Claudia's POV
A low, threatening growl rumbled Eren's body as he sat up, glaring daggers at his Carla. He was clearly annoyed by Clara who would not stop hopping around all over the bed. Claudia couldn't blame him, she was annoying at times.
"What is so important that you had to wake me up?" he whispered angrily, glancing at the door, "What time is it?"
Claudia decided that it was time for her to come out now, Carla would be no help in this situation, Say goodbye.
Whhhhhy? Clara whined, I was excited when you said you wanted to talk to him, but I didn't think I would have to sit back and watch it happen!
You can join in on our conversation in a little bit, I promise.
Fine, but you owe me one, she grumbled, smiling and biding Eren farewell.
Claudia gently put Clara to sleep with the others, ignoring her sleepy calls.
"Hi," she greeted awkwardly, climbing down from the unusually tall bed. "Excuse me for interrupting your conversation with Clara, but she really is useless when it comes to handling difficult tasks. I would like to escort you to Grisha's lab… if you wouldn't mind."
The corners of her mouth tilted up into a smile, reminding Eren of Sasha's awkward smile when giving their trainer half of her potato. A picture of Sasha from Eren's memories flashed in Claudia's mind, alerting her of the fact. She had always had the abnormal ability to access the other shifter's brains, but having access to Eren confused her.
"Another titan? Great, just what I needed. Another mistake," Eren mumbled, crossing his arms in front of his chest as he faintly thought of Jaeger, "What happened to my chains?" he asked, trying to ignore what he considered to be an insult to Jaeger.
"Jaeger knew you loved him. A comment like that wouldn't disturb him at all." she said, ignoring the insignificant question.
His fierce eyes turned to her, snatching up her eyes with his own, making her increasingly nervous, "How would you know?"
She diverted her gaze, "Jaeger was very kind, he would understand that you didn't mean to offend him."
Eren scoffed, "You don't know anything about him. Where's Grisha?" he asked, abruptly changing the topic.
"In his office, sleeping. Everyone else is currently in the same state. I call it sleep, but you could call it paralysis. It would be convenient for us to move quickly, they won't stay like that forever," she explained, grabbing his hand and tugging him out of the stuffy room and down the damp hallway.
"Where are we?" Eren said, taking his hand back and following close behind instead.
He was curious as to how he would escape, she could tell. Claudia had his escape plans covered, he had nothing to worry about.
"We're below Shiganshina. I don't have a lot of time to explain, but I'll try. When Shiganshina was still intact, your father managed to construct an underground research facility. I or Carla had no idea that he was building such a thing. Ever since he let the shifter's move here with him, they have been expanding. It has seventeen rooms and two labs, as far as I know. He created me here, along with several other test subjects. All of us were once created naturally, but we died, so he brought us back in order to use our bodies as the ultimate experiment. We have developed abilities, not all are recognized," she said hastily, words just tumbling out of her mouth as they passed many forks in their path, "He built a tunnel leading to the heavily populated areas, an invasion will take place soon. Grisha intends to use the humans as a means of taking his experiments to the next level. He is no longer human himself."
They rounded a corner and came to an abrupt stop. Claudia shoved Eren into a nearby room and followed in after him just as Annie rounded the corner, sniffing around like a dog. Claudia immediately cancelled out the ability for her nose to pick up Eren's scent and she hid him inside of a closet, ceasing the dark thoughts that began looming over his mind. Annie mumbled something incomprehensible before she stared at the door where the scent stopped.
"You better have a damn good reason for being out of bed Clara. I don't like how you smell, and I definitely don't like it when it's being spread throughout the whole facility. Go back to your room," she said, opening the door and pulling Claudia out, "Why do you smell like Eren? It's fowl. Take a bath."
I should have known it wouldn't work on her.
Annie released her and guided her back to her room, leaving Eren alone in Armin's room.
Eren's POV
I'm sorry Eren.
Sorry for what? Eren asked, exiting the closet and finding a dull, empty room.
He received no answer and nearly began to worry, but he stopped the dark thoughts before they could fully consume him.
"Dammit, of course she would run off and get caught. Couldn't just let me kill Annie," he mumbled begrudgingly, inspecting the room carefully.
Only a few things were in the room, a bed, nightstand, and a wardrobe. Eren's eyes took a moment to make out a small shape lying in the bed. It interested him for second, but he wouldn't pursue his curiosity.
"Another titan…" he whispered, quietly opening the door.
A set of handcuffs slapped down around his wrist as soon as he opened it.
"Don't do anything stupid or I'll kill Carla," Annie threatened, pulling him out of the room.
Carla whimpered as she yanked on her arm, "Why are you being so mean?" she asked, wiping away a few stray tears, "We didn't do anything."
Eren stared at her, absolutely entranced by those tears. The only time he had seen his mother cry was before she died and he hated it.
"Leave her alone."
Annie smirked, "Or what? Is something bad going to happen to me?" she got in his face and spat, "You're lucky we need you. Be grateful, Eren," she sneered, practically pulling Carla's hair out of her head.
