Eren took a step back as Ragnar fell to his knees, moaning.
"My King," A woman in a stark white gown said to a man obscured by the beds hanging canopy, "There have been some… complications. The child hasn't turned in the womb yet."
The man stepped into Eren's view, walking around the corner of the bed to stand before the woman, who Eren guessed was some kind of midwife. He was short, but wide, and looked quite a bit like Ragnar.
His father, of course. Eren thought to himself, noting the well-defined jawline, wide nose and deep golden hair that Ragnar also possessed.
"What are the options?" He asked gruffly.
"Well," The midwife said, pulling out an old and tattered book, flipping quickly through its pages, "You wife is quite small of frame… And with such a large child, I think a caesarian would be best. With the Queen's healing abilities, there should be no chance of permanent damage."
"Is that the best option?"
The midwife shrugged, turning to put the book back on the cart.
"I elected to come here with Inanna to make sure this birth goes smoothly," The woman said, "You know what that means for me if I ever wish to go home."
Eren walked up closer to the conversation, noting that Ragnar had stopped moaning and was listening raptly. His eyes were wide, as if something important had just been said.
"I understand, Sekhmet. You shall always have a place here with Inanna and I."
The woman simply nodded, as Ragnar's mother again howled with pain. The king turned and walked to her bedside, kneeling beside her.
"My love, you heard our conversation, right?"
"Y-yes," She grunted in pain, "My sweet Hoenor… if I draw my final breath…"
"You won't, Inanna," The King interrupted her, his hands like claws on the sheets, "You mustn't… You are all that I have to live for!"
"Don't be silly," The queen wheezed, patting the man's hand affectionately, "You will always have Suttungr, Catherine and the other children… But, I think the name Ragnar will suit our son, after my father…"
The King's eyes narrowed.
"'Nanna, you sound as if you already think you're going to die…"
Inanna grimaced as pain filled her eyes. The midwife stepped over and pushed the King away from the bed as the Queen screamed from the pain.
"Now, you must get out, please send in Dian."
She turned, pulling a mask over her face, as the King let himself out. Another woman in the same white dress entered, her red hair pulled back sharply.
"Dian, it is time."
Eren turned to Ragnar, as the two woman began to prepare their instruments.
"Ragnar, how do you remember the night of your own birth?"
The other man looked up, face desolate.
"I… I don't know how I remember this part, but… later on…"
That is my doing. Thanatos boomed, I was present inside Ragnar at the time of his birth… And was able to connect with his mother and harvest her memories.
Ragnar hung his head, and Eren actually felt bad for this man. He was about to say something else, but he was interrupted by more screaming.
Eren looked towards movement from the midwife, and noticed a wicked looking knife was now in her hand, with a single curved blade. She held it at her side, knuckles white as she gripped it.
Why in the hell would she need a knife like that for surgery…?
"What the hell…" Ragnar mumbled, stumbling to his feet. Eren walked up to stand beside him, across the bed from the midwives.
"My master," Sekhmet said, looking down at the Queen, "It has been a long road, hasn't it."
The Queen nodded, straining to not show any of the pain racking her body.
"It has, my most loyal servant. I am sorry for causing you such shame and embarrassment having to take a mortal form for such a long time. But soon, it shall be over, and you can return home. Or will you choose to stay?"
One of her eyebrows rose questioningly.
"Absolutely not," The other woman snapped, lip curled in distaste, "I'd sooner die than live here with these animals. No, I shall return home, and serve Ishtar as I served you."
"As I suspected," The Queen said, removing the sheet that covered her, revealing her distended stomach, "So be it. Before you go, please give Nergal that knife, and tell him that this child is his to protect and teach until the day of reckoning."
Sekhmet nodded, while the redheaded midwife moved to the other side of the bed, a syringe in her hands, but the Queen shooed her away. Eren and Ragnar were enraptured, though admittedly Eren had little idea what was going on.
"I will not have any of that. I shall join the others without it."
"Yes, master. Now, shall we begin?"
The Queen nodded gravely, her face covered in sweat, her teeth clenched.
The two midwives took up their positions on either side of the bed, Sekhmet raising the knife ominously above the Queens stomach.
"My master, let this be the first step on the road to the end of sorrow, the end of humanity, and the rise of we, the Gods above all others!"
Time seemed to slow, though Eren couldn't tell if that was due to the two shadows still floating behind them, or just a figment of his imagination. Sekhmet's hand fell, the blade dropping ever closer to the Queen's stomach. It pierced the skin, a jet of steam escaping before…
Light enveloped them, flames and steam mixing into a convoluted mass, debris flooding outwards. Eren raised his arms to shield himself, before dropping them when he noticed that he couldn't feel any of the associated heat or the impacts of debris.
