too hard for Tewi to break off a piece and it's supernatural element meant that Tewi just couldn't drill into it.

Removing her hand from the wall, Tewi cupped her chin as she thought. ‘I’m already expensing what Faith I have to bless Eren, and I don't tire myself out by my Youkai abilities even more than I have too, I guess I have a fall back option.’

Tewi sighed, clasped her hands together in a praying motion and began to chant.

“Gone, gone, everyone gone to the other shore, awakening, svaha-”

Her Haijutsu, Dharmic arts, The magic of Buddhists and Buddhists gods. Tewi was technically related to them and did practice their arts back when the Buddha was still alive and also when Miko had still yet to become a traitor and a Saint. Although her Haijutsu was worse than both Byakuren and Miko’s, even those notably corrupt individuals were stronger than her in this aspect. 

Despite herself, Tewi felt some sorrow as she chanted. But eventually a small ripple passed through the flesh-like stone of Wall Maria and it began to give way. Slowly but surely a hole was forming in the wall, at first only the outer skin was stripped away, but then there was crystal, red flesh, and white bone. All slowly giving way until a hole large enough for Tewi to climb through had formed in the wall. 

Tewi opened eyes and sighed. “So cliche, can't people have any original ideas anymore, once you’ve climbed through one tunnel made of humans you’ve climbed through them all.”

Rolling her eyes, Tewi bent for and peeled her head into the hole straining even to see through the dark even with the eyes of a Youkai, Tewi could see nothing but more blackness deeper in.

Tewi put a hand forward, feeling along the rim of the hole. The outermost layer was the same warm skin-textured stone she expected, but only a little farther passed that was a thin layer of smooth crystal that felt cold to the touch, pushing her hand even further Tewi touched the warm pulsing flesh and bone that made up the interior of the wall proper.

“Whelp, down the rabbit hole I go.”

With that said, Tewi got on into the opening on her hands and knees, then proceeded to crawl.

The tunnel was unpleasant, miles of wet and hot raw meat, pitch black, and of course it was closing behind her. But Tewi expected that last part.

‘Cliche, at least those renovations I heard about in Hell are trying to keep things new and fresh, but no, whoever designed the Walls had to keep it uninteresting.’ Tewi was eventually a bit happier as the tunnel became sand about halfway through, but by that point she had crawled for a mile making her too annoyed to truly appreciate it.

Eventually a mote of light appeared in the distance, the end of the tunnel and Tewi breathed a sigh in relief as the sand behind her kept collapsing. Kicking off the inside of the tunnel Tewi exploded into a cloud of black smoke before her head could the ceiling and zipped down the tunnel began to collapse faster and faster.

Tewi tumbled through the exit hole and resolidified, rolling through the air curled into a ball as she hit soft and cold sand.

Tewi rolled for a moment more then jumped and as soon as she reached the apex of her jump she exclaimed.

“Ta’dah!”

Tewi looked around as she fell; off in the distance there was an expanse of sand and at the horizon she could see a massive fifty meter wall dwarfed by a massive luminous white tree that reached into the heavens. Its branches were fissures bleeding pale and impure light that stretched across the sky, suffocating out the stars with and turning the sky into a dark blue canvas that passed over Tewi.

The cold sand exploded around Tewi as she landed and the polluted sky was momentarily blocked out by a wave of sand. Tewi waited for the curtain of sand to fall back to the ground before turning on her heel. Behind Tewi there was a monolith of sand stretching from horizon to horizon, enclosing her and forming a mirror image of Trost’s layout.

The only reason why she wasn’t cast in its shadow was the unnatural and impure polluting light from the massive tree off in the distance, to where Mitras would be.

Seeing the mirror image of Wall Rose, Tewi bounced off the ground, and flew into the air. Quickering an eyebrow as she began to fly. The air was heavier, weighed down by Impurity, but despite that, Tewi could move more freely here then she could on the faux-earth where the Walls and the supposed last remnants of humanity were.

As she continued to fly through the air Tewi tested herself, reaching for as much power as she could and abounding any pretense of hiding anything. Tewi felt the world around her bend as an aura of black smoke exploded out of her. Distantly she could feel the presence of her shrine in the outside world as a young woman dropped something into it and offered a prayer.

Tewi smiled as she crested above the wall, ‘Wherever this is, it’s closer to earth and Gensokyo, much closer.’

Tewi turned her gaze to the light polluted sky, straining her eyes to see the planets and stars until she found what she was looking for. Nestled in between the branches of the great tree and far far away was a little blue dot, a reflection of earth, and where she had been only a short while earlier.

Turning around as she floated above the top of the sandy mirror of Wall Rose, Tewi looked back onto the desert sea and the impure, luminous white tree that dominated the landscape.

“So, this is the fake moon, huh? Anybody going to come and greet me?”

“Indeed.”

Tewi turned around in mid air as a smile broke out onto her face. There stood a mon perched atop the wall of sand eccentrically dressed in a clownish purple suit covered by a black cape that wrap around him like wings and a massive collar that bloomed like a flower from the base of his neck and framed his head, it’s visage entirely covered by a shiny reflective helmet that shone Tewi’s grin back at her.

“I…” The man led on, waving a hand in the air theatrically, “Am Mirror Man, The Mirror Man. Master of illusions and hypnotism.”

“Oh, oh, I know this one!” Tewi exclaimed, raising her hand like a child as she laughed at the clown.

“You do?”

“Yep, ya’ see you’re what the girls back home call a, stage one boss.” The first obstacle to any incident resolver’s path to victory, or so they said. Reisen never liked to share her stories much, while Reimu, Marisa, and Sanae embellished theirs too much to be reliable.

“Why I don’t believe I’ve ever heard of that terminology my dear, care to enlighten me?”

“Hmm, no sorry. It has something to do with those video games my Inaba and Kaguya like so much, I’m not exactly up to date with what the youth of today are doing.”

“A shame, a shame, but may I enquire to who you are? Not many people come here to the PATHS and those who have were never quite like you.”

“Usaaa~‘ Tewi sighed, “How about, I’ll tell you who I am, if you tell me who you are?”

“Very well.”

“Okay, I’m Tewi Inaba, or Inaba Tewi. But you already knew that, didn’t you mister mirror man?”

“Indeed I did, indeed I did. But that doesn’t answer my question does it?”

Suddenly Tewi’s oppressive presence disappeared and the cloud of black some around her was gone, but she did not hide, instead she twisted around in the air, approaching the mirror masked man who stood atop the wall.

“Hmmm, well I’m a lot of things. I’ve been and am a mother, a doctor, a youkai, a landlady, a god, a student and a teacher, a con artist, and a liar. But to tell you the truth mister Mirror Man-” Tewi looked back and forth theatrically, before floating closer and leaned forward to the masked man and whispered. “I’m a rabbit.”

“A rabbit? Truly?” He whispered back, a joking tone in his voice.

“Yep.”

The man laughed before taking a step back off of the sandy titan’s head and onto the open air. With a flourish of his hand he brought out a handkerchief and then a bundle of roses from out of his sleeve, offering them to Tewi he spoke.

“Well my dear, to answer your question of who I am. I am no-one and everyone.”

Tewi tilted her head at his answer, feigning surprise and offense so boldly even a child could see through her act.

“Well is that all? I have to get back home, you know.”

“First my dear, I must give you this warning,” the masked clownish man said, flushing his hand in the air before his voice changed, “Just what do you think you are doing messing around with that boy, a pointless, worthless endeavor for a child marked by the specter of death.”

The man had dropped his act, his voice and attitude changing completely. From the high and jovial sounding man who wouldn't be out of place in a carnival to a masked killer whose mouth only dispensed threats.

In turn, the oppressive aura around Tewi returned, black smoke exploding out from around her  

“Whelp, I'll help him out my best then.”

“Even if that means you can never return home.”

“And you know that for a fact?” Tewi asked, arching an eyebrow comically, presenting a sight completely at odds with the massive threatening aura she continued to emanate. 

“I can assist you in-”

“No thanks,” Tewi interrupted, “I want to get home, and I have a lot of people depending on me, but, you're pretty suspicious, and I'm not going to throw Eren to the wolves, or Titans in this case.”

The man stood there, holding her gaze as well as he could when looking through an opaque mask and the woman across from him was emanating such a threatening presence. 

“Whatever you do, it won't accomplish anything, this fate is writ in stone.”

“It would help if I knew what this fate is?”

The man ignored her and pushed his hands into the air before him as sparks flew from the great luminous tree behind him and he activated some ability. But before he could realized what happened, his head left his shoulders and landed in Tewi’s hand.

“Y’know my grandkids are more impressive, well my descendants…” Tewi trailed off, shaking her hand in a so-so gesture. “When you get to my age words like that begin to lose meaning.”

“And how old would that be?”

“Hmm, about a million or more years. That’s about how long it takes for animals to speciate ya’know, so even if they do descend from me, we don’t actually have much in common genetically anymore, since they’re a different species now.” Tewi said, not remembering the exact amount of years she had been alive and earnestly trying to explain herself the best she could to the man, not caring if he believed her at all.

The decapitated head laughed. “Another lie?”

“Nope.” Tewi answered before dropping the head and hitting it with her shin as hard as she could, sending the chrome dome flying off into the horizon and towards the giant luminous tree that loomed over her.

Tewi didn't know who the man was yet, but he both seemed confident and under-experienced with intrigue and a bad liar despite being a good actor. There was never any chance of either of them convincing the other to give up whatever their goal was and Tewi recognized that instantly but instead the man tried to fish for information while also trying to deliver a warning and ended up only giving Tewi more to work with.

“Whelp, guess it's time to make the return trip.”

Tewi said sardonically, deactivating the aura of menace which leaked out of her and preparing herself to go crawling through the tunnel again.

<hr>

The first order of business Tewi had after integrating herself to the medical staff of the military headquarters of Trost was making sure they were using proper methods. Luckily Eren”s father seemed to have already spread quite a bit of medical knowledge and good practice, doctors regularly cleaned their instruments and replaced their operating aprons. Their knowledge of diseases vectors and bacteria was also surprising, but she was told those were also discovered by Grisha Yaeger, although their amputation techniques still needed work, about one in ten would survive an amputation and the procedure wasn’t quick, taking a minute per limb that had to be removed. Tewi had gotten her personal time down to twenty seconds, and she was able to train a few surgeons to get it down to thirty. As well as raising the average success rate to one in six.

Worse was that they seemed to lack good anesthetics, experimenting with chemicals was tricky, expensive, and not her strong suit. A lot of those seemingly mundane chemicals were also vectors of impurity and she knew that the humans who explored the early field of anesthetics back on earth often met with terrible fates.

Their gynecological and pediatric knowledge was also sub par. She had once seen a midwife of sorts attempt to give a newborn wine in place of mother’s milk and ended up slapping the woman. But that was the easiest thing for Tewi to help the military medical staff to improve on even if they didn't see the need. Making something close to a formula and popularizing it also wasn't hard, there wasn't much of a medical establishment anymore since Shiganshina fell and the few species she did meet were easy enough to convince.

Soon enough the bright skies of summer turned to the dim skies of autumn, then it would be the first winter since wall Maria fell. Food was growing scarcer, public order was dissolving, and all of humanity’s surviving population feared for their future as the phantoms of titans haunted their nightmares. Some, even in the central district swore, could hear the gnashing of giant teeth just beyond the walls. 

Tewi wished she had more time to devote to Eren, luckily the schools in Trost reopened and despite his protests, Tewi needed something to keep him busy while she worked. Raising a child alone was never something she had to do in the past, there were always other people around who’s help she could rely on but now she had to start building a network of allies. At the very least she had been able to migrate herself to Commander Pixis, he was a canny man and clearly suspected something of her, but she counted that to be in her favor.

The biggest problem for Tewi was the lack of headway she had made with Eren as well as her lack of information on the ongoing incident. He had already been using his power as a Youkai subconsciously but Tewi wasn’t exactly keen to test how fast he regenerated, so she had stuck to combat training testing his reflexes and extra senses whenever they got the chance.

So, as the sun began to set and the week slowly began to turn into the weekend, Tewi took Eren to the backyard for another evening of training.

“Right.”

Eren sweat as he stepped back and dodged Tewi’s punch, feeling the ripple in the air before he saw her fist connect where he would have been mere moments before. Tewi was serious when she was training him, everything that took Eren effort was easily accomplished by her with little to no effort. For Eren this was an exercise in getting hit, but for Tewi this was an exercise in holding back.

“Left.”

Eren moved again, Tewi’s fist grazing him. For some, seeing the difference in power and ability between themselves and a master would be disheartening. But for Eren, seeing the difference between the weak and the strong only made him more determined not to be helpless.

“Right.”

Eren’s movements were mechanical, instinctive as he dodged Tewi’s fist. He had honed his focus entirely, the only thing he heard were the directions and the only thing he saw was Tewi as she blurred towards him again and again.

Tewi disappeared again, and Eren waited eyes darting left and right to see which direction she would come from, only for him to come up short and see nothing. Eren waited, tensed up suddenly and moved again, a fist flying through where he had just been a moment ago

“Left.”

Eren moved to his right, dodging the fist Tewi would send that way only for him to realize too late that Tewi didn't move left. The cold palm of Tewi’s hand Eren was in shock for a moment, with how fast she was moving, Eren expected a slap or a punch.

“Got you~” Tewi teased, a teasing smile on her face.

“Hey-”

“Whelp, looks like we're done for the day.” Tewi said, interrupting Eren’s attempt at protest as she hopped a step away.

“Hey!” Eren said, angrier. “You cheated.”

“Yeah, and? You think a Titans just going to tell you what it’s going to do, or maybe those boys you keep getting into fights with, do you ever give each other slack.”

“They started it.”

“Eren, Eren, Eren. That’s what everybody says, also I don’t care who started it.” Tewi said as she walked up onto the small back porch and sat down on a bench.

“You’re going to join the military, and you're going to receive military training. Part of that is your mindset, they might scream at you, test you, make you work in grueling conditions. I don't doubt you can keep your composure under pressure or else I would’ve tested you on that myself.” There was also the fact that Tewi didn't want to be mean to him, Eren was an odd and pitiable child as were countless others.

“But you're going to also need to learn how to work together; how to maintain coordination in a group. How to not blow your top at people at the slightest inconvenience.”

Eren wanted to interrupt her, but instead he wormed under the gaze of Tewi’s red eyes as she looked down on him from her porch perch. It felt unfair, and he hated it, but he also knew that she was right and getting visibly mad would only prove her point.

“I’m not saying this to be mean, but you can’t save the world alone. So don’t go running off by yourself and get into trouble, without at least one person by your side, okay?”

“Okay.” Eren said reluctantly.

“Now get on up here, I have something else I need to talk to you about.”

Eren’s skin still prickled with embarrassment as he walked up the small stairs to the porch

“Is this-”

“Yep, it’s about those ‘secret techniques’ I mentioned, I think it’s finally time to explain the basics.”

Of course she’d also worked with youkai who didn’t know they were half-human, but Reisen was a lot more experienced, less motivated, more pathetic, more sadomasochistic, and like Rinosuka was born that way while also inheriting a much more powerful ability from her ancestors. So all-in-all, Eren was easier to work with, but much weaker and unlike Reisen his half-human half-youkai status was probably important.

‘Still haven’t thought of a use for him though, well it’s not like I need one, even if he can’t help he get back home he needs the help. I should probably get my hands on some of that ODM gear, Eren will get some training in it eventually anyways but it could prove useful.’

“Okay first off, knowing is half the battle. No matter the enemy you have to understand them first before you can approach them.”

“What does this-”

“Let me speak. There are even some enemies which you can't fight with your hands or weapons, only with your wits. While there are others who won’t ever listen to you and you just have to cave their skull in.”

Tewi said matter of factly, wagging her finger in the air and looking innocent even

“Nape.” Eren said, answering Tewi flatley. ”You cut the nape of titans, caving their skull is worthless.”

“Fine, Fine.” Tewi said, annoyed at Eren’s denseness. “I get it, it’s time to show you a real secret then.”

Without saying another word, Tewi took Eren by the hand and yanked him towards the edge of the porch with her, Eren’s eyes bulged with panic as he felt himself falling, only for the feeling to be confusingly cut short. Tewi stood on the edge of the porch, half fallen off and leaning backwards towards the ground while holding both of his hands, but neither of them fell further.

“Eren, calm down, we're not going to fall.”

Tewi said as she saw the panic turn to confusion in Eren’s eyes.

“I know that.” Eren gasped.

Tewi rolled her eyes as she held him, but continued on anyway.

“Good, now let me explain. What I'm doing here is creating my own leverage, forcing my body to stay upright despite the force of gravity. This is an exertion of the principle of mind over matter, there’s no scientific answer for how I'm doing this just like there’s no scientific answer for why placebos works.”

“A placebo?”

“Right, I never told you about those. But what I'm getting at is that this power defies logic, don’t constrain your mind by thinking of what is and what isn't impossible.”

Tewi began to smile, this was the easy part. No matter the reality of the situation, Tewi was confident Eren would always end up rebelling and trying to fight his way through, any logical or normal human being would have given up hope or try to survive safely within the walls. Although that was also suspicious, but she supposed with so little information about his parents and limited information about his past she wasn’t certain what exactly was different from him besides the obvious of becoming a half-youkai.

“So tell me this Eren Yaeger, is erasing all titans from this world impossible or not.

“No, I'll erase them all, no matter what.”

“Good.” Tewi said smiling, right before she let go of his hands and landed foot first onto the dirt.

Panic briefly eclipsed Eren’s sense as Tewi stepped from the short porch onto the dirt of the backyard, but just as soon as it came, it went as Eren realized that he wasn’t falling.

“See, you're standing just fine.”

Eren breathed heavily as he stood, suspended mid fall teetering forwards with an expression on his face between joy and shock. Power, real power, something that defied logic and the start of his path to eliminating all titans from the world, he was utterly ecstatic. Tewi was already beside him by the time he snapped out of it and stumbled back onto the porch bench.

“Amazing.”

“Yep, it’s only a little trick, but you’ve already been using this power without realizing it.” Tewi explained holding a finger up in the air as Eren looked at her with amazement. ”I can sense it right now, moving through your body, making you stronger.”

Eren nodded, sitting down on the porch bench before he realized something.

“Mikasa.”

“Your friend?” Tewi asked, before sitting down next to him.

“She was always freakishly strong.” Eren said, thinking as he contemplated what Mikasa and Tewi’s resemblance as well as Mikasa’s freakish strength might mean.

“Well…” Tewi trailed off as she thought. “I suppose it’s technically possible, people can be born with this power, I wasn’t.” Neither were her Inaba, they were all either wild or domestic rabbits who’s circumstances she manipulated to form a grudge against humanity and turn them into Youkai. There was also Reisen, but Reisen was a moon rabbit by blood and after a million or so years of evolution on the moon, they were distinct genetically from Tewi and the rabbits of the earth.

Of course there were also more or less normal humans born with powers that they got through some genetic happenstance, as well as blood lines like Yukari Yakumo’s which passed down the ability to manipulate gaps and boundaries.

“Did she ever do anything else strange, other than be strong that is?”

“No, but she also looks like you and her mother looked like you as well.”

“Well, that’s just because we’re all Japanese, but that has nothing to do with having powers.” 

Technically Tewi was a rabbit, or rabbit ancestor due to being evolutionarily distinct. 

“Being freakishly strong isn’t a lot to go off of,” Tewi said, "can you tell me how you two met?”

Eren nodded his head and began to recount their first meeting. Eren’s father didn't often involve him in his work or bring Eren along but on that day Eren followed his father as the man made a trip out into the countryside to visit a reclusive couple. They were called the Ackerman family and were part of what Eren’s father called the ‘oriental clan,’ but he didn't explain anymore.

The journey was long but eventually they arrived at a two story house that rested atop a hill and was cloaked by the forest on all sides. Far away from prying eyes in the nearby town, farmsteads, and with only a lone dirt road leading towards it. 

When Eren and his father arrived, the couple was already hours dead and Mikasa was being held in a room by a pair of kidnappers. As Eren recounted it, he heard their argument from outside, hid a knife behind his back, then slit the throat of the first man and impaled the second with a knife strapped to a broom. But a third man caught him and Mikasa had to kill him herself, stabbing a knife clean through his back and into his heart.

Tewi looked into the darkening sky as the sun sat, Eren’s story was strange and disturbing. Kidnapper’s didn’t wait for hours, they took what they wanted and left with their prey just as quickly, why even kill a couple in the middle of nowhere. The answer was obvious, Mikasa’s parents weren’t nobody, they were targeted and the assassins waited in anticipation of their next targets. Whether Eren and his father were those targets, she couldn't say, but a famous doctor and his suspiciously important son arriving the same day the killers made their move and those killers then waiting for so long made her highly suspect they were the next targets.

But the most disturbing thing was Eren continuously calling the men rabid dogs. She had known Eren’s behavior was strange for a child, but he didn't seem like a killer, and neither was he anti-social, only abrasive, headstrong, and blunt personality.

His mind could’ve been manipulated, or he could’ve been part Youkai beforehand whatever happened to him in that fore, but she had no way of confirming his parentage.

Tewi sighed.

“Well, even after hearing what happened, I still don't think I can say, I’d have to meet her myself.”

The story said more about Eren anyways, Mikasa’s actions were that strange, she had heard of and seen children kill people under duress before.

‘Either way Eren’s killed somebody before, I shouldn't just be treating him like a kid.’ Tewi hated that, hated the fact that Eren had to kill somebody, hated the fact she respected him for it, hated the fact that children were in harm's way in the first place. “Even if it’s sudden, I should tell him the truth.”

“Eren, there’s something I have to tell you. This power we both have, it's called the power of Youkai, and it's something used by the enemies of humanity.”

Eren’s eyes became sharp and dark, his demeanor changed as the light behind his eyes dimmed and his posture became more aggressive, animalistic like a rabbit wondering if it should flee. Tewi sat forward and held her hands together as she spoke honestly.

“I’m not an enemy, but I'm not an ally of humanity either. I won't call myself that and lie to you.”

Some might call her an ally to humanity, but Tewi wouldn't. In her mind, anybody who chose to work against the Lunar Capital couldn’t rightly be called an ally of humanity. While the Lunarians were enemies of humans, opposing them also meant eventually drawing humans the conflict.

In that sense, the Titans were a godsend for Tewi just as much as she was a godsend for the inhabitants of the walls. She received an evil that was already making itself a threat to humanity and the humans within the walls got a savior. Of course, that wasn’t all true but she nor many others, knew that.

Tewi let the silence linger, giving Eren a chance to think or to speak up and say something. But as she waited Eren didn’t speak, nor did he move, all he did was gaze at her with eyes that burrowed through her skin.

“I’m not here to hurt anyone, I just want to go home.”

“Tewi, are you going to help me erase all the titans from this world or not?”

‘it’s kinda cute how single minded he is.’ of course it was still worrying behavior for a child

Tewi smirked. “When did I ever say I wouldn't. Besides, I have a hunch the mystery of how I ended up here and the mystery of the Titans are connected afterall.”

“The mystery of the Titans?” 

“Well for you may seem normal, but where I come from there aren’t any titans. Honestly, they’re pretty suspicious ya’know and I’m sure there are others who think the same.”

Eren scorched his eyebrows together wondering just where Tewi had come from, while Armin had always told him about the world beyond the walls and shown him pictures in that book of his, that didn’t answer where Tewi came from or how she got here.

“Tewi, where do you come from?”

“Oh yeah,” Tewi said, realizing she forgot to explain her own circumstances. “I’m a property owner from Gensokyo, the Land of Illusion. And for how I got here, no idea?” Tewi said, purposefully down playing 

“Property owner?” Eren was confused again, property was just a thing people owned, so to him saying that you were a property owner was just as informative.

“I own a piece of land which people pay me to let them live on, it’s a pretty comfortable job.” With the plus it allowed her access to the Lunar Capital through Eientei and information on the Capital through Eren, Kaguyam, and Reisen.

Then the two of sat there for a moment, the conversation having reached its natural conclusion, Eren shuffled awkwardly on the bench while Tewi continued to put effort into seeming casual. Deciding he’d break the silence, Eren coughed and asked.

“So…?”

“So-,” Tewi said playfully, leading off of Eren’s own confusion on where the conversation would go from here.”-I still have things to teach you, although it's getting a bit late so you should probably head to bed after this next lesson.”

Eren nodded his head.

“Well, we don’t have that much time until you’re going to join the military. I only really have enough time to teach you how to bomb properly.”

In Gensokyo, knowing when to activate your ‘bomb’ or spell card as it was also called, was one of the most foundational skills of combat. They could get you out of a tight situation or win outright but being too conservative or liberal with their usage could easily land someone in a tricky spot.

“Bombs?” 

“Well they’re what they say on the tin bombs, basically you just.” Tewi held her hand out in front of her like she was holding an orb in both, as she held her hands black particles trickled into the center, spinning together into a small ball. “Focus on gather power into a ball, then-”

Tewi let go of the small black ball letting it float in the air for a moment until it exploded in a puff of black dust.

“Now you try.”

Eren did as Tewi did, holding his hands out in front of him as if he was holding a sphere in his hands and concentrating. Slowly, a small mote of blackness gathered in between his hands, Eren scrunched his eyes tied shut. The mote of darkness wavered for a second before Eren’s fingers started to and he scorched his eyes tighter, trying to keep it from falling apart as the mote gradually increased in instability. Then again the mote began to unravel, thin strand of darkness unraveling into the air and dissolving, Tewi watched on as Eren grit his teeth together then let go.

Eren’s body untensed as his concentration ceased, and what strands of darkness did exploded with a small pop.

“Pretty good for a first try, Eren.” Tewi said, walking towards him.

Eren pursed his lips together as he looked at where the mote of darkness had rested moments earlier. 

“Tewi,” he said, his eyes darting to meet hers, “I want to improve at this as fast as possible, how do I do that.”

“Well, a good first step is giving your bomb some sort of meaning, or associating it with a certain feeling or need,” Tewi said, nodding her head, “That’s what I did when I designed my Ancient Duper.”

“Tewi, thank you.” Eren said, looking down at his hands.

“Now, it’s time to go to bed, it’s getting pretty late you know.” The sun had finally set and the two of them lived close enough to the walls to where the shadows at night where longer and darker, even on the full moon it was hard to keep your barings about you.

Eren rolled eyes at her bin complied, the two of them would have more time for training in the future, and both of them needed their beauty sleep. Eren himself was feeling more than a little tired, having expended the little amount of power he did have, as he walked away, resolute in his determination and the closed the door to his bedroom behind him, Tewi smiled gently before disappearing in a puff of black smoke. 

‘I have to talk to Pixis’

<hr>

The full moon's light streamed through the office window and onto his desk as Pixis furrowed his brow as he looked down at the edict on his desk. One night when he was drunk, he had ended up telling his wife about it and she was still furious even now, weeks later.

Apparently the eggheads had run the numbers and ended up agreeing with the talking heads from central. There was simply no way for humanity to continue as it had within the walls of drastic action wasn't taken, thus the king had ordered for heroic and just action in pushing back the Titan menace back beyond the Wall Maria.

Twenty percent of the serving human population would have to die by the end of the year, no matter what. It would be a slaughter only surpassed by the extinction of humanity beyond the walls, Pixis still had some time until the deadline for the culling to begin. So he had decided to try to preserve as many useful people as possible, even if it was costly, at the very least a majority of the doctors from Shingashina had either taken up practice in Trost or the capital, saving a great deal of humanity's remaining medical knowledge.

It truly was a tragedy that the downfall of humanity resumed in the district with some of the most experienced and skilled doctors. 

Of course not everybody agreed with that, but it seemed that the king or one of his subjects had come into ownership of a uniquely skilled brand of cutthroat. Then after the first objectors died Pixis and his fellow area Commanders weren't keen to raise their voices. That was one thing Pixis hadn’t told his wife, better for her not to worry.

There was a rustling in his peripheral views and Pixis resisted the urge to turn his head as curtains of his office slowly drew close, dampening but not blocking out the moon light and darkening his office. Pixis blew a puff of smoke out of his cigar as he looked down at the documents feeling helpless but looking determined. But as his cigar smoke wafted across his desk he found himself greeted by familiar sniffling and complaining.

“Didn't I tell you that smoking was bad for your health? Kids these days…”

“Miss Inaba. I suppose this would be the fourth time you’ve entered my office uninvited?”

“Fifth.”

“Mhhh.” Pixis hummed, the woman had proved far more annoying than he initially thought, after her initial weeks in Trost she had settled in completely and had seen fit to start bugging him while avoiding his security and most other people she didn’t have to meet.

“Either way I’d prefer if you didn't invade my privacy at every available opportunity, that's what Eren is for after all.”

Tewi chuckled as her eyes glowed red, cutting through the dim moonlight that seeped through the too thin curtains.

“Aw, c’mon you have to give kids some privacy, besides he’s strong enough to handle himself.” The chair in front of his desk squealed as Tewi sat down in it.

Pixis nodded his head before looking back down at the documents on his desk. If anybody found out about the operation beforehand it could be disastrous, especially with the announcement so soon things were at a precious stage where they were still getting ready and not everyone was informed of what they were getting ready for, an information leak now could cause a riot, mutiny, or a full blown revolt depending on how things went.

“It’s not your fault ya’know, if you weren’t here someone would just take your place.”

“I’m aware, but thank you anyways.” Pixis said solemnly. “But I suppose that means we’re not being listened to?” 

Pixis would have pointed out her hypocrisy, invading his own personal space while respecting Eren while thinking of them both as children. But there were more pressing matters and she never bothered him for no reason.

“Yep, I checked every nook and cranny. Now hand me that bottle.” Tewi said, reaching out her arms towards Pixis childishly. 

Pixis looked at Tewi flatly for a second before turning his gaze to the half-finished bottle of wine that sat at the corner of his desk weighing down several documents. then looked back at Tewi suspiciously.

“Didn’t you say you quit drinking?” he said in a suspicious and mocking tone.

“Did I say that?” Tewi said as she tilted her head like a dog. “Honestly, that doesn’t sound anything like me at all.”

Pixis drummed his fingers against the surface of his desk, letting Tewi’s comment hang in the air. Before pursing his lips together and raising his eyebrows comically.

“Really?”

“Yep, nothing like me at all. Now hand it here.”

Pixis laughed, holding the bottle of wine and offering it to Tewi. “Now don’t drink it all, I still have to get the secret of your youth out of you some day.”

“Pfff, secret?” Tewi dismissed, waving one hand in the air as the other grabbed the battle. “I already told you; I just take excellent care of myself.”

“That you did, that you did.” Pixis repeated, eyeing Tewi with suspicion as she down the bottle of wine inelegantly.

He had to admit, he was impressed by Tewi's ability to both sneak into his office so blatantly and down a half bottle of wine in a single breath. Briefly Pixis considered that whichever man found himself married to her was a lucky one indeed, before dismissing the thought. It was strange he had imagined her married at all, but despite her childishness she gave off a strangely mature aura, he had met a few friends of his wife who acted a bit like that, all married women.

‘She did mention losing people in the past, and there are countless unnamed villages within the walls, but someone with her medical knowledge and skills just can’t come from nowhere.’

“So, why did you come?”

“Well…” Tewi gulped, taking the now empty bottle away from her mouth. “I want to talk about Eren, and that friend of his, Maksa Ackerman.”

Pixis raised his eyebrow at Tewi. ‘Does she know I didn’t tell her where they were?’

“Eren, told me about how he met Mikasa, do you know anything about that?”

“I know of the boy's father, Grisha, but I can’t say I have learned everything about the two.” Pixis said with a degree of reluctance, he had attempted to Grisha. But the man was an enigma, appearing out of nowhere just, and what leads he did have all involved the currently overrun Shiganshina district.

“Welllll,” Tewi said, dragging the l on playfully to build anticipation, “Mind if I tell you how they met? It’s a pretty interesting story.”

Pixis listened attentively as Tewi animatedly recounted the story of Eren and Mikasa’s first meeting, swinging the bottle she held in one hand left and right. The kidnappers, Eren’s premeditated murder of them, how Mikasa killed the last one by herself, and how Eren’s father reacted with panic afterwards. Tewi also hinted to her own speculation, the mystery of why the kidnappers would wait for hours in the Ackerman’s house, why the couple had lived in such a remote area.

For his part Pixis was surprised, although he retained his suspicions about Tewi’s heavy hinting towards a larger conspiracy.

“Hmm, I think I heard something about that,” Pixis said, recalling a story that at the time he had dismissed as just rumor trending among his subordinates, “I’ll have to ask around and look at our own records to confirm the story.”

Records that Pixis knew were doubtless sprawled across the floor of the now abandoned police headquarters of Trost.

“That’s nice,” Tewi said, giving Pixis a faux smile, “But I wanted to know what you think about Eren.”

“He’s certainly strange.” Said Pixis, thinking of his own children.

Tewi snorted.

“Strange doesn’t begin to cover it, one second it’s like he’s a completely normal child, the next he’s someone else entirely.”

Pixis nodded his head. “Personally, while the boy does sound troubling, I’m more interested in you, Miss Inaba.”

“Pixis!” Tewi exclaimed in faux surprise and offense, spinning around in her chair. “You’re a married man and I’m a taken woman, how dare Bhaha-” Tewi couldn’t keep a straight face, exploding into laughter at the notion.

However, Pixis didn’t laugh, keeping a steely gaze on the strange red-eyed woman who sat across from him in the darkness.

“You’re quite the jokester, aren’t you? What’s your angle here?”

Tewi ceased her laughing, and spun the chair back to face Pixis.

“Fine, fine,” Tewi complained theatrically, waving Pixis off as she continued her act, “To tell you the truth, I’m a rabbit.” Tewi whispered, putting her hands against the side of her head with her index fingers pointed in the air to form a pair of faux rabbit ears. “See?”

Pixis chuckled. “With those you look more like a demon with horns.”

“Well you’re half right at least.”

“Mhh,” Pixis hummed, deciding to play into Tewi’s joke, “Maybe you’re a Jackalope then? Half rabbit, half deer.”

“Now, you’re off the mark.”

“Am I?” Pixis asked, wondering why demon and rabbit would be more correct than Jackalope.

“Yep, after all Jakalopes don’t exist.” Well Jackalopes did exist, but purely in the realm of youkai and myth, particularly in Seihou, but Tewi had never been to that strange place.

“But demons do?”

“Haven’t you looked over the Wall recently? Why just last year a horde of monsters ate hundreds of humans, and now hundreds and thousands more humans are going to be sacrificed to the monsters for the sake of humanity’s survival.” Tewi said, her red eyes piercing through the darkness, seeming to illuminate the room and cast ghastly shadows.

Pixis held her gaze, unblinking and unmoving as he sat in his chair.

Tewi blinked, and the unnatural illumination ceased. “Geeze, you’re so harsh on me you know.”

“And you’re suspicious.” Pixis said, thrusting a finger in her direction.

Tewi spun herself around in chair again, adopting a thinking pose as she asked Pixis. “What would I have to do to convince you that I’m trustworthy?”

“A motive would help.” Pixis offered.

Again, Tewi spun around in her chair to face Pixis, this time clasping her hands together while tilting her head to the side and looking at Pixis with large puppy-like eyes. 

“Would you believe I’m motivated by the goodness of my heart?”

Pixis considered the notion, giving a so-so motion with his hand.

“Not entirely, I think you have an ulterior motive as well.”

Tewi sighed, “Usa~ Well, you wouldn’t be wrong. I have people waiting for me back home, as well as some power enemies, but until I resolve this incident.”

“Incident?” Pixis wondered aloud, ‘what strange terminology to use’

“Yeah, you know, the Walls, the Titans, all of it,” Tei said waving her hand in the direction of wall Maria, “Somethings going on and I’ll have to get to the bottom of it if I want to get home.”

Pixis remained silent as Tewi placed the now empty bottle on his desk, keeping a steady and suspicious gaze on her while wondering what exactly she meant.

“You’re going to pay me back for drinking half of the bottle.”

Tewi laughed as she hopped off her chair.

“Whelp, goodbye Pixis, being a single mother is a lot of work you know and I have to get my beauty sleep.”

Pixis rubbed his eyes in frustration and annoyance as Tewi departed.

“Goodnight, Miss Inaba.”

By the time he said his goodbyes, the door was already closed. Pixis could feel the moonlight prickling against his skin as he sat in the darkness. He’d been up too late, working too long, looking down at the papers in front of him and sighing, made his decision. Armin’s grandfather as well as the rest of the family they were staying with would be spared from the upcoming draft and purge, he had already done them cruelty enough in not informing them of Eren whereabouts.

Chapter Text

Armin wiped the sweat from his brow as he looked up into the sky and saw the sun dip closer to the horizon; it had reached its apex a while ago and was steadily falling ever since he and Berholdt were left to de-weed and clear the fields. 

The farm work was hard, laborious, and monotonous. At the very least they weren’t stuck clearing stumps, Armin had heard stories of kids his age having to do that on the new farmsteads being constructed as they ate into the forests and woodlands.

Armin counted himself lucky and despite his frailty, he didn’t hate it, after all, it gave him something to distract himself with. He thought it was good for Mikasa as well, but he wasn’t sure, Mikasa was always quiet, odd, and a bit broody.

Eren’s disappearance had only made her normal behavior more eccentric and subsequently, it had become harder for Armin to get a grasp on what she was thinking, he was used to her playing the straight man to Eren’s antics and himself as the third wheel. Having to take the reins so-to-speak try to help Mikasa feel better was still something he hadn’t gotten used to even now.

There was also the issue of the three other kids his and Mikasa’s age, or to be more exact, Annie. Reiner was nice enough if a bit odd sometimes, Bertholdt was shy but nice, and Annie reminded Armin of Mikasa.

“Bertholdt?” Armin asked, pausing in his labors and turning to a tall black-haired boy.

“Yes, Armin?”

“Is Annie okay?” Armin asked, looking out into the distance.

Bertholdt scratched his face in embarrassment, “Ah, don’t worry about Annie, she just misses her father, I- uh,” Bertholdt internally swore, “We’ve all lost a lot, Annie just needs more time.”

Armin nodded aimlessly, remembering his own parents who had never taken much interest in him and left him in his grandfather’s care most of the time. It hurt to think about but the most care they had ever shown him was saving his life before disappearing completely. A part of him couldn’t help but wonder where they were and what they were doing, but he always dismissed those thoughts as soon as they came.

“Bertholdt, how were your parents?”

Brtholdt blinked, then put his hand to his chin in thought. “Well… I- uh,” Berholdt stammered, “Honestly, I didn’t have much of a relationship at all with them, this may sound weird, but I don’t miss them at all.”

“Th-that's not to say I hated them, and, and, I-” Bertholdt stammered again, “What I’m trying to say is that, I-uh, I just want things to go back to the way they were, I guess?” Berholdt phrased his answer like a question, but by pure accident, he had honestly ended up answering Armin’s question. 

Although it was better for him that way, Armind wouldn’t have believed him if he lied.

Armin nodded, thinking about what Betrholdt had said and finally nodding, “I understand what you mean, I feel the same way.”

Berholdt looked back and forth nervously before speaking, “You think we’ve done enough work for today, nobodies around.”

Armin shrugged, and turned to the darkening sky, “Wouldn’t hurt, let’s go.”

Neither of them was the most athletic, and despite neither of them normally being the type to skip out on work before, neither of them felt like de-weeding the field in awkward silence until somebody came to collect them.

Until they saw the old man who owned the farm approach on his wagon, alone. The man’s son had come over with his own children earlier in the day, as they often want to do, and ended up.

As Armin and Berholdt saw the old man’s approach they realized something, he should have been home an hour ago. The next thing they noticed as the old man’s face became clear as he got closer, was the grim expression he wore.

Armin’s blood ran cold, and Bertholdt began internally panicking, both of them unable to move as the old man’s wagon slowed down next to them.

“Get in, boys.” The old man said, “Work is done for the day.”

Neither of them objected.

The short ride to the farmhouse was tense, and soon Annie, Reiner, and Mikasa joined them, also collected by the old man as he did a lap around the property making sure everybody would be gathered in the big house. 

Soon everybody, Armin, the three other kids, Armin’s Grandfather, and the few other farm hands all found themselves in the big house's dining room. The old man sat down at the table in the center of the room as everybody stood.

“First things first, my son and his kids got home okay,” he said, not reassuring everyone as him having to say that and gather them all meant something bad happened in the first place, “Secondly, there was a man from the military in town today, he said that there’s some sort of plan to retake Wall Maria.”

The room immediately exploded into sound, all at once everybody was speaking, panicking, raising objections, or struck with dumbfounded silence and unable to say anything. Armin, was in the last category, the old man’s words ringing in his ears as she stared blankly forward and tried to process what they meant.

‘Retaking Wall Maria, but that…’

It was a death sentence, and everybody knew it. From the moment a child was born to the moment they would die, all would have the fear of Titans ingrained into every fiber of their being, even for a child as enamored with the outside world like Armin couldn’t maintain any illusion of a bloodless or easy retaking of Wall Maria, not so soon after the fear of titans had been so thoroughly drilled into him and all the survivors of the breach of Wall Maria.

Armin felt sick as he grit his teeth, partly in disgust and horror, but more so in anger. Everybody had worked so hard to stay alive, some fell and died along the way, some were left behind, and others stood and fought to the last as the Titans closed in.

Now the people who claimed to be the guardians of humanity were going to throw away so many people's lives and hard work, for what?

“I’ll take Armin to his room, he’s not feeling well,” Mikasa said, cutting through Armin’s thoughts and causing him to realize that he’d been shaking and was teetering over.

Nobody objected as Mikasa put her arm around Armin’s shoulder and led him out of the room.

“Mikasa, I-”

“I know Armin,” Mikasa said, not looking at Armin as her hand around his shoulder tightened, “You looked sick, and I’m not going to let you throw up on the floor.”

Mikasa's eyes were tense and unmoving as the two of them trudged away from everybody else, up to the second story of the large house. As the two of them left the room, Armin caught a glimpse of Annie out of the corner of his eye as she leaned against a wall with Bertholdt standing next to her; he could’ve sworn she was scowling at them.

‘Thank Helos he’s a crybaby with a weak stomach.’ Annie thought as she scowled at the pair of Armin and Mikasa as they retreated up the stairs.

Annie gave Armin a nod as she walked up the stairs. They had to talk.

Their room was sparse but large enough for each of their bed to be sat parallel to each other on either side of the room’s one window and leaving enough space for multiple of the kids to sit in between the beds.

Annie counted the seconds and then minutes as she sat in her bed until finally, she decided that Mikasa wouldn’t be going to sleep in their room tonight. Annie got up from her bed and opened the room’s door, allowing a beam of moonlight that passed from the window to shine through into the hall.

The air felt heavy as she wanted, and soon Bertholdt and then Reiner arrived walking soundlessly into the room and then closing the door behind them. Wordlessly the three Warriors gathered on the floor, sitting in a circle between Mikasa’s and Annie’s beds, and then the three of them began to speak in whispers.

“Bertholdt messed up.”

“I-uh, I mentioned Annie’s dad to Armin,” Berholdt said nervously, looking at Reiner.

“So? I’ve told the old man about my parents, Armin’s grandpa as well.”

“What!” Annie said, her voice half a yell, half a whisper.

“Annie, Bertholdt. As the leader allow me to say this, it doesn’t matter; who cares if they know about our families?”

“But,” Bertholdt tried to protest, “What if we slip up, somebody might find where we came from.”

“They don’t even know people live outside of the walls, it’s fine,” Reiner dismissed before turning to Annie, “Is this all you called us here for? If so, I'd rather get back to sleep.”

Annie sighed, “No, there’s something else, I think we should make our move on wall Rose and then Sina soon.”

Bertholdt blinked in surprise not saying anything as his mind failed him, but Reiner in contrast just shook his head.

“Annie, our mission here is nothing less than the salvation of humanity, rash action could doom everyone to the wrath of the king.”

Annie blinked and gave Reiner a flat look half astonished at how he had said anything with a straight face, half wondering if he actually believed anything he said. Eventually, though, she decided it didn’t matter and elected to sigh in exasperation instead.

“He didn’t do anything when Wall Maria fell,” Annie said, gesturing towards Berholdt who flinched,  “If he was going to do something, he would have done it then.”

Reiner shook his head. “It could have been a fluke, a whim of the king, or something else we don’t know. Either way, our initial assault was made in desperation and we can’t risk another uninformed decision when our enemy has the ability to rewrite people's memories at will.” 

“You- Argh. Bertholdt!” Annie exclaimed in frustration, turning to Berholdt. 

‘It’s Reiner’s fault we’re here in the first place, if he hadn’t run we might’ve saved Marcel, or at least one of us could have eaten that titan.’ Annie thought in her hypocrisy, Reiner didn’t force them to stay, she and Bertholdt could’ve taken him back and they could’ve resumed the mission later, tried something else. But no, they had convinced themselves they had to complete the mission and Reiner, who shouldn’t have been on the mission in the first place, ended up taking charge.

All due to a chance of fate, that mysterious Abnormal Titan who waited for them to arrive as it slept under the earth,

Bertholdt put his foot down, trying to sound forceful while also being quiet.“We already agreed to join the military police, it’s the only clear path forward to the King.”

“Only because we don’t have any more information, we’ve spent too much time dawdling here doing Nothing,” Annie stressed, trying to keep her voice low as she got more and more worked up.

“We won’t stop you if you leave,” Reiner said, giving Annie an odd stare.

“We won’t?” Asked Bertholdt.

“If you believe going to Mitras is the right choice for the mission, I won’t stop you. You’re the only one here trained in infiltration anyways.”

“So, that’s it I’m going alone then.”

Reiner nodded his head, “Even if you succeed or fail, you’ll be alright and we’ll join the army and together the three of us will accomplish our mission”

“Fine, I’m going then,” Annie stated before turning to Berholdt, “You coming?”

“I-uh, Annie,” Bertholdt stammered, looking back and forth between Annie and Reiner as he sweat, “Reiner, we should go, W-we’ll have to get up early tomorrow.”

“Right,” Annie said, nodding her head, and telling herself that she hadn’t expected much from Bertholdt. 

There was an awkward minute after where the three of them had to descend the same ladder and then leave the barn in order to sneak back into their rooms in silence, none of them having anything else to say or wanting to talk. But one thing was clear between the three without it being said, Annie would have to leave soon, the chaos from the ‘draft’ would not last, and soon enough despite the loss of the Farm’s men and boys the remaining members of the homesteads and nearby town would adjust.

Indeed as night turned to day and the three of them woke up groggily due to staying up last night, Bertholdt and Reiner set to work while Annie went about avoiding work the best she could and gathering supplies. By the end of the day she had collected some dried fruits here, some dried meat there, some nuts, a cut-off piece of a cheese wedge, and some loose burlap to tie it all in. Annie had been antsy and eyeing every loose piece of material and food beforehand anyway, mentally making notes and preparing for her escape before she even tried to talk to Reiner and Bertholdt.

Annie could have waited another day, but that night she had decided to leave that night, stashing her stolen goods underneath her bed at every available opportunity. Soon enough dusk came, and then eventually bedtime as all of the children were herded inside and the adults all went off to gather, arguing over something Annie didn’t care to listen in on.

It was then when their voices grew distant and distracted that Annie crept from her bed and retrieved her stolen goods from underneath. In lieu of tying her things up in the burlap, Annie tied the bed sheet into a bag and with the same knot interwoven the burlap into a sort of strap so she could carry her bag over her shoulder. 

Despite herself, Annie smiled as she did so and thought of her father.

“You’re leaving.”

Annie stopped having just finished tying the knot of her makeshift backpack, turning around she saw the Hizuran girl, Mikasa, sitting up in her bed and staring down at her with cold almond eyes, Annie shivered under their gaze.

“Yes, are you going to tell?” Annie asked, eyeing Mikasa venomously.

The Hiruzan girl said nothing for a moment, sizing Annie up and looking at her with an intense and unreadable expression then gave off the impression of a threat, and for a second Annie swore she could see the air itself solidifying into motes of Darkness as she stewed. The girl was a continuous mystery to Annie, quiet, too serious, and when she did talk she was quiet or would talk about some boy named Eren who Annie had never met or cared to learn about.

“No,” Mikasa said, before tucking herself back underneath her covers. There was something in her voice when she said that, but Annie couldn’t tell what it was, nor did she care.

Annie slung her makeshift backpack over her shoulder and headed towards the window. She didn’t know why or how the people of Hizuru ended up on Paradise Island, but she also didn’t care, it wasn’t her problem. Right now the only thing that mattered was finding the King and consuming him.

Annie cracked the window open, then slid it open, letting the cold night air assault her. Looking out and down from the window, Annie steeled herself as she looked down at the two-story drop.

“If you get hurt, I’m not helping you.”

Annie smiled, half to mock Mikasa, half to give psych herschel fup.

“If you close the window they’ll know you let me escape.”

With that said Annie launched herself out of the open window and into the cold night air. Annie held her eyes wide open as she flew through the air, but the second the sensation of weightlessness was replaced with the harsh reality of gravity she screwed them shut.

Despite the pain, the creaking of bones, and the tearing of flesh, Annie held in her scream as she landed from the second-story window to the cold ground below. Narrowly she avoided clacking her teeth together and biting off her tongue, but either way, it didn’t matter, despite the pain Annie could already feel her body heal itself as she emitted a thin wisp of white and black smoke from her mouth.

As she forced herself up off the ground, her mouth moved, wordlessly reciting a mantra.

‘Pain is an illusion, a weakness of the body, a temporary sensation that passes, pain is an-’

It was something Zeke had taught all of the warriors to improve the speed of their regeneration. She remembered an argument that broke out between him and a member of the science team, something about it being unscientific, magic, nonsense, or a placebo. Their argument would then inevitably flow into territory Annie couldn’t follow, full of too big words she didn’t know the meaning of and terms she was unfamiliar with.

But she was just distracting herself, trying to think of anything but the pain. Annie hobbled towards the tree line despite it all, and soon enough she broke into a sprint.

‘All I have to do is follow along the tree line until I get to the river, then I have to get onto the military ship.’

Easier said than done, but Annie was a Warrior. Soon enough Annie was feeling right as rain and could break out into a full sprint as she traveled along the tree line and to the river. From there Annie followed its path into town, the military ships would arrive in the morning according to the announcement so Annie still had some time to sleep once she found herself a safe nook to sleep in.

In the chaos, Annie slipped in through where the cargo was loaded and then found herself in the cargo hold, tightly packed boxes full of rations and supplies, weapons as well. Annie stood on top of one crate and pried part of a loose board off of another one, she couldn’t take it off but there was enough space for her small arm to wiggle through and grab onto a knife which she quickly squirreled away into her rucksack. 

Finding a comfortable spot was harder than looting one of the crates, but just as Annie found a comfortable nook in between two crates and closed her eyes, she heard a voice sound off.

“Ah, a stowaway.”

Annie’s eyes snapped open and she flashed her knife in the direction of the voice. Standing above her on top of one of the boxes was Annie’s own reflection cast back at her in a mirrored mask.

Annie pushed off of the floor and moved.

“Oh, running away already?”

The masked man grabbed her by the wrist and as Annie went for her knife with the other hand she felt it spams and the knife dropped to the floor.

“It’s bad manners to play with knives, you know?”

Annie kicked the ma, trying to get him to flinch or release his grip as she tried to wrist the rest of her body away from him. The man barely reacted at all to Annie’s attempted escape, tapping his shoes against the floor until another voice called out, attracted by the commotion the two interlopers had caused.

“Hey, who's there!”

Annie’s panic only deepened at the circumstances as she tried her hardest to pry the masked man off of her to no avail, finally, her eyes widened in panic as a burly-looking sailor type turned around the corner.

The man was about to say something before the masked man nodded his head and the light off of the mask gleamed.

Taking a step forward and dragging Annie with him, the Masked man waved his hand to greet the sailor in his cheery off-tone voice.

“Ah captain, good to see you again. Sorry for all the commotion, my daughter just got distracted and left her cabin.”

The sailor, not revealed to Annie as the captain blinked once blankly in response to the masked man’s jovial words and replied sheepishly.

“Well make sure she doesn’t get up to any more trouble sir, I’d hate to see her get hurt.”

Annie blinked in surprise at the man’s response before, the man yanked her forward and they quickly exited the cargo hull. Passing through the bowels of the ship and through the crowded ship’s staff of sailors who gave neither Annie nor the man with the mirrored mask anything but a passing glance.

“Come now Annie, we still have a ways to go until we must arrive at Mitras, this ship will stop by Trost first then Ehrmich, at which we shall disembark and take another ship to Mitras.” He said as they ascended up a staircase and into the passenger section of the ship.

Annie blinked as she followed the man, realizing what he had said, Annie hadn’t told him her name.

“Hm, oh, I apologize,” The man said, realizing his mistake and waving the knife in a dismissing motion, “That was a slip-up on my part.” 

Shortly after the man’s apology, they reached their destination. Among all the doors to the guest's rooms, one was given the largest berth and with the fanciest door, shoving his way into the room and ignoring Annie’s complaints, the man flung her forward and slammed the door shut behind him.

Annie caught herself as she spun forward, quickly stabilizing herself and moving away from the strange masked man so she could observe the room and keep an eye on him.

The room was well furnished and spacious for the ship, with one king-sized bed, a wardrobe, an adjacent restroom, two porthole windows facing out onto the large river that traveled from Mitras underneath the wall, then into titan territory, and finally a singular bookshelf stocked from bottom to top.

Annie turned back to the man and took a step away, waiting for him to do something.

The masked man rolled his head at her in response, at which Annie only gave him the same hard look. “I suppose a roll of the eyes doesn't translate well into other forms of body language, does it?” the man questioned aloud, still waiting for Annie to speak up. 

“Who are you?” Annie demanded, ready to spring into action at any moment.

“Me?”The masked man asked, gesturing to himself, “Why, I’m the Mirror Man, master of hypnotism and persuasive arts!” With that, he took a bow, energized by Annie’s question, but so clearly theatrical and fake she didn’t know what to think.

“Make yourself at home and don’t worry you have the cabin to yourself, I don’t need it.” The man said in his light and airy tone, gesturing in the air with the knife he took from Annie.

“Why should I stay, what do you want?”Annie asked in rapid succession.

“Aside from the fact I could throw you off this ship at any moment, or the fact that I could kill you with ease, oh, and let's not forget about us both wanting you to find out the secret of the King?” The man said mockingly, “Oooh, perhaps I should have mentioned that last one first, well dear Annie, the choice is yours to make.”

Annie didn’t answer, staring at the man warily as he turned from her and then exited the room.

Chapter Text

The room was dark, so dark that it was impossible to see, and the ground was shaking in lockstep rhythm, like the footfalls of a hundred hundred titans trampling over the world. The wet thud of their fleshless bare feet meeting the ground over and over again, only accompanied by wailing cries and another strange rhythmic beat.

