Disclaimer: I do not own the SNK series in any way, shape, or form.
A.N at the end of the chapter.
Night patrol was one of Annie's least favorite activities since she joined the Military Police. The moment she entered service, their superiors wasted no time in dropping their responsibilities onto the new blood. It made for several hours of needless work upon her; and nights like this, where she was assigned patrol, she had quickly learnt to hate with a passion. The fact that the Dreyse girl decided to opt out and left her to patrol the streets for herself was something she was still unsure was a pro or a con. Nevertheless, her mood was always sour on these nights.
As she strolled the quiet nights of the more affluent side of the city, she was mostly trying to entertain her mind by trying to map that part of town by memory. To have every street and alleyway plastered on her mind for no reason other than what else could she do.
"Hey Annie" she heard a voice calling in a low tone, ringing her out of her mind. As she turned to the direction of the voice, she saw a cloaked figure at the entrance of an alley. She closed in, taking her musket in her hands. Move that the figure noted. "There's no need for that, Annie" the voice, this time more familiar to her, said as he took the hood of his face. "We're friends after all" said Eren Yeager.
"Eren! What are you doing here?" she said wide-eyed. He, in response made a sign to keep quiet.
"Not here, come. We might get spotted" he said before entering the alley. Annie hesitated for a few moments. What was Eren doing here? How he had found her? And what might he want? A few alarms were going off inside her head. As she saw him continue down the alley, she gave a small sigh before following.
The two walked down the alley before turning into another. Going furtively through some streets, making sure there was no one in sign before crossing. They were like that for a few minutes until stopping at a corner, where they halted. Eren looked to both sides before once again uncover his face.
"I think we are alone" he said before giving a relieved sigh.
"What's happening?" she asked again, keeping her face unemotional. "Why are you here?"
"Oh, me and a few other scouts are here on orders of Supreme Commander Zackly. We are to meet him tomorrow" seeing that she gave no answer, he continued. "Annie, they are to discuss my future in the Survey Corps."
That took her by surprise. "What do you mean?" she asked.
"You might have heard of the failure of our latest expedition" he said. When she nodded he continued. "That has made many people lose their faith in giving me a chance, I was told. It's likely they'll give me up to the MPs on that meeting." The implications of that were not lost on Annie, as she had heard many times her 'comrades' commenting on what should be done with him.
"Shit… this is bad" she muttered.
"Yeah, you can say that" he answered before leaning on the wall. "Listen, Armin's trying to come up with a plan to put me into hiding. But for that we need your help, because we'll be walking in plain daylight. It's either that or trying to escape using ODM gear to go up the wall" Annie raised an eyebrow at that.
"That would be stupid, you wouldn't get far like that" she commented on that alternative as she looked to the side, she knew there were other patrols in the area.
"Exactly, that's why we need your help… And also" she stopped to pay attention, "in case that fails… I want to know if you could help me if it comes to that."
"How exactly I'm supposed to help you?"
"I don't know!" he said exasperated. "It's just, things haven't been going as expected for me recently, and I just, want another option. If the worst happens." She thought for some moments. If Eren fell to the MPs it would be bad for her mission, as they made clear they would dissect and then kill him, along with his titan power. But, there wasn't much she could do to begin with. Still, if things were really that bad, she'd have to pull through. She always had to.
"I cannot promise you anything" she said, "but I'll see what I can do."
"Thanks, Annie. You're a true friend" he said gratefully. She felt uncomfortable at that. But before anything else could happen, they noticed a small light emanating from the other end of the corner. "Shit, we need to hide" he said as he looked for somewhere to hide. Soon finding a small window by the floor of the house opposite to the one they were leaning into, he quickly opened it and went inside. Seeing the light of the other patrol approaching, she quickly weighed her options. She didn't realize until then just how far from her designated area she was, she couldn't be found there without rising suspicion. She looked at the small window.
"Oh, for fuck's sake" she muttered before bending over to slide through the window.
