Chapter 14

Armin slept deep. Dreams joined him, but quietly, soothingly. Voices, Historia's soft singing lulled him. Annie joined in on a murmur that offered peace, then Mikasa's a kind of determined cheer. Bertoldt came into the dream, and Eren, with a briskness that added hope.

Once he saw his grandfather, sat with him by a campfire. In its flames his grandfather's face was young, as young as his own, as they spoke of legacies and stars and gods, as the moon floated white overhead.

And he floated, as if inside a clear bubble. Gently over seas, over lands, over worlds. Over an island clear as glass with a castle on a hill, and a stone circle.

So beautiful.

Then the bubble popped, and he woke.

Historia sat beside him on the bed, holding his hand, so hers was the first face he saw.

And his first thought was, she was safe. He'd gotten her back.

"Hush, don't try to speak yet. Bertoldt made you sleep." She brought his hand to her lips, pressed kisses to it, then to the wrist still raw. "For healing. They hurt you."/

"Historia."

"No, you should be quiet. Bertoldt said to get him when you woke."

"Wait. Just wait." He started to sit up, despite her distress, and felt it. Oh boy, he felt the remnants of the torture.

"You have pain. Bertoldt said to have you drink this if you woke with pain." Historia grabbed a small bottle from the nightstand. "It will help you sleep."

"How long?" He had to clear his throat, and breathe through the aches. "How long have I been out? Asleep," he explained.

"You brought us back it was night, and there was another night, and this is the day after. Not the morning, but after the noon. Please drink, Armin."

"I've slept long enough."

"I'll get Bertoldt."

But he kept his grip firm on her hand. "They hurt you, too."

"Bertoldt and Annie helped, and I slept, too. Not so long, but I wasn't hurt like you. He put the knife in you. Here." Gently, she touched his side. "It's healing well. And they struck you in the face, and..."

"Yeah." Gingerly, he probed at his cheek, his jaw. "They broke something in there. It's just a little sore now."

"You came back for me."

"Sure I did. I'd never leave you like that. I just had to- Don't cry. Come on, don't cry."

"I knew you would come back for me." The hours and hours of waiting for him to wake crashed down on her. "I couldn't get out. I couldn't help. They kept hurting you. They had something that stopped my bracelets. Bertoldt fixed them, but I couldn't break the glass and help you. I wanted to cause their deaths, especially the man with the knives. But I couldn't."

"We're here." He stroked her hair. "We're safe, and we're here. That's what counts. The compass."

She got up quickly, took it from her dresser. "It's here. It's safe, too. I'll get Bertoldt."

"How about this? I need some clothes because I'm completely naked here. Help me get dressed, and we'll go to Bertoldt."

"There's pain in your eyes."

And there were shadows under hers.

"It's not so bad. Scout's honor, I promise," he corrected. "I need to move, Tori. I just need to move, and to eat something, and to find out what the hell happened."

"Mikasa said you wouldn't sleep again if you woke." On a sigh, Historia turned back to her dresser. "I brought your clothes into my room. I want you to stay with me."

"Good, that's what I want, too. Just grab me some pants and a shirt."

She did as he asked, helped him dress.

"Armin?"

"Yeah."

"You are a hero to me."

"Tori? You're a hero to me. How about helping me downstairs so we can talk to the other heroes?"

It hurt, but nothing he figured a few aspirin wouldn't deal with. And some food. And a beer. As they came out of Historia's room, Mikasa came out of hers.

"I just- Hey! There he is."

"He wouldn't take the medicine, just as you said."

"He's okay, aren't you, Armin?" Mikasa stepped closer, gently rubbed a hand down his non-wounded shoulder. "You scared the shit out of us."

"Hey, me, too."

"Let's get you downstairs. I bet you could use some food."

I could eat. A lot."

"Good sign." Like Historia, Mikasa wrapped an arm around his waist, and together they helped him downstairs. "Outside," Mikasa prescribed. "Fresh air, sunshine. I've got him, Historia. Why don't you get him a big cold glass of sun tea."

