He managed to reach the shield that was laying next to him and managed to bring it up to block the blow fron the stock of the rifle that Nile had tried to hit him with.
"Put the shield down Nicholas." Nile said to him, trying to calm Nick down after showing his agressive side towards him, already knowing about the training Nick had done from an early age from the research he and his men had done before tracking him to the underground with the help of Captain Ackerman from the First Interior Squad.
"How about you cut the pubes off your face first." Nick spat back, not enjoying the fact that Nile had tried to knock him out.
"What?!" He gasped.
"You heard me." Nick told him. "Commander facial pubes." He said, swinging the shield at Nile, hitting him head on, causing him to stumble back to the ground. At this point, three more MP's had managed to get through to the arena and pointed their rifles at Nick.
"Don't shoot you idiots!" Nile yelled at them, but with all the noise that the crowd were making the only word they could hear was "shoot", so they followed the orders that they had heard and all fired simultaneously at Nick.
Nile looked on in shock as his three subordinates had just shot at one of the most important people in the walls, he was the only child of the head of the Royal Assembly, if he died then Nile might as well cut his own head off and serve it to the Royal Assembly on a slived platter, all he had to do was follow the orders he had been given, "Locate and Retrieve Nicholas Meier by any means necessary."
The three metal balls that had been fired from the muskets were travelling fast enough to turn Nick's insides into mush if they hit the right places, what's more is that they were all aiming at his chest, he would not survive three metal balls travelling at him faster than the sound that was produced by the firing of said metal balls.
Seeing that he had not expected the incoming projectiles coming towards him, he could only flinch in shock and stare at the three MP's in disbelief, the only positive he could take from that moment was the sound of the balls clanging off the metal shield he was holding in a defensive stance, three small dents where the balls had embedded themselves once the vibration of the shield had stopped.
The sound of the three gunshots had also silenced the crowd that were currently trying to prevent any more MP's from getting through to the arena, even the Infamous Kenny the Ripper had stopped laughing at the "entertainment" he was getting from watching Nile and his idiots fight his nephew, even he could not stop the look of shock coming across his face as he saw the three men wit their smoking guns pointed at Nick, only to start laughing hysterically once he saw the metal balls embedded in the shield Nick was holding.
"YOU IDIOTS!" Nile screamed at them. "I SAID, DON'T SHOOT!" He continued his shouting with. "We were supposed to retrieve him! Not kill him! Why did you decide to-" Nile was then cut off from talking to them as a shield with three metal balls in it crashed into the face of an MP, knocking him out cold instantly, the one next to him tried to swing the barrel of his gun at Nick, only to have it bashed away by the shield as he recieved a jaw shattering uppercut from the shield bearer, knocking him out instantly with a broken jaw, the third MP tried the same thing as the one before him, swinging his gun at Nick, only to have the gun wrenched from his grasp and have the stock of the gun being swung ferociously at the side of his head and crack the wooden stock as it impacted against his skull.
Nick was absolutely furious now, surprisingly not at the fact that the three MP's that got the beat down of their lives had tried to shoot and kill him, but the fact that they had unintentionally also tried to kill Frieda, she was inside his head, and since the power of the Founding Titan was stolen she couldn't move her consciousness to someone else's head, meaning that she would be with him until he died, and her going along with him, and he was not going to let himself die until she witnessed her dream, the walls being rendered useless, and the people of the walls being told the truth about the world.
Nile could only watch in horror as three of his best men had been rendered useless by a fifteen year old boy, much less one from Mitras, they were supposed to be useless, not have the combat prowess of a military veteran. "Holy Shit!" Nile thought. "What's he going to do to me?!" He wondered, subconsciously backing away from the rage filled Nick.
However to Nile's surprise, he turned tail and ran down a tunnel at one end of the arena, he stared at the tunnel before regaining his senses and began to bark out orders. "Spread out!" He yelled to the MP's that were still capable of movement. "Cover all the exits, don't let Meier escape! Failure is not an option!"
