Sorry for the delay, been madly busy recently. Wanted to say a big thank you for all the people who have read, reviewed and favourited this fic. I'm sorry for not directly replying to your reviews but I don't really understand FFnet layout. But if you drop me a comment over on AO3, or PM me I'll happily answer any questions you may have!
Scout Ranch
Several Hours before Armoured Titan sighting
On the other side of Hermina, dozens of miles away from a certain goggle-wearing Section commander who was in the midst of organising a desperate, yet unknowingly futile, search party, Historia Reiss was slowly returning to the waking world after a blissful night sleep.
Unlike her fellow time-travellers, Historia had not spent the night in a sleeping bag in a small tent. She had spent it in a room with four wooden walls and a solid roof, shielding her from the elements. Her room, like all the other rooms in this survey corp ranch, had two beds, each pressed against a wall.
But unlike all the other rooms in this ranch, only one bed in this room had been slept in.
Slowly cracking her eyes open, Historia smiled at the face resting only inches from her own. Pale pink lips, faint brown freckles dotted generously across both cheeks and dark grey eyes which others might have found intimidating, but not Historia who could easily get lost in those dark orbs for hours on end.
"Good morning," Historia whispered, smiling at the women she loved.
Ymir smiled back, leaning forward to plant a kiss against her girlfriend's lips. Historia happily melted into it, letting the sensation of Ymir's soft lips erase all the worries on her mind.
She didn't think about Reiner being just down the hallway, able to turn into a Titan at a moment's notice.
She didn't think about Armin and Mikasa and their plan to deal with Bertholdt.
She didn't think about Eren and the Commander heading to the capital for questioning.
The only thought in her mind was how she wished this could last forever.
Ymir was still smiling when she broke the kiss, her slightly swollen lips parting to speak. "It is now that you're awake, Krista."
And just like the moment was gone. The happiness, the warmth, the love, all of it turned to ash in her mouth.
Historia couldn't stop herself from flinching from hearing the fake name, breaking eye contact with Ymir and fixing her gaze at the wall behind the confused brunette.
"Krista, what's wrong?" Bringing a hand out from under the sheet, Ymir brought it to Historia's face and gently caressed her cheek.
Normally such a gesture would have turned Historia into a carefree putty, but now it only served as a reminder to just how much she hated that name.
'I'm not Krista. Krista doesn't exist. Everything about her is a lie.'
It made her so angry knowing that every time Ymir confessed her love or affection, it was to a made-up person and not to her. And worse of all, Historia knew she only had herself to blame. She had been the one to keep up this ridiculous act around Ymir all this time and why?
Because Armin and Mikasa didn't trust Ymir? Because they were worried that by just telling Ymir her real name it would somehow lead to all three of them being discovered?
'They don't know her as I do. They only saw her mask, they never saw what lay beneath.'
Yes, Historia understood why all three of them had to lie to others, and she knew it probably tore the pair of them apart lying to Eren, but at least they had each other for support. At least they didn't have to lie about their real name to the person they loved.
'No... No more,' Historia decided firmly, 'I owe Ymir my name, and if they don't like it, then they can find someone else to help them.'
With her mind made up, Historia took a steadying breath and looked back into Ymir's eyes.
"Ymir, there's something I want to tell you something I should have done months ago."
Reaching up, Historia rested her hand on top of Ymir's and pulled it between their prone forms. "Krista Lenz isn't my name. That was the name I was told to use before joining the military."
Ymir draws in a breath, staring intently at Historia as she bared one of her many secrets.
"My name… my real name… is Historia Reiss." Historia breathlessly confessed.
When the only reaction she received was a slow, methodical blink, Historia panicked and started to ramble. "I'm sorry. I should have told you a long time ago. I wanted to, but I couldn't. Reiss isn't a name that should be thrown around, it's dangerous, and if people found out, they could get hurt. I didn't want you to get-"
The slender finger pressed against her lips halts her frantic explanations.
"Historia, huh…" Ymir spoke the name as if trying it out to see how it sounded. Then she smiled. Not one of her silly half smirks or a cheesy grin, but a real genuine smile. The type of smile that was only reserved for her. "That's a good name."
"You're… you're not mad?"
"Never." Ymir shook her head, that beautiful smile still on her face. "I know we both have secrets, Historia, things we haven't told each other. But I'll never hold that against you because nothing will change the way I feel about you. And I hope that when I'm brave enough to tell you mine, you won't hold it against me either." She finished quietly, pulling the teary-eyed Historia into a hug.
"Thank you." Even when muffled, no one could have missed the tangible relief in Historia's voice. "And I won't. Ever."
They stayed like that for a while, in each other's arms. Birds chirped and sang outside their window, as Historia rested her head against her beloved's chest, listening to the steady beat of her heart, as the few happy tears that had escaped her now notably brighter blue eyes dried on her cheeks.
"So," Historia nearly jumped when Ymir cleared her throat, having been on the edge of drifting back to sleep in the comfortable embrace. "What should I call you when the others are about? You said you were worried about them knowing."
With a tiny frown, Historia lifted her head up and considered Ymir's question. She, of course, wanted all of her friends to know and use her actual name, but with her 'father' still around there was a genuine danger in telling them.
However, she thought, if everything went to plan, and Armin and Mikasa managed to take down Bertholdt, it's entirely possible that after dealing with Reiner, the three of them would finally reveal the whole truth to the corp and their friends, possibly even within the next few days.
She didn't know how she felt about that, but for now, with the most important person in her life already informed, she was willing to continue the Krista act for a little while longer.
"Stick with Krista for now, but when we're alone, please call me Historia."
With a low hum of assent, the smile on Ymir's face started to slowly turn into her signature smirk. "Well then Miss Reiss, now that's been settled, I reckon we've got some time to kill before big nose wants us up. Any ideas?" Ymir asked, cocking an eyebrow.
