A/N: This whole story is a giant spoiler for chapter 56 of the Shingeki no Kyojin manga, so don't read it if you're not alright with spoilers.

Queen Historia.

Such a strange title. It didn't belong to her, but it did. It was too foreign and it was too formal for her. Too important.

Much too important to belong to tiny, little, insignificant, scared Historia. But then, there it was. A choice sitting in front of her. A choice that she was in no place to make on her own, so it was made for her. It was made so violently and harshly and she was so scared and he was touching her he was picking her up and he was manhandling her and he was yelling in her face because how could she refuse to do something like this? Didn't she want to try to save humanity? Didn't she have to carry the whole world on her shoulders? It was her job, right? She was fated to be afraid, tired, angry, uncertain. Miserable.

He shook her and oh dear lord she was so terrified of him and there were her friends screaming, "Hechou, stop!" and "put her down!" behind her but he would not stop. He made sure to terrify her into accepting this fate. Accepting that she would have to be in charge of humanity until her death. He made sure to guilt and threaten her into being responsible for every other human left.

Then, he dropped her. The floor was unforgivingly hard when she landed on it. Her knees would bruise and her elbow would hurt for a week. She just stayed in that position while he continued to talk to her from where he stood; her knees and arm resting on the ground and her breath coming shallowly as she tried to get her spinning head to still. Her eyes were wide as what had just happened tried to sink in.

Her friends crouched around her, making sure she was alright, and the conversation around her continued, but she absorbed little of it. They were words that would be gone over and over and over again, but they could never be so important as the words that had been spoken earlier.

"Reiss is the real royal family," he had said.

It had been calm. It had shocked her enough to make her heart stop and then start again with a thunderous rush that made her want to run. She had said she couldn't do it. She wasn't ready for this. She wasn't ready to take on the world. She could fight titans, sure. She could do that alone, with nobody dependent on her and nobody to miss her. But this... this she could not do. So many people depending on her. So many people to let down. So many people she wouldn't be able to save.

And then he had picked her up by the shirt collar high above his head. He had told her that it was her fate to be scared and that he would always fight. He had told her that all hell could break loose tomorrow and that the world as she knew it could be wiped out in the blink of an eye.

And then, "Obey, or fight. You make the choice."

That was it. She knew that she had to do this now. It would be unforgivable for her not to do anything while she was in such a position faced with this opportunity. As he took her by the hair and screamed at her to answer him, she screamed her response right back.

"I'll do it!"

She shook like a leaf in the wind as she said it. She shrunk back from him as she declared that she could do it (though her eyes betrayed her terror and lies), but he extended his hand toward her and pulled her to her feet, "begging" her to get up.

Her mouth fell open and stayed that way. She trembled through the meeting and through the rest of the day and into the night until sleep overcame her.

She was so scared, and she could do nothing. She could be brave, yes, but that would not erase her fear. Fear could not adequately begin to describe the feeling that squeezed her heart. Terror, shock, adrenaline. Nothing could pin down this horror of having the whole of humanity dependent on Historia.

Queen Historia.

It didn't belong to her, but it did.

A/N: (◕‿◕✿) I have lost every last ounce of respect for Levi that I have ever had.