-Sera-
When Michaelson had heard of Fenix's plan, he'd wondered if his hearing finally caught up with his age. Finally having a place to set the Sovereign down in safe waters was a blessing for the captain and the rest of the crew. The seas of Sera were becoming too dangerous to sail without risk of running into any Savage Locust or the Lambent, and with the amount of stalks that seemed to constantly reach farther and farther from the shorelines, setting up shop on the island sounded like a great idea. Without any signs of lambency or any locust coming their way, this small island chain would be a suitable home for now.
And then he heard that Fenix and some of his friends were going back to the mainland, by helicopter. That nearly made Michealson fall out of his chair.
"Do you know when you're leaving?" Michaelson asked, standing behind his desk while looking over a map of the surrounding sea. In front of him stood Marcus, Dominic and the leader of the nicknamed Island Stranded, a man named Brendan Yukon. Michealson found the man to be respectable and good-willed, a rarity nowadays with the whole wrecked world thing going on. Yukon was very concerned with keeping the people under his wing safe from harm, just like he himself was doing with the civilians and Gears that lived on the Sovereign. Yukon seemed to have been stranded for a while, but has gotten some sort of use to it, his rugged looks making look like a mountain man. He had the air of a leader, something that Michealson respected from the stranded man.
"We'll be leaving as soon as Brendan's guy fixes the other Raven. From there we're going to Mount Kadad, so who knows." Marcus replied.
"You do realize this isn't going to be a simple scouting mission, right Marcus? Mount Kadar is quite a distance away. And if you haven't noticed, we only have so many Ravens left since Jacinto fell." Michaelson took his seat behind his desk, his old legs getting tired of standing. He was right, and as famous and die-hard as Marcus Fenix was, that wasn't an excuse to simply take whatever he could want. Ravens, along with most COG machinery, were a rarity nowadays. Without any sort of factories or assembly lines left, the remaining Ravens were kept under keen eyes and dutiful repairmen. He was quite surprised to know that the stranded on this island had a Raven.
"The Stranded here are lending us their chopper, so you won't be worrying about having two missing Ravens instead of one," Dom said back, "And we'll bring back the Onyx Guard this time, that we can promise you. We won't be coming back until we've got her."
Michaelson chuckled, "Well, at least we can rest up on the island with the stranded here. Yukon's folks seem pretty keen on having us around."
"Having a ship such as your's will give us mighty protection from the Locust, captain. Plus, nothing beats living on dry land," Brendan said with a chuckle, "unless you count the Lambent, then fuck that. I'm outta there. The Sovereign will be safe around these waters here. So far, we haven't been hit by any stalks, or Locust, besides the dead army in the mountain."
"Brendan?" The walkie-talkie on Brendan's hip sparked to life with a voice that sounded like Fredrick's, "You there? We've got the chopper all patched up and ready to go. Tell Marcus and his team that we're waiting for them down at the helipads."
"Well I guess that's it," Marcus said, turning around to leave with Yukon and Dom behind him, "See you Michealson."
"Uh huh, see you around Marcus, and good luck!"
...
The wood underneath Marcus's feet creaked and groaned under his weight as he and Dom made their way towards the main area of the island base. The dock that the ship was tied on was old, but still stood strong with the support of metal furnishings thanks to the stranded here. There were other people on the docks too, Gears, crew members and other people just chatting around, talking about the things that they've encounted across the seas. Many of the Gears were carrying weapons, but none of them were acting too serious with the stranded. There wasn't any reason to be, they weren't Locust.
"Marcus!" Marcus saw Anya further down on the docks waving at him. Beside her stood Carmine and Sam, both of them talking to stranded. "Over here!"
"Where's Baird and Cole? Is Jace with them?" Marcus asked over tac-com.
"Jace went with the two of them to wait for us at the helipad," Anya answered, stopping to talk to a stranded woman, "Yes, they'll be staying right here until we get back, you have nothing to fear. Looks like Fredrick kept his word about fixing up the Raven."
"Well then, let's get this over with," Marcus said, stopping by what appeared to be a billboard filled with posters of people who have gone missing over the years, ranging from children to elderly. He walked up to one of the posters, noticing that he could interact with it and get a closer look. It had a picture of a big, burly man with a large gray beard hugging his wife with a young kid behind him. "Now what could this be?"
MISSING PERSONS FORM
NAME: Robert Yorkshire
38 years old. Tan, large build. Last seen during the Jacinto evacuation. If you have any information, please contact Mary Yorkshire (400-302-3349-1)
Marcus couldn't help but grumble. It wasn't that he was sick of seeing dead people, which he obviously was, he was just simply exasperated that there were missing posters up on the board. Some of them looked new. Nowadays it was just better to assume and more logical that anyone who was missing was more than likely dead. Loners didn't survive long on Sera these days, and anyone found by the Locust were going to die. Same with the Lambent. To Marcus, missing persons forms and posters asking for recent sightings were simply another form of a gravestone, but with no body to bury, much like most of the world.
Marcus and Dom parted opposite sides when they saw a group of kids running down the dock towards the boarding ramp of the Sovereign. To both of the Gears, they might as well have seen a couple ghosts. Neither of them could imagine growing up with the nightmare of the Locust War. To Dom, it felt more personal, seeing that he lost all of his own children because of the fighting. The very sight of youngsters playing around drew out some very deep memories.
