"This should not be happening," Eren declares. "Who would—"
"Someone knows, Eren!" Armin insists.
"Maybe they just had the wrong room? And were looking for—"
"We're the only passengers," Mikasa interjects. She pinches her scarf with one hand, pulling it up over her nose where her breath creates a warm cocoon for her face. With her other hand, she squeezes the hilt of her sword. Someone knows.
And that means they'll be coming for Eren.
Not if I can do anything about it.
"I'm going to have a word with that Jean," Eren vows, clenching his fist.
Wait, what? "Eren, is that really wise?" Mikasa asks.
"It's his ship. Surely he can give us a better lock or something," Eren snaps.
"It's more than that!" Armin protests. "We've got to think about this—how to proceed—if someone knows, we have to come up with a plan!"
"They can't know," Eren states. "No, don't look at me like that, Mikasa—I'm not some idiot for you to chastise!"
Mikasa flinches. She drops her eyes to the uneven wooden floor, blinking. Is that really what you think I think of you? Her chest aches.
"But think about it," Eren blusters on. "How could they? No one knows that we have—"
"Unless someone put two and two together in the refugee settlement, about your father's death and us disappearing—if it's a known document, then—"
"Armin, it's a map with parts of the world that, according to official documents, don't exist," Eren says. "I highly doubt it has a reputation."
Armin clutches his hair. "They could have just said to look for any document with the royal seal, or just for us and to look for evidence we were involved."
"Who?" Mikasa asks, swallowing. Who's coming for us?
"The soldiers seem the most likely, except I don't get why they wouldn't just arrest us. Covertness isn't exactly how they operate," Armin muses. "It can't be the crown."
Eren gasps.
"What?" Mikasa demands, unsticking herself from her pride.
"My father—he said this would help fight in the war," Eren says. "Get revenge for my mother. Maybe other people are after it, too. Marlay sympathizers."
A rock settles in Mikasa's stomach. Footsteps echo outside their cabin. They all stiffen.
The footsteps stall outside their door. Mikasa unsheaths her sword, the metal shrieking.
A knock. She yanks it open.
"Whoa!" Marco tumbles as the ship bucks. Mikasa yanks her blade out of the way to avoid impaling the sailor. "I was—just checking on Armin—is everything okay?" He gapes up at Mikasa from his knees.
"Someone broke into our room," Eren says.
Marco's eyes widen in what looks like genuine shock. As mistrustful as Mikasa is of people, she can't bring herself to suspect Marco. "What?"
Within minutes, they're ushered up onto the top deck, the scroll a barely discernible bulge in Eren's jacket. "Don't ever take it off you," Mikasa murmurs in his ear. Shit, did I just tell him what to do again?
Does it matter? If telling Eren what to do can keep him alive, can keep him from meeting the same fate as his parents and as Mikasa's, she'll do whatever it takes. Mikasa grits her teeth. Her head throbs, the familiar sensation of a cord tightening around her skull.
But instead of lashing out at her this time, he nods.
The sky looms above them, indigo morning clouds fleeing before what should be a day of sunshine. The sun retains a slightly orange hue as it climbs higher in the sky and the last dregs of night drip away over the horizon.
"What is it?" Jean asks, brushing something off his shoulders. He runs his hand through his hair and eyes Mikasa.
What? He's someone she might truly call an idiot, for looking at her like that.
"Someone broke into our room," Armin says.
"That's not possible," Jean states. "You have a lock."
"Which someone clearly has a key too," Eren shoots back, and despite the coolness of the morning, heat prickles at Mikasa's arms. "Mikasa saw—"
"Mikasa?" Jean turns to her, eyes wide and sudden concern on his face. "What did you see?"
She relays the tale of the shadowy intruder.
"What did they look like?"
"It was dark. There's not exactly a window below deck," Mikasa says. "I didn't see."
"Build? Gender?"
"I—" Mikasa tries to remember. "Not that tall. I don't—I don't remember." Stupid, she chastises herself. How can I protect my friends if I'm not noticing the most obvious details?
She promised Eren's mother. She'll take care of him.
"It's okay," Eren says to her. "It's not your fault. You were just waking up. Armin and I slept through it, so you're better than us."
Oh. Mikasa blinks.
"But we're going to need a new lock," Eren continues. "Because someone on your ship's a thief."
"The only other people on this ship are the soldiers and my crew," Jean shoots back. "Are you implying that I hire thieves?"
"The intrusion into our room implies that."
"Jean—" Marco starts, but Jean waves his hand. Frustrated, Marco hurries over to the stern. He grabs a spyglass from under the helm.
"Giving you passage was a kindness," Jean spits. "One I'm starting to sincerely regret."
