It took three more days of work before Hanji announced that the jaegers were all ready to go. Three days was also the time it took for Rivaille to piece together the full account of what was happening, between Hanji and Erwin and even, surprisingly, Mike (the last had been because of Mike's role as chief engineer; Rivaille had gone to find Eren and remind him to eat, when he'd noticed an odd contraption hanging next to the jaegers. Rivaille had detoured to find Mike, asking him for an explanation, and Mike had shrugged and said that Hanji had requested a carrier for a large weapon. Hanji later confirmed, commenting that she'd merely built an exponentially more powerful version of the bombs that the miners used to black apart mountains and tunnels to produce the ore for jaegersteel. And that said bomb was meant to accompany them on their journey, to hopefully shred the portal to pieces).
The third day, Rivaille, Hanji, Moblit, Mike, and Erwin were all crowded into Erwin's office, holding the closest to a war council the five of them had ever gotten to. Eren was still out in the hangars, adding a few finishing touches to the jaegers, that Hanji assured them would be done across the board by suppertime, unless a kaiju attacked. Rivaille rolled his eyes at her until she plied him with the promise of coffee later.
"So, as I'm sure you're all aware by now, our plan is to take a small convoy of jaegers—accompanied, of course, by out three human-kaiju piloting teams, out to the portal that Annie and Ymir have reported to us about. Once there—and we're assuming there will be not a small few kaiju, given their need to defend their home—we will fight the kaiju off as best we can and use Hanji's weapon to destroy the portal once and for all. If what Ymir said is true about the portal leading to another world, then once its destroyed, we will have no more problems with kaiju."
"Unless they decide to build another portal," Rivaille snarked. Erwin shot him an exasperated look.
"We're going, for the sake of achievability, assume that they can't simply re-build something as complex as a portal from one world to another," he replied, tone still measured. Rivaille allowed himself a small grin, assuring Erwin that he believed him. Erwin nodded, and adjusted his stance so both hands rested on the edge of his desk, atop which an electronic pad with one of the Reiss maps dominated the space.
"Food?" Mike said after a beat. Erwin nodded again.
"Hanji assures me she's built compartments into the jaegers that contain enough space for food and drink last seven days. On our travel out there, we'll take turns staying on watch—hopefully, we'll still be able to make the time the girls did, about three days. And then back."
"Yup!" Hanji interjected. "I rigged a fridge into the cockpit's surrounding area, you know, the empty space between the walls and the actual piloting apparatus? And also storage for sleeping backs and a small toilet! No shower though, sorry Rivaille."
Rivaille grunted at her, already evaluating how much coffee he would be needing to survive showerless for three days, and then a return trip on top of that…
"Any other questions?" Erwin said, standing upright again. "The plan's pretty straightforward, our only contingency will be when and where we meet kaiju, exactly, and if we'll have enough jaeger-power to keep them at bay until we blow their portal apart."
"Yeah, I got one," Rivaille answered. "The fuck is going on here in the walls when we're away? I'm assuming you're not gonna be dissuaded from going, given your frequent use of 'we'. I've got the feeling it's not used in the royal sense."
Erwin's eyes twinkled in a way that said Erwin had a wealth of information to share, only no one had yet asked. His scheming face, Rivaille privately called it.
"Yes, excellent. While we are gone—liberating the outside world from future kaiju as best we can—inside the walls there is going to be a revolution."
"A revolution?" Hanji asked, practically bouncing in a convoluted mixture of confusion and anticipation. "What do you mean, 'revolution'?"
"I mean exactly that," Erwin replied. Even Moblit and Mike shifted uncomfortably. "You see, while the most salient of the files that Rivaille and Mike recovered was the map, there was also a wealth of other information. One of these was an encrypted file—that's the one I asked you to decrypt, Moblit, thanks for that by the way—which stated the identity of the real rulers of the walls—the Reiss family. The family on the throne, in other words, are just figureheads, while everything is run through Reiss manor. Also, we happen to have the only still-living heir of Reiss working, quite literally, for us in this very shatterdome…"
"That's not enough for a rebellion. What else did you do," Rivaille said, raising a brow.