Once Nick had reached the slightly less filthy changing room, he quickly threw on the plain black T-Shirt and hoodie that he had worn that night, he was about to run for it until he heard the familiar voices of two females he had met on his first night in the Underground.
"Let go you pig!" One if them shouted. While the other was less calm about it. "Get your hands off my daughter you filthy bastard!"
"Fuck me and my golden heart." Nick sighed, running down the corridor that the voices had originated from, once he rounded a corner he could see Mrs Douglas and her daughter Lavender being harassed by some guy that frequents the club, Nick would know since this guy constantly bets against him, claiming he gets lucky evertime he fights.
"Let go!" Lavender screeched, still trying to pull away from his grasp.
"Come on hot stuff." He flirted. "I'll show you a good time."
"Let go!" She shouted in his face, her mother also trying to get him off of her daughter but to no avail, that was until she was pulled back slightly as a metal shield collided with his head, sending him to the floor.
"What?" Lavender asked, shocked at what had just happened.
"Come on." Nick ordered. "We have to go." He said, grabbing her hand and dragging her and her mother who was holding her other hand down the corridor and to the right where the exit was. They hurried towards the metal door, noticing that the guard was gone, making it easier for then to get out. Nick quickly opened the door and then grabbed her hand again and ran out the warehouse, leading them down one if the streets as he noticed that some MP's had managed to follow them out and began to give chase, he could also hear Nile shouting out orders to not shoot out of fear of what would happen to him if Nick was returned either dead or with a bullet wound on his body.
Back at the club where things had calmed down since the MP's had all left to go after Nick and the two women he was dragging along, Kenny Ackerman had just finished laughing at how badly the three idiot MP's had been beaten down by Nick after they had shot at him, he was about to leave until he noticed the strange markings on the guy that Nick had killed during their sword fight. He reluctantly let his curiosity get the better of him and walked over to examine the body.
"The fuck does this mean?" Kenny asked out loud, scratching the back of his head in confusion.
"Guess I'll take it to Roddy." He thought out loud once again. "Be funny to dump a dead body on his dining table, wonder how he'll react." He spoke, hoisting the body over his shoulder and proceeded to make his way towards the Reiss Family Estate.
While Nick was running along the streets if the Underground, the MP's had activated their ODM gear in an attempt to out manoeuvre Nick as they were managing to get further away from them, it didn't help that the citizens were doing their best to get in their way either.
One of the soldiers had the great idea to use his gear to attack Nick from above in an attempt to restrain him by tackling him from above, however Nick saw through this and when he was closing in on him, Nick backhanded the man with the shield he was carrying and sent him flying into a pile of wooden crates, taking him out of the equation of escape for the moment.
"Nick, you should surrender." Frieda suggested. "It'll be better if they don't see you as a threat to their safety."
"I won't leave these two to their fate down here, they helped me." He told her. "So I'm going to help them however I can."
"Any you're going to do that how exactly?" She asked him, curious to how he wanted to repay them.
"Citizenship in Mitras." He replied, shocking Frieda in the process.
"You've really grown attached to the girl, haven't you?" Frieda teased him.
"She reminds me of you." He stated. "She didn't judge me at all, even after watching my fights. She always tried to make conversation." He said, pulling the pair of females around a corner and into an alley with a door at the end.
"Come on." Nick said. "Through here." He told them, trying the door at the end of the alley, with it not budging in the slightest.
"Stop running Nicholas." Nile said from the other end of the alley. "There's no escape." He stated. "So stop this nonsense and come back to Mitras."
"Fuck off Nile!" He shouted, shielding the two women behind him. "I'd rather have a Titan eat me than have to look at that pathetic escuse for facial hair any longer than I have to. So run back Mitras and have them send the First Interior Squad, at least they're capable of doing their job!" He shouted.
"There's nowhere to run to, the door behind you is locked and you won't get past us over here." Nile told him in an attempt to make him surrender before any more of his men took a beating from their target.
"It's funny you say that Nile." Nick said, gaining his attention. "Because the door looks open to me." He said, turning around and kicking the door open with all the strength he had in his leg, sending splinters of wood flying as the door swung open, for the three to enter.