These are simply memories, remember, Erebus said from behind him, having become like a pair of plates stacked atop each other. Now pay attention.
He heard an ominous growl above him, and looked up.
A Titan stood in the wreckage of the room, and Eren now seemed to float in the air, the floor having been swept away by the force of the explosion. Flames began to take hold in several areas, and smoke rose upwards, upwards to the rather plain looking Titan above him.
He glanced at Ragnar, then back at the Titan. Then the wheels in his brain clicked together, he made the connection.
"Oh… Oh god, man," He said, walking over to the blank faced man, who was simply staring in the direction that his mother's bed had been, "Is… is that you?"
Ragnar… Ragnar caused his own mother's death… and somehow he remembers it. What the hell. Eren thought to himself, his emerald eyes widening as the Titan above them roared, a long wail.
Several other roars answered it, and the screaming and moaning of regular people brought Eren's attention outside. A large crowd of people stood in a courtyard, thousands of them, each holding a candle.
"They're here to celebrate my birth," Ragnar finally said, all sense of humanity gone from his voice, as the Titan above him leapt from its position into the crowd, "Most of them will die."
And he was right, as the Titan began to tear through the crowd, sending bodies flying through the air. Another Titan stepped onto the scene, reaching out towards Ragnar…
Ragnar's form turned, swift as the wind, and sent the other Titan flying backwards, a smoking crater in its chest. Two more tried to grab it, inadvertently crushing dozens of people as they struggled.
Such power… out of an infant…
Eren looked on in awe as they fought, the newborn Titan batting the others about, crushing them as if they weren't there.
"Eren Jaeger," He turned to look at Ragnar, who was watching everything as it happened, his expression blank, "Do you remember the night of your birth?"
"Of course not. No one can remember that… Wait, do you remember this?"
Ragnar's chin drifted slowly up and down, like a boat encountering a wave. The noise outside intensified for a moment, before all the noise cut off.
"I remember it all," He said, stepping out of the debris field, and walking towards where his Titan lay. "Every. Last. Thing."
He stepped over the dismembered and crushed corpses of his well-wishers, through the crimson puddles that stained the courtyard. Dozens of people moaned, crying out, asking for their mothers, or for help.
Ragnar stopped at one particularly unlucky soul. The man had apparently been stepped on by Ragnar's Titan, because his legs were nothing but bloody memories, as were most of his lower torso.
But he still lived, his eyes wide with surprise, his hands reaching out, seemingly towards Ragnar, who recoiled.
"Help me! Please," The man called, as blood began to bubble out of his nose and mouth, hands now trying to stuff what was left of his intestines back into his abdomen, "Help… me…"
Eren rushed over to Ragnar as he sagged to the ground next to the now deceased man.
"I can't help you, I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry!"
His voice rang out, and Eren felt his own heart tighten for a moment as he noted all of the nuances of Ragnar's scream. Pain, loss, rage… All things that he himself had felt.
You two are not so different, Erebus had come up beside him, back to his original floating sphere, Two men trying to fight against the world, to push back the darkness, but ending up fighting the darkness that lies within all humans.
Eren was about to say something, when Ragnar looked back towards the shadowy entity, his bronze eyes flashing with anger.
"What are you? How did you come to inhabit our minds?"
We do not know what we truly are, the two shadows said in unison, their voices overlapping, but we believe we were seeds, planted within you to… take control. To fulfill the Prophecy if you did not wish too.
Ragnar was nodding, doing his best not to let his eyes drift downwards towards the killing field below.
"Take control like you did me. Like right now, and all those other times," He stalked over to the shadow behind him, which didn't even try to move away. His voice dropped to just above a whisper, "You made me try to kill Annie…"
I know. At that point, Thanatos said, I was still trying to fulfill the Prophecy. But when you started to use my power… I became more like you, would probably be the most proper answer. We have always fed upon your emotions, growing stronger with your anger, with you rage. However, when I first gave you my full strength outside of Yggadrasil… Your love for your friends, and Annie overrode that. Now, I cannot feed off of your rage and hate.
"So you're saying that, you feed off of love now?" Ragnar said coldly, his hands sweeping the scene about them, which had paused while they spoke, "Why would you show this to us? Why show the worst moments in our lives? To bring back the nightmares?"
Eren felt a prickling sensation run down his spine, remembering how he used to lay awake at night, hoping to not dream, to not have to go back to that alleyway with Hannes and Mikasa. To not have to see his mother be eaten…
That is your past. As we have said, those events have driven you to where you are now. Let us leave this morbid place, and move forward.
Darkness enveloped them, and again they seemed to be hurtling down a long tunnel towards a single pinprick of light.
