Annie never remembered her dreams. Even at a young age, when most of the other children could speak volumes of their experiences while sleeping, Annie would remain silent. She never remembered her nightmares, either.
That changed when she had lost her mother. All she had ever known since then were nightmares. Cruel as ever, the hand of fate had chosen to let her remember each and every one in excruciating detail. Since it was always the same nightmare, always the very same time and place with the very same beginning and end, her one consoling thought had been that the nightmare wouldn't change. It wouldn't become any more painful, or any less horrifying. But this, what was happening now before her very eyes, would be different.
This scene would stay with her always.
Covered in blood and slime, Eren had already glided through perhaps 10 Wild Titans, decorating the ruins around him with luscious gore. Scattered flashes of lightning continued to illuminate the grisly scene before her, and Annie's mind raced like never before.
Even when the door to the basement was finally open and relative safety within reach, she could not move. Even when Anastasia yelled and tugged at her arm, she could not move. Blinking, breathing, bending her knees to dull the aching stiffness...such things had never proven to be so challenging before.
The scene before them now defied everything they thought they had known about Titans, about their own kind. Shifters could not transform in the absence of sunlight. It was considered an ironclad rule, an absolute in their world. It was impossible.
And yet here they were, Shifters of Valhalla, watching as the ruins continued to weep crimson. All throughout, the tendrils wailed with glee.
The tendrils.
From what Annie could tell, the slime appeared to have a mind of its own. It moved independently, not part of Eren's movements or openings. Rather, it moved to be where he could not, to see where he could not, to defend when he would not be fast enough. Only moments before, a Deviant had leapt through the smoke-filled air and attempted to rip through Eren's nape.
The tendrils had silenced those efforts without hesitation, multiplying almost instantly and wrapping around the flying threat like a vice. The foe's momentum had been turned against it, and the tendrils sent the Deviant crashing into a nearby building. If there was omniscience in the world, Annie was certain it resided in that foul slime.
And she could hear something. Something terrible was whispering, words left uninterpreted by every crash of thunder. The whispers danced just on the edge of her ear, close enough to feel but too far away to understand. Without knowing why, without stopping to think of the endless consequences, Annie found herself moving toward him. Walking at first, walking right out of Anastasia's protective arms. Then she ran. He was still so far away from their group, but she ran to him. To him and his great enemies.
They fought back with fist and nail and bone, chipping away at the enraged being before them, but none of the Wild Titans could reach his nape. A sudden grasp ripped away Eren's left arm and tossed it aside, but he chuckled. A Deviant lept on his back and tore half of his face away, but he cackled.
Even in this whirlwind of agony, he laughed. The tendrils danced, reaching quickly for the fallen limb. Slime met with sinew, and the arm rocketed back into the empty socket and reattached. His eyes widened with desire.
Both arms reached up to grab the Deviant. The furious Shifter spun on his feet and swung the helpless Titan into it's brethren, knocking four of them away. Without wasting a moment, he bore down on the helpless Deviant and sunk his razor-sharp teeth into the back of its neck.
The scene brought her sliding to a halt, and Annie gasped. "They...Shifters aren't supposed to do that. We should never-"
Snapping his head back quickly, Eren removed the blood-splattered nerve cluster and swallowed it whole.
Annie was horrified, frozen in place. Her fingers twitched. Her eyes, deprived of moisture, screamed for her to blink.
One moment passed, then another. All the while he remained in that one spot, motionless. He loosened his grip on the now-dissolving Titan and it fell to the cobblestones below, steam billowing forth as the flesh vanished and the bones crumbled into dust. She could read his moving lips, sliding against bloodstained teeth.
"...ore. More..."
Annie's eyes widened further. She could finally understand the whispers.
"More, more!"
This voice was not his own, Annie realized. Even then, back when he had somehow managed to speak when Shifted, the booming voice still sounded something like Eren's. But this…the sound was different, again. The voice was lower, deeper. Eren's had disappeared completely.
"Give me more!"
They continued to fall like insects before him, every blow to his flesh returned to their own tenfold, a hundredfold each time. Every scratch upon him would beget a shattered skull, a severed limb, another disemboweled foe falling at his feet.
And greedily did he feast upon the spoils of war, ripping open the necks of the defeated and chewing on the prize that waited inside. With each cluster he swallowed, the slime further enveloped his battered form. White-hot steam danced along the surface as the slime covered his wounds, healing them instantly.
One by one, five by five, ten by ten. The Titans were reduced to less than half of their original number as Eren furiously carved a path to the one behind them all, the one responsible for his everlasting hatred. Flailing arms clumsily tore at his flesh, but he shrugged them off. One punch would crush a skull, one well-placed kick sent another enemy flying. This was his battleground. The slime continued to whisper.
They could do nothing against him. It felt good. He was in love with this, he loved this power. It was so beautiful and horrible to him, and there was never enough blood being spilt. More. There had to be more.
Wetness on the tip of her nose yanked Annie out of her trance, and she looked to the clouds above, almost invisible now that night had taken over. Another droplet hit her nose, then her forehead. It took only seconds for her entire body to become drenched as the rain fell in force. Rain-soaked clothes gripping her shivering form, and Annie sneezed. After much teasing, the storm had finally begun.