Erwin had the good sense to look at least a little bit sheepish. "Over the past few days I've been using a secure line—again, Moblit, thank you—to talk to both Rico and Nile. I've presented them with all the information they could use, as well as a very motivating reason—freedom. They've agreed to use our absence to bring to light not only the information about the Reiss bloodline, but also the fact that our figurehead government has kept information regarding the outside walls from them. The people stand for nothing, if not for their right to know everything there is, or at least have the possibility to. If necessary, they'll plant people to incite rebellion, but I think that the promise of not only knowledge of the world outside the walls, but also of a kaiju-free world and a dashing young queen—imagine the drama to be had just with that—will be enough to encourage the people to rebel and at least remove the current government from power. Nile also assured me he'd talk to Utopia, get them on board as well."
Complete silence dominated Erwin's office. Rivaille darted a glance around. Mike looked taken aback, Hanji still didn't seem to have made up her mind between excitement and confusion and now maybe a touch of trepidation thrown in, and Moblit seemed shocked he'd had such a great role to play in the proceedings.
"Will six days be enough?" Mike asked.
Erwin shrugged. "Rebellions have started and been destroyed in less time, I don't see why they couldn't start and succeed. If we get back and they're not waiting for Queen Historia to take the throne, we'll just have to help them along."
"Does Historia know?" Hanji asked.
Erwin paused. "Not yet. I'm going to tell her before we leave, hopefully tonight."
"Giving her a lot of choice, are we?" Rivaille said sardonically.
"A peaceful regime within a free world, or nothing at all. I think the choice is self-evident."
"You're a manipulative bastard, you know that?"
"I've been called worse," Erwin said grimly, shadow of a smile on his face. Silence took a turn in the air again, and once again Mike took it upon himself to intervene.
"You're certain this will succeed?"
"No," Erwin said frankly, for once not beating around the bush. "But the signs all say that it's the right time for this, so we might as well take that chance." He looked around at each of the other four in turn, daring them to challenge him assertion. Predictably, no one did. Erwin just had that kind of charisma.
"Right then—" Rivaille said, standing up, just as the kaiju alarms sounded. "The fuck? Who was on sensor?"
"Ah, yeah, haha, sorry, that would have been me..." Hanji said sheepishly, her electronic pad already out and busy.
"Move out," Erwin said, striding for the door and throwing it open. Erwin had just walked through when Rivaille's walkie-talkie beeped. Rivaille picked it up, holding it to his mouth.
"Ready for message, over."
"This is Annie. Eren and I will deal with the threat."
Erwin had, at this point, come back into his office, and held out a hand for Rivaille's walkie. Rivaille handed it to him.
"Annie, this is Commander Smith speaking. You and Eren will not go out there, we need to you to stay safe for our upcoming mission, is that understood?"
"Quite frankly, sire, you don't have a choice. Your best jaegers are all strung up in the hangar, and the rest will be needed to defend the shatterdome while we're on said mission. Eren and I'd healing capabilities far outweigh those of your jaegers. We're going. Over." The walkie crackled out, and Erwin pressed the transmit button a few times, getting only the empty tone signaling that there was no receiving walkie. Erwin sighed.
Then he walked over to his desk, opened a drawer that hid the shatterdome's intercom system, and began entering the code for override.
Rivaille stood frozen for a few minutes, then snatched his walkie-talkie back from Erwin, once it was clear that Erwin was intent on ordering all jaegers to standby. Rivaille stalked angrily out of the room, muttering "I'm going to kill Eren," under his breath.
Annie had been hanging next to Eren, the two enjoying a short water break, when the kaiju alarm went off. Eren panicked, catching himself on the hull of the jaeger behind him, then righted himself, patting his belt for a walkie-talkie. He had none. Oh, Rivaille is gonna be pissed…
"Who's up?" he hissed to Annie, looking around the hangar, half-waiting for one of the jaegers present to drop down and open her cockpit. Annie stared blankly at nothing for a few seconds, then turned to Eren.
"None of the jaegers are. We'll be up," she said, then pulled out a walkie of her own and fiddled with the channel.
"Ready for message, over," Rivaille's voice said from the other end of the line.
"This is Annie. Eren and I will deal with the threat," she said, one-handedly loosening the clutch that kept her cables up high on the jaeger, and motioning for Eren to do the same. They began to descend, going faster than the recommended speed as Annie continued talking, now to Commander Smith.