There's something majorly wrong with Ragnar and mine's families. Why do they keep popping up in such strange places? What's next, both our mother's actually being alive?
Annie looked into the eyes of Lars Gottschalk. Who also just happened to be Ackilles Leonhardt, her elder brother.
"Surprised to see me, little sister?"
"You're supposed to be dead."
Her brother, having removed his silly mask, looked down at her, tapping his cheek with an index finger.
"Ah, that," He said, smiling and looking off towards the now distant battle, "Nope, can't say I'm dead. So how is father?"
"An asshole as always," Annie growled, willing her legs to heal faster, "Why are you here?"
"You know the basics, there was no one else strong enough to teach me anything new," Her brother said, a wide grin appearing beneath his large nose, "The Council grew fearful, and sent people after me. I killed them, and moved on to work under new tutelage."
Does he mean he found someone within the Walls to teach him?
"And what are you doing, oh sister-o-mine? I remember receiving reports of your little forays against the Scouting Legion and within Stohess. Quite impressive, minus the fact that you failed."
His biting words drew a snarl from her lips, as he left leg finally snapped back into place. Her right had absorbed more of the impact, and would need another few minutes.
Keep him talking…
"How did you come to be a member of the Royal Guard?"
"Little Annie, trying to stall for time are we?" Her brother said, drawing his blades, "I apologize, but no one can know my true identity. So it is with a heavy heart that I must kill you."
His expression showed no mercy, even less when he placed his mask back upon his face. Only his cold, cold eyes and mouth were visible.
"Goodbye, sister."
Her right leg was nearly healed, she had to chance trying to run… She rolled under her brother's first strike, a horizontal slash that would have taken her head off at the shoulders if she hadn't moved.
The gear on her waist was clearly broken, her only gas cylinder cracked, but she could use the two sheathes for her swords as shields, and she did so, rolling onto her side as Ackilles brought both his blades down. They dented the gear, but that was all. She completed her roll, propping herself up against the wall.
Ackilles turned, his eyes glinting with barely restrained glee. But he stopped smiling as he looked past Annie.
"You should really learn how to treat a lady." A voice said from behind her.
She turned, doing her best to keep her brother in her peripheral vision, and her jaw dropped.
"What the hell are you two doing here?"
Eleanor and Hackett stood, their swords drawn, at the end of the alley that Annie had ended up in. Their cloaks lay on the ground where they had left them, and both had their sleeves rolled up.
"Arnora decided she didn't like waiting outside," Eleanor said, "And there really just isn't any arguing with her when she gets like that."
The older woman shrugged her muscular shoulders, Hackett remaining silent, before looking at Ackilles with a feral grin.
"So, are you going to run?"
Her brother let out a loud laugh, backing down the alleyway. His now dull blades fell from their hilts, and with a precision pointing to years of practice, he deftly connected two new blades. Them, to Annie's shock he sheathed them. Then from within his short cloak, he pulled a flare gun.
"Annie, you seem to have found a strange group of friends," He turned away from them, smiling over his shoulder. His grapnels shot out, connecting with a house at the end of the street, "I'd love to stay and fight, but I have other matters to attend to."
And then he was gone, a blue flare hanging above them.
"Commander, why am I not with the rest of Squad Levi?"
Armin watched the back of Commander Erwin's head as they rode through the streets of Utopia. A pair of guards flanked them, their eyes watching the rooftops and street warily. Hange rode behind them.
"We have an important mission," The Commander said, his deep voice carrying back to Armin, "There is a particular book, or more properly, a copy, of a book that we need. And it can only be found in the King's Library."
Armin's interest was piqued as the Erwin led them to the back of a small, rather dilapidated looking building before dismounting.
What is this? Why would they allow a building like this to remain in the Capital?
Erwin lead the group into what seemed to be the houses only room.
"Commander," Armin asked, his eyes surveying the walls, "What does this house have to do… Oh."
Erwin had walked over to a table, reached under it and pressed some hidden switch, because a piece of the floor clicked loudly open.
"This is part of a series of tunnels that run throughout Utopia, and even outwards to the Wall Sina. I discovered them when I was a young man, younger even than you."
The older man's eyes seemed to twinkle as he lit a torch that Hange handed himand led the group downwards. Down and down they walked, a dozen flights of stairs downwards, before they reached a door. It was large, made completely of metal, and appeared to have no hinges.
As they approached, a voice called out ahead of them.
"If the King leads the people, as a shepherd leads his flock," It said. Armin and the others had all tenses, only Erwin seemed to recognize it, "Then who leads the King?"
A riddle? Armin thought, trying to wrap his head around it, But where is the voice coming from?
"No one," Erwin called out, "A King leads, and is not lead."
