She had not come from a very well known family but neither was she unknown to anyone. She had not been born very rich but nether was she poor. Such things didn't bother her nor did they matter. To her ones birth did not truly destine who they would be.

That is what her father's harsh and rigorous training had carved into her. All night and all day learning he trained her in the art of war and combat of many different worlds all to protect her. Few people had seen her and even fewer had the honor of being this close to her. Rhea the Grey Goddess. Elusive and sly the creator of her world. "She is clever, she is sly, cunning, kind and sometimes ruthless. "Some call her the Virgin Queen. But that is only because gods do not breed." her father had told her during their dinner. "But if she is a virgin how could she have created all of us?" Annie had asked. She knew it had been a mistake to ask him "Hold your tongue!" he had shouted at her when she had said that tossing a plate at her. "Such thoughts! She is a goddess of noble standard!" Annie couldn't help but smirk coldly at the memory as she walked up to the palace. The guards looked down at her nodded and let her pass. Really was there any need for them? The grey palace was protected by her power anyway.

As the young woman walked through the grey hallway She soon came upon a young boy of Spanish decent leaning cooly against a window. He looked... well there was no word for his expression. It looked halfway between a smirk and a over exhausted complexion on his dark face. His black hair was long and framed his face elegantly. Dressed in black robe and grey pants with a gleaming sword at his side She knew who this was. He was Carlos the Goddess' Personal Guard. The only one He looked up at her as she came closer. She couldn't help but fell that she thought he looked handsome.

"Anastasia, I suppose?" he asked her his voice dripping with slight annoyance. "I was told by Rhea to wait for a girl with yellow hair and blue eyes. But... she didn't tell me you would be this... short."

Annie didn't say anything but glared at Carlos coldly. "You must be that mans daughter. Your eyes look as cold as his and just like the snow there..." he sighed moving form the door. Before Annie could say anything the door opened and she was assured inside.

And so it was that for the first time in all her life she saw her Goddess for the first time in her life. She was tall and lean. Even when she was sitting down. She was playing a harp by an open window bathed in the sun. Her raven black and golden hair was loose about her and falling over her shoulders falling against her long and flowing dark red silk dress where a sash tied tightly around her small waist at its center was a symbol of a grey upside-down triangle against gold. It was also on a red and grey colored chocker set against her throaght right above her covered chest only this one had three triangles surrounding it. There was a figure of a female shaped specter with wings holding what looked to be a sword and a harp painted on the glass window behind her that Annie could see clearly when she had risen from it as she turned to the duo at the door.

"And... what is this?" Rhea asked sitting up from the window seat and turning to the one in the doorway. "Hmm... Ahh yes... Nicholas' child. Tell me girl, is he still bitter that I relived him from my service a day before he married your mother?" The goddess asked, her blue and green eyes falling at the dark mark at the corner of her eyes. Out of the corner of her eyes she saw Carlos smirk and couldn't help but think she was in the middle of some secret joke. "Not very well. Pity. But I do not wish to have married couples about me. So... what makes you I need another warrior before me?"

She knew, she knew it. But the strangest part about having powers like hers is that she couldn't tell what they were saying. She really must learn to lip read it wasn't like she was getting any older, but then again the visions went by too fast for her to make out any mouth movements. She wanted to hear the reason rather then just see it.

"My father has trained me himself for this moment and then some. Was he not the best of your services?" She didn't care this was her duty.

"Sometimes a parent cannot expect to live through their child," Rhea sighed, sitting down on her chair a cool look in her eyes. The goddess gazed at the young girl before her and smiled. "I do not need another one but If you wish to be my lap dog then prove to me that I need you," she smirked, and pointed towards Carlos. "Best him in combat and then we will talk." Really she just wanted to see if what she had seen was true, she might even get a chuckle out of it.

And she did. Not even a second later Carlos was flat on his back with his legs over his head his sword lying useless in his hand, a dark look on his face and he glared at Rhea accusingly as she applauded her. "Congratulations, Annie Leonhart, on becoming the next Titan in my services."

And so it was that her time with the goddess began. Working with her was like she was three different people at once. At one moment she would be kind another quick to anger and quick to her sword. She showed an intelligence that vastly outran anything she had known. She was brave and strong.

But even she also had her inner demons.

"She is named Hylia. She is the one who raised me when I was created," the Goddess told her one day pointing towards the glass painting facing towards the evening sun. Annie didn't know what to say about that but if she looked closely at the painting she could see that the figure looked solemn. "She was a lovely deity really and was very kind to me."

"Then why did you leave her side?"

