Chapter 28

Eren woke up tied down to a bed in the dark. His forehead throbbed like it had after he tried to use the faulty 3DMG when he first started in the Trainee Corps. He was sure that if he could reach up to touch it he would feel a lump the size of his fist. It hurt to open his eyes, but it was dark anyway. The silence pressed on his eardrums. He pulled at the straps binding his wrists and ankles to the bed, but they wouldn't budge and it just made his head hurt more. He lifted his head and slammed it down on the mattress below him. More pain shot through his skull, making his brain feel like it was going to implode. Obviously, there was no gas in here for him to turn titan.

He lay there for what must have been hours, arms and legs stiff, but he didn't really notice that over the throbbing of his head.

A ribbon of light shot across his closed eyes. More pain. He squeezed his eyes further closed.

"Ah, Eren. It's nice to see you awake. You know I've missed the time we used to spend in the basement together." It was his father.

The door opened further.

"I – I thought you said you gave me the key to the basement so I'd know about the fourth wall," said Eren. Talking made his head feel like it was going to split open.

"And you would've. But that isn't the only thing that's down here. Yes Eren, we're in the basement. We're mere feet from where your mother was eaten." A light flicked on over the bed. Behind his closed eyes, Eren could only see white that occasionally flashed red. He heard his father moving around him.

"Why am I here?" he asked.

"You have always been more than my son to me," started Grisha Jaeger. "You are my prize experiment. You are and always will be the greatest titan shifter I have ever made. Now I just need you to drink this…"

He pushed Eren's pulsating head upright and poured a sickly sweet liquid down his throat. Eren tried to spit it out, but he was too weak. As his eyes adjusted to the flickering electric light on the ceiling, he looked over at his father. Grisha Jaeger was pushing the air bubbles out of a hypodermic needle. He walked over to Eren's other side and stuck the needle into a vein in Eren's left bicep.

"When we broke down the walls to Siganshina, we wanted to test your abilities. We found them somewhat… lacking. You should have been able to kill all the titans inside the walls with a thought. You should have been able to save everyone, but you ended up needing to be saved by Hannes. Even in Trost, when we thought that maybe all the training you had done would make you more in tune with your body, but it wasn't enough. You barely survived. You killed a few titans, and then you were too exhausted to continue. You even became one of them until your friend Armin was kind enough to wake you up. Hopefully, after this, you will be able to shift even without the enhancing gas in the air. Then, and only then, will you be able to kill all the world leaders and do away with war, prejudice, and dystopian governments everywhere. We will spread food, water, and shelter out so everyone has enough, and then we will wipe everyone's horrible memories. Everyone will be happy."

Eren looked at him like he had lost his mind. Grisha Jaeger had a far-off, maniacal look in his eyes, like he could almost taste the glorious outcome he had just described.

"Dad," Eren started. "You do realize that the chances of this actually turning out good aren't very high, don't you?"

Grisha Jaeger was staring off into space, ignoring him.