"Get inside!" Nick yelled, pulling both of the women inside after him as he swiftly shut the door and placed the shield between the door and a piece of concrete jutting out of the floor, stopping Nile and his soldiers from breaking down the door as the tried to push it open.
"Open the door!" Nile yelled from the other side. "You're making this more difficult than it has to be!" He shouted, but since he didn't get a reply he spun round to give his men orders. "Circle around and surround the building. Don't let him get away."
"What about the two girls with him?" One of the officers asked. "Do we take them in as well?"
"No, leave them be." Nile commanded. "It's obvious that he cares for them or he would have left them behind, and I don't want to see him angry again." He said, shuddering at the thought of the stock of a rifle cracking against his head.
"So..." Lavender started. "Why exactly are the Military Police chasing you?" She asked, wanting to get straight to the point.
"I... ran away from home." He said. "I wanted to join the Cadet Corps this year, but I was too late to join."
"What does that have to do with the Military Police being after you?" Her mother asked.
"I wanted to see if I could survive in the real world, where people have to kill just to survive. I figured if I could do that then the training would be no problem for me." He told them, sitting on a crate before speaking up again. "The world above ground where I live is just pure fantasy, where they pretend everything is perfect, and there is no threat to our existance."
"Where do you live?" Lavender asked him.
"I live in... Mitras." He told them, expecting them to be angry at them for not telling them the truth and that he had a great life above ground, but he was shocked to see not a hint of anger on either of their faces, confusing him even more. "You're... not angry at me?"
"Why would we be?" Lavender asked. "It's not your fault that you live there, in fact, I'm happy for you." She said, smiling at him as she did.
Nick let a small smile come across his usual emotionless face, because she really was like Frieda in some sense, in that she was extremely nice to him, and never judged him at all. But unfortunately for him, the two other females noticed the smile and teased him about it.
"Are you smiling?" Lavender asked, smirking at him as she asked the question.
Quick as a flash, the smile disappeared, replaced by his usual blank emotionless face. "I was not smiling. I had something in my eye." He replied, trying to play it off.
"Yes you were." She replied.
"I was not."
"Actually Nick, you were indeed smiling." Her mother spoke up.
"Hmph." He replied, crossing his arms and turning his head away from them, but that didn't stop them from seeing the faint red his cheeks had turned.
"Enough teasing Lavender." Her mother said. "But I do have some more questions for you Nick."
"What?" He asked, still moody from their aforementioned teasing.
"How did you know that man that was chasing you?" She asked him.
"I don't know him." Nick replied. "But I do know who he is."
"And who is he?" Lavender asked before her mother could.
"His name is Nile Dok... he's the Commander of the Military Police." He replied, not seeing the importance as to why it mattered who was chasing them.
"You must be pretty important if the Commander of the whole Military Police is chasing you around the Underground." Lavender spoke up.
"That's where you're wrong." Nick replied. "He is only the Commander of the MP's who don't belong to the Interior Branch." He told them. "The Interior Branch has a seperate chain of command, they report either to the King, or the Royal Assembly, giving Nile absolutely no power over them."
"So you are important!" Lavender shouted. "I knew it, you looked far too cute to be fron the Underground!" She stated. "Oh... did I say that out loud?" She asked no one in particular.
Her mother could only snicker to herself at the choice of words that her daughter had shouted out loud while Nick was right across from her. Nick could only feel his face get hot at the mention of being called cute by another girl his age. He had been called cute by Frieda in the past, but that was before she had eaten her Uncle Uri, and he was too young to understand what it meant at the age he was at now, and since he had made a grand total of two friends in his life, he had absolutely no experience with girls his own age, or what to say in situations like this, luckily for him, Frieda decided to "help" him.
"Looks like someone has a crush." Frieda chided in with.
"Quiet you!" He snapped, annoyed that she was trying to make him blush even more than he was at the monent.
"Right." Nick spoke up, still not sure on how to respond to that, but he did manage to notice that her face was redder than his at the moment. "We need to figure a way out of here, without me having to fight them all off. I may be able to fight, but I'm not an army." He spoke up.