Soaring above Stohess, Levi and the motley crew assembled were searching for any clues regarding where the damn brat had gone. Looking back, he saw his new 'team', consisting of Ackerman, Arlert and Kirstein. From leading one of the most experienced squads to babysitting newbies he thought sardonically. He didn't doubt their abilities, two out of them made the top ten of their lot, and the boy Arlert had a very sharp mind; and all three had been in the center of the whole affair in Trost, they were very promising. But they were green, and their journey had just started. He just hoped that potential won't go to waste, as it had with so many before.
"Where exactly are we going?" asked Kirstein behind him.
"There's a famous hat maker in the city who lives not far from here. We'll start asking there, and from there we'll continue through all known textile shops."
As they approached their destination, Levi started to think about the boy, specifically their last conversation. It was earlier that day, before dawn. He was sitting in the empty mess hall drinking tea after just arriving from Karanese. Soon thereafter, Eren entered the hall, they both looked at each other for a few seconds before the boy moved forward, signaling if he could serve himself a cup, Levi nodded. Then he sat opposite to him on the table.
"Shouldn't you be asleep?" Levi asked quietly.
"Cannot sleep" he answered, shaking his head. "I thought maybe taking a walk might help." The two then sat in silence for a few minutes until Eren spoke again. "How are they?" he asked.
Levi was always who preferred opening with the bad news. "Gunther's wounds got infected. There was nothing to be done by the time he reached the hospital." He looked from his cup to see Eren let out a sigh, visibly shaken he looked down.
"I'm sorry."
"Gunther always understood the danger that came with being a scout better than anyone" he said softly. "At least it's over for him now." No word was uttered for some time. Seeing that the brat was taking it hard, he went to the good news.
"As for Eld and Petra, they will be out of the picture for a few months, but we should expect a full recovery." Saying that did little to uplift his mood.
"That's good to hear" he said quietly. "Though… I can't help but think that I could've done more back then."
"Don't beat yourself up. We never know what would happen if we did this or that." Eren looked away, his teeth clenching. He took a cigarette a started smoking.
"Didn't I tell you not to do that indoors?" Levi turned to see him giving an apologetic face, it was almost amusing in a way. He sighed. "Oh, well, what's done is done. How did you come up with that anyway?"
"Is Captain Levi making small talk?" the brat asked with certain amusement, Levi in turn simply gave a dismissive hum. The younger man shook his head. "It came to me in a dream."
"A dream?" Levi asked raising an eyebrow. Eren was looking away.
"Ever since the trial, I've been getting these weird dreams. They're these things that show me weird things. I don't know how to explain it, it might not even be anything, that why I haven't brought them up before. But I get this feeling sometimes, that I'mlooking at a puzzle, and that all I need is a few more pieces and the right perspective."
Coming back to the present, Levi was particularly interested in the boy's last comment. Erwin believed that Eren knew more than he let on, was that one a confession of sorts? He couldn't tell really.
"The right perspective, huh..." he muttered as they approached their destination. "Just what is going on in your head?"
The two were in complete silence as the saw the patrol pass by through the window. Watching the cool blue light of the cloudless sky be overshadowed by the orange light coming from the lantern of the MPs passing by was one of those experiences which affected Annie in a way it shouldn't have. Maybe she was just overreacting. She remained quiet for a minute after the patrol had passed by, just to make sure they were well out of sight, then sighed.
"That was close" she said, trying to remain her relief out of her voice. "Come on, we need to— "
"Hold on a second" Eren said behind her. She turned around to see that the rectangular basement of the house they were in was pretty barren, safe for a small trunk next to the stairs and a bookcase opposite to it. Judging from the dust, this place had been abandoned for at least a few years. Eren was standing in front of the bookcase, seemingly in trance with it. "Something is wrong with this one."
"What do you mean?" she asked, slightly frustrated. "It's only an old bookcase in an abandoned basement."