Carla cried out, "Please stop! It hurts!" she sobbed.
Eren's teeth snapped closed on Leonhardt's hand, cutting through her pointer finger. She shrieked and let go of them, giving Eren the perfect opening to get to Carla. He got as close as he could and told her to run. She hesitated, but hugged him quickly and made a run for it.
Eren was confused, but it soon ended when he heard Leonhardt screaming,"YOU FILTHY, FILTHY LITTLE RAT!" Annie screamed, sending her fist flying at his face, but she tackled him last second.
Leonhardt punched him repeatedly, constantly yelling out insults. They didn't affect him at all, he wasn't even mad. He just let her hit him, sure he was mad at her, but it wouldn't help if he hit her back. If he fought then he would kill her, it wasn't the right time for that. Eren felt a slight vibration coming from down the hall, he glanced in that direction. Carla was running towards them, a hammer clutched in her tiny hands. She ran up to Leonhardt and bashed her over the head with it, making the titan slump against him.
"I came back… as fast as… I could" she said, panting.
Eren pushed the body off of him as he wondered whether or not she was dead. Her head snapped up and her eyes instantly landed on Eren. She began gathering herself with quick, jerky movements.
"Come on," he said, picking up Carla to the best of his abilities, considering the cuffs that remained on his wrists.
Eren sprinted down the hallways, letting Carla point him in the right direction.
"Sis says that the exit is through the lab. We have to get there fast, because the shifters are waking up. She would come out and talk to you herself, but she doesn't have enough energy. Turn here," she said, holding onto his shirt as he ran.
Eren turned where she told him to and hid when an occasional shifter exited their room.
"Stop!" she shouted, pointing to a ragged door, "That's it."
Eren came to a skidding halt in front of the door, "Are you sure?"
He set her down and approached the door, but before he even touched the handle, it swung open. Grisha smiled at Carla as soon as he saw her.
"What are you doing here? I thought you were sleeping!" he exclaimed, pushing past Eren and scooping her up.
Carla giggled and hugged him, "Eren was going to break out soon, so I decided to bring him in early! Sorry if it was too early, but I just couldn't help myself! He was just so precious. He missed his mommy so much! Glad I was made to look like her," she said, grinning at him.
It had all happened so quickly that Eren hadn't had the chance to try and protect the one who had claimed to be his mother. He couldn't believe what he was hearing, she acted so motherly. She presented several pieces of evidence that pointed to her being his mom, but she really wasn't. The hopes and dreams that had arisen from her presence were slowly melting away. Eren had fell for their trick.
Carla's POV
Grisha kicked Eren into the wall and planted his foot against his head as soon as he hit the ground, "Come on, Eren. Talk to your father, didn't you miss me?" he said, a perfect, twisted smile stretching across his face.
That was great Claudia! Grisha's so proud!
Carla was so happy that she had succeed with her mission. She almost wished that she could play with Eren for a bit longer, it was fun pretending to be his mom.
Do you think Grisha will let me keep his body?! I just love the way he looks! He looks so angry all the time, I love it! she yelled, laughing as she watched Eren struggle under Grisha's foot.
"Eren! You're so cute!" Carla shouted, hopping down from Grisha's arms, "I wish you could be my pet!"
She leaned over and brushed the hair out of his eyes, "You're eyes are so pretty, I want to scoop them out and keep them in a jar."
Eren flinched away from her touch, "I trusted you."
She burst out laughing, "You really thought that I was your mom?! Pathetic!"
"What about Claudia?" he asked.
"Grisha gave me a mission and I fulfilled it, simple as that. I do not have a will of my own and I would not have it any other way," Claudia said, folding her arms and looked away from his furious gaze.
"That's my Claudia, always such a good little girl," Grisha cooed, patting her head.
Claudia looked up at him and frowned, "I think Carla may be unstable. She played her role a little bit too accurately, sir. She kept on playing the role of his mother even when she wasn't with him. I'm under the impression that she could become a liability."
"Nonsense, she's perfectly stable. Carla just likes to have fun with her victims, nothing wrong with that. I understand why she wanted to play with Eren so much, he's impulsive. The results that arise from messing with him are quick," Grisha said, putting more pressure on Eren's skull.
Claudia didn't bother him anymore, she just asked Grisha to move so that she could take Eren down to the lab.
"What do you want with me?" Eren asked, bracing himself as he was dragged down a pearly, white set of stairs.
"We want Jaeger."
-Hello! It's been a while(feels like it anyways). Sorry it took so long. I'm currently sick, and I've been worrying about getting my wisdom teeth pulled out of my face tomorrow! Totally exciting! Right? I am really excited for this chapter because of my editor(check her out at fictionpress! Her username is Redache, leave her some nice comments for me! She has four amazing pieces of work!) She's really nice and gives me good advice. Hey! That kind of rhymes! I'm a genius :D Sorry this is so long, I'm just being weird. Anyways, love you guys! I hope you had just as much fun reading this as I did writing it. Thanks!