"Of course!" Lavender spoke up, the redness from her face totally gone now. "How about the hatch on the roof." She said, pointing up at it for Nick to see.
"That's a bit high Lavender. Don't you think so too Nick?" Her mother spoke up, the roof was at least fifteen feet in the air, and there was only one crate in the room, which meant either they could go out the door or...
"No." Nick said. "It's a bit risky, but I could throw one of you up to it, and then hope you find a ladder or rope so the other two can get up too." He explained to them.
"Why can't we lift you up there?" Lavender asked.
"I'm heavier than I look, I doubt you could throw me the small distance between us on top of each other and the hatch."
"But there must be like no fat on your body at all." Lavender reminded him, her face becoming slightly red at the thought of his naked torso.
"Muscle weighs more than fat Lavender." Her mother reminded her.
"And you'd be surprised at how strong I am." Nick stated.
"Oh really?" She asked. "What's the most weight you can consistanty lift?" She asked.
"Two hundred and seventy five pounds." He said. "My max was three hundred and twenty."
"Oh." She replied. "You'll catch me if I fall right?" She asked, glaring at him after he failed to answer for the first few seconds.
"Yes I'll catch you." He replied. "Maybe." He muttered to himself.
"Come on." He said, holding both of his hands down for her to step on, she stepped onto his hands while she gripped his shoulders so she didn't lose balance while he was holding the bottom of her feet. "Hold your arms straight up, It'll keep you balanced." He told her as she shakily lifted her arms up, managing to keep her balance as Nick slowly lifted her up towards the hatch in the roof.
Once she had been lifted above his shoulders he had just come across a serious problem with the plan he had developed. "She's wearing a skirt." He realised. "Oh shit! Just don't look up." He told himself, but he then realised that he wouldn't be able to see what he's doing.
"Hey Lavender?"
"Yeah." She replied.
"I need you to tell me where the hatch is."
"Just look up." She said.
"I won't do that Lavender."
"Why not?"
"You're wearing a skirt." He replied, his eyes glued to the wall infront of him.
"Oh right, well it's right above me, but its just out of reach." She said as Nick's arms had fully straightened out, trying not to wobble despite how light she seemed. When she said it was just out of reach, without warning he bent his knees and arms slowly, and quickly thrusted them upwards, throwing her towards the handle on th hatch in the ceiling that she just managed to get a hold of before falling to the ground.
"You got it?" He asked her.
"She seems to be trying to twist the handle." Her mother replied, watching since Nick refused to.
"I got-" She was cut off as the hatch opened downwards, causing her to scream and lose her grip as she fell towards what would have been a very painful landing if Nick hadn't caught her bridal style, with her wrapping her arms around his neck as she landed.
"Can you let go?" He asked after a few monents, with her letting go and dropping to the floor as he noticed a length of rope had dropped from the roof.
After Nick had climbed the rope and onto the roof, he took notice of how none of Nile's men had used their gear to watch the roof of the building. After helping Lavender and her mother out of the building they dropped down onto the street below, constantly using alleyways and dimly lit streets to avoid any Military Police that happened to be patroling the area, knowing that Nile had probably sent a drawing of him to all the MP's in the area. They had successfully managed to get back to the house/clinic that Nick had been invited to stay at since he didn't have a home in the Underground.
"What if they manage to track us here?" Lavender asked, now getting more and more worried for her and her mothers safety.
"Unless they followed us here, which they didn't, I doubt they could find us." Nick stated. "The records involving the Underground were put on hold when the city was deemed a failure." Nick explained.
"How do you know so much about things like this?" Lavender asked him.
"I spent a lot of time in the National Archives." He told them. "And I enjoyed reading about the history of the walls when I was younger. It also helps that I can gain access to practically every building in Mitras."
"Could you get into the palace?" Lavender asked.
"I could get as far as the front door, but without documentation you can't get in, they're really strict about it." He said. "But the "King" lives there, so I'm not really surprised about the security."
"So... what now?" Lavender asked after a few minutes of silence.
"You two." He pointed at them. "Will stay here and lay low for the next few days. I stil have some things to get to down here."