The other beat wasn’t a wet thud. Instead, it was a bony, thundering, click-clack sound that reminded him of a centipede. That word, centipede, meant something to Eren, but he didn’t know why. All the word did was leave feelings of derision and hatred.

The face of a man flashed in his mind, a man with dirty blonde or maybe brown hair. The man sat there in an endless ocean of sand with no horizon as a thousand cracks in the sky stared down at them all.

He tried to move, but he couldn’t. No matter how much he tried, all he could do was swing his head from side to side. Worse yet, Eren couldn’t feel any part of his body, feeling more like a weightless point of view in space than a person, just a perspective witnessing the inky blackness instead of an actor on the stage.

Despite that and the pitch blackness he was enveloped in, Eren still felt like he could see something, someone out there. Watching him from beyond the veil of darkness, for some reason, a pointy-eared skeleton-esque face came to mind but the thought left him as soon as it came.

But soon after that, the darkness was broken. The darkness parted in a symmetrical grid, rays of light shooting through and blinding him. As he regained sight, the grid lines split open like a wound and then lowered, letting more light in and revealing the scene to Eren.

The floor was a wet carpet of flesh, the walls were enamel and bone, and the ceiling was a ghastly layer of skin stretched too thinly across too much space. Somehow it didn’t surprise him.
What did surprise him though was her; Mikasa appeared in a flash, walking onto the flesh carpet floor with the grace he expected from her and with a flash of steam from the ODM gear strapped to her. Although she was older looking than Eren remembered, weathered and beaten down, the beauty in her features remained.

She took one step to him and another, and he wondered why she looked so sad. They were best friends after all and neither of them would ever do something to hurt the other, not truly.
In the distance beyond Mikasa Eren thought he could see a bird and for some reason, he knew Armin was there as well, alongside countless others. A screaming, crying mass of people running away.

It was then he realized that Mikasa was holding two swords and Eren felt relieved; like a great weight was lifted from his shoulder as she brought her swords into the air, oblivious to the third party who stood behind Mikasa, the ghastly smiling face of a god who had lived longer than all but one Eren knew.

Mikasa’s swords moved through the air, and then-

“Eren! C’mon! We can’t have you being late!”

Eren opened his eyes groggily, the nightmare already sloughing off his mind as he woke up. Pushing himself up from the bed Eren caught a glimpse of Tewi as she vanished out the door to his room, sighing as the sun hit him in the face.

Getting up from his bed, Eren quickly dressed himself for the day and retrieved his father's key from where he had hung it. Today was his last day living under Tewi's roof, at least for a while, the day he was going to join the military.

Even as he left his room Eren still felt sleepy, the memory of the nightmare still clinging to him as it tried to drag him back to sleep. Tewi in contrast was hopping about, full of energy as always.

“C’mon I have breakfast,” Tewi greeted, pouring both of them a bowl of oatmeal.
Eren obliged, sitting down at the table with a yawn as Tewi set down his bowl of oatmeal and handed him a spoon.

Just as soon as Tewi had served herself and sat across from Eren, “So what’s going on, girl trouble, or did you decide to start getting into fights again?”

“Nothing Tewi,” Eren bubbled out, rubbing the sleep from his eyes as he ignored Tewi’s more annoying comment, “I just had a nightmare.”

“What type of nightmare was it?”

“Mhh, hard to remember… I think Mikasa was there, but I don’t remember anything else.” Eren said hesitantly, looking into his bowl of oatmeal.

“Hmph,” Tewi said, placing her hand on her chin, “Could be something important like either you or her dream selves reaching out for each other.”

“Dream selves?” Eren asked skeptically, “You need to stop bringing things up without explaining them.”

“Oh yeah, well dream selves are who you are in the Dream World, I haven’t been able to access the Dream World since I got here but it’s obviously still there for you humans.”

Eren blinked, a bit concerned and confused. He had slept without dreaming before, in fact, most nights he did. But there was something off, almost sad sounding about being cut off from dreaming altogether.

“So you haven’t had any dreams since you got here?”

“Nope, but I also didn’t need to sleep much when I was back in Gensokyo, I was way stronger and could just stay up if I wanted,” Tewi said casually waving her hand in the air as if what she said was nothing, “But C’mon start eating, you’re still a growing boy Eren and the oatmeal isn’t getting any warmer.”

Eren huffed with some annoyance before doing as Tewi said and began to eat. Eventually drifting drifted into thought. Tewi’s mentions of her home, Gensokyo, and those like her, beings called Youkai, had gotten more frequent over time; he didn’t know if it was due to growing trust or if she was preparing him for something, probably both.

Although in retrospect, Eren found the revelation that she wasn’t human didn’t actually change that much and his reaction was a bit embarrassingly dramatic. She still trained him, just a bit more magically, she still was mostly occupied with her work; she still woke him up early, the world still turned, Eren still went to school, and her presence was comforting. Not that he would ever admit that to her.

“You look like you have a question,”

“You’re preparing me for something, not just the military.” Eren accused, half joking; He had faith Tewi would never intentionally hurt him.

“Well… I do have something to talk to you about before you go, about you being a human who’s not quite a Youkai.”

“Right, a half Youkai,” Eren said, half amused by her somewhat roundabout and embarrassed tone. It was a bit hard to take someone as theatrical and tiny as Tewi seriously sometimes, and she didn't look nervous.

“Well, since you're leaving, I won’t be able to keep as good of an eye on you; this includes making sure you don’t become any more of a Youkai.”

“Any more?” Eren asked, “I didn’t know I could become more of a Youkai,” His intuition was that being half a Youkai, wasn’t something you became, or at least not something people became.
“It’s not a ‘bad thing’ per say,” Tewi said, choosing her words carefully.

“I’d just prefer it if you retained your humanity, fully turning into a Youkai can pretty extreme for a human, you might not be able to control yourself or you might not survive at all.” Tewi didn’t mention that she had needed to keep as close an eye on him because he had been spending so much time with her, being around Youkai a lot while not having something else to counterbalance their influence could lead humans into drifting into Youkai without even knowing it.

“So you’re going to have to take steps to retain or become closer to humanity,” Eren quirked an eyebrow; Tewi already knew what he was going to say, “I know that sounds vague and mysterious, but it’s more self-explanatory than you’d think and we don’t have any other viable options.”

Viable was the keyword in Tewi’s explanation; there were other options such as Haijutsu, Senjutsu, Onmyoudou, Divine powers, or some esoterica that could have helped Eren not become a Youkai. But of those Tewi only knew Haijutsu and had Divine powers, but she was not a master in either, and both also required years more of training. Which was time that neither of them had right now.
Though if a master one or more of those disciplines found Eren instead, him being a half-Youkai or becoming a full Youkai wouldn’t have been a problem in the first place.

“Right, self-explanatory," Eren said sarcastically, "How about I walk down the street to the human store where they sell ‘human-ing’ equipment.”

“Well as I said, it’s kinda self-explanatory; making sure you're close to humanity is doing things like, going out of your way to interact with or just be nice to people, understand how humans think, obeying social norms, and understanding your own thoughts.”

“Really? That sounds-”

“I know, I know,” Tewi interrupted cringing a little from how genuine this all was, “It sounds a little simple, maybe a bit cheesy even, but it’s important, and I don’t just want you to dive into the deep end, especially if you don’t find Mikasa or Armin.”

Eren froze a little when she said that, holding his spoon in his hand as he stared down his guardian rabbit. The possibility that he wouldn’t find Mikasa and Armin, that he’d never see them again, had crossed his mind before; but it was always something he quickly dismissed like a bad dream. They were his only other guiding light besides the complete erasure of the Titans from the world. Even now, he didn’t have anybody as dear to him as those two and his family, except maybe Tewi.

Even his indigence at the way the world worked to separate him and his friends, and his hatred of the Titan had its roots in his desire to protect those closest to him, even if they might only be a memory now.

“I’m just worried about you is all, okay Eren?”

Eren took a deep breath and looked back up to Tewi, he had more questions he wanted answered.

“Okay, but, I have another question,” Eren said, putting his spoon down, “What about other people; We’re not the only ones who could have powers like this, you already mentioned Gensokyo and how there are a bunch of Youkai there.”

“Hmm, well I’ve only met one so far, a purple-cloaked man who wears a mirror mask on his face, but he’s illusive.”

“Right, is he dangerous?”

“To me? No, but he could probably give you some trouble. Also, he likes gloating about being able to control people so keep an eye out for people who’re actin’ odd and make sure to punch him right away if he’s up close and don't look him in the eyes.”

“So you don’t know what this guy’s deal is?” Eren asked in between another spoonful.

“Well he’s probably a human, or a former one, and I ran into him while I was investigating the walls, and they probably have something to do with the Titans, so by extension, he probably has something to do with the Titans as well…” Tewi said, airing her speculation out loud.

Eren eyes grew sharp as he nodded his head, a heavy cloud settling over his head, “So there’s a faction of people like that out there, plotting the destruction of humanity” Just the knowledge that there were people, humans, plotting the destruction of humanity like that was disgusting thought, sickening in it’s cruelty and something Eren could never stand for.

Tewi felt her eyebrow twitch a little in annoyance, Eren was always a hot head but his focus on vengeance would be the end of him if he didn’t control himself, “That doesn’t mean you can run off after him if you find him, make sure you have other people with you. Right now is all a lot of speculation and I don’t think there’s any controlling force behind the Titans, they seem pretty disorganized from what I’ve seen, at worst he’s probably just an opportunist with his own agenda.”

Tewi explained, deciding to leave out the man’s vague comments about Eren and fate. Some type of prophetic ability, fate, or time travel were all possible explanations for the man’s vague comments, but Tewi considered them all to be nonsense and annoying, she’d still try to help Eren out to the best of his ability and whatever would happen next would happen.

But telling Eren about that just seemed to be a needless headache to Tewi, it was something he didn’t need to worry about.

“But in general you should remain on guard, I don’t think you should mention most of what I’ve told you. Always try to fish for information out of someone first before confirming, and if they clam up, back off.”

“That’s if I find any, well hopefully Mikasa will be there if you were right about my dream,” Eren said as he got up from the table, bowl in hand. His words only meant to reassure himself that he could find his friends.

“Yep,” Tewi said, following Eren’s lead as she began cleaning up, “Anyways so you’ll find your answers soon enough.”

"Yeah, I still have my father to investigate as well," Eren said wistfully, "I still don't know what happened to him, but I guess that's what this key is for."

"Yep, but the hard part is getting back to Shiganshina, so make sure to not put the cart before the horse," Tewi said, omitting the death of Eren's father, likely at the boy's own hand. She had still hung onto his shoe and glasses in case, but she didn't want to burden Eren.
If his father wasn't important and he never learned what happened to him, then all the better, Eren would just be spared some trauma.

With that, they cleaned the kitchen and then set off. The journey wasn’t far, although the streets were rather packed with men young and old, of various walks of life, set on a similar journey to Eren. Accompanied of course by their own families looking to see them off as they went to join the military, hopeful that their sons and brothers would return to them.

Soon then Eren and Tewi departed for one another as they arrived at their destination, numerous wagons and stalls were set up for admitting people to the military. It was the first day of their recruitment efforts so far and despite the fate that could befall them many signed up just for the chance to earn a position closer to Mitras where they could live their life safely. The process was swift, Eren gave his name, age, where he lived, and who he lived with and then he was shuffled off onto a wagon with his fellow recruits.

As he climbed into the Wagon, Eren looked back and waved at Tewi as she watched him from the edge of the crowd. He was thankful for the two years of hospitality she had given him.
“Stay safe Eren!” She yelled, along with countless other voices wishing for luck and safety.
“I will!” He yelled back, smiling. Soon enough he would be at the cadet corps, and his journey would have finally begun.

After that, there was only a little more waiting and the wagons were off, going one by one through the city streets and into the territory of Wall Rose. The one hundred and fourth cadet corps had begun.

The ride was surprisingly long giving Eren and the other recruits alongside him time to introduce themselves. Among them there was one face Eren had met before, Jean Kirstein, the two had given each other their fair share of roughhousing in the past. But both were happy to see each other nonetheless, after Eren and Jean had started talking the ride became more spirited as eventually everybody else joined in.

With themselves occupied the trip went a lot faster and before they could believe they had already arrived at the section of the wall reserved for the training corps. Jean and Eren separated then, Jean heading off to the mess hall alongside a bunch of other cadets who would rather spend time together waiting together in a mess hall that wasn’t serving any food instead of standing out in the blazing sun.

Eren on the other hand went to survey the yard; His first order of business was locating Armin and Mikasa, and that meant surveying the incoming recruits as well as the likely places the two would be. Mikasa was never a person to slack off despite her unnatural and effortless strength which Eren still suspected had some deeper meaning to it.

But as Eren scanned the yard and his fellow recruits, he realized neither Armin nor Mikasa were there. As he went over the recruits again two caught his eye, as tall as a beanpole black-haired boy who stood stock still next to a shorter dusty blonde boy doing exercises; He didn’t know why they attracted his attention, but something in the back of his brain screamed that they were important somehow.

The beanpole noticed him staring, locking eyes with him before saying something to the dusty-haired blonde that caused him to look over at Eren. Saying something Eren couldn’t hear, the blonde then went back to his exercises, deciding to ignore his observer.
Deciding to approach them, Eren waved as he spoke.

“Hey, I’m looking for someone, do you two have a second.”

The blonde one nodded, “Well that depends. I’m Reiner and this stick bug here is Berholdt,” The blonde one said, gesturing with his thumb to the nervous-looking and tall black-haired boy, “We’re looking for someone as well, a girl named Annie? She has blonde hair and is pretty tough-looking.”

“No, sorry,” Eren said, not expecting to have the same sort of question he was about to ask, be asked of him, “But have you two met a Mikasa or Armin, I’m looking for them?”

The black-haired one seemed to grow even more nervous shuffling back and forth, while the Reiner raised an eyebrow and looked at Eren strangely, “You wouldn’t happen to be Eren Yaeger, would you?”

Eren’s eyes widened in surprise, elated at the Reiner’s question, “You know Mikasa and Armin?!”

Reiner let out a small laugh at Eren’s surprise, “Yeah, they should be in the Mess Hall right now, but Instructor is probably going to call us all together anyways so-”

Eren didn’t stick around to hear the rest of what Reiner had to say, breaking off into a sprint towards the mess hall. Reiner shook his head in disappointment and went back to his exercises.
“Wow, kind of rude guy, don’t you think so Bertholdt?”

“Uh, we should probably go back to looking for Annie,” Bertholdt said, wanting to follow Eren’s lead.

“I told you, she’s fine Bertholdt. She’s bound to find her way back to us anyways,” Reinder dismissed, not even raising his head to look at Bertholdt.

Over the time Annie had been gone, Reiner had only grown more sure of the errant Warrior, while Berhdolt had inversely only grown more worried about her. Armin in turn had been a welcoming shoulder to cry on, assuring him that they would both find their missing friends and that everything was going to be alright in stark contrast to Reiner whose faith was so absolute and unshakeable even if Annie turned up dead he would believe she died to valiantly, heroically and for their sake.

In contrast, Mikasa did not care about Reiner, Bertholdr, or Annie; Always clinging to Armin and either being entirely mute or only talking about the mysterious Eren Yaeger who Reiner and Bertholdt had just met.

“Uh… I’m going to look for her,” Bertholdt said somewhat nervously, shuffling off in Eren’s direction.

“Sure, thing just don’t get lost, okay?”

Bertholdt didn’t respond, leaving Reiner to his exercises in the courtyard alongside those overly motivated or restless few who, like Reiner, did not have anything better to do.

Elsewhere Eren entered the mess hall, its tall wooden ceilings, long tables, and benches all being a familiar sight to him whenever he would go with Tewi to study under her during work, there were several buildings exactly like this one in the military quarter of Trost. The people inhabiting, however, were not like the soldiers and olderlies he had seen in Trost, instead there was a gaggle of boys and girls his age or only a year older.

Scrutinizing the crowd he saw Jean again but skipped over him and then the world froze as Eren met Armin’s gaze. Mikasa was sitting right next to him and looked up as well, and then they were all off, running across the room and brushing past anyone who would get in their way until they all met.
For the first time in two years, the three friends embraced.

“Eren I-”

Armin was about to say something, but as soon as he broke away from the embrace, Mikasa seized the opportunity; taking Eren all for herself as she grabbed him in a bear hug and squeezed.

“Mikasa…” Eren wheezed out, “Mikasa, let go I can’t breathe…” Mikasa had latched onto him like a bear trap, wrapping her arms around him entirely and hugging him with a spine-breaking animalistic strength.

“Mikasa!” Armin chided, quickly going to pry her off of Eren before he suffocated.
Quickly, everyone else in the mess hall took notice of the commotion, watching from a distance as the feeble Armin desperately tried to claw Eren out of Mikasa’s suffocating iron grip. However, one horse-faced and brown-haired boy stepped up from the crowd.

“Jean…” Eren wheezed out as his aforementioned acquaintance came to his rescue, joining Armin in prying off Mikasa.

Soon enough, Eren was released from the crushing vice grip of Mikasa's hug, separating her with a pop and cry as they Hoisted Mikasa off of him and held her between them. Much to the humor, shock, confusion, and surprise of the surrounding crowd.

As Eren was released he fell backward and onto one of the bench seats attached to one of the many tables in the room, it wasn’t without some effort he managed to not fall over onto the top of the table itself. But as soon as he found his bearings and managed to catch his breath he saw Mikasa’s face and was shaking.

“Eren, Eren I-” she was crying, messily crying, tears and snot running down her face as she was held back from Eren by Jean and Armin. Mikasa’s crying and desperation were unlike how Eren imagined her, always stoic and ready for what the world had to throw at her. Although Armin wasn't surprised, he had spent the last two years managing her fragile emotional state after all.
Mikasa sniffled as she calmed down, “You promise you won’t ever leave again?”

“Not if I can help it, Mikasa,” Eren said, holding his hands in the air as if to calm her, “Armin, Jean, you can let her go now.”

Armin and Jean gave each other a quick glance, wondering if they should do as Eren said, only for Mikasa to take advantage of their momentary confusion to rush forward and into Eren’s embrace. She nearly bowled him over with the force of the impact, but thankfully for Eren’s sake, not crushing him this time.

Armin and Jean were shocked for a moment, before deciding not to intervene between Eren and Mikasa again as he didn’t seem to be in any pain.

“So uh,” Eren stumbled for a second, looking between Armin, Jean, Mikasa, and the crowd that surrounded them, “Armin and Mikasa, this is Jean. Jean, this is Armin and Mikasa.”

Jean looked back between the embarrassed-looking Armin and Eren, then to Mikasa who was currently still clinging to Eren, and then back to Eren, “Nice to meet your friends I guess, Eren. You sure you still don’t need help with Mikasa here.”

“No, no, it’s fine Besides, we have a lot to catch up on, " Eren said waving off Jean as Mikasa clung to him, "So where have you two been?”

As Jean stepped away, Armin was quick to answer, “Well after you disappeared, my uh-”
There was a hitch in Armin's voice and he began to stammer. But Mikasa didn't care to pick up the slack, allowing Armin to stumble over his words awkwardly until he found a clear way to explain what had happened.

“My-uh, my parents left us in the care of my grandfather and he was able to arrange something with an old friend of his. Then we spent two years at his farmstead with three other kids that got picked up.”

“Bertholdt, and Eren right? The third one would be Annie?”
“So you already met those two, yeah. Mikasa didn’t get along with them much and Reiner can be kind of intense and odd sometimes but he means well and Bertholdt has been a good friend to me.”

“That’s good to hear Armin,” Eren said, “I don’t remember much after we fled from Shiganshina. I remember getting on a boat, and the next thing I knew, I was in a tent being taken care of by Tewi. She’s a doctor who found me in the forest near a makeshift refugee camp.”

“After that, we moved to Shiganshina, we tried to look for you, Tewi even put in a word with Commander Pixis but we never heard anything.”

“That… Pretty strange, Pixis is the commander of the entire south, and I remember the recruiters taking people in our area back when he started that suicidal charge to try to take back Wall Maria.”

“Hmm, maybe-”

“Alright!” Before Eren could respond a loud voice shouted, “Everyone in the yard on the double, no lollygagging!” Eren almost got up as he heard the somehow familiar voice voice.
Looking at Armin and prying Mikasa off of himself as he stood, Eren said, “We can talk later, Armin.”

“Yeah, looks like our instructor finally arrived,” Jean said as he followed everyone else out of the mess hall and into the yard.

The four of them; Mikasa, Eren, Armin, and Jean walked side by side as they exited the building. Unaware of the gaze sent towards them by the last person to leave the room, she was a blonde-haired girl who once had medium hair tied up into a ponytail but had since had it messily cut short.

Above her eye was a scar that had not fully healed, no matter how much she tried, Annie Leonhart could not heal that scar. Something that was in clear defiance of the world as she knew it and her abilities as a Warrior and the host of the Female Titan.

Chapter Text

“So that’s Eren Jaeger?”

Bertholdt lurched in surprise as he heard Annie’s voice. They were walking as part of the crowd exiting the mess hall. But Berdholt had almost frozen when he turned to where Annie had crept up beside him. Forcing Annie to put an arm behind him to usher him along, lest they fall behind too much and get noticed.

“Annie?” Bertholdt asked, still processing her sudden appearance, all the fear and anxiety of never seeing her leaving him suddenly. He wanted to hug her, but he resisted the urge, “I was, uh-”

“Looking for me?” Annie said, completing Bertholdt’s sentence, “I know. Now come on we need to get in line.”

Acting the same as she ever had, Annie ushered Berholdt forward as they found their place in a row of trainees. For his part, the leader of the warriors had tried his best to move in their direction without seeming too suspicious and managed to find a place in the row in front of Annie and Bertholdt.

The instructor passed by Armin and Eren wordlessly, only stopping to look Mikasa in the eye, before continuing down the line of recruits. Meticulously going over each row and picking out people to test.

“Good to see you back,” Reiner said expressionless as he stood at attention, “How was your cousin's house?”

Annie rolled her eyes at the coded phrase, but they were surrounded on all sides by future enemies, and they didn’t want to give away anything.

“It went fine; we should talk more later,” Annie said, touching the scar above her eye.

Reiner’s eyes narrowed, but Annie couldn't tell if it was due to scrutiny, suspicion, or worry.
None of the warriors had ever taken a permanent scar; their bodies were nearly flawless and kept alive by the power of the Titans so that they could heal from all but the most fatal injuries.

The older warrior, Zeke, had taught them all methods to enhance their regenerative abilities, using what he called a ‘psycho-kinetic response.’ Although most of what he talked about went over the Warriors' heads, they all understood the general idea; if they held an ideal in their head or chanted some mantra, they could enhance their abilities. But even without using that skill, they did not scar and would be in better health when compared to a normal human. Although a boon, it could also give them away, as all humans collected imperfections, scars, and damage over their lifetime, no matter how small. Making the bodies of the warriors slightly inhuman. Annie had even heard herself be described as doll-like before.

Which is what made Annie’s scar so odd; it should have healed.

Reiner nodded, wiping his face of emotion as he returned to standing at attention, “Let’s.”
The instructor was getting closer, creeping along the line of trainees until he stopped down the line to test a boy Annie had seen next to Armin and Eren earlier, some kid named Jean who wanted to join the Military Police alongside a few others. Annie’s opinion of those two raised a little; anybody who would choose a safe and comfortable life over throwing themselves into the mouth of a titan was smart in her book. There was another boy who earned the honor of being picked up by the head due to doing his salute backward. But the most outrageous thing was the girl the instructor called out next.

Her name was Sasha Brown, and for some reason beyond everyone but her own comprehension, she was eating a potato.

Annie wanted to facepalm, Bertholdt was holding in a laugh, and Reiner was unfazed to such a degree it only added to the comedy of the situation for Annie, although she only managed a smirk. All of them could feel the smug look on her face when she handed the instructor a potato and it was only with great effort that Bertholdt managed to hold their reactions in as the instructor sent the potato girl to run laps until the sun went down.

Luckily when the instructor did pass them, he did it without comment. He only stopped a few more times to give a kid the third degree, it seemed the potato girl had exhausted him.
Both Bertholdt and Annie were relieved the rest of the day went without incident. Their instructor, whose name they learned was Shadis, only stopped to yell or threaten a few more people who messed up during their exercises or seemed entirely unprepared for military training. Something that Annie, Bertholdt, and Reiner already had experienced in their homeland. The day went on like that for a little longer, until they had made it to dinner.

While Annie, Bertholdt, and Reiner had gone to separate corners of the room, everybody had bunched around Armin and his friends. Apparently, neither he nor Eren had the good sense to keep their mouths closed about Shingasina and the Titans. But Annie was happy that their distraction provided her with ample opportunities to leave and keep herself hidden. It’s not that she hated Armin or his two eccentric friends; rather she was a bit afraid of Mikasa, and neither did she want an awkward meeting with Armin. Although, she would not admit that. Despite the time they had spent away from each other, Mikasa was still scarily canny despite how mute she was and cast Annie a suspicious glance whenever she had the chance. There was Eren, and although she had not talked to him, he gave her an ominous feeling.

Annie saw Reiner show a hand sign out of the corner of her eye and nodded. One by one, Reiner, Bertholdt, and Annie silently crept towards an exit to the mess hall, trying their best to be inconspicuous.

As Annie exited the mess hall, she, against her better judgment, looked back as she exited the room and immediately regretted it. Eren had noticed her leaving, his piercing eyes meeting her as she slinked out the door.

Shortly after Mikasa took a glance at the closing door, Annie barely avoided her gaze with not a moment to spare. Mikasa narrowly missed her, leering in suspicion as the door closed.

Annie Annie shuffled down the steps. She was sure there was something off about Eren; his eyes were strange, almost predatory.

It reminded her of the man with the mirrored mask, but as she walked onto the porch and down the stairs she banished the image from her mind. Reiner was out of sight, and Bertholdt was in front of her, rounding the corner of the mess hall into an alleyway.

Annie followed Bertholdt into an alley made by the mess hall and an adjacent building. There Bertholdt and Reiner stood waiting for her, illuminated by the coming through the windows of the elevated mess hall building.

Annie’s once shoulder-length hair that she kept tied up had been sloppily cut even shorter. Leaving behind an uneven mess of hair, the change would have been surprising to Berrtholdt, if he already didn’t know that Annie never learned how to cut her hair. She was raised by a single father, who never learned how to cut hair. Other warriors had more traditional upbringings but Annie had never gotten along with them, in truth she had relied on Marcel to cut her hair. Then there was a moment where she had to use her knife to cut off a bunch of her hair when it had gotten loose and someone had grabbed onto it, the mask with the mirror mask wasn’t any help afterward.

Afterward, she decided to cut the rest down using the same knife.

“So, what happened Annie?” Annie resisted the urge to roll her eyes, Reiner had asked her the question before she even had time to walk under the shadow of the alley. He really could be strangely dramatic sometimes, and then at other times he would do or say weird things with no elaboration at all.

Annie wondered how he could do it.

Finally standing beside her fellow Warriors again, Annie began to speak in a hushed tone, “After I left the farm, I ran into a weirdo who wore a mirror for a mask. He claimed that he’s working towards the same goal as us in taking down the king, he seems to have some ability to control people as well. I ended up getting stuck with him during my investigation into the King as well.”
Reiner and Bertholdt nodded, neither of them wanted to interrupt Annie’s report.

“After that, we infiltrated the capital and I learned that the current king is just some imposter, the real king is controlling him from the shadows. But he’s been hard to locate, although he apparently has some bastard daughter.”

Reiner nodded his head, “That makes sense, the king would want to hide his identity and by using something like a lineage of Eldians not connected to Ymir there would be a trusted inside group that also had the threat of the King using the Eldians against him. They’re just powerless puppets, hostages to the king.”

“Well this doesn’t change what we were going to be doing,” Bertholdt said, “We still need to get close to them since they’re connected to the real king.”

“Yeah, but there’s something else apparently the higher-ups in the Wall Religion are in on it too, but I wasn’t able to get much information out of them,” the names Yaeger and Ackerman did come up, but she dismissed it, although the Mirror man seemed interested in the names.
“Anyways I can’t go back to Mitras anymore,” Annie said, tapping the scar above her eye, “The real king’s men already know who I am.”

“So that’s where you got your scar?” Reiner asked, curious about the injury that should have healed.

Annie nodded, “Me and the masked man weren’t as stealthy as I thought. When we were investigating the Wall religion we were attacked by people using ODM gear, their leader was a man named Kenny, apparently he was a serial killer before working for the king, and as for the scar, he’s ridiculously skilled with knives and blades. The only reason I escaped was because the Mirror Man intervened, but I don’t know why it hasn’t fully healed.”

“Not only special anti-titan weapons, but weapons made to fight against the nine titans,” Bertholdt mused aloud, drawing Annie and Reiner’s gaze, “It makes sense the real king would make prepare against people like us, and they say the founding titan can do miracles, not to mention legends like the Spear of Helos.”

“Helos is just a myth,” Reindeer dismissed, “But we should have guessed the king of devils would employ devils of his own alongside tools of devilry,” Reiner said, his eyes taking on a sharp predatory shine, “We should be more careful going forward.”

Annie nodded, “I agree; I can’t infiltrate Mitras anymore since that man knows my face, I’ll have to trust you and Bertholdt to continue in my stead.”

“A-Annie-” Bertholdt stuttered, anxious at the prospect of being separated again.
But Annie ignored his stuttering, legging against the alley wall as she talked, “I’ll join the Scouts after one of you con-”

“Annie!”
Annie bit down a curse, Bertholdt almost jumped, and Reiner twisted his head so fast Annie was surprised he didn’t get whiplash.

“Annie!” The voice came calling again. It was familiar, Annie had heard it before but she couldn’t quite place it.

Reiner laughed, “Jeez Armin, try not give us a heart attack!” He called out, cupping his hand next to his mouth.

“Ah, sorry Reiner,” Armin called out, his footsteps growing closer.
Annie shook her head and reluctantly let Reiner take point; she didn’t want to deal with Armin, but having him scream his lungs out trying to find her was worse.

As Armin rounded the corner, slightly embarrassed, Annie noticed the lack of Mikasa. Back when they were on the farm that girl was constantly clinging to Armin.

“Mikasa didn’t come with you?” Annie asked, semi-curious, but more wary of the strange girl.
“Oh no, sorry about that,” Armin apologized, “She’s inside with Eren, they have a lot of lost time to make up for,” Armin said nervously scratching the back of his head.
‘Couldn’t the same be said about you?’ Annie thought, not wanting to voice her objection lest it make the situation more awkward.

“I guess you guys are making up for lost time too?” Armin said, somewhat awkwardly, trying to make conversation.

“Sort of, me and Bertholdt are childhood friends with Annie like we are with each other, but we left Shiganshina with her you know?”

“Yeah,” Armin said, before freezing still for a bit as if he had a revelation and speaking in a shakier, even more apologetic tone.

“…sorry about me and Eren. If we made you uncomfortable in-”

“It’s fine,” Annie said, interrupting his apology, “Some people want to talk about their past, some don’t.”

It wasn’t a lie, more of a white life. An omission of the truth, which was often the sort of lie, after all, neither Annie, Reiner, nor Bertholdt wanted to talk about their past before arriving within the walls. But though omitting any more information, Armin would come to his own result and hopefully wouldn’t bring up Shiganshina around them, and if someone else did he would be inclined to defend whatever the Warriors said.

“I’m just happy to see you're okay, I’ll be with Eren and Mikasa if you want to talk,” Armin said, stepping back out of the alleyway, “But-uh, do you know where Krista is?”
At the look of confusion on the faces of Annie, Reiner, and Bertholdt, Armin began to explain. “She has blonde eyes and green hair. Like Annie, but her hair’s long, someone saw her sneaking out as well, but I-”

“I don’t think any of us have seen somebody like that except for Annie here,” Reiner said with a large, warm smile, “And don’t worry we’ll get back inside right away.”
“Right, bye Reiner,” Armin said, retreating.

After a beat of silence, waiting for someone else to interrupt, Bertholdt began talking, “Well… at least we know what we’re up against now, and we won't take the real king’s bait.”
“Right, we should return, and let’s try not to associate with each other too much. I don't want one of us causing the others to get caught.”

Annie didn’t say anything at Reiner’s statement, merely nodding before she began to walk off. Someone had to be the first to leave.

Bertholdt went to say something, but Reiner clamped a hand down on his shoulder, causing Bertholdt to shut his mouth.

“It’s okay Bertholdt,” Reiner said, holding onto his friend's shoulder, “It’s not like we won’t be seeing each other, you know that the only way any of us are coming back alive is if we succeed on this mission, correct?”

“Yes Reiner,” Bertholdt said, swallowing his spit, “I understand.”

Annie did her best to not be angry as she stalked off away from the mess hall and her compatriots. For their part, Bertholdt and Reiner returned to the mess hall together and Annie hoped they would get swarmed with questions like Eren and Armin did.

Thinking to herself, Annie knew she understood the need for secrecy and keeping her distance. And truthfully she appreciated having some distance. They weren’t her friends, just colleagues. But another, more juvenile part of her, namely the sixteen-year-old girl who didn’t have any friends and only understood, desperately wanted that connection with other people and resented Reiner for pushing her away.

Deep in the throes of her brooding Annie found herself wandering towards the edge of the small collections of barracks and mess halls that formed the living quarters for the trainees.
Out on the field, she saw the potato girl from earlier, but contrary to her expectations regarding the girl. She had two friends under her arms, a tall brown-haired girl and a short blonde-haired girl, helping her up from where she had apparently collapsed moments before Annie arrived to peer at them judgmentally.

As she inspected the group she scrutinized them more. The potato girl had already shown an eccentric, smug, and oblivious attitude that made for a terrible soldier. The blonde one was tiny and meek-looking, she had never even thought of hurting someone in her entire life, Annie questioned what she was doing here at all. And of course the bean pole of the group, the overly lean, too tall, and freckled one who seemed to be taking charge. Annie gave them all a week before they dropped out.

Then the tall brown-haired one turned her head in Annie’s direction.
“Eh! You!” The tall and brown-haired one yelled, “You going to help us out or what? You gonna snitch, or are you just going to keep standing there like a creep!”

Annie kept her face still and judgmental at the insult, not even wanting to sneer. It was their responsibility if they wanted to endanger themselves by dragging that dead-weight failure around.

The small blonde one poked her head up to chatter something at the tall brown-haired one, but Annie couldn’t make it out.

“Cool it, we already have two feral girls. I don’t need you going loopy on me too Krista.”
“Eh? But I wasn’t doing-” The small blonde girl got louder as she began to stutter, waving her arms around animatedly as she rebuffed the taller girl.

Annie blocked out the small blonde girl’s stuttering and ignored the comment from the tall brown-haired girl, walking back towards the mess hall without another word. The instructor would be back soon, and she could finally retire for the night.

The next few days went by quietly, with Annie keeping her distance from Reiner and Bertholdt. Armin tried to approach her but got rebuffed, and Annie tried to keep her distance from Mikasa and Eren. Finally, after several days of training to prepare them, the instructor decided it was time to try out the Omni Directional Movement gear.

Annie had been on the receiving end of ODM technology before. But even now she was still surprised by what the people who lived inside the walls could do. Unlike them, she had a frame of reference for what was and was not technologically possible. Thus the ODM gear was a shockingly foreign technology.

‘I wonder what the eggheads would pay for something like that?’ Annie questioned wordlessly, even if it didn’t exonerate her, taking some of them back home might earn her some clemency for her failure.

Annie, Bertholdt, and Reiner all stood at attention as they listened to the technical staff as they explained the ODM gear. The most basic and first step was seeing if you could balance in place, but the staff didn’t seem keen on going into details before everyone was evaluated.

As the trainees went ahead, one by one, the three warriors were surprised to see more people succeeding than failing on their first attempts. Jean struggled but got his balance, While others like Mikasa and the potato girl were naturals that could kick their feet back and forth in the air without a care.

Then came Annie’s ODM testing, walking up to retrieve her gear Annie promptly equipped it as instructed and swallowed any anxiety she might have. This was no time for failure, if she couldn’t even do this how could she complete her mission?

Taking a deep breath Annie walked up to the balancing equipment with her ODM gear equipped, braced herself as the technical staff came to attach the cables, and then with a flick, she was flying. The first thing that registered as the cords found hold was an intense upward force pulling Annie off of her feet and into the air, the second thing she noticed was a worrying wobble as she became unbalanced, and finally, Annie didn’t even have time to register the sensation of falling as suddenly found herself upside down and hitting the ground with her head.
Fear and anxiety swallowed Annie whole as she realized what had happened, if she couldn’t even do this, how would she ever manage to return to her father. Some of the recruits couldn’t keep a balance, some waved back and forth in panic as they were suspended, but nobody had ever seen such an abject failure so far.

Annie tried to not let her emotions show on her face, but the longer she lay their ass up, the harder it got.

“Get her down,” the instructor said, cutting through the shock.
The two technical staff quickly obliged, letting Annie fall to the ground as the instructor approached her. As he did so Annie quickly gathered herself, wiping any hit of lingering emotion from her face. This could be her one chance to salvage the situation.
As she got to her feet, the instructor stopped walking closer and extended a hand, “Could I have a look at that gear?”

Annie obliged wordlessly, removing her ODM gear and handing it over to the man with more than a little anxiety.

“Thank you,” he said, taking the ODM gear from Annie and examining it, turning back and forth over in his hands, getting every angle in an almost theatrical show. Then, he grabbed the cord and took a long hard look at the metal fixtures on the ODM gear, before pulling on the cord and watching what happened.

The man nodded to himself, before taking one of his hands away from the ODM gear and letting it lay lax in his spare hand. Turning his attention back to Annie, he spoke, “The metallic fixtures are damaged, I didn’t even know they could be damaged like this, but normally they make sure that even if you overturn you shouldn’t be able to hit the ground.”
Annie was relieved but didn’t let it show on her face, merely nodding as the instructor turned back to the trainees.

“You,” he said, pointing to Eren, “Let me see your gear.”
Eren grabbed his gear from the table and then handed it to the instructor, Annie felt like something was off, but she couldn’t put a name on it. The instructor looked over Eren’s gear suspiciously.

“...In perfect shape, as expected,” The instructor said, narrowing his eyes, “Now Miss Leonhart, try this out.”

Annie did as he said

“Train hard and you'll make a great soldier,” The instructor said as Annie landed.

“Now, Mister Yaeger-”

Yeager, Annie almost stopped in her tracks as she was walking back to her place. That name was familiar, Yaeger. She had heard that name in Mitras, Grisha Yaeger. He was a revolutionary doctor who died in Shiganshina. She had heard a duo of corrupt priests talking about him and his son.

The instructor continued speaking, but Annie wasn’t listening anymore.
Normally, Annie wouldn’t have given the name any thought but the same two priests who talked about Grisha Yaeger mentioned that Grisha had taken in a girl from the ‘oriental clan.’

The only Hiruzen person she had seen was Mikasa who was constantly attached to Eren. Annie strained to recall more information, ‘They also mentioned a doctor Inaba.’
The same corrupt priests who she stalked for more information on the true royal family.
The rest of the recruits passed with at least being able to keep themselves suspended in the air. The next couple of hours passed quickly as they went over their first ODM drills and then had a rock climbing exercise before finally being let loose into the yard.

Then the trainees began to pair off for close combat exercises. It was pointless really, the only people who would actually need that training were the top 10 who could go to the military police brigade, while those who joined the scouts would only be fighting Titans, while the garrison were little more than paid thugs who stood around doing nothing all day and occasionally doing their job by actually policing the districts.

Annie thought she might need more close-quarters combat training in the future, but as part of the Scouts, there weren’t many situations where transforming into a titan wasn’t an option. So she had resigned herself to avoiding the instructor while haunting the field, moving in between the various spars like a ghost.

But eventually, she found herself close to where Reiner and Eren were sparring, Reiner yet again landing on his ass after being thoroughly beaten by Eren.

Reiner’s face perked up as he saw Annie and yelled, “Hey Annie! You’re good in close quarters right?” It wasn’t a question, it was a statement, but to everybody else, it might have seemed earnest if mocking.

Annie diverted her course, heading towards Eren and Reiner. She wanted to talk to Eren anyway.

Reiner smiled as he saw her move in his direction, “Eren here keeps kicking my butt, so how about you give him a hard time. If you’re so skilled you don’t have to do any drills.”
“Geeze, aren’t you supposed to be the one learning CQC, if you call in people to have your back you’re never going to get better,” Eren complained to Reiner.

“Ha! Relying on others is a skill in its own right” Reiner laughed, “besides I don’t think she’s going to give you a choice.”

Eren looked at Annie as she squared up, her face hadn’t changed a bit from when Reiner had called her, but nonetheless, she was radiating anger.

Eren squared up as well, keeping his distance as he studied Annie.

Annie analyzed Eren, he was half a foot taller than her and looked strong for his age, he had decent form for someone his age but still not close to Annie in terms of skill. Even if she might be more skilled, Eren was still taller. Luckily for her, Annie held the power of one of the Nine Titans, and among the boons she received was a stronger body than a normal human could hope to have without training.

She could vent some stress, get closer to him so she could hold a conversation, and show there were just some disadvantages people weren’t able to overcome. All in all, Annie considered it a win-win.

She didn’t have anything in her environment to help her out either, this was just one-on-one, pure strength, pure skill.

Eren had been doing the same, analyzing Annie. The two of them locked eyes for a moment, and then Eren charged.

Annie’s leg shot out, kicking his own leg but Eren continued, forward. His feet were too firmly planted to be moved and he was too heavy for Annie to just move around.
Annie braced and then felt the force of Eren bowl into her. She moved her body, spinning away from Eren’s charge before squaring off again.

“Guess you're not as skilled as I thought Annie,” Reiner said with a mocking, jovial grin that stretched across his face.

But Annie didn’t answer, instead, she kept her stance as she sheathed internally, Eren had gotten the better of her. Lots of people had, people who looked down on her or even people who trusted her, and she considered her equals. But Eren had done it just because he was stronger. Normally even against evenly matched opponents, Annie could count on her enhanced strength, but here Eren was matching her in that department as well, just because he was born strong.

After all, it’s not like there were any other Titans around to claim, whoever had the jaw titan probably got themselves killed already and the Attack Titan might as well just be a myth.
Annie got back to her feet, “Again.”

The distance between them was almost half of what it was during their first bout and Annie was determined to take advantage of it. If he could match her in strength she needed to get him off balance or use something as leverage, the only way she was going to win was if she took the initiative.

Rushing forward, Annie kicked off the ground as Eren tried to dodge, only to misjudge Eren’s movement and miss him. Annie rounded again, grabbing hold of his arm and trying to grapple him, only to kick her. Sending Annie flying back again.
Annie picked herself up and began to think there had to be something she wasn't accounting for or an advantage she could take.

As Annie caught her breath she stood and stared down Eren again, then she realized what was wrong. It was subtle, but Eren wasn’t moving normally, humans moved with a certain weight and predictability to them but Eren’s movements were reminiscent of the sylph-like movements of a Titan.

The only reason she had been able to notice this was because she had met one other person who moved like that. Annie’s eyes narrowed as she superimposed the image of the Mirror Man over Eren.

“One more time.”

The two of them squared off again. Even less distance between them now, if Annie lost this time she’d have to reposition and give up ground the next time they squared off.
But this time, both of them favored the direct approach. In an instant, they two were rushing at each other, but Annie spun out of Eren’s way at the last moment, avoiding him and allowing her to make a counterattack.

As she did so, she could see their last bout playing in her mind, Eren’s strange sylph-like movements. Annie anticipated Eren’s odd movement this time, barreling into where he would be as Eren reflexively dodged, but this time he moved into her path. Annie grabbed onto him and they went rolling into the dirt. The two grappled for a moment, tussling on the ground as Annie refused to let go, prying at Eren’s fingers, until she found her prize and separated. Tumblebing away as she smiled, holding the wooden knife in one hand.

“I win.”

“Huh?”

A look of bewilderment crossed Eren’s face as he looked at Annie, and then slowly towards the wooden knife she held in her hand.

“The goal is to grab the knife,” Annie said, a hint of a smile showing itself on her face, “Looks like you were paying less attention than I was.”

“Right, you may skimp out on actually training but that’s a good lesson, Annie. Keep your eyes on the prize, a soldier’s job is to complete his objective, everything else is secondary. Both of you should make sure to remember that.”

Annie resisted the urge to roll her eyes at Reiner but ended up just looking at him with the same flat expression she always had. Both Eren and Reiner could feel the hatred radiating off of her like a poison.

“Uh, Reiner...”

But Reiner didn’t have any time to escape, and Eren wasn’t going to defend him.
“The exercise is to take the knife, right?” Annie said ominously as she approached, “So how about you do your job as a soldier and take this knife from me.”

The resulting bout was as decisive as it was swift. Reiner found himself sprawled out on the floor showing the sheer gap in ability between the two, despite being larger and stronger Reiner was almost totally useless in close-quarters combat when compared to Annie.

Turning back to Eren, Annie said, “So, Yaeger. Where’d you learn to fight?”

“Uh,” Eren hesitated for a moment, causing Annie to grow suspicious, “Well I got into a lot of fights when I was younger, but later I learned some things from a doctor who took me in.”

“A doctor, huh?” Annie said, straining a bit of suspicion into her voice. It lined up with what she heard in Mitras, and if the same conspiracy that surrounded the real king was interested in Eren then there might be more to him than it seems.

“So who taught you?”

“My father.”

“He must've been a great teacher, I know mine was,” Eren said, nodding with a wistful look on his face that made Annie question whether he was thinking about his teacher or his father.

Eren nodded, understanding. Many people had either lost their lives in the wake of Shiganshina and the breach of Wall Maria, and those that did survive the breach had all lost family. Everybody lost family eventually, but the total mass slaughter that was the breach left an entire generation all grieving at once for their lost family. But that shared traumatic experience also created an unspoken sense of solidarity among all the survivors, and many of them like Eren went to join the military for one reason or another. That was why Annie as well as the other two Warriors chose it as their backstory, All Annie needed to do to get people to stop inquiring about her past was mention her father.

But for her own father, her real father over the walls and across the sea. Annie didn’t know what to feel exactly, it was the wistful emptiness of Bertholdt who never had a strong relationship with his family, nor was the the intense longing of Reiner. Instead, it was a confusing mess of emotions, she didn’t know what to feel about the man exactly, but she was determined to find her way back to him no matter what.

‘I’m more like that Reiner than I thought,’ Annie thought, looking out onto the field where everybody else was practicing.

“...He was.”

“ALRIGHT EVERYONE!-”

The instructor’s voice cut through the air, commanding everyone's attention as he began herding the trainees together for the next exercise.

“Looks like we’re going to be continuing this conversation later, I’ll be out on the porch of the mess hall, and don’t bring Mikasa.”

Annie didn’t give him the chance to respond as she walked off. All she had to do now was wait, although the sun had already passed its zenith, so neither had to wait long.

Soon enough, Annie found herself and all the other recruits crowded into the mess hall, and it was as rowdy as ever. Too many people crammed into a too-small space for Annie’s liking; at least today she had a reason to go outside instead of sulking alone like she usually did.
Luckily for Annie, nobody else was outside, allowing her to have her small dinner before leaving to sulk outside and wait for Eren. As she propped herself up against the railing on the porch outside the mess hall, she closed her eyes and felt the warm night. It wasn’t uncomfortable, but Annie was used to the cold nights of her home, and the warmth was a strange reminder of how close they were to Wall Rose.

For Eren’s part, he was quick to follow, only taking a minute or so to finally excuse himself and for the creaking of the door to signal his arrival.

“So, why didn’t you want Mikasa to come?”

Annie turned around and gave Eren the same flat look she always wore, radiating annoyance at his question.

“If you have to ask that question, I have to wonder if you've met her; If you didn’t tell her to leave you alone she would be attached to you by the hip and glaring daggers at me right now,” Annie explained with more than a little strain in her voice.

“Yeah…” Eren almost seemed a bit apologetic, “I know Mikasa isn’t the most sociable, but she tries. And didn’t you two live together for a bit?”

“Yeah, as in we literally spent a lot of time around each other, but she barely talked and when she did talk it was to Armin and she almost exclusively talked about you,” There was also their nighttime talk, where the strangely canny girl had told Annie goodbye in her own sort of way. That girl was the closest thing to getting her and subsequently, Reiner and Bertholdt’s cover was blown, luckily the people within the walls didn’t seem to have a concept of anybody being alive outside of them. Neither did they have a concept of powerful beings who weren’t quite human but not quite Titan, if somebody was aware of those things it’d be the biggest threat to the Warriors.

“So where were we?” Eren asked, sighing.

“We were talking about the close-quarters combat drill, you mentioned you were taught by a doctor, I told you about my father. So how about you tell me who this doctor who took you in is, am I right yo guess it's a miss Inaba.”

“Huh, how’d you know that?”

“I heard about her and your father when I was in Mitras, they’re both pretty famous people, you know? Famous doctors who revolutionized medicine and surgery, you have a pretty prestigious destroy, don’t you?”

“Hmm, I guess I never thought of it of like that. I did go to the hospital to help both of them out when I didn’t have school, but they were always just dad or Tewi to me,” Eren said, his tone of voice giving away that he was hiding something. “

‘It’s not impossible for a doctor to become a fighter, even a good one. But Eren was well trained, or he has some other technique or ability,’ Annie thought, remembering the tales of the special types of humans bred and created through the power of the founding Titans. Zeke called them super humans, the result of using Titan science and the power of the founding Titan to create a type of human that served as their king’s blade. 'Dammit, what's their family name again?'

“Well she must be a pretty skilled person to have picked up fighting and medicine.”

“Although those skills are mostly useless,” Annie said, happy to get a chance to monologue again, “The ODM gear is where we all score the most, so those close-quarters combat drills aren’t going to be useful. The only people who do take them seriously are stupid, or dead serious about becoming a member of the military police where those skills will actually be useful. And for idiots like you who want to join the scouts, it's an even bigger waste of time since you can’t wrestle titans.”

Annie wasn’t being entirely truthful. If you were host to one of the Nine Titans you would be able to fight against Titans on equal terms, ‘What are the odds that Eren has the Attack or Jaw Titan, it would be almost as ridiculous as him having the founding Titan and being the king son or something stupid like that’

“But people do them anyways,” Annie said, with a strange wistfulness in her voice as she turned away from Eren and looked back into the empty field, ”My father made me constantly practice drills like those, high on some pipedream about being able to live a comfortable life.”
Eren didn’t respond for a moment and Annie didn’t care to look back. Instead, she stayed staring into the strangely bright and starless night sky, ‘I wonder what with that, there aren’t a lot of artificial lights here, shouldn’t there be more stars out?
Eventually, Eren decided on what he wanted to say, “I can't say anything about how he treated you, but he must've thought it was important to teach, maybe he would've made a good soldier or member of the garrison. But the way it is now, the people best suited towards fighting Titans are the ones most encouraged to do nothing about them.”

Even without turning back to see the look on his face, Annie could tell that Eren was talking about Jean. He and Jean were friends, or at the very least he and Jean had known each other back in Trost. Despite their different goals, Annie thought they were pretty similar people, both had a temper, ambition, and extreme dedication, and both were doing what they thought was best for everyone. Even if Jean could come across as a slimy bastard, Eren seemed suicidally stupid with his ambition to exterminate the Titans.

Annie scoffed, “That’s just how this piece of shit we call a world is.”
“But it doesn't have to be, that's why I'm going to be the one to exterminate the Titans.”
Annie didn’t have to turn around to know that Eren was either clenching his face in determination or looking out at the night sky.

“Ridiculous,” it was the only thing Annie could say. She couldn’t understand why people would go out of their way to fight Titans, it was ridiculous and suicidal. She didn’t have a choice in becoming a Warrior, and although she succeeded in her field she didn't care one bit for, “The sane ones are those selfish bastards like Jean.”

“If everybody thought like that nobody would ever get anything done, and someone has to start somewhere, Annie. And if I don't start, who will? Humanity has been herded like animals inside the walls for long enough as is.”

Annie had to keep herself from sighing, all that talk of protecting humanity was nonsense to her. ‘They said the same thing when I was training as a Warrior and look where saving the world led me.’

“What about you, you haven’t said which corp you’re aiming for and it seems like everybody else either wants to join the Military Police or the garrison?”

Annie rolled her eyes at Eren’s statement, looking away from him and out onto the field, then the night sky. She had to think of an excuse and a good one. Trying to think, Annie retrieved her knife from her back pocket and began to play with it.

She waited another moment, hoping Eren would lose interest or leave so she wouldn’t have to answer his question. But Eren didn’t take the hint, standing there with the same determined look on his face.

Annie said the first thing that came to mind, “When I left the farm, I snuck into the Mitras,” turning her knife over in her hand Annie paused to give it some more thought.

“After what happened there, getting as far away as possible is the only thing left.”

Eren paused for a moment, unsure of what to say.

“Well, I guess if you don’t want to go back, there’s probably not much worth going there for. And I’ll always be glad to have another friend join me in the scouts.”

Annie’s thought process paused for a moment as the words left Eren’s mouth. For the first time in a long time, Annie felt flustered. Surprised at what Eren had said, of course, this still had no visible reaction on her face and was soon eclipsed by her resulting anger. Eren took a step, back noticing Annie’s expressionless anger.

“Uh-”

“Shut up.”

Annie brushed past Eren, walking off of the porch and towards the girl’s barracks, “Good night Yaeger.”

Leaving Eren to stand there and wonder what he did to provoke her.

‘I didn’t come here to make friends,’ Annie reminded herself, ‘but if I need to be friendly with Eren to figure out if something going on I'll bear with it for the sake of the mission.’

Chapter Text

Annie stretched her neck back and forth as she stood on the sandy ground. In her hand, she held the wooden combat knife, still a deadly weapon in the hand of someone determined to use it. She was one of the top students although the reality was that she, Eren, and Mikasa were all tied with one only temporarily being able to take the lead from the other two.

Across from her stood Mikasa who wore a similarly determined expression on her face. They didn’t know each other well, but ever since Mikasa caught her sneaking out of the farmer’s house to get towards Mitras. Annie’s recent closeness to Eren only further accentuated their mutual animosity.

Nobody else had started their drills yet; instead, they felt free to mill about the courtyard while the Instructor wasn't looking. But when Mikasa and Annie ended up being paired against each other, there was no other option for how things would turn out.

“Best of three?” Annie ventured, stretching as she held the wooden knife in her hand. No expression showed on her face as she stared down Annie.

But Annie didn’t say, keeping her sullen and flat expression as she stood still, waiting for Annie to finish.

“Fine, keep up your mute act,” Annie said, her unevenly cut blonde hair swaying gently as she squared off, against Mikasa.

Mikasa stood there, wordless, listless as her long black hair swayed in the breeze.
“I don’t have anything to say to you.”