"You're incorrigible," Historia muttered as she rolled her eyes, a reaction which only fueled Ymir's smirk. "But," she spoke in a low voice, as her own playful grin started to form, "I can think of one or two things we could do to pass the time since you've been so… accommodating."
Poor Ymir never stood a chance against the enthusiastic blond, who with a surprising amount of strength, rolled Ymir onto her back. Straddling her belly, Historia grinned down at the wide-eyed Ymir, loving how her dark freckles contrasted against her bright red face.
"Very accommodating." she purred as both her hands started to wander.
Both of them were late to breakfast that morning.
Down the hallway, in another room, Reiner's eyes snapped open, and he stared straight up at the unfamiliar ceiling, gasping for breath. He had been having that damn dream again, the one which always left him shaken and confused.
Who was that boy by the campfire? Why did he look at him with those downcast eyes? And why did he seem so Wall's damn familiar?
Reiner was sure he had seen that boy before, but every time he tried to think where he had seen him, Reiner came up blank. A part of him believed that the boy was just a figment of his imagination, that his face was just an amalgamation of other people he had seen, mashed today by his brain for some unknown reason.
Yet the painful, throbbing headache he always suffered from after that dream told him something was amiss.
With a disgruntled sigh, Reiner rose from the bed, pulling the sheet from his bare chest and swinging his legs over the side, letting his feet touch the cold wooden floor as he rested his head in his hands.
'Who are you? And why do I keep seeing you?' Pressing his fingers into his scalp, Reiner considered the possibility he was going a bit stir crazy, and that this was some traumatic side effect of losing his village to the Titans, then joining the military and fighting Titans at such a young age.
A bitter chuckle left his lips. This was not the glorious start to his military service, he had hoped. First nearly dying in the fiasco that was Trost, then falling asleep on his first expedition and now suffering from recurring dreams about some random kid with swept-back hair and sad eyes.
Peaking between his fingers across the room, Reiner could see his roommate shifting about in bed, snoring and lazily pawing at his pillow as he slept.
Realising Connie wasn't going to be much of a conversationalist right now, Reiner turned to his tried and tested method of distracting himself from the dreams. Exercise.
Rising from the bed, Reiner dropped to the floor in a push-up position and started the first of many reps.
XXXX
When Connie wakes himself up with a particularly loud snore sometime later, the first thing he hears in the otherwise silent room is a low grunting sound, echoing off the walls. With a great degree of trepidation, Connie rubbed his sleep heavy eyes and rolled onto his side toward the source of the noise, wanting to get this over with as soon as possible.
When he sees it's just Reiner doing his morning exercises, instead of the other thing which usually resulted in strange noises this early in the morning, Connie let out an audible sigh of relief.
Early mornings had never quite been the same for Connie since he had shared that tent with Daz several months ago…
"Mornin'." Connie yawned, "What's the time? You been up long?" He queried, noticing the thin sheen of sweat coating Reiner's exposed back.
"It's early and maybe an hour?" Reiner answered with a shrug, finally stopping his exercise now that his arms were burning and felt like lead weights. "I lost track."
With a shake of his head, Connie just muttered, "You're crazy, man. I dunno why you do this to yourself." He felt tired just looking at Reiner working out this early in the morning. "Ain't the normal training bad enough?"
Pushing himself up, Reiner shot the buzzcut scout a toothy grin. "It takes a lot of work to look this good, Connie." To prove his point, Reiner flexed his arms, proudly brandishing his massive biceps to his roommate. "Damn good." He loudly whispered, giving his right bicep a quick kiss, loving how it felt rock hard beneath his lips.
"Yeah, whatever man, I still think you're insane." Connie grumbled, trying not to stare at Reiner who was now making his pecs jump up and down independently.
Usually, Connie was reasonably proud of his own well-shaped body, but looking at Reiner always made him feel wholly inadequate. The blond behemoth, the nickname he had granted Reiner when they first met, had a body which looked like it had been carved from stone.
'Lucky bastard.' He silently grumbled.
Grabbing an old t-shirt from his bed, Reiner dabbed away some of the sweat which had formed on his forehead. Glancing at the brooding Connie out the corner of his eye, an idea suddenly formed in Reiner's mind.
Calling over his shoulder, Reiner fought to keep his face and voice straight as he set his bait. "I think you should join me sometime, Connie."
"Why the hell would I do that? I barely get enough sleep as it is." Still dealing with the feeling of inadequacy that came from seeing a bare-chested Reiner, Connie haplessly walked into the trap.
"Well," Reiner drawled, a smirk breaking out on his face, "if you get a body like mine, then you might finally get Sasha to crave another kind of meat."
"WHAT?!" Connie half-shouted, half-choked as he shot up. "I… We… That's… It's not like that!" Connie tried to glare at Reiner, but his incandescent red face stole any heat the look may have had.
"We're just friends!" He insisted but struggled to set a convincing tone of voice, especially when the memory of the dream he had a few days ago forced its way to the forefront of his mind.
'Could she really bend like that?'
Reiner just laughed. "Ha! Oh sure you are, Sash and Connie, the totally platonic duo. Maybe next time we get leave the two of you could go on a 'just friends' double date with Armin and Mikasa."
"Fuck you, man." Connie growled, reaching for his pillow.
Dodging the hastily thrown cushion, Reiner ran to the door and duck out of the room while still laughing to avoid any further projectiles the blushing Connie might wish to hurl at him.
Wiping away a lone tear of mirth, Reiner strolled down the corridor toward the washroom with a smile, his morning dream long since forgotten.
Six scouts sat around a table, three boys facing three girls, all looking at one another with suspicious eyes and bated breath. Any outsider who may have strode across such a sight may have assumed this was a battle between the sexes, but such a notion is folly, for there could only be one winner from this battle.
Every one of them knew the stakes at play. Each of them knew that one wrong move, one miscalculation or a slip of the tongue, and it would be all over for them.
As the minutes ticked by, the tension between the six combatants continued to grow as the conflict heated up, with each attack being met with a swift reprisal strike.