"I left her side because I saw a dark fate for her world if I stayed," she answered simply more to herself then to her. After a short pause Rhea suddenly turned to Annie. "Tell me, Annie do you know the world you are fighting for?" the goddess smirked giving her cheek a soft tap.

"...You." she answered stiffly.

"Really, just me? Is that all? You fight just for me not anyone else?" she smirked, and she cupped her face in her hands. "What about everyone else? Do you think that just because you protect me I am too lazy to do anything else?" she said softly and her eyes softened a little. "Annie, I know you must be a good person..." Rhea said, and at that time Annie looked at her her truly looked at her her eyes fixed on the bright blue eye. It seemed to show sympathy and compassion and great wisdom, while the green one looked fierce and determined with a hint of bloodlust set in the very pupils. The blonde haired young woman nodded not knowing that those words would be the last she would hear of her Goddess.

A darkness spread over the heavens.

Bloodstained, her breath heavy in the exhaustion of the long battle Annie puled her sword out of the shadowy creature's body. Its sneering face mocking her. Exhausted she fell to the ground her legs folded underneath her. She breathed in and coughed on the stale bloody air... her eyes, the only hint of her transformation, looked towards the sunless dark sky. She didn't have to be told by Carlos that, although the war was over something much greater had been lost to the world.

She only had him now, and he her. Their partnership was something that lasted for centuries. Their bodies kept alive by the power Rhea had given each of them. They were alone the both of them. They were not welcomed in this world anymore. Her father had guarded the two of them the best he could but soon his age caught up with him and he died begging his only child for forgiveness. They lived, they bled, they thrived off this bleak world. After what felt like one hundred years they met others. Those who still had the memories of the goddess. Years passed in her new family and slowly her heart froze like the snow of mid-winter in her country. After all the threat against them was not far off. If Carlos noticed he did not say anything. Sometimes she would catch Bertholdt looking at her with a look that was unknown to her. But it was probably a child's admiration to someone of superior power. Reiner would often play small jokes on her but that was it.

She had something else to hope for her world now. But inwardly she knew that it wouldn't be the same and neither did she believe she was the true one. But there was something in the professors daughter that she knew had to belong to that of Rhea. For she bore her mark on the back of her hand. And then she died in flames set by the false God-worshipers Wallist they would become in less then a year. And just like that the world was doomed. The worship of the very one who had killed Rhea had been running strong since her death. Slowing progress, knowledge. Self mutilation all took over the weak minded. A denial for all things progressive and truthful. Unknowingly the idiots were destroying their very world. It would not be long before more burnings took place.

They had been abandoned by the other gods.

Something had to be done to stop this. So she and Carlos shared their power with the one who had taken them. Heartbroken and bloodthirsty he took it and set about killing the ones who had killed his daughter. If it had been a mistake she did not care. The last hope of this words was gone anyway.

She watched the sky turn red as blood pored down from the skies above. And she felt nothing.

(...) (...)

"Annie I know you are a good person..."

Inwardly Annie stiffened. Did he really just say what she had thought he had just said to her? She looked back at the young blonde haired boy in front of her and looked into his eyes, truly looked into them and it was the first in a long while she truly felt something inside her. Like lightning striking her very core. His eyes blue and bright and filled with a knowledge that should far exceed his age. Could it really be" She didn't know what was going on her feet were not her own she didn't even hear herself speaking. Could it really be? She looked down at the three below her on the stairs each of them looking at her with different expressions on their faces.

"I said this isin't funny!"

"We can still talk, Annie!"

"That's enough... I can't listen anymore. I'll tear you apart again, female titan!"

Yes... why didn't she see it before. It had been staring her in the face this entire time. Parts of her had been right in front of her face the whole time. And she laughed. She laughed half insane at the pointlessness of it all The goddess Rhea could be alive still! All this had ben for not! The people, the experience, fucking Sina! It had all been so damned useless! All for not!

It took a few seconds to regain her composure. Looking into their eyes she couldn't believe she hadn't seen it even after all these years. It was as clear as day. Funny how somethings worked out like that. All three of them had a piece of her inside of them. Her world could still be saved.

"Armin... I'm so happy I was able to be a nice person to you," She giggled, and for the first time in a long time she happy Something that she had kept inside her for who knew how long. How she had wanted to prove Rhea wrong. But now, she had to get to the others, she had to tell the others to stop the attack. She no idea that by the end of the day she would have had to use the other waning power the Goddess had given to her. How long she slept she did not know the only thing she remembers was waking up in Carlos' arms as he and the other two left to retrieve Sina.

Now she sits at the ruins of Rhea's castle she watched her walking through her rising grey halls once again. And for the first time in a long time she looks up at the blue sky and breaths in the fresh, crisp air.

"Now... what was that about being a good person, Annie?"