A shiver ran up Annie’s spine, and then the two of them moved.

Mikasa charged at her, but Annie managed to dodge once, but not twice. Spitting as Mikasa drove an elbow into her stomach, Annie's grip on the knife only tightened and soon she found herself flying backward, bowled over by Mikasa's impressive strength. An unnatural strength that even surpassed Eren’s

Briefly, Annie was reminded of her bout with Eren, since then they had ended up evenly matched, but Annie was stronger, far stronger. ‘Just how many freaks are there here?’

And then the two of them were on the floor, one over the other, as they kicked up dust in their struggle, Mikasa prying at Annie’s hands while Annie desperately tried to separate herself from the freakishly strong girl.

“ALL RIGHT!”- The instructor yelled out into the crowd of trainees,“-AND, LEONHART! GET IN HERE YOUR NEEDED FOR KITCHEN DUTY!”

As the man’s voice carried over the courtyard, Mikasa and Annie stopped their bout. Mikasa was sitting on top of her as the blonde girl cradled the wooden knife in her iron-tight grip. The dust they had kicked up was the only thing that obscured them, turning their forms into indistinct silhouettes in the cloud.

Wordlessly Mikasa got up as the dust cleared, holding Annie’s gaze as she stepped to the side.
“Here,” Annie said with a gasp, “Have your knife and find someone else to bother.”

Mikasa narrowed her eyes but did not say anything as Annie passed right by her and thrust the wooden knife into her hand. Mikasa turned around as Annie continued on with everyone else, her eyes staying glued to the back of Annie’s head all the while, causing a chill to run up the blonde’s spine.

Mikasa stayed still, wooden knife in hand as Annie disappeared into the building. She could feel Armin and Eren were converging on her position and she had no reason to move.

Off in the distance, Connie, Bertholdt, Reiner, and the others talked. Mikasa only gave them a passing thought. She found Bertholdt and Reiner suspicious, but not as suspicious as Annie.
As her two friends arrived behind her Mikasa still said nothing, still looking ahead as her long black hair rustled in the wind. Armin looked to the building Annie had walked into, and then back to Mikasa, but he didn’t speak.

Allowing Eren to take center stage.

“I’m worried about Annie,” he said, casting a slight glance towards Reiner and Berholdt.
‘I’ll have to question those too as well, won’t I? Well if Mikasa knows nothing about Youkai, or the Titans, Annie and those two might be my only leads here.’

“I’m worried about her too Eren, she always sounds so fatalistic wherever she talks about the scout corp, like she just going off to-”

“Right, it’s…” Eren cut him off, the word suspicious appeared in Eren’s mind, but he didn’t want to think anything bad of her if she really was struggling with something personal, “Sad, pitiful?” he ventured, not entirely confident in his words.

But if Annie was being suspicious there weren’t many options Eren could think of, a person from inside the walls, even if scummy and self-interested, would honestly pursue a position in the Military Police. But Annie seemed resigned to joining the scouts.

'But if she's someone from outside, Gensokyo, or an enemy of humanity, joining the scouts might make more sense, but wouldn’t a spy want to be close to the center of power?

Although people being alive outside of the walls was still just a theory he and Tewi had, and only because Tewi had a vague ‘feeling.’

The last option that Eren didn’t want to consider nor speak of was worse in some aspect, he didn’t want Annie going into the Scouts just to get herself killed.

“I don’t know, but she left the farm for a reason, and Reiner and Bertholdt say they don’t know anything. We should probably help her out, maybe Ymir will know more.”

“Right,” Eren said shaking his head Hey, Mikasa-”

But Mikasa was already gone.

“Great,” Eren cursed himself, he should have been able to sense her move, but he had gotten too caught up in his own thoughts, “Any idea where she’s gone?”

Armin sighed, “She’s probably gone to see Annie, I just hope it turns out well.”

The instructor had quickly set them all about to work, Annie to peel the potatoes, Ymir and Krista, and Sasha to do the dishes, and some others to help him with the meat.

Annie took a knife from the countertop, almost lovingly holding it in her hand as she took it to work on a potato in her other hand, gently gliding the edge of the blade across the surface of the potato, peeling its skin off to reveal the raw flesh beneath.

Annie didn’t like kitchen duty, but neither did she hate it. In fact, Annie found something calming in the repetitive actions and following directions, in here there were no Titans, no fathers, no missions, and no masked men. Just her and potatoes.

Of course, this same trance-like serenity didn’t actually help impart any knowledge of cooking onto her, as all she did was merely follow the directions given to her.

But Annie didn’t care, the concepts of cooking and meal preparation registered on the same level of importance as ants did to her. And so as she put down the raw and skinless potato and picked up another, her lips slightly rose at the edges as she began to peel again.

But her peace and quiet wasn’t meant to last.

The door of the room creaked open, and Annie turned her head slightly to see who was bothering her. Walking through the open door was Mikasa, not making any attempt to sneak in or hide her presence as passed through the threshold, didn’t say anything, and shut the door behind herself.

Annie continued to expressionlessly peel the potato with the knife, looking at Mikasa with a hardened glare.

“So,” Mikasa began, lifting her hand and opening her palm, ”What’s with this.”

Annie’s eyes widened slightly, in Mikasa's hand laid a plain steel ring, so bland it was almost unidentifiable. But Annie knew what it was, and apparently, so did Mikasa.

It was Annie’s ring, the ring that her father gave to her.

“It’s a ring,” Annie stated, trying to play it off, “My father gave it to me, now give it back.”
She didn’t know how Mikasa stole it, Annie didn’t think of the ring most days, but she wouldn’t have been careless with it. The only possibility remaining was theft, ’is she really so nimble she could steal it without me noticing?’

Mikasa picked the ring up in her other hand and flipped the sharp point of the ring open. Showing it to Annie.

“It’s a ring that also has a knife in it, now give it back.” Annie snapped, putting down the half-peeled potato, but keeping the knife in her other hand, not moving another inch as she and Mikasa locked gazes.

“Eren’s worried about you,” Mikasa said, diverting Annie’s demand instead of answering.
Annie nodded her head in agreement, that much was obvious about Eren, he seemed to have gotten some strange ideas about her.

“Yes, he’s worried about you two.”

Mikasa didn’t respond, and neither of them moved from their standoff.

It was then they came to the simultaneous realization that neither of them could hold a conversation and that the situation had started to rapidly become more awkward than it was dramatic.

Both of them said nothing, and both of them continued looking at each other. Annie with the knife, Mikasa with the ring.

But eventually, Mikasa spoke, “What do you want with Eren?”

Multiple answers came to mind; He’s suspicious, he might be important, she needed something to do since she was sidelined for the mission, and he seemed to have some supernatural ability. But all of those would only invite more questions, questions Annie didn’t want to answer.

“He’s a friend, and the only person here who can keep up with me besides you.”

Mikasa narrowed her eyes, “No if he was a friend you wouldn’t have to spend time with him.”

‘What type of logic is that?’

“Eren’s here because he wants to be here, me and Armin are here to support Eren, but you’re here because you have to be here. Just like your friendship with Eren, everything you're doing is because you have to do it, not because you want to.”

“You can have the ring back,” Mikasa said, tossing the ring towards Annie, “Don’t hurt Eren.”
With that said, Mikasa turned on her heel and exited the room. It was as friendly a warning as Annie was going to get.

Annie decided she preferred it when Mikasa didn’t speak, but she still had potatoes to peel, dinner wouldn’t make itself.

“Eh?”

There the potato girl stood, in an apron. Wasn’t she supposed to be doing Ymir and Krista’s bidding, or was she even sneaking out of that work to steal a potato?

“Geeze, what’s with you two. Actually, I’m not judging here but are you two-”

“Shut up and leave. I'm not giving you any potatoes,” Annie said, fighting the urge to throw her knife at the obnoxious girl as she radiated malice.

“Hey, I wasn’t!-”

Annie rolled her eyes and tuned the potato girl out. If she wasn’t going to help, Annie was going to ignore her.

The dinner afterward was surprisingly normal, well as normal as it could be for Annie when Mikasa was sitting across the table from her glued to Eren’s side. As always, Eren tried to keep a good conversation going, helped by Jean’s goadings, Armin’s insights, and attempts to placate. As well as the occasional comment from the brown-haired girl named Ymir and one of her two hangers-ons Krista and the potato girl.

Annie had no idea how Krista was the ninth-best student overall, and she didn’t want to know the meek blonde-haired girl gave her a bad feeling. Eren seemed to think the same, but for whatever reason he seemed willing to go along with whatever game the blonde mouse-of-a-girl was playing.

‘He’s willing to go along with you, isn’t he?’ The poisonous serpentine whisper said, floating past her ear.

As usual, she and Mikasa sat across from each other, Eren sat next to Mikasa, and Armin sat next to her. Although she never talked next to the small, nervous boy, he did have interesting technical and theoretical insight, but nothing Annie was prepared to comprehend.

He vaguely reminded her of Zeke, blonde, always inquisitive, prone to eccentricities. Although Armin wasn’t nearly as brave or eccentric, most of the time he seemed to practically phase into the background, although he and Bertholdt seemed to get along.

No matter how much she radiated distaste or hatred it didn’t do anything to discourage either Mikasa or Eren. To others, it was a threat, but to those two it was a challenge amongst equals which was often responded to, be that with a challenge of their own or dismissal.

“Yeah Annie,” Armin asked from beside her shyly, “Uh, why do you want to join the Scouts, me and-”

‘This question again.’

“You understand as well as anyone, there are just some things people can’t give up on,” Annie said without thinking, almost immediately regretting it afterward. Far too vague, far too extreme, Mikasa narrowed her eyes and Eren opened his mouth to speak.

But before Eren could respond, Mikasa cut through their conversation.

“If you're so resigned to kill yourself you might as well do it now,” Mikasa said, “People like you who are just waiting to fly into the mouth of a titan are better off finding their home in a ditch.”

The words were hateful, but Mikasa said them with no inflection.

‘That is, this is the conclusion people would come to if they believed you,’ The words went unsaid, but it was clear what she was implying. Annie was a liar, who didn’t have a good excuse, now Mikasa was trying to bring that out clearly in front of everyone.

Nobody said anything, and Annie as always showed no emotion on her face, only expressing herself through the dreadful emotions she radiated.

Annie had lost her appetite.

“Whatever,” Annie dismissed, getting up from the table, leaving her wooden bowl and utensils behind, “And don’t follow me.”

Annie tacked on the last part almost by second nature, she appreciated her alone time, which Eren had taken to intruding on whenever she didn’t warn him away.

Eren’s gaze remained fixed on the back of Annie’s head as she walked away, not making an effort to sneak out of the mess hall. She needed her secrecy, but making too much of an effort would only tip Mikasa off more, and Annie doubted she could avoid Mikasa successfully. As she pushed open the door and stalked out of the building, the uncomfortably warm midnight air hit her, and she began to worry more.

‘That was bad, one wrong word might have given me away,’ Annie thought, thanking herself that the people within the walls weren’t aware of any other humans, if Mikasa knew about Annie’s home country or even had the notion of other humans, she would have had her figured it out in mere moments.

‘Dammit, if Reiner and Bertholdt fail she’ll go after me, but if I’m figured out-’

Then Reiner and Bertholdt would abandon her. That is if they were truly loyal to the mission. She had become disposable when she ventured to Mitras and had only been becoming more so. If she was disposable, she could die or be punished by having another consume her, with little regard to what she thought in the matter. At the same time, she couldn’t abandon the mission as she had no doubt in her mind her father would pay the price of her failure with his life, and capture by the hands of the people within the walls sounded like a slow and laborious death.

But in the worst-case scenario, she did have a last-case resort. Crystalizing her entire body and essentially becoming a rock, was only slightly better than death or imprisonment. Even if it was just an abeyance to her sentence, it could protect her until she was retrieved.
It was then in the midst of her inner turmoil a voice broke through the silence and commanded her attention.

“You shouldn’t allow the Ackerman girl to frighten you-”

Annie whipped her head around to the source of the voice. Standing atop the edge of an adjacent building’s roof was the Mirror Masked Man.

“-as long as Eren’s holding her leash she won’t move against you, and he has no reason to suspect you.”

The man was disturbingly out of place as ever clownish and purple with his mirror for a mask that Annie had no idea how he could see through. The only people who had ever given her a similar feeling were Kenny, Eren, and Mikasa. Although if she was adept and not biased towards them, she would have noticed the same feeling from her fellow warriors, maybe even from the brown-haired girl named Ymir.

“What do you want?” Annie demanded of the masked man.

“Oh my dear Leonhart,” they trailed off, walking along the edge of the roof, “I am so sorry, but I cannot trust you with that information.”

Annie narrowed her eyes, “If you’re not going to help then leave.”

“Perhaps,” The man said, tapping a finger against his mask, “I suppose I always have other options if you’re not willing to be more cooperative.”

“Then why me?” Annie asked not elaborating, but what went unsaid was, ‘What’s so special about me? Why did you choose me?’

“Ease of use and access, the others are more willing to make deals, more malleable, and more desperate. But it’s those very traits that make them much more troublesome, even if I try to guide them on the right path they might fall off without even realizing it, you on the other hand have much more resolve.”

‘And are much more stable,’ The Masked Man thought but left unsaid, ‘You wouldn’t believe that’s wrong with Reiner.’

But of course, there were other reasons, people he could not touch, people he dared not show his mask, and people who he could never allow to see his face.

Annie’s eyebrow twitched in annoyance, she knew he was hiding something, leaving something unsaid purposefully. But she had no idea what, the man was a mystery to her.

“You said, you wanted the king gone, but I don’t believe that,” Annie said, without any elaboration. In retrospect, it made too much sense, although the king could essentially kill or erase peoples mind’s on command he could be taken by surprise or be killed while he was in a weakened state after taking on a new host, just like how any other Titan was their weakest at their conception, their first shift.

It was how the Titans of old were killed, alongside political maneuvering, and Helos. But Helos was probably a myth.

'If he's so powerful, otherworldly, barely human. Then why isn't he doing anything? Are the king’s defenses that good? Was he weaker than he seemed, an elevated showman? Did he really want to kill him?' Annie had so many questions and so few answers.

“So what is it you're really after?”

The man stopped in place as he walked along the edge of the roof, before turning his head to look at Annie over his shoulder.

“My earnest desire is for nothing less than the salvation of humanity, saving the world,” The man’s tone was operatic, and performative, blatantly hiding the real truth from Annie without a care in the world.

Annie clenched her teeth, that didn't mean everything. Reiner said that, Eren said that, Zeke said that, the Instructors said that, and all the propaganda said that.
It meant nothing to Annie.

‘It's always about saving the world isn't it?’ Annie’s composure broke and she let out a cat-like hiss as she pushed air through her clenched teeth, seething in hatred as the air grew thicker and the light wanned.

‘He’s mocking me.’

“You think wrongly of me child,” the man said, replying to Annie’s thoughts in his usual operatic manner, “This has already outed, the conclusion is already foretold, for it has already happened. One such as yourself, so blessed as you are, should see that in time.”

“As if I’m supposed to believe you,” Annie growled.

“Do not worry, all your wishes shall come true by following the path, stay near Eren, and do not divert from the mission. Only then will you see your father again.”

That was a cold shower for her, reuniting with her father was the only true goal Annie had, the only person she wholeheartedly and without any reservation cared about. Annie wilted, taking a step back from the building the man rested atop. Just like her home country, this man was using her father as a hostage to dangle before her.

“Damn you,” Annie glared at the man, earnestly showing her hatred on her normally stoic face.

“Ta, ta, little lion,” the man said, walking onto the center of the roof where Annie couldn't see him, “And remember, the best lies are made of truth.”

“I said I wanted to be left alone, Yaeger.”

“The people who sit by and resign themselves to be cattle are trash, and the people who see the opportunity to stop the Titans but do nothing are worse than trash, If anybody’s going to survive we all have to play our part, and that means staying alive.”

“Even if it means having to be trash, or letting someone else save the day, you have to fight.”

“I don’t know why people don’t do more, everybody’s backed into a corner and every year we wait is just giving the colossal titan another chance to break down the wall.”

“If the people in Mitras continue to do nothing and the survey corp can’t push back the Titans the only thing that will happen is that more innocent people will die nobody wanted this”
That wasn’t true, but Eren didn’t know better and unfortunately for Annie, she did.

‘But there are,’ Annie radiated malice, ‘Dogs, animals that don’t deserve to even breathe, filthy curs who would just as soon feed you to dogs and blame you for being born.’

Annie hadn’t been able to sleep soundly for months after she heard that story, she didn’t know if it was true, but her father told it to her and she was so young. Eventually, she came to doubt that story, but then the more she saw of the world and the more of those animals, those insects she had met.

Hatred was her only response to a world she did not care for full of people that hated her for being born and people who.

For a moment, there was a shared sense of comradery between them, that impotent hatred at the state of the world, that indignation.

But Annie was resigned, Eren was determined, and the comradery instantly broke down as they looked each other in the eye.

“Eren, you keep going on your path, and I’ll keep going on mine,” Annie wanted to say more, she wanted to say less as well, she didn’t want to be here in the first place.

If her father hadn't tried to make her into a warrior he wouldn’t be a hostage and she wouldn’t be a soldier fed into the meat grinder. But someone else would be in her place, even if the person was less capable that didn’t matter to the ones who held her chain.

A failure was a failure, a success was a success, and Annie could not tolerate failure. She was not allowed to.

The next day was even more awkward, dramatic moments but when nothing immediately came of it, it left the two of them feeling awkward. Eren thinking he could have handled it better, Annie was annoyed she ended up attracting so much attention, while also not managing to find much else about Eren.

Then the instructor and his aide took them into the lecture room, where Annie and Eren had ended up seated alongside each other. Of course, Eren had Armin and then Mikasa seated to his other side, but that didn’t relent the awkwardness from the other direction.

Eren and Annie sat next to each other on the bench, each of them looking towards the instructor and his aids as they schooled the students on how to use and maintain their ODM gear.

Both of them would have preferred to be in close-quarters combat drills, or in the much anticipated anti-titan drills in the giant forest. But with both of their luck, they would have ended up on the same team all the same.

She had a lot of time to think about how she'd handle this last night, in the end, she had decided to heed the masked man’s wisdom. Telling a bald-faced lie would only make Mikasa more alert and Eren more worried for her sake.

She was a bit angry at that, the only reason Eren was worried about her was because she tried to look into him for information, and when they spoke she ended up choosing the wrong words and giving Eren some false impression of her that made him worried.

“Alright,” the Instructor said, cutting through the idle chit-chat and ruminations of everyone,

“Today you’ll be learning about ODM gear, ‘but we haven’t even done any anti-titan drills’ I hear you say.”

“Quit your whining! Remember, in the field, this is your lifeline, it is a part of your body, without it you won’t even be valuable as Titan bait.”

“So first things first, you’ll be learning about how to take care of your gear, I hope most of you remember Miss Leonhart’s accident last week. Well, that was caused by a gear failure, if a Titan was there she wouldn’t be here with us now.”

“They’ll take this from here,” he said pointing to a pair of aids as they walked towards the front of the lecture stage.

The ODM gear consisted of four main mechanism-held metallic belts that would be flung using steam power, and the aiming was done by a pair of hand-held grapple hooks connected to the main mechanism and the exoskeleton that was a part of their uniform. Several exotic materials were mentioned, super-hard steel, iron bamboo, and iceburst stones.

All materials used in the manufacture of the ODM gear and much of the technology of the people within the walls, even their river ships were supplemented with iceburst stone. While the strange iron-bamboo that absorbed the properties of the land was grown and cultivated for a variety of purposes.

‘Utterly ridiculous,’ Annie thought, half in humor. Unlike her, Marco, and Reiner the people within the wall didn’t have any frame of reference for what a human could do. But to Annie and the other Warriors it was apparent, ‘Could anybody else even use the gear here, let alone make it?’

‘Zeke said something about how we were different, immune to more diseases, stronger, made that way through the Founding Titan.’

A horrific power which none could oppose if realized, a god-like, or devilish titan that could re-order the world according to its host’s whims.

Something that could only be opposed while hiding in the shadows and praying its user did not care enough to look.

Annie, Armin, and Eren drank the words like a parched man in a desert, while Mikasa only paid attention to what she needed to.

Most of the other students seemed to allow the history and logistic background information to float over their heads, only listening to the practical part they would need to keep their gear maintained in the field.

“-Now onto Titans,” The instructor said, interrupting his two aids, “Armin Arlert! What do you know about Titans”

“Over one hundred years ago Titans first-”

“The short of it, trainee!”

“Yes sir! Titans quickly recover from their wounds, emitting a black and white smoke as they heal, their only weak point is their nape and-”

“You sure do know a lot about Titans Arlert, what are you, some type of Titan lover!” He said, not meaning the words but too reminded of a once-colleague to pass on the opportunity.

“The only way to destroy an enemy is to understand them,”

Eren’s eyes glimmered with pride as he looked at Armin.

“At ease, Trainee, now you. Now Yaeger, what-”

The instructor went around the entire room, quizzing people on what they knew about Titans, ODM gear, or anything else his aides had talked about during their instruction. Chewing any and every student out for the smallest perceived insult or mistake, only agitating them more, which in turn lead to more scolding.

Eventually, the lesson wound down and the trainees stood up as the instructor called them all to stand at attention and then follow him.

As the classes began to move, Eren clasped a hand on her shoulder.

“Annie, let’s talk.”

Annie groaned internally but knew she had to follow. Leaving now, making Eren her enemy would mean she couldn’t find any more information on him, and backing out would only make him worry about her more.

Reluctantly she walked beside them as he fell back in the crowd until they were wading at the back of the crowd as they headed towards their next assignment. Only a few feet ahead of them was Mikasa and in turn Armin.

Annie sighed, “Look, every time we end up having a conversation alone it ends up being overly dramatic and both of us come back the next day embarrassed.”

“Yes and I want to mend that, I know Mikasa doesn’t like you-”

“Because I’ve acted suspicious around her in the past and she doesn’t trust me,”

“That doesn’t mean you have to be enemies, Armin wants everybody here to get along and I don’t want anybody throwing their life away for nothing.”
Annie stood there for a moment, unsure of how to respond, half-annoyed with Eren, half-understanding. This was all her fault for her own badly chosen words after all.

“I don’t care about whatever high and mighty ideal you have, but I’m not an enemy of humanity and I’m not going to get myself killed for no reason, okay?”

“Okay, but I’m not going to abandon anybody, we’re all in this together, not only as recruits but as humans.”

“We’re not friends Yaeger,” Annie said, flat-faced and expressionless as always but radiating disappointment at the fact Eren hadn’t given up, “But if it will keep you off my back, then fine.”

Eren didn’t say anything for a second, looking Annie up and down with that hard intense stare of his. It reminded Annie of the time when the Mirror Man stopped playing the part of the clown, but she did not falter, holding her expression firm and unchanging even as inside she suspected he suspected something of her.

Then finally he spoke.

“Thanks, I’ll go talk to Mikasa, sorry about her,” His tone was even, not unmoved, but he didn’t seem worried anymore.

Annie sighed, ‘Great, at least that’s over with, now I just need to get through training without any more accidents.’

“Fine,” At least Eren would get Mikasa off her back, but the lack of progress was pissing her off.

‘Guess I just have to wait and see,’ Both Eren and Annie thought simultaneously.

After that, they had more rock climbing drills, precious as always, and luckily non-lethal so far. Even when people's lines were cut or they failed to find a foothold and slipped, they managed to survive one way or the other. Of course, lack of casualties didn’t mean lack of dropouts, more than a few faceless, nameless people Eren never committed to memory left.

Leaving for the industrial towns or their home villages no doubt, there were other places, such as the Undercity beneath the wall, but Eren never heard anything good about it and so chose to believe that none of the dropouts had left for such barren pastures.

Then the instructor had come, calling Annie, Mikasa, and others to go inside to help with meal prep, while everybody else, Eren included, was herded into the yard for CQC drills.

Normally Eren would practice his drills, but he had too much to think about lately, other than far-off goals like exterminating the Titans, a goal which only seemed more and more reasonable the more he learned. There was also the issue of identifying any possible half-youkai or other people like the Mirror Man who were acting against humanity, but the most present concern was Annie.

But despite the many objectives he had, Eren had no clear way forward, something that was all too familiar. Just like when he was living with Tewi in Shiganshina, there were classes and training, sometimes he helped make dinner, and other times he worked under someone’s direct supervision.

But none of that included making active progress against the threat the Titans posed, even the Mirror Man was a maybe at this point.

‘At least I've made some progress with Annie,’ Eren thought, ‘But Mikasa is another issue.’
He didn’t know how to handle her after so many years and her change in personality to someone far more ready to please and desperate he didn’t know what to do.

‘Or maybe she was always like that, and I just couldn’t see it.’

There the three friends convened.

Armin gave Eren a wave, “How’d it go with Annie?”

“Good, I think, I don’t think she’s just going off to die, but I still have no idea what her deal is. Any progress with Reiner and Bertholdt?”

“No, they said they were never really close with her. But I’m not sure if I believe Bertholdt, Mikasa what did you think”

“Reiner’s weird, I can’t get a read on him, but Bertholdt is lying.”

“I don’t know…” They could be from outside, but Eren didn’t have any proof of that, “It’s weird, but at least Reiner doesn’t seem to mean anything bad, and Bertholdt is too nice”
“He could be forced,” Armin floated, “He seems nervous a lot of the time, maybe somebody has something over him?”

“Right…” Then he thought of the Mirror Man, “There is somebody I’m worried about, while I was in Trost I learned about a strange person called the Mirror Man, he dresses in purple and talks a lot of nonsense but might be dangerous.”

Mikasa quirked an eyebrow, but it didn’t feel like Eren was lying, but what he said in confidence sounded strange. A weird masked man, why was that important?

“Right, where did you meet him?” Armin asked, confused and curious.

A part of Eren regretted he only learned about the commander of the South, Pixis, through Tewi, but both of them were always busy and Eren had school.

“I don’t know, Tewi met him, and she said he was pretty suspicious. He talked very grandiose but she thinks he’s somebody trying to take advantage of the Titans.”

“Right…” Armin trailed off, looking at Eren oddly, “I haven’t met her But, are you sure she’s trustable, Eren?”

“Yes, without a doubt, but right now, there’s something else that comes first,” Eren said, looking at Mikasa. It wasn’t as if they had Tewi on hand right now.

In turn, Mikasa’s eyes instantly zipped to Armin, boring into his soul with their pitch-black depths, judging him, accusing him.

“Yeah, the uh, other thing,” Armin gulped as Mikasa stared him down, but he held his gaze to hers.

Then Eren spoke.

“Mikasa, I'm worried about you. You barely talk to anybody else, you don’t have any other friends here aside from me and Armin, and whenever I say anything you instantly comply.”

What she wanted to say was, ‘Sure thing Eren, I’ll get some friends,’ or ‘It doesn’t matter as long as I’m here with you.’ Maybe even a ‘no.’

But the words constricted in her throat, Eren wouldn’t accept that as an answer and she knew that, “Fine.”

Without saying anything else she turned away from Eren and Armin, then walked away.

Amrin put his hand on Eren’s shoulder, “Let her be for now, Mikasa got like this sometimes on the farm. She just needs a little time to himself”

“Okay, I’m trusting you on this Armin,” he had to, he really had too, he had no idea how he could help Annie. How were he and Armin, and Mikasa supposed to save the world if they couldn’t get everybody together and focused on the real enemy, how were they supposed to save the world in the three of them were fractured.

Armin’s gaze held firm as he nodded to Eren, he and Annie had spent two years without Eren, two years on a farm, only for them to miraculously find Eren like Armin thought they would. Neither Eren nor Armin wanted to give up on her now.

Luckily for them, it was then that a voice cut through the silence.

“Oi, Yaeger! Arlert!”

The both of them turned around to where the familiar voice had come from. It was Ymir, the tall, brown-haired, and freckled girl. Flanked on each side by her flunkies, the ninth-best student, Krista, and the Potato girl who nobody except Connie could remember the name of.

“Ymir?”

“That’s my name, don’t wear it out, Yaeger,” she said smiling as Krista hid in her shadow and the potato girl trotted beside her, as loyal as ever.

‘I have no idea how someone can have such a meek personality and get into the top ten. Creepy,’ Eren thought, briefly distracted by the mouse-like blonde girl.

“Uh, hi?” Armin asked and stated, not familiar with any of the three, “What are you-”

“So!” Ymir began, cutting off Armin, regaining Eren’s wandering attention, “How about we take Mikasa off your hands.”

“What?” Eren and Armin said in unison.

“You have a Mikasa problem, and want an Annie problem,” Ymir said pointing at the two as if any more clarification was a pain, before turning her finger back to herself, “While we here have a Mikasa and an Annie problem.”

It was only then that Armin and Eren realized that they were thinking of handling everybody else's problems on their own, and subsequently had entirely forgotten about the other residents of the girls' bunk.

“-And clinging to you clearly isn’t doing Mikasa any good, so how about it? You two handle Annie for us and we’ll take Mikasa off your hands.”

“I’m not going to abandon Mikasa, she’s my friend and I-”

“Look I get that you two like each other or whatever,” Ymir said waving her hands in the air as if to pantomime the whole ordeal, “But I’m not asking you to abandon Mikasa, you can hang out with her but even the instructor can see her problems. We’ll talk to him and he’ll have her teamed up with me and these two here more often.”

Neither Eren nor Armin responded, doing their best Mikasa impression as they stayed silent and tried to size Ymir up and see if she had any alternative motive.

Then Krista butted in, “Please, I know we’re not the closest, and Ymir is being pushy, but we want to help you.”

Eren and Armin looked at each other, both didn’t know what to do, but Ymir’s statement had more than some truth to it and her offer was appealing.

“I,” Armin faltered for a second, “I think we should take her offer.”

He didn’t like it, but in his eyes, he had failed in helping Mikasa for two years. Only for her to fall into her most troubling Eren-centric behavior.

“Okay,” Eren said, nodding his head, “What’s going to happen then if we agree and the instructor places Mikasa with you three more often.”

“Easy, just have Jean or Marco take her seat at meals and then she can sit with us one table over,” Ymir said, “She’ll be paired with one of us when training and she can still sit close to you guys, and if any problems arise you can step in to defend,”

She had definitely been thinking about this for a while, that was clear to them. But thinking about something wasn’t proof of good or bad intentions.

Eren tapped his foot against the ground, looking between Ymir, Krista in her shadow, and then the potato girl who was trying to look up for it as she stood next to Ymir. Before centering his gaze back on her and chuckling.

“Well, I don’t know if, I’ll see if they’re up to it. But, you really do care a lot despite your horrible attitude.”

“Hey!” Ymir protested, “I’m trying to help you here, lover boy.”

But Eren didn’t respond, laughing at Ymir’s offense. Quickly Armin, Krista, and the potato girl followed him, and a vein on Ymir’s forehead twitched.

But as Eren’s laughter slowed down, he spoke again.

“Sure thing, just…” He faltered for a moment, looking somewhere else before speaking again, “Keep Mikasa safe, I’m trusting you two to help her.”

“Sure thing, I won’t steal your girlfriend.”

Eren gave her a quizzical look, “Why would I be afraid of that?”

“Please, everybody can see how you two look at each other.”

“Sure, but it’s not like we’re together, and besides, Krista would kick your ass if you tried that,” Eren deflected, leaving the reason for him ignoring the shared feelings between him and Mikaa unaddressed.

“Well, uh. Maybe, I would?” Krista said, stumbling over her words shyly as she stood behind Ymir.

‘Creepy,’ Eren, Armin, and the potato girl thought in unison.

The potato girl exploded into laughter, pointing at Ymir, “Oh, he got you good, didn’t he? Man Connie would love this.”

“Uh, who are you again?” Armin asked, looking at the potato girl.

“Hey, first Ymir and now me! What am I? Chopped liver," The brown-haired potato girl says, stamping her foot on the ground as she steps in Ymir’s way.

“Oh sorry, Po-” Eren faltered, cutting himself off before he called her potato girl, “I forgot your name.”

“It’s Sasha!” The girl exclaimed, practically jumping in the air, “You eat a potato one time and everybody judges you for it.”

“Maybe you shouldn’t have been so brazen or smug about it then?” Krista ventured, peering from where she hid behind Ymir.

“Sorry, Sasha,” Eren said plainly, almost entirely nonplussed by her comical reaction.
“Anyways,” Ymir said, cutting off Sasha from saying anything else, “I'll gonna go talk to the instructor, see you later Eren.”

“You too,” Eren said, giving Ymir a salute as she and her posse walked off.
Ymir rolled her eyes.

‘Well, if I can’t make much progress here aside from more training, I may as well ask what Tewi is up to’

Eren was annoyed how it seemed like she always had the initiative, but she was the adult, and could now move freely. While Eren was still a child and in training.

‘When the time comes, I’ll be the one to save her, not just her but everybody else.’

‘But right now, I can’t do everything alone,’

“Armin.”

He hated to admit it, but Mikasa was unreliable right now, and there was only one person he fully trusted to help him. He always considered Armin to be the smartest of the three, and he’d need his input.

“Yeah, Eren?”

“There’s something I want to talk to you about.”

Chapter Text

Pixis' spine ached as he stared at the papers on his desk. The sun hung low outside having already passed the western peak of Wall Rose, with Trost below rapidly turning from twilight to night, with what little sunlight that leaked through the window of Pixis elevated office quickly leaving as well.

Across from him Tewi noisily spun around on the wooden office chair, sitting on it backward as her hands wrapped around its back to hold a letter before her. Pixis had no idea how she could stand sitting and reading in such an uncomfortable position, not to mention the spinning which would make it even harder to read, and how childish the position was.

Worse yet, with every spin of the wooden chair, its poor and weary mechanisms creaked and clunked in pain as Tewi strained them.

“Didn't I hire you to be a doctor, not to bother me at every waking moment of the day?”

Pixis grumbled from behind his desk, distracted from his paperwork by Tewi’s latest unwanted intrusion into his office.

“Hey, I’ve trained the staff as well as I can and without Eren, I have nobody else to keep me company.”

“That's your fault for being so reclusive,” Pixis said, putting his pen down and fully turning his attention to Tewi.

“Well, how am I supposed to investigate things while stuck in a hospital.”

“You don't, you do your job. But if you don’t feel like doing your job, you may as well bring me useful information if I’m going to be the victim of your empty nest.”

“Argh,” Tewi over-dramatically groaned as she stopped spinning, turning her full attention to Pixis in turn, ”You're soooo boring sometimes Pixis, when are those two going to get here?”

“Levi and Hange? I don’t remember telling you about their visit," When Pixis had learned there was something to look for regarding the 'secret of the Titans,' Erwin was one of the first people he talked to.

“I have my own sources, you won’t believe the things people say, or dream for that matter,” she said, straightening up and sitting properly in her chair now, looking more like a teacher rather than a child.

“Very well,” Pixis relented, already having long given up on the fact that Tewi could ferret out any information she desired. It annoyed him but all his attempts to stop her had been fruitless, “Soon, but Shadis’ report already arrived before you got here.”

“Oh, the Instructor! So how's Eren doing?”

“Good, it's the other students that are the problem, but it seems they're starting to sort things out on their own,” or rather, that Ymir girl had started working with Eren. All the better if they could work together, a soldier who went out on their own was as good as dead.

“Hmm,” Tewi held her hand to her chin, “Eren said that Mikasa’s been doing better,” Tewi said, stashing Eren’s latest letter away. Since Eren had decided to tell Armin everything, he had kept Tewi informed through their weekly correspondence.

“I was worried I might have to eventually step in,” She said, “But it looks like I won’t have to if Mikasa’s doing better.”

Something was off about the girl, more than an unhealthy obsession with Eren, Eren had told her that much. But it seemed like she wasn’t a Youkai and didn’t know anything important so Tewi hadn’t seen a reason to go meet her yet.

Although, from what Eren had said, Armin and Mikasa were interested in seeing her.
“And in your response to the boy's pleas?”

“I’ll give him my firmest confidence! And also maybe some advice about girls.”

“Ah, yes, the oriental girl,” Pixis dimly remembered something about the doomed Oriental Clan. Something about a previous king not liking them or the Ackerman clan, or perhaps some drama that happened when the walls were built? “Hmm, well I hope that goes well, the Oriental Clan has been rather embattled.”

However with Tewi here, a woman who has the same appearance as that clan, he had other suspicions as well. Namely, that the clan had survived outside of the walls somehow.
“Although I can't imagine what experience you would have in that front, I’ve never seen that husband of yours and I can't imagine you would have much experience with women.”

“Hey! I have more experience than most. I'm a great matchmaker.”

“Indeed?” Pixis asked.

“Yep, I’m the one who set up my Daikoku with his first wife!” She exclaimed, proudly, earnestly, and much to Pixis’ shock, although it did show on his face, “And I even helped with some of the others, I’m a real miracle worker when it comes to romance.”

That was how she had earned her reputation as a god of romance, although her beloved’s first wife had fled him and his scheming wives. So her effectiveness was somewhat circumspect.
Pixis gave her a flat look, not responding to the ridiculous thing she had said, wondering if she was lying, or if her common sense was so different.

“Daikoku, I think this is the first time you’ve said his name?” The only references to the man she had made before were about him possibly being dead, and how she considered herself taken. But that wasn’t useful or terribly informative beyond her seemingly earnest devotion to the Man. But now with what Tewi had said, the man had become such a character in Pixis’ mind he couldn't believe he had never heard of such a scandalous character.

'Multiple wives, of all the things,' Pixis shook his head.

There was also the matter of her both alluding to his death and to him still being alive, of course, the two of them could be estranged as well. But that also invited more questions.
Pixis sighed, there were only so many mysteries in the world, and Tewi’s love life, as storied as it was turning out to be, was not one of them.

Thus, Pixis decided to change the subject.

“How has the church been? I haven’t had the time or interest to investigate the Wall Religion myself.”

“Interesting, I know for sure they're hiding something.” Tewi said, before spinning herself in the chair again, “But the leadership keeps it close to their chest and they’re in Mitras.”
“Do you want to move there? Grisha refused the offer when it was made to him years ago, but with Eren out of the house you don't have anything in particular keeping you here in Trost.”
In truth, Grisha refusing the king's offer was the first time Pixis had heard of the man all those years ago. In his younger, but still old years, he did not give any thought to the celebrity doctor from Shiganshina. But then that doctor had refused an offer from the King.
It was scandalous.

“Nah,” Tewi said, waving the offer off, “I think the king and the church are pretty close, not to mention those cutthroats of his I keep hearing about, gives me the goosebumps.”

Tewi didn't know why, but her instincts screamed at her something was wrong up there. And if she felt like something was wrong, she sure as hell wasn't going to see without anybody else backing her up.

“It's worrying how quickly they’ve managed to gain control of him,” Pixis said, solemnly.

Tewi rolled her eyes, ‘Well the man has been a monarchist his entire life, it’s going to be pretty hard to get him to turn against the king if the time comes for it.’

It was then that two pairs of footsteps echoed down the hall and into Pixis’ office.
“I believe that's Levi and Hange now,” the old man said, recognizing Levi’s short and quick stride alongside Hange’s long and somewhat erratic one.

Quickly, Tewi sent her chair moving in Pixis' direction with a controlled spin, turning around at a stop as soon as Levi opened the door.

Tewi smiled at him as he scowled at her, ‘Hmm, something feels off with this one, a bit youkai-ish?’Tewi thought.

But quickly Levi was standing about face, joined by his co-worker, Hange. Both scouts looked at Pixis and Tewi, confused at the doctor’s presence.

There was a beat of silence as Pixis waited for Tewi to introduce herself before he resigned himself to speak first.

“I would offer you a seat, but as you can see it's taken. Same thing for a drink, I fear a drinking companion has worsened my vices,” Pixis said with no inflection, although the joke at his own and Tewi’s expense was clear.

“Tch, rabbit.”

“Nice to finally meet you again Levi," Tewi said, happy to have finally met humanity's strongest soldier, "You have pretty good instincts dont’cha?”

She wondered if the man genuinely meant it as an insult or if he had figured out she was actually a rabbit somehow.

Levi didn't respond, simply narrowing his eyes at the annoying rabbit.

“Your report, I’m interested in what Erwin considered so important?” Pixis spoke up, slicing through the silence with his gruff and always calm voice.

“Yes sir!” Hange, “Earlier this week, Levi and I retrieved an item of importance from the lost territories of Wall Maria sir!”

As she spoke, Hange opened up a large pouch connected to her belt, retrieving a worn leather-bound journal from within.

“This discovery took the form of the journal of Scout, Ilse Langer, and within she recorded her final moments, including the first ever documented case of human-titan communication.”

“Oooh, sounds interesting, doesn’t it Pixis?”

Pxis raised an eyebrow but didn’t look at Tewi, “Are you sure Ilse was in her right mind when ”
“We cannot vouch for her for state of mind but-”

“The Titan we got it from was weird, stored her body in a hollow tree and wouldn’t leave it alone.”

“Yes, it’s as Levi said, it demonstrated atypical, ‘mourning’ type behavior as I’ve coined it. Presenting an interesting-”

“Indeed, interesting,” Pixis said, holding a hand up to silence Hange, “Now, what did the Titan say.”

“Ilse recorded that it repeatedly vocalized the statements, Ymir, People, subjects, and Lord.” Hange quickly rattled off before following up quickly with, “It may have made more vocalizations, but it bit her head off before she could record anymore.”

Pixis nodded and leaned forward, “Did you retrieve the body for burial?”

“Yes, it had already mostly decomposed but we-”

“Yes, we got it,” Levi said glibly, cutting Hange off as he put his hand in front of her mouth.

“Thank you, I’m sure Ilse’s family will be happy.”

“But that name, Ymir, do you two have any idea what it means? It’s certainly not the name I was expecting,” Pixis asked.

Both of the scouts shook their heads in refusal, neither of them knew what the name Ymir menat. Allowing Tewi to butt in again.

“Aww, were you expecting me, Pixis?”

“Somewhat,” Pixis admitted, “My other guesses were Grisha, Eren, Yaeger, or Ackerman. Perhaps even Arlert? But more so, Shadis mentioned a Ymir in his report, an average, unremarkable student, who has befriended Eren and some of the other top students.”

“Have you heard of the name before?” Tewi asked.

“No, I suppose I could check the census records for Trost and Ehrmich.”

“Hmm, what about Shiganshina?” Tewi offered, “We’re looking to retake it anyway.”

The room darkened and the air became tense as Levi’s scowl intensified, causing Hange to flinch back while Tewi and Pixis remained unaffected.

“Perhaps, but those plans are still on hold for the moment,” They still needed a way to close the breach, after that, with time the Titans could be killed.

“I suppose I could ask my western counterpart to check the census of the stranded Quinta district,” Pixis said, remembering the fate of the westernmost district, half evacuated and down to a fourth of its previous population.

“That reminds me,” Levi cut in his usual thuggish manner, “Don't let that geezer in the west boss us around anymore old man, I’m not going to lose anybody else in some hair-brained attempt to relive Quinta.”

Pixis nodded. Starting with the attempt to retake Wall Maria two years ago, there had been several attempts to relive the surviving but isolated Quinta district. And even an attempt to assess the situation in the easternmost district, Sechs, but all the attempts had failed so far.
Quite unlike the northernmost district Walawala, which had been entirely evacuated over a year with relatively few casualties.

“I'll send a letter to the Western Commander, and ask about any Ymirs in his record or the records in Quinta.”

“Shitty old man,” Levi complained at Pixis' lack of promise.

“I suppose I could the Mirror man about the name Ymir next time I see him.”

“I haven’t been able to confirm your ‘reports,’ of the strangely dressed individual.”

“Fine, fine, I think we trust each other enough, Pixis, It’s time that I’m honest with you.”

“You see, in truth, I am, an…” Tewi stood up on her chair, spinning it dramatically before seamlessly stepping onto the ground as it spun, “Alien!”

Nobody reacted to her statement, instead staring at the rabbit in human form, waiting for an explanation.

“I'm an alien.”

“Alien?” Pixis asked, deciding to grant her some relief.

“Use words that people already understand rabbit.”

“Yes, I’m interested in what that means as well,” Hange quickly rambled out in half the time Levi and Pixis spent on their responses.

“Right, you wouldn't know what that word means,” Tewi sighed, deflated that the reveal hadn’t landed, “Okay, well how about this, I'm from outside of the walls.”

“I surmised as much,” Pixis admitted, “After I eliminated all the other possibilities, only that remained”

“But, but, but,” Tewi said excitedly, turning around to Pixis, “Probably not in the way you're thinking, and also I'm a rabbit.”

And with that said and a poof of black smoke, Pixis, Hange, and Levi were left staring at Tewi, changed. Although she had changed very little, her appearance only became slightly more inhumanely doll-like, and her dress only slightly fancier. The biggest change was the addition of two large lop-sided rabbit ears coming out of the top of her head, alongside a puff-ball white tail coming out of the back of her dress.

Pixis was surprised, partly by the ears, partly by how poor her disguise was. Levi’s eyes darkened even more, although no one could tell what he felt. Hange hopped in the spot before Levi forced her to stand still, holding her in place with a single hand.

“And why are you revealing this now, I’m certain these two didn’t have to earn your trust.”
“It’s less about trust, and more about what the chances were you would be willing to hear me out.”

Pixis sat back in his chair, reclining. “So I suppose that you and Grisha come from the same place? Both of you did mysteriously show up with strangely similar stories and skill sets.”
“Nope,” Tewi was smiling again, glad to take on the role of teacher, “You see I'm from a place called Gensokyo, but it doesn't exist in the world outside of the walls, it's in an entirely different world.”

“Hmm, that's a theological idea isn't it.”

“I remember reading some pre-wall religious texts about the idea,” he said scratching his mustache, “but the research was rather hard, so much of that history is banned.”

“Excuse me, COULD YOU TWO PLEASE EXPLAIN WHAT YOU'RE TALKING ABOUT.”

Levi’s face remained entirely stoic, not reacting to any of the other three in the room, as if he was trying his hardest to ignore them.

“Ah yes,” Pixis said, "a pre-wall religious organization theorized on the existence of life which orbited distant stars, like how our planet rotates around the sun.”

“It was an interesting idea, although before now I never thought it would be proven.”

“Thank you, sir, so,” Hange started, retrieving a pen from somewhere, “Tewi here is an alien, a traveler from a distant star, who pretended to be human, but is also a rabbit?”

“Well… it's not exactly that, it's a bit farther, and I’m not exactly a Rabbit either, I’m also a sort of being similar to a Titan, called a Youkai.”

“You as a Youkai, I’m not a being like you or Eren, or any other animal,” Tewi said, wisps of back smoke leaving her body until eventually she disappeared into a formless mass made of the same black grains, “You see this is that I really look like.”

“So you aren’t actually a rabbit?” Hange asked, sounding a bit disappointed.

“No, I was a rabbit, well an ancestor of rabbits and hares as well, but that was all a long, long time ago. But then I became a youkai, and eventually learned how to transform myself to look like a human.”

“Huh,” Hange said, shrugging, “Weird, I didn’t expect other worlds to have Rabbits.”

“Get on with it then, tell us whatever it is you're hiding,” Levi complained, still scrolling at Tewi.
“Okay, now that, that’s out of the way,” Tewi started her smile dimming, “Like how it is with humanity right now, the humans of my world used to live in fear of Youkai like me, huddling inside the walls of their villages fearful of the night, but eventually valiant heroes defeated those Youkai and they were chased off into the shadows of the world.”

“Ohh, ohh, so is this some sort of invasion," Hange said excitedly but with no accusation in her voice "-if you're are similar to Titans, maybe a Youkai from your world created the Titans here and-”

“Right, I didn’t choose to come here in the first place, but that is one theory. Youkai and Gods have already created worlds of their own to rule over,” Gensokyo, Hell, Makai, countless other smaller realms, “But I haven’t been able to confirm anything about that yet.”

“So, just to be clear,” Levi lifted his gaze, showing his shadowed eyes to Tewi with an expression of a man ready to kill, “You aren’t some enemy of humanity, are you?”

“Sorry,” Tewi apologized, with a sheepish smile on her face, “I’m not someone who goes out of my way to attack humans, but I’m not an ally of humanity either.” How could she call herself their ally after all, when her plots against the moon would eventually drag humans into conflict, but those were her own doubts.

“I don’t have anything against humans, but what I want will probably end up with the humans of my world suffering one way or another.”

Pixis tapped his finger against his desk as he thought about everything she had told him before, “Then it’s about your husband then?”

“Yeah,” Tewi admitted, “Some very bad people imprisoned him so I have to stop them to save him, but no matter what I do, opposing them will eventually get other people involved.” Her first attempt to deal with the Lunarians in recent years led to Yukari, Yuyuko, Reimu, and some others getting involved. Eventually, the whole incident was swept under the rug but it almost caused the Moon and Gensokyo to come to blows.

That only added to the situation that eventually attracted Junko, and Hecatia, and eventually caused Okina to take a more active role as well. Only making conflict with the people of the moon more likely.

“But in order to help him, you need to get home first.”

“Huh,” Levi grunted looking at Tewi, “So you’re a non-human, enemy of humanity, and we’re just supposed to help you because your youkai lover got himself caught. You better start explaining where our problems come into this, Rabbit.”

Tewi bit down a rebuttal, introducing her beloved Daikoku as a god would only require more explanation. “Fine, you want the long story short then,” Tewi couldn’t blame him for being annoyed, she would be too in his position.

“You certainly lived an interesting life before coming here, but I think I can understand why you’d fight. But I’m guessing you’ll want to get back home as soon as possible and giving you the benefit of the doubt, I don’t think you would bring it up to us if you didn’t have some sort of plans.”

Of course, there was also the question, that if Tewi just wanted to get home there was the question. Would she betray or put humanity at risk for her own goals?

Betray? Pixis thought not, but Levi didn't trust her. But put at risk, she had already admitted how willing she was to put humans at risk for her own goals.

And Hange, Hange didn't care at the moment, too enthralled with the new information.
“Right, this is where the Titans and the walls come in, the point being the walls are made of Titans and The Walls, thus Titans, are connected to the moon of this earth. Which is somehow connected to my home.”

“Well, I’ll give you this Tewi, you do surprise me, so show us what you mean.”
“Follow me, I just have to show you!”

Pixis gave a short word to the hapless administrators, who, like him, found themselves too often staying too late in candle, gas, or moonlit rooms, working, backs arched over desks, until they couldn't sit anymore. But none objected to his absence as he left alongside Levi, Hange, and Tewi Inaba, the eccentric doctor. The night was coming upon them and everybody just wanted to get work done as soon as possible.

Tewi and the group following her left the building and walked in the moonlit streets of the military district in Trost, their footsteps echoing against the cobbles and thumping against the dirt. Eventually, they were at an unoccupied section of the wall hidden in a back alley.

There, Tewi placed her hand against the wall and chanted, in a language none of the humans accompanying her understood, “Gone, gone, everyone gone to the other shore, awakening, Svaha.”

Pixis, Levi, and Hange stood and watched as a hole opened up in the wall, revealing a layer of stone, crystal, and then raw flesh deeper inside, and beyond that a black nothingness as the tunnel disappeared into a lightless, shadowless void beyond.

Levi was unimpressed, but Hange pulled her pencil and notebook again, writing down every observation she could make. For his part, Pixis tried to look unsurprised.

“Okay, see, there’s titan flesh inside, and when I go down the tunnel I end up on the moon.”

“The Moon?”

“Yeah, way different from my moon, it’s a big desert with a tree and some sand walls.”

“Wait, wait,” Hange says, furiously writing in her notebook, “What do you mean by sand walls?”
“Their copies of the three walls from what I can tell.”

“Have you tried to use it to exit and enter the Wall on the other side in a different place then you’ve entered? If you entered through one area in the wall and exited through another spot, would you appear at the corresponding point on one of the walls here?”
“Huh, probably should have thought of that before, I guess it could explain how that masked man moves around.”

“Maybe,” Tewi said shrugging, “I can move faster then since I’m stronger there, I although I don’t want to run into the Mirror Guy by accident.”

“Mirror Guy?” Hange asked, taking more notes.

“He’s a creepy guy who hangs out in there, I haven’t seen him outside of the moon, claims to have powers,” Tewi said, rattling off what she knew about the man, “He feels like a Youkai, but if he is one he’s pretty young, relatively speaking.”

“Can other people go in?”

“Well probably, I’m good, but the tunnel starts collapsing on you when it gets to the sand portion, and the Mirror Man could probably hurt you, unlike me.”

“Do you know where these walls of sand are, maybe in the outside world,” Hange said floating the question,” Maybe in some other-”

“Oh, it's just the moon,” Tewi said, kicking her feet against the ground as she pointed up toward the moon as it’s curved form glared down at them

“The moon?”

“Yep, I have a connection to the moon on my world, and it sorta feels like the moon. That and when I look at the sky”

Levi looked annoyed, Pixis almost showed genuine surprise, but Hange kept asking questions.

“So, what’s your hypothesis?”

“First off, I don’t think the walls created as a source of substance, this is way too uncontrolled and whatever power created the Walls is obviously gone, if they wanted the Walls and humanity to end they would have just killed you all already. If the power that created the Walls was still active who they are, they would have intervened.”

“And I still don’t know what to make of the moon connection, the moon of my earth is odd as well, but that’s due to the enemies I mentioned earlier, and I don’t know if they play into this.”
Although Tewi still liked blaming the people of the moon, the Lunarians, had their grubby fingers in many plots to exterminate or mess with humanity.

“Convenient for you,” Levi said, “Why should we trust somebody who isn’t human.”
“Says the person who isn’t entirely human either,” Tewi snapped back, folding her arms as if triumphant.

“Levi, is this true?” Pixis asked, sounding more idly curious than hurt or accusatory.
In response, Levi’s eyebrow twitched, he didn’t have time for this.

“Just spit out whatever you know, Rabbit, what am I?”

“You don’t feel like a Titan, and you’re not a Youkai, not even a half-Youkai like Eren is. If I had to say anything, you're a modified human,” A fairly large category of being including everything from humans grown in labs to people born with special abilities like Reimu or Sumireko, “Although you should be careful, for people like you it’s way easier to lose your humanity.”

“That much I already know,” Levi said, scoffing and drawing the attention of Hange and Pixis.

Then Levi sighed and began to explain what he knew, “Back when I-”

Levi had been born the son of whore, a woman from a discriminated people the king at the time hated fiercely, and worse yet for them, they lived in the undercity beneath Mitras. A vast complex consisting of taverns, brothels, inns, catacombs, and vast complexes buried beneath the earth. Then his mother had died and the man found him, a tall man with a wide-brimmed hat and a smile far too wide for his thin face, almost splitting it open.