Eren rounded a corner, chasing down one of the few Titans left in the wake of his slaughter. Doing her best to shrug off the cold, Annie narrowed her eyes and ran, maneuvering around butchered piles of flesh and crumbling bones. Steam mixed with rain and the blackness of night, and Annie found herself waiting on flashes of lightning to show her the way forward.
At last, she turned into the same street and looked for Eren.
He wasn't there.
The road was littered with fallen Titans. Blood absolutely coated the buildings around her, it ran in the gutters and mixed with the frigid rainwater. For a moment, she hesitated. Was it really wise to be seeking him out like this, in such a state? From what she could tell, none of the others had followed.
It was her responsibility to follow if they would not...right?
She didn't have an answer. She never had the answers, she only focused on what was best for the mission. All that mattered was success, because succeeding meant returning home. To her father. To Anastasia, whom she was certain was probably going insane with worry back at Eren's old place.
Exhaling, she ignored the rain. She embraced the numbness of her flesh and drove her feet hard into the stones below, sprinting down the street and whipping her head left and right. Scanning the streets.
He had to be close. Titans didn't just disappear at the drop of a hat, though a certain burly, blonde-haired idiot would've joked otherwise. Her eye twitched with irritation at the thought.
There! At last, Annie caught sight of Eren standing in the middle of a street to her left, and she burst forward to catch up to him. As she drew closer, the still-pulsating clusters in his hands became more apparent. He didn't seem to be eating them, anymore. In a display of caution that Anastasia would have appreciated earlier, Annie slowed to a walk and approached Eren's left leg. She continued to move forward, and when at last she could see his bloody face, Annie looked up.
Eren's vessel remained completely motionless, his hold on the clusters slipping away as they fell to ground with a squelching crash. She followed his gaze. The two of them seemed to have turned onto a dead end, closed off by the back of what appeared to be a large chapel.
And there, standing at the end of that street, was a Titan with blonde hair and a sickening grin plastered on its face.
The haze lifted slowly, his vision swimming back into focus as the wretched voice grew quiet and he remembered. Eren released the bloody lumps from his giant fingers and clutched his ragged head in agony, the agony of knowing. Of remembering.
"Shut up!" he screamed within his own mind, reforging his confidence. Regaining himself.
"He's there, that bastard is there! Right in front of me! Cornered! About to die, and he's still smiling! I'm gonna kill him! Kill!"
The tendrils grew eerily silent, appearing to comply for only a moment. Then they began to wrap around his body in great numbers, and he could feel the armor being formed. He could feel that warm security on flesh that was not his, and he hated it.
"No," he struggled mentally, gritting his own teeth as the hot flesh and slime tightened all around him. "I'm going to kill him with my own strength! I don't need you! LET GO!"
A pause. The tendrils hissed low and threateningly, offended. But after a moment they did comply, receding and slipping back underneath the flesh of his Titan form. Sighing with relief, Eren focused once again on the enemy ahead.
He didn't even see Annie get knocked aside by the shockwave as he ran forward with all his strength, charging into the slaughter once more.
His slaughter, his own. No one else's, and certainly not the Voice's. His alone.
He was awake, he was free. The hunger wasn't gone, but it was weaker. Buried.
Eren pried his bloody jaw open and spoke for all the world to hear.
"You're mine!"
In a flash he was on top of his foe, crashing into the weaker Titan's body and pushing it through the church. Blood and stone scattered across the road and Annie did her best to avoid the falling debris, still following. Still pursuing.
Eren threw his mother's killer to the ground and grabbed for one of it's flailing arms. Any arm, any limb. It didn't matter. It was all going to go.
Finding his grip at last, Eren ripped the left arm free and with it, began to club the Titan's skull. Again, again, again. Flesh and blood and bone were his domain. Murder was his breath, wrath was in every step!
"You...fucking…son...of...a...bitch!"
Another vicious blow accompanied every word, each pause punctuated by the loud crashes of their conflict. When he was satisfied, Eren rose to his feet. And he waited.
Climbing another pile of freshly-freed wood and stone, Annie finally vaulted over into the new battleground. Gasping for breath, soaked to the bone by the ever-falling rain, she fell to her knees and watched. She watched as the Titan healed and stumbled to its feet once more, while Eren simply stood there and waited.
Enraged, the still-grinning Titan drove a fist into Eren's skull. Then another, and another to his chest. In a whirlwind of flailing arms and gnashing teeth it knocked him to the ground and chipped away at his healing form. But Eren remained motionless, eyes closed. Patient.
Then she understood. Eren didn't intend to simply crush this Titan.
He was going to make it suffer.
Eren's eyes suddenly burst open, blazing with fury as a hand went up to clamp down on the grinning Titan's neck. It made a horrendous gurgling noise as he lifted himself up, and Annie gagged a little.
"What's wrong?"