"Quite frankly, sire, you don't have a choice. Your best jaegers are all strung up in the hangar, and the rest will be needed to defend the shatterdome while we're on said mission. Eren and I'd healing capabilities far outweigh those of your jaegers. We're going. Over."
Eren gaped. No one, not Even Rivaille, talked to Commander Smith like that. Annie leveled him with a glare as she stripped out of her mechanic's gear, Eren quickly jumping into copying her. Then they were running, chasing hallways, and Eren finally asked her where they were going.
"To the hatches, we'll ride the jaeger platforms out as emerge as kaiju," she said. Eren began to shake his head.
"No, that'll take too long," Eren said, thinking back to his battle all those days ago with Berthold and Reiner. "I've got a better idea," he said, turning 180 degrees and following the corridors to the outside elevator. The ride up was agonizingly slow, but the elevator doors opened, leaving just the small flight of stairs.
Eren ran up them, Annie in tow. They burst through the doors that led to the top of the wall, Eren running straight up to the edge and jumping off, biting down on his thumb hard enough to draw blood as he went. With a flash-bang, he felt his body awareness expand around him, growing larger and more powerful, even as he crash-landed with the ground and allowed his momentum to roll him up to a two-legged stand, his tail acting as counterbalance behind him.
A similar flash-bang alerted him to Annie's presence, and together they roared at the incoming three kaiju.
Make a spectacle of yourself—you're bigger, distract them while I sneak around, Annie's voice reverberated in Eren's skull, and he growled in assent. Already standing on his hind legs, Eren was still only level to the largest of the three. He heard a small voice in the back of his mind that was purely his mention something about this probably not being a good idea, but he shoved that voice down as far as it could go, choosing instead to flick out his tongue and flare the spikes that surrounded his face.
The kaiju directly in front of him stopped, roaring a challenge back at Eren, and Eren made a face, lowering himself to all fours, crouching. He saw Annie moving in his periphery, and launched his attack, springing forward with every muscle in his four legs, teeth bared at the enemy kaiju's throat. Unprepared, the kaiju let out a hiss as Eren's fangs met in its neck, stumbling backwards and knocking a slower, more thickset comrade to the ground. Annie, meanwhile, jumped onto the shoulders of the last kaiju, gripping tightly as it tried to buck her off.
The kaiju Eren had captured didn't want anything to do with him, and brought up a heavy paw straight into Eren's stomach, winding him even as a kaiju. His nostrils flared, but he determinedly kept his grip, urging his jaws to press down harder. Sensing the danger, the kaiju thrashed again, this time catching Eren on the underside of a rib, the resultant crack resonating out around their impromptu area.
In the meantime, the thickset kaiju had managed to bring itself back up to standing, and had begun to capture Eren's tail, clamping down with deceptively small teeth that nonetheless lacerated Eren's skin, blue blood leaking everywhere. Eren roared in pain, forgetting for a moment that his teeth had to remain tight. The first kaiju took it as a gift, pulling back out of Eren's reach before darting in again, slashing at Eren's chest.
Luckily, one of Eren's spikes caught under the kaiju's claw, ripping away from Eren—who grunted—but most importantly burying itself deeply into the kaiju's finger. Eren would have grinned, could he have.
Instead, he steeled himself, reminding himself of what the kaiju had cost him, and the pain and suffering and the want—the need to see their existence wiped straight off (hiding exceptions in the corner of his mind where the voice of sanity also resided)—and yanked his tail away, letting loose a screech that was half pain, half battle cry. Whirling in a circle, Eren used a non-injured part of his tail to whip the thickset kaiju across the face, sending it tumbling once more. Then, not losing his momentum, Eren sprang back at the first kaiju.
And then he completely lost it. Fangs, claws, spikes, simple, raw strength—Eren set to work, inflicting more pain than probably absolutely necessary to complete the kill, leaving the kaiju with a torn out trachea and a split ribcage, tendrils of flayed meat slowly steaming as the kaiju blue poured out over the earth.