He was like a shadow, a specter, but he appeared in Levi’s life after his mother died, gave him a knife, gave him some advice, accompanied Levi off and on for a year, and then left. Among that advice was a warning, about who, what they were, how people would always fear them even if the King was no longer hunting them.

About how to fight, and most importantly, how to draw on a power within himself.

Once Levi finished, Hange was the first to speak.

“So this Kenny person, he’s your-”

“Relative,” Levi said, interrupting Hange, “Other than that I don’t know, there was some serial killer who had the same name as him, but other than that he’s disappeared.”

Pixis laughed, “It really does seem like everything really is connected, even you as humanity’s greatest warrior.”

“Oi, what about the kid then,” Levi said, hoping to change the subject, “Eren, you said he’s a half-Youkai.”

“His dad did something, I’m not entirely sure since I intervened before it could run its course. But when I found Eren, there was a Titan skeleton crouched over him. As well as some medical equipment and his father’s corpse.”

“He had a key wrapped around his hand. When he woke up, Eren said that his father had given it to him. That it was the key to their basement and something important was there.”

“So what?” Levi asked, “Kid’s dad turned him into a Titan or something?”

“Oooh,” Hange hooted, “Great idea Levi, I’ll put that down as speculation, but then how would he change back?”

Tewi took that as her cue to answer, “I don’t know, at the time I thought it was sort of poison or a curse,” When talking about the supernatural there often wasn’t a difference, rarely would a curse not be a poison, and rarely were poisons not made of cursed things.

“But I wasn’t able to observe it fully and Levi here is different from whatever Eren and Titans are so he won’t be able to help me there.”

Pixis put his hand to his chin as he leaned against a wall, “That makes sense of Shadi’s report when he found Grisha’s body there was a column of Titan smoke rising into the air, it caused a brief panic in nearby communities but nothing came of it.”

This next part Pixis didn’t want to admit but, “I never did tell you or boy, but after we first met I found those friends of his and decided to keep an eye on them, as well you two.”

“But you didn’t tell me, or Eren,” Her words were pointed, accusatory, but somehow her tone hadn’t changed from her normal lightheartedness and the smile had not left her face either.
Pixis said nothing, humming affirmatively instead and not taking his gaze away from Tewi.
Hange took more notes and Levi tapped his foot against the cobble-dirt floor of the alleyway.
“Well, fairs fair,” Tewi admitted in a lighthearted tone, “You didn’t trust me as much back then, but Eren’s the one you’ll have to explain yourself to.”

Pixis gave her a pointed look, “Have you told the boy about his father’s death, he is a man of seventeen if I am not mistaken?”

“Nope,” Tewi admitted, “But it looks like he’ll find out eventually either way. I guess we’ll tell him when he gets back, I have some mementos of his father’s as well.”

His glasses and shoes, Tewi had kept them, never seeing a reason to be rid of them.
“Excuse me,” Hange said, speaking up, “But I feel like you two are overlooking the fact that Eren, and his father have some connection to the Titans.”

“Well, we still don't know what Eren’s dad did to him.”

“Indeed, Tewi. Grisha Yaeger is only becoming a more mysterious individual, and it looks like we’re going to have to investigate his basement if that key you mentioned is anything to go by.”
“So either way, once Eren joins the scouts in a year, we’ll have to head for his father’s basement in Trost.”

“So,” Levi grunted, “What do you want us to tell Erwin?”

“Tell him to be prepared, one way or the other, it looks like we’ll be dealing with enemies inside the walls, not just the Titans. As for the rest, I’ll fill him in myself.”

“Finally,” Levi complained, “I’m going to bed.”

“Hey! We’re the ones who are going to end up looking after this Eren kid, maybe you should-”
Levi grunted in annoyance as Hange followed after him, Pixis was just happy to have an excuse to not do any more work and head home early.

Tewi hopped away as well, turning into a cloud of black smoke as soon as she turned the corner and speedily slinking her way home.

Chapter Text

Eren sighed as he walked down the streets of Trost.

It had been four years since he had lost his entire family and friends, four years since the gate to Shiganshina had come crashing down, four years since some of Eren’s memories had left him and had yet to return. It had also been two years since Eren had entered training, two years since he left Tewi’s home, and two years since he found his friends again.

Since leaving Tewi’s, he had written to her irregularly. He even exchanged letters with the Commander of the South, Dot Pixis. Although Eren hadn’t learned that much. He did share his suspicions about Annie and in turn, he was asked to keep an eye on Ymir.

Anything more than they wanted to tell him apparently had to wait.

He was third best, right behind Annie, who in turn was right behind Mikasa.

“Hey Eren,?” Armin asked from beside him.

“Yeah, I’m just bored, why couldn’t they have let us off back here instead of driving us up with everyone else, then telling us Pixis wanted to see us,” Eren complained, “Besides, it probably has to do with Tewi anyways, those two could have just met us up with the others.”

Armin sighed, “I guess they have something important to talk to us about, do you have any idea what they want?”

“Nah,” Eren dismissed, “But, I have the feeling, she hasn’t told me everything.”

It wasn’t a good feeling either, a little knot of anxiety that had grown in his stomach from the time they were apart. But Eren wasn’t going to let himself be frightful over such a small thing.

But eventually and with little small talk between them, they reached the Military Headquarters in Trost. It was a tall and slightly crooked wooden building, two stories larger than the nearest house and built propped up against Wall Rose.

It was just like Eren had remembered it from the short time he and Tewi had lived in a disused room there before Tewi had gotten a house and she had started her work revolutionizing medicine in earnest.

A couple people, functionaries, and soldiers went in and out of the building. But as the boys came closer, they noticed a conspicuously smoking bald man who didn’t move, instead looking out onto the empty yard next to the Headquarters.

Then, as they got an earshot, the boys recognized the man smoking as their Instructor.

“Hello boys,” The man said, his harsh attitude from their training entirely gone as he waved for them. Idly he flicked his cigarette to the floor with his other hand, before quickly stamping it out, “I see Pixis called you here too?”

“Instructor!” The two boys said in unison, each of them snapping to a perfect salute as they recognized him.

“Relax,” the man said chuckling, pride leaking into his voice, “You’re getting a bit of an early graduation, you might as well be members of the scouts already, and by the way it’s Shadis.”
Armin's eyes widened at the man’s comment, they only had a few days left, less than a week. And their current assignment was their last, assisting the garrison of Trost, but graduating from it so soon.

But before he could make a comment.

“Shadis…” Something stirred in Eren’s mind as the man announced his name, “That name’s-”

“Familiar,” Shadis said, interrupting Eren, “It should be, me and your father were close friends. Although back then I had a full head of hair, so you're forgiven for not recognizing me.”

Eren was surprised that someone so close to his father had been with him all this close, but a moment later he had sprung back into action.

“Do you know what happened to him, my father?”

“Sorry to say I do Eren,” The man said, the mirth fading from his voice as he nodded to Eren, “But if I had to guess, you’re here to learn that anyways. So let’s not keep Pixis waiting.”

With that, the man turned around and entered the Headquarters. Eren and Armin followed quickly behind.

The inside of the building was busy, functionaries and aides cramming into every available corner and cubicle going over countless documents as Scouts, Garrison soldiers, and even a few Military Police openly, but quietly argued in the halls.

Nevertheless, Eren and Armin followed Shaids, pushing past and avoiding the obstacles and other people who traversed the cramped halls and crowded stairways of the administrative building.

Until they finally reached the fifth floor.

Quiet and clean, practically barren in comparison to the lower levels, Shadis, Armin, and Eren passed by a secretary with a few words and were ushered toward Pixis office.

Arriving in the room shortly after, Shadis, Eren, and Armin weren’t surprised to see Tewi sitting in a wooden office chair in front of Pixi’s desk.

“Hey, Eren!” Tewi greeted, waving to him as he and Armin entered the room, “Great to finally meet you too Armin.”

“It’s good to finally meet you two in person as well,” Pixis said, calling the room to attention, “Now to start off, as some of you might have guessed, Grisha Yaeger is dead.”
The entire room is silent. Shadis gave a solemn nod.

Pixis said, motioning to Tewi, who promptly deposited a pair of glasses on his desk, “Tewi and Shadis here discovered his body the night of Wall Maria’s destruction.”

“And to give full disclosure,” Pixis said raising his hand, “I was aware of the state of his death as well as the location of Mikasa Ackerman, Armin Arlert, and Eren Yaeger within seventy-two hours of his passing.”

The both of them, they had known.

He was in a forest, the trees were tall faceless sentinels, and the moon was a baleful eye. Gazing down at those who crawled upon the ground with an emotionless and insane gaze, an overpowering command to spread drumming in his head.

Eren's father was there with him, but the man was not as Eren remembered him. There was hatred behind his eyes, and a noxious, brilliant fire burning through his veins.

His voice sounded like the screaming of millions and the wet meaty pounding of flesh.

His father grabbed at him, struggling to rip the sleeve of his shirt off as the both of them cried.
His father had a syringe in his hand and Eren pleaded, he cried his throat out as the man he knew as his father forced the needle into his arm and then slammed down on the pump of the syringe.

Distantly he noticed somebody else was there as well, a man he couldn’t see. A reflective surface showing his own face back at him.

Then everything went black.

“Eren!” Tewi and Amein spoke in unison, but Armin was closer and caught him before he could fall.

Eren took one shallow breath, followed by another. Then shakily stood back up, gripping the key his father had given him in one hand. He didn’t remember retrieving it from where it rested, tied to a length of twine he wore as a necklace.

“It’s okay Armin. I’m fine,” he said, brushing off Armin’s grip on him before centering his gaze back on Tewi.

He wanted to be more surprised than he was, but his father’s death had been something he had thought about no matter how much he avoided it. There was also the trust, Tewi hadn’t lied to him, but she had…

“Tewi,” Eren spoke, a harshness in his voice, “Why didn’t you tell me?”
She shrugged.

“I just figured that whatever happened was pretty traumatic. Better that you never have to find out then. But it turned out your father was pretty important.”

Eren looked at the key he held in his hand and thought of his father and the basement. Reluctantly, he sighed and released all of the tension in the room, “Fine, you were just looking out for me,” in her own sort of way, “But I want the truth from now on.”

“Sure thing,” Tewi said, bowing her head. That was the best reaction she had hoped to get, she didn’t want Eren to resent her too much, although she did feel a bit proud of him.

“I promise the same,” Pixis said, “But more on the subject of your father, Instructor Shadis here witnessed a billow of Titan smoke rising into the air from the clearing where you and your father were.”

“It is our belief that your father was involved in clandestine research into Titans, the products of which are unknown, possibly dangerous, possibly useful, and possibly a danger to humanity,” The man paused, giving everyone present a second to soak his word in.

Nobody took the opportunity to speak.

”Now then," he started again, "Tewi here informed me that your father left you with a key that may be of importance.”

Pixis gestured to the key in Eren’s palm, and everybody’s eyes followed him.

“So, Eren Yaeger I ask you this, in the interest of humanity will you cooperate with us in retaking Shiganshina and promise that whatever possessions that belonged to you or your family will be forfeit to Southern Command?”

“Yes, yes I will.”

“Good, now,” Pixis started, “Onto our-”

“Excuse me, sir,” Shadis interrupted, “May I leave, as far as I’m concerned, nothing else past this point requires my involvement.”

Pixis looked the man in the eye for a second and then nodded. Shadis didn’t think he had what it took to assist them, or rather; he didn’t want to be involved.

Even if he had an inkling of how important their work and this meeting might be and had already had some vital information confirmed and disclosed to him.

Pixis nodded and Tewi smiled, “You may leave Shadis, thank you for all you have done.”
“You're welcome sir,” The man said, bowing “And thank you, for everything you’ve done for humanity.”

Pixis nodded, dismissing the man as Eren, Armin, and Tewi watched. Eren and Armin weren’t surprised, but Eren wished that he would have stayed. But Tewi knew he was going to duck out before she had even met the man, she did not blame him.

Then, Tewi hopped off the wooden chair she had been seated on.

“Ah finally~ I was wondering when he was going to leave, now I can-” With a puff of black smoke, a pair of white, lopsided rabbit ears appeared on Tewi’s head, “Let my ears free, y’know how annoying it is to not have a second pair of ears?”

“Or well, I guess you know how it feels to only have one pair,” Tewi chuckled to herself.
“Indeed, now,” Pixis picked up and straightened a set of folders on his desk, “To talk about the suspicious individuals who’ve joined the ranks of the Trainees.”

Eren and Armin nodded along, they had been in contact with everyone Tewi and Pixis had sent them letters about and this would be where their opinions were held in the highest regard.
The most individuals notable were: Ymir, Annie Leonhart, Reiner Braun, Berthold Hoover, and Krista Lenz.

The group began their assessment of the trainees, starting from the most to least suspicious.

Ymir was at the top, although she was only placed so highly due to the record of a Titan speaking her name. It wasn’t insubstantial evidence, despite how the encounter ended it was still the first and so far only account of a human conversing with a Titan. But Eren didn’t feel that anything was off with her despite that, Pixis thought her their only solid lead, Armin thought a Titan mentioning her name was too important, and Tewi wanted to talk to her first.
Their plans with her did not change, despite doubts.

Annie was a mystery.
Tewi thought the girl sounded interesting and harrowed, Eren’s speculation about her time in Mitras was interesting, and more so she was interested in whatever girl Eren had the slightest bit of attention for. But, Eren felt that something was off with her, Armin and Pixis saw no particular evidence that couldn’t be easily explained away.

Reiner and Bertholdt were a pair, they spent most of their time together and were only really included due to originally being three-of-a-kind alongside Annie.
Eren felt that Reiner was off, but not by much, while everybody else more or less agreed. Aside from their possible close relation to Annie, the two weren’t that suspicious.

Then lastly, there was Krista Lenz. The least suspicious of the lot, but someone who unnerved Eren nonetheless. She was the ninth best in the class, highly skilled, but strangely meek, and a follower who followed Ymir like a shadow. It was only gut intuition, but Eren thought she was hiding something and Tewi agreed. But just because she was hiding something, did not mean she was necessarily an enemy.
Due to a lack of evidence, she was quickly passed over as their conversation ended.

“I apologize if you all think this hasty,” Pixis said raising his hand, “But we have already made plans to confront Ymir,” Pixis said, as he returned all of their files to his desk drawer.

“Eh! It’s not like I’m a military person, I trust you on this,” Tewi said, bouncing on the balls of her feet.

“Fine, if you think she’s the most important lead, we’ll follow, right Armin?”

“Right, but,” The boy said, raising his hand, “I don’t think it’s a coincidence, but Ymir, she’s too genuine. Although I haven’t seen what Eren has seen, I trust his testimony, Reiner and Annie are the ones most likely to have something else going on.”

“Hmm, I think he might be onto something, Pixis.”

“Understood,” Pixis said nodding, “If Ymir turns out to be a dead end, we’ll take immediate action against the others, now the scouts are waiting-”

Then, Tewi remembered something and jumped in exclamation.

“O-ooh,” Tewi said, her hand shooting up in the air, “But let’s not forget about Mikasa, I know you’ve been trying to give her some space but tell me about you two, Eren!” The Youkai rabbit said, bounding towards her former ward.

Eren sighed, ”Look Tewi, Mikasa is my friend. Sure I think she’s attractive and she means a lot to me, but we're trying to save the world here.”

“Woah, real romantic aren’t you?” Tewi chuckled a little, pointing at Eren as a wry smile spread across her face.

“Tewi, I know you care in your own way, but please just leave Eren alone when it comes to this stuff.”

“Fine, fine, but if you ever need some romantic advice-”

“Ahem,” Pixis coughed, “I feel like you’ve gotten somewhat off track Tewi.”

Tewi took the hint, only rolling her eyes and sighing in protest before hopping off of the chair and disguising her ears again.

“Right, we need to get Ymir in the Garrison basement so Eren, Armin you-”

Tewi shut up abruptly. Her eyes widened as she whipped her head towards Trost's gate.

Nobody had any time to question why she had quieted down when the next moment a sound like thunder resounded in the distance. Hollow first, but growing louder, like the beating of countless drums against the walls as a wave of pressure and heat slammed against it.

Eren recognized the endless column of black and white smoke rises above the wall.

Then, a skinless hand grabbed onto the top of the wall, cracking its surface and a similarly skinless face with lidless eyes peered over the top of the wall.

The Colossal Titan had arrived.

Pixis sighed, Erwin, Levi, and Hange had already moved, zipping off towards their prize. Eren, Armin following quickly behind.

“Hey, Pixis? Where’s the armory again?”

Levi found himself mid-flight, zipping across Trost from rooftop to rooftop as he made a beeline for the Colossal Titan.

Levi grit his teeth, he was too far. No matter what he did he just wasn't moving fast enough, whatever he did the Colossal Titan would kick in the gate of Trost and all the Titans waiting outside its walls would come pouring in.

Despite that, he did not slow down, and neither did Hange, Erwin, or the two Trainees Eren and Armin. He could feel their presence right behind him and the others as well.

The Scouts had come to Trost today in order to assist Erwin and Pixis even if they didn't know what the plan was. While the Trainees and Garrison did their best to snap out of their stupor and react.

Then, everyone braced themselves as the Colossal Titan let out a roar, put its hands atop the wall, and began to wind back its foot.

The Scouts, Trainees, and even the Garrison closest to it moved as fast as they could. With no plan they moved on instinct, either to somehow stop the Titan or to get away from it as soon as possible.

But as the first of them flew over the top of the wall the Colossal Titan screamed and released a billow of black and white steam.

Levi crested another building, throwing himself further, he was still too far.

Among those that went to attack the Titan, the luckiest and fastest managed to move out of the way, ducking to either side of the wall or managing to fling themselves away from the scorching steam. The unlucky and the slow, few as they were, received a much worse fate. Scorching in the heat they cooked or were thrown away, falling onto the streets below.

Then another explosion resounded as the Colossal Titan’s foot struck Trost’s gate.

Time seemed to slow then as the rubble flew through the air, Levi finally distantly registered the sounds of people's screams.

The people of Trost were in a panic, that was obvious. But Levi’s mind was so distant he had only realized it now.

Somehow, Levi’s hatred for the Titans intensified yet again, and he moved. Deftly dodging the rubble as it fell, Titans would soon be pouring through the breach and he hadn’t a second to lose.

“Scouts!” Erwin shouted, cutting through the chaos, “I want a perimeter formed at the edge of town now! Garrison and Trainees rescue any civilians you see and get them as far away from the gate as possible.”

Everybody sprung into action, some still keeping their eyes on the billow of black and white steam that was going over the top of the wall. Everybody was waiting for the colossal Titan to appear again, but just like last time, it seemed to have disappeared in a flash.

Then the first of the Titans emerged through the breach.

White and black smoke hung low over Trost, obscuring two-quarters of Trost, only for a Scout or somebody else to cut through the smog. Flying through the sky propelled with their ODM gear.

Their greatest advantage was Trost itself. In the fields between Wall Rose and Maria, the Scouts often found themselves sitting ducks with limited options for grappling away with their ODM. In contrast, their Titan foes freely ran across the fields, moving with their twisted vigor.

Only in the giant forests, the hills, or the mountains were the scouts offered some respite.
But Trost was no plain, nor was it a field, or even a collection of hills and trees. Trost was a city, a city unevenly divided into four quarters and bisected by waterways that carried commerce all the way up from Mitras.

The scouts had split up into groups of three and formed kill zones, the first bait, the second the executor, and the third a lookout. The last was the most imperative mission, with how thickly the smoke the Titans had bled hung over the district sightlines became more and more unreliable.

For his part, Levi would have preferred to go out on his own, to kill as many Titans as possible right away, but Erwin prioritized slowing the Titans down while the rest evacuated as many civilians as possible. And even then, they still had no means of closing the breach making any all-out assault pointless.

Levi took a deep breath and steadied his swords.

Petra had just rounded the corner, a pair of two Titans behind her. Hange was out of sight, keeping a lookout through the haze of black and white smoke that blanketed Trost.
Levi steadied his swords at the lined-up Titans but as he readied to jump forward and slice through both of their napes in a single swipe.

But then Tewi broke through the black and white smog, cresting over the roof of a house, opposite Levi, positioned to take out the same two Titans he had his eyes set on.
Levi relaxed his stance and sheathed his flesh-paring blades.

Tewi smiled in the distance and then half-propelled by her ODM, shot forwards like a comet. Slicing through the napes of the two Titans as she bled a smokey black Aura.

She was fast, too fast for others to see clearly, but not for Levi. His eyes stayed trained on her the entire time, and then, when she landed on the roof in front of him, roof shingles exploded from her impact.

“Ha, this ODM stuff is pretty nice ya’know?” Tewi said, jumping from the crater she formed.
“-Although it’s still a bit exhausting if I exert myself too much.”

All she had ever shown before was her disappearing act, unnatural speed, speed, and charlatan tricks any street magician could do with sleight of hand. It wasn’t unsurprising this much was exhausting her if that was normally where she stood.

“Levi!” Petra exclaimed, swinging over to Levi as she realized what had just happened.

“Oh, who’s this!~” Tewi said, moving a step away from Levi and towards Petra’s direction as she swung over.

It didn’t take her long to arrive, landing on the other side of Tewi, warry but without swords drawn.

“Captain, who is this?” The second half of the question, ‘What was that’ goes unsaid.

“An annoying rabbit,” Levi said, eyeing the Youkai who stood behind him and Petra, “Now, what do you want, Tewi?”

“Oh, nothing, I’ve just been going around looking for Eren,” Tewi said nonchalantly as if she wasn’t troubled at all. Contrary to what she clearly thought.

“Then you passed him already, he’s either at the Garrison or the second line with the rest of the Gophers.”

Tewi chewed on that for a moment, kicking a roof tile down onto the street below before looking from Petra to Levi, and then, back to the smoke.

“Hmm, strange,” Tewi held a hand to her chin, ”Usually I have a pretty good sense of direction.”

That was underselling it severely, aside from someone with ludicrous abilities like Reimu, Tewi’s ability to navigate even through illusion, altered space, and obscurification was bar none. Only in this weakened state away from Gensokyo could someone beat her.

“Does the smoke normally pile up this much?”

Levi squirted, looking around at his smoke-clogged surroundings. His eyes passed over Tewi and the nervous Petra, “No.”

“I thought so,” Tewi hummed, as she followed Levi’s suit, scanning their surroundings, “Looks like someone else is attacking us then.”

It was then that Hange’s voice cut through the air, startling Petra.

“Shit! Levi!” She cried, flying through the smoke, trailing blood behind her, launching herself towards Levi until she shifted her direction mid-air. Landing next to Levi but with her back to him, swords drawn she kept her eyes on the smoke surrounding them.

Petra follows her queue, turning away from Levi in Tewi in a flash to cover another angle.
“Levi, they’ve got us surrounded.”

Levi nodded his head, and he and Tewi were already standing back to back. Petra, Levi, Tewi, and Hange formed a square atop the building’s roof as the black and white smoke that choked Trost began to clear.

Revealing the warped forms of Titans, old and young looking, misshapen and grotesque, some standing ten meters, a handful of others standing fifteen meters tall.

They were covered on every angle, the nearby Trainees dead, the scouts too far away, neither of them believed the Garrison would risk a supply run and neither of them wanted anybody to try.

The most prominent Titan, one a head taller than even the fifteen meters lolled its head forward, bowing to reveal a masked man standing atop its head.

There he was, garbed in purple and wearing a reflective mirror mask.

“Ah, well if it isn’t my friend, Tewi Inaba,” He announced, as clownish and grandiose as ever, mocking them both with his jovial tone.

“Haha,” Tewi laughed, “Looks like I was wrong, He is controlling the Titans.”

“Tch, shitty rabbit,” Levi said, standing with his back to Tewi and the man, a pair of ten-meter Titans in front of him.

Hange and Petra didn’t say anything, keeping their eyes focused on the Titans that were in their line of sight, ready to flee and fight at any moment.

Tewi didn’t follow up her statement with anything else either, letting the silence drag on as the Mirror Man looked at them all, waiting for them to say something, or make a move.

“It’s awfully rude to ignore people, don't you know?”

“Kill yourself you reflective bastard,” Levi snapped.

The masked man sighed theatrically as he stood atop the Titan’s head, “It really is a shame, even if you escape and survive here the future I see is an ineffable truth, after all…”

The Mirror Man trailed off, waving his hand in the air for dramatic effect.

“None may oppose the will of god.”

Now that was something Tewi could jump on.

“God, eh!~” Tewi exclaimed, smiling slyly. The tone is his voice, the emotion he was feeling, his act. It wasn’t Faith, despite his words he wasn’t doing this for a religious meaning, that meant, “You know the only people who don't believe in gods but do things for them are slaves and scum.”

Reimu came to mind, a shrine maiden, a shaman who served the gods. But in an entirely reciprocal manner, there was no faith in that girl, only a transaction of one thing for another.

The man stood there not responding as Tewi smiled at him, as smug as a cat.

“Tch, let’s get this over with,” Levi complained, sending a short glance to Hange and Petra.

“Very well,” The masked man obliged, ”if you don’t mind, I have other things to do.”

And with that said, the Masked Man disappeared in a puff of smoke, and the Titan charged.

Despite their efforts, it still wasn’t enough. Pillars of black and white smoke billowed through Trost, choking the streets and blocking sightlines, Titans were managing to fall through their cordon, fighting through the Scouts or being missed as more pressing targets were prioritized.
And so, slowly but surely the Scouts were being pushed back, not only due to the Titans, but due to their supplies.

Nobody had stocked up for a long mission and everybody needed more gas and blades.

That was where the second line of defense came in; some were Scouts, but they were mostly Garrison and Trainees. A hodgepodge of soldiers set up irregularly across Trost and trusted with killing the Titans that broke through the first line and ferrying supplies to the front.

This was where Eren and Armin had ended up, although Eren would have preferred to be on the front lines. The Titans were simply far too drawn to him, luckily, that made him excellent bait.
Eren swung from grapple to grapple as a ten-meter Titan staggered after him, grasping in the air with too small baby-like hands as he led it away from the direction of the civilians.

Then he rounded a corner, taking as wide a turn as possible into the dead-end lane filled with black and white smoke from the corpses of Titans that littered its length.

Eren curled into a ball retracting his grapples as he flung himself towards the end of the lane, cutting a path through the thick smoke before he landed a roof, creating a small crater as he landed, facing the Titan as it trundled after him.

For its part, the Titan followed him around the corner, only to stagger back as Eren swung his swords and launched a Danmaku bullet that slammed into its eyeball with a meaty red thump, sending the Titan stumbling back.

But Armin followed up, running along the rooftops and launching himself as he drew a pair of nearly worn-out blades from his scabbard and sliced through the Titan’s nape before landing to its right atop the roof of a building.

The Titan gasped as it died, falling to its right with its head landing near where Armin had landed.

Eren was quick to return, repeating his trick of flinging his body like a bullet and his insane reaction speed and coordination to catch himself mid-flight, and sturdiness to shake off the hard landing as he cratered into another roof, opposite of Armin and with the now dead Titan’s head was laid in between them.

“The Scouts are, I think they have it handled for now Eren,” Armin huffed, clearly exhausted.

“Right…” Eren said, none the worse for wear as he looked across the soon-to-be-ruin of Trost, “Did you see where Mikasa went?”

“Yeah, she was with Ymir and Krista, they went back to help the civilians, apparently there’s some hold-up.”

Eren nodded, looking left then right, "Have you seen Annie?"

She was their lookout but strangely enough, hadn't shown herself. She was there earlier, but as Armin and Eren looked from building to build she was nowhere to be found. Armin hadn't noticed her leaving.

"You're right, let's go-"

“Greeting Eren Yaeger!” A voice called interrupted, cutting through the air and Eren’s thoughts, “And Armin Arlert as well, I believe this is the first time we’ve met, no?”

Eren and Armin immediately realized how close the voice was and snapped to attention.

Moments before there was open air above the sliced open nape of the dead titan now stood a man in a mirrored mask standing right between Eren in his dress shoes, well set and pressed into quickly dissolving flesh of the Titan.

“Thats-”

“The Mirror Man,” Eren finished narrowing his eyes as he clicked a button on his swords, dropping the blades to the ground before drawing a new pair of blades. The action was half-mock, he had no flesh-paring blades left in his sheaths, but nonetheless a new pair of blades formed on his swords. Not metal, but energy, glowing white and leaking black smoke.
“So aggressive, but I wouldn’t expect anything else from a devil like you.”

“What do you want?” Armin asked, following Eren’s lead and drawing his swords on the man who stood in front of them.

“What do I want? Well, that’s simple, I want to save the world!” The man exclaimed with a theatrical bow.

Neither Armin nor Eren moved, keeping their eyes trained on him and swords drawn. They clearly didn’t believe him and were either waiting for him to attack or flee.

“Ah so well~ I would make up an excuse, but I’ve already distracted you for long enough, isn’t that right my pet?”

Eren’s eyebrow arched and he entered a fighting stance, but Armin had no time to react as a hand came out of the smoke behind him.

“Armin!”

Even though his scream was too late, Armin reflexively shot out the grapples of his ODM gear, but before they could find purchase the Mirror Max exploded into a cloud of black smoke and shot a bullet, snapping the lines of Armin’s grapple.

Eren shot forward in his stead, sending a wave of power down his grapples as he launched forward, stabbing through the pitch-black smoke with a meaty squish and then a metal thunk as they embedded themselves into a roof.

The black smoke moved, barely avoiding the swipe of Eren’s glowing blades. But Eren moved forward nonetheless, shooting forward and pushing Armin out of the hand’s way.

Eren cut the air with his glowing blades, parting the smoke to reveal the visage of a new Titan. Elderly and bearded, its soulless eyes looking at the boys hungrily. Armin lay on the roof behind him, alive, but his ODM gear was broken.

“Dammit! If you’re going to have to get through me first if you think you’re going to hurt Armin!” Eren yelled, standing in front of his best friend, defiant in the face of the heartless gaze of the elderly-looking Titan.

Eren bled black smoke as he dashed forward and with a flash of his blades, sliced the Titan’s hand off.

“Did you forget about me?”

In a flash, Eren turned around, and once again the Mirror Man stood between him and Armin. But this time Eren had a wounded Titan behind him and in the Mirror Man’s hands were his own pair of blazing swords, leaking the same black essence.

Both of them released an aura of black smoke into the air, the Mirror Man’s notably bigger than Eren’s, and then they charged at one another. Blade meeting blade, as Eren's hardened gaze reflected back at him.

But the Mirror Man didn’t mean to fight Eren, even if he could win, that was not his place.

“Eren!”

The Mirror Man kicked Eren in the gut, sending him flying backward and into the other hand of the Titan.

He chuckled as the elderly Titan’s fingers constricted around Eren, squeezing him tight as the young trainee coughed up blood. Eren tried to move, tried to force the hands of the Titan open, but his blades were gone and he couldn’t muster the concentration to summon them back to him.

Every bone in his body and inch of tissue screamed out in pain as the Titan held him aloft. But Eren didn't stop his struggle even as the Titan’s cavernous maw opened beneath him.

Distantly, he could hear Armin’s screaming and the Mirror Man’s laughing as the Titan let go of him, allowing Eren to fall into its mouth. Only then did Eren regain some control, turning around as he fell so he faced towards the sky as the Titan’s maw closed on him.

Eren's world was consumed by darkness. And then, his world burned with light.

“Dammit, where’s Le-”

But Erwin reflexively shut his mouth before he could finish his sentence, drawing his swords and then grappling away, landing on another building.

“Sir!” A Scout called, seeing him flee.

Erwin looked left and right, the hairs on his arms standing on end. Everywhere the Titan were falling, mere minutes ago the Titans were on the offensive pushing the scouts back. But all so suddenly the city had become eerily quiet and the low hanging Titan smoke began to slowly part, revealing the destroyed buildings of Trost and the breached gate.

And scouts as well: the men and women who served under Erwin. Hanging onto buildings, standing on top of roofs, coming out of hiding spots as the smoke cleared.

One of the scouts grappled to his position, before tentatively asking him, “Sir? What’s going on?”

“Fall back,” Erwin said, speaking purely from his instinct as it screamed at him, “Something’s wrong, I think some of the Titans made it past us into the Middle District.”
Petra nodded urgently, shouting out his command to everyone else. It was the only thing Erwin could think of to explain his bad feeling, but as he and his Scouts turned back around to venture into the still smoke-clogged middle District, two lights exploded into existence.

One light from the Middle of Trost, and the other from beyond the breach in Trost.

Chapter Text

The black and white smoke formed into a billowing pillar, blocking much of the battle from sight as Titan after Titan fell, and the scouts were slowly pushed farther and farther back, inch by inch.

But as the Scouts, Garrison, and Trainees held their ground. The Civilians fled by foot, carriage, or barge. But a handful of recruits, Mikasa Ackerman, Krista Lenz, and Ymir, had noticed a commotion at the back gate of Trost.

A merchant had seen fit to block the gates with a massive wagon, loaded to the brim with goods, and the Garrison had been too distracted to take care of him, leaving the scene riotous as the man and his employees stood off with the crowd. But when the Trainees arrived, all it took was a cold glare and a threat from Mikasa, followed by Ymir kicking the man over when he got in her face, and thus the situation was resolved somewhat peacefully.

The two Trainees promptly zipping back up to the rooftops to join Krista. Who had been too befuddled at the situation to do anything.

Mikasa appraised the merchant coldly as he was pushed forward by the crowd.

“Buh-bur,” Krista struggled, looking dumbfounded at the entire scene as the merchant was pushed ahead at the front of the crowd, and then into the back gates of Trost, “Uh, how? Why?”
Mikasa raised her eyebrow, but Ymir spoke, “Dunno he was a piece of shit, what else is there to think about?”

“No- I mean,” Krista stuttered as her meek facade began fading, giving way to confusion and anger, “If, was stupid. If he was greedy, sure he would try to take as much as he can, but there are barges for that, and-and, you can’t be rich if you're dead. But if he was entirely selfish and only cared about his own life, wouldn’t abandoning nearly everything to escape be better?”
Krista paused her rant, taking a breath that allowed either Ymir or Mikasa to interrupt, only for them to stay silent.

“He took the only option that’d get him nothing!” Krista yelled, throwing her hands in the air.
In the distant smoke-filled streets of Trost, there was another boom, and another pillar of smoke as a Titan died.

Ymir chewed on what Krista while she looked to the gate of Trost, then back to Krista, then to the Garrison headquarters.

The smoke was still a ways away, the Garrison proudly standing tall at the center of Trost.
Mikasa thought about it for a moment, and then nodded, “You’re right, something was off about him.”

“Shit,” Ymir cursed, putting her head in her hands, “If you think something is off about someone, say something before they get away!”

Mikasa shrugged, much to Ymir’s annoyance.

“Whatever,” Ymir sighed, “It was probably nothing.”

“No,” Mikasa said, a sickening feeling rising in her stomach, “Something’s wrong.”
Ymir rolled her eyes, “So ya’ feel like-”

But was cut off as two explosions sounded in the distance, the three of them, and much of the crowd turned around, seeing two bright lights cutting through the low-hanging black and white steam.

Some cried, some prayed, and most did so while running or speeding up trying to escape through the gate, but some stood stock still in shock, muttering to themselves. Even the three scours weren’t immune to the shock, as Mikasa muttered a name.

“Eren…”

Time seemed to slow as despair gripped Armin as Eren fell into the mouth of the Titan. They were supposed to save the world, exterminate all of the Titans, and save the day. And they were, or at least they were playing their part, only for the Mirror Man to come out of nowhere and steal Eren’s life away.

Armin’s vision filled with hatred at the sight of the Mirror Man.

The man was gazing down into the mouth of the Titan as he stood on thin air, smiling behind his mask.

But before the Mirror Man or the Titan could turn their gazes towards Armin, or Armin could charge at them with his swords for a final stand, the world was consumed by light as the Titan's head exploded into a mass of heat, sand, and black particles.

Reflexively Armin grabbed onto the roof, dropping his swords, and closing his eyes shut as the blast went off, clinging to dear life as the force of the explosion almost flung him off of the roof.
Clenching his teeth as he blinked away the light from his eyes, Armin’s anger evaporated into shock as the streets and roof around him were full of a brand new billow of black and white smoke.

Only the Mirror Man remained unobscured as the smoke unnaturally parted around him. His anger and resolve to return, Armin picked up his sole sword which had remained on the rood and locked eyes with the Mask of the Mirror Man.

“You’re in no shape to be fighting Mister Arlert, how about you take a rest while your friend takes care of the rest?”

Armin didn’t question what the man meant, as he tried to figure out if he had a way to hit the man while he stood in mid-air.

But before he could finish coming up with a plan, a hand exploded out of the smoke around the Mirror Man and grabbed him. Armin’s eyes widened again, as the han constricted around the Mirror Man, the man laughed as they squeezed, spurts of blood and black smoke rising from him.

The rest of the smoke was clearing now, behind the Mirror Man was a fifteen-meter lipless Titan with a mess of black hair identical to Eren’s.

Armin reared back as in tandem the Titan roared and the Mirror Man laughed.

Then, the black-haired Titan reared back his hand and then threw the Mirror Man. Launching him like a cannonball through the air and to the opposite side of the street where he hit the ground and exploded into a mass of black smoke and red meat, sending paving stones flying into the nearby houses.

Armin blinked, and the Titan roared again, keeping its eyes focused on where the Mirror Man landed.

“Oh, ho, dangerous aren’t we devil?” The man said, his unnaturally calm voice somehow carrying across the street as he stepped out of the crater, black smoke billowing off of him as he bled and clutched a shattered arm.

“I see my little intrusion has paid off, but-”

But the Titan wasn’t going to listen to the Mirror Man. Charging across the street as it roared, the Mirror man dissipated into a cloud of smoke and sped away, escaping as the black-haired Titan’s fist slammed into the crater, sending even more rocks flying.

“You have something more important to look after, don’t you Eren?”

The Mirror Man’s voice carried, echoing across the almost barren and destroyed street as the Titan stood there, looking back and forth, trying to find where the Mirror Man had fled, only to find more pillars of smoke and fog blocking its line of sight.

The black-haired Titan walked back to Eren, almost clumsily as the rage left it. Like it wasn’t used to walking, but Armin didn’t feel afraid, just stunned as he stared at the Titan which the man had addressed as Eren.

As it returned to him, its feet thundering against the street, Armin spoke as he looked up into the eyes of the fifteen-meter Titan.

“E-Eren?”

“Arh-meh!” Eren said, trying to speak without any lips as he gave Armin a thumbs up.

“What? H-how, i-” Armin began stuttering, “A lot of crazy things have happened, but I guess we know what your father was doing.”

Eren nodded his head, Looking concerned for a second, his gaze hardening. Before he shrugged, the expression was comical coming from a fifteen-meter, lipless titan.

Armin laughed, “Yeah I guess we have more important things going on right now, can you-”
He didn’t have to finish as Eren picked him up and deposited him on his shoulder.

“Woah,” Armin said, finding his footing as the vertigo hit him, “Alright, let’s, let’s get back to the Garrison and try not to get killed.”

Eren nodded to Armin, before walking down the street his footsteps thundering, “Hey, do you know if this is permanent, can you turn back?” Armin asked, looking at his friend.

Eren tilted his head from side to side, “Dohnt wanna thry right now.”

“Well it looks like you're adapting well at least, hopefully, Tewi can fix this.”

Eren nodded again, as he pushed through the smoke, the dead bodies of Titans piling up alongside dead scouts as the streets cloaked in smoke began to descend into more and more chaos, the distant sound of battles all around raging.

Coming to an intersection, Eren tried something. First, gathering power like he did to throw a Danamku bullet, but beating the air with the flat hand of hand. Promptly sending a shockwave down all four lanes of the intersection.

As the smoke was pushed back, three Titans were revealed. Two ten meters, waddling down a street with a fifteen meter farther ahead of them.

The Titans didn’t waste a second, the two smaller ones nimbly turning on their heels as they sensed Eren.

Eren stomped forward, causing Armin to cling Together, and then punted one of the Titans. Sending his foot through its head, eviscerating its skull and nape before the force sent it flying into a nearby building.

The other jumped at him, only to find itself stomped into the street below, crushing its skull.
Armin tried to regain his shaky balance as Eren stomped down, but as he did that, the fifteen-meter Titan farther down collapsed as two forms came out of the smoke to slice out its nape. It only took Armin a glance to recognize Sasha and Connie.

Sasha and Connie each land on a different building ready to attack Eren without a second thought. But before the two scouts could launch themselves at Eren, they froze, seeing Armin on his shoulder.

“Sasha! Connie, Don’t” Armin yelled from his perch, hanging onto Eren for dear life, “This is Eren!”

The Titan himself, Eren, nodded his head and gave the two scouts a thumbs up as he stopped stomping the ten-meter titan into the street. Its entire body has been thoroughly pulverized.
Armin nodded with Eren, holding out his thumb as well. And Eren felt a twinge of annoyance at the fact he couldn’t talk.

“I-’ Sashe stuttered in shock, Connie just laughed.

“He turned into a Titan when one ate him,” Armin said, not waiting for them to catch up, “We’re gonna go back to the Garrison, somethings going wrong and my gear is wrecked!”

It was then another grapple, Marco the third member of Connie and Sasha’s team, his shot cutting through the smoke as he arrived on the scene and nodded to Armin, apparently having heard what he said…

“Sasha, Connie, The smoke is hanging pretty low, we should go back,” Marco said, appearing out of the smoke, “And for what it’s worth I trust Eren and Armin’s judgment on this, if they say something’s wrong then we have more important things going on.”

The two Scouts nodded, to Marco, before he turned his head back to Armin and the fifteen-meter titan that of Eren.

“Right, we saw two lights, explosions I think, flare in the distance. One of them seemed to have come from the front gate, while the other came from your direction. Do either of you know anything about that?”

Eren tilted his head, but Armin spoke for both of them.

“A second light? The one over here was Eren when he transformed-”

Marco nodded along with Armin.

“But if there was a second light that might mean there’s another human Titan loose!” The two said in unison.

Eren has turned his gaze towards the entrance of Trost, looking intently as if he could pierce through the supernaturally dense smoke through sheer force of will.

“Shit, it’s the armored Titan, it has to be,” Connie said, speaking what everybody was thinking.
“If that’s the case, we’ll have to get to the rear gate as fast as possible Eren here is our only chance, right Armin?” Marco asked, looking at him.

“Right.”

“Grphm, ahbandon,” Eren choked out from his lipless mouth, still looking towards the front of Trost.

“I-” Marco bit down on his anger and the anxiety from arguing with a fifteen-meter titan, “Dammit, I don’t like abandoning them but we need to move, the front line is already collapsing and we need to warn the Garrison about what those explosions meant.”

Tewi kicked off a Titan’s face, sending it stumbling back so Hange could flash across the street, cutting out its nape.

As she flew through the air she shot her grapples into the building behind her, changing her direction in time to avoid the lunging swipe of a fifteen-meter titan.

Shooting out a Danmaku bullet Tewi launched herself into the building she had grappled onto and sent the fifteen-meter toppling over onto the Titans behind it as it lost its balance, scolding hot blood gushing from its face.

Levi and Tewi landed next to each other in unison, with Petra and Hange fast behind, “Seems like my Danamku gets through their regeneration, pretty interim’ ain’t it.”

Tewi said smiling, as they burst out of a cloud of smoke. Leaving the densest and most obscured streets of Trost behind as they entered the middle district, the spire of the garrison was plainly visible among the houses now.

“Right, any hypothesis about that?”

“Yep,” Tewi said, grappling again, as the group flew off in formation, Hange saddling up next to Tewi, “The reason they heal so fast is the same reason none of you guys can hurt me, you’re only doing physical damage, but these guys are part spiritual.”

Tewi said as she and the Scouts continued to fly over Trost; Leaving the front lines as fast as they could and with Titans hot on their heels.

“Interesting, I’d love to take some notes on this when we get back. Could you volunteer for a-”
“Stay focused,” Levi said, as he and Petra grappled to where Tewi and Hange were.

As they flew over another building, quickly picking up speed. Levi pointed behind them to where they had carved a path through the smoke. Distantly they saw an abnormal ten-meter Titan pick up a five-meter and then wind up to throw.

“Go ahead of us,” Tewi said, motioning to Petra and Hange as she landed on a roof, Levi right beside her.

Levi and Tewi looked down the passage cleared through the smoke, staring down the abnormal ten-meter as it wound up to throw the five-meter. Not to mention the vague shapes of Titans emerging from the smoke as well.

“Have you noticed anything else, rabbit?” Levi asked, using the little time they had before the ten-meter’s thrown Titans would start arriving,

“Yep,” Tewu said, hopping into the air and dodging the five-meter Titan as it slammed into the roof from the smoke, throwing itself at her, “They don’t seem to be targeting you or Sasha as much-”

Tewi landed on the building’s chimney. Highlighting how the Titans weren't targeting Levi, allowing him to stand stock still on the roof as the Titans approached and the ten-meter picked up another five-meter in the distance.

“Petra attracts an even amount of attention-”

Tewi dodged, grappling off the chimney and next to Levi again as the second five-meter crashed through the chimney.

“-But man,” Tewi laughed, “They really seem to hate me.”

In the distance, the abnormal ten-meter roared and picked up another five-meter Titan.
“Guess Mister Mirror has it out for me!~”

The Titans in front of them had emerged from the smoke, climbing over on top of buildings, picking up more things to throw, or priming to launch themselves at Tewi. All the while trying to avoid Levi.

Levi snorted, before quickly grappling three times and severing the nape of an abnormal ten-meter sneaking up on them, “Tell me something that isn’t obvious.”

With that the two of them continued their flight, they had stalled the Titans long enough with their combined presence.

It went unspoken between them but both of them understood that they could continue fleeing safely as long as they stayed next to each other. The Titans weren’t smart or dexterous enough to safely attack Tewi while also avoiding Levi.

And they had already been forced to leave the front line behind, whatever was left of the second was also in flight. But if they didn’t make their stand then they would be leading the Titans back to the one area that was still safe and being evacuated.

Levi and Tewi quickly caught up with Hange and Petra, flying across the city and dodging the rubble and smaller Titans that were flung in their directions. The splatters of blood and smoke followed them as they fled to the Garrison in the distance.

“There, tunnel!” Tewi said, pointing to the entrance to one of the Garrisons' subterranean corridors sprawling beneath the middle city.

Quickly they all changed course, landing at the entrance to the tunnels. A tight alley the Titans would have a hard time squeezing into.

Hange was still bleeding, Petra was looking tired and worse for wear. Only Tewi and Levi could keep on fighting without assuredly dying.

“Hange, Petra, leave us,” He said, not even looking at them as he kept his eyes trained on the entrance to the alley.

“Okay, but promise me you’ll return,” Hange said, looking Tewi in the eye, “I still need a volunteer-”

Levi gave Hange a pointed glare, shutting the woman up.

“Do-do you have a plan?” Petra stuttered, looking back and forth between the entrance to the tunnel and Levi.

“Yep, I got a plan,” Tewi said, flinging a large Danamku bullet at a Titan reared the corner to the alley. The bullet slams into the Titan’s face and launches it back into two others.
Petra and Hange didn’t need to hear anymore and started their descent running down into the tunnel as another Titan rounded the corner.

Levi and Tewi made another quick escape, as the Titan lunged at them. Drawing the attention of the Titans away from the tunnels as Tewi launches a Danmaku bullet into the air above a nearby town square and statue.

Then when the Danmaku bullet reached its Zenith, it exploded into a black cloud. Drawing even more Titans, Another Titan hurled itself at them sloppily the throwing abnormal missed them again and another five-meter became a mess of hot red blood sprawling across the pavement.
She and Levi flew across the rooftops until they landed in the town square, grappling onto the statue of the king that formed its center.

Standing atop the statue of the king in the middle of the square, Tewi began talking again.
“This is gonna take a lot out of me, I’ll probably be dead weight, or near it afterwards, so I’m going to need to grab me when it’s over okay.”

Levi didn’t answer, simply putting his swords away as he eyed the Titans. They were closer, creeping closer, still but apparently not close enough.

“Besides, you or Hange’s arms are probably the safest places for me and Petra right now, just don’t get any ideas, I’m a married woman you know,”

“Ugh,” Levi grunted in disgust, at Tewi’s anxious rambling, “As if I’d ever do anything with an animal like you.”

“Ha!” Tewi laughed, “You really are great, you remind me a bit of Okina when she’s being especially bitchy, I swear just because she wasn’t the main wife-”

Levi tuned Tewi's exposition out. More Titans were coming, stepping into the square, crawling over buildings. Somewhere even casting their gaze towards the Garrison or looking around for other prey. It was now or never.

“Do it already rabbit,” Levi said, urgently.

“Sorry, sorry, you know how us old people are,” Tewi smiled, cupped her hands together to form a sphere, and spoke.

The low-hanging smoke became thinner and thinner as they ventured towards the back of Trost, Armin on Eren’s shoulder, and the other three scouts grappling from roof to roof.

They had a few more close calls, but everybody, including those from the first line, seemed to be more focused on escaping the billow of smoke that had been clogging the streets of Trost.
When combined with a simple wave, vocalization, or thumb up for Eren, the others were more inclined to be confused and to keep their distance.

Although there were a few they eyed Eren hungrily and kept a bit too close of a watch. Eren had slowed down in order to not spook them, allowing Connie, Sasha, and Marco to go ahead of him while Armin stayed on his shoulder.

But even as they stalked forward, the smoke and the Titans kept creeping closer all the while the Armored Titan was nowhere in sight.

“Do you think he knows you’re here Eren?”

Eren shrugged, unable to respond and not sure. His senses had a hard time penetrating the thick cloud of smoke like the walls did. Tewi had said that things in general got harder to sense the more the air was charged, especially over long distances.

If he concentrated he could still feel things closer to him, like Armin, the houses, and the Scouts, Garrison, and Trainees who were closest to him. But it was still an effort.

Although the Titan attacks had been slowing down, Eren hoped that it meant they had worked their way through the majority of them and only stragglers were left.

And that was when a third explosion sounded, Armin hunkered down on Eren’s shoulder and the various Scouts, Trainees, and Garrison grappled to safe space, hiding behind chimneys, or flat against roofs as a wave of pressure spread across the entire district.

As Eren opened his eyes, he saw it. Hanging in the air to the west of Eren was a massive white sphere, bleeding black smoke.

Eren recognized what it was immediately, “Tewh!” He said, through lipless teeth.

The encroaching smoke had been blasted back, revealing the dead bodies of Titans littering the streets of Trost. But Eren didn’t seem to notice, instead breaking out into a scrambling sprint, trying to find the fastest way through the streets of Trost to the white sphere.

“E-Eren, slow down!” Armin protested from his perch, having to grab onto Eren’s black mop of hair to stay on.

Eren charged to where the Sphere was hanging in no time. Beneath it was a town square, centered on a statue of the king, but every inch of it, every stone cobble, house, or storefront, was covered in steaming hot blood that released more black and white smoke into the air.
Quickly filling up what the third explosion had cleared.

Then as Eren approached the white sphere, the sound of footsteps reverberated across Trost again. Not human footsteps, but the meaty and thundering footsteps of Titans.

Five, Ten, Fifteen meters tall, crawled out from behind buildings and worked their way from where the smoke had been pushed back to. But something was off about them, they were mained; missing eyes, arms, and fingers while some were skinless. All of them were cloaked in more of that black-and-white smoke, quickly causing the smog from earlier to reform.

Armin made a note of how it was strange the Titans weren’t healing. But before he could say anything Eren grabbed him.

“Wo-ah, Eren!” He protested as he was lifted into the air and deposited on the roof of a building.
Eren stretched his neck back and forth before entering a fighting pose and squaring off against the Titans as they crept toward him. Only making a small note of the Scouts and others who were quickly zipping to his location, propelled forward by their ODM gear.

Eren let out a puff of pitch-black smoke from his mouth, then charged forward. Shattering the face of the first Titan in front of him into a pulp.

Eren made quick work of them. Headbutting them to cave their skulls in, punching some clean through, throwing smaller Titans at bigger ones, kicks which sent Titans reeling back and falling onto other Titans or into buildings tearing one Titan’s head off only to beat another to death with it, stomping the smaller ones.

Armin took a step back at the brutality, holding his hand in front of his mouth before noticing how the Titans died without their napes having to be cut.

Slowly the Titans were making progress, biting into his skin whenever raw numbers began to overwhelm him. One in the distance has even taken to somewhat effectively throwing smaller Titans at him, although Eren dogged or swatted most of the thrown Titans out of the air.

It became even easier when the Scouts arrived, flying in to sever the neck of the outlying Titans.
Eren looked back and forth, the area was only getting clogged with more smoke as the Titans dissolved on the ground, forming another layer of bile and steaming hot blood.

Then, as Eren huffed, standing above the dead bodies of the Titans. The White sphere floating in the sky popped like a soap bubble.

Two figures fell from where the bubble had been, one Eren instantly recognized as Tewi, and the other was a short, black-haired scout he didn’t recognize. Before the other one could change course and grapple to pick Tewi up, Eren had already caught her in his hands.

As the smoke began fading, Eren clutched Tewi’s body close to his chest. She wasn’t bleeding and didn’t look hurt, but she didn’t respond.

The dead bodies of Titans surrounded them, and in the distance now they could see more dead, human and Titan alike.

The scout who fell with Tewi grappled onto Eren but he didn’t take notice.

As they all stood in silence, that was when Erwin emerged from the furthest reaches of the smoke and his voice boomed, “Fifteen Meter Abnormal! Right on our tail!”

One of the scouts was shot down, hit, and crushed to death by the body of another scout, thrown from somewhere inside the advancing billow of smoke.

Eren’s face contorted into a rage and he sent his feet into the ground again, ready to square off against whatever walked its way out of the smoke.

But as Eren saw the face of the human-turned-Titan, he rasped her name.

“Annie.”

Chapter Text

Eren blinked in shock, but Annie kept a steady pace as she approached.

Levi didn't wait for Eren to make a move. Grappling along the black-haired Titan to grab Tewi while Eren was distracted.

Eren tried to move to stop Levi, but humanity's strongest soldier was too fast, taking Tewi in his arms before Eren could react.

Erwin knew what he was doing and swung in Levi’s direction, holding one arm out.
“Oi, Erwin, take the rabbit!”

With that, Levi made a series of quick grapples around Eren with his ODM gear before firing Tewi into the air. She was promptly caught by Erwin, who continued past Eren and Levi as he and his injured scouts made their way to the Garrison with Tewi in hand.

“Idiot,” Levi said, landing atop the Titan’s head, “As if you can fight while trying to protect her.”

Both Eren and Annie were stunned by Levi’s sudden movements, but another voice was the one to break the silence.

“Ah, so cruel, so cruel. To throw such an animal through the air like a projectile~”

Everyone turned to the source of the voice. Atop Annie's shoulder stood a man dressed in purple magician’s attire and wearing a reflective mirror mask, “Ah! Eren, Levi my friends! How have you been!”

