"What's…?" Annie began, looking to Eren and back to his empty shell, then back again.
Unrestrained, Eren's Titan form ran full-speed towards the Shifters waiting in the clearing, feet slamming into the ground with tremendous speed. Upon seeing the empty Titan charge their way, the Order members tensed up and readied themselves for battle.
Completely defying their expectations, the unbound Titan leaped into the air and landed behind one of them, a Titan covered head-to-toe in stone.
The possessed body immediately gripped the foe's head and ripped it away, throwing it at one of its allies, a plain-on-the-outside Titan.
Without hesitation, the Order member inhaled and spewed forth a jet of green liquid, coating the disembodied head and melting it almost instantly.
Not wasting any time, the empty Titan brought an enraged fist crashing down on the exposed nape of the stone-covered Titan, killing its master instantly. The punishment for the killing move was swift, as the acid spitter quickly doused both the enemy and its deceased comrade in a shower of steaming green spit.
Far removed from the escalating conflict up ahead, the Shifters of Valhalla crowded around the stirring Eren Jaeger, the one responsible for what was happening. At hearing his name called for the third time, the aching boy finally stirred and opened his eyes, instantly sitting up when he remembered what had happened.
Though completely beyond being the most important of his concerns, Eren immediately wished he could spend less time being unconscious in a world filled with flesh-eating monsters.
"Okay, Eren. Whatever point you were trying to make, I think you've made it," Reiner spoke, ruffling the confused boy's hair. Eren took note of how absolutely worried his friend looked, as if he'd just been told that Christa's boyfriend was coming to have a chat with him. Before he could explore all the possible implications of such a silly thought, Reiner brought him back to the situation at hand when he wiped his sweaty forehead with an equally sweaty hand, continuing. "So, would you mind making your toy come save us instead of, I don't know, starting shit with a group of Shifters that would crush us into the dirt for so much as looking at them?!"
Eren blinked. The question certainly was among the weirdest he'd ever been asked.
"Reiner, I don't...what do you mean, toy?"
"Eren."
Annie's voice came from his left, where she was kneeling and looking rather nervous, herself.
"You do remember what you did, right?" She asked.
"I…" Eren glanced at his right hand. Another blink, and everything came back to him.
He had Shifted.
In the presence of enemies so powerful that it gave his mass-murdering friends pause, he had exposed them by Shifting. Then he clutched his head, teeth ground together from the sheer panic that flooded his body.
No. He had not Shifted willingly. He couldn't have.
The Voice. The monster within his mind had somehow usurped control of his arm and forced him to transform.
Don't you want to avenge your mother?
Eren closed his eyes, shamefully hugging his knees to his chest. The Voice had only talked to him, had only whispered sweet nothings into his mind and heart. Eren Shifted of his own volition, despite how warped the situation had been. He had made the choice to bite down.
Then he opened his eyes again, mind in complete disarray when he reexamined his surroundings. Shouldn't he be surrounded by the steaming flesh of his Titan form, right now?
"I'm not inside," he muttered. Annie caught this and rested a hand on his shoulder, as concerned as she was terrified.
"Are you somehow able to control it without staying inside, Eren?"
Eren shook his head. He stared down at his palms, hoping to feel a connection of some sort, but there was nothing.
"I can't," he began, but something gave Eren pause. A slight sensation.
Wait.
He could hear something whispering, on the very edge of his mind. Concentrating, Eren shut out the world around him and focused, focused only on that sound. For a moment, he heard nothing. Then…
"...more, more…"
There! On the very outskirts of his mind, he could hear it. He could almost feel the presence of those words, so filled with malice and delight.
It was the Voice. The Voice was controlling his empty Titan body, somehow. He had to stop it, he had to take responsibility for what happened!
Eren suddenly lunged to his feet and began stumbling over to the titanic battle up ahead. It took his friends only a moment to grasp his intentions before they were all around him, pulling him back and yelling various commands and arguments against his actions.
But it was all white noise. It had to be. He forced it to be, reduced it to as much. Eren could not listen to their reasoning.
This was his doing. He had endangered them. He alone would reign in this beast, or die trying.
"...have to stop, we can use this chance to get away!"
"That won't work!" Eren yelled back, whirling around to stare back at Annie.
For a moment, neither of them said anything. He looked at her, and she looked at him. Reiner, of course, looked back and forth between them, comically scratching his head at the missed message.
"It won't work," Eren repeated, turning to look back at the raging battle. "Whatever is in my head, whatever is controlling my Titan form won't just back off. And it probably won't stop with those Order members of yours. Maybe since I'm the 'vessel,' it'll listen to me. That's the only thing I can bet on right now."
"There he goes, being vague again," Reiner muttered with an eye roll.
"Let's get closer and watch, for now," Eren proposed. He walked forward once again, eyes focused on what waited up ahead. "If the Voice wins, maybe I can convince it to back down and give me control of my Titan form again."
"Eren, you're not making any sense at all," Annie spoke coldly, moving up to walk at his side. "But this fight is out of our league and I don't have any better ideas, so we might as well go with that plan."
Eren allowed himself a slight grin and nodded to her. "Thanks."
A low, haunting growl pierced the air at that moment. Upon reaching the clearing, the young Shifters watched as a scene of unparalleled horror continued to unfold.
Slowly moving forward and grinding its teeth, Eren's Titan form had been reduced to naught but bones. Steam billowed forth from the possessed body, black slime gliding around and through the bones themselves.