Turning, his legs covered up to the elbow joints in blue and his jaws dripping, Eren rushed at the heavyset kaiju, his tail twingeing with pain and only fuelling his murderous rage. Annie, who had apparently finished off with the third kaiju and had been ready to start on this one, looked up at Eren's howl-shriek of rage, and promptly leapt out of the way.
Seconds later, Eren bowled the enemy over, once again letting his primordial nature take over, the only word on his mind kill. And kill he did, leaving the kaiju to a similar fate as its companion, with the added bonus of almost complete dismemberment (Eren had started that process with the tail). Annie moved in and out of Eren's periphery, clearly keeping guard and waiting for—
—waiting for something?
A small pressure made itself known in Eren's head, and he growled lowly, not immediately seeing a cause. The kaiju were all dead, anyways.
Annie, Eren, get back to the jaeger hatches, fast. They'll be open for a few seconds, Ymir said-thought at the pair. It was only Annie, nipping at the back of Eren's neck where his human body was stored, that convinced him to leave off ravaging the carcass. That, and his bloodthirst was somewhat sated, now.
And then? Annie asked, her light blue kaiju form pausing just outside the hatch.
Moblit is waiting with a Unicorn to pick the two of you up. Erwin—sorry, Commander Smith—ended up needing to make an announcement regarding the fact that no jaegers were actually deployed in this fight, and yet the kaiju were defeated. By other kaiju. Last time no one noticed, but y'all made quite the spectacle this time—
What did he say? Eren asked, slipping through the hatch right behind Annie, his hair just barely making it through before it began to close.
That the shatterdome has been working on secret, high-level experiments and two of those experiments were outside today. Eren could practically feel Ymir's smirk impressed on his mind. Then Annie transformed, her kaiju body dissolving slowly as she stepped out of it, right up to Moblit's sure-enough-waiting Unicorn.
Transforming back took Eren several tries, attempting to cut off his awareness from the larger body that he now possessed, but… every time he thought he'd caught the senses of his human self, his mind rebounded. Finally, he hunkered down, allowing Moblit to pilot the Unicorn up to the nape of his neck and Annie to forcibly cut him out, using a small knife to cut off one of Eren's smaller spikes and using that spike to poke through the scaled skin, releasing bouts of steam and a touch of smoke as Eren's clothes overheated.
Eren blacked out for a moment coming back, and when he woke again the Unicorn was just coming to a stop near Hanji's lab. Moblit escorted him and Annie back to Hanji's lab proper, where they took their separate ways, Eren forcibly rebuilding his mental walls and trying to ignore the itching, slimy feeling that covered his skin.
A chant of kaiju kaiju kaiju filthy monster filthy bloodthirsty kaiju monster kaiju monster monster MONSTER began to build up in his head, and Eren returned to his room stumbling, his clothes still a little burned. He'd tried his best to avoid everyone on the way back, hoping against hope that Rivaille wasn't in the room. Eren needed a bit of time to just… be not a monster. He knew what Rivaille would say—what Rivaille had said to that, and he didn't think he was quite able to face that.
Not until after a shower. Eren stripped his clothes, throwing them to the ground. He picked them up a second later and threw them in the trash—they were too charred for anything else, anyways. Then he turned the shower on, stepping under the stream and adjusting the temperature until the water was as close to freezing as he was going to get.
The water steamed a bit as it rolled off his skin, hissing loudly, until the chill settled into his bones and Eren felt human again. He washed himself thoroughly after that, maintaining the water at a temperature just under bearable.
When he stepped out, he found a fresh pair of towels sitting on the toilet, and the trash had been emptied of his clothes.
So Rivaille was back.
Hesitantly, Eren dried himself off with one towel, making sure to run it through his hair as much as possible, and then wrapped the other around his waist. Taking a deep breath, he opened the door, peering out into the bedroom at large.
Rivaille was seated on his bed, and stood up as soon as he saw Eren. He strode over, taking Eren's head in his hands. Eren didn't say anything, merely closing his eyes and wondering at the heat of Rivaille's hands against Eren's still-cold skin.
"You motherfucking idiot," Rivaille muttered, bringing Eren's head down to rest their foreheads together. "You actually had me worried."
Eren couldn't help a small, pathetic chuckle from escaping him. "I'm sorry."