All of the parties had taken hits in this engagement. Some had suffered only grazing shots, reminding them not to get cocky. Others had taken crippling blows and were left dangling on the ropes for all to see.
The tension had become some great, it had become almost palpable, like some oppressive bubble wrapping around them, cutting off the rest of the world.
"Sasha," One of the boys finally spoke, drawing steely gazes from his five opponents. He did not waver under the combined scrutiny, having grown used to such displays after years of experience. He kept his voice calm and collected as he stared at his selected foe.
The brief flicker of dread in her eyes told him everything he needed to know. Sasha knew she was finished, and now victory was finally within his grasp. The boy smiled, content in the knowledge of his impending triumph.
"Do you have any sevens?"
"Shit!" Sasha growled in frustration, moodily tossing two playing cards over the table at the smiling Marco. "Can't we play somethin' else? I hate this game."
"Stop whining Potato girl. Ain't much else to do to pass the time." Ymir held her cards close to her chest, shooting Sasha a sideways glance. "Oh, and your accent is slipping again, Miss country bumpkin."
"Wha'?! I mean, what?! I'm not- I don't-" Sasha stammered, trying to collect herself as she forced her fake city accent back into place.
Having got her moment of amusement from Sasha's reaction, and after receiving a small nudge for Historia in the ribs, Ymir turned her gaze back to the cards. She didn't care about the game all that much, but it was one of the few things they could do while the veteran scouts were out preparing whatever activities they had planned for them.
As Ymir deliberated on her new move, looking over the other players with a critical eye, she couldn't help but notice how Reiner's eyes briefly flickered toward Historia and stayed there for half a heartbeat longer than necessary. Then again, Ymir considered any length of time that moron looked at her girlfriend to be unnecessary. Worse still was the fact she had already caught him doing it twice before.
Growing tired of his perving, Ymir called his name. "Braun," she said, drawing his gaze with a tone of voice so sickly sweet that the others had to do a quick double-take to make sure it was, in fact, Ymir who had spoken at all. "See something you like?"
That seemed to take the broad-chested boy by surprise, and he stared at Ymir for a few seconds like she was crazy. Eventually, Reiner must have realised he had been caught stealing a look at Historia, and now Ymir was calling him out in her own bizarre way.
"Not anymore." He grumbled, pointedly staring at his rival's freckled face.
"Shame," Ymir fired back. "if only I was a lanky loner with a sweating problem. You'd be all over that."
Bringing up and insulting Bertholdt was always a quick and easy way to upset the blond, cutting through his macho man act like a hot knife through butter. Reiner's eyes narrowed in anger, and she repaid the favour, narrowing her own in a challenge, daring him to do or say something about it.
Connie and Sasha sighed wearily at the 'argument' between their feuding comrades. At best it would end in a deafening silence between the two which would hang over the group for hours, and at worst it would turn into another shouting match which would leave their ears ringing.
"Aren't you gonna say something, Krista?" Sasha whispered to the girl sitting beside her. She thought it was strange how Krista hadn't already stepped in like usual, but then again the pint-sized scout had been quiet ever since the boys had joined them during breakfast. Krista mumbled something under her breath and went back to focusing on her cards with an intensity Sasha had rarely seen.
'Maybe she's got a really good hand.'
Before any more could be said, and before the tense staring match between Ymir and Reiner could escalate, Macro pointed at something out the window.
"Hey guys, you seeing this? I think something is going on outside." All five of them followed his finger, peering through the window at what was happening. The dozen other recruits occupying the other tables also turned to look, with some standing up and shuffling over to the windows to get a closer look.
"What's going on?" One called.
"Who are they?" Another joined in.
"Look at the badges. It's the MPs." The mention of the premier division triggered a buzz of conversation to shoot through the room.
"MPs? Why are they here?" Connie wondered aloud, giving words to what everyone else was thinking.
Reiner, who had broken away from his staring match with Ymir and her creepy grey eyes, put a hand on Connie's buzz-cut head and pushed him down to get a better view. He could see a group of seven MPs conversing with Squad leader Mike about something, while another five MP hung back, standing guard over the horses and wagon they had all arrived on.
All of them were armed, rifles slung over shoulders, or held lazily in their hands. It shouldn't have bothered him, the rifles were standard issue equipment for the MPs, but for some reason the sight of it made his mouth go dry.
'Twelve MPs… What the hell? They normally work in pairs or small groups, so why are there so many? What's happened?'
He couldn't hear what was being said between the MPs and the Scouts, but he could see in their body language that this conversation was anything but civil. The MPs did not look happy and kept jabbing their fingers in the direction of the ranch, only to be answered by Mike pointing them straight back to their horses.
"I dunno man, but they look pissed off." Reiner confessed as Connie struggled to shake off his hand.
"Should we go outside?" Marco asked with a tiny quiver in his voice, having watched the tense confrontation and counted the number of MPs (and rifles) outside.
"I-"
Before he could finish Reiner was cut off by a mix of shocked and horrified gasps from the amassed recruits as without warning one of the MPs lifted up his rifle and smashed the butt of it across Mike's face, knocking the squad leader to the ground with a bloody and likely broken nose.
In an instant, the other MPs launched themselves at the five still standing members of Squad Mike. Thomas, Lynee and Henning were taken entirely by surprise and were taken down without much of a struggle.
Gelgar put up more of a fight, wildly lashing out with his fists with a feral scream of outrage, catching one female MP right in the throat. The blow brought the woman down, choking and gasping for air.
Unfortunately for the booze-loving scout, the other MPs didn't take too kindly to seeing one of their own down her knees and turned their ire against him with a vengeance. With a combination of a punch to the stomach and a rifle stock to his leg, Gelgar was brought low and kept there but two MPs who rained down kicks upon his fallen form.