"Dom? You alright?" Marcus asked, who had walked forward and realized that his friend hadn't been following him, his gaze and mind somewhere else.
"Y-Yeah, I'm fine," Dom answered after a couple seconds of staring into nothingness, "Let's just go."
Marcus knew better than to push a grieving man, so he left it at that.
"How did Michealson take the news?" Anya asked.
"The old man nearly had a heart attack when we told him that we'd be leaving by chopper," Marcus replied, "The ship will be safe here, away from any more Locust."
"Then let's head to it, don't want to keep waiting around for you boys to catch up, we've got a soldier to rescue and a mystery to solve!" Sam said, strolling next to Carmine as the group headed off to the helipad. Marcus felt the timely rush of excitement kicking in whenever he would have to go out there and save the world again, but there was something nagging at the back of his mind. Ever since the geobot was unlocked and the map to whatever lay beneath Mount Kadar was shown to them, Marcus had been wondering what really lay in the darkness. Where did the portal lead to?
And why, of all things, did the geobot call him Adam Fenix?
-Paradise-
Alone in the dining hall, Ashley poked at her food, which had gone cold some time ago. She didn't care. Tasted like second-rate MRE's, anyway. There was a reason to why the Onyx Guard didn't feel like eating. Ashley just couldn't get the imagery of the cadets attacking her out of her head. She might have indeed gone a bit overboard with the training between Armin and Annie, but the looks of sheer anger that was plastered on both Eren's and Mikasa's face when they saw Ashley shove her double-barrel under Armin's chin was a little haunting.
As if they were ready to kill her at a flip of the switch...
Something must have happened to the two of them to be so reactive towards a "threat" to Armin's life. There's protective, and then there's being violent for the sake of others. She'd seen it plenty of times back on Sera, when tempers would flare at a moments notice. The dark question remained in her head; would the two of them have actually killed her to protect Armin, even if his life wasn't in any danger? Would they go that far to keep their friends safe? Perhaps digging around for some information on what happened to Eren and Mikasa when they were younger would shed some light on this. Shadis must have kept a book around here somewhere detailing the information about the cadets.
"Hey, Ashley?" The Onyx Guard looked up to see Connie and Sasha poking their heads in. "Are you alright?"
"I'm fine, Sasha," Ashley lied, "just thinking about some things, lately."
"Like how Mikasa and Eren nearly killed you?" Connie asked, and Sasha whacked the back of his head, "Ow, Sasha! What the shit was that for?"
"For being rude!" Sasha yelled at him, and turned back to Ashley, "He didn't mean it, Ashley. You know Eren and Mikasa wouldn't kill you, they like you!"
"Mikasa tolerates me because I'm her superior and Eren hates my guts," Ashley said, clamming the two cadets in front of her. Sasha and Connie rubbed the back of their heads as the awkwardness began to set in after Ashley spoke, "Tell me, do you think I'm too tough on you guys?"
"Well, maybe you're a little rough on the edges, but that's because you're not from here, right?"
"Connie's right! We've only known you for like, what, a week?" Sasha said, sitting down next to the Onyx Guard's right and Connie going to the left, "Sure, you're tough, but that's because you're a hardcore, badass soldier! You can't really afford to be all soft on us recruits, you gotta be a bit of a jerk. Like a counter to Shadis, who's always a jerk. No offense."
"None taken."
"Hey Ashley, what was the whole thing with you and Armin about?" Connie asked, "We all know that you did something to him and Annie was there, but could you tell us? Everyone's bugging out that you nearly killed him or something like that."
"It was under control," Ashley slammed a fist on the tabletop, making both the bowl of food and the two trainees next to her jump, "His life was not threatened in any way. I wasn't actually going to kill him, for fuck's sake. I was merely playing for show, to try and see what Annie would do in a situation like that considering she's going to try out for the Military Police. She needs to be prepared for anything that could happen. There was no reason for any of them to jump into the fray like that, no matter who I held up."
"Er, no offense Ashley, but you did have one of your guns at Armin's head."
"I knew what I was doing, alright?!" Ashley snapped at Connie who recoiled at her shout, "And I wouldn't be so much of an idiot to actually point a gun at Armin's head without trigger discipline, now would I? I'm a trained soldier, and Armin is tough enough to survive whatever I throw at him. There, is that enough?" Her voice had grown harder the more she spoke. Sounds like Ashley wasn't fine in the first place. The little incident between her and the Shiganshina trio must have really shaken her up. She sounded like she was having some overwhelming thoughts and her temper was getting the better of her.
"Yeah, yeah I think that's good. C'mon Connie, let's go." Sasha stood up and dragged her friend out of the cafeteria, leaving the Onyx Guard alone for both their sake, and her own. A little alone time might help out Ashley.
Outside, Reiner and Jean were waiting for the two to come back outside. They heard the door open and turned to see Sasha leaving with Connie's arm in her grasp. They seemed a little shaken.
"So, how is she?" Reiner asked.
"Ashley's a little on edge right now, I wouldn't go in there," Connie spoke, "Whatever happened up there really got on her nerves."