"And so shall it be, forever." The voice responded.
The door hissed, and Armin nearly jumped as it opened of its own volition, opening outwards. Erwin motioned them all inside.
What have I gotten myself in to? And without Eren or Mikasa to back me up?
"So where's Arnora and the others?"
Annie's leg had finally finished healing, and the two guards had stood over her like brooding hens, their eyes scanning all about in the final few moments her leg had healed. She stood, stretching the muscle and feeling the tension.
This will just have to do, I guess, I need to get back too…
"They're outside of the city, Arnora insisted that we go help when that… that firestorm erupted," Hackett said, brushing dust from his coat, "I tried to convince her that it wasn't a good idea, but you know… They're a stubborn bunch."
Eleanor glared at the man, before looking at Annie sharply.
"Is Ragnar inside those flames?"
Annie nodded, feeling a yearning in her heart to get back to the battle. Ignoring the others, and not worrying about her gear, which she had cut off, she sprinted down the alleyway, looking down the road towards the plaza.
The ground shook, once, twice and then three times. Before what seemed to be a great horn sounded. She could see the flames in the distance, the black dome seeming to waver. The horn went on and on, before she noted that it wasn't a horn, but the noise from the flames, as they built up higher and higher, until a great pillar of fire, a swirling mass of emerald and bronze shooting up into the sky.
Ragnar… Worry clouded her thoughts as she once again sprinted, as hard as her recently regenerated legs would carry her. She burst into the plaza, noticing that the burning heat that had been present before was gone, and that the sounds of battle had died down. The steaming corpses of all the Jotunn were lying about, though they were in such a position that it seemed none of her friends had been hurt.
"Annie, slow down," She heard Eleanor call from behind her, "You just regenerated!"
She paid her Guardian no heed, and pushed herself even hard, feeling the tendons and muscles in her right leg begin to ache. A crowd was gathered near where the dome of flames had been, made up mostly of members of the Scouting Legion and Garrison, but she saw the familiar faces of Eric and the others in the crowd.
Damn this leg…
The pain in her leg finally became too great, and she came to a limping stop, her chest huffing. She limped forward, the crowd parting. Eleanor and Hackett caught up to her, the large woman helping her make it to the center of the crowd.
"Thanks, Eleanor," Annie whispered, as most of the eyes in the crowd turned to her and Eleanor, "Hopefully I can repay you one day for all that you've done."
"Don't worry about it," The older woman said, "You make him happy, and that's all that matters to me."
As she said the last word, they entered the center of the crowd, and she caught sight of a familiar blonde head. Eleanor released her as she struggled to make it to where he lay.
His shirt and cloak were no longer on him, his muscular chest glinting with sweat. His pants were in tatters, and his shoes seemed to have disappeared. But when he saw her, his face lit up.
"Annie!"
Suttungr, who was kneeling near him, helped him to stand, and he put shaky arms around her petite form, have hugging and half leaning on her. She felt the pain in her still regenerating legs flare up, but didn't grunt in pain, only slide her arms as far around Ragnar as they would go.
"What happened, Ragnar?"
Her question caused him to push her away, and look down at her. He smiled.
"Something wonderful, my love."
Annie's eyes widened as she noted that his eyes had changed. They were still primarily bronze, but a small band of emerald ringed the inside of his cornea now. Emerald... the same color as Eren's eyes.
She turned from Ragnar, to where Mikasa and the rest of Squad Levi were helping Eren stand also. When Mikasa saw that Annie and Ragnar were looking, her hand dropped to the hilt of her blades, but Eren stopped her, his hand resting on her own hand..
Ragnar turned, releasing Annie, and walked slowly over towards the smaller man. Annie followed discretely.
"That was quite a journey we went on," Ragnar said, "Wasn't it, Eren Jaeger?"
Annie didn't know what he was talking about, but Eren did. It was then that she noticed that his eyes were the reverse of Ragnar, now having a band of bronze within his emerald eyes.
"It was," Eren said, reaching out a hand, "And you don't have to call me by my full name, Ragnar Mosher. Just call me Eren."
Annie didn't know what it was, but a shiver went up her spine as they shook hands.
I know what it was… this is an important moment in all of our lives. This is the turning point in our fortunes.
Yay! Another chapter finished, and this time with more detail! I think. I hope. More is better, right? Well hopefully you've all been enjoying the story, because I have a lot more planned! Plenty of action, adventure, mystery and comedy. This is my epic contribution to the SnK fandom.
As a side note, I'm thinking of writing a prequel with either Dio or Hoenor as the protagonist. Probably won't be for awhile. I also probably need to get a beta, so some of my crazier ideas don't make it into the stories.
Remember to follow or review if you like it!