"Beer."

"Not yet, pal. And some food. There's pasta from last night, and-"

"Yes, yes, I can fix the food, and the drink."

"She's filled us in," Mikasa said in a low voice the moment they stepped outside. "But we'll want your end of it. I'm going to tell you, she beat her tail bloody trying to get to you, and she's stuck with you since Bertoldt put you under. She hasn't been out of the room either. She needs the sun and the water."

"Okay." More than a little rocky, he sat under the pergola. "The pool's just a stopgap. She needs the sea. Bertoldt can get her down to the water. I can't make it yet."

"We'll take care of it."

Mikasa stepped back, spotted Annie painting on the terrace, signaled her. "Armin's awake, he's down here. You want to get Bertoldt?"

"We'll be right down."

Then glancing toward the grove, Mikasa put two fingers in her mouth, let out a long whistle.

"Hey, a wolf whistle."

Mikasa glanced back, smirked. "Glad to see you've got your lame humor back. I was just calling Eren. Okay, shit." She walked to him, took his face in her hands, kissed him hard on the mouth. "I'm going to help Tori. And get a beer."

"I want a beer."

"No alcohol without Dr. Sorcerer signing off."

He'd have sulked over it, but as Mikasa strode away, Annie dashed out. And as Mikasa had, kissed him.

"Maybe I should get tortured more often. It gets all the girls."

"Your colors good. How's the pain?"

"It's there. Not bad, but there."

"We'll take care of that. You're hungry."

"I'm starved."

"Let's see the knife wound." Without ceremony, she lifted his shirt, gently probed as Eren strode across the lawn. "It's healing well. And the shoulder...better. Your wrists, better yet. Stay with him," she told Eren. "Bertoldt's coming down, and I'm going to help put food together."

With a nod, Eren sat across from Armin, studied him.

"Aren't you going to kiss me? Everybody else has."

"I'll pass on that. They beat the fuck out of you, brother, and sliced you good while they were at it. And a cattle prod, was it? From what Historia described."

"Something like that. Reiner?"

"Not a sign or sound. After some considerable bitching by certain parties, Bertoldt and Mikasa went up. You couldn't be left unconscious, so they won that battle. There's nothing left in the cave, and no survivors they could find. Reiner, according to Mikasa's sources, hasn't been back to the villa. His things are there right enough, but he hasn't been seen."

"If I had a fucking beer, I'd drink to that."

"Considering all, I'll get us both one."

"Not for Armin, not yet." Bertolt, one of his kits in his hand, walked out.

"Have a heart. I've been mostly dead all day."

"Excellent "Princess Bride" usage." Mikasa came out with a tray, the glass of sun tea, the pasta. "There's more coming, but you can get started."

"First, the pain, one to ten."

Armin shrugged at Bertoldt. "Maybe four and a half."

"That means a solid six," Mikasa said. "He's downplaying."

"I agree." Bertoldt took a vial from the kit. "For the pain," he said. "Not for sleep. Just to take the pain down a bit. Annie will insist on dealing with it, and I'd as soon she didn't take on that much."

"Fine." Armin waited until Bertoldt added a few drops to the glass, then downed the tea. "I gotta eat."

He shoved in two healthy bites, sat back, said, "Whoa. For the pain?"

"It'll give you a bit of an energy boost as well."

"I'll say. You need to get Historia to the water, seawater."

"I'll see to it."

Both Annie and Historia came out with trays.

"We've got more pasta," Annie began. "Bread, cheese, fruit, olives, peppers, and anything else Historia could think of."

"Great. What are the rest of you going to eat?" Armin asked and grabbed a hunk of bread.

"Let's see about the pain."

"It's barely there now," he told Annie.

"Then let's get it gone. I'm good with this now. Just relax and keep eating."

"How about that beer?"

"Half a glass of wine to start," Bertoldt said. "Then we'll see how we go. Are you up for a report?"