As she said that the idiot started inspecting it. Looking over the edges of the old wood, looking for something. After a few moments, he seemingly found what he looked for. "There's a hole behind it" he said and instantly started pulling the bookcase out of the way. Indeed, there was a hole. Closing in, Annie saw that it was a secret staircase that went down for some meters, finishing in a room. A room which had lit by candlelight. An ominous sensation settled itself on her stomach, Eren was a few stairs down, looking at the bottom. When he looked up, Annie became almost certain that something very bad was about to happen.
"What do you think is down there?" he asked.
"I don't know and I don't care" she decisively. "Let's get out of here."
"Oh, come on" he protested as he got up the stairs, standing mere centimeters from her. "Don't tell me you're afraid."
"I am actually" she said. "It's not like a suicidal bastard like you'd understand." Eren started to circle around her until he was standing right behind her, he leant into her ear.
"And what if I told you the Coordinate is down there?" he whispered. Annie's eyes widened when she processed what she heard. Did she hear correctly? H-How does know that?!
Before she could react, she felt a kick in her lower back, pushing her into the darkness of that staircase. Feeling her skin bruising and her bones breaking, she fell, occasionally watching the shadowy figure of Eren pulling the bookcase behind her, hiding them in the shadows, falling towards the bottom.
"This is it" Levi said as they stood before the door to the house of hatter. Arlert started walking towards it.
"Wait, you're not just going to knock, are you" asked Kirstein.
"What other options do we have?" he asked in return.
Mikasa stood shortly behind Armin, her cloak hiding the fact that her hands were firmly grasping the handle of her blades. If things went sour, she would be ready. She would protect Armin and find Eren, alone if need be.
Levi seemed to have noticed it, as he was looking at her rather than Armin, he was giving her a questioning look. Their stares clashed momentarily, only being broken by the sound of the knocking on the door.
Tension filling the small band as they waited for the answer. Jean was really hoping things went out fine, as he was not ready to be fighting other humans. Finally, the door started opening, revealing a middle-age man holding a small candle. He was slightly overweight, with a round belly and cheeks to match. His graying hair had thinned out of the top of his head. When the man looked at them, something seemed to have hit him.
"Oh! You must be the friends that soldier had told me about earlier." That took all four scouts by surprise.
"Yes, yes we are. You have seen him, then." Armin answered, recovering quickly.
"Why yes" the man answered. "He came by the shop at dusk, he said that you would be passing by sometime in the evening. He gave me a letter for me to hand you, and paid me a bit for the inconvenience. I'll go get it, wait here, please" he said before retreating inside his house.
The scouts were dumbfounded with what had just happened. Mikasa and Armin were exchanging looks, both looking for answers in the other.
"D-Did that just happen?" asked Jean. "Eren just left us a letter with that man as an intermediary. Why would he do that?"
"Because he knew we would go out look for him" Armin realized, somehow he knew that they would find out about his absence and ask him and Mikasa about it, leading them to this man. But why though? he pondered Why would he do all of this, just so we could receive this letter? His train of thought was stopped when the man appeared again, with a small letter in his hand.
"Here you go" he said as he handed them the letter, "I don't know why he would go through me to give you this to you, he simply said it was a matter of importance to the kingdom. Well, if that is all, I will return to sleep." He said his goodbyes before closing the door to his house.
As they retreated to a nearby rooftop, Levi took the letter and opened it. The contents of the letter were a simple address inside of the city.
"This is not too far from here. And there's this thing below it: 'Down in the basement, behind the bookshelf.'"
"What could that possibly be?" asked Armin. Levi rose and turned in the direction of the address.
"We won't find out until we're there. Let's just hope the brat's there to explain himself" he said before moving, followed shortly by the rest.
Landing in the room, she felt how her spine was broken, that would take a minute or two to heal. She looked around, taking in where she was. It was a small room, it seemed it had some old furniture, a couch, a chair and a table with a glass top in between. Not too far behind was a bed, and to the side was what appeared to be a small kitchen. She heard footsteps closing into the room, looking up, she saw Eren entering the room.