(3 days later)
The past three days have been rather quiet in terms of action for Nick, there had been the odd occasion where someone had tried to threaten him due to his age, but they were put in their place, usually after yanking their weapon from their hand and a death glare from him. While he had told Lavender and her mother that he had some things to take care of in the city, that was so he could search for information about the mystery man he had fought three days ago the night Nile and his band of idiots showed up to bring him back.
He hadn't been able to find a single piece of information on the man, not even a name, even the owner of the other fightclub had no idea what his name was, only that he had shown up about two months ago and tore apart all the competition, well, until Nick had removed his head from his body. This had stumped Nick even more, but he was sure that if he were to look at the books at his house that were preserved from before the walls were erected, combining that with the strangers body, hopefully he would be able to translate the rest of what was on his body, the only problem was Kenny, he had either left the body at the club, or he had taken it to Rod, which would probably result in the destruction of the body at his request.
"Selfish bastard." Nick thought to himself.
He was currently walking along one of the streets where the shady market stalls were, where they would scam anyone that seemed less than adequate at buying and selling. He was quietly walking along until a middle aged man approached him who seemed familiar to Nick.
"Excuse me young man." The stranger said to him. "But you wouldn't happen to know how to get to the nearest bar, would you?" He asked.
"Have we met." Nick bluntly said, searching his brain for any indication that he had seen him before.
"Djel Sannes. First Interior Squad." Frieda told him, explaining why Nick would have remembered him, since he was from Mitras.
"No. I don't believe we have." The man replied. "I'm sure I would remember someone as blunt as you."
"You need to run. Now!" Frieda yelled in his ear.
"Are you sure, because I could've sworn we've met before." Nick said to him, grabbing his arm in a vice grip, not letting go as he reached for the switchblade in his pocket, flicking it out and holding it against the man. "I never forget a face." Nick stated, until he remembered where he had seen him, it was only a short glance, when he was nine and was at the Reiss Estate to talk to Frieda and Florian when he had seen him leaving with someone else.
"I remember you." Nick stated, pushing the knife harder against him. "Reiss Estate, six years ago, I was nine, Frieda was thirteen, Florian was five, we were talking about the outside world, ring a bell?" He asked, he remembered that vividly, mainly because it was the first time he and Frieda had talked about what was outside the walls. She had brought a book about the outside world, it was banned but she didn't seem to care at the time.
"He's onto us!" Djel yelled, startling Nick as he managed to pull away from him as about twelve MP's dropped down off the rooftops and into the street below where Nick was.
"Shit! I fucked up!" Nick thought to himself, as the MP's got closer, so he did the most natural thing to him, fight back against them, he rushed at one and cracked his nose with an elbow and moved onto the second, and swung his fist at him, connecting with his forehead, knocking him out. Then someone wrapped their arms around his waist from behind and lifted him off of the ground to which he swung his elbow back until he was dropped on the floor, only to be tackled onto the floor by another.
He managed to wriggle free and kick the man in the face, getting him to back off, that was until three men dove into him, struggling to keep him pinned with all the thrashing he was doing, that was until four more men, including Djel came to hold him still.
"Keep him still." A woman's voice called out, Nick looked over to see a blonde women, rather tall with her hair tied back and in the standard uniform for the First Interior Squad, but he also noticed the needle in her hand, and began to thrash more violently agaist the men holding him down, his right arm breaking free and he started to swing at then men, managing to knock two off of him until he felt the needle enter the skin of his neck while he wasn't paying attention, falling unconscious almost instantly.
(3 days later)
"Do you think he left without saying goodbye?" Lavender asked her mother, her face full of worry at the thought of Nick having been gone for three days straight.
"I don't think he would have darling." Her mother replied. "He may have been difficult and very stubborn, but I could tell he had a pure heart, it isn't in his nature to just up and leave."
"And you know this how?" Lavender replied bitterly.
"You really like him." Her mother said, it wasn't a question, it was a statement.
"He was different from the rest." She said. "He was nice, even if he rarely showed it, he also took no nonsense from anyone, even if they were twice his size. He never even gave me a second glance." She slumped over at her own thoughts.
