Eren found himself struggling to focus his sights in what manifested as a tunnel of orange lights. Porch candles and spilled light from windows formed fiery streaks in his periphery. There was true mental challenge in balancing an all out sprint with making sense of the situation. His legs burned, yet maintained their blistering pace with no input.
'Why?' He thought, between heavy breaths. 'Why would he need to run?'
Slowly, Eren closed in and overtook Ymir, a trail of steam followed his head like a shadow. Seeing this, she sacrificed a vital breath:
"Get it under control! You can't use that here!" She screamed after him, losing speed in the process.
Eren heard nothing as flames erupted from his pools. He picked up speed, closing the gap Reiner had done his best to create. Ymir watched in awe as the two young men tumbled to a hault. She approached to find Reiner, back to the dirt, staring in horror up at Eren, who had mounted and leaned into the larger boy's arms with stern grip.
The fires calmly lapped at Eren's bangs, unwaning. Ymir studied him a moment, when did Eren Yeager learn such control? Everything she knew about coordinates of past seemed moot. All that she- All that anyone knew, up to that point, warned that eyes of fire meant certain death. And yet, before her eyes, the Suicidal Bastard, of all people, manipulated the world's most tragic gift into a tool.
"Why." Eren spoke calmly, but more sinister undertones were lightning bolts to Reiner's ears.
"I didn't…" Reiner whimpered quietly, his eyes watered but remained trained on Eren.
"Then why run." Twin flames flared menacingly as Eren slowly spoke the words.
"You wouldn't understand it, I don't know how to explain, Eren." Profound fear was laced with every drop of sweat and tears on his face as they reflected the bright, amber flurry mere inches away.
Ymir watched in horror as Eren's outpour of damning radiance intensified. A breeze picked up, an anomaly of sorts in a sealed city. Only then did she also notice the horrified residents of surrounding homes. Some led their families hastily away from the scene, while those who knew the futility of fleeing looked on gravely from a distance.
Eren, however, either failed to notice the scene he continually catalyzed, or merely didn't care.
"Humor me." His tone deepened, as if to illustrate his growing anger and instability.
Reiner sobbed and looked away as he replied:
"I-It was a normal day. Lots of meetings… Political shit. But on my way to the entrance chamber… My head felt like it would explode. Suddenly I remembered doing something terrible. It was like a nightmare but it happened in the blink of an eye. Eren, I did something horrific but I don't know how! I remember fighting and hurting Annie, but I don't know why. It made total sense while it happened but now I don't know what compelled my will to do it. I'm so sorry! I don't know what's going on and I have to find out! You have to let me figure this out!"
Reiner grew hysterical, the boy was overwhelmingly, genuinely, confused. But Eren remained unmoved:
"I want the truth!" Eren barked, flames climbed outward and above his head. The heat began to singe his shirt and burn the face of the young man below. The breeze grew to gusts, lifting dust and debris from the ground below.
Ymir's heart plunged to baffling depths.
'Oh God, he's not in control at all!'
"Eren, stop it!" She screamed damningly, sending several nearby townsfolk into panic, but her demand ricocheted from the coordinate's deaf ears like a bullet to iron.
"It is! I swear to you!" Reiner pleaded as he thrashed his head in pain, his burning skin reddened under the fervid heat.
With surgical exactitude, Eren took hold of his old friend's neck with violent compression. Yet again, the flames surged higher yet, he emitted a level of light unrivaled by even the city's distribution system at high noon. The gusts took to new strengths as well, carrying enough dust to render the scene an ambience not unlike a cloud of lightning. Eren's flames meandered under the wind's mercy, but not once faltered in their own presence.
"ARE YOU PREPARED TO DIE TO KEEP YOUR SECRETS?!"
Eren's scream was heard for kilometers as it reverberated throughout the chambered city. Only Ymir remained remotely near the event, struggling to keep her eyes open amidst the storm. A quick inner debate produced her decision to step in. Slowly, Ymir fought the brutal forces and pushed forward. Each step came as reward of it's own battle.