"I'm definitely up. Thanks, Tori, this is great."

"I didn't set the table."

"Next time. Here's my POV. When I went back in the water, they had her in a goddamn net. She was out, unconscious. Between us and the sharks, their numbers were down, but not enough. They hit me with something, some sort of tranq, I'd say. Same thing they used on Historia most likely. And the next thing I know, I'm hanging by my arms in that cave. Lots of equipment, thugs with guns, and this tank. They had Historia in a tank of water.

"Sit down, Ann. Really, I'm good."

"You had some torn muscles in your shoulders, in addition to where you were shot. And burns on your chest." But Annie sat.

"Feels okay now. Then he walks in. Mr. Torture."

"Kenny," Mikasa said.

"Introduced himself, real polite. Then he got started."

He skimmed over the worst of it, what was the point?, but gave them the overview.

"Kenny had it rigged so he could send electrical current into the water. The son of a bitch kept zapping her."

"And you," Historia said.

"Depending on your scale, you could say he kept it light, until Reiner got there," Armin continued. "Something off about him, Reiner. I want to say he walked different, like his shoes were too tight. And he wore shades inside the cave, and a long-sleeved shirt. And, I know it sounds weird, but his fingers were hard has rock."

"His fingers," Mikasa repeated.

"Yeah, I know, weird, and I was feeling a little rough by the tome he came to join the party."

"Armin is right. He wasn't like the other men. I felt he was not..." Historia struggled for the words. "Complete? Not one thing, not the other."

"Sixth daughter of a sixth daughter's instincts," Mikasa pointed out, "which march right alongside our resident seer's. We saw him sign a contract with Marley, in blood. I restate my vote for titan."

"He seemed human enough," Armin continued. "But edgy, jittery somehow. You know that's not his style, Mikasa."

"Nope, cool, calm superiority. The kind that slits your throat, or more likely pays to have it slit, without the slightest rise in blood pressure."

"He's pissed, too, because he can't get the compass to work."

"He struck Armin very hard, and the bindings you took off, Bertoldt, cut into him. The other man talked to him, so he stopped."

"Yeah, yeah, I guess I blacked out there a minute. Reiner lost it. Kenny talked him down."

"He had the man put the knife in Armin, but he told the man to hurt me more."

"Increase the voltage. He said he'd fry her, and he meant it. He was past thinking of the profit he'd get from her."

"That's not like him either. Probably bluffing."

"I don't think so," Armin told Mikasa. "I could see Kenny hesitate. He didn't want the game over so fast, but he'd have done it. I gave him coordinates, since he was focused on getting the Fire Star."

"What coordinates?" Eren demanded.

"To this unhabited island, South Pacific."

"How did you happen to have those on you?" Mikasa wondered.

"It's where my grandfather took me when he was teaching me. It's where his dad took his. We camped there for a few nights. I dreamed about it," he remembered. "When I was out. Anyway, I told them Bertoldt had hidden it there."

"You kept your wits about you," Bertoldt commented.

"Wits were all I had. So I told them part of the truth. How it wouldn't work until I passed it on, but I embellished that. How I had to take him on the first shift. It couldn't pass to him without that sort of ritual. I figured my only chance was to get him out of there, get him to travel with me so I could deal with him, get back for Historia. But he wanted a test run, so he picked a Red Shirt."

"The man with the gun didn't have a red shirt. It was brown."

Now Armin smiled. "'Star Trek'. We have to catch you up."

"It means expendable," Mikasa explained. "The crewman in the red shirt going on a mission isn't going to make it back."

"Why doesn't he change his shirt?"

Now Armin laughed until the pain bloomed in his side, bringing on a hiss.

"You have pain."

"It only hurts when I laugh."

"Don't laugh."

