Eren looked down at the small bundle at the bottom of the crib.

His daughter was sleeping there soundly. His own daughter…

The young man reminisced the memory of how it all started.

"Hey!" Eren shouted at the two guards, playing cards on some table.

They turned to look at him in surprise.

"Huh?" The older one asked "Eren Yeager?"

"You're not supposed to be here…" the other said, furrowing his brow.

"It doesn't matter now…" the young man said, running up to them, trying to catch his breath "the queen is in labour!"

"Huh?" The one who was talking earlier expressed "isn't the queen in the palace…?"

"Not Historia!" Eren yelled "the fallen queen! Frieda Reiss!"

The little girl snored soundly. She was only six months old and on the first occasion that Historia got, little Annika had been finally separated from her mother. Eren's protests didn't matter at that point. The younger sister couldn't bear with the thought of him, spending any amount of time with Frieda, so the young man understood her point of view. Nevertheless, taking away a child so young, sounded brutal to him.

"How is Annika?" He suddenly heard from behind.

Eren turned around and smiled upon noticing that Ymir entered the room.

"I've just managed to put her to sleep" he responded weakly.

"Young kids can be cruel" the freckled female jokingly responded, while walking over to the crib.

Ymir had been his greatest support during all those months of uncertainty. Historia didn't really have much time, as dealing with problems regarding the internal and external affairs took way too much time and effort than she liked. Mikasa was still preoccupied with watching over the queen. Besides, he didn't want to burden her even more, now that she had realized her feelings for Floch.

Floch, on the other hand, had decided to help Armin with the company, and it didn't take them too much time to rebuild the prototype of the flying boat. This, however, left them with the mission to produce more of those, as having such a powerful asset within their arsenal was way too important.

And that was the reason that Ymir decided to help him. A year ago, he felt alienated and alone, with all his troubles. Thankfully, the freckled female didn't forget him and provided Eren with much needed support.

"She cries so much…" the young father whispered "she must be missing her mother…"

Indeed, it was tough for the infant, to comprehend with being away from Frieda. Once the fallen queen was told that her daughter would be taken from her, all colours left her face. The panic that Eren could see in Frieda's eyes was incomparable to anything that he ever saw her display. Annika wasn't aware that this weird situation, where soldiers tore her away from her crying mother's arms, would hold any meaning towards her future.

Yet, as the days passed, the little girl would get more and more anxious about not seeing Frieda. Spending time with Eren was good enough, but every infant needs their mother's care first and it really showed with how Annika behaved.

"Historia didn't really mean that, you know?" Ymir spoke, placing a hand on his shoulder.

Eren turned to look her in the eyes. With how lonely he had been lately, frustration was starting to build up within him. Something on the girl's face just spoke to him. Was it her beautiful smile? Or maybe, it was her dark eyes, staring at him with compassion?

Nevertheless, he couldn't keep himself in check anymore and closed in, on her lips.

The sudden kiss was really nice. His attention-thirsty mouth engulfing her soft lips could finally satiate the hunger that was hoarded within him, ever since his enclosure with Frieda.

Ymir herself, wasn't sure how to react. Annika was there and waking the little girl up didn't seem like a great idea. Moreover, Eren seemed to be doing this for no apparent reason. Yet, she liked the boy and letting him kiss her wasn't necessarily a bad thing.

And so, she intertwined her hands behind his neck, deepening the contact.

This only made the young man more eager. He grabbed her hips and raised her from the ground, pinning her against the wall, next to the crib. It was only then, that Ymir noticed how tall he had grown in the recent months. Right now, she must've seemed pretty small in comparison to him.

"Oh, Eren…" she moaned, trying to catch her breath once their faces separated.

And suddenly, they heard the loud sound of crying.

Quickly, the young father plopped her down and leaned down to pick up the crying infant.

"Now, now" Eren spoke, rocking the little girl in his arms "daddy's here…"

Ymir watched him, as he did his parental duty. It was really amazing how quickly his demeanour changed, once his infant daughter expressed distress.

Even though little Annika sounded calmer, she still wouldn't settle down with the crying.

"See?" Eren exclaimed with frustration, while he was rocking his daughter "that's why taking her away from Frieda was a bad idea…"

"Give her to me" Ymir suddenly spoke, extending her arms.

The young father looked at her with uncertainty. The freckled female could tell that he was hesitant to hand the young girl over, but after a few moments, he slowly placed the infant in her open arms.

"There, there" she whispered, while placing a kiss on Annika's forehead.

It was really weird to look at this girl. Given that both of her parents had the same features, it was pretty difficult to tell whether she carried more resemblance to Frieda or Eren. One thing that was certain, was that her dark hair and greyish-green eyes were very beautiful, coupled with her innocent outlook.

What a cruel world it was, for such an angel of a child to be born in.

Her mother being a criminal, her father a distressed teenager, nothing would ever be easy for little Annika.

After the kiss, the crying subsided, and Ymir handed the infant back to the father.

"All you needed, was a woman's touch" the freckled female expressed proudly, while Eren placed his calm daughter back in the crib.

"Yeah…" he admitted.

Suddenly, Ymir noticed something weird, happening on his face. His eyes were quickly watering up, and his mouth was starting to form a sad grimace.

"Eren…"

But before she could do anything, he burst into tears. Slumping down on the floor, the young man placed his hands on his face.

As quickly as she was able to, Ymir enveloped the boy in a hug.

"Everything has got so difficult" he spoke while crying.

It was truly heart-breaking for her to see Eren in such a state. He was already struggling with so much and all those slings and arrows coming his way just wouldn't leave him alone…

"I'm sure that soon, things will turn out for the better" the freckled female whispered, while comforting the young man.

They stayed like this for a substantial period of time. Him crying on her shoulder and her wondering if everything won't suddenly turn way worse, for the people of Paradis.

Fortunately, not a few days after that happened, a Marleyan ship came by.

Capturing it along with the crew wasn't exactly difficult as they currently possessed many powerful titan shifters. It turned out that the ship itself had a specific system that directed the entire navy. Armin was truly wondered by the weird novelty as never before had they thought of a machine that could transmit waves back and forth, without the need for some kind of a wire.

They could finally get their hands on the better guns. Reverse engineering them, only took the team led by the blonde-haired genius about a week and soon, the production started.

Moreover, they've learned the details of the ongoing war, with the middle eastern union.

It really seemed like the tides were really turning to their side. The only problem they had, was that the effectiveness of the plan seemed to be slowing down. After the first wave of worldwide immigration to Marley, it really seemed like the process halted.

Many speculated about the reasons for that, however one thing was clear.

The fallen queen seemed not to be in her best shape…