Eren’s face turned to a grimace as all his anger turned towards the Mirror Man.

Annie looked at the man out of the corner of her eye and growled.

“Ah~ Such a frosty reception, and I thought I had made friends of you all,” the man laughed and mocked, taking a step off of Annie’s shoulder to stand on thin air, “Oh, and Annie dear, you won’t have to worry, I’ll be helping with Levi, I wouldn’t want you to die with too little effort after all~”

As he said that a pair of blazing swords appeared in each of his hands, crackling with energy and smoking pitch blackness. But Levi noted they were Strangely identical in shape to the paring blades used by the Scouts.

Levi bit his lip. The Mirror Man held himself with the stature of someone who knew how to fight.

At a minimum, he had been through some sort of basic training, and he was athletic. Even if he tried to conceal it with his gaudy attire, the same type of physique the Scouts cultivated. But the problem was his mystical abilities, while Levi and the other scouts had to use their ODM gear, this man could fly as freely as he liked.

Annie let out a puff of black and white steam from her mouth as she moved her gaze from the man back to Eren.

Levi remembered that Tewi could do something similar but had been weakened, and now she was entirely out of the count.

“Since I’ve already given up on playing ‘fair,’ I suppose it’s time to hog wild~Hahaha.”

“Coward,” Levi said.

But the Mirror Man didn’t stop laughing even as Eren and Levi both stared him down.

Annie assumed a fighting stance and Eren answered in kind, the two of them locking eyed as they stood in the town square drenched in boiling blood and both wound like a spring, ready at any moment to jump at each other like savage beasts, power literally radiating from their bodies in the form of pitch-black and white-and-black smoke.

Then both Eren and Annie roared.

Levi disappeared in a flash of movement and the Mirror Man followed him. Grappled from roof to chimney, to statue to roof, and across the entire town square.

The Mirror Man obliged his game, disappearing in a haze of smoke as he wove the white and black tapestry that cloaked the battlefield, fueled by the searing spilled blood.

The two Titans charged at one another, each of them winding up for a punch and then releasing it simultaneously in a test of raw strength. But as their fists met in the air, Annie’s flashed and turned to crystal.

Eren bit down a scream as he felt every bone in his hand break on impact, cracks spreading across his hand and arms, blood and pitch-black smoke gushing from his wounds.

Eren stumbled back, almost catching himself before onto the buildings behind him, almost crushing them with the weight and force he had been sent flying back with.

But Annie didn’t relent and stalked towards her prey. Leaving back exposed, and quick as a whistle, Levi flashed back onto the scene. Launching himself towards the nape of the female Titan. Only Met in speed by the sudden appearance of the Mirror Man, solidifying from the smoke to meet Levi’s blades with his own.

Levi met the Mirror Man in mid-air, the masked man’s glowing blades meeting his as the two froze, standing in mid-air.

Levi met his scowling reflection, pushing his swords forward and the man back.
Still, they were locked in the air as Eren and Annie clashed.

Eren had gotten up fast enough to deliver a punch of his own to Annie’s gut, freezing the blonde Titan for a moment before she returned with a crystalized kick to Eren's jaw.

Eren stumbled back as his skull rattled, almost losing his balance as he held his head in his hands.

Annie didn’t waste her chance, grabbing him with both of her arms and lifting him above her head before throwing him back into and through the buildings he had just landed on moments ago.

As a wave of pressure passed through the air, the Mirror Man’s grip on his spectral swords intensified and he pushed them forward as they bled black smoke. Not only pushing Levi back but pressing into his swords, heating the metal of Levi’s flesh-paring blades and melting them.
Levi's legs shook as he felt his position become precarious, the thin air he was standing on somehow becoming uneven.

“Ah it’s so sad, to see your tools melt, before-”

Levi kicked the Mirror Man in the gut, causing him to cough behind his mask and his spectral swords to fizzle. Then with another kick, Levi sent himself and the Mirror Man flying away from each other, the Mirror Man disappearing into a cloud as Levi grappled to another position. Releasing his half-melted pairing blades from their handle and then drawing a new pair from his scabbard as he landed.

Annie turned from Eren as the boy still lay in his own crater, looking at the now-scarred statue of the king before grabbing its base with both hands and wrenching the statue from its pedestal, wielding it like a club.

Levi grappled again, quickly building momentum as she he traced around the edge of the town square looking for an opening or for the Mirror Man to reappear.

That was when his senses screamed at him and he dodged. Moved away from Annie and Eren as the Mirror Man landed where he was just moments ago in a puff of black smoke and a flash of blades.

‘A Faint?’ Levi thought. The Mirror Man hadn’t tried to kill him before, even apparently forbidding his Titans from attacking him. Did he know Levi would dodge?

But that didn’t matter and with a flash of his grapples, cutting through the man's smokey form, Levi launched himself forward, again the flesh-paring blade cut through the Mirror Man like butter, no less than that, like cutting through air. There was no resistance.

Levi smiled and then kicked down, black lightning sparking from where his boot met the man’s head, sending it flying into the roof tile below. Levi didn’t know why, but for some reason, the Mirror Man was only affected by his unarmed attacks.

Eren regained his senses by the time Annie was standing over him, statue in hand, raised over her head.

Eren rolled, knocking Annie’s legs out from under her and he moved across the blood-splattered ground and then struggled to get back to his footing, looking right and left to see if there was something he could use as a weapon before spotting the statue.

Levi moved towards Annie, but Just as he expected, The Mirror Man reformed again, meeting Levi in mid-air. The Mirror Man’s burning blades flash back into existence. The man hadn’t killed him before and was likely sparring him for some reason, whatever reason there was Levi knew one thing.

The man would not actually use such a lethal weapon on him.

Refusing to swipe forward with his blades, Levi lunged forward, foot first. Levi could feel the man’s teeth clench behind his mouth as he was forced to grab the foot, but he didn’t have it in hand for long.

As soon as the Mirror Man grabbed Levi by the boot, Levi returned the favor. Smalling the but of his holsters into the man's head and then scrambling on top of him as they floated in mid-air. He only had so much momentum left and doing what he could, Levi kicked off the man. Sending the Mirror Man hurtling towards the ground and Levi shooting straight up into the air.

Levi could see Annie beginning to rise and knew he only had one shot. As Annie got up, Levi swung his flesh-paring blades and pressed the release handles.

As he fell, the Mirror Man tried to react, gathering power in his hand and then swiping out with his palm, firing a pitch-black bullet to intercept Levi’s blade. But as soon as the black, grainy bullet came into contact with the blade, it exploded harmlessly into a pitch-black smoke cloud.
Annie turned to the explosion in shock but screamed as the flesh-paring blade embedded itself into her eye, staggering back and dropping the statue.

Eren’s eyes widened as he saw the statue fall to the street, seeing an opportunity he lunged for it as Annie was reeling back. Trying to delicately remove the blade that had been stuck in her eye.

Finally, removing the sword from her eye, Annie looked back up in time to see Eren swinging the statue like a club.

Reflexively, Annie activated her hardening as the statue smashed against her face and broke into a million little pieces.

A wave of pressure spread out of the impact, shattering windows, clearing smoke, and launching blood through the air as spider-web cracks spread across Annie’s crystalized face. More blood and black-and-white smoke spilled from her mouth as she clutched her head, reeling from the attack as Eren advanced again.

Then as she was still trying to recover, her face turning back to flesh, Eren grabbed her by the shoulders, a black fire blazing behind his eyes.

Mikasa’s eyes widened as she saw the black-haired fifteen-meter Titan, “Eren.”

Simultaneously the black-haired Titan rammed his head into the face of the female Titan he was grappling with.

“What?” “Shit.” Krista and Ymir said simultaneously.

Both of the Titan’s heads sprung back, but Annie’s turned to crystal and before Eren could respond, she smashed her own skull into his, breaking their short tie.

Mikasa stepped toward Eren’s direction, but Ymir’s hand hit her on the chest as if to block her from moving forward.

Both Krista and Mikasa looked at Ymir in shock as she stepped ahead, “Oi, Mikasa, Krista, hang back, I’ll go.”

Mikasa blinked, as the blonde-haired Titan slugged Eren in the face but Krista spoke, “Huh! You can't seriously think of-”

“Just-just trust me, I know what I’m doing,” Ymir said continuing to walk towards the edge of the building.

Mikasa and Ymir met each other's gaze. Neither of them flinched, but a black fire blazed behind both of their eyes.

Ymir had been a good friend to her and Krista, but she was certain now that Ymir was hiding something then… But despite the black fire behind her eyes, Mikasa felt like she could trust Ymir, completely unlike the feelings she had toward Annie.

“Fine, come on Krista,” Mikasa made her decision, gesturing towards the other girl to follow her down into the building.

“Hey wait, I didn’t agree to this and how do you even know that’s Eren?”

The black-haired Titan broke from the blonde one’s grip, and roared into the air, something that sounded like, “EXTERMINATE,” followed by it screaming, “INSECT!”

“It’s obvious.” “I just do okay?” Mikasa and Ymir answered.

Krista didn’t move and even Mikasa seems interested in her now. Ymir pressed air in between her teeth and ran a hand through her hair, then she looked back to where the four figures were fighting. Eren had grabbed the blonde female Titan by the face and slammed his forehead into hers, their fight quickly dissolving into a slugging match.

She could feel Mikasa's gaze on the back of her skull, she had to move now.

“Look, the other one, blonde over there, is probably Annie. I’ll help him kick her ass and then we’ll question her, okay?”

“Annie…?” Krista asked, dumbfounded. Mikasa didn’t say anything, but she raised an eyebrow at Ymir’s statement.

Distantly the aforementioned blonde Titan hit back at Eren, kicking him before launching him across the plaza, landing on the opposite side with a crater and deafening thud. Mikasa’s trigger finger twitched.

“Yeah,” Ymir answered, not bothering to look back as she stepped off the ledge and engaged her ODM gear.

All the buildings around the garrison were significantly smaller, allowing someone even as average as Ymir to gain momentum.

Ymir disengaged both of her grapples, hurling herself towards the two Titans, then as she hurled through the air, one of Annie’s eyes zipped towards Ymir.

After that it was only two more grapples, keeping her momentum as the Mirror Man was distracted with Levi and Eren struggled with Annie.

Annie broke from her struggle with Eren and swiped in Ymir’s direction. Ymir’s course was too set and knowing she didn’t have enough time to change direction, she bit down on her hand, and an explosion of light enveloped her world.

Annie tried to pull her hand away, but it was too late, the explosion was expanding too fast.

Then Annie's world was engulfed in red as she realized what had now clawed onto the stumped arm of her Titan form. A disfigured runt of a Jaw Titan, with barely any strength to speak of, the childlike form of Marcel’s killer.

Annie tried to scream but Eren’s left hook promptly snuffed out the scream that rose in her Titan’s throat.

Staggering back, Annie began to lose her balance, simultaneously trying to fight off the small Titan form of Ymir as she climbed upon her body.

Levi was zipping toward the perimeter now, closing in on her, but the Mirror Man reappeared again, looking worse for wear as he spun around Annie. Met Ymir as the tiny Titan crawled onto Annie’s back, opening her jaw to bite down on her nape, only for a projectile from the Mirror man to catch her in the face and Annie’s one remaining arm to seize her by the head.

But Annie was still spinning and as she spun around, she finally lost her balance and fell back first through the buildings that surrounded the town square. Turning the shops and home she landed on into a wreck with an explosion.

But Annie didn’t care, she was Laughing madly as she hoisted Ymir in front of her with a crystalized hand, the smaller Titan desperately scrabbling to break free.

Then as Annie lay on the floor, holding Ymir in her remaining arm, Eren’s foot descended. Punching more than kicking, Eren forced his entire weight downward through that one foot and into Annie’s gut, scaled red blood exploding outward as she screamed, and a crater was formed in her midsection.

But the hardening on Annie’s hand didn’t cease as she held Ymir aloft, squeezing even as her entire being was being consumed by Pain. Ymir’s frantically scratching and biting didn’t stop either, but then was when Eren took another step forward and onto Annie’s face.

Planting his foot against her face, Eren grabbed her arm with her hands, pushed down against her, and then pulled.

Levi looked down impassively as with a sickening squelch, Annie’s remaining arm was ripped from its socket. Even the Scouts and Trainees keeping their distance or hiding in the garrison could hear it.

Eren breathed heavily as he held Annie’s arm aloft, its crystallization fading as Ymir struggled from her grasp. But Eren ignored the smaller Titan, instead looking down at Annie’s squished face. The only thing he could see in her eyes was an unfathomable hatred.

Eren dropped the arm as Ymir launched herself from its grip, both of them landing on the wreck surrounding Eren and Annie. The Smaller Titan looked up to Eren, in something akin to embarrassment as she landed.

But neither of them had time to talk, as Levi arrived, zipping onto a nearby rooftop, and commanding, “Oi, turn her over, and I’ll cut out her nape.”

Eren looked to Levi and then back to the hate-filled eyes of Annie as she began to regenerate. Then, reluctantly Eren took his foot off the already regenerating Annie, and hoisted her torso up into the air, exposing her neck to Levi.

Simultaneously with that, Annie swallowed her hatred, closed her eyes, and consciousness left her.

His eyes widened, and Eren dropped Annie as he felt a surge of energy coming from her. As Annie fell to the ground, the heck and head of her Titan exploded, blinding everyone present.
As the light faded, everyone could now see that where the pulped head of Annie’s Titan once laid, was now a shining crystal, with Annie trapped inside.

“Tch,” Levi clicked his tongue against his teeth and grappled atop Annie’s crystal prison.
Levi swiped his blades against the crystal, sending a deafening sound to reverberate throughout the emptied courtyard as they shattered.

Levi seethed at the ruined pair of flesh-paring blades, before turning back to Eren and Ymir who stood above him, “Where’s the masked freak?”

Eren and Ymir looked right and left as the smoke cleared and the veil over Trost was lifted. But the Mirror Man was nowhere to be seen, he had vanished entirely.

“We’re going back to the Garrison,” Levi said, getting up from where he sat, “And one of you, grab her,” Levi said, gesturing to the frozen trainee underneath him, before zipping away.
Neither Ymir nor Eren needed to hear it twice, and the three of them immediately started off.

Earlier, as the battle between Eren and Annie started.

Erwin and his remaining scours whipped through the skies carrying the unresponsive Tewi under one arm. Until he saw Armin's frantic waving.

Already having Tewi in one arm, Erwin gestured to one of his subordinates, and in a flash, Armin was picked up by a blonde-haired scout.

It was only a short while later, the group of five surviving and exhausted scouts found themselves on the ledge of the third story of the Garrison building. Before being promptly let through the windows by a group of scouts and Garrison soldiers inside.

“Armin!”

Someone called as the blonde-haired man deposited the aforementioned trainee onto the ground.

All around them the Garrison soldiers and Trainees from the 104th crowded. Marco, Sasha, Jean, Conniie, and many others asked questions to verify what they had been told by the people who had run into Armin and the Titanized Eren. Crowding the recently arrived Scouts and Armin who was still laying on the ground.

The only people that Armin couldn’t find were Mikasa, Ymir, and Krista.

In the distance, where the Titans were fighting, there was a large boom silencing the crowd.
“Excuse me,” Erwin said, calling everyone to attention, “I’d like to have a word with Mister Arlert here first.”

The gathered scouts and Trainees nodded, moving out of his way and returning to their previous spots, the newly arrived scouts found comfortable places to sit down, while Erwin hoisted Armin to his feet and then took him by the shoulder and moved off to the side of the room.

“Armin, right?”

“Y-yessir,” Armin said, running the two words together, as he still tried to get his bearing, “Sorry about all this, I-”

“It’s okay, nobody could have known this would happen, now, tell me about that cooperative Titan?” Erwin asked, gesturing to the black-haired fifteen-meter as it and the female blonde-haired clobbered each other.

“It’s Eren!” Sasha, interrupted, shooting up and raising her hand all at once, attracting the judging stares of everybody else in the room.

Nobody said anything for a moment, as Sasha wilted under everybody’s gaze.

“She’s right, I-” Armin gulped, as Erwin’s gaze returned to me, “uh, did you?”

“Don’t worry, Pixis briefed me beforehand,” Erwin said with a nod, before turning to the rest of the room, “And as for everyone else, you either didn’t hear anything, or you're joining the scouts, understood?”

Nobody in the room moved or nodded, not even Levi’s scouts who just seemed happy to be able to rest. But nobody left either, even Sasha who was still awkwardly standing up in the middle of the room.

“Good,” Erwin said, nodding, “Now, Armin, continue.”

“Okay, we were attacked by the Masked Man that Tewi mentioned, he dropped Eren into a Titan, causing him to transform. And after that, we headed over here once we noticed something was happening.”

“Good, now,” Erwin said, hoisting Tewi in his direction, “Now, hold this,” as he said that he turned around, not allowing Armin to reject his offer as Tewi was dumped into his arms.

“Everyone else stay here, I’ll see if I can get a runner to go for Pixis, and Scouts, refill your gear.”

And with that, Erwin was gone, leaving the room on his self-appointed mission.

Awkwardly, Armin found himself a crate to sit on and then lay Tewi across his lap. The small woman curled up and emitted a yawn as he did so, then with a small puff of black smoke and a poof, Tewi’s form changed unconsciously, and laying in Armin’s lap was a large rabbit, or a hare, or possibly a bunny, it was hard for anybody there to tell.

Armin blinked, not expecting the woman who had been left with him to suddenly turn into a rabbit.

Everybody else in the room blinked as well, even more confused. Not knowing that Tewi was a rabbit in the first place.

“Uh,” Armin hesitated, holding one hand in the air while the other supported him. Entirely unsure of what to do now, completely overtaken by the human desire to not wake up an animal that was sleeping on top of him. But after a second more hesitation, Armin reached toward Tewi’s head with his empty hand and petted her softly.

Everybody else continued to look on in shock, utterly befuddled by what happened.
“Pefhahhahah,” Connie laughed.

“I’ll, I’ll try to explain everything else later, okay guys?” Armin said, sheepishly.
Nobody wanted to argue with that, everybody was far too exhausted, either from cowering in terror all day or due to actually fighting.

Besides, there were more important things to pay attention to, such as Eren’s fight against the blonde Titan.

Outside the window the two Titans battered each other, going blow for blow. But the blonde Titan held the advantage, winning in a contest of strength as it hardened its limbs and gradually beat Eren much to the wincing horror of everybody inside the room who cheered for Eren nonetheless. That was when a figure launched itself from the top of the Garrison building, entering the line of sight of the rapt audience as they threw themselves as the blonde Titan.
“Who’s that?” Somebody asked, but nobody answered.

But then a smaller explosion burst onto the scene blinding the cadets and cutting off anything they could say. When their vision returned and much to their surprise, a third Titan entered the scene. Brown-haired and small, looking almost exactly like a mindless Titan as it grappled with the blond one, the now three Titans disappeared into the smoke, battling as Levi and the other figure zipped around the perimeter.

But eventually, the sound of fighting died down and everybody held their breath, waiting for the sound of the clash to start again or for the figure of a Titan to rise, victorious.

The first sign that fighting ended was the calmness in the air, followed by Levi zipping out of the now quickly dispersing smoke. They could see Eren’s Titan form as the smoke parted, worse for wear as he bled black smoke and boiling blood. The smaller Titan didn’t look too good either as hun to Eren’s shoulder and bled the same black-and-white smoke as the mindless Titans.
The only thing out of place was the large object Eren held in one hand as he stumbled to the garrison.

“Looks like things are calming down there,” Connie said as he gazed out of the window.
“Yeah, but what’s that thing Eren has in his-”

That was when a melodious and echoing voice intruded on them, “Pardon, my intrusion boys, and girls.”

But as the man spoke, no one turned to him. Even as he fully entered the room, leaving a creaking half-open door in his wake nobody turned to see him as he shimmed in between people holding conversation, their eyes glazing over as he passed them by.

“Ha, I do love having power over the mind, even if it's rather limited,” the man thought out loud, ignoring everyone as he stepped forward.

Then, standing next to Armin the Mirror man materialized a glowing sword in hand and spoke as he looked at Tewi laying in the boy’s lap.

“I would say it is a shame. You have been nice to Eren, But you really are an annoyance that must be deal-”

Everyone turned as the half-open door swung into the wall, hitting with a deafening band. Even the Mirror Man turned as he held his sword aloft, but his face barely had time to pale as Mikasa's fist impacted his mask.

Everyone snapped out of their daze as the man was sent flying across the room, first from Mikasa and then to the man, as he held his half-shattered mask as he stood in front of the closed window.

Krista entered the room after Mikasa. Running close behind and holding her swords at the ready.

The man’s mask had almost shattered at Mikasa’s blow, a spiderweb of cracks having spread across its surface. Wisps of pitch-black smoke and blood trickled from his mask as he resummoned the blazing sword.

The room of trainees unsheathed their swords or went for the nearest object to grab. The man stood there, clutching his mask with one hand and holding a blazing sword in the other.

But before anybody could move, the window behind the Mirror Man burst open.

The Mirror Man spun around in a flash, but the blazing sword in his hand turned to embers as he saw Levi's fist heading towards his face. The man rolled with the second punch, his cape fluttering through the air, as everyone else charged.

A pair of lights flashed in the man's hands as his swords returned to him.

The wave of Trainees and Scouts backed off, some just barely avoiding an attack. Then the room became quiet, none of the Recruits, Garrison, or Scouts wanted to get in Levi and Mikasa’s way.

As he shakily stood, barely managing to hold a sword in each hand, more pieces of his mask fell off, revealing a maddened bloodshot eye behind the mask.

On one side of the room Mikasa squared off and on the other, Levi, tired, but still fighting, assumed a similar stance. The Mirror Man immediately discounted the Trainees and the sleeping Tewi as a threat, but he could feel and hear Eren and Ymir right about to arrive.

“Ha, ha, I guess I got too greedy, didn’t I?” The masked man laughed, more shards falling from his mask.

“Shut it bastard,” both snapped back simultaneously.

The Mirror Man laughed, and then all three lunged.

The man tried to avoid Levi and Mikasa, dropping the swords from his hands as he reached out and dissipated into a cloud of fast-moving smoke. The closest Trainee was Jean, and that was where the Mirror Man was headed.

Mikasa and Levi's fists hit the smoke, forcing the Mirror Man into solidifying as they punched him in the gut and side. But they failed to stop him, and the Mirror Man touched Jean’s face.
And with that, he disappeared in a puff of smoke, and Jean collapsed to the ground, losing consciousness.

Levi and Mikasa barely avoided hitting each other, both using their ODM gear to grapple onto the floor and then land.

Everybody turned to Jean as he collapsed on the floor.

“Someone, tie him up, and if he wakes up make sure he is who he says he is,” Levi commanded, before taking a deep breath and turning around to see Eren crouched down to the window.

Outside the building as gently as he could, Eren propped up Annie's crystal against one of the Garrison windows; Before looking inside with Ymir still clinging onto his shoulder.

Levi looked at the two Titans and commanded, “Oi, you two idiots, stop being Titans.”

Ymir nodded, curling up on Eren’s shoulder and planting her claws into him, much to his displeasure. Then a pillar of smoke exited the Titan’s nape, and Ymir had returned, grappling from her Titan’s neck and then through the broken window.

Nobody said anything as they looked at her, and the marks beneath her eyes. But Mikasa nodded and Krista shook in place. For his part, Levi raised his eyebrow and then looked from Ymir to Eren, expecting the larger Titan to follow suit.

Ymir followed his gaze, looking at the confused Eren Titan.

“Oh right, this is your first time, right? Just-” Ymir shut up, as Mikasa stared bored into the back of her skull, “Sorry for the choice of words, just… I dunno, feel it, it’s kind of like when you’re holding in a shit you didn’t know that you were holding in, you just have to find it and let go.”
Eren blinked, staring at Ymir blankly.

“Right… That probably wasn’t much help either, how about-”

Levi didn’t bother to roll his eyes, grabbing a Trainee’s sword, engaging his ODM gear, grappling Eren, and then up to his neck in a flash.

The shocked Eren didn’t even have time to react as Levi cut through the fifteen-meter’s nape and plunged his hand in, grabbing Eren’s human body by its neck before yanking him out and switching his hold.

“There, He’s out,” Levi declared, zipping back into the room while holding Eren like a wet cat.
Eren yelped as he was dumped onto the floor, but Levi didn’t care, resuming his command regardless.

“Now, first things first, I’m going to sleep. None of you are going to leave this room without my, Erwin’s, or Commander Pixis’ permission. And this room better be clean by the time I wake up, and don’t any of you get any ideas about waking me up early.”

Nobody, not even Eren or Ymit spoke as Levi seized a bag of sand and splayed out his coat like a blanket, before laying down on the floor and closing his eyes without another word to the befuddlement of everyone else in the room.

Armin looked left and looked right, “So uh, has anybody seen Reiner and Bertholdt.”

Levi unclipped a sword from his ODM gear and Armin narrowly avoided the remaining hilt as it was thrown in his direction.

Eren, who was looking far from his best, stumbled over to Armin wordlessly and looked at the rabbit in his lap.

“Uh, here’s Tewi?” Armin said, offering the rabbit to Eren, who promptly took the rabbit and sat down on a crate beside Armin before promptly falling asleep

The thing was, nobody knew what to do with the giant crystal propped on the outside of the building or how they were going to clean up all of the mess without waking Levi.

Chapter Text

Eren tried to blink the light out of his eyes as awareness crept up, rousing him from his dreamless sleep. He could hear other people in the same room as him, murmurs, and a conversation. But he couldn’t process what they were saying; it was just noise to him.

He had the strangest dream; he and Annie were Titans. He didn’t like what happened next but-
“Ah, I see someone's finally awake~” Tewi’s voice cut in, sing-song, especially sweet, even by her standards. It reminded Eren of his mother.

Blinking again, the room came into focus. It looked like a storage room, filled with crates, and too many people to count. On the exterior wall, there were large windows, and inside there were But right in front of him, smiling as always, was Tewi.

“Tewi? Where-”

“Don’t worry, it’s only been an hour. I’ve already been filled in about what happened, same for these guys,” Tewi said pointing a thumb over her shoulder to a group of people Eren couldn’t see clearly, “And I told them what we and Pixis talked about earlier.”

Eren nodded absent-mindedly, hearing what Tewi had said but not fully processing it.

That was when Eren realized there was something different about Tewi. Her rabbit ears were out, her eyes were an even more vivid red, and her dress was a pastel pink. She wasn’t disguised; why wasn’t she disguised? Eren felt a pang of panic, there were other people in the room.

Still, Groggy Eren turned his gaze away from her to what he realized were members of the Survey Corp and members of the 104th Trainees. Including the strangest of all, Jean, bound to a chair with an angry short man behind him.

“Hey! I thought you said I was clean, why am I still in the chair?!”

But that woke Eren up, “Huh?” He said, confused.

The room instantly came into focus. Armin, Mikasa, Marco, Connie, Sasha the potato girl, no Annie. And of course, Jean, still strapped to a chair.

Tewi chuckled, waving at the short man standing behind Jean. “I already gave him a once over, you can release him now, Levi.”

The small, serious man cut clean through Jean’s cloth bindings in a flash of metal, causing the recruit to scramble from the chair, cursing all the while.

Eren looked at the scene, confused, but before he could say anything, something caught his eye and he turned to face the window.

“Annie,” But Eren wasn’t listening to what Tewi was saying, instead his gaze was transfixed on Annie’s crystalline prison, “What-”

The thought hit him like a lead brick. That hadn’t been a dream, he had turned into a Titan and fought Annie, she had almost died, he had almost killed her and now she was-

Eren felt sick. Half of him wanted to hate her, she had killed scouts and worked towards killing everybody he knew. But the other half of him pitied her and felt sorry for himself.

It felt like losing Armin and Mikasa all over again.

“Yeah, I already took a look at her,” Tewi said, answering a question Eren didn’t ask, “It’s a self-sealing technique, she won’t age or need to eat while she’s in there. But there’s no way to get her out right now.”

Eren’s eyes winded, and he found himself clenching his fist and teeth. Although he didn’t know if he was angry or sad, he slowly started chuckling as his eyes refused to move away from Annie.
Then Armin spoke up, “It’s okay, Eren, you couldn’t have known she was a traitor.”

But the second he said that Armin realized that wasn't what Eren was worried about. All of his and Annie’s previous encounters flashed through his mind.

“I knew something was wrong. I was trying to help her, I should have-”

“No,” Tewi snapped, “It’s not your fault Eren, you’re not even an adult yet, you couldn’t have known what Annie was going through.”

Unconsciously Eren had placed Annie in the same category of friend that he placed Mikasa and Armin in. He had thought she was hurt and had been trying to help her. Even if he thought she was a bit suspicious or if something was going on with her, he never had the same doubts about her character Mikasa had.

But for her part, Mikasa felt vindicated, jealous, and guilty. Shuffling awkwardly on the spot, not knowing what to say.

“I should have tried harder, convinced you earlier to-”

Tewi hugged Eren, knocking the wind out of him before speaking again.

“You tried your best to help her and she’s still alive, that’s what matters right now. From now on, Annie I'll be my responsibility,” Tewi said, not giving anyone else the chance to speak, “I’m the only one here who can break her out of that seal.”

Stepping forward to place a hand on his shoulder, Armin said, “Eren, you tried your best, don’t blame yourself.”

Before joining the hug, with Mikasa close behind, enveloping Eren in the strongest hug of them all before saying, “This isn't your fault, none of this is.”

Eren nodded, he knew that was true. This was all the fault of the colossal Titans and the people like Annie who tried to break down the walls, but he couldn’t accept that. The only other remaining suspects were Reiner and Bertholdt, they didn’t seem like people who would enjoy mindless slaughter. But Eren thought the same thing about Annie.

“Thank you,” he said, looking at Tewi and his two closest friends as they embraced him, unsure of what else to say.

“Excuse me,” an elderly voice cut in, “But we still have several other matters to discuss.”

All at once, Eren, Armin, Tewi, and Mikasa separated from the hug. Although Mikasa and Tewi did so reluctantly, in contrast, Eren and Armin practically snapped to attention as they turned towards an area of the room occupied by a desk and turned into a makeshift office.

“Commander, Pixis sir!”

Behind the desk and sitting upon a crate flanked by Levi, Erwin, and Hange was the Dot Pixis, the Commander of South, smiling softly at the display of camaraderie.

“At ease, it's been a long day for all of us,” Pixis said, smiling, “but the battle isn't over yet, we still have somebody here to interrogate and a wall to plug up.”

That was when a familiar delinquent popped up from a corner of the room, “Oi, so if you’re all awake now, can we get this over with?”

Flanked by Krista and two scouts standing at attention was the second Titan shifter to reveal themselves today. Ymir, the brown-haired average scout who Tewi and Pixis had wanted to interview in the first place.

“Right,” Tewi said, nodding at Ymir and Pixis, before looking at Eren, “You ready for this?”

He had only gotten up a moment ago, but Eren nodded with a determined expression. Mikasa and Armin were at his side, and the other surviving members of the 104th shared his sentiment as they looked at the odd trainee out and Krista.

They all wanted to know the truth.

Eren, and then took a step forward and asked, “Ymir, what do you know about the outside world?”

It all started two thousand years ago with a girl named Ymir Fritz. According to some, she was a saint born of a virgin mother onto the earth as its rightful ruler, as ordained by God. Others called her a demon, or a servant of demons, who had made a pact with a being called The Devil of all Earth.

However it happened, Ymir was the first person to have the power of the Titans. But she only passed down one-third of her power to each of her daughters. In turn they passed down one third of the power they possessed to each of their children.

Creating the Nine Titans that now exist.

After that, the Eldian Empire ruled for countless years. Enslaving, murdering, and oppression countless people or ruling justly those who submitted and punishing those who disobeyed the will of god and resisted. It depends on who you ask.

But eventually, led by the hero Helos and with much subterfuge. The slave soldiers of the empire, the Marleans, revolted. Pitching Titan against Titans and driving the weak and foolish king to abandon his people.

During this war, seven of these Titans were captured by the Marleans, the Cart, Beast, Female, Armored, Jaw, Colossal, and Warhammer.

The Founding Titan which held a majority of Ymir’s power was kept by the royal family, and no account was made of the location of the Attack or Warhammer Titan.

The last king threatened that if his people were ever harmed. The walls would come crumbling down and trample the world flat underfoot in an event called The Rumbling.

Apparently that lasted for a long time, Marley would seek out and try to kill as many Eldians who remained in the outside world as possible. While the walls would stay in peace.

Marley discovered how to make mindless Titans.

Before that, the first of the Mindless Titans were made of Eldians who displeased the Kings of Eldia and were punished by their hellish state, or from those who would attempt to split the power of the Titans even further.

But somehow the Empire of Marley discovered a way to replicate this process by injecting a fluid into Eldians.

After that Marley stopped trying to kill all the Eldians and imprisoned them in internment camps instead. Gave them money if they had kids while keeping them prisoner and calling them devils.

Then I was born. I don’t know who my parents were, but I think I lived the first couple of years of my life being taken care of by older children who used me as a mudlark. I didn’t have a name and I didn’t need one, I was just another orphan mudlark.

But eventually, I was taken in by some crazy guy, he seemed convinced I was the reincarnation of Ymir. I didn’t know what that meant back then, but looking back on it now I don’t know why he did that.

I didn’t live in the internment zone, and I just looked like every other child…

Anyways, people liked me when I was Ymir. They took care of me, fed me, and taught me, so even as I learned more I didn’t correct them. They were happy as long as I played the part of Ymir and promised them one day we’d wipe Marley out and build a new world.

But we found out, I don’t want to talk about what happened after that. But I and everyone else were brought here to the island of Paradise and turned into Titans.

After that I was a mindless Titan for a long time, I don’t know how long. It was like a long nightmare where I couldn’t move, someone else was controlling my body. But eventually, I ate some kid who came too close and I became host to what would be, the Jaw Titan.

After that, I found my way inside the walls and joined the army since I had nothing better to do. I don’t know anything else and I wasn’t involved with whoever wants to bring down the walls.

“Paradise, huh?” Tewi said, rearing out how the word sounded, “I guess that makes you all Paradisians?”

Nobody spoke up but Erwin and Pixis exchanged a glance. Levi felt that there was something off with what she said as well but only narrowed his eyes, but ultimately Pixis spoke in, choosing to not contest what Tewi had said.

“I suppose we’ll have to swear new oaths then,” Pixis said, rubbing his chin, “We can't very well lie down if our enemy is ultimately human.”

“Excuse me,” Hange said, raising her hand, “I would like to hear more about these Titans, are there any other powers or caveats to their abilities. Additionally, how could such information about the outside world be hidden and how is this power passed down?”

“I don’t know exactly, but if I had to guess it’s the Founding Titan that can manipulate people's memories. Whenever I heard of it, people talked like it was a god. Or at least according to this guy’s memories,” Ymir said, tapping the back of her neck, “The Titans retain skills and memories from their previous hosts, that’s how I know so much. But as for how the power is passed down, I don’t know, the last host of the Jaw Titan might but I haven’t seen all his memories.”

Everyone in the room was still trying to process what she said, memory manipulation, god-like powers hidden within the walls, Human Titans passing down memories. Not to mention everything else she said.

“Oi,” Levi butt in, “What about that Mirror bastard? He’s the one who caused all of this.”

“He’s one-hundred percent a human turned Youkai, a strong one as well. Probably only recently turned, which is odd, Youkai don’t tend to be young and strong unless they have something else going on,” Tewi thought of Seija and her usage of what she dubbed ‘cheat items,’ that allowed her to keep up against stronger opponents. Although there were also human who had power and pre-planned their transformation to great effect, such as Yukari Yakumo. Although she could hardly be called a young Youkai these thousand years later after Tewi first met Maribel Hearn.

Although on the earth of the modern day, even being too weak to even become Youkai had started manifesting as ‘Urban Legends,’ but that was due to the conflict between the earth and the moon, not a natural occurrence.

“And as to why you and Mikasa could punch him, it’s probably due to you being modified humans, interacting with Youkai is just way easier for you two.”

Levi nodded, satisfied with her explanation. Backing down and propping himself back up against the wall.

But Hange was more curious, “So does that mean they can do the same magic tricks you and that man could?”

“Eventually,” Tewi said, ”But on such short notice, teaching Levi and Mikasa how to use spiritual power to coat weapons is probably enough.”

“Then we’re holding you to that rabbit,” Levi said, speaking for himself, Mikasa, and everyone else in the room. Going unsaid was that he didn’t want Tewi and Eren to hold the burden of dealing with the Masked man alone.

“But, back on topic,” Armin, “So by order of elimination, Eren has the Attack Titan?”
“Seems like it, other than that there’s the founding Titan which the king probably has,” Ymir said.
Eren nodded, not wanting to think about what that could imply. Tewi reached up to put a hand on his shoulder as the boy nodded, vacantly.

Levi clicked the ends of his swords together at those words and narrowed his eyes.

Pixis nodded, understanding what he meant. Tewi and Armin realized what it meant as well, if the King held the Founding Titan but hadn’t done anything to protect the walls that either meant he wasn’t willing, was cooperating, or was under the control of their mysterious enemies in Mitras.

Pixis sighed, hoping an internal conflict could be avoided, “So your assessment of their threat is?”

“The Founding is the strongest, it can manipulate people's memories and do a bunch of other crazy stuff. Followed by Colossus, Warhhammer, Armored, Jaw, Beast, then the Female and Attack Titan.”

“Dangerous?” Levi asked.

“I second that, not to be rude but your Titan form doesn’t seem notably dangerous compared to Eren’s or Annie’s with her crystals,” Hange said, trying to finish Levi’s question for him.

“I'm just a shit match, and the female Titan can't do that hardening thing normally. I think they probably experimented on her. Don’t know about what Reiner and Bertholdt have there, this guy isn’t open to sharing much with me,” Ymir said, once again tapping the back of her neck.

Some took it at face value, especially Tewi, she didn’t like it but people forcing their ideals onto their younger and using them like that was something she had both done and admonished people for doing. Speaking out now would only make her more of a hypocrite.

“Experiment?” Eren asked, Ymir’s words shocking him out of his stupor. The full implications of the Warriors and internment camps, only hitting Eren now, “So the Warriors, the Human Titans, they’re slaves.”

It wasn’t a question, it was a statement.

“Yeah,” Ymir agreed, “That’s what places like the internment camps are for, holding people's families hostage, shit like that. I didn’t see much of it during my life though, so you’re gonna have to wait on that.”

Pixis, Erwin, and Levi all shared a look. The Warriors being slaves or forced into doing what they were doing changed little. Ymir had already provided them with information, and if Tewi freed Annie, the only reason they had for keeping her alive was that Ymir had some gaps in her information. Such as how to pass down one of the Nine Titans to its next host.

But worryingly, Eren was already setting his mind to it, but his goal was beginning to shift from killing the Titans to saving them, all of them. Of course, between Tewi and Eren, only Tewi realized the possible rift in the goals between them and the military command.

Pixis closed his eyes and decided it didn’t matter right now. The immediate goal was saving Trost.

The old man stood up from his makeshift desk, “Ymir? Do you swear to act and judge people fairly, to protect all those who dwell on the Island of Paradise, those who live within the walls, and those who have sworn the same vow?”

Ymir grit her teeth, she could see what the old man was getting at, but she had already done this when she joined the military, she could do it again. “Yes.”

“Good,” Erwin said, “My scouts located a particularly large boulder that should serve as a good stop-gap measure for the gate.”

“I suppose we should go get that boulder then,” Tewi said, tugging at Eren's sleeve.
“I would like to take some measurements as well, Miss Inaba, and I still need to study Titans and the quality that allows people to transform into Titans.”

“Very well, Hange I trust you and Levi will be able to help them, and Erwin?” Pixis said turning to the man, “Help the Garrison with the remaining Titans they’ve corralled and keep Miss Ymir here under watch, I still have to go back to the rear to deal with the situation delivering back there.”

“Oh, and Miss Ymir,” He said, turning towards the girl, bowing. “Thank you for your service to humanity. While you stay in the care of the Garrison and Scouts I’d like you to write a more detailed report of everything you know about the outside world and this ‘Marley,’ enemy.”

Ymir rolled her eyes, but with that, the meeting came to a close. Eren, Tewi, Hange, Levi, and his squad all going to move the boulder and clear out any Titans in the way. While Erwin, Pixis and the 104th handle Trost, the civilian population, and deal with the remaining titans.

Of course, as soon as they left the room, the surviving 104th burst out into a mess of questions for Eren and Armin.

The trip to the boulder site was fast, especially with the remaining Titans corralled by the Garrison and Erwins group. Although Eren didn’t fully understand the scale of what he was undertaking until he saw the massive boulder.

The scouts set up on a roof overlooking it with Ymir while Eren waited on the ground. Unlike her, his Titan was too large and Tewi didn’t want him to take a risk trying to transform mid-air.

“So,” Hange started, notebook out, “Since you’re the more experienced one, how do you transform into a Titan?”

“You have to be hurt to transform, not to hurt through or your body will be too focused on healing,” Ymir answered as she raised a hand, “Watch me.”

With that said, she activated her ODM gear and flung herself towards the boulder, biting down on her hand.

Everybody assembled looked on as Ymir was engulfed in a blazing light before it was quickly snuffed out and the Jaw Titan landed on top of the boulder.

Levi held his swords at the ready as Hange documented what they had all seen while Tewi cast her senses outward and into Ymir, comparing what she saw now to what she had recorded about Ymir while Eren was asleep. As she did so, Tewi looked at her analysis of Eren side by side.

“Why self-harm?” Hange questioned, Looking to Tewi for an answer.

But instead of answering her question Tewi got an idea and ordered Eren.
“Eren, since You’re bonded more closely with your Titan try transforming without hurting yourself,” Tewi commanded, “Try to find its trigger, think about how you felt when you transformed and seize it.”

Eren nodded, closing his eyes as he sat on the street below. He could feel the sun against his skin, the wind brushing through the air, and even the silence of Trost had a texture, but all of that vanished as Eren cast his senses inward.

Indigent was the first emotion he felt, followed by emptiness, wholeness, and rage. There was something there, something that was Eren but wasn’t Eren, a part of him that hadn’t always been there. There wasn’t any ground, no air, no light to see, but it was there. A distinct thing that stood across from Eren in his mind,

The thing didn’t speak to Eren but he could feel it, inside of him, part of him. A burning rage, not even a personality, a single emotion, a single aspect. Eren felt anxiety flutter in his heart and the thing passed through his hands, he thought about Mikasa, Annie, his failure, Marley, and what Ymir had said.

He couldn’t grasp it, the thing, the trigger. As he traced his hands through it like sand, there was sand there he realized, but that didn’t matter he had to seize that.

Scrunching his brow, Eren remembered how he felt when his mother died, when those people he had met after Shiganshina only fought amongst themselves, how he felt knowing humanity was trapped inside the walls. He seized on that feeling and pulled.

With a roar and an explosion of blinding light there he was, standing across from Ymir, and in front of the building everybody had gathered in front of was Eren the Attack Titan.

“Great, guess Wonder Boy has one over on me,” Ymir complained, the scratchy voice of the Jaw Titan catching everyone off guard.

But now wasn’t the time for more small talk.

“Okay, Eren, Ymir!” Tewi yelled, getting both of their attention, “Try to change your forms like me.”

To demonstrate what she meant, Tewi shifted between four appearances. A human disguise, a rabbit, her default appearance of a human with rabbit-like features, and finally a humanoid rabbit. Before starting the cycle one more time.

“What?” Ymir questioned, tilting her head.

“This power, the stuff I’m made of, it reacts to human thoughts and beliefs, Half-Youkai like Eren can’t change their body since they still have flesh, but Eren’s Titan is entirely made of the same pitch-black material I am, he should be able to change its shape.”

Ymir looked as quizzical as a Titan could but closed her eyes anyway, straining for a moment before saying, “Can’t, not like you,” and opening her eyes.

Eren had marginally more success, black particles leaving his body, before turning into a cloud of black-smoke. Eren strained harder again, straining his form for a moment more before he suddenly opened his eyes.

“Sorry, Tewi,” he said, shaking his head. His body, still smoking black, “Can’t, hurts.”

Tewi felt annoyed at the lack of speech capabilities of the Youkai. But from there on, the tests on Eren and Ymir had been short, they had a boulder to move after all and it was just basic things. Measurements, Tewi cast her senses into the bodies of the two Titans to reaffirm things. Hange wrote down what Tewi reported and some basic diagnostic tests.

Then came the time to pick up the boulder. Eren bent down on his knees as he got a handle on it, before hoisting it over his head the immense weight of the boulder pushed his Titan down into the earth and causing cracks to spread across its surface as it tried to heal faster than the boulder damaged it.

Ymir couldn’t help with moving the boulder, but as a gaggle of Titans emerged from the breach she broke out into a sprint.

“Alright,” Levi said, unsheathing his swords, “Move out.”

With that Levi and his squad set off, leaving Hange and Tewi behind on the roof.

“Right,” Hange said, nodding her head, before turning to Tewi the second Levi was out of earshot, “Why do you think Ymir isn’t a Half-Youkai, both she and Annie had the same black-and-white smoke the mindless Titans had?”

Tewi had noticed it too, but didn’t want to bring it up with everybody else in the room, “That’s probably my fault, when I first found Eren, I found what in retrospect was probably the Attack Titan or whatever passes for its soul, changing his body so he could be its host. But when I observed Annie and Ymir, I noticed something, they had the same sort of curse-like being that Eren had, but unlike him, they hadn’t absorbed it into their body and became Half-Youkai and so, the poison continued to eat away at them.”

Hange thought on that for a moment, letting the silence linger before speaking again, “If the Jaw Titan is killing her, could you turn Ymir into a Half-Youkai as well?”

“It’s possible, but I’d need some help and I don’t want to go around creating more half-Youkai, that sort of thing can be dangerous. Although I could extract it,” Tewi said, eyeing Ymir as the girl jumped from rooftop to rooftop, “Isolate the trait then remove it, heal Ymir’s body of its poison, it would be just as hard as turning her into a Half-Youkai at this stage. But I don’t think she wants to fight this war.”

Hange nodded, ”But that might mean choosing someone to die or become a Half-Youkai if Eren doesn’t take it on. I know Levi went through something similar in the past, but how is it, Becoming a Youkai?”

“It’s way easier for animals like me to become Youkai, but it’s still pretty traumatic. Back where I came from, a couple centuries ago cats were raised and skinned for their pelts, which caused a huge surge in Cat-Youkai. Then that led to superstition about how you should kill cats that live too long, but that didn’t help the problem either. I only became a Youkai after living a long life and then choosing to end it for somebody else's sake, so I had it better than most in that I had a choice. But most Human-turned-Youkai don’t plan it out, and end up feral afterwards. There's a girl I know named Mokou who had something similar happen to her and she was reduced to a rampaging beast for decades.”

Of course that wasn’t even getting into the specifics of born half-humans like Reisen, Sanae, Keine, and Rinnosuke. All of which were their own special cases. But generally, you needed one of your parents to be a Youkai, and the other to preferably also be a Half-Youkai or a modified human for maximum compatibility.

Hange nodded solely as she looked out into the distance, squinting at Eren as he continued to trek towards the breach in Trost. Black smoke billowing up from his form to envelope the boulder.

In the distance Levi severed one of the approaching Titans' napes, across from him Ymir bit out the nape of a ten-meter before launching herself towards the fifteen-meter.

That wasn't the only thing Tewi was thinking about, she hadn't brought it up. But Ymir also had split loyalties like she and Eren had, not only that but Ymir had told a Youkai-like lie.

Deceiving people using only the truth. Tewi didn't know enough to figure out what the lie was, but her instinct told her that Ymir was a good person who wouldn't lie for no good reason.
“Maybe,” Tewi said, “Maybe, we’ll need to talk with Ymir and the rest about it first.”

Eren heaved as he stood before the massive stone, pitch-black smoke radiating off of him as his body quickly regenerated the stress from lifting such a massive object. Behind him Ymir seized the three-meter which had been running around, slinging it over her back.

Hange smiled as Levi and Ymir procured her sample. But Tewi’s mind was already elsewhere, she’d have to talk to Pixis and Erwin about their next step.

The masked man stumbled as he entered the PATHS, his shattered mask falling to the ground and leaving his face now bare and maskless. Behind him was the trunk of the massive tree that dominated the PATHS.

In the timeless realm, it only took him a second to see what had happened. Seeing everything that had taken place during the battle all at once.

“Dammit,” The man cursed, balling his hands into fists as he dropped his persona.
In the distance, a dower-faced girl dragged a pail of sand across the dunes.

“I’m sorry Ymir,” the man said, kneeling in the direction of the girl, ”Your dream will come one day, I assure you.”

Of course, Ymir didn’t answer. She was mute tongueless, and not paying attention to the odd stranger. But that didn’t stop somebody else from interrupting the Mirror Man’s moment.

“Ha!” the voice laughed, rough but feminine, cutting through the airless world of the PATHS, “This is what you get not accepting my help.”

Across from the Maskless man, in complete defiance of gravity, sitting upside down and suspended in mid-air was a woman with black and red hair and the features of Hizuru. Her dress similarly defied gravity, white but stripped with black and red. Her clothing was similarly odd, what might have been part of a military uniform had been colored white and cut into a crop top, while below that she wore a black and red knee-length skirt that had the appearance it was cut from a much longer, ankle-length skirt.

The only thing on her person that obeyed the law of gravity and sunk towards the ground was a browed cloth bag, tied to a rope that was looped around the edge of her skirt like a belt.

“Seija,” the maskless man said, his brow furrowing, “I would appreciate it if you kept to your own schemes instead of bothering me.”

“Yeah, yeah, whatever,” Seija said, waving off his concern as she got to her feet, standing upside down in the air, “You’re the one who’s way too focused on your ‘script,’ if only you’d abandoned it sooner then that Eren kid would be much more on track.”

The maskless man breathed reply, “Yes, perhaps he would be more open to the rumbling if I had taken a firmer hand sooner in but-”

“We are not allies, and I do not expect your help, demon,” The Maskless Man said as he flexed his hand. The luminous tree of the PATHS behind wriggling at his command, “I have only involved you due to the irritations of the other anomalies.”

He held out a glowing sword in Seija's direction, letting the threat of the crackling paths tree and his ire be known.

“The only reason I do this is for the sake of Ymir the Founder, to fulfill her desires and ensure her perfect ending.”

In the distance, the downtrodden girl lifted her head, turning to look at the standoff between the man and Youkai.

“Yeah, yeah whatever, the little bitch is older than both of us, Remember?” Seija half-said, half-laughed, “And I’m just helping you for the sake of my Reverse Ideology.”

Seija struck a pose as she stood upside down pointing towards the ground before announcing.
“The downtrodden should overthrow and persecute those who step on them, while those who step on the downtrodden should never lift their foot!”

The Maskless man didn't say anything, instead letting an uncomfortable silence drag on as Seija continued to hold her pose. Only the sound of the downtrodden girl and her pail of sand served to echo through the silence as the two Youkai stared at each other.

“Ha,” The man laughed, relenting before he plopped down in defeat, “I can only hope you have a painful death after all of this is over. But I have faith in them, Armin and all the rest, even if I fail and the world is doomed, they’ll stop you.”

Seija just laughed at that before flipping herself right side up and plugging her hand into the satchel she held at her waist. Retrieving an umbrella, she sliced through the open air. Creating a gap in space that bled like a wound and looked out onto the PATHS with countless wandering eyes.

Seija didn't wait for the man to comment on it, instead slipping into the gap, her laugh studying into a light chuckle as it closed behind her, leaving the Maskless Man alone with the downtrodden girl and her sand castles.

Chapter Text

Maribel gingerly took her cup of coffee and looked into its dark mirror-like surface.

Renko was late again: that wasn't anything to worry about, she assured herself; it was expected for Renko to be late. But that didn't alleviate Maribell's mood; she was the one who was paying this time, and a private booth did not come cheap, especially in such an upscale coffee house frequented by academics.

Maribel sighed; the next time she got to pick the venue, she wouldn't choose somewhere so expensive.

Just then, Renko burst into the room, "Merry, I'm so sorry!" She said, scrambling into the booth, a briefcase full, almost to bursting, in one hand.

"So much for being inconspicuous," Merry internally sighed.

Thus began the Hifuu Club's first out of two meetings for April.

Both girls looked the same as ever, Renko's brown hair and eyes, her black and white outfit contrasted alongside the blonde Maribel with her red eyes, purple and white outfit trimmed with lace, and wrapped with an ominous red bow that tied around her white mob cap: Neither were foreigners to Marley anymore, and the military was more concerned with the armband-wearing Eldians than any oddly dressed girls.

It took Renko a second to sit opposite Merry, nearly tripping over herself. "I feel like you've become more distracted since coming here, Renko; perhaps the name Doctor Latency would fit you better than it does me: don't you think so?"

"How couldn't I be a little distracted?" Renko asked, "This world is exactly what I've been looking for; a place where aspects of the undiscovered occult are integrated into science, did you really expect to hold a monopoly on venturing into other worlds forever?"

"It was still my ability that got us trapped here," Merry pointed out.

"On my suggestion: Besides, you're the one who gets the cool ability; anybody can tell the time and location using celestial bodies," Renko objected, complaining about her own lack of luster, ability compared to the impressive otherworld traveling of Merry, "Still, I haven't made any progress on the mystery of what the White Hare of Inaba has to do with this place."

"True, I haven't made any progress on that front, nor on returning us home," Merry confessed, taking Renko's tangent: "Although we shouldn't worry; as long as I can find a way to return us to the exact moment after we left, it should be fine."

Renko nodded, but both of them knew it wasn't true: It had already been four years since their arrival in Marley, and they had gotten involved in various causes and ended up inserting themselves into society and academia rather successfully despite the many challenges. But they hadn't made any progress on getting back home; With how long the lifespans of people were in the future, they still had a decade or so before they would have gotten old enough for there to be visible changes.

"Ah, it's fine," Renko said, "Besides, I know you've been enjoying it here as well: Even if there's so much suffering in this world, it's nice to be in a place where children still smile."

"Yes, It's been very nice, although, we have bigger problems right now." she said, retrieving her bag from the floor and putting it next to her on her side of the table.

Merry retrieved a sheaf of papers from her bag before spreading its contents onto the tables. Monochrome photos show the military moving supplies; large crates guarded by squads of men. The papers weren't pleasing either, ship manifests, requests for supplies, and the movement of various military equipment. Food, gas masks, rifles, uniforms, and worst of all, gallons of spinal fluid.

"The military is moving its timetable forward. We only have half of a month until they launch the second expedition into Paradise Island."

Renko's face became serious as she started thinking about what Maribel had said, allowing her to pour Renko a cup of coffee and push the cup towards her while she was in thought. But eventually, Renko decided what to say.