He reached for Historia's hand, squeezed. "Felt good anyway. So he has Kenny unhook the chain I'm hanging by, and has Red Shirt put the gun in my ear, get me in a headlock. He gives me ninety seconds, I said I needed two minutes. I didn't, but I figured he'd cut that back. If I'm not back in ninety, he takes Tori out, hits her with enough voltage to give her brain damage. He has Kenny give her a couple good jolts, just to prove his point. Then he gave the compass, and I fed in coordinates."

"Is Red Shirt wondering what the hell he's doing on some island in the South Pacific?" Mikasa wondered.

Armin shook his head, picked up the measly half glass of wine. Drank it down in one gulp. "No. I couldn't risk it. I couldn't have taken him out on a one-to-one, and the time...So I let him go."

"Let him go?" Eren repeated.

"I disconnected. I just let him go. He's gone." The color the food had brought back to his face drained again. "You swear never to use the compass to hurt anyone, but I did. It's one thing to kill in battle, but I just let him go."

"He had a gun to your head," Mikasa reminded him. "And Historia's life was on the line."

"I know it. I know that. But-"

"You're thinking with great power comes great responsibility."

He nodded at Mikasa. "Uncle Ben was right."

"The rice guy?"

Armin laughed again until it became a wheeze. "Jesus, Ann, you're as bad as Tori. Peter Parker's uncle Ben. Spider-Man. And it's true, the responsibility. I've never killed anyone before they came at us underwater the other day, and that was battle. This was..."

"The same. It's the same," Eren insisted. "He had a weapon, as did you. You used what you had to save Historia, and yourself. That, brother, was your responsibility."

"An' it harm none." Bertoldt spoke the words gravely. "This is my sacred oath. I've never used my gift to harm another human being. Until this. And though this weights on me as well, I know what was done was done to protect, to fight evil."

"They are right. I don't like fighting, and killing is against all I believe, but I would be dead, and you as well. You were only gone seconds, it seemed," Historia continued. "I was so weak, and I prayed you wouldn't come back. I knew you would, in my heart, because you're Armin. And I knew they would kill us both. I could feel it. As soon as this Reiner had what he wanted, he would give us to Kenny to kill in a terrible way. And then you were there, inside the glass with me, under the water with me. I knew we would live because you had the courage and the will to do what had to be done. If you think this was wrong, then you're wrong. If anyone believes you failed to honor your oath, they are wrong and stupid."

"Damn skippy." Because Historia's eyes were full of tears, Mikasa reached across the table for her hands. "Damn skippy, Tori."

"It weighs on us." Annie rose, poured another half glass of wine for Armin. "On all of us. We killed men. Humans. And it weighs."

"Dying weighs more," Mikasa said.

"And more than that, than even that," Annie continued, "would to be fail. We're the guardians, the stars are our power and our responsibility. No one's broken an oath, or broken faith. They watch us, the goddesses, the guardians. They watch the six who came from them, and they see we take our power, shoulder our responsibility, keep our vows and our faith. To take a life is grief, to lose our lives is failure. The dark follows that failure across all the worlds."

"Was that you?" Mikasa asked after a beat of silence, "or emyou/em? You had that seer look in your eyes."

"Some of both." Annie let out a audible breath. "Wherever it's from, it's truth. And here's another. Armin, if I'm following what you've reported, what Historia told us, you traveled with a gun to your head, and this is after being shot, stabbed, electrocuted, and tortured, you disconnected, which was hard for you, but absolutely necessary, then you went back for Historia. In the tank. Does that mean you had to use her as your...beacon?"

"Yeah, that's as good a term as any. I have the cave coordinates, but not the exact place where she was. I had to zero in on her, get inside to get her out."

"And fast," Annie continued. "Then you traveled again, here, with her. That's three shifts inside what, ninety seconds?"

"About that."

"And that sort of traveling drains you, even if you're feeling like a party. You'd lost God knows how much blood, you were hung up like a side of beef and beaten, and worse, while you had to watch them hurt Historia, which is more torture. But you did what you had to do, and got back, barely alive. Am I right about that part?" she asked Bertoldt. /

"It was close, closer than I'd like."

