Chapter 6 Sins
After break time is over, Ray says, "Okay, now in the last episode, I'm sure that you have some questions about Historia's family, and how Eren was chained up like that. There will be answers regarding this episode."
"Finally, I mean, I want to know what is with my family..." Historia says.
"I'm sure you'll find out soon enough." Eren says as the scene starts.
Eren was trying to struggle free from the chains, but then he failed and noticed Historia, dressed white, standing in front of him. "Historia?"
"Eren, you're awake? Just hang in there a while longer. Everything's fine." Historia pleaded.
Historia's all right? Eren was both confused and relieved to see her again.
"Eren, listen to me. My father has been an ally to all of humanity within the walls, for many years past and many years to come. We were clearly mistaken about him."
"What's wrong with you, Historia? Didn't you see what they did in the previous episodes?" Sasha asks.
"I...I don't know why I am saying this to Eren." Historia also widens her eyes. "Is it because the King's my father?"
"It's true that he's been a problem for the Scouts, and his people did kill Pastor Nick... But he didn't have any other choice. Everything he's done, he had to do for the sake of humanity."
Just then, Rod Reiss walked in and said, "Historia. Let me explain the rest."
Eren saw Rod and remembered something. It's coming back to me... Yeah... The last thing I can remember is those two.
The scene showed Historia and Rod's reunion and how Historia was crying. How long has it been? Captain... Armin... What happened to the Scouts?
"Even though you were kidnapped, you still think of us..." Armin gasps.
"Yeah. Considering what happened in the previous episodes, I was really worried." Eren says.
"Eren..." Mikasa smiles at how caring he is, it is why she likes him.
Eren looked around and saw unusual glowing crystals that form the walls of the cavern. What's up with these walls, glowing like that...? I can't tell if it's day or night...
To think there is a place like that under the Reiss Chapel... Erwin thinks. Maybe we should check out the place as well.
No, hold on a second... Haven't I been to this place before? Eren wondered.
"What's wrong? This is the first time you've come here." Rod said, he held Historia's hand as they walked towards him. "Though, it wouldn't be strange if you recognize it."
What does he mean by that? Eren thought.
"Do you think it is related to the Titan powers that Eren had?" Armin asks.
"It might be possible." Hange says. "That's why I definitely want to know more about this."
"F-father, explain to Eren." Historia said, and Rod reached out his hand and said, "Yes. I intend to. However, there's something I want to try first. If we do this, he may remember all on his own."
As both Historia and Rod touched Eren's back, electricity started to flow at Eren as memories were showing in his mind. He saw the whole Reiss family in front of him. What... is this?
And they also noticed Frieda had bitten her hand. "These aren't things I've seen..."
And then they also noticed how he grabbed members of the family, with the boy screaming for Rod, and then the burned chapel. Whose memories are these?!
Then the scene showed the Interior Police, the Basement key in his hand. The key! And then he saw himself as he was trying to inject a serum into his younger self. It can't be...
And he watched how little Eren turned into a pure Titan and ate him. Then in front of him, a titan skeleton and a broken arm were on the ground. The young Eren holding a pair of glasses with tears in his eyes. "Dad?"
Then Eren let out a scream before he got back to his scenes.
Everyone is too stunned to see what is going on. Eren is also watching the scene with shock. Connie asks, "Can somebody explain what is going on here? Because I don't understand..."
Ray says, "Historia, like on the TV, can you touch Eren for a second?"
Historia nods as she walks toward Eren, after touching him, Eren widens his eyes as he feels the same thing that happened on the TV, he lets out a scream, and Mikasa yells, "Eren!"
Eren kneels to the ground, and Jean asks, "How is Historia able to do that to Eren? And what is going on here?"
Eren says, "I remember... Those memories... they belonged to my father. He was the previous Rough Titan, and he made me a pure Titan and had me eat him to gain his powers..."
"So that makes scene." Hange says, "Ray said that in order to gain the powers, one must become a pure titan and then eat the previous Titan holder... so that means Eren got his powers by eating his father."
"But why? Why would he do this?" Eren asks.