"Shut up, brat," Rivaille retorted, pressing his lips to Eren's. The kiss lasted several seconds, until Rivaille pulled away and nuzzled the spot where Eren's neck met his shoulder. "Don't do that again. Please."
Eren quickly tucked his towel into itself, so it wouldn't fall off his hips. He brought up a hand to hug Rivaille, and the other to brush through Rivaille's hair. "Sorry," he whispered again. "I just… hate. Them."
Rivaille nodded against his shoulder and spoke, his breath warm against Eren's skin. "I know. But I don't want you to die, okay?"
"Yeah." Eren hugged Rivaille tighter, both arms now. "I don't want you to die either, though. Or… or anyone to die, really."
Rivaille chuckled. "I'm not going anywhere. You're fucking stuck with me, sorry," he said, grinning up at Eren.
"Oh?" Eren said playfully, poking Rivaille in the ribs with a finger, not even surprised when Rivaille didn't even so much as twitch. Rivaille immediately poked Eren back, causing him to squirm away with a yelp. "Oh c'mon, that's not even fair!" he whined.
Rivaille smiled. "Hmm," he said. "I wonder if I can make it up to you?" Eren cocked his head sideways at that, about to ask how, when Rivaille moved forward and kissed him again. Eren groaned happily into the kiss, returning it with full force, and eventually they found themselves on the bed (the sequence of events was a little blurred to Eren, truth be told), Eren's towel having slipped off and landing in a heap… somewhere. Eren was a bit more focused on Rivaille's tongue by his at the moment.
They continued kissing, Eren running his hands up and down Rivaille's sides, his chest, his arms. It continued until Eren pulled up Rivaille's shirt and ran his hands up under it; Rivaille let out an odd sound, and Eren hummed at him questioningly. Stricken, Rivaille pushed Eren's hands away and took a deep breath.
"I'm sorry Eren, I—I just—I can't do it. I'm sorry."
Eren stopped moving, looking at Rivaille with his brows furrowed. "Huh?" Rivaille looked away, pulling his body back as far as he could and seeming distressed.
"I'm sorry, I just—can't—sex—"
"Oh!" Eren said, comprehension dawning. "You're like Mikasa, then! I guess that makes sense, actually…"
Now it was Rivaille's turn to stare at Eren, brows similarly scrunched. "Huh?"
"She's asexual! She told me once the idea of sex, uh… freaks her out," Eren explained. Well, Mikasa's actual words had been 'makes me want to bury sexual organs under twelve feet of manure and leave them there', but…
Eren was pulled out of his thoughts by Rivaille, who was staring at him with wide eyes. "…you're not mad?" he asked, hushed.
Eren disentangled his legs from Rivaille, grabbing the towel from where it was down by his feet and self-consciously pulling it up to cover his dick. He shook his head.
"No, that'd be… kind of rude, wouldn't it? I mean, you're you, you can't help being that way, and… I mean, you are who you are, aren't you? And I like-like you, a lot, and if I suddenly didn't because you don't like sex, then that would… be really shallow of the rest of my feelings. I think. I mean obviously you're hot, and I do like you in that sense too, but if you don't then that's? Your business. I—what?"
"You 'like-like' me?" Rivaille said, the ghost of a smile on his lips.
"I—yeah." Eren blushed. Rivaille stayed silent, appraising him. After a few seconds, though, the small smile on his face began to fade, and he looked at Eren seriously.
"I can still—you know—take care of you," he said, quickly and not meeting Eren's eyes.
Eren froze. "Um… I mean, I'm not gonna say no because I'm—well because that would be really awesome and who doesn't want to have a sex god get them off? But like… are you sure? It's not like I can't get off on my own and I… I don't want you to be uncomfortable or anything…"
Rivaille stared at Eren. He'd all but blue-balled him, and Eren… was still making sure Rivaille wouldn't be uncomfortable. Rivaille felt a surge of affection for the brat. He smiled softly at Eren's wide-eyed expression.
"No, I want to. Wouldn't've offered otherwise. But you're wearing a condom and your hands are staying to your-fucking-self," he said, rolling off the bed to search for condoms in Eren's drawers. Predictably, there were several—at least the Shatterdome had the sense to hand them out to all cadets, just in case.