"EREN! DAMN YOU!" She shrieked, reaching for his shoulder.
Meanwhile, Reiner ceased his struggle as he met Eren's blinding gaze. The otherwise stout young man was powerless to speak. Instead, he offered his submission to fate. As his eyes displayed his waning state of consciousness, Reiner mouthed the words to which he clung most tightly in that moment:
"Tell Annie I'm sorry. She's not safe."
In all but an instant, what could only be described as a stunning vacuum of activity ran it's course. In the time span of a lightning bolt, each and every molecule of air returned to an idle state while Eren's twin blazes blinked from existence. Every grain of dust and suspended litter fell from the very air on which they rode.
Eren released Reiner's neck and stood, maintaining a careful eye on him for a moment before looking over to Ymir. The would-be suicidal bastard displayed a faint look of disappointment, shaking his head before returning sights to the shifter in question, who had sat up as he gasped for everything his lungs could hold.
Ymir looked around at the scene. Nothing seemed damaged sans a few shutters that had been blown about. Turning sights to the ground, she noticed a circular pattern of fallen debris radiating from the two boys. At the pattern's center, faint scorch marks formed an outline of Reiner's form. All the while she took in the surreal aftermath, Reiner continued to cough as steam rose from his burned countenance.
Finally, Ymir's consternation seated on Eren himself. Had he been at full discipline the entire time? It seemed as if he commanded his own weakness as a means to his agenda. Nevermind the irony of who could possess that level of self control. She was purely amazed that anyone at all could employ such powerful, deep seated, and, most of all, unpredictable emotion as a means to reach a serious and complex goal.
"Who are you?" Ymir managed to finally say.
Eren's eyes narrowed a bit to match his disappointed frown as if to question which young man she was talking to. Before she could clarify, he spoke:
"I believe him." The tone of his announcement was flanked with both curtness and regret.
Ymir scowled a bit, beginning to snap out of her state of wonderment:
"Just like that?" She chided.
Reiner, having more or less caught his breath, replied in protest:
"'Just like that'? Where were you in the last five minutes?!"
Ymir sighed, quelling the urge to fire back, she spoke only to Eren: "But what I mean is all I saw you do was rough him up, how does that prove him innocent? Did you get in his head or something."
Eren didn't take his eyes off Reiner save for an occasional glance to Ymir and the reforming crowd of locals several meters in each direction.
"I didn't have to… I don't think he's innocent, but I believe what he said."
"I don't follow…" Ymir was growing aggravated, Eren was speaking in riddles.
Eren retained a relaxed, yet stern, bearing as he spoke. Which only perplexed the girl further.
"You'll just have to trust me, it can't really be explained right now."
"Oh, yeah. Because that excuse worked so well when Reiner used it a minute ago…" Ymir fired back defiantly.
"I'm not laughing." Eren showed a hint of annoyance, which only served to comfort the girl. His armor wasn't without its chinks after all. "
"Well shit, out of the frying pan and into the fire…" Reiner half laughed, not yet bold enough to look up from the ground.
"Don't push this." Ymir growled, looking back to Eren. "I don't like to admit it, but you're not wrong."
"I suppose we can't rule out that possibility." Said Lutz, scratching his face in contemplation.
Annie could barely recognize the man in front of her. Sure, he looked more or less the same, but she was stricken with a different unfamiliarity. It was time, it had been so long since she had seen him last. The day she was to reunite with her father was one that she often played out in her mind. Yet, here they were, and she felt nothing. Deep seated memories and dark emotions were surely awakening all throughout her mind, but they hadn't yet arrived. It hadn't yet completely sunk in who she was talking to, and she dreaded the moment that it would.
"So you're saying Eren might not be the first to pioneer it?" Grisha asked, fear shallow in his eyes.