"What are you going to do about it?" Eren taunts. "We've already paid you. When we land at the archipelago we'll be gone."
"How well can you swim?" Jean asks, stepping closer with a smirk.
You bastard! Mikasa starts forward. Armin grabs her arm.
"You're all talk and no action," Eren retorts, crossing his arms. "You won't do it, and you know it. Because for all your shittiness, you prefer to have someone else wipe away your inconveniences for you. Killing someone directly isn't in your blood. Wealth and fortune and a mommy who loves you are in your blood, right?"
Armin looks green again. Mikasa's heart pounds.
There's no mistaking it. Jean's eyes dart about, but Eren's not wrong. "I can lock you in the brig." He steps forward. "Franz! Hannah!"
No!
"Jean!" shouts Marco from the stern.
"Not now!"
"I'd like to see you try!" Mikasa snarls, pushing in front of Eren. Jean blanches. Clearly, he underestimated her. Well, I've had it with people like you.
"Jean!" Marco screams now.
Frantic clangs echo. Whoever's atop in the crow's nest rings the bell again and again and again.
A crackle and a boom echo—sounds Mikasa's heard before.
In Fort Shiganshina.
She grabs Eren and throws him to the deck. The impact knocks the wind out of her.
"Warning shot!" Marco hollers.
Warning shot? Dazed, Mikasa cranes her neck up. Her palms sting from scraping against the deck. Jean's jaw hangs open.
"Pirates," Armin whispers.
"They're trying to outrun us, Captain," Mike, the enormous second-mate, reports.
The odor of gunpowder stings Christa's nostrils. Her breaths come quick, too quick. She's not felt seasick in the slightest over the past few days, but right now she could vomit.
An arm slings around her shoulders, and warmth presses against her. "We're gonna be okay," Ymir assures her.
"Will they be?" Christa whispers.
Ymir snickers. "Christa, you are the strangest pirate ever." She keeps her arm around her. "Of course, Christa's not your real name, is it?"
Christa's blood runs cold. The wind steals her air.
"Don't worry," Ymir says. "I don't know what your real name is, and I don't plan on telling anybody else, but I will say this: whatever your real name is, you shouldn't be ashamed of it."
"That's easy for you to say," Christa retorts. There is no place for Historia Reiss anymore. Not if I want to live.
Does she?
She remembers a knife dripping in blood, and the woman who never wanted her but whom Historia always wanted to be held by, wilting in the streets.
"They might think you did this, bastard."
"Captain Erwin doesn't needlessly take lives. It's one of the reasons I decided to work under him," Ymir tells her, rubbing Christa's shoulder.
She relaxes into the feel of Ymir's thumb pressing her aching muscles. Sasha follows Connie around the deck, attracting a few strange looks. In the hustle to get up to the deck, Levi forgot to lock Sasha in the brig. Or maybe he doesn't care. "But I heard he sinks ships."
"That's what I heard too, but in Trost, according to the sailors I spoke to, he tries not to kill. He'll take their goods with as little bloodshed as possible." Ymir shrugs. "Maybe it depends."
"Run up the flag," she hears the captain bark out.
"He's so efficient that all the other pirates don't even try to compete with him, or so I've heard," Ymir continues. "If they're chasing a ship and he appears, they back off. Eldia would give anything to capture him, but they aren't able to. Too many people in port cities are still loyal to him, from his time commanding in the army."
"What made him turn to piracy?" Christa questions. The wind whips through her hair, tangling it in so many knots she doubts she'll ever get it to shine again. And why would you want it to? That's Historia. You're Christa now.
Ymir shakes her head. "I have no idea." She chortles. "Maybe it's just the worst instincts winning out in all of us."
"You don't really believe that."
Ymir's smile vanishes. "No. I don't. I think the best instincts have a chance to win out in someone like you."
Me? Christa grips her wrist. "Why not you?"
"You can't possibly not know that I am a really shitty person, Christa."
"I still like you."
Ymir's mouth hovers open. A snap, and both their eyes turn to see the green flag rippling above them.
"The wings of freedom," Ymir says, her voice thick. She points to the white designs. "Erwin's symbol."
My flag, now, Christa thinks. Not Eldia's anymore. The wings of freedom.
"We won't be expected to board, I don't think," Ymir adds. Christa watches as the ship ahead of them grows from a dot to a solid shape.
"They won't be able to outrun us very long."
"An hour at most," Reiner confirms as he appears beside them, Bertolt behind him. "Here," Reiner says, pressing the hilt of a dagger into Christa's hand. "Just in case."
"Aren't you supposed to stop this from happening?" Eren shouts, watching as the green flag and the black ship under it sail closer and closer. He whirls around to face the three useless soldiers, his hand gripping the rail.