The last scout standing, Namaba, roared in anger at what the MP had done to her friends and tackled one of the kicking soldiers to the ground and wrapped her hands tightly around his throat, intended to choke the life out of him in pure unadulterated fury. Her furious wrath was cut short, however, when another rifle-butt came crashing into her temple, sending her unconscious and twitching body into the dirt.
The fight lasted less than 30 seconds, and left all six veteran scouts on the floor, unconscious, injured or held hostage at gunpoint with only two MPs being either lightly injured or merely shaken up in return.
"...fuck." One of the recruits whimpered, shattered the stillness that had fallen over them as they watched the one-sided beatdown.
Disbelief turned into fear, and fear turned into panic as three of the seven MPs stepped over the fallen scouts and strode toward the ranch with marked indifference. The recruits still staring out the windows quickly backed away, stumbling over each other in their haste to not be spotted by the seemingly rogue MPs.
But there was one person who was panicking more than all the others combined. Cold sweat dripped down her back as her shaking hands curled into fists. Historia knew precisely what was happening even before the MPs attacked Captain Mike and his squad.
'No, no, no! This can't be happening, why are they here?! Is HE here?' Historia breathing had become shallow and erratic, as her heart pounded against her chest. If Kenny was here, they were in serious trouble, but if he wasn't, then that could only mean one thing.
Kenny would be going after…
'Shit, Eren!'
It was too soon, far too soon. Eren hadn't used the founding Titan yet, so why were the MPs coming after her now of all times? Unless… unless they had changed something which forced their hand.
"We got the spinal fluid from your father. Before you returned, we made our way to the Reiss church up north, hoping he stored the injections somewhere within the crystal caves. But when we arrived, he was there." Armin had told her a few weeks after her return when she had asked how they had already taken the Female Titan.
"We… interrogated him until he told us where to find them." He finished, glancing at Mikasa before turning back to her. Perhaps he was worried about her reaction to what they had done to Rod.
"Is he alive?" She asked, setting her jaw.
He nodded, and her unspoken 'why' hung in the air between them.
Armin rolled his shoulder, working out the knots that had formed during the day's training. "Even without the founding Titan, he's still the leader of the shadow government. Killing him would have destabilised the government far too early for us to take advantage of, and with him dead, you would be the sole survivor of the Reiss bloodline." He gave her an apologetic look as he brought up that sensitive topic. "There was a possibility the government may have tried to take you, either to make you their puppet or…" he trailed off with a grimace.
Mikasa made a noise which could only be considered a disgusted growl.
She ignored it, contemplating what she had been told. Historia was quiet for a few moments, then sighed. "You should have killed him."
She had meant it then, and that conviction had only hardened in time. Leaving Rod alive was a mistake, regardless of what the rest of the Government might have done.
Rod might have been a coward, and a petty excuse for a man, but he was like a virus. If he wasn't destroyed entirely, he would just keep coming back worse than ever.
And that's precisely what he had done. Having probably been in hiding since Armin and Mikasa interrogated him, brooding on his own mortality and fragility, Rod had decided to make his move early.
The approaching MPs came to a halt halfway to the building, with the man in the middle taking a single step forward, quickly highlighting him as the leader.
"Attention scouts," He shouted up to the ranch, "We are here from one person, and one person only. If you hand Historia Reiss over to us, there will be no further need for violence!"
While most of the 104th looked around at each other, fear and confusion etched on their faces as they repeated the name, Ymir's posture stiffened, and Historia could see the muscles in her neck straining to stop her head from swivelling round to face her.
"Or perhaps she still goes by her fake name, lying to you all through her teeth! If you come out now, no one else has to be hurt! Your choice, Krista Lenz!"
As one, the 104th recruits silently turned to face her, some with a new emotion plastered on their face. Betrayal.
Her hands flexed by her sides.
"K-Krista?" Macro whispered, his already pale face turning chalk white.
Unsure what to say, Historia just gave a tiny nod, confirming what the MP had said.
Someone took a step towards her, but Ymir moved faster. In one smooth movement, Ymir drew herself to her full height and pushed Historia behind her, standing in front of the rest of the 104th like an impassable organic wall.
"Don't. You. Dare." The quiet growl that escaped her lips stopped the approaching recruit dead. He looked back and forth between Ymir and the window, outside which the MPs were waiting, with a pained expression on his face.
"They only want her." He gestured at the window, getting several nods and mumbled agreements in response. "And she must have done something bad if the MPs want her."
"Fuck that!" Connie spat out, stepping over to stand beside Ymir. "You saw what the MPs did to Captain Mike. What do ya' think they'll do to Krista?!"
"Yeah, I did. And what do you think they'll do to us if we don't hand her over?!" The frightened boy snapped back, to the baying approval of others.
With that, the die was cast, and two factions began to coalesce around the fearful boy and the stony face Ymir. The former made up of those who wanted to give the MPs what they asked for, and the latter who were disgusted at the very notion.
Arguments started, shoving took place, and a punch was almost thrown, all while the MPs still stood outside, silently waiting.
Reiner could see the situation deteriorating before his very eyes, and knew that if this continued, they'd end up beating the crap out of each other, only to have the MPs stride in and take Krista anyway.
So with no one else willing or able to take control, Reiner fell back on the old military adage which had been drilled into them during training. In the absence of a superior officer or standing orders, leadership authority is to fall back onto the most capable soldier present. And, with all veterans out for the count, and Armin & Mikasa not here, Reiner, with his 3rd place graduate position, was the most capable soldier present.
'Come on, Reiner. Time to prove you're worth your place, and if this doesn't get me placed in a good squad, nothing will. Maybe the special Ops squad with Eren. That'd be sweet.'
Summoning his courage and banishing away the nerves over what he was about to do, Reiner slammed his fist onto the table as loudly as he could and bellowed out loud enough to shake the window planes. "QUIET!"
The room stilled as panicked shouting was silenced by his booming voice.
Being the biggest guy in the room always helped when it came to getting people to listen to you.