"And why was your father attacking my family?" Historia asks. "I want to know as well..."
Ray says nothing as she continues the episode.
Rod said, "Did you remember? Your father's sin..." Historia was also holding her head while trying to process everything.
The scene changed to a farm, a young Historia was sitting with Frieda by her side. "You're amazing, Historia! Look at how well you can read now!"
"That's only because you taught me so much!" Historia said.
"Hey, we can't have this. You've got a runny nose." Frieda said while taking a tissue paper. "You need to learn to be more ladylike, Historia. Here, Historia."
Historia blew her nose, and Frieda asked, "Good, are you done?"
In the scene, Historia also remembered all the things she did with her, and she smiles at the memory, but she wondered why was she dead and why the bandits try to kill her as well.
"Hey." Historia asked.
"Hm?"
"What does being ladylike mean?" Historia asked.
"Well... I suppose being ladylike means being a lot like this girl right here." Frieda pointed at the picture of a woman.
"Christa?" Historia asked.
"Right. You like Christa, too, don't you, Historia?" Frieda asked, and Historia nodded.
"Christa is always thinking about other people because she's so kind. You should try to be like Christa, too. The world is full of pain and suffering, so you should live in a way to be helpful and loved by everybody. Okay?"
"So that's why you have been very helpful back in the Cadets and in the Scouts." Sasha says.
"I guess it makes sense if your facade is your promise made by your sister." Jean says.
"In that case, I wanna be like you." Historia said.
"Huh?" Frieda was shocked.
"When I grow up, do you think I can be just like you?" Historia asked.
"Sure!" Frieda suddenly hugged Historia, "Sure, sure! That's perfectly fine!"
As they laughed, Frieda showed a little sadness unknown to Historia.
"She's sad? Why?" Historia asks with confusion.
"I'm sorry, Historia, but it's time for me to go." Frieda said. "You'll have to forget about me again. Until we can meet again."
Just then, Frieda gave her a kiss, which caused Historia to widen her eyes at first. But then after the girl left, Historia asked, "Who was that girl right now?"
"Did she just wipe out Historia's memories like that?" Armin asks.
"If that's the case, no wonder Historia couldn't remember about her..." Erwin says.
"But why? Why does she have to make me forget all of this?" Historia asks with tears starting to form.
Back in the cave, Historia held her head with tears starting to form. She took a step back and Rod asked, "What's wrong, Historia?"
"Why? Why did I forget about that until now?" Historia asked. "I was never alone. That girl was always there for me."
Then she remembered how she and Frieda were in the forest with Frieda reached her to the air, and then on the farm where they rode a horse together.
"She gave me books... Taught me how to read and write... And was so kind to me... How could I forget about her?"
"You met Frieda?" Rod asked.
"Frieda?" "If it was a young girl with long, black hair...It was most likely Frieda Reiss. She was your half-sister. She must have been worried and came to check up on you occasionally. If she was erasing your memories, it was all done to protect you."
"Huh? Erasing my memories?" "Yes, but touching your hand to him seems to have uncovered those memories again."
Historia looked at Eren and then asked, "Um, Father? Where is Frieda now? I'd like to see and thank her. If she wasn't there for me, I...I need to thank her for what she did for me then."
"Frieda is no longer in this world." "Huh?" "At one time, I had five children."
Rod held Historia into a hug and said, "But my wife and all of my children, Frieda included, were killed five years ago by his father, Grisha Yeager."
"Wait, what? So it wasn't the bandits who killed the Reiss Family?" Connie asks.
"But Dr. Yeager?" Armin asks.
Historia, Eren, and Mikasa can't believe what they've heard. For Historia, she can't believe that one of his friend's father was the murderer of her family, including Frieda. Eren and Mikasa know that Eren's father is a doctor and he is supposed to save lives, but to think he would kill the royal family, they don't know what to think anymore.
Eren says, "Historia... I'm sorry... I can't believe my father..."
"It's fine." Historia feels bad for Eren. "You didn't know anything, and I never knew them as a family as well...at least my father was still safe."
Levi thinks, If Eren's father is the one who killed the other Reiss members, why would he do that?