"So is marksmanship class cancelled for the day?" Jean asked, with a glimmer of hope in his eyes. Shadis was still out on his trip to Wall Sina so that left Ashley in charge, and with this little thing happening it might just be a nice day off for Jean and the rest of the recruits. He figured that Ashley was so much of soldier that she wouldn't risk being emotional while handling weapons, and would have to cancel the class if she didn't want to go.
"Jean, could you think with your head for once?" Sasha said to him, putting her hands on her hips, "Ashley's annoyed, she isn't sick."
"Hey I'm just saying, Ashley wouldn't put our lives at risk because she's a little flustered, right?"
"She'll get over it, I don't think she's used to training kids like us," Reiner said, looking back at the cafeteria doors, "Sometimes things happen, like what Mikasa and Eren did to Ashley when she was training with Armin and Annie. Their reactions weren't something that she was expecting, and that must have gotten on her nerves."
"What about Mikasa and Eren?" Sasha asked, "You think anything's going to happen to them? Think Ashley's gonna tell Shadis?"
"I don't know, maybe," Reiner responded, "She has every reason to."
"As much as it would be enjoyable to see Eren get his ass chewed out by Shadis and maybe Ashley, I think I see the point of why they attacked her. I mean, how else would you respond when you see your friend at gunpoint?" Jean said, "But enough about that, did you hear what happened to the Underground?"
"No, what?"
"The whole city got wiped out," Reiner, Sasha and Connie let out startled gasps. The Underground was destroyed? How? "Apparently a couple titans dug through some caverns nearby and got inside the city and killed everyone, even the MP's. It's funny, even when you're beneath the earth, titans still manage to find you and kill you, huh." Jean said, telling what he had heard between a couple of soldiers positioned at the watchtowers. He himself had been near horrified to hear the news that the city got destroyed by titans below the earth. It must have been a nightmare to be stuck down there with no help from the surface, running until one of them found you.
"Oh my god, that's horrible!" Sasha gasped, her eyes becoming a little wet at the thought of so many people dead.
"The titans came from the ground? My god, is nowhere safe these days?" Connie mumbled to himself.
The doors behind them opened up and they saw Ashley walk out. Their conversation died right there. They kept themselves steeled when the Onyx Guard decided to make herself ready for the rest of the day. Her helmet was back on, hiding her face. Sasha and Connie took a couple steps back when she reached the bottom of the stairs to give her some room and not bother her any more than they did, but as they parted away from her Ashley let out an exasperated sigh.
"You know," she said, and the four listened, "I'm not going to hurt you, so you don't have to distance yourself from me. I'm feeling better, just had to give it some time to think it through, you know?" She sounded much more relaxed than previously before, so the four of them eased up towards the Onyx Guard. "For god's sake you're acting like I'm about to attack one of you for no reason."
"Like how you decked Reiner a couple days ago?" Jean laughed, and the bigger man let out a shout of annoyance and playfully shoved him. Jean looked ready to tackle Reiner to the ground and show him what he's made of but was stopped by a black-armored hand on his shoulder, same with Reiner.
"Alright, quit fighting you two," Ashley got between the roughhousing trainees like a mother talking to her children, "save your energy for the rest of the day. We're going to do some more training, so get ready and tell the others to meet me in the forest. Bring your ODM gears as well, I want to try something."
"Ugh."
"Hush Jean, we're working here."
...
"Alright cadets, eyes up!" Ashley shouted over the large group of young adults in front of her. The sun had just reached its peak in the afternoon day, giving her a good look at everyone that had arrived. The Onyx Guard stood tall and armed, allowing the trainees to see her quite clearly. She spied several of the trainees that she knew by name, and others that she still hadn't been introduced to. Perhaps this will be the day that she gets to know everyone. Her lancer and sawed-off sat ready to be used on her spine. Out of her eyesight, Eren stood there glaring at the Onyx Guard. Mikasa wasn't sharing his mood, but she still had a bone to pick with O'Malley. Hurting Armin put the outsider on her shitlist, no matter what she said.
"Today we're doing a different version of target practice. You'll be using both your muskets and your ODM gear to clear a series of targets hidden inside the forest. There are also fake human and titan dummies for you to test these out," Ashley reached inside the box next to her and pulled out a shiny piece of metal, "your new bayonets, one of my requests from Erwin Smith himself." The trainees eyed the bayonets with wide, curious eyes. They didn't know that Ashley had asked for something like this!
She tossed the bayonet in her hand to Armin, who stood closest to her, "A word of the wise, these were designed as to be a last resort on titans should your swords run out or fail you. They retain their original design to be a piercing blade, so make sure to keep that in mind when facing any human adversaries. Now, before we begin, do any of you have any questions?" She saw a couple hands go up, so she went for the closest on to her.
"Yes, Marco?"
"Will you be scoring this for our final assessment?" The freckled boy asked.
"Yes, thank you for reminding me. Along with precision strikes on titan dummies, the human dummies will have two targets; head and heart. You can choose either one for points, but try to focus primarily on one body part, no need to waste any ammo. The remaining objectives are target boards which will test out your accuracy. You have another question Marco?"
"Not to be rude but didn't we already test out our marksmanship earlier this week?"