"I guess provoking the colonies into rebellion only sped things up huh? I thought that would have occupied them, But sending out the remaining Titans while they're in revolt is-"

Maribel nodded, "Yes, it's not the most logical course of action. But I didn't think they were going to do what you suggested in the first place."

Renko ignored Merry's comment, "If the military is moving up their timetable, that's bad: Either they'll end up provoking the Rumbling, or they obtain the Founding Titan."

Popping her briefcase open Renko spread various papers across her side of the table, quickly looking over the information before speaking.

"In the first place, I blame that Amanojaku," Renko said, sipping her coffee as she picked up a paper in her other hand.

"Huh?" Merry asked, tilting her head.

"She's the only one who doesn't benefit from a decisive victory here. If she can keep all of us fighting, she can profit in the end," Renko said, her head in her hand, "The military is desperate. They really want a big victory and to maintain their current power, so even working with a devil-like her would be appealing."

Merry sighed, "Renko, just because they're taking rash action doesn't mean that Amanojaku has to be involved."

"It's exactly the sort of situation she'd want," Renko answered, "Even if she's not causing it, she's been here longer than us and we don't know everything she's gotten up to. For all we know she's one of the people backing those Eldian restorationists."

"Okay," Merry said, "Let's say that she is involved. What do we do about it?"

"First of all, we have to take stock of what we know about Amanojaku."

"They're contrarians, love to see people fighting for the sake of it, and they can take on a person's identity if they wear their skin. I think they are supposed to be a type of Oni, as well. But I'm pretty sure that last one is just a baseless rumor. And besides we still don't have any proof she's involved."

Renko sighed, "Well, either way, it's our fault for working with her in the colonies. If she's determined to be a villain now, we'll have to take responsibility and stop her. But first thing first, we-"

Renko was going to say, 'have to deal with the military,' but before she could finish her sentence, the door to their room creaked open.

"U-uh," A man, one of the servers of the coffee house, stuttered as he peaked into the room and looked to Merry, "Excuse me, ma'am, someone is here to-"

Merry had already moved as far away from the door as she could, going for her umbrella as Renko in turn shoved her hand into her briefcase, rifling around before suddenly-

"Boring!" A voice interrupted as the man's head slid off of his neck.

Renko drew a pistol from her briefcase, an ancient design by the standard of her own time. But military-grade, by the standard of this other world. Although Renko had modified it, putting her own theories on super-unified physics into practice with a latticework of inscription carved across its surface and a shoddily made talisman stuck on with a wax seal for good measure.

"That guy was just-"

Renko realized the voice was the Amanojaku Seija. Luckily for her, the Youkai didn't stop to take account of the weapon she had drawn. And so, she squeezed the trigger as Merry drew her umbrella.

A plume of black smoke exploded out of the Amanojaku as the bullet hit her, but the moment after, Seija disappeared. An identical stone statue holding a golden bomb in its hand takes her place as the bullet crumpled to the floor with the rest of the dead man's body.

The bomb blinked. Both of them had seen this tool of Seija's before, and they knew what it meant: They only had two more seconds until it detonated.

Renko fumbled with the gun in her hand as she panicked, nowhere to run. But in the same breath, Merry dived across the table, her umbrella in one hand as she closed her eyes and felt out a gap. Then as she impacted Renko, in a single motion, she swung her umbrella and put everything she had in her into slicing open the booth behind Renko and moving into the gap.

Weightlessness overtook them as they fell into the gap, not even the sensation of falling was left in the weightless and directionless World of Gaps that existed between all things. Beyond them, off in the distance of the black voice, countless eyes watched them, but before they could linger any longer, Merry slashed the air and opened the gap back up.

The two of them excited the gap in a flash of blinding light as the sun came into view and blinded both of the girls. Beneath them, they could feel the hard surface of the road as they impacted the ground and skidded across the surface.

Renko and Marry got up as fast as they could, taking notice of the shocked and confused passersby, as well as the cars that had swerved out of the way to avoid the two women who had suddenly sprawled out onto the street.

But just as soon as they had landed, Marry and Renko were already scrambling to their feet as the people around them turned from shock and alarm to anger at the fact the two of them had thrown themselves into traffic. But instead of paying attention to them, Merry was more concerned with the backlash of doing such a strenuous task of not only opening a gap but making one on command. While Renko was concerned with something else.

"Merry," Renko gasped as she realized what building they had landed in front of.

Standing in front of the women was the coffee house that they had been in just mere moments ago. Renko's mind raced, as she thought of what that could mean, ignoring the shouts of the people around her. Either the bomb had not gone off or been delayed, but those were things they had never seen Seija's reusable bomb do. Of course, they could have also been transported into the past.

The subsequent explosion confirmed that last hypothesis.

As the wave of heat and pressure spread outward from the building, Merry grabbed Renko, pushing away the mental stress and ignoring the nosebleed she had earned from her exertion. Renko only realized what was happening when they were moving, just in time for the wave of pressure to hit them and send them flying across the street alongside the unfortunate civilians and drivers.

Merry and Renko tumbled across the street, landing on the pavement opposite the destroyed store as a figure walked out of the rubble. Neither of them had much time as they once again gathered their bearings. But this time, that Amanojaku was standing in front of them in the destroyed street, a parasol in one hand, a blue blanket in the other, and a sharp grin stretching itself across her face.

"Well, well, well" She started, laughing as she strode towards them, "I didn't expect you to"

Renko turned her gun on the Amanojaku again, firing off two shots. Seija's eyes widened slightly but she waved the blue blanket in front of her, catching the two bullets and negating their momentum, the two bullets landing softly against the fabric before falling to the street below.

"Ha! As if I let myself get hit by the same trick again. Now, how about you two stop fighting back and die like good humans."

Merry responded by hopping forward, wildly swinging her parasol at Seija. Only to be met by the Amanojaku's umbrella.

"Okay, now you're getting a-"

Renko discharged her gun again, sending two bullets to slam into Seija's skull.

"Fuck, OW!" Seija screamed, flinching back as the two bullets crumbled against her skin and sending a spider web of cracks across her face that trickled red blood and black smoke. Not a second sooner, Merry went back in, swinging her parasol at the Amanaojaku, the air parting where the tip of the parasol slashed it.

Kicking off the ground and sending herself flying back, gritting her teeth as she looked at Renko, the woman still holding her pistol in her hands. Seija was familiar with the pistol she held: it was a standard military issue Seija had seen plenty of times. Even with Renko's modification, it should still only have eight rounds in its magazine; Renko had shot off five so far, leaving three in the magazine.

From the look on Renko's face, Seija could tell that Renko knew that as well. The street was nearly barren now: any cover was destroyed, and whatever cars there were had been flung onto the side of the street the two women were on.

Seija was left with only one option: retreat.

"There she is!" A man yelled: Seija didn't have to look to know he was in military uniform: They had been trying to locate her ever since she first made her presence known to the public years ago, "It's the demon!"

Reflexively, Seija threw out her decoy doll, letting one of Renko's three remaining bullets rip it to useless shreds. Merry was still too close; even if she couldn't kill Seija with that parasol, Seija didn't feel like being dismembered by it again.

"Damn, you guys are fast," Seija said, clicking her tongue against the roof of her mouth; this hadn't gone as she hoped. Retrieving her bloodthirsty orb from her bag, flung it at the soldier, appearing before him.

"Shi-!"

The man barely had an opportunity to scream before Seija swung her umbrella, bisecting the man with a gap. She heard Merry's footsteps falter and could feel Renko's gun zeroing in on her. Those two had fought Seija enough times to know she only had one evasion tool left: a lantern that temporarily made her invincible but didn't render her immune to the slashes from Merry's Parasol.

Seija still wasn't far enough, but she could still run. Cursing internally, Seija hoped that the girls would put their own safety and freedom above pursuit; and if everybody followed, hopefully they would all run into each other.

Seija moved, and luckily for her, Merry resisted the urge to follow: Instead of looking back to her friend Renko as the sound of footsteps began to drum in the distance, the military was coming, and they'd want to question everyone. Their faces weren't known, but they'd figure the two out if they got captured.

"Renko," she said, panting, blood dripping from her nose, "We have to move."

Almost absent as her grip on her gun became shaky, Renko nodded, getting up from the sidewalk and putting the thought of the lost contents of her now destroyed briefcase behind her.

Around them was smoldering and wreckage of Seija's attack, groaning and half-dead civilians. Marelean and Eldian alike were sprawled across the ground, writhing in pain. Both of the women have to fight against the urge to help. They have more pressing concerns at the moment.

Then, after briefly surveying their surroundings, the women move. Renko shoved her modified pistol into her pocket while Maribel stashed her parasol away in a gap. Then, the two were running, the moans of dying pedestrians fading away with the crackle of flames.

As soon as they fled even the footsteps of the military and rumble of engines faded, although the fires took some time to subside. Growing as they did for a time, overtaking buildings before the situation was wrangled, Maribel and Renko fleeing all the while. Ducking into alleys, just ahead of prying eyes even as Maribel bled, a slow trickle still running down her nose as the adrenaline wore off and her body began to feel the backlash from exerting herself.

But even as her awareness faded, she held Renko's hand and let the girl lead on. Unlike Maribel she had stayed more in the capital, ingraining herself into its academic scene while Maribel would often travel elsewhere. "Only a bit farther, I have a safe house," Renko said, whispering to Maribel as the two slowed, walking beneath the shadows of buildings until they came to the house of Renko's design.

The house was ramshackle and gray but was quiet and had a somewhat convenient location. To the east was the sea, and to the west, was the internment zone. Although it was a poor and suspicious area, in turn, there were few night watchmen and the military often did not send men in, although the thieves and thief-takers did take to the near-slum like fire to a house. Merry and Renko were both happy that Marley had never developed any proper policing force, only ever using the military as a policing force. Renko didn't quite understand it, but Merry was vaguely aware of something similar in French history.

It was too close to the Eldian Internment zone for Maribel's comfort. But any bolthole was just about as good as any other right now with Seija running around. Hopefully, they could keep their location hidden for a short time.

The exit was hidden. Maribel could remember that, but by now her awareness of fading fast. Too fast for her to realize what was going on as Renko first dragged her inside before laying her down on the couch. It wasn't too long after she found herself placed on the couch that Maribel had a wet rag placed on her forehead.

It was only then that Maribel felt safe enough and tired enough, to close her eyes without any more resistance. Sleep took her and when Maribel came too, she could feel the uncomfortableness of the dried blood on her face and an ache in her bones. It felt as if she blinked and then the room, which she now realized was a basement, was darker. Its brick walls barely seen through the haze of midnight and a distracting light that made her eyes hurt.

Turning to the light, Merry could see Renko sitting across from her, seated at a table. "Dammit," Renko said, talking to herself as she removed the clip from her pistol and dumped the few remaining bullets onto the table. "I thought these would be better, I guess I have to try a different set of engravings on the next clip? Maybe, but... If I?" Renko rambled on to herself looking at and writing on various papers that had been piled onto the table.

"Renko..." Maribel muttered, realizing the light was coming from a lamp, as she held up a hand to block out the light.

"Merry!" She exclaimed, almost jumping out of her chair, the emptied gun still clutched in her."I thought-" Renko tripped over herself in speech and in movement as she stumbled over to Maribel, "I don't know what I thought?!" Renko rambled, happy to see her friend, not giving Maribel a second to recover before she was on her, embracing her friend with a hug.

Maribel smiled even as she felt an ache run through her body and the uncomfortableness of the flat of Renko's gun pushing into her back. "Ah, Renko, about the gun? It's-"

"Oh, right," Renko said, hopping back and separating from Maribel before the blonde had any time to finish her sentence. Of course, Renko was still holding the emptied gun loosely in one hand, "I have to engrave the bullets one by one. It's the best I could manage, not everybody gets a really cool ability you know?" She answered, not understanding why Maribel felt the need to point it out.

"Okay," Maribel said, still tired as she decided to not press the subject any further. "Renko, how late is it, did you get any sleep?"

Renko looked guilty as Maribel said that. "I lost a lot losing my suitcase back there, luckily Greek is a dead language in this world so hopefully the military or Seija won't be able to decode them," Renko fidgeted with the gun, "If any survived that is, but when I got back, after taking care of you I had to get to work right away, I can't afford to lose any of my work here."

"Sorry Renko," Maribel said, not really apologizing but more so just trying to comfort her friend.

The stakes were higher than anything they had been before, even if it wasn't certain the entire world could be trampled underneath the feet of an army of titans. If they succeed even Marley might fall, although defeating Marley itself wasn't exactly their goal. Despite controlling a conservatively estimated thirty percent of the planet at a minimum the nation was as plagued with trouble as that implied. At most only twenty percent of the population was ethnically Marlean, and that was counting the colonies who didn't consider themselves Marlean. The situation for Eldians was even worse with them making up under five percent of their population, of course, these numbers were only known to Renko, Maribel, and the few people in the military and government with enough clearance to have access to the census information.

Maribel chewed on that, no matter what Marley couldn't hold it together forever and as they flailed people would get hurt. But that was when Renko got an idea, "Bombs," she gasped, "We could use bombs, bomb the ship. Bomb the supply buildings, we have to buy time. We can use your ability to sneak onto the ship or-"

"I've already stretched myself thin for a bit, I've opened gaps, but creating them like that..." Maribel trailed off as she looked at her hands; All that power was at the tips of her hands was entrancing, mesermizing, it was something she wanted to explore more, "It'll take a while for me to get better; Seija's cheat items should already be back. If we're going to do anything, we'll have to call in some favors."

"Right," Renko said, putting her hand to her chin, thinking of who she knew and how they could sabotage the ship, "Since it's a military ship, we can find what we need onboard: Sabotage would be hard but not impossible; we'd only need some components and somebody, maybe an Eldian rebel or one of their sympathizers, to falsify some papers."

"Right," Maribel agreed, a picture forming in her mind. "Although, some of them just want to bring back the Eldian Empire: Dealing with them could be trouble; they're also the type that Seija might have already infiltrated."

"If Seija did something involving the revolutionaries or the military, it doesn't matter: Stopping the rumbling is still our priority, and we can deal with Seija once we find a way to trap or seal her somewhere."

They went back and forth for that a little longer; the military would be on high alert even if some of them were being manipulated by Seija, while Seija herself could virtually appear anywhere at any time and kill people before vanishing. Maribel and Reko were aware of some rare few others who might have occult knowledge, namely the Beast Titan and Tybur family, unfortunately, they didn't have enough information to do anything: It was getting late, and both needed to retire for the night.

Tomorrow they would have to talk to some contacts and arrange for forged papers and identities: Then they would sneak onto the ship used for transport to Paradise, and then they would have to sabotage it and somehow escape.

All in all, they only had fifteen days.

"Renko," Merry said, her voice hitching for a moment; "Thank you." The two embraced for a moment longer before separating. They had both found their resolve; even if the wicked Amanojaku tried her best to throw the world into chaos, they would have each other, and they would have to fight.

Chapter Text

"Alright, class. I'm glad you could all make it!" Tewi posed, forming a heart with her hands as she stood atop a wooden crate. Behind her sat a chalkboard covered in various scribbles, and sitting before her were Eren, Levi, Mikasa, Ymir, and Hange, all paying her various degrees of attention.

In the wake of Ymir's revelations, there was a storm of commotion. Refugees waited outside Trost, while Scouts cleared out the remaining Titans and bodies. Pixis and Erwin debated what they should tell Mitras. While Tewi had requisitioned a room and hastily converted it into a classroom. Even Annie's morbid crystal prison leaned against a wall, refracting light across the room.

Only thin rays of sun and morning hues reached over Wall Rose, signaling the beginning of the day. The last of the Titans were cleared out, now they only had two priorities left: disposing of the bodies and moving refugees back into Trost.

Tewi had an aim of her own: get everybody up to speed on dealing with supernatural threats.

"Oi!" Levi spoke up, sitting in his chair, leaning back. "First off. What was that thing you pulled during the fight?"

The giant white sphere Tewi had conjured, bleeding black and swallowing Titans.

"Ah, Yeah..."

Earlier Yesterday

Once Tewi had activated her ability, she was swept up into a storm of blackness that left Levi and the Titans. In place of their surroundings was a painted landscape, waves stitched together from countless teeth as they lapped at the shores, hungry trees that bent inwards, casting long shadows along the invisible sand formed from the negative space on the scroll.

Levi froze in place, his senses screaming at him that something was wrong. Even the animalistic Titans had stopped, looking around anxiously.

Then, flames erupted further up the shore where the sand met the dirt. Levi went to activate his ODM gear, only to find it missing as the flames grew higher and higher, images of people and rabbits painted in the wisps of fire.

Levi and the Titans could only stand there as a procession of shadows emerged from the flames, first of eight, then eight, then eight hundred, and then countless more. Their bodies stretched along the back of the scroll, towering high above even the Titans with only their beady white eyes shining as more and more emerged, making them into a giant mass of blackness that hung above the flame.

Then the shadows drew blades, Levi shielded his eyes, and all at once they descended in a flurry, ripping, tearing, skinning.

Then the bubble popped, and reality returned to normal.

"Well…" Tewi held a hand to her chin. "It's best I start from the top. Back home, we use something called the Spellcard Rules. Gensokyo wasn't a place that could sustain a lot of fighting, but as Youkai, our nature demanded conflict."

"What you saw during the battle was me using a spell card. I created a barrier to concentrate my power, then imbued myself and Spellcard into it. Of course, the Spellcards back home aren't for killing."

"So, that masked bastard can do the same thing?"

"Probably not, or at least not yet. Too inexperienced but he seems to be a fast learner."

"Actually." Hange raised her hand even as she spoke. "I have a question, are you and the Masked Man are both Youkai, correct? That's why we can't hurt you, but Mikasa and Levi could? You said they were Modified Humans, but what does that mean exactly?"

"Right, we're both Youkai. Spiritual beings. Physical beings like you humans have a hard time harming us, but some are a bit more spiritual and can interact with us just fine. Either way, it's gonna take some training for you guys to deal with him."

Eren nodded, still sitting silently next to Mikasa. Tewi could see his resolve written on his face, He'd pay back the Mirror Man who put Annie in this situation, and for making Armin see him almost die.

"The most basic principle I'm going to teach you is that everything has a soul, from rocks to air and simple bugs. Youkai like me are basically entirely made up of our own soul."

"So the problem with hunting him down is that the souls of your weapons are too weak. Made only harder since these guys are mass-produced and replaceable." Tewi said, holding up a flesh-paring blade that was sitting beside her atop the crate. "If you want to make something strong, make it one of a kind."

"Or make it magic?" Hange said, looking at Eren.

"That's right, Eren, get up here and show them what I taught you."

Eren stood up from his seat, holding his hands together like he was holding something. Then, after a moment's pause, a pair of ethereal blades crackled into existence. Arcs of lightning ran along their edge and black smoke left from where the blade ended.

Tewi followed suit, flashing a pair of blades in front of herself. "Although, that's a little advanced for you right now, especially since you don't have as much power as Eren."

"Oi, I'm guessing you have a plan then rabbit?"

"Sure thing! I'll give you some of my power. Humans already know how to use this power on some level. So once you take it, the basics should be natural, especially for you two." Tewi's eyes darted between Levi and Mikasa as she said the last part.

"No, first, tell us what else are you getting out of this rabbit?"

"Well, this solves two problems. Not only helping you deal with the one with Mirror Man, but with this." As she said that, Tewi held up a finger and forcefully held herself still. Without doing anything, a small trail of black smoke left from her finger. "See, some of my power is leaking. Now that people know I'm not human, they're afraid of me. Since Youkai are the natural enemies of humans, I've gotten stronger. So strong in fact, that it outpaced my weak basis to exist in this world."

Of course, Tewi had a next-to-nonexistent basis in this world in the first place, so that wasn't saying much.

Eren's eyes widened slightly at that, disbelief and worry in his voice. "You're dying?"

"Not exactly death, but if I didn't find a solution, it wouldn't be surprising then if I suddenly returned to nothing with no warning." Tewi didn't want to sugarcoat it, and making the situation seem more urgent would make Levi and Mikasa more willing to accept her offer.

'ah, but I still need to tell him about how he probably ate his father. What a hypocrite am I? Still keeping secrets from him, usaa~'

There was still one more thing she didn't mention, although it wasn't for Eren's sake. The instability caused by having a weak basis would also infect her personality, which would cause Tewi to drift further away from who she was as a person. In the end, she would just become a Rabbit Youkai and lose her abilities as a god.

"Ugh, whatever. We're gonna go along with it anyway and it's not like we have a choice. Let's get this over with."

"Good. Now, which one of you wants to go first?"

Levi stepped ahead of the rest. "Oi, rabbit." Although with how short he was, it was hardly intimidating.

"Come on," Tewi said, scooting aside to make room for Levi atop the wooden crate. "Now all you have to do is close your eyes, and grab by hand." Levi followed her commands, and Tewi felt a connection form between the two.

In truth, this wasn't an ability Youkai had. Instead, it was an ability possessed by gods like Tewi, just as shamans, priests, and shrine maidens were host to gods. Gods could split off infinitely small pieces of themselves to host inside of other people. An ability most people understood as a blessing. It was something Tewi didn't like using, but the circumstances demanded it.

She reached forward, casting her senses into Levi, and found that spark to grab hold of it.

"Ouch!" Tewi separated her hand from Levi, shaking it as a small pillar of smoke rose from where their palms had touched. "You're a feisty one, aren't you Levi?"

The man just nodded, taking a second to look at his hands before getting off of the crate.

"Okay, next!" With that said, Mikasa went forward for her turn, she was weaker than Levi and didn't have as much raw power as Eren, but the resolve in her heart spoke volumes. After her, there was Hange, the spiritually weakest out of everybody in the room. Then lastly Ymir's hand met Tewi's.

Tewi felt her heart tighten slightly as she took Ymir's hands. Nobody else could see it, but to Tewi it was obvious. The curse and poison that was the Jaw Titan, wrapping itself around her spine, the slight degradation of her cells as her life slowly ebbed away. 'It's a bit dishonest to do this without telling you Ymir.'

As Tewi gave a small part of herself to Ymir, she imparted it with a command. 'just live a little while longer, okay?' It wasn't a cure, but it'd help hold back her death even if only for a few more moments.

As her students stood in front of her, Tewi felt a little proud of herself. "So when putting your own power into something, or when looking to make sure something stays. Put a little meaning and yourself into it."

Levi nodded, drew his sword in one hand, and concentrated sending a ripple of power through it that made the blade glow a slight red. While in the other there, a mote of power flashed into existence. It fluxed in Levi's hand, smoking black as it bled red, cracks along its surface as the man held it together through an impressive showing of willpower.

"Pretty good for a first try."

'Nowhere near an unnatural prodigy like Reimu or Marisa, but that'll do.'

"Okay, since I can't have you all do a proper game of all-out Danmaku, you'll be playing dodgeball!"

Levi tapped his foot against the stone roof of the garrison building, half-annoyed at the teacher-like attitude Tewi was taking with him and Hange. They were almost twice the age of the three trainees.

"So the rules are simple!" Tewi started, smiling as a Danmaku ball flashed into her open palm. It was pinkish-red and transparent, marble-like with a cartoon image of a rabbit in the center. "You get hit by the ball, touch the ground, then you're out! Use ODM gear and whatever abilities you have to win."

"Now, Start!" Tewi launched the ball straight up into the air, disappearing into a cloud of black smoke a second later

Levi and Mikasa were the fastest to arrive at the ball, Hange and Eren just behind them with Ymir the slowest. It wasn't a surprise when Levi made the first move, launching the ball with his backswing as he and Mikasa moved to avoid each other.

The game went about as Tewi expected from there. Mikasa got knocked out next after Hange tried to hit Eren from behind, and then she and Eren tried and failed to keep up with Levi. Hange fell to a shot Levi made off of the roof of the building, hitting her in the gut. Then it was just Eren and Levi. Eren had tricks of his own, Danmaku bullets and the same flashing sword technique he had used earlier, but it barely closed the gap when going up against Levi and in the end he found himself face first on the roof like everybody else.

"And the winner is Captain Levi!" Tewi said, putting two fingers in her mouth and whistling.

Levi gave her a nod from where he stood at the center of the roof, all the while Ymir, Eren, and Mikasa picked themselves up, all in various states of exhaustion.

'ah well, I expected as much~'

Even if Eren was the strongest of the trainees magically. He didn't know how to use that strength properly and only ever had Tewi to teach him fighting. While he had only ever been in two actual fights, compared to the decades of experience Levi had over him.

"Oi, Yaeger," Levi said, tossing the Danmaku ball back to Tewi with his free hand. "What are you going to do now?"

It was an open-ended question, but everybody understood what he was asking. What was Eren planning to do now that Ymir had told them all the truth? The instinctive answer was, 'exterminate them all, every single last one,' but that wasn't what Eren said.

The truth was both Eren and Levi held the goal of, 'killing every titan,' exterminating them like the insects they saw them as. Now with the truth known to them all, that Titans were once humans who might get turned back, the calculus of life and death had changed. Now ending the life of a Titan was effectively killing a human.

"I'm not going to let anybody else die, I'm going to find the people that started this and put a stop to them." Eren's words were less harsh than Levi expected, less extreme, but a fire still burned behind those eyes.

Eren wasn't the only one who wanted to stop the ones responsible, now that people knew culprits existed. Luckily for everyone involved, killing the Masked Man seemed far easier than eliminating every single Titan he controlled.

Levi turned away from Eren. "Ymir."

"Whatever, I'm only here in the first place because Marley would kill me."

Tewi felt the urge to raise an eyebrow at that. 'Not a lie, but not exactly a truth.'

Levi's eyebrow twitched. "Idiot."

"Pffth." a barely held-in laugh came echoing from the entrance to the roof, singling Pixis and Erwin's arrival. The two revealed themselves, walking up the stairs to the dower expressions on both of their faces.

Behind the two men, the sun had crested over Wall Rose, filling the sky with orange hues of light that lengthened their shadows.

Pixis spoke first, smiling slightly. "I hope we aren't interrupting anything."

"No, no, it's fine. How ya doin' Pixis."

"I could be better." Pixis shrugged, "Eren, Levi, Ymir." He said, nodding to them.

After that, Erwin spoke first. "We've gone back and forth on how we should approach the Capital about what happened. Right now the truth is contained to only those who were there to hear Miss Ymir's story."

Pixis nodded to Erwin. "It's unlikely everybody who heard has kept quiet. So, we're of two minds on how to handle this. We should hide as much as possible. We don't want anybody taking rash action and getting hurt. Our position is still precarious and a Civil Conflict could give our enemies a decisive upper hand."

"Tewi, what do you think of this?"

The rabbit put a hand to her chin. "I don't think it'll cause any panic if we tell the truth, but I think we should keep that tidbit about the ultimate power hidden. We don't want anybody getting any ideas."

"Aside from that, I think we should tell them enough about where they'll go after us. They clearly don't have access to this ultimate power the Founding Titan has, so their only means of dealing with us are subterfuge or the law."

"We have to tell them, what it comes down to is time. We have to deal with one of these threats as soon as possible and right now, baiting out the conspiracy so we can deal with them is the most immediate option. Hopefully, that'll bait out the Mirror Man as well."

Pixis nodded. "Yes, do we have any leads on what he's doing?"

Hange raised her hand. "Miss Inaba and I have some theories. Currently, our most concrete idea is that the otherworld she discovered on the other side of the Walls is the source of his power and is connected to the Titans, as well as the people Ymir describes as Eldians."

"Yeah, part of the vector of transmission used for creating Titans is the same type of power I use. But I couldn't sense the Masked Man controlling the Titans. So, there's definitely something else there."

"Oi," Ymir said, raising her hand. "If that bastard has a mask he has something to hide. Do any of you recognize his voice?"

There was a brief silence as they all waited for somebody to offer a suggestion, but as they thought about it more they realized they couldn't remember what the masked man sounded like.

Tewi shrugged. "Well, he could have just disguised that as well, but he's probably trying to hide his identity for a reason."

Levi mulled something over in his head for a moment, casting his mind back to the battle and remembering how the masked man fought. "He fights like he's used ODM gear before, pretty decent as well, he's received training."

There was something odd he noticed about the man's fighting style; he didn't fight like he could freely fly in all directions and instead moved like the Scouts did. Even at what Levi guessed was his attempt at using Danmaku was unimpressive compared to Tewi.

"He's new to that power as well." Levi finished with a nod. That was another odd, but revealing thing. Nobody there quite knew what it meant, but the fact the Mirror Man only recently came into or used this power was important.

Pixis nodded, before looking to the side. "Erwin?"

"I have nothing more to add here. We should go forward with sending the message to the Capital now. We still have bodies to retrieve."

"Indeed, we'll go draft a message for the carrier pigeon." Sending a message by horse would take too long, all the ships were preoccupied, and a pigeon would be faster.

The two of them left quickly then, with curt nods and their quick goodbyes. Levi made to leave, signaling Hange to follow. She dragged Ymir along, wanting to ask the outsider more questions.

Which left Eren, Mikasa, and Tewi alone on the roof. "Alright, guess we're done for the day!"

Eren looked resolved, slightly pensive. Tewi knew the look. "Unless one of you has something to say."

"Mikasa, I want to talk with Tewi alone. Can you give us a moment?"

She nodded in response to Eren but narrowed her eyes as she looked at Tewi, suspicious, protective, but unwilling to disobey Eren.

Tewi understood the girl's message. 'Don't worry, I'll try my best not to hurt him, he's only a kid.' Tewi could be harsh when she needed to, but she reserved that mostly for adults like Reisen.

Tewi turned around to face Eren and hopped back, landing atop one edge of the roof. "So, something's wrong, Eren?"

"Nothing big." Nothing that they haven't already talked about, or that Tewi was still waiting to tell Eren about. "The dreams I've been having have stopped since the battle."

Tewi nodded, Eren's dream had. Her guess was that they had something to do with Eren's subconscious, but what exactly she couldn't say.

"It's a day. You sure it's not a bit early?"

"No, I was having them every night, sometimes I'd have one while walking around."

"Hmmm." Tewi put a hand up to her chin. "Well, you transformed into a Titan, I'd guess that probably has something to do with it."

"No, no. There's one more thing Pixis and I have to tell you." Tewi admitted. "The problem is, we only have suspicions right now." She guessed Ymir had suspicions of her own but didn't want to put even more of a target on the girl's back.

Eren nodded, looking past Tewi, and towards the horizon, his eyes blazing. "Tewi, I trust you."

"I trust you two Eren, come on it's getting late"

Both of them nodded. Tewi just hoped that keeping her suspicions to herself about what Eren did to his dad didn't break that trust. At the very least they had a concrete direction to head in now, Mitras and that fabled power.

It was a dreary job. Pick up the body of some faceless dead guy you didn't even know and bring him back, pick up the body of someone you met in passing and bring him back, pick up the body of a friend and bring them back. All the while holding in your vomit and trying to ignore the horrid stench of death.

Hour by hour, minute by minute, second by second, Ymir could feel the work wear on her and drain the color out of the day.

Then finally there was no more work left to do, all the bodies had been collected and reconstruction of the District could begin. She remembered hearing someone say the civilians would start to trickle back in over the course of a week.

Then the sun faded from the sky, passing over Wall Rose, and the remaining trainees who hadn't heard her story were promptly herded together while the rest sat on the rooftops. From where she sat Ymir could see it all, the stage where Tewi, Pixis, and Erwin stood and the bonfires piled full of bodies.

'Annie did this, and so did Bertholdt and Reiner.' Here at Trost and years ago in Shiganshina as well, thousands dead or displaced, parents who would never see their children grow up. Friends who could never share a smile again. Ymir felt sick.

Below, Pixis and Erwin began their speech. She noted the omissions of the power of the Founding Titan, as well as the implications of some force connecting all Eldians, but she didn't care. If they thought it bettered their chances against whoever was in the capital, it was all fine in her book.

Eventually, the speech ended as some of the remaining stragglers joined the scouts while others stayed behind. Up on the roof, the scouts and those who had already joined held their vigil. They dispersed slowly until only Ymir, Krista, Eren, and his two friends remained.

"You shouldn't blame yourself, you know?"

Ymir snapped to attention, turning on a dime to see where the voice had come from. Tewi was sitting on the edge of the building, looking into the fire.

"All of you are so young, I don't expect you to carry the entire world on your back."

Ymir felt her pride boiling inside of her, a disgusting feeling rising in her stomach. "Fine."

She hated that, but there wasn't any reason to refuse Tewi's help now and she knew she'd need it. Still, she couldn't help but feel like she was being manipulated.

"Okay, if you ever need someone to talk to, I'm here." Before Ymir could get another She disappeared in a puff of smoke

'Dammit, I still haven't told anybody about Historia's true identity. At the least, I have to tell her I know.' Ymir would rather not waste the precious time they still had together. 'Besides, it's the best move I can make to protect her.' From herself, enemies, and those who might seek to use her.

Armin was the next to speak. "We're here too Ymir, if you want-"

"I know, I just..." Ymir ran a hand through her hair. "I have something I need to talk to Krista about."

Chapter Text

Levi kept a hand on his sword as he walked down the ship's ramp. The day after Pixis and Erwin sent their letter, The King, or whoever was controlling Mitras, replied. The capital sent of them behind the letter and they were to report to Mitras immediately for a hearing. Levi and Erwin had hand picked a small regiment to come with them while leaving their second strongest soldier, Mike, in charge.

The most stressful part of the boarding process was when Eren had to turn into a Titan again to move Annie and her crystal onto another ship. Nobody felt safe leaving her in Trost where Reiner and Bertholdt might find her.

Since the district was still largely uninhabited, the standing orders were to flee if the Armored or Colossal Titan appeared. Even if they had a human weakness, they didn't want to gamble on the remaining Scouts being able to defeat them while they were away. Other than that, most of the former 104th stayed behind.

The ship arrived halfway through the day, staffed with workers and Military Police in equal measure. The implicit threat was as obvious as it was unnecessary. Levi could see how poorly they measured up to himself and even Mikasa.

Still, the journey toward Mitras was as awkward as it was tense. The conversation was tepid and lukewarm. Levi appreciated the quiet, cleanliness, and general order of the Military Police. If only they weren't cowards inadvertently working for some conspiracy.

The silence could only last so long, however, at least with Tewi, Hange, and Ymir all in the same room. Levi left to stand on the deck, but eventually, they made it to their destination. Krista seemed especially fidgety, hovering just behind Ymir.

Tewi had disappeared in a puff of black smoke the second they reached their final destination, to no one's surprise. They figured she'd show backup when needed. However, Eren was plainly worried about Tewi being alone.

As the group exited from the ship, Levi's instincts kicked in. They were being watched, not just by the Military Police who were escorting them. Alongside them, several wooden cranes were employed to remove Annie's crystal from the ship, in the meantime, it was being moved.

The dock itself was bustling, full of people trying to see past the Garrison Soldiers and MPs who formed a perimeter around the ship. Eventually, the scouts and the harbor men were done and the crowd parted to make way for them. Shadows danced in the distance. Levi was sure that Kenny was here, somewhere. Levi knew it without a doubt, even if he didn't see him.

'He's hiding somewhere in the crowd, and it looks like he brought friends.' They were more obvious, Military Police not quite like their fellows, or shadows hidden on the rooftops.

The crowd itself was a mix of confused and interested, peeping toms looking out windows, curious shoppers, vagrants sitting in dark alleys. Normal people going about their day, unaware of the danger all around them.

'Looks like the government is trying to keep things quiet, the truth will reach here eventually, too many people heard it in Trost.' Levi knew from experience, that soldiers had loose lips. In his twenty years of service, he had never met a soldier who wasn't a horrendous gossip.

Levi fought off the urge to rest a hand on one of his ODM gear. It would only cause the Military Police to get on edge as well.

Mikasa and Eren seemed to be on edge as well, but from the way, their eyes darted everywhere. He could tell that weren't been able to pin anyone down.

'So he is working with that conspiracy. Guess I'll finally get my answers then.'

They only walked a bit further when Pixis separated from the main body of the group, the Military police eyeing him as she stepped out. Pixis nodded to the rest of them. "I have business elsewhere for the moment. I trust you can handle the situation in my absence, Erwin?"

The man at the head of the Military Police gave him a sharp look, but the old man was unfazed. "Don't worry. It won't take long, I just have to talk with a friend. Not to mention official business, you boys can come along if you wish."

"I'll come with." The leader of the MP said, signaling several of his men to follow.

"Good. it's such a shame to be without good company." Pixis said, smiling as the MPs surrounded him. He and Erwin shared one last nod before the two groups separated. The crowds quickly morphed, filling the gap left in Pixis' wake as he left.

It was only a short while later that they noticed the streets becoming cleaner, and less populated until they eventually came to a great stone wall and wrought-iron gate.

The palace complex that formed the center of the walls loomed around them. Soon the group found themselves herded into a reception hall.

There more MPs waited for them, a group of younger-looking who looked around nervously. They talked among each other for a moment, looking at Levi's group and the MPs that surrounded them.

Eventually, an MP, not older than eighteen, ended up shuffled in front of Levi. The young woman sweated profusely as he pulled at her collar, opening her mouth and failing to speak several times before Levi narrowed his eyes,

"Uh, excuse me, Mister Levi sir, but you'll, uh. Have to give up your ODM gear, the same with the rest of you. Sorry."

Levi ignored the girl and looked to Erwin, who nodded. One by one their group disarmed themselves, handing it over to the MPS. Levi noted the reverence a female MP treated his gear with compared to the others.

"Y-you can go in now sir." The tall girl said, stepping aside.

Levi could see the others get antsy, Mikasa and Krista especially. Erwin turned back to the others, giving them a once-over as well. "Everyone here ready?"

"If they try anything, they're dead anyway." Levi had a knife and two other hidden blades on him anyway, that was more than enough when dealing with people in an enclosed space.

The MPs around them shifted uncomfortably, but Levi didn't care about their opinion. He didn't want to hurt any of them, but if they tried anything they wouldn't stand a chance. The Rest of the Scouts shrugged or nodded, seeming to have more or less the same opinion.

Erwin nodded, and stepped forward, opening the door.

Beyond the door sat a large room, on each side a group of people stood or sat fenced off from the middle of the room that bore an uncanny resemblance to an execution platform. At the opposite end of the room sat three chairs, one underneath the emblem of the Garrison, Scouts, and Military Police. Before them, sat a single old man with white hair and glasses, inspecting them all with care.

Around the edges of the room, various parties had assembled. Merchants, Priests, Garrison soldiers, and MP. Only the priests stood silent, looking on at the group with harsh eyes while the others talked in whispers and as they eyed the Scouts.

At the head of them, Erwin stepped forward. Levi, Eren, Ymir, Armin, Mikasa, Hange, and Krista, were all quickly behind. Ready to make their case.

The old man who sat underneath the symbol of the Garrison adjusted his glasses as he looked down at the report on his desk and then at Erwin. "Today. You, Erwin Smith, Commander of the Scouts. Have been called on for the issue of the dubious nature of your report."

"Lies!" A priest screamed. "To even insinuate that there is some similarity between Man and Titan is the highest blasphemy, that alone should have them thrown out! There is nothing here to discuss!"

The old man sighed. "Excuse me, Pastor." The Old Man gave the Pastor a hard look from behind his glasses. "If you would kindly wait until you are called upon to speak?"

Pastor Nick stepped down as the old man turned his gaze to the opposite end of the room. "MP commander, Nile Dok, if you would speak please?"

"Our position is that regardless if these claims about the world outside the Walls are true or not. The individuals known as Ymir, Eren Yaeger, and Tewi Inaba should be turned over to the Military Police for prompt dissection and disposal"

Levi expected as much, and from what he saw from Ymir she did too. In contrast, Eren's impassive face had twisted into anger as he balled his hands into fists.

Erwin stood tall at the head of the group, unfazed by what the two had said. "I understand your skepticism, but it is my belief that Ymir is truthful in her cause. Additionally, even if you doubt her words, Eren Yaeger and Tewi Inaba are separate matters."

"Miss Inaba is a Military Doctor hired by Commander Dot Pixis. While Eren is a member of the scouts, and formerly her charge. Both have also shown dedication to protecting humanity within the walls."

"Miss Ymir, come up to the stand. As it is your testimony we shall be evaluating here."

Ymir took a breath as she passed by Erwin and stood in the center of the room. "First off, I don't know about you a lot, but I'm as human as the day I was born. Doesn't matter if I can transform into a Titan or whatever, I'm human."

"Thank you for informing us of your beliefs." The man straightened his glasses as he looked down at his list of questions. "Now, I question. Why when you came to these walls, you did not reveal your true nature?"

"The devil hides itself under the guise of religiousness. Only now that she is cornered does she make an excuse."

The bearded man at the podium nodded along, half-sarcastic as he spoke. "As the Pastor says, surely if your cause was altruistic you would have attempted to help us instead of hiding."

"Hey, I don't think you've noticed, but those three didn't show either," Ymir said, shrugging as she thought of the three Warriors. "I didn't even know there were three of them. As far as I knew the Armored and Colossal Titan could be anywhere doing anything."

"So I decided to bide my time, I joined the military, and was gonna join the scouts to put the fight to 'em. They ended up taking the first move anyway, so the first shot I got, I took one out. That's all there is to it. I'm not gonna let people die for no reason by dragging them out into the open and I ain't gonna stand by and watch either."

Levi mulled on that. 'A lie, better than what she told me earlier. There was more than a little truth in her voice, at least some of what she was saying was probably true.

"Mmhh, Yes. That brings me to another matter, were you aware of the true identities of Annie Leonhart, Reiner Braun, and Bertholdt Hoover?"

"No, they were weird but that's it. I didn't interact with them much."

"Even then, you could have revealed the truth of your nature earlier it is highly suspicious that-"

"And? Like you guys would believe me or trust you if I told you then? I'm not gonna get myself killed for no reason. Fuck, look at you right now, I helped save Eren's life and capture Annie so you drag us up here like criminals, no wonder I didn't reveal myself if this is how you treat us all for saving the day."

"E-excuse me." A portly man called out from the audience, richly dressed and among the nobles. In one hand he held his own copy of Erwin and Pixis' report. "About this Eldian Empire, our ancestors. Who were they?"

"Dunno, there were some people alive a couple hundred years ago. People in the outside world dislike you because of them. It doesn't matter to me. You guys got nothing to do with that."

A couple others, Priests, Pastors, Nobles, and Merchants called out as well with their own questions or accusations. Ymir's eyebrow twitched.

"Look, I already told Hange here everything I know and wrote it all down too. Pixis should have some copies of his own. If you want to know anything else about the outside world, ask them. I'm tired of you people looking down on me when I saved you."

There was a familiar-looking man in the audience with the rest of the nobles, gritting his teeth together as he sneezed. Levi raised an eyebrow, 'Why's a rich guy like him doing, dressed in a Garrison uniform?'

The old man adjusted her glasses again, looking at Levi as she stood beside the podium. "Levi, as humanity's strongest soldier, what do you say on the matter of her truthfulness?"

Levi shrugged. "You heard what she said so how about you stop twiddling your thumbs. Those two Titans could be wreaking havoc out there already."

The room went quiet at that. No one could deny the threat that the Colossal and Armored Titan posed, but at the same time, nobody knew what to do about it. Bertholdt and Reiner had just seemingly vanished into thin air.

"Yes, but there is also the matter of the doctor, Miss Tewi Inaba."

"Indeed, this non-human. Another infiltrator who has seen to infiltrate these god-given walls and-"
"Hello."

Without anybody realizing it, Tewi had already appeared on the stand. Smiling as she stood out like a sore thumb with her doll-like dress, red eyes, and white rabbit ears.

"Sorry to keep you guys waiting, I was a bit busy."

"Busy?" The old man looked down at Tewi, lowering his glasses so she could see him narrow his eyes.

"Ya' know, just checking up on things, and stuff, stuff and things. Busy day, ain't it?"

"Ahem, Miss Inaba, if that is your-"

"Yes, yes it is my name and I'm not a human. Can we get this over with?"

The Pastor almost exploded, into rage as his hands gripped the wooden railing. "So admit to your nature demon?" He was teething, froth at the lips as he spoke as he barely held himself back.

"Well, it's not like you're entirely incorrect there. I guess you could call me a demon if you wanted since I'm a Youkai."

"I see no reason to include this beast's testimony. She has admitted to her demonhood herself!"

The old man sighed again. "Miss Inaba, your origins?"

"Well, I arrived here four years ago from another world. Found Eren and healed him, became a doctor, and got embroiled in the battle in Trost due to happenstance."

"Do you expect us to believe you assisted during the battle of Trost out of the goodness of your heart while hiding your true nature?"

"Nope, I'm just trying to find a way home. All the medicine and science stuff I know is just stuff I've picked up from being a doctor back home. It's just my job. So you don't have to think much of it if you don't wanna." In other words, all of this really was nothing important to her, or so she wanted them to believe.

"Nah, first of all, they don't get anyway for me to get back home, and neither do you people. Second of all, I don't trust either. I'm just here due to happenstance really"

'So that's it, she's going to downplay her part in this. She's not gonna deny her inhumanity and play it up, lead into the Wall Cults expectations to make them look foolish.'

"Tsk." Levi clicked his tongue against his teeth and took a step forward in front of the podium."Oi. Old shit, these two are getting nowhere. Onto the next one before we die of boredom."

The old man sighed, looking between the Pastor and Levi. "Yes, I believe that brings us to the other non-human here." As the man said that his gaze went past Tewi and everyone else, to land squarely on Eren who returned it with a hard stare of his own.

"Hey!" Tewi started, holding a hand out as if to block either of them from speaking. "Eren's just as human as the rest of you, he saved the day just like Ymir did." Levi felt his eyebrow twitch. There was something, a lie, an omission of truth or twisting of words in what Tewi said. Other than that, there was also the issue of how big of a role Ymir played in the battle.

'Please, the kid did more than that. I did too, Ymir was the distraction but we're the ones who took Annie down."

"As he is also not a human." Levi felt his eyebrow twitch, the Titans were just as much humans as anybody else, they were just sick, cursed. With Tewi and Ymir, they knew that for a fact.

The MP, Nile Dok nodded again. "Yes, there is the issue of not only his basic humanity but the basic humanity of that girl, Mikasa Ackerman." The man shifted through the documents on his clipboard. "According to the record, they killed three robbers when they entered Mikasa's house when they both were only nine years of age."

Tewi didn't step down from the stand. "His life was in danger, and he was nine. The only thing he was responsible for then was and he-"

"Dammit!" Eren cut in, stepping forward to stand in front of Mikasa. "Tewi, I can defend myself!"

"Eren you're a child the only person you're responsible for is yourself. Let me handle this."

"I'm a scout, I can handle this, I fought Annie and almost died." No tears welled in the corner of his eyes as he spoke, and neither did his voice crack. Instead, the fire behind his eyes blazed furiously.

"So! Did anybody here have any idea what they were doing with their life when they were fifteen?"
The room grew quiet as nobody answered, a few shuffled awkwardly on the spot, but nobody wanted to speak the truth. "I didn't think so!"

The old man adjusted his glasses again, a nervous tick. He looked between Eren and Tewi, then sighed. "Miss Inaba, regardless of your personal views. Eren Yeager is a soldier and his testimony is important here. Step down."

Levi could see Tewi wanted to say something more, but instead, she obediently stepped down from the pulpit, allowing Eren to walk up to her and speak on equal ground. Eren put a hand on her shoulder.

"Tewi, I trust you, but that means you have to trust me. I can speak for myself."

She nodded, and then they two passed by each other as Eren took the stand.

The old man nodded, then spoke. "Eren Yaeger, if you would. On the matter of the three robbers, could you describe what you felt at the time and what was going through your mind?"

"I-I was angry, I was scared for my life and Mikasa. It's people like them, who take freedom away from others and treat peoples' lives like commodities. That's what's wrong with this world!"

Levi nodded, but there was something there, an anger Eren was holding back. 'He's not lying either, but he's omitting something, trying to make the situation look better for himself.' Levi didn't have a problem with that, but if Eren was going to be unstable in the future he needed to know it.

"That's good, and the alternatives. Did you seek out any help or assistance as your first course of action?"

"There weren't any. If I didn't do anything, Mikasa here would have been dead! I'm not gonna stand by either and let people get hurt just because some jerk decided that they wanted to make somebody else hurt!"

"Even if that means killing other humans, Mister Yeager?"

"Yes."

"Thank you, Mister Yaeger." The old man said, pushing up his glasses as he put his papers aside.

"One more word." The pastor said, stepping up again. "I would like to remind this gathering of people here today of the periodicity of the devils which seek to undermine these walls. Here we not only have one, but three who masquerade as humans. It would only be wise to kill them now."

"Demons pretending to be people, huh?" Tewi said, repeating the man's line back to him as she stepped up to stand next to the pulpit. "Then, how do we know you're not a demon masquerading as a priest?"

"Lies, a demon could never pretend to be a man of go-"

"They can do all sorts of things. Back home there was this story about a demon called an Amanojaku who could wear other people's skin, masquerading as them. They stole the skin of all sorts of people, even beautiful princesses. Besides, for a trickster like that who only wants to cause chaos, isn't pretending to be somebody trusted the best option?"

The message was clear. She was threatening the Pastor while questioning if his antics were that of a demon in human skin. Which in turn carried the implication he had another motive, of course, those two implications could be true individually as well.

The entire room was quiet again as the Pastor and Tewi held each other's stares, neither backing down.

"Oi, idiots," Levt spoke up from the other side of the pulpit. "I'm still here if you haven't noticed, and If it comes down to it, kill them all myself. Tewi, Ymir, and Eren."

The rabbit parallel to him smiled at that. "Yep, and I'm already making sure he has all the tools to do so!~" Tewi held out a hand high in the air. "So you don't have to worry your heads one bit."

The old man sighed. "If that is true then-"

"Levi, do you have a blade on you?" Tewi said, ignoring the man as she peaked around the pulpit, still holding her hand in the air as she faced Levi.

Eren's eyes winded and he moved. "Wait, Te-"

In a flash, Levi unsheathed a hidden blade, and rushed forward, cutting through the air as black lighting trailed along his blade. It met the bare flesh of Tewi's wrist with a sickening wet squelch, the sound of metal, and the taste of ozone in the air.

Then Tewi's hand was on the floor as the stump where it had been bled red-black blood and smoke. Tewi lowered her hand, still smiling through the pain.

"That's my resolve. Now, how about you decide."

Again, the room was in stunned silence as Levi walked over and pocketed Tewi's now missing hand as it smoked on the floor. Even the Pastor didn't say anything as Levi, Tewi, and Eren returned to the group. Eren gave Tewi an intense stare that made her wilt slightly.

Erwin sighed, Levi could tell he didn't appreciate their theatrics. Then he took the stand again"Excuse me. Before the tribunal of two makes their final decision, I would like to remind those assembled that we've only acted in the better interests of our Island of Paradise."

"Even Eren, Ymir, and Tewi here put their life and safety on the line so you all could live safe and peaceful lives."

The old man surveyed the entire room and looked back down at his notes again. "The matter is concluded, this testimony seems credible enough. Although the matter now moves to how will this testimony be confirmed and what course of action should be taken as verify it. Given it has to do with the outside world, I suppose Commander Erwin has plans for this, yes?

"Yes sir, Quinta District in the West has been cut off from the rest of the districts by Titans for the past four years. Thanks to the valiant efforts of its Garrison and both of its gates being sealed, no Titan has entered but still, it cannot last much longer. So that's where we'll start our range. We'll move out from Klorva, free Quinta, and then move onto Shiganshina."

"As for the two remaining Titans, we have another plan."

When the group was finally done with the hearing, they left it exhausted. Alongside their trip to Mitras had taken up most of the day. They were assigned some temporary lodging for the night, but the walk back was awkward. Not only due to Tewi who had given herself some first aid.

As soon as the door to the common room shut behind them, Tewi opened her mouth.

"Good show Levi."

"No!" Eren said, exploding into acting as he burst from underneath Tewi's hand. "You just don't get to say"

"Eren, there's a difference between throwing your life away in the moment and making a reckless decision for the future." Tewi gestured with her stumped hand to Levi, "Also, could I have my hand back please?"

Levi complied, smushing the cutoff end of the smoking hand onto Tewi's stump. Not missing a beat, Tewi wrapped her other hand around where they med and closed her eyes as she squeezed. The smoke that leaked from the wound flew through her fingers before slowly dissipating, then when she took her other hand off the hand and stump were connected again. Only a thin, red wound leaving any sign of lasting damage. "See, almost good as new!"

"No! When I said I didn't want anyone else to get hurt I meant it. I'm not gonna let you get hurt so you can prove a point, I can stand up for myself."

Tewi tapped her feet against the floor. Again, Levi could see the gears turning in her head clearly. 'Crafty, but she knows trying to make an excuse here won't work. At the same time, if she made a promise she'd break it.' He already knew that she was hiding some information from him.

Tewi sighed. "Okay, you didn't risk your life during the battle. So I won't risk my life here. I can't make any promises, though."

Eren gave her a long and hard look, causing the light in the room to slightly dim before he sighed in turn. "Fine, and if anyone tries to kill you, I'll be the one to exterminate them Myself."

"Hmph." Levi half-sighed, half laughed.

"What?"

"Nothing Eren." Tewi cut in. "You're just acting very like yourself, you know that? Maybe a bit like Mikasa as well?"

Everybody either mumbled an agreement or chuckled at Eren, even Mikasa nodded along. There was one issue that still bugged Ymir.

"Oi, Erwin, that shitty plan of yours. Still doesn't alleviate my fears about Reiner and Bertholdt. We got no idea what they're doing, and something is wrong with Reiner. Every time I talked to him bastard seemed off."

'In other words, she's worried for their safety.' Levi thought. A part of his mind was worried about that, he didn't want a soldier like her hesitating against enemies that they might end up facing. It was an extraordinarily weak-hearted position in a room of people who had resolved themselves to kill to protect the ones they loved.

Tewi, on the other hand, brought her hand to her chin. "Right... Do any of you have a good read on them?"

Eren narrowed his eyes. "I didn't have a good read, but I agree with Ymir. It was like Reiner was always surrounded by a shadow."

Mikasa raised her hand. "He didn't seem to be uncomfortable or overtly suspicious like Annie, or nervous like Bertholdt. But looking back on it, that seems odd now."

Ymir nodded. "Yeah, a crazy guy did that. I can tell you now he was lying all the time. The weird thing was he'd say it with the straightest face ever like he believed his own lies."

"That's worrying," Tewi said. "It doesn't change our plan, but isolated mentally unstable people with powers like that are just the type of person who ends up losing their humanity."

"Let's settle to do the best we can for now, if we can get our hands on them studying what turns humans into Titans should be easier. Once that is done, we can try to look for a cure for you guys."