"I wouldn't say that, he clearly liked you enough to save you from that pig." Her mother replied.
"The exit was that way, he had to pass us anyway." She told her mother.
"There was a much shorter route from the changing room to the exit, he went out of his way to save you from that man." Her mother explained to her.
"You think so?" Lavender asked.
"I know so." She replied.
Lavender then sighed in sadness. "It's not like I'll ever see him again." She muttered. "Why would he come back down here again, he probably hates it here."
She was stopped from continuing her speech because there was a knock at the door which usually meant that someone needed patching up by her mother, she begrudgingly got to her feet to answer the door, only to be shocked that it was Nick that had answered the door, except he looked a lot cleaner than he had before when he was last seen by her.
"You came back!" She shrieked, lunging forward and wrapping her hands around him as tightly as she could, as if she was trying to squeeze the life out of him. Nick on the other hand, hadn't expected this, so he just awkwardly patted her on the back as she kept squeezing him.
"Looks like Nicky got a girlfriend." One voice from behind him tried to tease, until Nick spoke back to him.
"Another word out of your mouth Anton, and I'll have you cleaning toilets with your toothbrush for the next year!" He hissed back at the voice.
Lavender looked up to see five others with him, three men and two women, there was four MP's with Interior Branch on their uniorms and another man holding a crate and wearing a suit and tie.
"Who are these people?" She nervous asked him, having MP's showing up to your home in the underground was not usually a good thing to happen.
"They're with me." He explained. "I wasn't lying when I said I was important in Mitras." He said. "Can we come in?" He asked, surprisingly politely actually.
"Uh... sure, come in." She gestured for the six of them to enter."
"You may want to sit down with your mother now." He suggested. "I'll have Gerald here explain everything." He gestured to the man with the crate in his hands.
"Right then." The man known as Gerald spoke up. "Mr Meier here has informed me of your living status in the Underground District. He has also expressed his wishes for me to change your living status."
"What does that mean?" Lavender asked.
"Basically." Gerald looked at Nick, who nodded at him for me to continue. "Mr Meier has asked me to forge some documents such as birth certificates and the like so that you two may live in the Inner District." He explained to them.
"What?" They both asked, dumbfounded at the suggestion he was making.
"Since you two have no records in the National Archives, I assume you were both born in the Underground." Seeing them nod, he continued. "What Mr Meier has asked me to do is to create a "history" you could say, for you two, which includes birth certificates, school enrolment in the Capital, and trivial things such as doctor visits. The likelihood of these forgeries being found are slim to none, but I have still brought the required documentation for you to fill in, If you fill in the informatiom required for the both of you, the documents will be backdated to the appropriate dates, which in turn, will make you official citizens of Mitras." He finished off with.
"Are you being serious!" Lavender shouted at him, standing up.
"Deadly." Gerald replied. "But that's not all, he has also asked me to forge school records for you Ms Lavender, so that you may attend University in the Capital, If you wish to of course." He told her. "And for your mother, a basic medical license, so that she nay practice medicine in a... clean environment." He finished off with. "So what'll it be?" He asked them.
"I... I don't know what to say." Lavender said, on the verge of tears at the kindness being shown to her and her mother in return for nothing at all from Nick.
"You could just say yes." Nick bluntly replied, leaning on the wall next to them.
"When can we start?" Her mother asked, eager to get going so that she and Lavender could begin a new life on the surface.
"We can start at once." Gerald announced, only to be cut off by Nick.
"They aren't filling them in here Gerald, they can do it at my house." Nick informed them, signalling for all of them to follow him out of the building and to the surface.
(8 hours later)
Nick had spent the better part of the day in his room with the books he had "acquired" from the basement of his house, it was a metal door that had multiple locks on it, obviously nobody was meant to get in, but after "borrowing" a hairpin from his mother and a knife from the kitchen when one of the maids wasn't looking, he had set off to pick all five locks that prevented the door from being opened.
"Do you always disregard the rules as you please?" Frieda had asked him at the time, while putting absolutely no effort to stop him.