"Well, the more I think about it, the more it seems likely." Lutz replied.
"How so?" Annie asked, irritated at the very need to.
"Now that we know that any shifter can do it, it seems far fetched that only now has anyone tried it." Lutz thought aloud.
"Do you think anyone could have spied on you and Eren while you trained?" Asked Annie.
"That's not out of the question, but it couldn't have resulted this way. It takes a few days to master, I only did so two days ago… Although the timing is oddly coincidental. But I still doubt it, it takes many transformations to get it right. If someone were sly enough to observe Eren and I training the way we did, it would still be a stretch to believe they could do so and regularly get far enough away to attempt it over and over without either of us seeing the lightning and smoke." Lutz spoke alongside his ponderance.
"Honestly, I'm more concerned with motive… Annie, try to remove Reiner altogether from the picture for a second. I want you to think only of why anybody at all would see a need to do that to you."
Grisha spoke with genuine concern for her, a welcome contrast from the man to his left. Annie had never spoke directly to him but had always heard about his warm nature. She felt the need to remind herself just how cold he was capable of being. It was almost fascinating how different the two men in her quarters were despite both being capable of cold, calculating decisions.
"I can only put credence in it being a strategic move. The imps had whittled down most of the weaker shifters in the exercise already. I was on point scouting a clear area and it isolated me. Berthold has limited use in that situation so that left me as the biggest threat to any attacker. Whoever was out there either knew that or gambled on it, it had to be obvious to anyone observing that I was protecting the others." Annie spoke quickly, it was clearly having thought about it before.
"That seems most plausible. What I can't wrap my head around is the big picture: Why waste the element of surprise on a training expedition? I don't know whether to think the Imps were at the right place and time or if they have something bigger planned…" Grisha wondered, beginning to sweat.
"They were after Everhart." Said Annie, utterly confident.
Lutz perked up:
"The trainee with the speaking titan form? What makes you so sure?"
"The imp I took out with Eren's titan, it was ignoring everyone else and going straight for her. I don't know what they want with her, but they want her." Said Annie.
There came a short silence among the shifters as they thought about the situation. Suddenly, Lutz and Annie both visibly jumped to heightened states of attention. Father and daughter shared a concerned glance before bolting to the door, leaving Grisha baffled.
"What…" Grisha began before being interrupted:
"Eren caught Reiner." Called Annie over her shoulder as she ran into the night, Lutz close behind.
As she raced out of the courtyard, she saw light projecting up from the sea of homes and businesses ahead. Annie began her sprint through the maze of roads and alleys as she focused her mind.
'Eren. What the fuck are you doing?'
Traversing the void in her mind, she made her way to his. Annie found herself on a main road after a minute or so of running. What she saw half a kilometer away was the source of the light, an uncomfortably familiar sight. As she raced toward the scene, all the while, she had arrived at his mind's door. She was beginning to scare, why would he begin such a lethal attack here? Why for Reiner?
Eren wasn't the least bit focused on keeping Annie out, allowing her inside to see for herself what she approached. She found herself staring through his eyes at Reiner, pinned on the ground.
"Humor me" She felt him say. She wasn't sure the exact context, but Reiner spoke as if to fill her in:
"I-It was a normal day. Lots of meetings… Political shit. But on my way to the entrance chamber… My head felt like it would explode. Suddenly I remembered doing something terrible. It was like a nightmare but it happened in the blink of an eye. Eren, I did something horrific but I don't know how! I remember fighting and hurting Annie, but I don't know why. It made total sense while it happened but now I don't know what compelled my will to do it. I'm so sorry! I don't know what's going on and I have to find out! You have to let me figure this out!"
Annie wasn't sure what to make of the story. If it was true, what could cause someone to do such a thing without realizing it? Her thought was interrupted by Eren's reply:
"I want the truth."