"Wha-” Ymir almost did a spit take. "Why, how>"

"How? Me, and of course. Why wouldn't we? This power seems like some generation curse and if it's causing so many people to fight over it we should probably get rid of it eventually."

"Not necessary." Erwin said, "I'm sure Pixis has thought of this too, but if we were able to safely harness this power it would make ending the conflict with these Marleans far easier."

Ymir shrugged, and Tewi raised an eyebrow.

"True, they might be unreasonable and we might have to fight them." Tewi said, "But it's all in the future right now, nothing to start a fight over."

The group still had a while until any of them felt like sleeping and so fell into small talk, Tewi and Hange about medicine and Youkai. Levi leaned up against the wall, Armin, Mikasa, and Eren going over the plan again while Erwin brought out a journal from his pocket to jot something down. Outside the moon rose over Wall Sina, casting its baleful light down onto the city. While Krista fidgeted nervously next to Ymir. The two wordlessly shared a look while the others were making small talk, and then Ymir spoke.

"Hey, me and Krista are leaving, be back shortly."

"Ahem," Erwin said, cutting into their conversation, "Pixis hasn't returned yet. Do you have any word on him Tewi?"

"Don't worry, that friend of his is the Commander of the Central Garrison. I already checked as well, they're safe."

Erwin nodded. With not much else to do, and no one feeling ready to sleep, the group fell into small talk. Armin, Erwin, and Hange tried to speak to Ymir about the outside world, but she rebuffed them, leaving the three to talk to Tewi about her world. While Mikasa and Levi leaned up against the same wall, looking out onto the group. Eren seemed to be in contemplation about something. While Krista, the odd woman out in the whole affair, shuffled nervously next to Ymir.

"I'm going with Krista, we have something to talk about."

"Be careful you two," Tewi called out breaking from her conversation with Erwin and Armin.

"Whatever, don't follow."

The two unceremoniously departed, even as the moon climbed higher in the sky.

Levi raised an eyebrow as the door closed behind them."Hange."

"Okay, okay, I'll watch them."

"Privacy, it's a word. Learn it. Or do you not have the concept of privacy here either?"

Hange didn't have a chance to speak as Ymir slammed the door in her face, causing Krista to take a step back. They were still on the second story of the castle complex, just atop one of the roofs of their single-story barracks.

Ymir walked to the edge of the roof. "Well, it looks like they haven't tried anything yet, cowards."

Below the courtyards were nearly empty, only a few MPs and Garrison troops going about their business as thin wisps of the moon's light broke through the cloud cover.

Krista looked to Ymir, and then followed, leaning up against the railing. "Sorry, Ymir, for bringing you into all of this."

"Oi." Ymir tapped Krista on the head. "Don't apologize, I came here to see who you were in the first place. I'm not gonna ditch you now."

"I'm just a nobody. Sure, my father's..." Krista hesitated, not saying the word as she looked around. She couldn't see anyone, but something told her they were being watched. "But, you said you didn't care about the earlier."

"Do I need a reason? I do what I want."

"Please, Ymir and I know you're lying. Just be honest with me."

"Fine..." Ymir sighed. "When I first came here I overheard some priests talking about you. I started thinkin' about myself too since I was used by my dad and his little cult." The man wasn't actually her father, but he was close enough even if he was scum.

"So I got curious, who was this girl they were talkin' about? So when they said you'd gone off to join the army, I followed. That's all there was to it, nothing like I talked about back there." Ymir waved her hand in the air dismissively. "So, what's your story? Why'd you join the military after some MPs slit that farmer's throat?"

Krista took a step back, her eyes widening as she looked at Ymir. She hadn't expected her to know about her foster parents as well.

"I just wanted to make people's lives better. I couldn't stay in the interior so the scouts-"

"Stop lying," Ymir said, not even turning to look at Krista. "Look, I put my neck out for you. How about you tell me the truth for once."

Ymir felt dirty saying that, but she was tired of Krista's constant lying, the happy face she'd put on for other people.

Krista shuffled back and forth nervously, looking around again, before deciding she didn't care. Whoever was listening probably already knew what she was going to say.

"Okay, so..."

You already know, I was being taken by a farmer. He was really nice, and so was his wife... I guess they were my parents. My mother didn't really take care of me, and they didn't have any kids of their own so I was the best they had as well.

I guess my childhood was mostly fine, I didn't have any friends though. The closests I had were the kids who threw rocks at me, but I was never hungry.

I think there was an older girl there. She was like a big sister to me, but I won't remember her well. Maybe she was one of my sisters, my father mentioned I had them. At the time I didn't even know who my real parents were, so I lived in ignorance.

I was never really close to my mother though, I tried to be nice with her, but she'd always push me away. She said some mean things, but I was happy for her to just talk with me. Most of the time she just ignored me the best she could.

Then she left, we didn't see each other for a long time and I only had the farmer, his wife, and the animals. Nobody else. I remember learning about my father then but I don't remember how, everybody seemed to consider me a burden.

Life went on like that for a long time and I wondered if anything would change.

Then, the walls fell. My father came and... My sister was dead, and all of my siblings were. Only my father escaped. Somebody attacked them and the Military Police were there with him.

The worst was that man, the one with the broad smile. I didn't hear his name but-

That man slit my mother's throat, and the farmers, and his wife, and I... I didn't know what to do and I-

...

My father left me alive, I don't know why.

So, I don't know why I joined the military, not really. Everything I've done since then has just felt so hollow, I try to do good, to help people, to feel better about myself. I did good in training, but I don't know-

"I just feel so empty... I don't want to be Historia, but I don't want to be Krista either. I just-"

"It's fine."

Ymir put her hand on Krista's shoulder as tear beads gathered in the corners of her eyes. She didn't realize she had been on the verge of tears. "You ain't empty, ya hear. You, even if you say that wasn't yourself you still did them. I don't care if the true you is kind or some nobody, you're important to me and everyone else's even without your family, ya' hear."

Krista nodded, trying to hide her face from Ymir.

"So I better not hear you saying that about yourself again. You were one of the top ten students in our class, and you have more skill in one of your fingerbones than I got in my entire body. Understand?"

"I-I-Yes!" Krista stepped back

"Just don't get yourself killed or used okay? I'm not gonna see you used as someone else's pawn." There it was, embers, sparks, not a fire, but there was something behind Krista's eyes. A passion that hadn't been released.

Krista raised her head, only for her face to pale as she saw somebody standing on the roof above them.

"Uh, Ymir..." Krista pointed to the man, her hand going for her ODM gear as she prepared to grapple away.

"Huh?"

Ymir swore as she saw the man too.

Above them, standing on the roof of the second story was a man, smiling widely, his teeth like daggers. "It's nice seeing you again, Princess."

Chapter Text

Hange burst through the door, flashing out her blades as she skidded across the roof. Krista moved as well, and in what seemed like a moment, both of them held their swords pointed up at the smiling man. By the time they had gotten in place, Ymir had only just realized what was happening and raised her hand to her mouth, ready to bite down at any moment.

"Ladies, ladies, we haven't even introduced ourselves yet." The moonlight shone from behind the man, turning him into a silhouette with a razor-sharp smile and white glowing eyes as he looked down at the three.

"They know who you are, Kenny." Levi stood atop one of the four corners of the roof. Unlike the three below, he sheathed his swords. 'Doesn't matter anyway, whoever he's working with has had us surrounded for a while.' His eyes narrowed, looking past Kenny and into the surrounding darkness where indistinct figures sat atop the roofs of the buildings surrounding the courtyard or hiding behind chimneys.

"Ah, Levi, great to see you too."

"Stop with the formality, we already noticed each other earlier. Tell us what you want or leave."

"Nothing much, I just got an offer for you." Kenny shrugged, sitting down at his perch. "So my employer says you all have to die, and I need to kidnap the princess there." Kenny gestured to Krista as he rolled his eyes, "But I don't think their chances of winning are good."

"And you see, I know you left something out of the little speech of yours earlier. You didn't mention that ultimate power, the Founding Titan."

"So, how about this, help me get that ultimate power, and I'll do what you say?" Kenny gestured to the darkness. Levi nodded, but Ymir, Krista, and Hange could only sweat as they failed to find anything.

Kenny looked around. "Where's the other three anyhow? 'You trying to set up a counter-ambush with two people and a rabbit?"

"They don't need to be here. If you're going to spout delusions about becoming god, I can handle you myself."

"We're called the anti-personnel squad, and it's not power for power's sake. Whoever I saw, what it does to people. The last king, the last real king, not that puppet on the throne. His name was Uri Reiss, he was my best friend and-"

"I don't need to know your entire backstory. Get to the point already."

"The point is, I've never met a single other person like him. Then the person he passed that power down to had the same look in her eyes. They talked about the same things: love, peace, and making the world a better place for the last generation. "

"Whatever that power does to a person, it changes them, help me get it, and we'll both get what we want. You can retake the walls, fight whoever those Marley people are, and I'll get to see the world from Uri's eyes."

Kenny's smile had disappeared, replaced by an impassive mask and a hollowness behind his eyes. Nobody said anything, as they all waited for the other shoe to drop, each of them ready to attack at any moment. Not even the wind blew as the pupilless moon looked down on the scene, its lunar rays a spotlight.

"Hi!" The three below twitched as Tewi appeared on the other corner of the roof, opposite Levi. "Not to be rude, but... if the King was a good person. I don't think we would be in this situation, would we?"

Kenny's eyes twitched as the air around him darkened. "Oi. Don't you go bad-mouthing a person you've never met."

Tewi smiled kindly. "I'm just saying. Maybe that person you keep talking about wasn't like how you imagined him to be, and maybe you're already a little like him?"

"He was a compassionate man who only wanted the last generation of people here to live out their lives comfortably. Not anything like whatever you're saying, and nothing like a killer like me."

"Yeah, that's just my best guess. I can't really say things like that until I meet this man, or whatever god he was a vessel to myself, but if you're self-aware enough to know you don't want to be the person you are, then don't you already care a little?"

Kenny's grip tightened on his ODM gear. "A compassionate person wouldn't end people's lives for their own sake, no matter the situation, and they don't go around killing people calling it salvation either." The gaze of the moon contracted as Kenny spoke honestly, its gaze growing uneasy. "I was just born like that, just like you were born a rabbit."

Tewi shook her head. "No, a person who was already heartless wouldn't care about that, in the first place. Isn't trying to become god kind of roundabout method, anyway?" The gears turned in Tewi's mind as she thought, then she activated her ability. "The brain, your feelings, they're like any other muscle. You have to exercise them to make them grow. So instead of becoming god, doesn't it make more sense to nurture your heart?"

Kenny said nothing for a moment, instead giving Tewi a hard gaze. 'Hopefully, he agrees, using my luck to read a person's fortune is only useful when they take my advice.'

"What's your angle here?"

"Well, I want to get home, but if you're asking about just right now, then I'd have to say...." Tewi dragged out the last syllable as she flexed her divine luck, looking for the right thing to say. "I've only just met you, and I don't really care about what happens to you either way, but I've met real monsters, and you're not one of them. Even if you are a bad person." Tewi gave him a warm, motherly smile. 'People can really be so stubborn. Mystia went right along with what I had to say, and Aya listened as well. Even if that Tengu ended up bungling my advice. Marisa didn't even follow my advice, even if it would have given her a better life.'

Kenny clicked her tongue against his teeth. "Becoming god. That's the only thing I have, I've set myself along that path, and I'll finish it." The gaze of the moon intensified as a charge of black ran along his pair of blades, and the moonlight dimmed.

"Even if it means using that inhuman power?"

Kenny smiled again, laughing under his breath as the air around him solidified into darkness. "Either I get to experience the world from the perspective of a real human, or I give up the pretense of being a person. Either way, I get what I want." In the moonlight, Kenny's smile seemed to stretch unnaturally long and bright, a crescent moon on a pitch black backdrop.

"Fun. Well, you sure are a person who enjoys playing the part of being arbitrary, but we've reached an impasse. Haven't we?" Tewi said, smiling as she joked and tilted her head like a dog.

He nodded. "Then that's that. Good thing I already had something else lined up." The moonlight shifted along with the darkness around him, gleaming off his razor-sharp smile.

"No. I have a question." Levi narrowed his eyes as he drew both his swords, pointing one towards Kenny. "Who were you to my mother?"

He rolled his eyes. "Just her brother. No one important," Kenny scanned the scene again, before looking down at Krista. "Not gonna ask about why I call princess here, princess?"

"Nope," Tewi answered, kicking the roof beneath her as she balanced on the ledge. Kenny nodded, and then all at once the world exploded into motion.

Levi and Tewi rushed forward simultaneously, both of them swinging their blades towards Kenny, Tewi's spectral and glowing, Levi's charged with an arc of black lightning. As Tewi's and Eren's blades met with Kenny's, the air crackled with strange energy, and then a wave of pressure exploded out from them.

Below, Ymir could barely keep up as Krista put a hand around her waist, and they moved. Hange followed suit, moving just in time to avoid a hail of bullets. The three of them flew backwards over the railing of the roof as moonlight glinted off the rooftops, revealing Kenny's fellow assassins as they moved.

The three of them flew over the railing, trying to use their momentum to swing like a pendulum down and through a window down into the first level. Ymir felt her stomach lurch as something hit her and Krista. It wasn't a bullet or a sword; instead, one of the assassins had thrown their entire body at the two of them. As she was ripped from Krista's grasp, she could see Hange smash through the window and another assassin move in from above. Ymir swallowed her spit, and the entire world seemed to slow to a crawl as she tumbled mid-air. Krista had been tossed to the side as well, and her hand was still close to her mouth. Ymir moved and bit down.

She could see the assassin's eyes widen, then right before she could hit the ground, Ymir exploded into a ball of light.

For a moment, the light of the moon was eclipsed as the Jaw Titan formed around Ymir, illuminating the entire scene, revealing the countless assassins swarming like ants. When the explosion disappeared with a pop, the assassin splattered against the masonry of the building, only for a volley of bullets to follow in the wake of his death.

Ymir had her back turned to Krista, lying on the floor. 'Dammit, I have to get her to safety.' Only for the boom of a stream of bullets to find its way drilling into her eye. Ymir spun off her heel, grabbing Krista. She only glimpsed the red trickling down her face, even one of the top ten students was already down for the count.

Ymir clutched Krista close to her chest as she jumped away. Bullets were peppering her skin harmlessly as the more dangerous, blade-wielding assassins closed in. Ymir growled, and then Hange shot out of another window, holding one hand out into the air. "I'll get her!"

Ymir tossed the unconscious Krista, and felt her heart rise in her throat, and Hange caught her. In the next moment, Hange and Krista escaped into the building, busting through another window as the assassins changed targets. Ymir grabbed hold of the roof and flipped onto it. The assassins moved again, several breaking through windows themselves.

Ymir jumped across the roof, swiping at the air and trying to hit the assassins, only for them to evade. Another spark of lightning illuminated the scene, revealing Tewi, Levi, and Kenny as they danced in the air.

"Dammit! Don't kill the girl!" On the illuminated rooftop, a blonde-haired woman locked eyes with Ymir and spoke. "I'll get the girl. Kill the Titan!" In the next instant, she was gone, and their remaining assassins turned towards Ymir.

Hange ducked into a walk-in pantry, laying Krista down on the floor as she could hear their processors zipping through the halls. Reflexively, she unclipped a medical kit from her belt and put it down on the floor as she went to assess Krista's wound. "Know what's going on?"

Krista blinked, nodding. "I... It's my father, I'm connected to all of this through him."

"Good to know, next time you have a big secret, tell us right away."

"S-sorry, I didn't know if- I just didn't want to cause any rouble, you wee such-"

"Ah, can you please stop pretending?" Hange said, fixing her glasses as she moved her face farther away from Krista. "You have a slight concussion and some blood loss. I think you probably have some enchanted durability. Not as much as Mikasa, and nowhere near as close to what Eren and Ymir probably have, and you shouldn't take it for granted, but it's worth knowing about."

Krista blinked, not able to keep up with Hange's babble as she retrieved bandages from the first aid kit. "Uh, what?"

"Eren mentioned it in a report he made about you a while back, you lie a lot. We didn't think much of it at the time since Ymir seemed more important."

"Ah, okay..." Krista swallowed her spit and nodded. Unsure of what else to say as Hange fixed her wounds. All of this had happened so fast. Outside, the sound of EDM gear echoes throughout the halls and empty wounds.

"Well, if you don't want it to be awkward, stop doing it then," Hange said, responding to Krista's voiceless question. "He and Mikasa went to take care of the ones sent after Annie."

The sounds of footsteps and ODM gear grew louder outside the pantry, closer and closer. Then the doors to the kitchen slammed open, followed shortly by the sound of boot heels echoing across the tile floor. Krista and Hange heard the assassin shout something, but neither of them registered it as Hange stood up and drew her swords. "Sorry about this."

Krista blinked, not understanding what Hange had said, but the doors of the pantry flew open before she could ask. Hange launched her grapples and, in an instant, was outside. She and the man launched their ODM gear simultaneously, and both hesitated as they moved, but Hange already had a sword drawn. She closed the distance, and the assassin screamed as Hange grazed his neck, missing her vocal cords and giving the man an opportunity to scream before she swung back around, killing the man in three strokes.

Hange froze for a moment, standing above the man's corpse, looking down at him with empty eyes, then Krista stumbled just out of the pantry. Just in time to see Hange turn back to her. "Move."

The sound of ODM gear exploded throughout the halls, and Hange and Krista exploded into motion. Even as she stumbled through the air, Krista followed Hange quickly behind as they burst into the kitchen, but when they exited the kitchen, two of the assassins had already arrived.

One was a blonde woman with sharp eyes; there was a strong presence to her, while the other one was a girl, skilled, yes, but newer, younger. Krista dove as the younger girl lunged for each, swapping back at her and cutting a444cross her chest as she skidded across the floor, barely avoiding hitting any tables as the girl made a rough landing behind her.

Hange and the blonde locked swords, landing atop a table, scattering chairs in their wake. Hange launched her grapples, sending them into the ceiling behind the blonde while the blonde sent her grapples flying into the floor beyond Hange. The two moved on their collision course, only for the blonde to lock eyes and then spin. Hange felt the kick to the gut before she realized anything else was going on; her grapples snapped. She flew back through the air with none of her grapples deployed and no time to react as the blonde flashed her swords.

Hange could only distantly feel lucky as she flew back through the air, the two shallow cuts burning across her skin. If the blonde moved any further forward, she would fall off the table, and she didn't have the chance to both attack and grapple forward, sparring Hange's life through mere chance.

Krista was moving without realizing it, but then. With a bang, a third arrived on the scene, the sound of a bullet bursting through the air as he immediately fired.

Hange screamed as a bullet lodged itself in her leg. The blonde woman kept an impassive mask, but Krista flinched. Then, finally, as she spun through the air, Hange landed face-first on a table, and the blonde woman's grapples had fully returned from their retracted state.

Krista's eyes widened as she got up, and the blonde woman activated her grapples. In the next moment, both moved, Krista reflexively throwing herself in front of Hange, and the blonde woman leaping across the room. The Blonde's eyes widened as she realized what was happening; they had backed them into a corner, and now Krista was trying to take a bullet for Hange instead of fleeing.

Before the other assassin could take a shot, or either of the blondes could complete their objective, the roof collapsed inward as a massive fist came onto the scene. Roof tile, masonry, and wood exploded downwards as the hand groped towards the blonde woman.

The hand was off mark, but both the blonde woman and Krista were already stuck on their current paths. Even as they both let go of the triggers on their ODM gear and moved out of the way, their remaining momentum carried them forward. They scattered across the room like flies, barely avoiding the falling debris as the hole in the ceiling grew wider.

The whole world seemed to slow as Ymir crushed the assassin beneath her palm. Her entire body was scarred, bleeding, splattered with blood, and smoking. She and the assassins on the roof had done a number on each other, but as long as she remained inside the Jaw Titan, she was invincible. Her voice came booming down as she swiped at the blonde leader of the assassins. "RUN!"

Hange was still knocked out, and Krista could see the blonde rising from across the room, dusty and bleeding now. In her mind, the risk of the blonde finishing Hange was too great. Krista gritted her teeth and grappled up through the gaping hole Ymir had left in the ceiling.

The blonde woman followed suit, jumping onto the roof as she cursed herself for going in for the kill instead of grabbing Krista when she had the chance.

Krista was the first to react, slicing through the shoulder of an assassin mid-air before landing on Ymir's back. At the same moment, the blonde landed beside her. Ymir tried to move in time, but the blonde assassin was too fast, flashing forward and swinging at Krista. "Damn you, just give up!"

Krista reacted perfectly, launching her grapple behind her, throwing herself off of Ymir's back with the momentum as she turned to face the blonde assassin. Krista and the assassin met in the air once, before skidding to a halt near the edge of the roof, locking eyes.

There was only a moment of stillness before they locked blades, and the two danced on the edge of the building, evenly matched. Then the blonde woman slipped, panic overtaking her mind as the feeling of falling took priority. Krista seized on the opportunity, kicking her in the gut.. The blonde woman felt herself fall back and reflexively used her grapples, shooting them into the masonry of the roof to prevent her from falling over the edge. Krista jumped back and launched both her grapples as the blonde woman was left having to retract hers. The blonde assassin felt her heart rate spike; she needed to ensure Krista wouldn't leave. As Krista flew, the blonde opened her mouth and screamed.

"Surrender and your friends live!" Krista froze for a moment, but that was enough time for her to lose.

The blonde woman jammed an elbow into Krista's gut in time with one of Krista's lines being cut by another assassin. The pull of her remaining grapple and the momentum did the rest, flinging her along the roof. She rolled along the roof, tumbling and battered, before landing at the feet of an assassin. He hovered over Krista, stunned for a second, before he detached his swords and went to pick her up.

Ymir threw herself forward, shielding Krista. Even as she squashed one of them like a ripe fruit, the blonde other Assassin wrapped around her front, and jammed his sword into her eye, bursting it like a ripe fruit. Ymir slapped a hand over her burst eye, catching the assassin in the same move, only to realize she had left herself open to attack.

Pain sliced through Ymir's mind as the Jaw Titan's tendons were cut, her legs nearly going limp. She tried to make anything out, but she was down an eye; there were too many of them, assassins buzzing around her left and right, a mixture of shallow and deep cuts appearing across her skin as the echoes of the fight against Kenny flashed through the palace. Another assassin caught her eye, and Ymir swung. He smiled as she missed; her damaged legs were not able to launch her. Then Ymir only had a moment to register the blonde woman landing on the back of her throat as blood exploded from Ymir's mouth as she felt a sword lodge itself in her nape, followed by another as the blonde detached the blades from ODM gear. Ymir stumbled, tried to move as the swords bit through her limbs, only for the blonde's next pair of swords to come flashing out.

The warm feeling of the titan flesh surrounding Ymir vanished as cold air rushed into the nape cavity, right before the feeling of falling took over as the blonde woman tore her out of the titan. Ymir fell back first, the roof tile bursting into the air as she hit the roof hard. She could only distantly register Levi and Tewi's clash, and Krista had gone as well.

Ymir landed face-first into the roof tile, smoke black and white fumed from her missing stumps. Krista lay on the roof tile next to her, the shadow of the Jaw Titan quickly disappearing as it dissolved behind them. For a second, they locked eyes.

'Idiot! Run away!' Ymir wanted to say, words failing her as she lay limbless on the roof. The boot of the blonde woman blocked her vision. The blonde picked up Krista, forcing air through her throat as she spoke. "I got the girl, you take care of the Titan."

The other assassin, the one who distracted her, landed. Ymir didn't hear the man respond, but the shadow over her lengthened as he drew his swords. The assassin held the end of his pistol to the back of Ymir's neck. "Say your prayers-"

Only for his grip to loosen and his hands to be severed at the wrist, flesh and bone cut through in a single stroke. The man opened his mouth to scream, just in time for his head to be split horizontally. Standing just behind the man's corpse, Eren held a flaming blade in each hand.

The blonde woman turned back, her eyes widening as she and Eren saw each other. "I promised that I'm never going to let another one of my friends get hurt again." In the next instant, the man's head split in two. Eren grabbed Ymir and launched his grapples, zipping out of the way just in time for a hail of gunfire to miss them.

Eren swung over the edge of the roof, keeping a grapple lock on it while releasing the other one to swing him around, bursting through a window on the floor below. In a flash, Ymir found herself, still missing her limbs, but alive and lying on the cold floor of a bathroom as the door shut, Eren already having left.

When he reappeared, breaking through another window to swing back onto the roof, Eren was too close to the blonde and Krista for the other assassins to take the shot. Then, opposite Eren, and on the other side of the blonde, Mikasa appeared, roof tiles exploding into the air as she landed.

The blonde assassin's eyes widened. She couldn't escape in time, even if she used everything she had, she was dead. Eren and Mikasa, combined with so many lost members of her squad, and Levi and Tewi closing in on Kenny. This was a lost fight.

She was losing her resolve to fight, as she wavered-

"IDIOT!" Kenny yelled, his voice piercing through the chaos. "Hand me the girl!"

The blonde blinked, setting her feet into the ground, hefted Krista over her shoulder, and a moment before Eren could intercept, she threw Krista like a rag doll. Eren gritted his teeth.

Kenny smiled as she flew through the air. Like how the Mirror Man had in Trost, he placed his feet firmly against the air as if he was standing on solid ground, halting his momentum all at once before launching himself in Krista's direction. He grabbed her even as Levi, Twei, and the closest of them all, Eren, closed in on his position.

Kenny swallowed as he fled, and focusing every bit of power he had, breathed out a cloud of solid black. All at once, the moonlight disappeared, and a sphere of pitch blackness was born into the world, engulfing Kenny, Krista, and everybody else in a single moment.

Time slowed, and Kenny spoke.

"[Foggy Streets: Ke-]"

Kenny's pupils widened as Eren cut through the sphere of blackness. He held a single glowing sword in both of his hands as he aimed straight for Kenny's heart. Before Eren's blade could find its mark, a barrier popped up around Kenny at the same moment a vortex of black appeared behind him.

The barrier bent at Eren's sword, but it did not break.

"Finally, you show up." Kenny clicked his tongue against his teeth as two figures emerged from the mass of blackness behind him. The mirror visage of the masked man and a new, smaller silhouette standing next to him.

The masked man tilted his head as he stepped onto the grass. "I arrive exactly when I want to-"

"Nah, we just had some trouble somewhere else, sue us shit-can." Tewi's eyes widened as the portal disappeared and the second figure revealed itself. The girl in black and red turned to face Tewi and the others. "It's been a while, you're that rabbit from the bamboo forest, right?"

Her style had changed from the last time Tewi had seen her, half military now and worn in a style that reminded Tewi of Reimu. Although her clothes were torn and thin cracks spread across the surface of her body, crossing over clothes and bare skin as if Seija was a statue carved from a solid stone.

"And you're that shitty Amanojaku who doesn't know her place, Seija Kijin."

Chapter Text

Countless footsteps echoed in the distance as the castle awoke, belated screams of terror, and cries of fear carried onto the roof by the chilly night air as light after light turned on. Below, masonry, greenery, windows, and balconies, all reduced to ruins. In a few minutes, the night turned to terror. Beyond the destruction, the remaining assassins were in flight, picking up their injured comrades as they fled the castle, their ODM gear shooting steam and sizzling noise into the air, coming from all directions at once. All the while, the two forces on the roof continued their standoff—one side, protected by a seemingly impenetrable barrier.

Eren buried the tip of his blazing sword into the barrier, its shape warping around where he stabbed, but not breaking. It pulsed, translucent and arrow-patterned, colored red, black, and white—supported by smoky trails of black that wormed their way from out in between the folds in the Mirror Man's clothes, purple and gaudy as always. In contrast, the light from Eren's blade was a stark white, evaporating into the same wispy black as the Mirror Man's at its edges but overpowering the faint red of the barrier. They stood on the outer edge of the roof. Beyond the cityscape of Mitras, in front of them, Eren, Mikasa, Levi, and Tewi kept a keen eye on the three.

"Eren Yeager," wormed its way out of his mouth, snaking through the barrier. Then, just as the others reacted, his tone changed entirely, "With what pleasure do I meet you here today?" He bowed at the waist, leaning as low, with one hand at his torso and the other behind him to flourish his purple cape out.

Across from him, Eren narrowed his eyes as he felt the adrenaline fade and the icy wind lap at his skin. He twisted his ethereal blade, trying to drive it deeper, only for the barrier to remain steadfast. Eren clicked his tongue against his teeth, and his blade flickered out into nothingness.

Kenny gasped, smoke escaping from his mouth as he collapsed. A small cloud of smoke and dust poofed into the air as he landed, followed by Krista landing on top of him like a sack of potatoes. Beside him, Seija laughed like a devil, her cackling drawing out the shouts and footsteps as they drew ever closer.

"Oi," Levi said, the roof tile creaking beneath his foot as he took another step forward, "Hand over the girl."

The Mirror Man rose to his full height, sweeping a hand to the side as the light of the moon reflected off his mask, forming a crescent smile. "Perhaps if you listen to us first, we'll hand over the girl?" The man outstretched his hand, waiting for someone to take his offer.

The silence lingered, even as the sounds of the castle grew noisier and the assassins became more distant—figures jumping over rooftops and into alleys, disappearing in a flash. Eren twitched as he heard Erwin and Armin in the distance. The castle was coming alive, but still no one moved as the moon looked down on them.

"Fine," Tewi stepped forward, her bare feet scattering broken roof tiles as she walked to Eren's side—right before the barrier, "Tell us your story."

The crescent moon smile on the man's mask enveloped him, the barrier, and then the entire roof.

They stood on a flat, wide open plain, green fields as far as the eye could see. There was nary a settlement, tree, or river in sight. Each stalk of grass was a small grain of sand, expertly ground out and dotted onto the empty landscape like an oil painting. Even the sun that shone down from above seemed to be made of countless grains. It was an odd and picturesque landscape.

The only thing out of place was the gaunt silhouette that stood above them all, completely indistinct before the light of the sun.

"Doubtless, you already know the power of god, the founding titan, the first king of these walls, but this wasn't what Paradise looked like, back then. Was it?"

A light rain washed the grains of green away, tumbling over the field to expose grains of black, brown, and gray. What little green remained collected into a few small valleys, while the rest of the colors formed the scene of a rocky island, splotches of black forming the shadows of great plateaus of rock speckled with sinewy, white trees.

"The king changed the island to prepare for his betrayal. Yes, a betrayal, wasn't it?"

More shadows came, flickering onto the scene, shaking for a moment before exploding into dance. They pushed around the grains with their feet. Whenever one fell from its dance, the grains scattered, and whenever one picked up a rock to hammer into the other's head, they bled red sand—sending the painting of the island beneath their feet into chaos.

In no time flat, it was a mess of white, black, and red.

"He turned house against house, brother against sister, fathers against their children, cousins against cousins, and Titans against Titans."

The shadows continued to tear at each other, dancing to the same two as the two listless eyes of the king looked down at them. The mess beneath them gave way to a mural of a grand landmass, brown brackish waves at its shore.

"A terrible plot to dissolve his empire. The end of Eldia."

The shadows all fell upon each other, grappling as they scattered the grains across the earth, obscuring everything as they melted together into a singular mass of shadow that spread across the landscape—swallowing up everything beneath it like a tidal wave of blood.

"In the end, his collaborators: The house of Tybur and the Marleans, long the slave soldiers of the empire, took reign. Of course, this meant the empire did not end: merely continue under another flag."

The canvas beneath them settled into an inky black sea, only bubbles of white emerging to the surface.

"So he made a solemn vow to renounce war. That he and his people should have never existed, and merely wanting to live the rest of his days out in peace said this: Any who march on this island will incur my wrath, and the Titans which make up the walls of my island shall thunder forth and crush all beneath their feet."

Then, at the center of the inky sea, the landmass pushed up: A strange island with familiar mountains and countless humans made from pale dots. They stood on top of each other, forming a series of three walls that surrounded the mountain. It was Paradise as it is now.

"Now we stand on the precipice of change. The world barrels to its conclusion, where the Titans shall emerge from these walls and flatten the world."

In the distance, beyond the sea of black and the little island, shadows grew. Larger and larger, the form of great machines, engines of war, and boats. Countless eyes emerged from those shadows, looking down at the little island with hunger.

"Only the destined devil that shall stand at the precipice of the world can save us now. With the power of the Founding and Attack Titan, he shall turn the entire world against him and save the remnants of Eldia and ensure peace for the new world."

Then, the sky melted from yellow to orange, and finally to a bleeding red that drowned out even the sea of black. The illusion dissolved.

They stood on the roof again, footsteps even closer now, the gaze of the moon firmly fixed on them, the wind caressing their skin with its bitter touch. Seija held Krista in a princess carry, and the barrier separating the two sides was gone. Kenny was left on the roof, and as the last of his compatriots vanished, the Mirror Man held his hand outstretched to Eren.

"—So, Eren Yaeger, I ask this of you. Become the devil this world-"

"No."

The Mirror Man's crescent moon smile disappeared as he retracted his hand and stood up straight. "This is the only way to protect your friends; they'll all die if you refuse."

"I'm not stupid. Now hand her over."

Seija smiled as she stroked Krista's hair, saying, "Guess it's time for my approach now. Work with us, or I'll turn this girl inside out."

Eren narrowed his eyes at Seija as she sauntered forward, carrying Krista with a smile on her face—she walked, floated right above the roof, almost imperceptibly stepping on air as she placed herself right in front of Eren, looked him in the eye, and said.

"Either you come over to our side, or I use my ability here on the girl and turn her inside out."

Eren's eyes widened as Seija stared up at him, his hands trembling as boiling rage fought back the cold of the night. He would have killed Seija in an instant if he could, but she was stronger and had all the leverage. Besides that, nobody wanted to wait here; nobody wanted to risk the situation worsening. Regardless of their wishes, the entire castle and now Mitras was awake, countless candles burning—with only luck and confusion keeping them from being discovered.

"That won't work," The Mirror Man said, half a sigh, forced and theatrical—rolling his shoulders back and shaking his head to draw attention toward himself. "If the boy won't-"

"Usa~" Tewi said, sighing, copying the man's movements—the footsteps were now underneath them, Armin and Erwin would be here soon. Even if those two wanted to put up another barrier and flee, there was nothing they could do. "You two really aren't good at this sort of act, either, are you? You two don't even take on characters you're suited for: So make your demands or stop wasting our time."

Seija turned away from Eren, ignoring Mikasa beside him to focus on Tewi as she gritted her teeth, pushing air through her mouth in some approximation of the hiss of a cat. The Mirror Man dropped his act, stepping across the roof tiles to pass Seija and Eren so he could look Tewi in the eye as he spoke in his normal, hollow voice.

"Tewi Inaba, turn yourselves over to us, and we'll hand Krista here over to Eren."

"Fine."

Everyone else froze as Tewi agreed without a second thought; even the Mirror Man and Seija froze. The Amanojaku's eyes turned from furiously triumphant to annoyed, as if she had been tricked. While the Mirror Man felt his palm sweat as he offered a hand out to Tewi.

However, Eren had the worst reaction. He had arched his head to look at the Mirror Man, before turning halfway around, his back to Seija as his wide eyes honed to a deadly sharp point. A pair of blazing swords ignited in both of his hands, and he heard himself scream.

"TEWI!"

The boots on the ground shifted direction. They had heard that they would be here soon.

Tewi smiled kindly at Eren as she stepped towards the Mirror Man, pushing off the roof with her bare feet to float up to his level, saying. "It's okay, Eren, I'll be fine. Just remember what I taught you, keep up your studying. You and your friends are bright kids."

"TEWI!"

Tewi kept her smile as she floated before the Mirror Man and looked past Eren to Seija. "Now, let go of Krista."

"Sure thing," Seija said, smiling like a devil as ODM grapples cut through the cold night air. "If Yaeger here can catch her."

Everyone moved: Eren turned on his heel, the blades in his hands flickering out as he went to tackle Seija, only for the Amanojaku to flip him around with a tap and kick off the roof, sending dust and tiles flying as Mikasa and Levi deployed their grapples, trying to move to intercept the Amanojaku. The Mirror Man jolted forward, grabbing Tewi as she smiled at him and disappearing in a flash of black. Mikasa and, in an instant, they were gone.

Seija spun in the air, kicking off the sky and down towards the roof, only to flip her direction in the next moment, maintaining her speed as she flew up. Levi and Mikasa had to eradicate their grapples, changing direction mid-flight when there was no easy point to launch upwards. Eren, however, had no such problems. He sent his grapples flying, tossing himself off the roof as they embedded into two chimneys, and then right as they went slack. He felt power surge through him as he kicked off the air, using the combined momentum to slingshot up to her, right in time for her to throw Krista.

His eyes widened for a moment as he realized she was being thrown at him, but her adjusted, launching his grapples as soon as they retracted, mitigating the impact as she slammed into his chest–sending him plummeting down to the roof. Then, with a flick of the cracked umbrella, she cut a gap through space, smiling as Eren caught Ymir, holding her head in his hands.

Only then did Erwin and Armin arrive.

The Paths were as they always were, silent, with endless dunes of sand shaped into the form of Titans, all presided over by a great luminous tree, its many branches suffocating the light of the sun out of the sky with their impure light. All the while, a tiny figure went about her business, shoveling sand into a pail. In an instant, a black void cut through space, spitting out the Mirror Man. His mask reflected the impure light of the Paths. His boots settled into the sand of the Paths gently, leaving only a faint print behind as he took another step forward, and the black void he emerged from vanished. In his arms, Tewi rolled her eyes before dissolving into a black mist and popping free from his grasp, settling onto the cold sand beneath her without a sound or imprint made on the sand.

The Mirror Man glared down at her from behind his mask, but she only shrugged, not making any more moves as she stood there. Then a gap in space slashed open beside them, spitting form Seija as she flew, barely correcting herself in time to not crash land into the soft sand of the Paths.

Seija turned on her heels, smiling widely like a devil as her red eye glinted in the glow of the great tree that sat at the center of Paths. "Well, well, well. Look what we have here, rabbit." She said. Her smile was wide with sharp teeth, distinctly reminding Tewi of a shark.

"Yeah, yeah. So, you two have more to your plan than that sales pitch earlier, right?" Tewi said, looking between the two as she tasted, the stale and impure air that suffocated the Paths. "If you're gonna tell me what you're up to, now's the time."

"You seem to misunderstand." The man still held his jovial tone, hiding his real voice behind his act as he took a step forward. The surrounding sand reacted, roiling as he towered over Tewi as he stood at his full height, her only rising past his waistbelt. "Now that we have you here, I'll ask the questions now," but Tewi was already gone. The man's eyes widened as he realized what had happened. "Where–"

"Shit," Seija said.

The man spun around, sending a wave of white hot sand centered on himself and Seija, spraying outward. Steam exploded from the Paths as the sand landed, screaming into the stale air and filling every inch of their surroundings with white-hot smoke. Neither Seija nor the man moved as they stood there, keeping their eyes and other senses trained on their surroundings as they stood back to back–looking for any sign of disruption that would reveal Tewi's location.

"You can't hide, Inaba. I am the one here who sits closest to the absolute power of the Paths!"

When the smoke cleared, Seija took her turn, clamping a hand down on the man's shoulder before shoving them both through a gap. As they landed, feet away from where they had last been, she readied her stone Jizo statue in one hand, anticipating Tewi to jump out of nowhere and attack at any moment as she began her attack. First, several waves of Danmaku, large bullets that embedded themselves into the ground with a thud, creating craters that were quickly filled with sand. A quarter of a minute passed, and it turned to lasters. Two-thirds of a minute passed, and the lasers flipped and curved as she launched another wave of bullets, throwing up sand into the air and scouring the ground. Then, finally, a minute had passed. Still, when the combined Danmaku attack cleared, there was nothing.

"Over here."

The two whipped around to where they had been standing just moments ago, and there she was: Tewi. She paced in a circle around them, no expression on her face. She left no prints in the sand behind her, had no smell, and all the minute sounds a body produced were also gone. Worst of all, they couldn't even detect her presence. Her feet did not leave marks in the sand, and even the minute noises that only Youkai could pick up on were absent. Despite what their eyes could see and ears could hear, it was as if Tewi wasn't even there.

Seija gritted her teeth, and the Mirror Man felt himself sweat beneath his mask.

"Now, you–" Tewi said, pointing at the Mirror Man, narrowing her eyes as she continued to circle them, her shadow cast long in the tree's light, "–Stop talking in such an exaggerated way and be honest with yourself. Also, you know, this place is much closer to Gensokyo than that planet down there?" Tewi gestured to the sky, pointing at the earth, a pinprick of blue light in between the branches of the tree. "I guess a Youkai who had already regained most of their power here before coming here wouldn't notice, but for someone like me, it's all the difference." The fact that Tewi hadn't regained much power in contrast was a testament to her undue caution, while Seija proudly took the center stage at all times; Tewi had spent four years teaching, learning, scouting, and putting medicine and surgery into practice.

Seija shoved the miniature stone Jizo back into her bag, holding her cracked umbrella with both hands as she pointed it at Tewi, her eyes burning a bright red, pushing away the light of the Paths. "Just because you're strong here doesn't mean you can boss us around. I'll show you the strength of the Amanojaku who fought off everyone in Gensokyo, even while they broke the rules."

Tewi rolled her eyes, dismissing the Amanojaku as she focused on the Mirror Man, looking him up and down. He still dressed in the same gaudy purple clothes, still had the same gloves, and still had the same mirrored mask; the only thing that had changed about him was an increase in ability. "How old are you? Twenty to thirty at the oldest, and you've at most been a Youkai for half of that time. So you haven't been one for long."

"Hey!" Seija said, her shout sounding like a bark as she braced her feet against the sand. She pushed back for only a second before she threw herself forward, a burst of sand left behind her as she launched herself at Tewi. She cut through the air, opening a gap in space where Tewi stood, but Tewi was already gone. "Don't ignore me!"

"Seija's help has allowed you to improve your abilities." Tewi said, appearing behind the Mirror Man again, "–and in a short amount of time, but I wonder who you are?" Seija grit her teeth and pushed off the ground again. She floated slowly back to where the Mirror Man stood, her eyes glued to Tewi with burning hatred.

Something like a deep growl, and then an earthquake resounded throughout the dunes of the Paths, shaking the world even as all those present stood perfectly still, unaffected. Then, they rose from underneath the sand, a great black mass of shadows and curses, black and purple interlaced with strands of white and bleeding red: with white countless pinpricks and all fused to form a single behemoth that towered over them all. Then he spoke. "I am the culmination of two thousand years of history."

"And I am a Youkai and god who has lived for two million years: earlier, before the classification of youkai existed, I existed before the moon's light was perverted, older than your earliest human civilizations, and old enough to know what the untouched earth looked like before your species even climbed down from the trees. For your sake, I won't list anymore."

"If I were somebody who had dedicated their life to combat, you would have already lost with this blunder. I don't doubt you'll be able to keep me here for a while, but you'll never catch me." Tewi said, shaking her head, not even casting a shadow onto the sands around them as she circled them. "Unfortunately, escaping from here would require all of my concentration, so I'm still trapped. Of course, that means you can't leave either."

"So it seems." The Mirror Man said, waving his hand in a shushing motion. The shadow behind him responded, lowering back beneath the sands. Its immensity shook the earth as it disappeared, shifting every inch of sand across the Paths. In the distance, the minor form of a girl continued to carry her bucket of sand. "We have nothing else to talk about then. You cannot exit the Paths with that ritual of yours. Hopefully, without your influence and the knowledge he has now, he will return to the proper path of fate. Even if he resists it now, I doubt the other divergent elements will change the path he is set on."

Tewi shook her head, sitting down on the ground cross-legged, somehow not disturbing the sand beneath her. "I don't think he will, but well, if you want to talk about stuff, I'll be here. I hate to see young kids like you running around and running people's lives without adult supervision, so if–"

Seija pressed air in between her teeth, hissing like a cat as he narrowed her eyes at Tewi. In the next moment, she kicked off the ground and retrieved her cracked umbrella, power oozing from it already. "Whatever, this is a waste of time. I'm going to talk with Zeke; we still need a way of dealing with those two girls, especially the blonde one."

With that, Seija left the Paths, and Tewi blinked out, leaving the Mirror Man to stand there–alone and exhausted. Only then did he realize they had forgotten about Kenny.

Immediately after Tewi's disappearance, as well as Erwin and Armin, Eren found himself numb to the world. When Mikasa had picked him up from where he fell, he did not resist, instead watching the world from behind his glassy eyes, a thin film of black clouding his vision as Mikasa whisked him up into the air: the feeling of the wind against his skin and the cold of the night, unknown to him. Distantly, he registered the Levi holding Kenny over his shoulder, but in what seemed only a moment, Eren closed his eyes and everything went black.

When he opened his eyes, the first thing he registered was the bare stone ceiling above him. Second to that was the softness of the bed he was lying on, third was the light from the window just above his bed's headrest, streaming down onto him. All at once, he knew it was morning, and the world was still here. Although he couldn't hear the chirp of birds, only the distant sound of boots, wood against stone, and the gentle snoring of someone who was sharing the same room as he was.

Eren wanted to lie there; he never wanted to rise from bed. Tewi was gone. So was Annie, so was his father. Distantly, as if an image was overlaid on top of his eyes, he saw his mother's death replay over and over again–and just behind that, the face of his father. Still, something drove him forward, and he felt himself rising from bed before he knew what he was doing. His bare feet touched against the cold stone floor, but he didn't flinch as he stood, even as his legs shook and his entire body felt like falling over.

"Eren?" Krista said.

He turned to the sound of her voice, and there she was, her eyes fluttering open as she looked at him from a chair that sat right next to the door. Eren felt nothing as he saw her. A part of his brain wanted to ask her what happened, another part reminded him he was still in shock. Tewi had told him something about that before, but he couldn't remember the exact words of the conversation. Instead, he said nothing.

"Uh, I don't know what to say right now either."

Eren's eyes focused on her, a bit of the thin black film behind them disappearing as he focused. The rest of the room came into focus as well. There were other beds besides his own, but no one else besides the two of them. Still, he didn't move. Still, he said nothing.

Krista stepped forward and took one of his hands. She noticed how cold Eren was, but said nothing. "Right, come with me. Kenny still hasn't awoken yet, but–" She hesitated for a moment, unsure of what to say, stuck between an apology, an explanation, and the truth. "–We still have to talk about our next move. Sorry, the others couldn't be here, but they're all busy right now."

Eren nodded, but he was only half listening. She hesitated a moment before dragging him by the hand and out into the hallway barefoot. Rooms he had never been to, people he had never met, unfamiliar stone and marble corridors passed them all, then they arrived at their destination. She opened the room before leading Eren in, allowing him to see inside. The room was large and long, dominated by a single table with enough seats for twenty-two people–ten on each side, then one large chair on each end. Everyone else was there. Mikasa is standing by herself. Erwin and Pixis were talking to one another urgently. Armin and Hange are talking about something. Still, Tewi and Annie were missing. A part of him even missed Bertholdt and Reiner, even if he didn't know them well.

As they all turned to him, nobody said anything as he stared back.

"Thanks for saving my ass, Yaeger, I mean it," Ymir said, waiving at him from where she sat–her half-regenerated hand still smoking. Somehow Eren had almost entirely missed her, seated at the table with a pen in one hand and a book in front of her. "–but can you get these guys off of me, I'm going to get cramps if I sit here any longer."

Nobody said anything, instead sending a series of glares and suspicious glances between Krista and Ymir, only then did Erwin sigh–separating from Pixis and the glasses man before sitting down at the end of the table opposite where Krista and Eren stood. "Instead–Seeing as I'm the one who's going to be commanding you in the future: Krista, Ymir–" Erwin crossed his arms,"–You two have something to tell us, don't you?"

Krista stepped forward, almost pressing up against the table as she stood next to where Ymir sat. "Right, I guess everyone is here. I can finally say it." Krista said, "My real name is Historia Reiss. My father is the true king and the mastermind behind the conspiracy controlling the capital. The man sitting on the throne right now is just his puppet. I don't know why I'm so important, but I had to be the target of their attack."

The sun shone through the room's windows, sending long shadows through the room as the glare of the sun passed over Wall Rose. It explained a lot, and suddenly all the pieces fit together snugly in their minds. Who their enemy was, why the military focused on sending strength to Mitras instead of outlying districts, how they knew about the power of the founder, even their aims took shape: the only question now was why? Why did so many people have to die? Why did any of this happen in the first place? At the same time, it seemed almost entirely disconnected from what the Mirror Man had been talking about earlier.

"I'm sorry." She said.

Eren saw red, and all at once it seemed as if every speck of light vanished from the room. "If we had known." Shadows danced on the wall as a fire lit behind his eyes. "If I had known–" Ymir and Krista flinched away as he turned to them, and the light in the room dimmed. Everyone else tensed as well, but Levi and the three leaders sat on the far side of the room.

"Oi. We still have to interrogate this bastard." Levi said. He tapped a blade against a wall, and right next to him, that smiling assassin, Kenny, was strapped into a seat. Eren said nothing as he let a beat of silence pass. The irony wasn't lost on everyone present here that the two Youkai, the Mirror Man and Seija, had immediately forgotten about Kenny and left him behind, when he was the one who sided with them of his own volition. Even after all those things he had said, half of which sounded like he was trying to act cool.

"No. I have my own questions first," Eren said, his eyes scanning the room as he sweated. Part of him knew that if they had known the truth about Krista, it wouldn't have changed anything. The other half wanted answers. He had suspicions of his own after all.

"What happened to my dad, and why did the man say I had the Founding Titan?"

Chapter Text

Renko heaved, expelling burned air and water from her lungs as she collapsed onto the hard stone of the military dock. Maribel was beside her, lying face down against the stone. Renko felt her heart stir, but as she went to roll Maribel over and pressed her hand to her chest, she could feel she was alive–unconscious but alive–the beating of Maribel's heart comforting the disoriented Renko.

The sky was red with blood and fire. The world blazed; sounds of dying men and sinking ships filled the air. At the nadir of it all, the flaming wrecks of ships sank into the lightless abyss. Renko sucked in air, but she coughed again. The air was scorching, still burning, still choked. The screams and smell of death didn't bother her anymore after the rebellion in the colonies, but still she felt as if she was inches from the sun, its blazing gaze piercing through the smog that clouded the air, forming a baleful eye second only to the full moon as it looked down at them.

It was easy to get Marlean identities to infiltrate the military, almost too easy, despite the operation being semi-secret. It was suspicious, but right now all Renko could think about was Maribel's safety.

She could feel the adrenaline pumping through her veins as she forced herself to her feet, casting off the burning warmth of the air from her mind. Maribel was heavy, feeling like a ten-ton weight as Renko hoisted her onto her back. Renko ignored the black smoke leaving her mouth and eyes, forming a pillar above the pair as she forced one foot in front of the other. Her legs screamed as she took that first step, the hard stone beneath her feeling like wet sand, mud, gravel–anything but the hard stone as Renko forced herself forward again, blind to the dead bodies that flanked her.

She continued like that, walking through the desolate field of dead and debris, focused on just putting one foot in front of the other as the ruins behind her sank into the sea, every ounce of her being focused on that task even as the clogged, impure air scratched at her throat. As she limped towards the harbor exit, she heard a rumbling, like the growling of a ferocious beast. She froze, but recognized the sound shortly after: One step above the horse-drawn carriage, below the automobile proper, and a world away from the vehicles of her time, it was the rumbling of a motor carriage.

Adrenaline surged within her blood in time with fear that weighed her down even more. The ever-present threat of capture once again hangs over their heads. 'They still don't know our faces. I have to keep moving.' Part of her mind knew the description of 'Hizuren' would be enough for the authorities. She forced herself to walk towards the open gate as the rumbling of the motor carriage came closer and closer.

By the time she had gotten halfway to the gate, the motor carriage had arrived, its long hearse-like body reminding Renko of the life span regulators of her time. Men and women all dressed and masked in white but driving in black hearses, like spirits come to retrieve those who had lived too long to be allowed. Then, as a man, a servant came out of the driver's seat and opened the passenger side door with a click, the familiarity only deepened as a man she had met before, Maribel had once met before, stepped out.

Standing there, blocking their exit was a man dressed in black and with long, veil-like, white hair that steamed behind him. Willy Tybur. "Hello, Renko, Maribel. It is good to meet you again."

The sky was burning bright, hues of red and orange suffocating out even the barest hint of blue or black. Screams filled the air as people ran left and right, jostling Maribel as she stood on the spot, her eyes transfixed on the horizon. They hushed nearly every other sound, except for the thunderous roar of feet against stone and the deep thumping of the Titans as they reached lands, their billowing pillars of black-and-white smoke signaling their arrival like a massive flag that blotted out the sun.

Then, finally, she could make it out, a giant skeleton, a giant titan. Even taller than the colossal Titans who dragged themselves onto shore. It was massive, its body large and bulbous despite the lack of skin and bones, given that appearance by the stretched out ribs that slammed into the ground, forming countless centipede-like legs that dragged the Titan forward like a centipede, almost against its will as countless strings wrapped throughout the Titan's skeletal body, taking the part of muscles and nervous tissue, forcing it forward and holding its distorted and limp upper body like a puppet. Somehow she could make him now, not the Titan, but him, a black-haired man, his eyes half dead as he stared out of the thing's mouth, blind to the world.

Only then did she realize how close the Colossal Titans had gotten, the thundering of their feet deafening as she stood alone. No Renko as the now distant mass of humanity clawed at each other in a desperate chance to escape the oncoming wave of death. And what a wave it was, an endless army of Colossal Titans from the sea, single file as they trampled over the earth, reducing what animal life remained to red stains, plant life to green smears, and buildings to a mixture of brown rubble and black oil. The Titans had turned ships over, picked up, thrown, or still laid them out at sea, their entire crews cooked alive in the back-and-white steam of the Colossal Titans.

In the middle of them all, he stared back at her, the horrible, insect-like Titan and his host.

Maribel could see it all, hear it all, smell it all. Fear in the air, not just the feel of fear, but the substance of it, a dark cloud invisible to the eyes of humanity. All the while, she stood stock still, a victim unable to move her body as she stood there limply. Behind her, behind even the screaming mass of humans, there was a semblance of military, despite men and women manning their guns, reading their instruments, and taking aim. Accompanied by a scant few zeppelins, metal behemoths flying through the sky, more than a dozen planes docked at each. All of them were afraid, all of them were going to fight, anyway.

Then, they let loose. Shell after shell flying unseen to the human eye, then they slammed into the Titans. As explosion after explosion echoes across the city, the smoke and ash from the explosions and the wounded Titans fill the air, forming a solid wall of black-and-white steam and heat. But Titans only faltered for a moment, and they passed through the wall of smoke again.

This was humanity's last stand, right before being crushed beneath the weight of the Titans. Even the distant buzzing of the airplanes as they left the Zeppelins flew towards the Titans could assuage the feeling of hopelessness.