"I didn't finish. Today, I wanted to test out your accuracy while being mobile. You'll be training to shoot while in the air with your ODM, testing out to see if you can hit a target at high speed. Your grades will be based on your shots, your precision and your ability to get a clean kill on a titan," The Onyx Guard said, stunning the trainees. That was certainly a twist. Ashley was getting very creative, "To keep things easy, you'll be going in teams, five each. Each team will cover a perspective hot zone with their own targets and dummies, so there won't be any competition other than between your own group, performance-wise, of course."
"Who will be on whose teams?" Someone in the back asked.
"There's a pamphlet over on the bulletin board over there," Ashley pointed to her left, "where you'll be able just who's working with who. I decided to partner up people who are able to counter each other's skill, so nobody will be able to have a total advantage."
"Has she seen Mikasa in action?" Connie mumbled.
"Yeah, sucks for the group with her. They won't stand a chance."
"Jean, quiet. Get your game faces on, kiddos. Your training starts now."
...
With the teams already going about through the forest, Ashley stood by and watched, walking over to every part of the forest where the teams were practicing. She could hear the occasional fire of a musket in the air, as well as someone zipping across the treetops. She had to hand it to these kids, they knew what they were doing with those ODM devices. She couldn't see herself with one of those things, no matter how much she found herself envious of how fast they were going. Her armor was too bulky and there was no way it could handle her lancer.
In her arms were folders, specifically those about the cadets. She'd snagged them from Shadis' office before she came to the forest, using the time to oversee the cadets to read into their pasts. She knew that it was probably insensitive and very invasive of her to do this, but war never waited for anyone. Her main focus was Eren, Mikasa and Armin, whose histories with each other could shed some light into their issues regarding what happened. Maybe if she simply read about what happened to either of them then she could understand. She sat down at a table near the bulletin board, placing her weapons down at her feet.
...Objective: Learn about the past...
First up, Armin.
"Let's see, both parents dead after childhood, lived with grandfather until the fall of Shiganshina, wherever that is," Ashley mumbled to herself. Maybe this Shiganshina is where everything went down with the titans that these cadets fought against. Wherever this place was, there might be answers to Eren and Mikasa's behaviors. Perhaps asking one of the trainees, or maybe Eren himself, might shed some light.
Speaking of Eren, his folder was next.
"Eren Yeager, lived in Shiganshina, there's that name again. Year, 850? Where the hell am I, the Dark Ages? Had a mother and a father, Carla and Grisha, both deceased. Huh, adopted Mikasa when she was five. No wonder they're so close together." She never would have guessed that the two of them were adopted siblings. That was new, and perhaps key to their relationships. Eren and Armin must be best friends, and Mikasa was Eren's sister who clung to him for protective reasons. Shiganshina would be their home. Ashley guessed that the deaths of Eren's parents must have forced them into military servitude.
It was common back on Sera for orphans to become a Gear. Ashley was one of them. It was one of the reasons she'd joined the COG. She had little to no memories of her own parents, and with no other living relatives she was on her own. She couldn't imagine having to lose someone so special in their lives at such an age.
Now onto the last.
"Mikasa Ackerman... Ackerman? Oh yeah, adopted. Probably her family's real last name. Lost her parents to a knife attack at five, good god. Adopted by the Jeagers. and lived in Shiganshina until it fell to the titans." Ashley skimmed over the file to get to the more important details of the three of them. Looks like their histories were not the happiest or the most supportive. Shiganshina must have been their home town, and if these folders were telling her anything, it was that Eren's parents more than likely were either killed or went missing during the attack. Ashley found herself feeling empathetic towards them, and she couldn't imagine what the rest of the folders would tell her.
"Ashley!" A sudden voice rang out, and she recognized it as Sasha. Quickly putting the folders down she looked to see the young girl land next to her with some level of grace with a hint of panic on her face. She looked scared. "Ashley, where's the first aid kit?"
The Onyx Guard stood up, "Who got hurt?"
"Connie. He sliced his hand on the bayonet and he's really hurt!" Ashley had to suppress a sigh, even if it was about an injured trainee. Of course it would be Connie. It must be his terrible luck. She followed Sasha into the forest, forgetting that she had left the folders out in the open.
...
"You'd think that those two would get some awareness and realize that there are other targets."
"Maybe?" Armin replied, watching as his friend and Jean argued over just who got the clean shot into the dummies head, and who got the heart. Eren was sure he got the head but Jean was adamant that it was his shot that landed the hit, which lead to the escalating argument happening now as the five of them flew across the tree tops, Bertoldt right behind Eren and Jean to try and dissuade the two from arguing further, "Eren's bound to be super competitive, same with Jean, but this is just getting ridiculous. We could go out and try to find some targets ourselves and up our score."
"You mean your score, Armin."
"I was talking about the both of us, Annie. Ashley said that this would count towards our final grades so we should take the advantage while we got it," The other blonde replied, "plus she never said that it was against the rules to help each other out. You want to get into the Military Police, right?"
"Of course. We had this discussion with Ashley today, Armin."
"Ah, right. The hostage thing. Y'know, if Eren and Mikasa hadn't come around, what would you have done to free me?"
Annie pondered for a moment before answering, trying to remember as best as she can.