"Exactly. So I don't want to hear any more embullshit/em out of you about any of it."

"Damn skippy," Historia said. Then laid her head on the table and wept.

"Oh, come on. Don't, don't, don't do that." Desperate, Armin stroked her hair, rubbed her back. When he tried to haul her up and onto his lap, he found he didn't have the strength. "You're killing me, Tori."

"No, no, they are almost all happy tears." She wrapped herself around him. "Almost all. We're here, we're all here, talking. And I heard you laugh, even though it hurt you. I heard you laugh."

She brushed kisses over his face, met his lips, and simply drowned herself in him.

"Want some privacy?" Mikasa wondered.

"If only," Armin murmured. "I don't think I could manage it."

"There will be sex again." Through tears, Historia smiled at him. "When you're healed. I will be very gentle until you're strong again."

He ignored Eren's snort of laughter. "Good to know. So okay, no bullshit." He picked up his wine, studied it. "Power honored, responsibility met. I'll get there. There was more to the need to rush, to do what I had to do. Reiner called Berger in. He told him to kill Annie. He wanted Bertoldt wounded, but Annie dead. He wanted the rest taken alive, so he ordered Sanus to bring a team down here to take care of that while Berger took Annie out."

"You worry Marley." Under the table, Bertoldt took her hand. "She can't force her will on you, can't pull your power away and into herself as she believed. You worried for all of us," he said to Armin. "But we'd prepared for exactly that."

"Yeah, I figured Berger for toast, but still. The tank shook. Did the tank shake?" he asked Historia. "The light, it exploded?"

"Yes. Just as you came for me. Reiner ran, but he couldn't have run fast enough to escape the light."

"We were dealing with Sanus and company when you were heading in," Mikasa continued. "We were ready for them. Bertoldt set off the chain reaction up in the hills, and we had plenty more for them here. There...was nothing left of them. Wounding with the newly magicalized, I'm going with that word, weaponry, it puts a world of hurt on them. But a kill shot, it just obliterates. Nothing left."

"No bodies to dispose of. That's the cold truth here," Eren added when Annie winced.

"You're right," she said. "I know you're right. Bertoldt and Mikasa went up to the cave yesterday. We had to check, and after some heated debate, Mikasa went, Eren stayed. We couldn't take the chance of Bertoldt going alone, or of leaving us under-protected here. So..."

"Nothing left," Bertoldt told him. "The cave is just a cave. There was...a smear of something on the air, something dark. But faint and fading."

"We salted the ground, and Bertoldt did a cleansing." Mikasa shrugged. "And that was that."

"So we won that round. We have to go back to the search," Armin said. "We have to get moving on it before she figures out how she'll come at us next."

Annie picked up her wine again. "No."

""What do you mean, no?"

"We go as six or not at all. Until you're strong enough to dive, it's not at all."

"Jesus, I can handle a little swimming. Another little boost from this magic potion, I could do a triathlon."

Saying nothing, Eren leaned over, gave Armin a light punch on the shoulder. And Armin saw Stars.

"Fuck!"

"You're on the DL, brother, until you can take a love tap without whining."

"Love tap, my ass."

"The stars have waited centuries," Bertoldt pointed out. "They can wait a few more days. When she does come again, we need you."

"I can tell you when having sex causes him no pain."

"That's a good benchmark." Kicking back, Mikasa gestured with her beer. "And maybe you should be specific. Like what kind of sex."

"And how long he lasts," Eren added, and made Mikasa grin.

"They're messing with us, Historia. Kidding."

"I'm absolutely serious." Mikasa cocked her head at Eren. "You?"/

"Deadly. Keep us updated, Gorgeous."

"I will. And when he's healed, we'll find the Bay of Sighs. We know we must be close because I heard them again."

"What? When?"

"When you were bringing me back. Didn't you hear them sigh, hear them sing?"

