I'm looking forward to see how the anime ends. Initially while watching the show, something along these lines was how I had expected it to end, but now it doesn't really seem to be so. But the idea still seemed fun enough to write about so I'm putting this initial chapter out there as a reminder that I have some more fun in store. Obviously my story Protect Others Before Yourself will take priority

I don't own AoT or any characters

Historia was bored. She perfectly understands the need to be in seclusion. The tension throughout Paradis essentially forced her to go into hiding what with the military possibly trying to utilize her for their own purposes of controlling the Founding Titan as well as the possible dangers entailed with the presence Zeke Yeager, a man whose true motives were unknown.

Yes, going into hiding indeed made sense. Fortunately, there were still a couple hidden outposts of the Reiss family for her to seclude herself in while waiting for events to play out, for better or for worse. Of course she was more than willing and prepared to help as needed, but for now it seemed that being a bystander to prevent her bloodline from being abused was best for her safety and the safety of the island.

That didn't stop her from being and odd mixture of bored and anxious. She was confident they were doing the right thing, preventing her royal blood from falling into potentially nefarious hands, but she still couldn't help but worry about her friends. This feeling wasn't helped by the fact that she had little to nothing to do other than read the various books that were present or ponder about things currently out of her control.

This day though, she found an object that greatly intrigued her. Out of all the books she had recently discovered in a locked chest in the basement, this one seemed to be calling to her, which was strange since of all of them this book was the most plain. A single, plain black book with no title or anything. The least interesting book of the group she just found and yet something in the back of her mind told her to read it. So she did.

It was a journal of one of her distant relatives, Mark Fritz, back a few hundred years her elder. And as she read, it started off innocent enough, just some entries about the boy's, day to day life.

But as she read further and further, fear struck into her heart. Further and further she progressed through the life of Mark Fritz, her horror at events of the past and fear for the future growing as she continued on.

Upon finishing the journal, her mind was racing faster than ever before, her heartbeat was skyrocketing. She was hyperventilating. This was quite possibly the worst case scenario out of all possible scenarios. In the grand scheme of things, Historia could not imagine something worse.

Why... Why would the royal family keep information like this hidden? No where did in the actual royal library did she or anyone she knew discover this knowledge. She only found out about it through some damn hidden journal in a random safe house of the royal family. Damn the royal family and their paranoia about letting others in on their secrets. It would be the death of them all at this rate.

Did her father know about this at the time? Is that part of why he was so protective of the Founding Titan... why he was so insistent that it couldn't leave the royal family? Or was this something that was only passed on through past memories as the Founding Titan passed, but they were compelled not to share the information just like with the secrets of Karl Fritz. Who knew. Not like it mattered to the current predicament anyways.

Theoretically there was a chance that what she read was not real, but at the same time she really had no reason not to believe the words that had been written. What purpose would Mark Fritz have for fabricating such a story?

Either way, real of fake, the risk was too high to ignore.

Things couldn't be left to transpire as is. She had to meet up with Hange and the rest of the scouts. This information was too critical to any future plans. Indeed, no planning was really possible if worst comes to worst and everything she just read was accurate.

Grabbing the journal as she went, she raced out the door of the safehouse she was residing in, heading towards the small stables to get her horse, the slamming open of the door startling the scout stationed there as her protection.

"Hey! Hey! You can't just leave! We're under orders!"

"We don't have time, so hurry up and get ready! I have to give this information the Hange immediately. There's no time to waste!"

As they rode, her thoughts were still churning over what she had read. Never in her worst dreams could she imagine Eren doing the things Mark is describing in these entries, and yet the fear gripped her heart that it was completely plausible. It had been years since Eren inherited his titan powers... Years! She didn't know how Eren seemed to have driven it off for so long. Or perhaps he hadn't and it had just been biding it's time until the proper moment, who knew. After all, Mark's brother, Erik, didn't even last two months before he went completely insane, succumbing to the influence of the Devil of all Earth.