"I probably would have shot Ashley in the foot. I don't know if her armor can withstand something like that, but it was the most rational thing that I could think of. I would injure and distract her from you and rush in to subdue her before she could get herself back in action." Annie answered, thinking back on what happened. It seemed to satisfy Armin, because he didn't say a word after. The boy was thinking about the brief yet emotional moment between the three of them, his fingers tracing the light bruises left behind on his neck from Ashley's death-grip. The woman certainly had the strength to back up her claims.
Annie would never admit it out loud, but she was starting to respect Armin a little more as time went on. Perhaps it was because of this new training from Ashley. The outsider certainly had a way to bring emotions out of people. At least he was more tolerable than the other three idiots practicing near them.
"-you can barely aim, let alone shoot straight! I don't know what possessed Ashley to give you of all people a gun in this forest! You'd kill somebody!" Jean yelled at his fellow trainee, who looked ready to blow. Bertoldt was trying his best to keep the two of them calmed down, but to no avail.
"I don't see you doing any better when you were kissing Ashley's ass the whole way through!"
"That's a filthy lie, Yeager!"
"C'mon you guys, cut it out," Bertoldt said, his voice getting buried by their own, "There are more targets for us to get some practice in, okay?"
"I'm not the one who can't shoot for shit, Bertoldt! I know what I'm doing, unlike the suicidal bastard over here!" Jean yelled at the taller boy, who backed off.
"Like you could shoot any better, you asshole!" Eren's anger was slowly getting the better of him the more he argued with Jean. Everyone else knew it too. It was only a matter of time before he detonated on the unlucky sap that would be in his way, which seemed like Kirstein today.
"Oh yeah, prove it! In fact, why don't you find Ashley and get her over here and we'll prove who's the better soldier," Jean said back, a smirk forming on his lips, "or are you afraid of her, Eren?"
"FINE!" Eren snapped and turned around, zipping past Armin and Annie without slowing down in the slightest. As he went past, Armin saw that his face was contorted in rage, his green eyes ablaze and hard. Jean must have pushed some very sensitive buttons for Eren to act like that when he mentioned Ashley. Could it be that he was still sore about what happened a couple days ago during training? Armin decided to go after him, to make sure that he didn't do anything rash around the Onyx Guard. He'd heard that she wasn't exactly on the best mood today and that sent bad vibes down Armin's spine.
"Eren, wait! Stop!" Armin tried to catch up to his friend, but to no avail.
"Not now Armin!" Eren spat, Jean just signed his goddamn death wish! I'll prove to him that I am a soldier, a Scout! He and that Onyx Guard are gonna eat their words!
"Dammit Eren, listen to me!" Armin finally caught up to Eren and stopped right in front of him, "I know you don't exactly get along with her, but think about this! What do you think Ashley will do if you decide to show your face again when she's training someone else? After what you and Mikasa did to her? Just ignore what Jean said, alright? That's what they are, words. You're certainly doing better than me at this stuff anyway."
"I'm not afraid of her Armin," Eren growled, the thought of the Onyx Guard only making him angrier.
"That's not the point! You really think there isn't going to be any sort of repercussion if you march down there and start yelling at her?" Armin countered, and Eren turned away and closed his eyes, knowing he was in the wrong on this one.
"You calmed down yet, Yeager?" The two of them saw that Annie had followed, an annoyed look on her face, "I'd rather get this thing over with and not have to deal with any sort of drama between you and Kirstein."
"Annie's right, let's just head back and forget about all this and we can call it a day."
Eren took a deep sigh, closing his eyes to steady his nerves, "Yeah, I guess you're right. Sorry about getting all wrapped up in my temper Armin."
"It's alright, just don't let Jean get to you so-" Armin trailed off there, his eyes catching something in his vision. There, below on the ground, was a table, with a stack of paper folders right in the center. Some of them had been opened and read. He recognized it as the starting area of the training area and the entrance to the forest, and so did Eren and Annie. The three of them lowered to the ground and walked over, wondering what they were.
The first thing that Armin spied was that his name was on one of the folders. He picked it up and behold, everything about him laid bare for him to read. Eren did the same with the folder that had his name on it, and just like Armin it was chock full of info about him. Annie didn't bother, knowing that there wouldn't be a point to read her own folder. Whoever was doing this was having a gross invasion of privacy. These were for certain eyes only, confidential and certainly not for a quick read.
"What are these things doing here?" Armin mumbled to himself. He put the folder down and went to the stack, slipping his fingers and finding names on each one. They were all names that he recognized. Why would anyone be reading these things here?
It slowly dawned on Armin that there was only one person in the whole forest who might be doing this, seeing a very familiar pair of guns on the ground. And so did Eren.
"Damn her, that bitch!" Eren roared, throwing his folder onto the table and took off, Armin and Annie still on the ground. It was too late to try and get him to stop now. Armin watched as his friend disappeared into the forest to try and find the Onyx Guard, and he knew that a confrontation between the two was imminent, and it would get messy. Eren wasn't one to let things go like this. Annie stepped forward next to him, also watching Yeager begin his search for O'Malley.
"This day is certainly getting interesting."
...
Ashley had seen her fair share of ridiculous injuries, but it seemed that Connie was unknowingly and unwittingly topping her list every time he trained. Either fate was making out for him to have the worst luck imaginable, or he really was a complete idiot. This time it was a bit more serious; Connie had sliced his hand on the bayonet, which happened when he had dropped his musket while aiming for one of the bulls-eyes and tried to grab it, only to snatch the blade instead and nearly cut his fingers off.