"I..." He cast his mind back. "I thought it was you. I did hear something. Jesus, I did."

"And I've got something," Mikasa put in. "Since you've been in your magically induced coma, I've been able to spend more time on it. I've got some nibbles."

"And now you tell us?" Eren demanded.

"I got the nibbles right before Sleeping Beauty here woke up. I was coming out to report. There is a legend. I know a guy who knows a guy who knows. But the guy who knows is currently on a retreat, so I can't tap him for more data for a couple days. Meanwhile, I'm digging on my own. Like most legends, it has a lot of variations, but the one that strikes me connects the Bay of Sighs to the Island of Glass."

"Interesting." Bertoldt leaned forward. "What do you know?"

"Know, not much. Speculate, a lot more. In the version I'm leaning toward, at one time, long ago, the bay and the island were connected. And like the legends regarding the island, the bay moved, and could only be seen by a chosen few."

Since she swapped research for lunch, Mikasa helped herself to some pasta.

"Then we've got a race of people who shared the island. A race that could live on land and in water, and did so peacefully. All's happy and joy until some dude, names vary, but most common is Alrick."

"That's a German name," Eren said.

"Got that. So Alrick decided, hey, we can live on land or in the sea, why shouldn't we have everything? They've got that fancy castle on the hill. Maybe I want to have that. And we're better and stronger than they are."

Bertoldt nodded. "A popular excuse for war."

"Yeah, and they got one. First, they lured people into the bay, drowned them."

"With the songs?"

"Not clear," Mikasa told Historia, "but possible. Then they burned, pillaged, on their way to storming the castle. But the queen ruling them wasn't afraid to fight back. Which she did. I've got variety again. Raining fire, earthquakes, her riding a winged horse and sweeping the ever-popular fiery sword, and so on. But the result's basically the same in my research. While the rebels scattered, tried to get back to the bay, the queen rounded them up. She gave them a choice. Death or banishment. Alrick chose death, and got it, according to most of my digging. So did a few others. But the bulk chose banishment. So she blew the bay out to sea. She would spare their lives, and some were innocents. But they would flat and wander forever, cast away from their home. Or in some versions until one who came from them redeemed them. Redeemed, they could once again join with the island and live in peace."

"Mermaids?" As he spoke, Armin ran a hand down Historia's hair.

"I have never heard this story," she told them. "It is not one we sing in my world."

"It's pretty damn obscure," Mikasa said. "And I've yet to find the source. But like Eren said, the rebel leader's name's of German origin."

"There must be more."

Mikasa gestured at Bertoldt. "I'm looking, but this is the first layer I've uncovered. It fits. I've been trying to translate varieties from Greek, Latin, and some old German. And I'll keep at it."

"I can help with that."

Intrigued, she shifted her gaze to Eren. "You read Greek, Latin, and old German?"

"Well enough."

"Okay then. And when I can contact the guy who supposedly knows more. I'll tap him for it. But all in all, it feels like we're being pointed toward the Bay of Sighs."

"The trick is to find it. Historia's heard it twice when we're traveling. I could-"

"Recover." Annie simply cut him off. "No diving, no heavy lifting, no traveling until you're fully healed. It's five to one on that, Armin. No point in arguing."

Because whatever Bertoldt had given him was wearing off, and he felt as if he could sleep a week, he didn't.

"You should rest again." Rising Historia took his hand.

"Don't argue there either. I can feel your pain coming back," Annie told him. "Sleep's healing. Tori, do you have enough balm?"

"Yes, there's enough. I'll tend to him."

"I'll be ready tomorrow." And though he meant to be, was determined to be, even the effort of getting to his feet left him light-headed.

By the time he'd climbed the stairs, with Historia's help, sweat appeared on his skin. When he passed out on the bed, even without the medicine, Historia gently undressed him, carefully spread the healing balm on his wounds.

Then she lay down beside him, covered his heart with her hand so she could feel the beat. And for the first time since they'd been taken, slept soundly.

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