Still, the Titans thundered on through everything as the transfixed Maribel stood there, her legs like cement. Then, they finally arrived, the tremor of the Titans shaking her out of her trance as it reverberated through her body. She only had enough time to scream. As the Titans went to crush her, a gap in space opened above her, blocking the Titans' foot as a white gloved hand reached forward and grabbed Maribel by the collar. Then, she woke up.

Awareness came all at once as Maribel jolted up, "Renko!"

Bird song, a part of her brain released, she heard bird song. She wasn't in an apocalyptic landscape. Another part of her brain registered the sterile, medical smell. Then finally, she recognized colors, light, seeing her eyes focused on her–Renko–sitting at her bedside, her eyes wide with tear beads in their corners and cast in the morning shades of light cast through the large windows of the clinic she had awoken in.

"Mary!" The aforementioned blonde rocked back as her friend crashed into her, grabbing her by the hands and forcing her to sit back down in her bed. "Do you feel okay? Are you?–"

"Yes, I feel fine. I–" Vertigo hit her. In her mind, there were more important matters: "Seija." She had not appeared for a while after their encounter at the cafe, only for her to reappear the night the ships would disembark. She had caught them right before everything exploded into chaos, the Amanojaku’s face cracking like stone and breathing out black smoke.

"She left, you got her good, but she escaped." As she spoke, Renko could barely hold back her voice from wavering, happiness, fear for Maribel, and exhilaration from the last night all intermixing. She moves forward, and without thinking about it, the two hold each other in their arms.

"Renko, how'd we get here?"

"Yeah, you remember that man, Willy Tybur."

Maribel nodded. Willy Tybur was an odd man; they had only met once by chance, an Eldian but not from the internment zone, and with a strange presence that reminded Maribel of a Youkai. He had some vague position of importance and was an international figurehead in Eldian rights, but other than that, the two knew very little about him. "So, we're his prisoners now?"

"I'm not sure exactly, but yes, he didn't turn us into the military, so he seems to have some other use for us, but I don't know what it would be."

Maribel thought about her dream–The fear in the air, the army of titans stamping out the world, the Rumbling–and had to repress a shudder. Her ability to manipulate gaps had first appeared to her in dreams where she would travel to other worlds, to the past, and even to her father in the future. Although out of everything she had seen, that figure leading the Titans, puppet-like and insect in shape, was the oddest, it looked nothing like any Titan she had ever heard of.

The dream scratched at the back of her mind, beckoning her like all the rest–even if it was pure terror–"I have an idea. Maybe there's a party trying to cause the Rumbling inside the government or–"

"What? Why would anyone want to do that? It makes no sense that'd just get everyone killed."

"I think it might be more complicated than that," She could see the fire again, smell the fear, and feel the presence of the puppet-like Titan with that black-haired man trapped inside its mouth. Behind her eyes, a black flame flickered.

Renko took a deep breath and spoke: "Are you okay?"

"I'm fine. The last time I got really hurt, I traveled to a place bodily. This was just another dream." Maribel could still remember those nights in quarantine, after she and Renko had made their expedition to the Torifune satellite—Humanity's attempt at research gone awry—where they had encountered strange forms of life that now blossomed in Earth's orbit, the most memorable of which was the Youkai-like beast that hurt Maribel.

"Very well, Renko Usami, Maribel Hearn. I look forward to working with you in the future."

"Look, we've just been in a lot of danger recently. I know they're just dreams, but I'm worried about you." Renko rested a hand on Maribel's thigh.

"Right. You don't have to worry about me, Renko." She said, promising nothing. Even now, she couldn't control when she would dream; a promise not to visit other worlds in her dreams would be a promise that only exists to be broken.

Then the creaking of the door drew their attention to the far end of the room, where their host, Willy Tybur, revealed himself. He walked with the same limp, supported by the same cane as the first time they had seen him, a black suit covered by a black cloak that flowed in sync with his veil-like blonde hair. There was an uncanny element to him–wax-like–as if no time had passed at all between their first meeting. His resemblance to the lifespan enforcers struck the women of their time; those who would cart off those who had surpassed their legal life span limit off to their graves, and–if rumors were to be believed–into the mouth of monsters–Youkai.

Behind him, they saw her: a woman with tied-up black hair, dressed conservatively and blank-faced with icy blue eyes and a presence that chilled the air around her and with the same uncanny, wax-like appearance as her brother. "I hope you don't mind if my sister joins us."

"No."

"Good, now let me be clear here, I require your girl's assistance in saving the world." Maribel went to respond, but faltered as the sunlight faded from the room and all at once any warmth seemed to vanish. The temperature in the air seemed to drop several degrees as right behind both of the Tybur's eyes, they could faintly see it, a flickering black flame, a near-sure sign of inhumanity.

Renko hesitated for a moment, but spoke. "You mean stopping the rumbling?"

"Yes, I understand you two may suspect me, so I will explain myself fully. I believe Seija Kijin, a demon from another world, is trying to doom this one for the sake of her own satisfaction. I believe she has some scheme to cause the rumbling or seize the power of the founding Titan for myself."

That was something both of them could agree with; there was only one question both of them shared. "Why us?" After all, they had only met the man once before, and the subject of Seija did not come up then.

Tybur tilted his head and gave them a harder look, "You two are from the same world as Seija and have strange abilities yourselves. With just her alone, Titan Science was revolutionized. I expect you have insights of your own."

Renko shook her head, "That's not exactly true, but it's close enough. Maribel?"

"Right, I know more about this than Renko, but our world isn't like yours. To put it simply: It's separated into the real–outside–world and places like Gensokyo–the land of fantasy–and Otherworlds where supernatural creatures live. Seija comes from Gensokyo; we're just people from the outside world who have abilities like those from Gensokyo."

Willy narrowed his eyes as his sister stood impassively behind him, but before either of them could say anything else, Maribel blinked. In that gap, between the opening and closing of her eye, she saw the ruined landscape again and the endless procession of the Titans, stretching from horizon to horizon. And that hand again, a white gloved hand reaching out for her.

Without realizing what she was saying, Maribel heard herself speak: "Actually, there is something I have to say about the Rumbling." Maribel recounted her dream, telling them of the endless army of Titans, Humanity's last stand, and most importantly, that strange Titan and its human host leading the charge. The insect-like skeleton titan, pulled forth by strings. Once she had finished her recounting of events, Willy took a deep breath and then cradled his head in his hands.

Willy stroked his beard, as he squinted his eyes in thought and said, "So, this black-haired man and this strange Titan, doubtless some form of the Founding Titan, are Seija's tools?"

Willy lapsed into thought, his gaze growing fainter, and the two women knew this was their chance to strike. Then Renko spoke: "We have to stop the second expedition to–"

"No. Not going on the expedition isn't an option. Despite the risk it poses, it's our only chance to end the threat of those devils permanently."

Maribel heard his choice of words and, unable to contain her curiosity: "Devils?"

"Yes, Devils," Both of the Tybur's seemed to suck at the heat and light in the room, "Eldians, the inhabitants of that island, the descendants of the first king who hung this sword of Damocles over our heads. If they, if all of us, Eldians, were never born, this world would be a better place."

Despite his even, calm tone, the instability, but they both knew better to argue against such a strange and unstable man; instead, Maribel asked. "You're a foremost figurehead in the movement for Eldian rights. Is that untrue?"

"No, as a person who was born into this world, of course I want to live, and despite being a devil, I pity myself and all People of Ymir. We did not choose to be born into this world. My desire to see my people live long and happy lives, even if we're damned. So for their sake, I will destroy anyone who threatens peace." His words were down trodden, resigned, giving the same feeling the blank eyes of his sister gave, but when those words left his mouth, even shaking as they were, he sounded almost rapturous.

Maribel tightened her grip on Renko’s hand, "I'm sorry," Renko smiled–strained–as she stood, her own shadow increasing in strength, sapping even more light from the room, "but we can't agree with that! We'll do our best to save everyone, even the people who live in Paradise."

Tybur nodded, unaffected by her statement. "Then we stand opposed in this matter. Still, we share a cause of saving the world."

"Mary?"

Meribel nodded: "Yes, we'll work with you, for the sake of saving the world."

"Now, I will explain my past with Seija. I first met her four years ago. She appeared in the circles of Eldian Restorationists and in Military Radicals, fanning the flames of conflict wherever she went. As I am a man determined towards the peaceful advancements of Eldians everywhere, I did my best to stop her, only to fail."

"She found me and uncovered my family's secret. For the past two hundred years, we were the trusted stewards of the King of the Wall's will. She defeated me and forced me to confront my family's transgressions." Behind him, Lara rested a hand on his shoulder to comfort him. "We were the ones who allowed all of this to happen." Willy shook his head.

"After that, I ended up listening to her. She was right anyway, all of this was my family's fault; we had allowed Marley, the Marlean Empire, to continue on waging wars, advancing in Titan Science. The Eldian Empire did not end; it merely continued under the leadership of those who had formerly been the foremost slaves of the empire."

"Marley is just a continuation of Eldia, and so we set our sights on weakening this country, starting with the colonies."

"Wait, that means!–"

"Yes, you know the rest from there." Back during their time in the colonies, Seija always had unmentioned contacts in Marley, although neither of the women had ever put much thought into who those contacts were. "By the time I discovered what her true aim was, she had attained other collaborators, and for all of my efforts, I only got this." Willy parted his cloak, revealing an ornate toy-like hammer. "This is the tool Seija used to arrive in this world, and the cause for your arrival."

Renko's eyes widened as she recognized the tool, "The Miracle mallet."

Willy nodded, waving the hammer around like it was a toy, "She said there was some trick bypassing its lock. But without knowing that, this is a mere hunk of wood." Willy shook his head, "Now, my sister here—the Warhammer Titan—cannot leave me now. Lest Seija make her move." Behind him, the mannequin-like woman nodded her head, no light behind her eyes.

"Still, if you have at least some access to the military, there's someone I know who can help us. Zeke Yaeger, we've never met him in person, but what he's written about Titan Science is revolutionary!"

"There is one problem with that, Zeke Yaeger is that woman's prime collaborator."

Chapter Text

The cold wind whipped around Zeke as he ascended to the flat roof of the stone building, his footsteps echoing across the cold stone as the sun set in the distance, the light receding over the cityscape. Seija sat on the building's edge. A stone floated above her splayed out palm, slightly wobbling back and forth in the air as she wiggled her fingers. It was a fine control exercise meant to hone her telekinetic control over objects she used her ability on. As he approached, Zeke could feel hatred radiating off of her, a faint red and black shimmer in the air that ate errant light. 'With how much she talks about being a proud contrarian, I wonder if she actually likes the exercises?'

Zeke rested against the short half-wall that enclosed the roof and the staircase, looking out across the city from his vantage point. From here, he could see all of Liberio. All the lights were out, save for the watchtowers and the lamps of the guards constantly patrolling the internment zone. It had only been a few days since Seija's latest incident in the capital, and the military was still on its toes under the assumption she was acting in cahoots with Eldians. That, and Liberio was the sister city of the capital. As Zeke took his attention away from the city, he stepped towards Seija. He felt an itching at the back of his mind. 'I need another smoke.'

Across from him, Seija's practice worsened, her control over the rock slipping as the movements of her fingers became more erratic. The rock wobbled more and more, becoming unstable, until finally it tipped too far away from Seija and fell off the roof, hurtling towards the dirt road of the internment camp below. "Shit." She said, pressing air in between her teeth, that left her mouth in the form of black smoke..

"So, what happened?"

"Here," She reached into the brown pouch, retrieving a bottle of wine that she thrust in Zeke's direction. "Drink."

Zeke sighed, not wanting to refuse but still annoyed enough by her to complain. 'She's the one who makes messes that me and Pieck have to clean up.' Zeke could still see the colonies when he closed his eyes. Cities in flames, humans consumed by Titans. Still holding them had become untenable for Marley, and thus they had left, having won the battle but lost the war.

"It's a sign of friendship, dumbass, and I'm not going to answer you sober."

"Fine." Zeke took the bottle from her. Just as he did so, she retrieved another bottle from inside the brown bag and set it beside her. "You know I'm not going to climb up there; I'm not a spring chicken."

Seija grumbled, but didn't protest as she leaped back off the wall. Zeke watched in amusement, but with a stoic face, as Seija pulled out a table and two chairs from the same brown bag she kept her tools in. Zeke seated himself while Seija took the seat across, sitting down in the chair cross-legged in her usual contrarian manner.

"Thank you. Now–"

"Yeah, yeah. I'll start talking. . ." After her humiliating defeat–although she insisted the two women merely escaped–she had been contacted by their shared 'friend,' the strange masked man whose face was known only to Seija. He had decided to heed Seija's and Zeke's advice, to boldly act and remove Tewi from the board and perhaps secure the King's daughter. In the end, they had put on a show, captured only Tewi, only to be promptly foiled due to underestimating the demon-rabbit. Now she and the Masked Man were locked in a draw inside the paths, neither able to leave. As she finished her story, Seija slammed her half-empty bottle of wine onto the table.

"So, in short, shits fucked."

Zeke nodded, half numb. Taking a deep breath in, he reminded himself of his own exercises, centering himself as he ordered his feelings and thoughts: He was worried for the sake of his brother, Eren, but still the most present problem was– "Can you still access Paths from here, even without his assistance?"

Seija shrugged, "Sure, I've been in the Paths enough to home in on the place. All I need is a reflective surface and the moon or an Eldian to use as a gap on."

Zeke nodded and cast his mind to what was in his eyes, the more important matter. "At the very least, either of those demons–that masked man and the rabbit–can't access Eren anymore. Being used as a pawn by our father was bad enough." Zeke omitted her name from the list, but Seija's smile widened. "Which only leaves us with one issue: Those two whom you attacked earlier, I suppose we'll have to finish them off together now?"

"Nah. Who knows what those two are doing. Besides, it'd be boring to take them out right now." She spoke casually and earnestly; there was almost a hint of fondness in her voice.

'There must be some real animosity between them for her to spare them like this. Still, I'll be careful with those two. For now, I need Seija.' Youkai–or only Amanojaku as she insisted–were strange, but then the general principle he understood was that Seija desired to be hated and liked those that hated her, while hating those that gave them affection. Of course, Zeke had never met a person who was a true friend to Seija, and she was still his only contact with a real Youkai, so he could only widely speculate based on second-hand accounts about the others. Still, something else bothered him, "Don't you think it's strange she shares a power with that umbrella of yours?"

"So what, I know a shitty shrine maiden back home who can do the same thing and an annoying old woman."

"So, it's just a thing people can do where you're from?"

". . .No." She admitted, crossing her arms like a child. "Whatever, stop asking questions." Her face was red now, and slightly bloated from the wine.

'She's planning on using them as an escape route or tool in the future, but killing them on my own would only invite open conflict with her.' Zeke mulled the idea over before blowing more smoke into the air. Despite his wishes to remove her from this earth, he was still unsure of his chance of victory; her ability to fly alone made her a poor match-up for any Titan.

The two of them fell into a lull as both attended to their wine and planned for the future. One is planning to save the world, the other is planning to become its ultimate enemy. When Zeke put his bottle down, he made his own report. "Picke's been getting suspicious."

"So, what?"

"She's a hard person to control, she's too loyal to her friends and family, and has too little ideology. If people find out I'm working with you, then I can't stay in the military anymore."

"Ugh, boring," she dismissed, before swinging back her head, followed by the wine bottle meeting her lips. She drank long and deep, the wine running down her cheeks, then finally, with one last gulp, Seija finished her bottle of wine and slammed it onto the table, sending a slight boom and a puff of black smoke across the roof. Zeke hoped no one heard. His discomfort only made Seija happier. "So, you want to know how I got here?"

'Yes.' Is what he thought, but he knew better and said, "Not particularly."

She smiled like a demon and said, "Actually, it's my fault."

"I suppose you've gone back in time and created the founder then?" Zeke said, a practiced barb.

She stuck her tongue out at him, rocking back and forth in her seat like a child, "It's not my fault that all of this happened in the first place, but I'm the one who pulled myself here. I guess that others just fell here after the fact due to the mallet."

"The mallet?" He said. The only important mallet he had ever seen was the toy-like one he had seen Tybur with once.

"Yeah, that mallet I lost to Tybur. I still have this shitty replica, but the original can do all sorts of things, 'the problem is something happens in response to whatever you do." She waved her arms in the air and flipped herself and the chair upside down, suspending them both. "I don't really know how it works."

"You could always rely on me."

She burst out laughing, loud and echoing as she toppled herself over atop her upside-down chair and fell upward, floating into the air. When she finally stopped, she said, "As if! you're gonna betray me, Idiot."

"And? If you get things your way and become the enemy of the world, there won't be anyone to help return you to where you came from. If you work with me earnestly, then you'll at least have my help returning home."

"Please, I'll do things my way, you yours, even the Mirror bastard thinks sitting in the Paths will cause the rumbling to happen." Seija scoffed, "Please, the only way you're gonna cause the end of the world is by holding the reins yourselves. If you let humans end the world by themselves, they take forever with it. Even that god of yours, the annoying mute who pretends she's a child, is going along with whatever he wants. Or maybe it's the other way around, I dunno?" As she spoke, Seija climbed her way back down to the table, hanging onto it as she floated upward, still smiling.

Zeke drummed his fingers against the table. He had finished half of his bottle of wine now and had put all of his focus into not reacting too strongly, lest he give Seija a cord to pull at. Still, he felt something rise within and said, "The Founder Ymir, whatever happened to her. I can't allow the Rumbling, whatever her aims are."

"Oh, going against your god. Now that's a good one, impressive and hubristic, classic human who doesn't know his place." Seija said. "Luckily for you, that's my favorite type of human."

"Although, I suppose as a Youkai you have your own troubles," Zeke said, "We're all cursed, the same. This world is a place of suffering; the living are born to suffer. But since we were born into life, we can never fully embrace death. I don't know for certain, but that power behind the Paths, I think that's the one command it will never obey: to die."

"Please, the only thing you can do is embrace yourself. Why bother fighting against the way you're born, when you can stomp out the ones who step on you?"

"I think that's where we'll have to agree to disagree. I can't reject life, but I won't sacrifice other people for the sake of my happiness."

"Hypocrite." She said, taking a step forward, her bare feet against the cold stone, the moon behind her, forming a halo around her head that choked out the light of the stars with its impure light. "You know, my least favorite type of people are the ones who don't rebel. And my least favorite type of human is the ones who don't know their place." She flicked her hand, casting off the blood that coated it onto the stone roof, "Besides, I think we've been getting too chummy."

Zeke knew what she said to be true, despite how contrary it was. Although he had figured out one thing, grandiose statements like that were part of her way of making friends. "We both know we aren't friends," he said. Either a positive or a negative answer was a bad idea here; either way, they were dead set on betraying each other. He could taste it in the air, feel it in his throat, his own fear and worse. He couldn't pinpoint the feeling, but as the air on his arms rose, he was reminded of a landfill: life and death, waste, pollution, all intermixed to form a hideousness that made vomit rise in the back of his throat.

He knew what this phenomenon was, conceptual–mental and physical–forces were forcing themself into the space around him in the form of waves, disorienting his perception of reality. 'Calm down, nothing's happening. She isn't even a person, just another ripple, another distortion in space. A collection of stray thoughts and emotions that thinks it's alive.'

"Well, I'm just saying." Seija pressed off the ground and disappeared in a flash. The next thing Zeke knew, she was behind him, and her arms were around his shoulders. "If you don't start earnestly hating me, then I might have to do something drastic."

'What was that? I didn't see her moving at all, no, she didn't move, she flipped her position centered on me. Another new trick. His mind was racing, but his distraction ended as she leaned in and whispered into his ear. "Maybe something involving that brother of yours."

Zeke went for his knife, not thinking if he meant to slice Seija open or transform into a titan, but with emotion clouding his mind and suffocating the air, Seija danced out of the way deftly. Zeke's hands were shaking. "If you ever touch a hair on my brother's hair, you'll regret it. "

"Great, see you later, Zeke!" Seija said, flying into the sky as she drew her umbrella, slashed into the air, cutting a gap into space.

'Damn her, damn me. Damn this world and whatever caused life to exist in the first place.’ Above all, there was one rule Seija held sacred, above even her Reverse Ideology, that Amanojaku are creatures that welcome the world's hatred. 'I'll find you, the mystery behind the Paths, and I'll find my brother, and we'll use the Founding Titan to create a world where more life won't be brought into the world to suffer. If only I knew more about the Paths, if only I could know what that place, Gensokyo, is.'

Then Seija was gone.

Yagakoro Eirin, former Brain of the Moon, creator of the Hourai Elixir, and servant of Princess Kaguya, sat at her desk, idly scribbling down notes about the Hourai Pharmacy & Clinic's newest patient. She had a keen sense of deja vu, almost as if Eirin had lived this a thousand times over. Which was true. 'At least those two had the decency to come to me first before telling Yukari of their plan. Still, I can't resist the power of that goddess, so it'll be up to Reimu and Marisa to solve things again.' They were a clever pair, or at least they each had their own spots of cleverness. Despite Marisa's kleptomania, ninety percent of what came out of Reimu's mouth was either a scam, a threat to harm someone, or a threat to rob someone. 'After all, Yukari did have those Incident Stones made for them,' weapons crafted from the fossilized incidents of the past.

Casting her mind elsewhere, Eirin looked to the nervous Reisen as the purple-haired rabbit went about her business. Reisen had been with her for over two decades now, fifty-five years young, but still looking twenty thanks to whichever of her parents was a Youkai–although Reisen herself didn't even know that only one of her parents wasn't a Youkai. Eirin chuckled internally. Reisen could be quite oblivious, stern, and have strange values, but telling her the truth would only complicate matters. Although she did feel slightly jealous that the Hourai Elixir had not given her hair the same ageless perfection as the rest of her body, out of all of the immortals, only Kaguya had been able to keep her natural hair color. 'Still, it's a nice reminder. However long-lived Reisen or Tewi will be, they are not true immortals–Houraijin–we'll have to treasure every moment of her life.'

There was a slight aching in her heart, but still Eirin smiled at her young student as she cast her mind to the machinations of Gensokyo.

Before the incident had started, others had made last-minute moves as well: 'Once this is over, and the others might have to end up taking steps to foil any trouble they got up to.' On the short list of worrying Youkai were Kijin Seija Komeiji Koishi. Luckily, Kudamaki Tsukasa. 'There was also that close call with those two girls, Renko and Maribel, good thing I found them first and was able to send them on after Tewi.' It was better than having Yukari's past self stuck in a time loop as well. 'Either way, it's good that Tewi wasn't here then, a person like her getting her hands on the Incident Stones would just add to the chaos right now.'

'Although there's always the risk that Junko, Hecatia, or Okina could seize on the opportunity. Especially if Reimu and Marisa don't defeat Iwanaga and solve the incident.' Her pen drifted from the half-remembered medical report she had written a dozen times, leaving the page as she brought a hand to her chin. 'Well, even if those two are having some trouble, I guess I'll have to have faith they'll resolve this incident with the power Yukari has provided them with.' Eirin shook her head and sighed internally at her own helplessness; she didn't even know how many loops it had been, only the fact that they were stuck in a time loop, and she could do nothing about it.

"Master, is something wrong?" Reisen said.

"Oh, it's nothing," Eirin said. 'There's no point in making her worry about something she'll forget, anyway, and we'll have the same conversation in the next loop.' She felt a bit cruel, but when Reisen began to think too much about things, she would invariably panic. "Although I have to ask. Is something the issue with you, Reisen?"

The purple-haired rabbit shook her head. "Nothing, Master, I'm just worried about Tewi. The Inabas seem fine, and she's only been gone for a little bit, but I can't help but get worried."

'It's nice to see Reisen worry about Tewi for once, they don't often act like they get along.' Eirin smiled and, savoring the warmth of the thought. "Well, don't you worry about her. Tewi has a good head on her shoulders, and she'd give us a good warning if it were important. I'm sure she's fine. Besides, if neither I nor the Lunarians could ever catch her, then there's no one who can."

"Right," Reisen said, nodding to herself more so than Eirin, "I'm sure she's fine."

"I'm sure she'd love to share. You can ask her when she gets back." Eren said, smiling as she thought of the white rabbit, 'Tewi loves to hear herself talk, although I wonder what Tewi is up to now. Hopefully, she hasn't gotten herself into any real trouble.' Eirin went back to her work, filling out the patient form and writing down a prescription that Reisen would have to deliver.

In time, the incident would end, but for now, it would continue for just a bit longer.

Chapter Text

"What happened to my dad, and why did the man say I had the Founding Titan?" Eren said. Already, there had been this light betrayal—hiding Krista's true identity—which had now worn out all of the Mirror Man's patience. 'I'm not losing anyone else, I can't, I won't.'

"Old man, Pixis," Ymir said. "You know what happened to him, too." She knew it, Pixis and Tewi had to learn, and just like her. She held it against them just as much as she held it against herself. Nobody wanted to face the truth, as they all knew it had to come out. Even Eren had his suspicions, but still, he didn't move his gaze.

He nodded, "Tewi and I had our suspicions, but without knowing how to pass on–"

"Bullshit, he's dead, and you two know it." Her words were venom-infused; anything to distract them, to put it off.

Eren formed his hands into fists, and spoke: "I already know that, tell me how–"

"No!" Ymir screamed. She turned on her heel, facing Eren as he sat at the close end of the table. Her hands were shaking. "I'm not telling you. You don't even know what you're asking."

Across from the kids, at the head of the table, Pixis took a breath in and then out. "We may not. But holding information from us has only caused you to put yourself and Historia there into more danger." Pixis stood tall in the sunlight streaming through the windows. "Tell us the truth."

Ymir knew what he was saying was correct. She did not argue; all she could do was cringe back from the table as everyone looked at her. Krista, next to her, was questioning. Mikasa and Armin, unreadable. Eren, so close with that black flame behind his eye, and his steely determination. Her breath hitched, and then another voice cut in.

"Listen to Pixis, or else I'll make you," Levi said, as he took a step forward, his hand on one of his flesh-piercing blades.

The room tensed, only the confusion of his threat keeping Mikasa at bay as she bared her teeth. Erwin spoke then, "Levi." His voice was measured, disapproving, but Levi did not move. Even Hange did not look up from her book.

"I'm not letting anyone else die because she's too soft-hearted to tell the truth." The scout drummed his fingers. "Erwin's squad died, and I lost men and women as well. For the first time in forever, there's a chance of victory."

"I-" Krista–Historia–spoke up, her voice stuttering as she grabbed Ymir's hand and squeezed. She could feel everybody's eyes on her like burning coals, accusatory, even if only in her own head. "I know you don't have a good reason to trust me, but I trust Ymir. If she's keeping something from us, she has a good reason."

Pixis nodded. "Miss Ymir, and Miss Reiss. I know you have your reasons. But neither of you is doing anyone a favor by trying to spare Eren's feelings or protect Leonhart." Eren blinked in surprise, some of that black fire leaving in the same moment Ymir swallowed the bile in the back of her throat. Pixis had seen straight through both of them. "Leonhart is a traitor and a murderer. We lost a lot of good men and women due to her. That's not even mentioning all those who died fleeing the breach in Wall Maria. Levi is correct."

His words cut straight to the heart of it, like flash-pairing blades severing the nape of a titan. If it were known how to transfer Titans from host to host, then Annie, Bertholdt, and Reiner would already all be dead. Eren, Ymir, and the rest could argue all they liked, but even with the cost of taking on a Titan, it would be worth it to many if they could win this war and ensure the safety of their island.

"Annie's not a monster; she didn't have a choice," Eren said. He was shaking, his hands were shaking, but he was held blind with the involuntary movement, too consumed by rage. "The only one who was in a position to stop her was me, and I failed. The Mirror Man forced her hand."

"Ymir, I don't need to be protected. I don't care if you or anyone else thinks I'm a child; you're only a year older than me, and I'm here too."

"F-Fine, it's cannibalism." Ymir said, stuttering for a moment before starting again, "The only way to pass on the power is by eating its previous host." Nobody spoke for a moment, although Pixis didn't look surprised. 'That shitty old man suspected it.' Krista held onto her with white knuckles, Armin was clutching his hands, Mikasa had a faraway look in his eyes, and Eren was shaking. Ymir decided she might as well explain more. "When the founder Ymir died, her husband had her three daughters, Rose, Maria, and Sina, eat her corpse."

A moment of silence passed through the room as everyone soaked in her words.

Eren stood there, his eyes dancing with black flames as the horrifying realization washed over him. His father was dead, and he was the reason why. There was a flame burning beneath his skin. Eren saw it in their eyes, Levi, Pixis, Erwin, even Hange, were already thinking of convenient ways to take Annie's power, to kill for being a traitor, or for the sake of science and exploration. All so they could have a better chance against their enemy. He could feel acid in the back of his throat, worms beneath his skin, and a deep pit in the place of his stomach. As tear beads welled in the corners of his eyes, he could feel the flame behind them, burning with another vision–a memory–he didn't understand. 'I have to calm down, I have to control myself.' He took a deep breath in and then breathed out.

"I'm fine. Let's move on."

'Nobody here hates me, even if I do. Getting angry won't solve anything. Eren swallowed the bile in the back of his throat. 'I'll make them pay.' Seija, the Mirror Man, and whoever else was pulling the strings. Still that ever present question lingered in the back of his mind: What would Eren do when it came down to it, what was the price he was willing to pay for the sake of his friends.

"Eren. . ."

"I'm fine, Armin. I'm fine." Eren said, a smile unnervingly stretched thin across his face. "Let's just get this sorted first. Then we can rescue Tewi."

Ymir gulped. If she had told them how Titans were passed on, then–"There's one more thing I have to say."

"If you mean your lifespan? Then yes, and Tewi already knows." Hange said. "We weren't going to mention anything, but Eren's fine. Tewi applied a treatment to you in order to slow the degradation, but you and Annie's lifespans are shortened." Hange turned to the rest of the room, "By becoming the host of a Titan. They also lose more 'time' if they transform." Everyone in the room understood what that meant; if they were going to make the full use of the Titans, it would require human sacrifice.

Pixis nodded. "Yes, that's good to know. But we still have another issue," Pixis said, "We still need to liberate Quinta. But without Tewi, her plan to counter the Mirror Man won't work, and with the King subordinate to some conspiracy, we can't move forward without. . . Dealing with him."

"Now more than ever, it seems as if our three enemies, the Mirror Man, the Conspiracy, and these Marleans are one. I think our friend here could answer that."

In a single movement, Levi drew his flesh-pairing blade and hit Kenny on the back of the head with its hilt. "If the deadbeat could stop pretending to sleep."

"Shit." Kenny said, "Are you still mad about that? You know I wouldn't have been able to take care of you."

"You abandoned Levi as a child in the undercity," Hange said. She rose from her chair, revealing a split in a leg. "Even without everything we've learned about human biology from Grisha and Tewi, it's common sense that humans do most of their growing when we're young."

Kenny laughed. "Guess I just did some future proofing then, if Levi here had a proper upbringing, he would've kicked my ass then. Guess you might've known more about demons as well. I had my old man for that. All you had was that one-off warning from me." Kenny turned his gaze to the rest of the room. "Although I guess that rabbit told you all the difference between a Youkai and a human, too, eh, Yaeger?"

"Youkai live for themselves and feed off of humans' negative emotions." Eren forced the words out; he could see what Kenny was saying. If he went off on his own and selfishly pursued his own goal, even if it was for other people's sake, he would eventually stop being human. Tewi would have agreed with him, but without her here and with the knowledge that monsters like the Mirror Man existed, he found it hard to care. "Humans are living creatures, and they live for the people in their lives and for the sake of living."

"Same thing my old man told me about demons, more or less." Kenny stretched his neck as he sat in his chair uncomfortably. "That's it then, Pixis will go to Darius and get his support–probably won't be hard–while Me, Levi, and the Kids here go to finally take out that king."

"Just like that? What about the assassins? We're not going to walk into a trap." Erwin said.

"Assassins? Is that what you're calling them? Just so you know, they're my anti-personal squad. The only people they listen to are me. Once I tell them to stand down, the king will be helpless." Kenny was smiling as he spoke, sly as always. It was almost too ludicrous to believe, but that same fact, combined with his confidence, made it almost believable.

Eren breathed in sharply. "Do you just expect us to believe this?"

"Oh, don't you worry. Once I find out how to unlock that power, I'm the one who's going to become god." Even bound, sitting in a chair, he cast a long shadow, reminiscent of a Youkai with his large toothy grin shining in the sunlight, "But if you're going to do this in time, then you don't have a choice."

Later that night, Reiner tossed back and forth in his sleeping roll atop the wall as Bertholdt sat, his listless gaze scanning the landscape. He felt lucky the wall was warm, else the night winds would have sapped all the strength from his bones. Still, with the fire long snuffed out, all he had to accompany his thoughts was the howling wind, the darkened landscape, and the footsteps of Titans down below.

In the absence of anything else to think about, all his mind could go to was Annie, sullen, fearful, consumed with some emotion he could not understand. Those thoughts caused a bubbling, burning sensation to start beneath his skin, not fear, but worry and wrath in equal measure. 'It's all my fault, I could have saved her, somehow. . .’ He did not know how, but nevertheless, he believed it. He half thought to throw himself off the wall or march on Mitras himself, but every time he desired the surface, the masked man's voice resonated in his mind. "You will not make your stand here, Braun. Even if you wipe out the enemy completely, you'll be no closer to the King, the Founding Titan, or Liberio."

Bertholdt clutched his fingers into his palm, fingernails drawing blood as he tried to move. "I know a great many things, now leave. I must make use of Miss Leonhart's ability if I am going to keep things as they should be." Still, his limbs refused to obey him.

"Your failure is already known to Zeke and some others," the man said. "Now, stay your hand as ordered. Plans have been moved forward, and it will not be too long now until others arrive. Once that happens, you shall relinquish the responsibility of this mission to them."

Reiner had stood his ground harder than Bertholdt did, but his next words caused him to fall into line. "Do not fret, Reiner Braun, as long as you do as I say, I can ensure you will arrive back home to your family, and then meet with the end of your desire. But first, duty calls, Warrior."

Bertholdt had only resisted the man's commands then, but– "And for you, Bertholdt, I can promise that no matter what. Your dear Annie will not die. I shall see to it, and if I fail, then others shall." If he really could keep Annie safe, then it was worth it. Bertholdt barely even remembered the faces of his family, but Annie. 'I have to protect her.' Still, he had asked who the others were.

"Armin Artlert, Eren Yaeger."

His thoughts race: Why did they get to sit by her side? Talk to her, and be her friend while he was forced to stay his distance. "Jealousy is not becoming of you, Colossal Titan. Do as you are ordered." Another voice overlapped with the Mirror Man's in Bertholdt's mind–a younger, feminine voice–but he didn't know who that voice belonged to. He was shaking, not due to the cold, but still, some part of him refused to move. Still unaware of what had become of Tewi and the Mirror Man, in the eyes of that group, they were boxed in.

Still, the night passed on. No sound was carried on the wind, only the cold of night and the falling full moon there to keep Bertholdt company as he stewed atop the wall. Then, right next to Bertholdt's ear, a voice cut through the silence.

"Well, well, well. You're those two rogue warriors that I've heard so much about??"

Berholdt was moving before he even realized it, his legs springing against the warm stone of the wall as he scrambled to Reiner. "Reiner!"

Standing where he had sat moments ago was a strangely clothed, black-and-red haired girl, with striking red eyes that glowed in the darkness. Although she said nothing, her sharp smile–reflecting the light of the full moon–was all Bertholdt needed to see to go for his knife. But Reiner was the one who spoke.

"Move and we–"

"Oh, relax," She said. Her voice was soothing somehow, despite its roughness, and reflexively the two warriors felt their muscles slacken as she raised her arms. "I'm a friend, or did our masked friend not tell you about me?"

Reiner took a deep breath, steadying himself as he held his knife against his palm. Behind him, there was more wall, in front of him was the girl, and to either side of the wall, and then a sheer drop. They could survive, but the distance between them and the girl was still too little; even if she only had a knife hidden, she was close enough to kill one of them. Running away wasn't an option. "He said Zeke was going to come."

"Yeah, well, that's still going to take a while, but in the meantime, I'm the one who's going to be looking out for you." The girl stood up, her eyes glowing a vibrant red, reflecting the light of the moon that sat in the sky behind Reiner and Bertholdt.

"Who are you?"

She took a step forward, and they stiffened again, readying the grip of their knives. "Oh, me? I'm Seija. Kijin Seija, Zeke, and the others aren't here yet, but I've taken our Mirror Masked friend out of the picture for now." The self-titled Seija pushed off the ground softly

"What are you?"

"Oh, I'm just a Youkai. Like the Mirror Man or that rabbit that's working with the Scouts." She was smiling, still smiling. Hardly a kind smile, it reminded both of the Warriors of a snarling dog.

"Youkai?" Bertholdt said.

"Yep, a Youkai. To put it plainly, we're similar to Titans, but we're not human or mindless."She said, taking another step towards them. Her smile–sharper than sharp–glistening in the moonlight as she extended a hand towards Reiner. "So, how about we go get ourselves a founding Titan and save the world?"

Reiner furrowed his brow. 'Youkai' was a new concept to him, but whatever this girl was, she clearly wasn't a Titan or a human that could turn into one. He had no reason to believe that she or this other Youkai, the Masked Man who had taken Annie, were trustworthy or working with Zeke at all. Even they were saying they were working with Zeke instead.

"By the way, Zeke already knows about Marcel, so you won't have to worry about that. Zeke will handle it."

"I-I'm the leader of this mission," Reiner said. He felt something crawl underneath his skin, underneath Seija's gaze. "I say where we go until Zeke comes here. Even if you're working with him, we have no reason to trust you." He knew that they didn't have a choice; they had no leads, no way into Mitras, no new info on the king, and their enemies held all the cards. In his mind, they were boxed in.

"Fine, fine, you're in charge." She said, her tone was casual, half-mocking, and only caused Reiner's brow to furrow. She wasn't taking this seriously, but she didn't seem to be an enemy. "But, the point is, I'm a friend and you two don't have any choice in the matter anyway. . ."

As she dragged out the last syllable, she spun in the air, turning upside down as the moonlight shone off her eyes. "Just trust in me and I'll have you two home in no time. But in the meantime, you two have a lot to learn about Youkai and how to harness those abilities of yours."

Chapter Text

Eren did his best to ignore the rumbling of the wagon beneath him as he rested against the side of its bed, staring listlessly into the starless night sky. Krista and Ymir had stayed behind, Hange was still hurt, Pixis was busy, and everyone else was in Trost. Erwin, Levi, Mikasa, Armin, and he were the only ones who could go along with Kenny and capture the king.

Erwin sat at the front, driving the wagon with Armin next to him, while Levi had his back towards them and faced the rear of the wagon where Kenny sat unbound but without ODM gear. Eren and Mikasa took the flanks of the wagon, opposite each other and ready to strike back at Kenny.

They had left Mitras later in the day; arrangements had to be made for the 104th to be moved up, and various other things. They had finally left the capital only an hour ago, and the sun was slowly descending in the sky, its evening hues painting trees orange and making the fields shine with gold.

Still, that did little to lighten the atmosphere of gloom and tension surrounding their merry little band. Eren, feeling as if a stray gust of wind would topple him over. Mikasa, ready to die for Eren. Armin, hoping neither would do something stupid. Erwin and Levi worried about the mission. All the while, Kenny still smiled.

"Eren," Armin ventured, "are you okay?"

"Do you think our home at Trost is fine?"

Mikasa perked up as well, but Armin said: "What?"

"He and Tewi, our home. The place where we lived. It was near the military quarter, so it was pretty far back, but the Titans still might have gotten to it."

"We had a home too," Mikasa said, "a farmhouse: Annie, Berdolt, Reiner. I never trusted her, but Armin got along with Bertholdt."

"Yeah," Armin said, a thin–stressed–smile crossing his face, "We can check on both when we're on our way back from Shigansina. But for now, let's stay focused on the task at hand?"

Eren nodded. "Right." His response was unconvincing and weak somehow. He looked out at the darkening landscape around them, only to realize that just like back then, despite what he felt, the world was continuing on as normal.

Then, as they rounded a bend and went up a hill, Kenny leaned to see around the driver's, even as Levi shot him a glare. There, at the end of the dirt road and at the edge of the forest, was an old, lone church. It was a surprisingly squat building, with its tallest spire dwarfed by the sentinel trees that surrounded it."Looks like we're almost there," he said. "Any last words before we go; an apology?" The other five stayed silent, barely even acknowledging Kenny.

"Fine, fine. Let's get on with it." Despite his words, Kenny still smiled, and his tone was as light and airy as ever. He got his legs seamless in the moving cart. "Now slow down, I need to tell them I'm here with you, or they'll attack."

The rest turned to look forward; the church seemed entirely desolate to any normal outsider. Erwin and Armin didn't doubt that there were people waiting there. But only the Ackermans and Eren could make out the figures hiding among the trees. Kenny cupped his hand to his mouth and yelled, "HEY! WE'RE WORKING WITH THESE GUYS NOW, COME ON OUT."

In an instant the Anti-personal squad appeared, swinging from out of the tress and from behind the Church's spire: At their front was the blonde woman, when their wagon finally arrived, of the squad, she stepped forward. "Sir," she said, her voice solid, betraying no other emotions.

"Hey, Caven," Kenny said. "The king in there?"

The woman nodded, "Yes, sir."

"Good, now let's get a move on."

Kenny and Caven entered first, and the small troop filed into the church. Aside from Caven, there were still four others of the anti-personnel squad stationed in the church, sitting up in the rafters like birds, all of their ODM gear the same as the strange gun design that only a little note was made of earlier.

"None of these men have blades," Eren said, stopping in his tracks as Caven and Kenny ascended the platform at the back of the main hall.

"Aye, we only had to take them due to you and that Ymir girl's Titans." Levi clicked his tongue in annoyance, which Kenny took as a cue to continue, "If we didn't have to deal with you two, we wouldn't have won."

"Even with Tewi?

Kenny rolled his eyes, "I said won, not wiped out. We'd have gotten the girl and done something to get the rabbit as well." Kenny's eyes sparkled for a moment, amusement rising within. "I can't believe it, my anti-personal squad, bested by a rabbit."

"Get on," Levi said. "We don't have all day." Indeed, outside, the sun had only continued to fall; it was still not twilight. But that meant they'd be returning to Mitras at night."

Kenny shook his head and, with Caven, stepped behind the altar, lifted a rug off the floor to expose a trap door, and popped it open as the others arrived beside him. "Ladies first." There was a beat of silence as his five captors looked down at him without any amusement.

"Caven then," Mikasa said, not taking her eyes off of him. She nodded and dropped down, landing on the stone below with a thunk.

Below, the pathway was sparsely lit by torchflame, casting odd shadows on the stone beneath. But as they descended the stairs, they seamlessly transitioned to crystal beneath their feet, and an eerie, moon-like glow–impure and choking–radiated deep from within the passage. Then, the staircase opened up into a cavern. It was vast, stretching from just below the soil of the church to down and down below, thrice the height of the church in depth, carved out of solid crystal and fireburst stone that cast the entire room in faux-sunlight. The only disruption in the pattern was the other members of the anti-personnel squad, clinging to the crystal with their ODM gear or positioned atop wooden platforms.

"Yeah, yeah. This place is pretty and all, but it really loses its luster the tenth time you've been." Kenny said, before addressing his subordinates. "Don't hurt any of these guys yet, we still have to wring that pig's neck."

Eren ignored Kenny and drew his ODM gear and flesh-pairing blades in a single moment. The anti-personnel members and the other four tensed, but Eren already launched himself up and forward, landing on one of the wooden platforms and beckoning to the others below.

"Hey, wait u–"

Kenny found himself hauled by Caven, who only muttered a soft, half-hearted apology as she moved beside the others, following Eren onto the wooden catwalks.

From their vantage point, the king was an unimpressive sight, a small rotund man whose small stature in comparison to the vast cavern gave him the appearance of a beetle. The likeness was only strengthened by his black suit, his anxious pacing, and his constant chattering, ignored by the anti-personal squad members who stood among Kenny, Caven, and the five. Behind the king lay a collection of items sitting at the base of a set of staircases that dwarfed the king in size, leading up to an overhanging platform.

"Right, Caven, bring me down." She nodded to Kenny, taking him again.

The king jumped in surprise as Caven landed and deposited Kenny, the Ackerman, springing to his feet in a moment. Only after he landed did Eren and the others follow him down

"Ah, Kenny." The man said, before realizing who was walking with him, armed and with murderous glares. 'W-wait, what are you doin-"

The king raised his hands, but in a moment and a cry of pain, he was forced down to the floor. "Shut up and don't speak unless spoken to, you pig," Kenny said. His constant smile had turned to an expression half-manic, half-snarl as he slammed the heel of his boot into the King's back. "Now, you're going to tell us exactly how the Founding Titan works."

"Please. You have to bring my daughter here, please."

"What did I say?"

"I-" The man began to speak again, but gulped, "The only person who can awaken the Founding Titan. When Grish attacked, he killed everyone except for me. My daughter only survived because she didn't live with us. Please, she's our only chance to–" The king stopped mid-sentence as he saw Kenny's expression.

The assassin's smile had disappeared, replaced by a tense baring of his teeth, skin, and eyes stretched so wide that he seemed to radiate tension into the air. "Tell me, you're lying." Kenny pressed closer, his expression hollow. "Now."

"N-No, I'm telling the truth. Uri didn't have to do anything to get that Titans power, but look at that boy and tell me he's god."

Kenny's grimace tensed for a moment more before breaking. "Dammit!" He didn't have anything to refute what the King said, and his expression turned to a snarl with hollow eyes. His hand spasmed, looking for a blade. "If I can't become god, you're of no use to me." Kenny clenched his hands into fists as Levi and Mikasa made for their swords, while Erwin & Armin narrowed their eyes, and Eren looked on nonplussed. "Tell me why I shouldn't kill you right here?" Despite, or perhaps because of the shaking in his voice, the king knew it to be true. Even with his bare hands, Kenny–an Ackerman–could kill the king in a moment.

"The Founder created the Ackermen clan." He said suddenly. "I'm the only one who knows how the Founding Titan works. I'll help you turn the world upside down, just bring me my daughter. You have these people outnumbered five to one, just–"

Levi stepped forward, "You think we're going to let you kill us? The second Kenny makes a move, one of us will already have struck him down."

"The anti-personnel squad will–"

"Nah," Kenny said, stepping back off the king, allowing the sniveling beetle-like man to rise to his hands and knees, "These guys would avenge me, but you ain't someone worth fighting for." Kenny drove his foot into the king's side, sending him sprawling across the floor.

In a moment, the king's life flashed before his eyes. His brother Uri, their younger sister, and the royal family. Then, the same crystal cavern years in the past. He could still see him–Grisha, his family's doctor, a genius bar none. An outsider who came to kill his entire family, that man's face twisted into sorrow, rage, disbelief before cementing into resolve. 'Is this what it felt like?' The King thought, right before he felt the mirror touch of a silver thread touch his face. In an instant, his face twisted into rage, madness. "Why not! Do you know who I am? My Family's the one that made these walls. If it wasn't for that traitor, my family would still be alive. You should pay for what your father did with his ow-!"

The King's words were cut off as Mikasa's boot slammed into his mouth, an explosion of blood and teeth splattering onto the floor beneath. Mikasa raised her boot above his head, ready to slam his face into the puddle of his own blood and shards of his teeth, and then–

"Mikasa!" Her foot stopped mid-air as she turned to look. Armin was red-faced and breathless, with an emotion on his face she couldn't decipher.

She exhaled, nodded, and then took her boot away, walking back to where Erens.

For his part, Eren looked at the king sniveling on the floor with hollow eyes, but only for a moment. Then, he walked past them and up the steps of the crystal-carved stairs. There, he started his investigation, prying into the medical bag. "This is what turns people into Titans?" Eren looked at the vials: Cart, Armor, Female, Colossal, Jaw, Beast, and Founder. The only vial missing was Attack. Eren raised the Founder vial into the air and rotated it. Inside flakes–motes–of black interwoven with strands of white, caught on the light reflected throughout the crystal cavern. 'It's the same thing that Youkai are made of, just suspended in liquid, but what's with this white stuff?' Eren felt something stir within him as he saw it, something smothered beneath the black flame, a worming, impure thing. "You." He said to the King, "What's in these vials?"

"Don't you touch those, they're–Ah-!"

"The kid asked you what's in them, pig."

"Don't use them, they don't work properly. If the user isn't one of the Nine Titans, then they'll be feral, please. Another bag has blank vials. The first king of the walls had them made. I-I don't know how he knew, but the power of the Titans is held in the brain and spine. That liquid was extracted from previous hosts of the Titans."

Eren nodded, and the next question came to him unbidden, 'What would happen if I used this on myself. Would that unlock this Founder?" He only managed a nod as he turned around and crouched back down to the bag. "Kenny, do you–"

"Ugh." Kenny said, taking another step towards the king, his hands balled into fists. " I don't have any reason to work with you now. What I'm going to do is kill that king and then–"

In what seemed like an instant, Levi and Mikasa moved in tandem, consumed with the single target of his hatred. Kenny had no time to react as the hilts of two flesh-pairing blades slammed into the back of his head, knocking him out in an instant.. Everyone moved, the four alongside Eren and the Anti-personnel squad.

"No!" Eren screamed as he moved forward, halting the Anti-personnel squad and the other four in a moment. Eren seized on that other mote, now white and impure, but pink, deceitful, and filled with a gentle warmth. Then all at once, he felt a great vastness and the slowing of time. 'Is this Tewi's ability?' Eren thought, as the world unraveled before him, strings led to the past and future, beyond the edges of his vision and pulling at that other mote, the disgusting worm-like thing. Eren felt something in his gut, something unfamiliar but kind, and pulled. Half-unconsciously, he heard himself speak. "Why did you follow him?"

Caven's hands shook, "The only reason our squad existed was for the sake of Kenny and his dream." The other members of Kenny's–and her squad–had stopped.

"We don't want to hurt him or you; the only reason he ever became the enemy of the government is because they hunted him and forced him into the life of a killer," Eren spoke, and the words flowed like wine. "We won't kill him, but we can't allow him to kill the king. Why did you follow him in the first place?"

Caven hesitated, "Kenny's a person who wanted to change the world. If it's humans or just the way the world works, nobody was really trying to fix things until him. Becoming god, if somebody like him could take that power, and see the world in the way the last king saw then. . . maybe the world could change."

Eren nodded. "Our only enemy here is the King, and whoever's behind this whole thing. Levi, Mikasa, turn Kenny over to them." Mikasa nodded, and Levi clicked his tongue against the roof of his mouth, but complied alongside Mikasa. When Kenny was deposited in Caven's arms, Eren spoke again. "You can go."

Caven engaged her ODM year, and then she was gone. The other members of the Anti-personnel squad followed in her wake.

When all had left, Erwin narrowed his eyes at Eren, "Regardless of that man's circumstances. He's likely killed innocents; he could come after us again."

Levi, who stood next to Mikasa, only shook lightly, unable to stand beside either.

"He won't," Eren spoke with gravitas, and a deep echo as if he were far away. Everyone could see it, the black flame behind his eyes and the two motes dancing inside the flame. At that moment, a fever-chill spread through the room.

Levi grit his teeth, Milasa's eyes widened, Erwin tightened his grip on his blades, but Armin was the one who stepped forward and spoke. "Eren, is something wrong?"

"No. There's something different about this place," Eren blinked, and behind the crystals was a vast expanse of desert, with something large and luminous behind it. Beneath it all, beneath the sands, was a vast fiery void, the void inside him. Distant flames licked at his skin, not the black flames, instead a memory, but not his. "I feel stronger, closer to–" The black flame inside him, and two other things inside him: a twinned, intertwined worm-like thing, and something else, warm, familiar, and– 'Tewi.' Eren held his hand tighter. "This place is special, I can feel it."

Eren shook at the fever school, a migraine shaking behind his forehead. 'This is an opportunity I have to take, Tewi, please.' Eren closed his eyes, smoldered that black flame inside him, and seized that familiar warm presence and shook, a cold sweat running down his body as he coughed out black and white smoke.

"Eren, whatever you're doing, stop it. You know the risk."

Eren clutched at his chest, "No. I lost Tewi, I lost Annie, I lost mom and dad. I'm not losing anyone else." He could feel it then, the flames licking at his skin–fur–alabaster. 'Tewi,' he realized, 'It's Tewi's memory, not mine.' The paths contained to unfold behind his eyes, cause and effect, stretching farther into the past and future. He stumbled forward. 'Is this what it really is, her luck?' Eren thought, feeling the flow wash over him and crashing down on the black flame as the light around him became tinged with an impure white and a familiar red. Armin and Mikasa moved to him as he stumbled again and fell. The second they caught him, he was out like a light.

Erwin sighed and looked at Levi and said, "Now let's get the king tied up. Pixis will want to speak to him."

Pixis had found convincing the head of the military, Darius, that it was easier said than done. The chaos around the castle, as well as the presence of Ymir–a Titan–on their side, only made their plan even easier. Then it was based on this: as the real King was squirreled away in some cavern below a chapel, his conspirators, nobles, military, and church alike could only run about as headless chickens as them, and some other kept up appearances by bothering the elderly blonde man that sat on the throne. Thus, the most prudent course of action was to send a poor MP officer to declare that the Armored and Colossal Titan had attacked again, destroying Trost and slaughtering all of the scouts who remained there.

Of course, that was a colorful life, believable given the circumstances, but a lie nonetheless.

In no time, those conspirators had set upon each other, clergy and nobles alike brawling for one reason or another. All the while, the head of the Military Police–Nile Dok–tried and failed to maintain decorum. Once the mod had turned on him, determined to save their own skin somehow, he saw the truth: these 'people' held no love for humanity at all. Then, Pixis and Darius had arrived with their company of scouts, garrison, and Darius' personal troops. They had set about arresting the offending individuals as Pixis and Darius shuffled Dok out personally.

The large wooden doors closed shut behind Pixis, Darius, and one other as they exited. The chaos behind them faded as members of the Garrison and Military Police arrested the attending nobles. It was easy to convince him to join their cause, with white lies, fickle truths, and their suspicions about the Mirror Man. Suspicions that could only be confirmed once they had the king.

In the meantime, press statements and official decorations from the king: a declaration of the discovery of the outside world, their enemies. With colorful truths sprinkled in, the Mirror Man is leading a conspiracy against the king, manipulating the church. Not to mention how the 'Titan research division had found a way to harness the power of the Titans'. Pixis had also, in his discretion, kept Krista's secret to himself.

Still, there was much chaos for the rest of the day and then into the evening. Then, the away team returned with the King, Kenny, and the anti-personnel squad in tow.