"I swear something's going to lose, Springer. It's either going to be my patience or one of your limbs."
"I said I was sorry!" Connie yelled at her while she stitched up his hand. Sasha and Reiner stood by, watching to make sure Connie didn't suffer, "I didn't mean to grab the bayonet, it just slipped out of my hand! OW!"
"Sorry won't help your fingers grow back if you lose them, Connie." Ashley replied, finishing up the last bit of Connie's newest injury. With her helmet off it was easier for her to see the trainee's injury. With a quick snip of a scissor his hand was all sealed up. "There, all done. Now, just this once, I'll excuse you from the exercise because of what happened. I don't want to aggravate the wound by forcing you to practice. Make sure you keep that hand clean while it heals and wash it at least once a day. If it starts itching don't scratch it, just come to the infirmary and pour some alcohol on it. You got that?"
"Sure, whatever, mom." Connie rolled his eyes, and Ashley pinched his cheek.
"It is my newest job to take care of you little shits before you graduate, so yeah I am your mom, and you'll just have to deal with it until we leave."
"We?" Sasha repeated, not knowing if she'd heard her right.
"I'm not staying here forever Sasha. I've still got to find my way back home, beyond the walls." Ashley replied, taking a moment to stare out to the horizon, "You're welcome to join me if you want, though I guess we're running out of soldiers and time for both our worlds." For a brief second, the three trainees watching the Onyx Guard felt like they were getting a glimpse into Ashley's home again. If things were as bad as she said then getting home would be top priority for her. And yet here she was, training a group of kids that she had meet less than a couple weeks ago for an army that she held no allegiance to.
Maybe that was the reason why so many of the trainees respected her. She could have walked off and left them any time she wanted, but instead chose to stay here, to train them to be better soldiers because she felt like she had an obligation for their survival. A true soldier of humanity.
"Hey Ashley, if you do find your way back home," Connie said, "will you ever come back? Y'know, like to visit us? I know the walls aren't exactly the greatest place to come and stop by, but it would be nice to see you again if you actually get home."
Ashley pondered for a moment. The situation back on Sera desperately needed all the help it could get, but what about afterwards? If the COG could scrape a win against the Locust and the Lambent, then who knows what will happen after? Maybe when the war was over, if it ever ended. Or, simply put, there wasn't a home to go back to. That scared her more than anything, that there wouldn't be a Sera to return to, either taken by the Locust or utterly consumed by the imulsion.
"Sure," she said, knowing that was a half-truth, "I'll come back. Of course I'll come back, I promise it."
"Pinkie promise?" Sasha said.
"Pinkie what?"
"It's a thing that kids do to make sure we keep our promises Ashley, you can't back down from a pinkie promise when it's offered," Reiner explained, only making the Onyx Guard seem more confused when Sasha stuck out her little finger. She had no idea what she was doing.
"You're supposed to use your finger and hook it with mine," Sasha said, "that's what makes a pinkie promise."
So Ashley did what Sasha said, coiling her armored finger around Sasha's and shaking it, like some sort of bizarre handshake. This was her promise to return.
"There, see! That wasn't so bad."
For a brief moment, Ashley felt a sudden pang of happiness. She honestly felt proud that she could be able to teach this diverse class of egos and characters on what it meant to be a soldier. They were all so unique in their own way.
But that always wasn't a good thing.
"Hey, is that Eren?" Connie said, pointing to the canopy above him, "What's he doing here? Isn't he supposed to be with Bert and his group?"
Ashley and the others turned to see that there indeed was Eren, flying right towards them rather fast.
"Maybe someone else got hurt?" Sasha wondered.
Ashley noticed that there was something off about Eren's posture. Normally, with the amount of drag created with the speed of the ODM gear, you'd be leaning back to create some form of balance. Eren, however, wasn't doing so, instead he was leaning forward. Everything else was hidden in the darkness underneath the canopy, so Ashley couldn't really get a glimpse of his face. Eren suddenly landed, not bothering to slow down or adjust trajectory. He stumbled at first, and started to run. He hadn't said a single word, and Ashley was starting to get worried.
"Hey Eren, check it out! New battle scars!" Connie put his hand up to show off his stitches, but Eren paid no mind to Connie, focusing all his attention on the Onyx Guard. "Eren?"
"Cadet Yeager? Is something wrong?" Ashley asked as Eren neared her, and realized that his verdant eyes were alive with anger. She also wasn't expecting him to suddenly lunge at her, and with her caught totally off-guard by his aggression, and punch her right in the cheek. The strike caused her to drop her helmet as she tried to collect her bearings when she fell on her ass, more surprised than hurt. It wasn't the strongest punch she'd ever received but the fact that it had come out of nowhere blindsided her.
"Eren are you crazy?!" Sasha shrieked. Reiner and Connie stood there slack-jawed at seeing Eren run up and punch the Onyx Guard for literally no reason. "What are you doing?!"
"WHO GAVE YOU THE RIGHT?!" Eren thundered, screaming so loud that it seemed to shake the forest, "Who gave you the right to look at my past so that you could judge me!"