Another warning shot rips through the air, splashing just off their stern.
Annie Leonhart casts him a scornful glance and steps closer, her face inches from his own. Her crystal blue eyes shift like the ocean with choppy waves. "We're nothing more than fodder for the government. Does that make you happy to hear? We go with merchants to appease their companies, not because we can actually do anything besides shoot pirates who step on board."
"It's not your fault," Armin says quietly. He leans over and vomits again. Mikasa grasps his hair.
"I am sorry," Annie tells Eren, her voice brittle.
"You shouldn't shoot," Armin gasps out.
She stiffens. All the sails Jean has on this ship flap overhead, but it won't be enough. The wind gives the advantage to the pirates.
"If you shoot, they'll think we're hostile and kill us all. If we can play deferential and surrender, we'll lose the cargo, but we—can get away with our lives." Armin wipes his mouth with his sleeve.
Hope sparks inside Eren. He just needs to conceal the map—
Annie studies Armin. He pleads with her: "It's the only way."
She gives a brisk nod. "I agree. I'll tell Marlowe and Hitch." She heads over to her companions, who retreated from Eren and his outburst.
"Easy for you to say!" yells Jean. Eren whirls around to see him glaring, red-faced. "You don't have anything," he says, voice cracking as he looks from Eren to Mikasa to Armin. "I have—this is—my life."
Eren's blood boils. He marches over to the arrogant captain, grabbing him by the collar.
"Hey—stop!" Marco cries out.
"Get your hands off me!" Jean splutters, pushing back against Eren, but while Jean's taller, Eren's stronger and goddammit, he's going to say what he's going to say.
"Listen to me," Eren grinds out. "Your life isn't in the pearls and silver candlesticks and soaps and grains you have below. Your life is in your blood and in your breath and whether or not you want to keep it is up to you. But look all around you. Look at your crew." The couple—Franz and Hannah—cry in each others' arms. A girl with dark pigtails vomits onto the deck, unable to make it to the railing. "They have more to their lives than you. They don't want to give them up just yet. And you and I both know the rumors about Erwin Smith. He might spare us if we surrender—ships that don't surrender get sunk. If you don't care enough about your own ass that's one thing, but I have people I care about on this ship, so do it for them!" He's screaming as he looks at Mikasa and Armin.
"That's not all Erwin Smith usually does," Jean ekes out, his face gray. "Half the time he demands the sailors join him."
What? Eren releases Jean. He stumbles back.
"Jean," Marco shouts as he pounds over to them. "Jean—we can't run for more than twenty more minutes."
Jean rubs the back of his head. His breath comes harsh, as if he's crying, but his eyes stay dry.
Mikasa slips closer to Eren. Tears fill her eyes.
"Do we run out the guns or surrender?" Marco asks desperately. "The crew needs to know what to do."
"What would you do?" Jean asks him.
Marco's jaw drops. "Well—"
"Never mind. I already know what you would do," Jean cuts in. "Do it. Change the flag. To white." He presses his fists against his eyes, shoulders hunched.
"I'm sorry," Eren says quietly. "But you're doing the right thing."
Jean stumbles away from him.
"We need to get below deck," Mikasa says, drawing her sword. Her eyes flash. "To the cabin. I'm not letting them take either of you."
"Mikasa, we've already established that the cabin's useless," Eren points out.
"The soldiers might be killed," Armin whispers. "They're most at risk. Them, and Jean."
Eren's stomach twists. "We have extra clothes, don't we?"
Mikasa nods. Armin surges down the deck, waving to get Annie's attention.
A snap. Above them, the flag of Eldia falls and white takes its place.
Surrender.
"Everyone line up!" Jean barks. "No one—and I mean no one—is to fire a shot at them, or challenge them. Defer to them and they might let us go, okay?"
"What's the point if they're going to take our livelihood?" Thomas Wagner shouts. "We don't have another way of earning money, Jean!"
The guilt riddling Jean's face chafes at Eren. He gulps the salty, smoky air.
"No!" Jean shouts to the soldiers, who head with Armin towards one of the hatches. "You stay up here!"
"What?" Armin cries out. "That's putting their lives at—we can disguise them!"
"They're going to find muskets with the royal insignia and demand they be identified anyways!" Jean yells. "Their best chance is to stay up here!"
"I don't think so," Armin says calmly. "I think—"
"I'll take my chances," Marlowe, the one with the ugly haircut, declares. He sets his jaw. "I don't need to hide who I am."
"You do need to keep your mouth shut, though!" screams Hitch, gripping his arm.
"If you want to go down in this uniform," Annie says, brushing her bangs back. "I'll give it a go as well."