"It took me some trial and error to find this house" he said as he put his cloak and jacket aside, she noticed he was not wearing the harness of the uniform. He turned to the door that led to the staircase. "If you're wondering what is this place, for many years, the crown persecuted the members of the Ackerman clan. Those lucky enough to not get killed immediately went into hiding, most in the Underground. Others in remote parts of the countryside, and some others, those a bit too proud to leave the cities or hide among rats, built safe havens below houses of collaborators. This is one of those havens. If I remember correctly, it was last used about twenty years ago."
As he explained, he closed the door and started locking it, she noticed just the sheer amounts of locks that door had. He finished off by barricading the door with a plank lying by the door. By then, Annie's wound had mostly healed, so she stood up to face him.
"This place is around ten or twelve meters below ground, that means you won't be shifting without turning yourself into a bloody fucking pulp" he said. She hated to admit that she had been effectively cornered. Her expression darkened.
"You figure it out that quickly?" she asked. He, in turn shrugged. They were circling around each other, like two animals searching for an opening.
"You didn't make it too difficult back there" he said in turn. "You know? For a good while I really hated you, I mean how couldn't I? You were behind all of this. You were the reason Wall Maria fell. How could you defend yourself? What reason could you possibly have?" He spoke in a low tone, their stares met. "But I get it now, I really do."
Annie let out a dry laugh. "You don't understand anything, Eren" she said dangerously. "You can't possibly comprehend just how much bigger all of this is in comparison to this fantasy of yours." Now, was Eren's turn to chuckle.
"Bigger, you say" he answered. "Eldians, Marleyans. Survey Corps, Warriors Program. Ymir and Karl fucking Fritz. Fuck them, each and every one! This is not about them! Back in that forest, you killed many people, two of them I considered friends of mine. This whole affair's not bigger than this room" he said as he took the very same stance he had taken in their earlier confrontation. "This is between you and me, right here, right now!"
Pushing her shock to the side, Annie adopted her own stance of combat, they stared each other down, daring the other to make the first move.
"I know it means shit, but I'm really sorry for everything back there" she said once again as the kept walking through the gravel trail. He turned his look on the surrounding trees while keeping his hand firmly on the fabric around his neck.
"It's in the past" he said quietly.
They had met only a couple of hours ago in the most unlikely of places. This small village was not too far away from Libero, aside from that it was mostly unremarkable. He was there simply because the other members of the Meliora were searching for a bounty who, allegedly, was hiding in the area. He had separated from them after breakfast, according to meet them at their hotel in the evening, and went to sit in the local park, that's where he found her.
Their meeting was quiet, uncomfortable, and anything but cathartic. Still, she insisted on him accompanying her home, to meet her father. Her reason behind everything, she explained, was to come back to him. She had promised she would return no matter what, and was willing to do everything to return to her only family. He had to admit he was intrigued to meet such a man, it wouldn't change anything, but it would still give some closure to her betrayal back in Paradis all those years ago.
"We're almost there" she said, her voice filled with excitement. She had been waiting for this for so long, he noticed.
Sadly, it wasn't to be, as what came into view was not a cabin, but rather a small clear, with the burn down bases of a structure in the middle. He saw her running towards it. Looking for something, anything, that might save her hope. She cried for him to help, but he mostly stuck in the back. After some time, she finally came across an old rope hung from a tree nearby, with a cane nearby.
He watched on as her world crumbled in front of her, seeing her on her knees, weeping inconsolably. She had lost everything, just like him. Walking to stand by her, he put a hand on her shoulder, whether or not she noticed he could not tell.