"Eren, what the hell are you talking about? Would it kill you to stop for a second and explain what's going on?" Reiner put his hands up to try and diffuse the situation. Ashley was still stunned and Eren looked ready to tear the Onyx Guard a new one, so he had to try and play it very, very safe. Connie decided that he wasn't going to get involved in this shit and kept quiet while Sasha stood by in case something went really wrong.
"Your past?" Ashley said out loud, and then remembered. The folders, you idiot Ashley, you left them right out in the open! Of course someone would find them, who else but the Yeager boy as well?
"Don't you play dumb, outsider!" Eren raged. "You don't deserve to be here in the first place!" The more he spoke, the more Ashley began to realize just what was driving Eren to act like this. From what she was able to read about him, the loss of his mom and dad must have really hurt him, and so he joined the military so he could become a Scout and avenge them. She could almost hear her own cynical laughter when she realized that her coming out of literal nowhere to teach these kids on how to be a soldier must have rubbed Eren the wrong way. Or maybe he was still sore from that talking-to a couple nights ago, and the duel.
"I'll admit, it was a little unethical for me to read them," Ashley began, wiping some saliva from her mouth.
"A little?! Do you have any sort of sense of other people's privacy?"
"Ashley?" Connie finally opened his mouth, "What's Eren talking about?"
Might as well come clean. "While you were training, I decided to investigate files pertaining to certain trainees here, and if you haven't been aware for the past couple moments, Eren was one of them. I was simply trying to learn on how I can help you, or any of you, overcome any sort of tragedy that still affects you today," Connie and the rest of the trainees stood by, stunned that Ashley had done such a thing, even if it was for a good cause. Ashley turned to Eren, who was still steaming at her. Maybe addressing him directly would calm him down, "I wasn't trying to be invasive, Eren. I just wanted to know why you and Mikasa were so eager to try and stop me when I was training Armin and Annie."
"You don't know anything about me!" Eren yelled at her, his eyes now pinpricks, "I'm not some file you can open and close whenever you feel like it!"
"I'm a spec-ops soldier, Eren. It's my job to know as much as I can about anyone, including you," Ashley said, and Eren flinched at her brash statement. She was starting to lose her patience, between him hitting her and then yelling at her, this confrontation was surely going to end on a sour note. "I'm sorry if you don't like it, but that's what I do. I learn and I react."
"Some soldier you are, then! You're probably a spineless coward who ran away the first chance she got!" Eren screamed, his temper causing what he really thought about about Ashley to spill out. Since day one of meeting her he was skeptical about her, but as time went on and she got more involved Eren only started seeing a deserter who abandoned her army.
And Ashley wasn't too kind on taking that sort of smack-talk.
Oh, that does it.
"Eren!" Sasha gasped.
"You're out of fucking line, Yeager," Ashley warned, the first time that any of them heard her curse with that much force, and it was not a welcoming sound, "I'm warning you right now, if you don't get back to your group and finish your training you can kiss having dinner goodbye. If you're willing to put this behind you, which I will allow, then I'll forget this ever happened, you can go back to your friends, and I won't have to punish you." Ashley was desperately trying to hold in her own failing temper. If Eren tried to do anything else, there's no telling just what she might do.
"Yeah dude, you gotta calm down!" Connie said, "For god's sake Eren, please don't start anything!"
"She's the one who started it! Going behind our backs, hurting our friends, who the hell do you think you are coming in here and bossing us around?!"
"Dammit Yeager, I am NOT your enemy here! I'm trying to help you, but that can only work if you let me!" Ashley said to him, trying to bridge a connection between her and Eren and begin some form of mutual respect. She wasn't lying as well. The battles that she waged across the surface of Sera replayed in her mind, all the people that died fighting the locust, keeping the rest of humanity safe from the endless horde.
"I don't need your help! What can some bitch like you tell me about killing titans when she hasn't even fought one?! You don't know what it's like to watch people suffer! You're no soldier Ashley, you're a goddamn JOKE!"
CRACK!
Ashley had heard enough. If her words wouldn't stop him then her fists would have to make do. She'd punched him straight across the jaw to shut him up, and without holding back to show just how strong she really was. The young trainee let out a grunt of pain before being grabbed by the collar and slammed against a tree. To the others who were watching in numb shock, Ashley was totally manhandling Eren like was paperweight. She had him up off the ground as high as she could hold him, and it didn't seem to give her any problem.
Eren looked down from his bruised, dripping face to see the stormy blue eyes of Ashley glaring up at him. And by god, she was mad.
"You think I don't know war?"
WHAM! She'd slammed him against the tree again.
"You think I don't know suffering?"
WHAM! And again.
"You think I don't know what it's like to watch cities crumble and burn? To watch whole populations die?"
WHAM! Once more. And then she hurled him towards the other trainees with a mighty throw. He ragdolled his way to Reiner, who knelt down to give him some support as Sasha and Connie made their way to the two of them. They stopped in their tracks when Ashley walked forward.
"Just how long are you going to let your anger control you? Do you think the titans will be forgiving as I am? Your mother and father might be dead, and it might be your fault, or the titan's fault, but you can't change what happened. If you want to avenge their deaths, then stop dwelling in the past and get over it. You aren't the only one here that lost someone to the titans." And with that, Ashley reached down to pluck her helmet from the ground and placed it back on her head. She walked off without another word, leaving the four trainees behind her stunned. Eren watched her go back into the forest, her words replaying in her mind on repeat.