"Alright, listen up. I don't know why the MPs want Krista, but they can go hang. We are not abandoning one of our own." He cooly surveyed the room, making sure everyone was listening to him. "If I hear one more suggestion of handing her over, you'll be the one who gets thrown out with broken legs, understand? Good. Now, this is what we're going to do."
"Ymir, Sash, take Krista to one of the back rooms overlooking the woods. When you get the chance I want you to slip out the window and make a run for it, get as far away from here as you can. Connie, Marco, go check the storage room, see if there's anything in there we could use to defend ourselves. The rest of you, push the tables up and use them to block the windows, then take cover. Let them come to us."
Reiner looked out the window and saw the MPs still standing there, idly waiting for Krista to come out. He knew they wouldn't be long before they got bored of waiting and decided to enter the ranch and drag Krista out themselves, regardless of the casualties they had to inflict on the unprepared scouts.
They needed more time, and Reiner knew just how to get it.
"I'm going out there to see what this mess is all about, which will buy us some time. Once I've left, barricade the door and don't let anyone but me back in. Marco will be in charge while I'm out." He looked back at his silent comrades, all standing about with mouths agape. "NOW!" he snapped at them.
At this point, their conditioning as soldiers kicked in, and a frenzy of activity erupted. While many of them may not have agreed or liked the orders, they were privately glad someone had stepped up and taken charge of the situation. Soon the room was filled with the creaking wood and groaning troops as chairs and tables were lifted up and manoeuvred into their designated place.
Reiner almost smiled at the sight of impromptu squads starting to form to fulfil his commands. Just like they had been trained to.
Shadis would be proud.
'Hell if this goes well I might even get my own squad after this. Squad Braun. That has a nice ring to it.'
Historia just stared at Reiner's back, totally bewildered by his actions. When he sat at their table, and his wandering eye landed on her, it had made her skin crawl, but now as she watched him take command to protect her from her father's schemes, she didn't know what to think.
She didn't understand why he was doing this. Reiner's whole purpose for being on their island was to wipe them out, so why was he trying to help her? Was this just part of his act, further embedding himself in the corps circle of trust, or was this part of his illness, the one that made him think he was one of them?
"Reiner," she called, blurting out the name of the boy who had killed thousands. "Why?" she wanted to ask but found that he had already walked toward the door.
Stepping through the door, into the fresh late morning air, Reiner walked down the path towards the MPs and came to a stop blocking their possible route to the ranch.
If they tried to push past him, he reckoned he could overpower one of them, maybe two if he was really lucky, but either way, Reiner swore he wouldn't go down easy.
"Where's Reiss?" The leader of the MPs demanded to know. He was a tall, ugly man, with watery blue eyes unevenly set in his wrinkled face. A large scar ran over his pale lips, and when he opened his mouth to speak, it revealed a set of yellowed, crooked teeth, a few of which had rotted away entirely.
Suppressing a shiver, Reiner ignored the question and fired back one of his own. "Attacking a soldier during a time of war is treason. I demand to know who you are, and why you attacked the scouts?"
The man sneered and spat on the ground. "I don't answer to you, boy. Now tell me where she is, or you'll end up like them." He jabbed a thumb over his shoulder at the incapacitated squad Mike.
Reiner kept his face as straight as possible as he glanced over at the older scouts. The few who were still conscious had been forced onto their knees and had a rifle barrel jabbed between their shoulder blades, the implication clear. One wrong move and the MPs would kill them.
Before he turned back to the MPs facing him, Reiner managed to catch the eye of Captain Mike, whose famous nose had been smashed across his face and was covered in blood.
The Captain stared at him for a moment, his expression grim and pained, before inclining his head a fraction of an inch. Whether it was a sign of respect or simple acknowledgement for what he was doing, Reiner did not know. It was just as likely the man slipping in and out of consciousness, and the movement of his head had been nothing more than a man about to pass out.
But the movement gave Reiner the courage he needed to stand firm in front of these cowardly MPs who had so shamelessly attacked his unarmed and unprepared superiors.
"Let them go first, then we can talk." He spoke loudly, hoping his voice would carry all the way to the veterans.
The scarred leader just scoffed at his demand, and with a simple hand gesture, the veteran scouts he had insisted on being freed were kicked to the ground and had the gun barrels pushed even harder into their backs.
"That ain't a negotiation, kid. You have nothing, and the only reason I'm letting you talk at all is because I don't want to waste a bullet. Now, bring me Reiss, and we'll be on our way."
Reiner contemplated his options. If all was going well, Krista would be sneaking out the back of the ranch as they speak, and would hopefully be sprinting toward the forest. He needed to buy just a few more minutes to make sure she was safe, but if he kept trying to delay them, the MPs might shoot the scouts to prove a point.
'Right, plan B then. Distract them.'
"We don't know where she is," Reiner blurted out, trying to sound as sheepish as possible as he brought a hand up to rub the back of his neck. "We looked for her when you called, but we couldn't fin-"
"Alright, you got me. Here I am." A loud female voice called out from behind him, stepping through the ranch's hastily unbarricaded front door. For a brief moment, Reiner is paralysed in fear, terrified that Krista had wholly ignored the plan and was handing herself over without a fight. Spinning on the balls of his feet, a bellowing shout already on his lips for her to go back inside, Reiner was instead met with a smirking Ymir calmly striding down the path toward him.
'What the hell are you doing?! Why aren't you with Krista?!' His face screamed as Ymir came to a stop beside him.
Ymir spared him a disparaging look, wordlessly telling him to shut up before turning to face the MPs and offering up a lazy salute. "Historia Reiss, reporting for duty."
The MP growled, baring his nasty teeth. "Are you trying to take me for a fool, girl? You are not Reiss."
"Is it the height?" Ymir quipped, "I had a growth spurt recently. Shot up like a tree."
Reiner wanted to scream. He knew Ymir was brash and callous, but he never thought she was this reckless. They were facing off against a bunch of armed and angry MPs who had already shown their willingness to resort to violence, and here she was making jokes.