With its stringy slime holding the form together and the creaking, jerky movements, Eren couldn't help but liken it to a real puppet. A puppet that he no longer controlled.
As much as the horrifying visage commanded his attention, Eren's eyes found the decapitated skeleton on the ground behind it, steam still gently wisping from its surface. This skeleton, thankfully, was motionless.
One of the two surviving Order members, a lanky form with bones visible beneath the skin and a gaunt face, stepped forward. It suddenly inhaled, expanding its chest and throat slightly before unleashing a burst of pale green liquid from its mouth. The sickly-looking compound reacted immediately upon coming into contact with Eren's skeletal Titan, filling the clearing with the sound of hissing.
Or was the beast hissing in his mind?
Still, the living bones moved forward, now with greater efficiency. Its feet no longer dragged, the joints no longer creaked. With the black slime flowing and the skeleton almost smiling at the stunned Order members, Eren realized it had adapted to the compound.
After only being exposed to the compound once. Just once.
That was insane.
The gaunt Titan stepped backwards, clearly terrified of what it had just witnessed. All around Eren, his friends debated the various meanings behind what they had just seen, but all of them were shocked into silence at what they heard next.
"Only one."
It was the other surviving Order member who had spoken, a muscular but otherwise ordinary-looking Titan. Its voice boomed out and commanded the attention of everyone nearby.
"Only one being has that kind of power. And he is long dead."
The muscular Titan raised its fists in a stance not unlike the one Annie had taught to Eren.
"Come forward, and I will end your existence."
"Aha."
A chuckle. A single rasp of elation filled the air around them, coming from nowhere while somehow still being there. An echo of a voice that Eren truly wished he did not recognize.
But he did, and he knew the source.
The Voice spoke, but required no lips or tongue to speak as it taunted its prey through the bones that served as its medium.
"Yours was forfeit the moment you stood against me, meat."
If Eren had not been transfixed to that form, had his eyes not been completely centered on it, there would be no guarantee of him even noticing the movement. Hardly any preparatory movements preceded the leap that followed, as his Titan form took to the air and landed on the muscular Titan, driving both forms into the ground and sending tremors all throughout the area.
"I live again!"
Black slime scattered into the air in little droplets as the jaw was pried open, and without further hesitation, the Voice sunk its elongated teeth into the Titan's neck and pulled upwards. The head came off with little struggle and was tossed aside, the real prize struggling to crawl away. The unforgiving reach of those bones was brought to bear down on the Order member, gripping his squirming form as the air was filled once again with raucous laughter. The lanky acid spitter turned and ran into the forest, abandoning its comrade to his fate.
And the skeleton crushed the man's body with its teeth, grinding bone and flesh into pulp. Anastasia covered her mouth with both hands as she heaved, tears beading in the corners of her eyes. Annie rubbed her back and watched no longer, her face noticeably pale. Reiner and Bert, on the other hand, just stared blankly ahead. Eren balled his hands into fists, eyes narrowed.
This was his doing. He knew nothing of these enemies, and yet he had exposed his blood. He had ripped his own flesh open and summoned this upon them.
He had been the instrument of their violent ruin. So why?
Why did he feel so elated? Why did this feel so much like his victory?!
"Cherish your satisfaction, my vessel."
The breath left his body and Eren's chest seized up as uncontrollable fear coursed through him. The head of his skeletal form had turned and was now looking directly at him. So, too, were his friends.
"But know that I will devour you all when I am finished here."
And the skeleton suddenly ran into the trees, hot on the heels of the last Order member. Silence ruled the day since earlier that morning, and Eren fell backwards. The sun pounded on his eyelids and the grass tickled the back of his neck, but all he could focus on was the inevitable.
They were all going to be killed by his own Titan form. There was nothing more that could be done.
Annie and Reiner would transform for sure, but what did that matter? Eren couldn't help anymore, and even in its current state his possessed form had taken on three Order members with ease. The very same people that Annie had claimed were superior to the Warriors of Valhalla in every way. Moments passed by, spent in complete silence as all of them quietly pondered their current situation.
"Maybe now would be a good time for us to run," Bert suggested.
Eren didn't reply, nor did he move his body or even open his eyes. He could already feel it, the sensation that had grown more and more familiar to him as time went on. He could feel the presence of his Titan form, crashing through the forest.
It was already returning.
"Too late," he mumbled. Eren opened his eyes then, and rose to his feet.
His own death he would face with as much honor as he could muster. It wouldn't do for him to come this far only to be outdone by the others.
The thundering footsteps immediately commanded his friends' attention, and it wasn't long before Eren's Titan form stood before them once again, fully regenerated and with the battered form of the last remaining Order member slung over one shoulder. Without warning, it threw the motionless form to the ground and brought one foot crashing down on its prey's back.
"Do not avert your eyes, little ones. Watch, unblinking. Know that this is the fate you will share. Relish your terror, as I do."
The vile Titan bent down, mouth wide open and salivating as it inched ever closer towards the exposed nape below…
...just in time for a crystallized knee to crash into its skull, sending black slime and bits of skull into the air.
The resulting gust of wind cast up dirt and leaves in almost equal measure, and Eren tried to rub the tears from his eyes as the scene came into focus.
A massive Titan, towering perhaps a good four or five meters above his own, now stood between the possessed body and their group. And its legs were completely covered in crystal.
The same crystals that Annie covered her own form with.
Eren hardly had any time at all to dwell on the possible connection before his unspoken question was answered.
"Father."