...
The sun had set. The training was over. Mikasa had scored top marks, unsurprisingly. The rest of the trainees had gone to bed, but news of what happened between Ashley and Eren had spread like wildfire. It was shocking to hear that Ashley had not done anything to Eren after he'd attacked her, many assuming for no reason. The young lad had been bombarded with questions after he'd gone to dinner, which was surprising since Ashley let him. And yet, he found himself not hungry, even after such an intense day. Everyone had crowded around him to hear just what happened.
Sasha, Connie and Reiner were the only ones besides Ashley who knew of the complete truth. Everyone else had different reactions to hearing what happened. Jean had laughed his ass off, saying that "all you had to do was talk to her, you numbskull!" before finishing dinner. Mikasa had sworn vengeance against the Onyx Guard, promising to "pay her in full" for hurting Eren. Everyone else had chatted their way back to their dorms. Ashley had vanished the moment the training had been declared over, and so did the folders, put back into Shadis's office.
Eren found himself wandering the training site after dark, when the moon had risen, bathing the area in milky white light. He couldn't stop thinking about what Ashley had said to him.
"...you're letting your anger control you..."
"...you can't change what happened..."
"...stop dwelling in the past, get over it..."
"How can I?" He said to himself, wandering into the forest towards the hidden lake that Reiner had found. After walking for some time, he found a place to sit down, a log on the shores of the lake. He stared up at the moon, wondering what Ashley meant. Did she mean to forget the past entirely, forget about his mom and move on with his life, not looking back? Is that what she did when her own enemies were killing her people? Did she force herself to forget?
It took a couple moments to realize he wasn't alone. As if fate was playing a game with him, Ashley O'Malley was standing not ten feet away from him, also staring into the moon. It seemed like she hadn't noticed him. She was also out of her armor, wearing only her undergarments. How she was able to do so without anyone seeing her was crazy. Eren's eyes found themselves absorbing her body, taking note of her muscles, her curves and the scars that decorated them. There was no way she did those things on herself.
So much for being a joke. She really is what she says she is, a soldier of humanity. Eren chastised himself for being so angry with her. It was so uncalled for. Now there was no doubt that she hated him. The fact that she was even standing near him, without her knowing, only deepened his shame. He stood up to leave, but was interrupted.
"Leaving so soon?"
Eren stopped. He turned around to see that Ashley was looking at him. Looks like she knew he was there all along. Her voice wasn't as hard as it was earlier today.
"Sorry, I'll just go, I know you hate me," Eren mumbled, not wanting to interact with her in the slightest.
"Eren, wait," Ashley said, and the boy stopped, "I don't hate you. I never hated you."
"You... you don't?"
"No, god no," Ashley said, a small smile gracing her lips, "You're a kid, an angry one, but a good kid nonetheless. Plus, I kind of already forgave you for socking me in the face."
Eren stood there, dumbfounded.
"How can you say that?" He asked, walking towards her. The level of forgiveness that this woman was throwing at him was so unlike anything that Eren had experienced, "I attacked you for trying to help me. I called you a joke, a coward. That you didn't deserve to be here. And here you're telling me that I'm a good kid. I'm not. I... I..." His lower lip trembled, and his emotions were threatening to spill out. Ashley stood there, watching as this poor young man fell apart in front of her. He furiously tried to wipe away the tears that were forming at the corner of his eyes. Of course he'd start crying in front of the Onyx Guard, as if he hadn't humiliated himself enough.
"Remember when I said that I know suffering? I also know when people are hurting," Ashley softly said to him, causing Eren to snap out of it and look her in the eyes, the once stormy blue now calm and serene as she put her hand on his shoulder, "You're just a boy, Eren. Let yourself make mistakes. If anything, take that anger and fuel your desire to be the best you can be. One day I know you'll make a great Scout. Your parents would be proud of you."
Eren pressed his forehead on her chest, and before she could say anything Ashley felt a sudden wetness. The poor lad was crying. His soft sobs were muffled against her skin, but she could feel his shakes as she wrapped her arms around him and gave a soft embrace. She let him weep, rather than keep his emotions behind a wall.
"There, feel better?" She asked.
"Y-Yeah, I do. Thanks Ashley," Eren said back.
"Hey Eren," she said, "I know I promised Armin, but would you like to hear about my home outside the walls?"
"Really? What's it like?"
"Well, for starters," she began, "Back where I'm from, we have two moons."
NIBBA you thought this story was dead haha. This chapter might be super intense for some. I really wanted Eren and Ashley to butt heads over ideologies, but as I began to look deeper in Eren's character I realized just how sad his life is; his mom died in front of him, he ate his own father, he struggled to become a better soldier, and unbeknownst to him in this story he's got a power that he never asked for.
Ashley's the same way. Last of the Onyx Guards, has no remembrance of her family, all her friends on Sera are dead, and she's out in the middle of god-knows-where. So really it became a bridge between two very hurt people that share similarities despite being worlds apart. Plus having Eren confront his inner demons makes for a better story than just Ashley beating the shit out of him for mocking the dead of Sera.
Next chapter will have much more Locust.
See ya.