"You are trying my patience, you little brat. I know what Reiss looks like, she had blond hair, blue eyes and would barely reach your shoulders." The MP cocked his head at Reiner, looking distinctly unimpressed at Ymir's stunt. "He would have been a more convincing double, if just for the hair colour."
Ymir hummed loudly and tapped a finger against her chin, as if deep in thought. "Short, blond hair, blues eyes… Ah-ha!" she clicked her fingers as if coming to some great realisation. "You must be looking for Arlert. He's a guy by the way, but I can understand the confusion, he's not exactly the manliest guy around. Anyway, he's in the other group, so you've wasted your time coming here, but if you hurry along you might just catch him."
She pointed to the east in the rough direction of the other recruits. "Just be careful of Ackerman though. She doesn't like it when people touch her things."
A brief flicker of something passes across the MPs' faces, with one of them taking a small step back as if to steady herself at Ymir's warning. If Reiner didn't know better, he would say it looked an awful lot like fear.
'I'm not surprised if they're scared of Mikasa. If she can carve apart forty Titans in a single battle, she could probably turn these MPs into tiny meaty chunks without breaking a sweat.'
"Boss, maybe we sho-" one the underlings murmured, a small bead of sweat forming on his brow.
"Quiet!" The man snaps at him before shooting Ymir a glare which could melt steel. "Where did you hear that name?"
Sensing an opening Ymir figuratively pounced on the agitated MPs. "Ackerman? Well scarfy and I are good friends, lotta shared interests and all that."
Despite the increasingly tense situation they were in, Reiner almost snorted in amusement. Of all the things Ymir had said in the last few minutes, her claiming to be good friends with Mikasa was probably the most barefaced lie he had ever heard.
The MPs however, had no idea about the true extent of Ymir and Mikasa's 'relationship' and frankly did not care. All they focused on was the name, and that was more than enough to unnerve them. Having to deal with an Ackerman as a Captain was bad enough, so the possibility of having to face another was not appealing in the slightest.
"Enough of this." The MP barked, the fear he had of the Ackerman currently setting up an ambush in Hermina was far greater than this rumoured Ackerman in the east. "We have no interest in your 'friends'. We have been keeping an eye on Reiss for years, and we know she is here, so stand aside, before I get really pissed off."
"No." Ymir shook her head.
"No?"
"I won't let you touch her."
"Oh? And how the fuck are you going to stop me?"
"Well, I've got this," Ymir answered with a shrug, pulling a slim blade from her back pocket and idly tapping it against her palm. Reiner felt a weird tug behind his eyes at the sight of the blade, further playing on his frayed nerves. Why did Ymir have a knife, and what the hell was she doing showing at the gun-wielding MPs?
"What are you doing?!" He hissed at her, trying to keep his fears in check. "You're gonna get us killed!"
Ymir ignored his fearful hissing and stood firm as the MPs broke into mocking laughter at the weapon she had brandished at them.
"Walls alive, are you touched in the head or something?" The MP sneered, patting his hand against his rifle. "We have guns you silly bint, so what the hell are you gonna do with that little thing?"
If Ymir was bothered by the scornful dismissal, she didn't show it. Instead, she loudly sighed and rolled her eyes. "Yeah, you do have guns, but they won't help you." She answered with a shrug, "Now unless you get back on your horses and fuck off back to where you came from, I'm going to use this 'little thing' to kill all twelve of you."
In an instant, the tense atmosphere that had enveloped the stalemate turned from chilly to downright frozen, as the threat hung in the air. Any inclination of even mocking humour from the MPs vanished entirely, replaced with furious glares and stony silence.
Reiner sucked in a breath. Now Ymir had really done it.
Without a word, the lead MP raised his rifle and pointed it straight at Ymir, who still didn't move. "Move aside." He commanded, "And maybe Reiss won't have to step over your corpse when I drag her out here."
"No." Ymir said once more, her voice disturbingly even. She had stopped tapping the knife against her hand and how simply rested the blade edge down against her palm.
"You know, I was hoping you might say that." The MP said a twisted smile and pulled the trigger.
In one of the back rooms of the ranch, Sasha was desperately clinging to the struggling Historia trying to prevent the shorter girl from rushing to the front door.
"Krista! Stop it. She'll be fine, but we've gotta go." She pleaded for the umpteenth time.
"Get off me, Sasha!" Historia shouted back, wildly lashing out with her fists. She knew what Ymir was planning, and what would happen if she did it in front of Reiner. "She's going to do something stupid! I need to get her away from them. From him."
Catching one of the surprisingly powerful blows to the stomach, Sasha's grip faltered, allowing Historia to break free and bolt for the door. Throwing open the wooden door she collided headfirst into Connie, knocking the pair of them to the ground in a tangled pile of limbs.
Connie, who had only come to give Sasha a bow and quiver of arrows he had found in the storage room for protection, was utterly unprepared for the blond stampede and crumpled to the floor with a cry of pain as Historia's knee landed between his legs.
Historia tried to roll out of the pile but found her right leg was caught in between Connie's and her left arm pinned beneath his back. The precious few seconds it took for her to free her limbs was enough for Sasha to recover from the punch and come barrelling out of the room and leap on top of the pile, grabbing hold of Historia with renewed strength and determination.
"HEY! Stop it! I don't want to hurt you, Krista!" Sasha yelled, her voice a mix of anger, pain and more than a twinge of fear.
"GET OFF!" The muffled shout against Connie's shirt was the girl's reply.
Had this happened at another time, Connie was sure he would be greatly enjoying the sensation of having Krista pinned against his chest with Sasha straddling her back. Still, right now, with the immense pain from Historia's misplaced knee and fear in his heart and mind from what was happening outside, he just wanted to know what the hell was going on.
"Hey!" he grunted through gritted teeth, struggling to breathe with the combined weight of two people laying on his chest. "What the hell is going on?!"