Grabbing one, Rivaille turned back to Eren, who was laying on his side, his breath coming heavily and his eyes wide, lips slightly parted. Rivaille smirked, pressing a kiss to Eren's lips and slipping his tongue in to meet Eren's as he unwrapped the condom.
He let his mind go blank after that, actions borne mostly on muscle memory. He made sure to keep his eyes focused on Eren, though; just because Rivaille didn't like sex and quite honestly had a few too many bad memories to go along with it didn't mean he couldn't enjoy seeing Eren clearly blissed out before him, hands fisted in the blankets and his head thrown to the side.
In fact, Rivaille found, he rather liked seeing Eren like this. As Eren trembled and writhed, Rivaille spent a not-insignificant amount of time simply appreciating the way Eren's body moved, muscles flexing under smooth browned skin, soft sheen reflecting in the light of the room.
Eren came not too much longer, and Rivaille gazed at him appreciatively for a few seconds before going to the bathroom and brushing his teeth. Then he corralled Eren to the shower, making him wash himself (against Eren's protests of 'I literally just showered, Rivaille') thoroughly, and then back into (an already remade) bed.
Rivaille curled himself up next to Eren, and Eren squirmed around until he was lying on his side, facing Rivaille. Eren drifted off quickly, smiling right into sleep. Rivaille inched closer, breathing in Eren's warm scent. It smelled… felt safe. Safe, and like maybe, just maybe, everything would be alright.
Rivaille felt another swelling wave of affection for the brat. Yes, he thought, I definitely like-like you.
They left the next morning. Their entourage comprised of nine fully equipped, waterproofed jaegers, their eighteen pilots—three of which were also, incidentally, kaiju—and a small cart-like contraption that held a Hanji-certified secret. And food, most likely. Eren really hoped there was food.
It was still dark out as the hatches opened and the jaegers rose through them. Other than waterproofing, Hanji had also rigged the jaegers to work alone, without crew backup—which was super weird in Eren's opinion, to the point where the comm silence freaked him out a little during startup. But it was necessary, if they were going to eradicate the kaiju.
Auruo bid them goodbye; he'd stayed behind to man the shatterdome, along with Nanaba. The hatches closed behind them, and finally, the comms sprung to life.
"Cerberus is online," said Commander Smith, the dark-brown-plated jaeger turning to look at the rest. "Sound off."
"Freedom Wing, online," Rivaille said into their mic.
"Topaz Maelstrom, online," Mikasa said.
"Springles ready for duty, sir!" Sasha said, her voice chipper as always. Eren smirked as he remembered her complaining about not having had enough time for breakfast.
"Acrobat Historica, here," said Ymir, her voice sardonic as always, even over the comms.
"Aegis Colossi, online," Armin said. Eren was still having trouble believing that Armin of all people was piloting with Jean…
"Raven Blue, ready to kick some kaiju butt!" Hanji exclaimed. "And take some very detailed measurements on kaiju!"
"Garrison Rose, online." Eren thought it was probably Pixis talking—he'd seen Garrison Rose in combat once before, but the names and voices were a little fuzzy in his memory.
"Emerald Monsoon, online." Emerald Monsoon was the only jaeger that Eren didn't know at all—its pilots, a glasses-wearing man named Keiji and a slight woman named Nifa, had been introduced to him the night before.
"Good, that's everyone," Smith stated. "Acrobat and Topaz, you take point. We're relying on your knowledge of the path, as well as your awareness of where other kaiju are."
"Yessir."
"Roger that."
Acrobat Historica stepped forward first, red glinting in the pre-dawn light, Topaz Maelstrom a few steps back and to the side. The two jaegers began moving, quickly picking up speed until they settled into a lope that neither burned through their reactors too quickly nor was too hard on the freshly-greased metallic joints. The rest of the jaegers fell in behind them, arrayed loosely around Raven Blue, who toted the small cart with it.
No one talked much. They continued on for hours, Hanji eventually advising all of them to put the jaegers into 'autopilot' for a while, so that the humans (and kaiju) inside could have a chance to rest their limbs, eat, and, in her words, 'take a piss'. Sometimes, Acrobat and Topaz would veer widely off what Eren had assumed was their course, and continue thusly for a while, before righting themselves.