After what seemed like hours, she looked up to him. Tears were still running down her cheeks, but what called his attention was her eyes, the emptiness they expressed. Those eyes had rarely expressed anything other than boredom or spite, but seeing them so vacuous, so devoid of any will to keep going, was disturbing. And he thought nothing could move him anymore…
Crashing against the counter, Eren quickly dodged an incoming kick from Annie, in the process taking a pan lying about, smashing it in her head, making her tumble backwards. Going for another hit, she caught his wrist, twisting it until he let go of the pan, and then tossed him to the ground.
Moving out of the way of an oncoming kick, Eren, quickly went back up. Things weren't going as smoothly as he hoped, perhaps Genesis' superior speed in full form altered his expectations a bit. Then again, both of them were pretty bloodied. The closed environment had played in his favor, as Annie was restricted when it came to her kicks, making them more circumstantial than a real threat. It was mostly a fight of Annie going for grapples and quick shots, while Eren relied on elbows and knees, plus the use of whatever he could find to throw his opponent off.
Their conflict was resulting into a very brutal affair, with both using the environment to their favor. If Eren smashed a chair into Annie, she would in turn take one of the broken legs and stab him. If Annie used a kitchen knife against Eren, he would take it off his body, slashing her face in return. And if Eren kicked her into a chair, Annie would throw him into the table. Glass shattering, cutting him in his back and arms. They were bloodied, their clothes were getting ragged and stains of blood all over themselves and the floor. Only their healing and determination to achieve victory keeping them moving.
As he got up, Eren quickly dashed towards Annie, throwing a quick jab. As she caught it, he quickly moved his free arm and threw an elbow shot to her chin, letting go of him. Annie quickly recovered and, with a low kick, stopped Eren's momentum. She quickly seized the opening and threw a barrage of punches, kicks and knee shots. Eren could feel how he was lagging behind, his regeneration wasn't as fast as Annie's. If the fight kept going, he would soon be facing a real chance of losing right there. Covering a punch to his head, Eren realized the opening he had left in his torso, and was swiftly punished with a kick to the liver.
He stumbled backwards onto the kitchen counter, as the pain became too intense for him to ignore it. Feeling the shape of a knife behind him, he quickly took it, and as Annie was about to throw another shot, he stabbed her in the torso. She fumbled back, and he fell to the ground coughing for air, the pain on his liver too big to just tough it out.
As he saw her coming forward, he had already come up with a way to end this, he just needed one lucky second. Just as Annie lifted her leg to kick him in the head, he made a quick move to block it. And with his right hand, he stabbed her in the upper part of the neck with one of her blades.
Annie's body stopped working immediately, collapsing like a rag doll next to Eren. Seeing the knife he had stabbed her with falling next to him, he placed it just above his blade before removing the latter.
"It's frustrating" he said with a dry chuckle. "I have more years of experience than you, I chose where to fight, I knew everything about you and your fighting style and I still couldn't beat you in a fair one on one." Ripping a piece of his shirt, he gagged her, after all, one could never be too cautious with shifters. "Mikasa and the other should be here soon enough, I hope. It'd be a fucking pain dragging you back to base on my own otherwise."
Pulling his head backwards, Eren let out a heavy sigh, he had done it. This was the first big change in this new reality. Having Annie as a prisoner would be an excellent way to spread the knowledge about Marley faster. And, if he managed to convinced her and the scouts, she would prove a valuable ally. Otherwise, they could always use her for leverage against Reiner and Berthold. For the first time since waking up in the hospital, Eren truly felt like there was a chance of things going well this time, and he basked himself in the sensation as he waited.
"Annie…" he whispered softly while looking at the ceiling. "Things will go well this time. I'll make sure of it. I'll save all of them, even you Annie" he looked down to her, there tears in her eyes. "You don't remember, but you saved me back there. If it hadn't been for you, I wouldn't have gone to get and destroy all nine shifters, and that was what gave me this second opportunity. I'll save you Annie… I owe you that much."
The next few minutes passed in silence, no sound being allowed into this temporary sanctum. Annie was looking up at Eren, he had his eyes closed and a small smile plastered on his face, all meanwhile she was trying to figure what he had just said. If she understood correctly, it meant… The implications of such a thing were too much for her to process at the moment, so she kept quiet, waiting for her now inevitable judgment from the scouts.