"I think that they've realised that I won't change my mind Frieda." He reminded her. "Whether it's for joining the Cadets, or exploring my own house." He told her.
After he had managed to get the first four locks off the door quite easily, he struggled quite a bit with the last one, after spending around twenty minutes on it with no success, he resorted to swinging an axe at it, his strength combined with the sharp blade making quick work of the last lock as he opened the door and ventured down the staircase to aquire all the books that he would need for the reaearch he would be conducting on the mysterious language he couldn't read at all, it didn't help that the body had completely disappeared, leaving him with the faint memory of the writing to work with.
That was how he had spent at least five hours in his room while Lavender abd her mother were enjoying the food and drink offered to the richest in Wall Sina while filling in the required documents for their citizenship on the surface.
Nick was currently looking through a book on the the language of Hizuru, the nation that the Asian Clan hailed from, he was having absolutely zero luck when it cane down to symbols he recognised and it didn't help that the book was written in Hizurian, meaning he also needed a Marleyan to Hizurian dictionary, which was not helping at all, since the dictionary was written in letters, while the book only used symboly that didn't make sense to him.
He was seriously tempted to light the books on fire, but he refrained from doing so as his mother entered his room.
"What are you up to?" She asked him, noticing the pile of books on the desk he was sitting at.
"Learning that Hizurian is impossible to learn." He replied, turning to face her, with his eyes bloodshot from all the work he was doing.
"So it was you that broke the lock on the basement door." She stated.
"Couldn't pick the lock." He replied.
His mother sighed before speaking up again. "And the girl you brought here?" She asked. "What about her?"
"What about her?" He asked.
"Why are you helping her?" She asked him.
"She reminds me of Frieda." He replied. "Someone like her shouldn't live down there, they deserve to be as free as possible."
"Hmm?" She replied, smirking at him. "Nothing else going on?" She asked him.
"No mom I haven't fucked her, and I don't plan on doing it." He said, knowing what she was trying to imply. "At all." He emphasised.
She was going to scold him for his choice of language, but decided against it since he looked like he needed sleep more than anything else, and he also looked really stressed.
"How long have you been reading those books?" She asked, moving towards him.
"About five hours." He replied, letting out a yawn after he finished.
"You look tired." She observed. "Really tired, your eyes are bloodshot and you have bags under your eyes." She told him.
"I'm fine." He tried to protest. "Just need something to eat."
"No." She said. "You need sleep." She told him. "You won't be able to work if you tire yourself out like you've been doing."
"I'm-" He was about to say he was fine, until his mother grabbed his arm and forced him onto his bed in a sitting pisition while she sat next to him and pulled him into a hud, his face in her shoulder.
"What are you-" he tried to protest, only for his mother to tighten her grip on him, even Nick knew there was no escape from her grip when she didn't want to let go.
"Close your eyes." She commanded. "It'll be better if you went to sleep." She suggested.
As he closed his eyes, he slowly hugged his mother back, surprising her since it was the first hug she had recieved from him in the better part of a year, back before the wall fell she recieved a hug from him every few days at the minimum."
"You better not tell anyone about this." He mumbled into her shoulder, his eyes feeling heavier as his breathing began to even out as he was slowly overcome with the need to sleep.
"Don't worry." She whispered. "I wont tell a soul."
Once she had reluctantly let go of him so that he could sleep on his bed comfortably, she took notice of how peaceful he looked while he was asleep, he usually looked so serious or emotionless while he was awake, so she took the time to admire the young teen that her baby had grown into.
"Your father may be seriously against you joining the Military." She said to her sleeping son. "But I will always support you, and I believe that you will save us all." She said, kissing him on the forehead, noticing him start to smile in his sleep as she left the room without a sound, letting him enjoy the rest he needed.
A/N - That was the last chapter of the past, but now for the Clash of the Titans arc, where Nick and the others will clash on their methods for trying to get another Titan on their side, especially after Mikasa turned up unconscious in Stohess. I wonder how Eren will react??? Anyway, I hope you enjoyed this chapter!