Armin shakes his head. Eren glances at Mikasa in despair. There's nothing they can do. Nothing except wait, and hope. He presses his hand in his pocket, poking his fingertip with the edge of the map.
"I'm glad you're here," Mikasa says, her voice catching.
"I'm always here," he says. Armin staggers over to join them.
"Heave to!"
The ships groan and rollick as they're lashing together. Pirates fly over on ropes, slamming onto the deck. Eren catches his breath. He recognizes the one striding over the Jean—Levi. The most fearsome pirate alive, the muscle to Erwin's brains. In the refugee settlements, rumors came that he was superhuman.
Levi draws his cutlass, aiming it at Jean's throat. Eren clutches Mikasa's hand. She inhales.
"Take us below deck," he orders. "And if you leave anything out, we'll know."
"Jewels and weapons," commands an imposing man, almost a foot taller than Eren himself. He sniffs the air, as if he smells something bad.
Annie hands over her musket, as do Marlowe and Hitch. Jean and Levi are still below deck, and more pirates follow them. Then they wait, no one daring to make a sound. Waves splash and hulls creak, and every now and then someone lets out an involuntary gasp.
Whoops come from below. Levi and the other pirates emerge, arms stuffed with goods. Jean comes up as well, trembling. Levi directs him to stand with his crew.
"I'll take that," the tall man says, gathering the chest Levi's carrying in his arms.
Another thud as one more pirate lands. Eren's heart skips a beat. Erwin Smith. His yellow hair glints in the sun, and one of his sleeves hangs limp, armless. Instead of ordering his men around, he heads under with them, helping unload the cargo.
It takes an hour for him to speak.
"What's your name, Captain?" he addresses Jean.
"Jean Kirschstein," Jean ekes out.
"Jean Kirschstein," Erwin repeats. "And you have three soldiers on board?"
Jean gives a small nod.
"And three refugees." Erwin strokes his chin, taking in Eren, Mikasa, and Armin.
Eren clenches his jaw as he glares. How could you tell?
"That one looks wild," Levi comments, appearing behind his captain.
Me?
"What are you thinking?" Erwin invites him.
"I'm thinking…" Why not let it all out? "You may think it's merciful to leave someone alive, but you're still a pirate hurting people who depend on these grains and trade for survival."
Armin squeaks. Jean's jaw hangs open.
"Take him on board," Erwin orders. "Him, and the other refugees, the soldiers, and the captain."
"Jean!" Marco steps forward.
"Who is this?" Erwin asks as two pirates, one dark and one fair, grasp Marco's arms and hold him back.
"My first mate," Jean says, still defiant even in Levi's grasp. "Or he would have been."
"Does your first mate have a name?" Levi asks.
"Marco Bott," Marco states.
"Take him as well," Erwin answers. "In three days, if you head to the ruins at Utgard," he calls over his shoulder to the crew. "You may find your captain and the others there. Unless they've decided to serve under the wings of freedom."
Mikasa clutches her hip. She gave up her sword, Eren realizes. Nausea undulates as Levi beckons him forward and he has no response but to obey.
Levi grabs Eren and Mikasa by the waists. Erwin takes Marco and Jean, and the tall one Annie and Armin. Another soldier, older and with a deep scowl, takes a sobbing Hitch and slack-jawed Marlowe. They soar over the ocean, landing on the enemy deck.
Erwin barks orders as Eren gets to his feet, wincing. Six kids around his age aim swords at them all. Eren raises his hand slowly. The map's still there. He can feel it.
And he can feel the wind, scraping his face as they sail away from Jean's ship. Jean gapes after it.
"Well?" Jean demands at last, turning to the pirates training their weapons on them. One of the girls, a small blonde one, looks as if she can barely hold the weight of the sword. "What are you going to do with us? What takes three days?"
Five cannon booms rock the air, one right after another. Eren whirls around, Mikasa's grip strong on his arm.
"No!" Jean screams.
Smoke.
The sound of wood cracking.
Black smoke erupts from Jean's ship, now a twisted pile of broken wood smoldering against the waves.
They're all dead, Eren realizes. All the crew…
They're dead.
"This can't be!" Marco cries out.
"You liars!" Eren erupts, pushing past the small blonde pirate and charging at Captain Erwin and Levi. He barely makes it three steps before he's tackled. His jaw slams into the deck, splinters shoving into his chin. "You sons of—"
"We," Levi states, marching past him. "Did not fire those cannons."
"You—" He yanks his head up, spitting blood. Must've bitten my tongue. The captain lowers a spyglass from his eye.
"It's the Marlay," Erwin announces. "They sunk your ship, Captain Kirchstein."
The Marlay? In these waters?
That's not possible!
"Unfurl every sail!"
"Promise me," Father said. "It's on you now."