BANG
Before any more shouts or grunts could rise from the wriggling mass of limbs, an ear-splitting bang reverberated through the thin glass windows of the ranch. In the eerie stillness that followed the gunshot, Historia managed to lift her head up from Connie's chest, revealing her blue eyes which burnt with unshed tears.
'Don't do it. Don't do it. Don't do it.' She repeated the silent prayer again and again, as the seconds ticked by with agonising slowness. 'Just run. Don't be the hero. Be selfish and run.'
CRACK
With a mighty crack, the sky was split asunder. A brilliant bolt of orange lightning shot down from the heavens and smashed into the ground, shaking the ranch to its foundations. Historia could hear the terrified screams coming from the recruits in the other room, and finally, the tears started to fall.
"Please… not again." she whimpered, not caring if Connie or Sasha heard.
Time seemed to slow to a crawl. Birds hung in the air, their wings barely moving in the frozen wind. The MP's finger tightened around the trigger. And the muscles in Ymir's arm squeezed, pressing the knife edge down.
Without thought or reasoning, Reiner simply reacted. Pushing himself forward with a swiftness he didn't think possible, Reiner managed to reach his target in less than a heartbeat, and shoved them aside hard as he could.
A shot rang out, but the sound was muted and quiet. Even the bullet seemed to move slowly, the tiny lead ball forced out of the recoiling rifle barrel with a cloud of ignited gunpowder.
Reiner couldn't avoid the bullet, but he had made sure Ymir had.
The ball struck him like a fist, relentlessly tearing its way through his body. He could feel a rib shattering as the bullet smashed through it, before piercing his right lung, driving the air from his body. But his organs and bones hadn't slowed the bullet's passage enough to prevent the round from driving onwards, but it had managed to splinter the round into several white-hot shards, which cruelly tore out his back as they passed through it.
Reiner was driven back by the blow, a bloody hole passing straight through his chest. He wavered on his feet, and for a moment it looked like he would remain standing, but not even one the strongest of the 104th could stand up long after that.
Like a tree cut at its base, Reiner started to fall.
Yet, strangely, even as his insides were shredded and he was lifted off his feet, Reiner didn't feel any pain. In fact, he didn't feel much of anything at all.
'Is this it? Is this how I die? Saving Ymir from a bunch of mad MPs?'
Out the corner of his eye, he could see her, awkwardly splayed out on the floor from his shove. Shock evident on her frozen face as she looked back at him.
He could see that the knife she had been holding was laying on the ground some distance behind her, just out of reach.
'Honestly, what was she thinking? Threatening to fight the MPs with a knife.'
As he continued to fall backwards, Reiner found his hyperactive mind focusing on his friends; Connie, Sasha, Jean, Macro, Eren, Bertholdt. He saw their faces flash before his eyes, memories of all the times they had smiled and laughed together, all the moments of friendship they had shared over the years.
Even as he relived some of his most precious memories, Reiner found it just made him feel empty inside, completely lacking the comfort he hoped it might bring to him in his last moments. He would never get to see any of them again.
'This isn't how I thought I would go out…'
He always hoped he would live a long life, happily married to Krista and peacefully passing away in his sleep at a ripe old age surrounded by friends and family. Hell, he would have accepted dying in some heroic final battle, where he gave his life for humanity and his comrades in arms.
But as he fell with a bloody hole torn through his body, those dreams of a happy or heroic end felt just that. Dreams. He didn't feel the jubilation of a life well-lived, or the satisfaction of a final victory, even if he did save Ymir's life. Reiner just felt cold, empty and most importantly, alone.
'I- I don't want to go like this.'
Had he made a difference? Would his death allow Krista to escape, or had he just thrown it away for nothing?
Would the rogue MPs who had no hesitation in shooting unarmed teenagers be suddenly moved to tears by his sacrifice and agree to leave the others alone?
Of course not. They would probably step over him before his body even got cold.
Reiner felt himself finally slamming into the ground, the impact driving out the air he still had in his single working lung. Blood started to fill his mouth as he stared up at the cloudless blue sky.
He must have bitten his tongue during the landing, and from the amount of blood now spilling from the edge of his lips he must have nearly bitten the thing in two, yet Reiner still couldn't feel a thing.
'I-I don't want to die.' The soldier whimpered, feeling the icy hand of death starting to fold around him. His two possible causes of death: blood loss or suffocation via his own blood were seemingly locked in a morbid race to reap his soul.
'I don't want to die.' He repeated desperately as darkness began to encroach upon his vision, turning the blue sky into a fuzzy grey malaise.
He was so cold now like the ground had just sucked any remaining heat from his body.
'Please… I don't want to die.' The soldier begged, as his heart gave its last few faltering beats.
'I want to…'
"Live." The single choking word that escaped his blood-stained lips was so soft that it was barely a whisper, yet it seemed to echo for an eternity.
The whole world seemed to go quiet as if Mother Nature herself was holding her breath at the long rattling exhale which followed this dying wish.
In another dimension, a little girl sat lifelessly in the endless expanse of sand, staring with unblinking empty eyes at the ground. In front of her stood the sole mark on this otherwise featureless place, a giant pillar of purest cobalt which climbed infinitely high above her downcast head until its nine branches became one with the glittering stars above.
Time and space had no meaning in this place, so the girl sat there, alone and silent, sometimes for days, sometimes for centuries. Both could pass in the blink of an eye.
From nowhere, a disembodied voice drifted through the empty realm, shattering the silence.
"I want to live." It echoed, crawling over the sand toward the girl like a vicious desert viper hunting its next meal.
The little girl slowly looked up at the pillar, feeling the familiar tug on her fractured soul.
It was a selfish plea. A desperate desire of a dying boy, not wanting to go quietly into that good night. It was an objective, a wish, a goal.
For what could have been the first time in aeons, the little girl started to move. Rising from the ground with unnatural grace, the girl turned and lifted up the closet thing she had to a companion in this dead world, and held it tight.