She noticed the light ahead brighten and felt a slight breeze at her side as she ran. Her father called behind her:
"He'll kill us all! We've got to calm him now!"
Annie ignored Lutz as Reiner pleaded with Eren:
"It is! I swear to you!"
She watched as two hands gripped Reiner's neck and began to strangle the young man.
'Eren's lost it.' She thought as she watched the light brighten once more while breeze turned to wind. She was only half way, her father's longer strides had allowed him to inch slightly ahead of her.
"ARE YOU PREPARED TO DIE TO KEEP YOUR SECRETS?!" The words boomed in her head, hotly followed by their arrival to her ears. Annie could barely believe what she was hearing.
'Eren! We've been through this months ago! Get ahold of yourself!' She called to him as strongly as she could. To her surprise, Eren issued a response:
'Fuck Off'
Annie was more shocked at the delivery than the message. The words came to her in a strangely casual manner.
'Eren, something isn't right, he went out of his way not to harm anyone during his escape. I don't know what's going on, but we need him alive! You're going to kill half the population if you d…'
Annie held her speech as Reiner mouthed the words:
"Tell Annie I'm sorry. She's not safe."
Suddenly, Eren's mind had left her. Her heart sank as she realized the light of fire had disappeared as well. Had someone killed him?
Her full attention came to getting there, meters seemingly took minutes to cover. A crowd of people had gathered, spanning the width of the street, several deep. Lutz and Annie pushed their way through to find Ymir, Reiner, and Eren, all standing. Reiner's face gave off a bit of steam while both him and Eren's shirts were burned apart at the tops.
"What the hell just happened?" Lutz demanded angrily.
"Eren is fucking crazy, that's what happened." Ymir snapped back, unaware of who she was talking to. Lutz made no point to announce himself, but nonetheless came down on her.
"How about a real answer, smart ass." The man's eyes were daggers even to the seasoned shifter. Reluctantly, Ymir revised her summary:
"Basically, Eren just fooled Reiner, myself, and a herd of civilians into thinking he was about to kill us all."
Lutz's eyes narrowed as he looked to Eren once more.
"That true?"
Eren, unfazed by his master, stared straight back at him.
"The whole city is at stake based on what Reiner had to say. I'm prepared to scare everyone in Arrah half to death if it gets the truth out of him." Eren stood his ground in a profound absence of penitence.
Lutz slackened his stance and walked to Eren with a sigh, eying Reiner carefully.
"What's the verdict then?"
"He said he suddenly gained memory of it while he was in the city. Doesn't know why or how but it somehow happened." Eren spoke with supreme confidence to Lutz, causing Annie to clench her fists quietly as she watched the two interact.
"You believe it?"
"Yes." Eren replied without hesitation.
Lutz sighed again, keeping his gaze fixed on Reiner.
"Well that leaves us pretty well in the dark here, what you make of that?"
"If it was indeed his titan that attacked Annie, that means he can summon and use it remotely. And that means: even if he is kept locked away, there is a chance the same thing could happen again. We're better off keeping him involved in any operation involving titans. That way, he can shift in front of us all and at the very least we'll know where his titan is."
Lutz pondered a moment, finally speaking:
"Keep your enemies close… good. It's simple in theory but everyone involved will need to be aware of the risks, especially in situations of high danger. He can't have any opportunities to stab our backs. Annie and Eren, you are both now joined at the hip with Reiner. He never leaves your sight, you'll sleep in shifts there will always be an eye on him. And you," Lutz walked to Reiner, the men were equal in height. He stared deep into Reiner's eyes a moment before continuing. "I'm afraid you can't command my forces while you remain a threat to them. If you can clear your name, I suggest you get on that, you've been a fine commander, I want to see you at the helms again if at all possible."
I'm thinking I'm back. Thanks for the reviews, it's easy to lose sight of how rewarding this can be. Probably the easiest chapter I've written, stroke of creativity I suppose... Adderall helps too. Hope you all enjoy.