Soon, there was a banging at the door. Eren turned his gaze to the door, seeing how the people at the other side were battering it again, and again, and again until it gave way. Showing captain Levi, Mikasa, Armin and Jean entering the room.
Levi was not expecting his evening to go like this. When the door broke, a small room came into view, a small room that had just gone through a catastrophe, all the furniture was broken, there were pieces of wood and broken glass all over the floor. And there he was, Eren Yeager, leaning against the counter, with blood stains and shit-eating grin, with Annie Leonhart's still body lying next to him. Ackerman ran next to him.
"What took you guys so long?" the cheeky brat dared to even ask.
"Is that Annie?" asked Kirstein as he looked at the scene shocked.
"Yeah, the Female Titan in the flesh."
"Just what were you thinking, Eren!" he said sternly in return, unfazed Eren answered.
"Was looking for the missing piece... Can we talk tomorrow, I'm tired, and have pieces of glass in my back." Levi didn't want to wait for the brat to explain himself, but seeing his condition, and the fact that he had captured the Female Titan for them, gave him some serious leverage. Clicking his tongue, he turned to Ackerman.
"Mikasa, take him to the infirmary" she nodded and started picking him up. Indeed, there were pieces of glass falling off of him. He then turned to Kirstein and Arlert. "You two, help me with her."
As they started taking her, they heard Eren speak from the door, he was looking back at them from his left, meaning that his weird eye was boring on them.
"Say what you want about her, but don't call her a coward. Matter of fact, I think she's braver than all of us put together." With that, he motioned for Mikasa to help him out of there.
A couple of hours had passed since, Eren was sent back from the infirmary to his quarters along with Mikasa. Lying down on the bed, he let out a sigh his still healing back was getting some rest. Looking up, he noticed that Mikasa was staring at him.
"Did you have to go out on your own?" she said, a bit of edge on her voice.
"Maybe not" he relented. "I was just focusing on ending this quickly rather than anything else."
"They're going to mistrust you if you do that again" she said with a sigh. "You don't have to do things on your own."
Mikasa was right, he knew. He was a bit too used to doing things on his own. Looking back, knowing everything that happened, he wondered if perhaps things could have gone at least a bit better had he been more communicative over his plan. Turning back to Mikasa, he saw her folding her scarf, the scarf that in has and would see so much cruelty, neatly besides her in the bench she was sitting.
"You're gonna spend the night here?" he asked her. She got flustered, seeing Eren's mismatched eyes staring at her. As she tried to say something, he rolled in the bed so there was space for her in it.
"N-No, I'll just sleep here in the bench" she said.
"Don't be stupid, Mikasa" he answered, the light of the room didn't show his face very well, but she could swear his cheeks were pink. "You'll get back pain sleeping there."
Hesitantly, she got in bed. The two looked at each other for some time before Eren closed his eyes. Closing her eyes as well, Mikasa tried to get some rest.
After some time, she felt arms wrapping around her frame, she opened her eyes to see that Eren had closed the distance between them, and was resting his head on top of hers. Taken by surprise, she tried to say something, but before words came out, Eren spoke.
"I've missed you so much" he whispered, his tone shaky and weak.
Bewildered, she wanted to ask what was happening, what was he trying to say. But after some hesitation, decided not to say anything. Instead, she wrapped her arms around Eren's body, and together, they waited for slumber.
So, this is it for this week's chapter!
This is the point where my story will start to deviate from the canon, let's see where it takes us. I am thankful for the support this has been receiving so far, it really is something else for me.
I will admit that Eren and Annie's fight in the old Ackerman haven was the catalyst for this little project of mine, so being able to finally publish it is an achievement for me, and hopefully a good start of this 2020.
As always, all reviews are welcomed. And I'll be seeing you in the next chapter in the following week. Take care!