They took a longer break at night, keeping watch in shifts that allowed most of them at least six hours of fitful sleep, inside their respective cockpits. It was weird, disengaging the drift-interface by themselves. When Eren had mentioned it to Rivaille, he'd simply shrugged and said, 'not too different from a Unicorn'. Eren hadn't slept too well that night.
The next day saw them reaching a vast expanse of water, the likes of which he'd never even dared to imagine before (along with it, though, came a sense of familiarity; Eren didn't let himself dwell on it too much, choosing instead to think about how much Armin must be enjoying it).
"Alright, here goes," Hanji'd said into the mic, and everyone held their collective breaths as Acrobat strode forward into the water. When the jaeger didn't short out, Hanji whooped, and Commander Smith had muttered a soft 'well done', a sentiment which Eren could feel being echoed mentally by Rivaille. Once the land under the water had dipped away too far for the jaegers to stand up, they'd activated air storage containers, which created enough buoyancy within the jaeger's frame to allow it to float. Or, at least, to not sink.
They spent the second night floating in the water, land a mere smudge far to their backs.
The third day they encountered four kaiju. Thanks to Annie and Ymir, they'd known in advance and had been able to quickly and brutally take them out, but even so, their huge size—even moreso than most—both scared and angered Eren.
He felt Rivaille sending soothing thoughts over at him, and gave himself a moment to gather himself, trying to keep at least his breathing in check. So close, he thought. So close, and we can finally. We can finally get rid of them.
Eren ignored the worry-tinged thoughts coming from Rivaille, as well as his own (particularly the ones that whispered but that will most likely get rid of you, too).
The end of the third day was heralded with a glow on the horizon. At first Eren had thought it was just the sun setting, but the glow was persistent, even after the sun had gone completely. They kept moving towards it, and suddenly Eren had a moment of insight—the glow wasn't from the sun. It was from the passage between the worlds. He turned, wide-eyed, to face Rivaille, just as Ymir spoke over the comms.
"'Kay, so that glowy stuff? That's the portal. Annie and I are doing our best to shield you mentally from them right now, which is why we haven't seen even more kaiju. I say we get a few hours of sleep here, and then attack tomorrow. It'll be no good if we're all exhausted from making it here."
The convoy stopped, the jaegers bobbing up and down in time with the wave, making Eren feel the slightest bit sick to his stomach. Soon enough, the Commander spoke up.
"Ymir is correct. We should all sleep for now. Annie, Ymir—will it take both of you to continue shielding our position?"
"No," Annie replied. "Not if we're not expected to pilot a jaeger at the same time."
"Good. Acrobat, you take first watch with us. Topaz, you and Emerald will take second watch. If we do three-hour segments, we should be fine. There will be no third watch—we'll attack as soon as the sun rises."
There were various noises of assent from the various jaegers, and then Rivaille was disconnecting them from the drift. Eren stepped out of the piloting apparatus, shucking his piloting suit and sitting down in just his circuitry. Rivaille came and joined him, bearing some dried fruit and bread, as well as water.
"You ready?" he asked, sitting down next to Eren. Eren took the proffered food, staring at it for a while before answering.
"I don't know," he settled on saying. Rivaille raised a brow at him, and Eren continued. "I still want them dead. But Annie and Ymir… and me."
"I've told you before, you're not a monster." Rivaille paused to take a bite of his own food, chewing it thoughtfully. "Annie and Ymir aren't either. They helped, didn't they? You're fine. Focus on killing the kaiju that kill people."
"But what if—"
"No 'but what if's. We need to keep the people of Trost and elsewhere safe. That's what the military is supposed to do. And this is the ultimate expression of that. So we'll do it, because that's what they need of us."
Eren stared at Rivaille, who stared right back, his slate-grey eyes full of determination and fire. Eren looked back down to his food, then took a bite.
"Okay," he said. He looked at Rivaille again, and repeated himself. "Okay."
Rivaille seemed to understand; he nodded, and leaned forward, pressing a kiss to Eren's forehead. "Good."
They slept curled up next to each other, Eren practically clinging to Rivaille, brow furrowed even as he slept.
((((((((((((((((*****************))))))))))))))
Full title: Outset, or: in which a lot of people are involved, and several disagreements are settled
Sorry this took me so long ^^; (again).