Eren's new voice boomed louder than any crash of thunder, echoing across the whole city. Slowly, he lowered the Titan's face down to his own and stared. Safely within the castle of slime, Eren gritted his teeth.
"Come on, fight me. You're strong, right?"
Silence. Silence and motionless eyes.
And that fucking grin.
Fury bubbled up again from within and Eren lost his patience, effortlessly flinging the Titan into a nearby building and roaring as it struggled to stand. Choking, gasping. Wheezing.
"What's that pathetic noise?! Heal yourself and FIGHT!"
His mother's killer rose to its feet and looked up at him. Pleased, Eren took a step forward.
It took a step back. Eren's breath caught in his chest.
He took another step.
It took another step back.
He screamed. With all of his might Eren screamed and roared at what he saw in the other Titan's eyes.
Fear.
The Titan's smile had become a grimace and it no longer waited for Eren, turning on its heels and running.
Running away. Running from him. Running.
"You...don't…"
His teeth ground together, his fists clenched and the digging nails drew blood. Eren saw red.
"YOU DON'T HAVE THE RIGHT!"
His legs exploded into motion and Eren chased the Titan down in an instant, tackling it to the ground. The two of them rolled for a good while and Eren rose to his feet quickly, kneeling down and hitting the grinning bastard.
He slammed his fists into the flesh again, and again, and again. Bones snapped beneath the force of his blows and he went faster. He couldn't feel anything else. His mind was numb, and all he saw was his mother.
Smiling at him. Tugging his ear. Handing him his plate, chiding him for not finishing.
Screaming at him to run. Crying. Bleeding. Dying.
And yet this Titan ran. Had the gall to run. Felt that it had the right to show him fear.
Eren kept hitting.
The thunder was gone, Annie noted. The lightning had vanished as well, leaving only the sound of rain and deafening blows. As Eren continued his frenzied attack, Annie had approached him. She knew he had lost himself the moment she passed his kneeling form and looked at his enemy.
Nothing. Nothing remained of that Titan but wisps of steam and a puddle of blood. And still he drove his giant fists into the ground, disintegrating them piece by piece.
Even when his strength was exhausted, and the remnants of his Shifted form collapsed all around him, Eren still crawled to the puddle and slammed his fists into it. Again, and again, and again.
Even if he had his back to her, he couldn't fool Annie. She could hear his sobs. They echoed in her mind and reminded her of a certain moment they'd shared earlier that same day.
Their roles had been reversed, and now she was the one who didn't know what to do.
So, she did what came naturally.
She let go of her pride.
She chose to ignore the Shifters who had finally caught up with them and were waiting a short distance behind them.
Annie walked right over to that broken boy and wrapped his arm around her shoulder, lifting him up. Supporting him.
Being the pillar that he had been to her when they were trainees.
Being what he needed when he needed it, right here and now.
She knew she'd regret it the next time Reiner decided to be playful, but Annie didn't care.
Eren was limp in her grasp, but he didn't resist. One look at his face and she knew he couldn't feel the rain anymore. Reiner, of course, was about as subtle as Eren when Shifted, so he had to open his big mouth.
"Eren, what did that Titan do?"
Annie shot him the most hate-filled gaze she could muster, but he ignored her for once and pressed on.
"Eren, come on. What happened?"
"Mom," Eren choked out. "That's the Titan that...my mom…"
Reiner froze up. "A-are you sure?"
Eren nodded.
"Then," Reiner said with narrowed eyes, "it got everything that it deserved. You avenged her."
Eren simply hung his head, silent once more. Reiner turned to the girl he was leaning against. "Annie, could you...y'know?"
Annie rolled her eyes and scoffed. "What the hell does it look like I'm doing? Move."
Without another word she pushed past him, struggling to hold Eren upright as she walked forward.
It wasn't real. None of it was real. It couldn't be.
But it was. He had done it. With his own two hands, he killed the Titan that took his mother away.
And he had liked it.
Images blurred together. Wrapped up in his own mind, Eren didn't even seem to notice as the other Shifters helped him back to his house and down into the basement. His feet dragged across the steps as they ferried him through, but that was the last straw. Annie unceremoniously pushed him against one of the support pillars in the blackened space and told him to "get his shit together."
Annie herself was merely keeping up appearances, like always. In truth, she felt this strange desire to comfort him. Maybe stroke his hair and tell him everything. About Valhalla. About her own mother.
She banished the thought immediately and set about searching for a source of light like the others. The rain slowed outside, and finally Eren could feel again. His hair dripped and what remained of his clothing felt freezing and heavy with water. He began to shiver.
"Aha! I think we can use these!" Reiner yelled with that familiar cheer, flooding the basement with light as he ignited a small lantern. Then another, and another. Anastasia began to hang them on visible hooks on the pillars, including the one above Eren's head.
She looked down at him with concern. He looked right back for a moment, then his eyes found the floor once again as he continued to shiver.
"Well, this is it, Eren. Have a look."
"I'm not weak anymore. This is why I'm here," he thought.
Steeling himself, Eren rose to his feet and took in everything the room had to show him. At last, he finally understood.
He had never known his father at all, from the very start.