Ever silent, the girl and her bucket moved away from the now pulsing pillar to find a suitable place to build.
One of the nine had called to her, and she must obey.
Whenever Ymir recalled that day, and those few immortalised seconds when everything changed, the memories always came to her like some strange out of body experience, as if it had happened to some other Ymir and she had just 'borrowed' those memories.
She could remember it all in perfect gut-churning clarity, yet it never felt any less surreal.
Ymir could remember the sensation of the morning air lightly blowing through her hair as she stared at the MPs, nearly shivering at the cold kiss of steel against her palm. Her blade was primed and ready to go, with a quick tug of her hand would split the smooth unmarked skin beneath it apart and awaken the beast within her.
She had been so close to revealing her greatest secret then and there in order to protect the woman she loved. At the time she didn't know the MPs true intentions, only that they were a threat to Historia. That was enough for her.
But if she had known the truth about why they were there, and what they wanted Historia to do, she would have transformed the second she left the confines of the ranch, rather than trying to trick and intimate them into going first.
But as the MP's finger tightened around the trigger, and the edge of her blade started to split the surface of her palm she was suddenly knocked aside by a solid mass of blond hair and muscles which was moving faster than it had any right to be.
Reiner, that insane, stupid, fool of a boy had shoved her aside, taking the bullet meant for her.
She had watched wide-eyed in horror as his large body toppled back, blood spurting out his chest, turning his white shirt dark crimson. It seemed to take an age for his body to hit the ground, but when it did, the hard meaty thump was enough to shake Ymir out of her trance-like state. Scrambling like a wild animal, Ymir threw herself toward the fallen knife, pure fear-driven instinct overruling her more logical side.
Had she been in the right state of mind, Ymir would have just bitten down on her tongue or her hand like Yeager, but as the icy tendrils of fear and dismay sunk into her mind after seeing the MPs murder a 15-year-old in cold blood, the frenzied rush of adrenaline forced her to reclaim the blade she used to shift.
And it was that split-second decision to go after the knife rather than biting herself which probably saved her life.
For as she dived for the knife, a second sun materialised behind her, consuming the area where she had just been sprawled out in a titanic explosion. The powerful shockwave of the blast slammed into her back like an invisible wall, launching her through the air like a ragdoll.
As she spun through the air, Ymir could feel the heat from the detonation wash over her, scorching her exposed skin and setting the tips of her hair aflame from the sheer intensity. After what felt like a lifetime of burning pain and nauseating spins, gravity reasserted its dominance over her rag-dolling form as brought Ymir back down to earth with a sickening thud.
Lying face down in the dirt, partially knocked senseless by the bone-rattling landing, Ymir desperately fought to stay conscious. Her much-needed healing abilities kicked in and set to work mending the numerous bone fractures and charred skin all over her body. The small wisps of steam which rose from her body mixed in with the smoke from her smouldering clothes.
Waking from her stupor, Ymir spat out a glob of blood into the dirt as the concussive forces of the explosion racking her body started to fade.
'Shiiit, my head.' She silently moaned, feeling like her skull was about to crack in half. 'What the fuck was that?'
With her ears ringing, Ymir let out a drawn-out groan as she cracked open a single eye, hoping to discover what that explosion was. As the red splodges and stars in her vision started to fade and she stopped seeing double, the source of the detonation came into clear focus, and Ymir froze.
'No…' Her own mind started to rebel at what it was seeing, refusing to acknowledge the truth even as it happened in front of her. It couldn't be… it just couldn't. It wasn't possible.
Yet the impossible continued to play out in front of her. Through the cloud of the dust swirling around where Reiner's body had been, Ymir could make out the dark silhouette of something truly vast starting to move, and she could feel the vibrations in the ground as it pushed itself to its feet.
The MPs who hadn't been killed or knocked out by the blast, stared up at the obscured figure with wide eyes and open mouths, as the first inklings of unearthly dread started to sliver its way into their souls.
As a particularly strong gust of wind blew across the field, banishing the veil of dust away, it revealed the thing's massive body in all its harrowing glory, and Ymir nearly stopped breathing.
There, standing only a few dozen metres away from her was 15m of muscle, flesh and armoured plate which towered over everything in sight. The destroyer of Wall Maria stood perfectly still in the very heartlands of Wall Rose, staring down at its own giant hands with two shining red eyes.
It didn't react when the MPs started to scream and flee.
It didn't react when one of the braver, or dumber, MPs lifted a rifle in shaking hands and discharged a single round which bounced off its chest with all the impact of a raindrop.
It didn't react when the few conscious scouts scrambled backwards, dragging their injured comrades away from the unmoving Titan.
It just continued its unblinking stare, totally transfixed on the armoured palms.
With a purposeful slowness which bordered on hesitation, the Armoured Titan brought its hands to its face and ran them over the sharp contours of its facial armour and serrated, pointed jaw.
As it probed at its own face, the Titan started to shake. It began as a small quiver in its hands, tightly pressed against its monstrous face, and quickly spread down the tree-trunk thick arms. Within seconds, its entire body was twitching with barely contained convulsions, as if it was suffering from some kind of seizure.
Then it did something that Ymir would remember for the rest of her life.
In all her days to come, no matter how high she rose or low she fell, no matter how many ordeals she overcame or how much suffering she endured, Ymir would forever be haunted by the memory of when the Armoured Titan threw back its head…
And screamed.
Woohoo. This chapter is a big one for Hisu and Ymir, and for Reiner. I wanted to shake up the reveal a bit and thought what better way than by allowing soldier Reiner to discover he is the armoured titan. Goodbye, whatever sanity he had left.
Hope you guys and gals enjoyed it! And if you did, then let me direct you toward Isil'zha BLZ and their time-travel fic 'A Second Chance'. Seriously if you haven't read it already then stop whatever it is you're doing and go read it! It's a proper time-travel fic that is incredibly well written and thought out story (unlike my chicken scratchings!) so hopefully you will love it as much as I do!