Eren widened his eyes as a flashback appeared. "Grisha was a person with the Power of the Titans." Grisha was begging at the family, but Frieda took a step forward and held her hand out.
"I don't know who the man was, but..." Grisha took out a knife and cut his palm, turning him into a titan. "...his goal was to steal the power the Reiss family possessed. The power Grisha sought to obtain..."
Frieda also bit her hand and turned into a Titan. "It was the Power of the Titans residing within Frieda."
Frieda threw a punch at Grisha, with the other members of the family running away. "Frieda's Titan was superior to all other Titans. You could say her Titan had unsurpassable power."
Grisha managed to overpower Frieda and threw her to the ground while trying to punch her. "However... She did not have the experience to properly wield it."
The scene showed Grisha bit Frieda's nape. "Unable to unleash her true potential, she was eaten by Grisha and he stole the power."
Seeing how Frieda was killed caused a lot of them to want to vomit, and Armin asks, "Wait, so that means a Titan Shifter can have two Titan powers at the same time?"
Ray says, "I know what you want to ask. If Eren managed to eat Reiner, then he will get the power of the Armored Titan, if he eats Bertolt, then he will get the power of the Colossal Titan."
"That is surprising to know..." Hange says as she takes some notes.
"So it doesn't actualy need the Pure Titan to eat the Titan shifter, Titan Shifter can also do that as well to gain other's powers..." Erwin says.
Grisha turned to Rod's other children. "But that's not all..."
The scene changed back to the present. "He then attacked my entire family. His rampage sought to eradicate the Reiss family."
A palm crushed two people. "He crushed the 14-year-old Dirk and 12-year-old Abel." A foot stomped at two people. "He trampled over my wife and 10-year-old Florian still clutched in her arms." Another palm grabbed a person. "Lastly, he took my eldest son, Ulklin, and squeezed the life out of him."
The scene turned to the burned chapel and Rod running away. "Miraculously, I was the only one who made it away."
"That was so cruel..." Armin says, not sure if he can continue watching this.
"Yeah... this is really messed up..." Jean adds.
"Unbelievable..." Historia muttered. "That's how she..."
She turned to Eren and asked, "Why would he do such a terrible thing?"
As they stared at Eren, who was also in shock after hearing what happened to his father, a voice rang in.
"Hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey!" Kenny was the one walking inside. "What the hell are you guys blabbering about in here?"
"Kenny..." Levi mutters with spite. "So he is still working with them..."
"So if we want to save Historia and Eren, we have to take him down as well." Erwin says.
"I hope you know a buncha shit is going down outside." Kenny said.
"Kenny? What happened?" Rod asked.
"The Scouts started a coup d'etat and all the regiments changed sides." Kenny said. "Everyone knows the King's a big fake, and all the big shots ended up getting captured. Oh yeah, it's a royal shit show. Only a matter of time till they show up here. You oughta wrap it up lickety-split."
"For some reason, he talked like the captain right now." Jean whispers.
"Yeah. I wonder if Mikasa would talk like that as well..." Sasha asks.
"Yes, all right. Take your Anti-Personnel Control Squad and defend the entrance." Rod said. "I believe I told you already that. I need you and your crew to leave for the ceremony."
"Whoa, now, King. Did I make you mad?" Kenny asked. "Sorry 'bout that. I'm just so worried about you."
"Kenny... I trust you. Go." Rod said.
"So do I, King." Kenny said as he left.
"Still, it's hard to think someone like Kenny would listen to a guy like him." Levi said.
"Maybe they have some sort of deal?" Hange asks.
In Capital Mitras, Dhalis Zachary put the finishing touches on his torture of Aurille. The noble was suspended upside-down, almost entirely naked, and a tube ran from one end of his body to the other.
"From now on, you'll be digesting everything you eat from the bottom up. Plus, the only clothes you get to wear start at your knees and below. Of course, once a week we'll take you outside and parade you around to the public. How beautiful... This may very well be the first work of art ever conceived. All those decades I spent envisioning it paid off. But see, only after you're publicly humiliated in front of the same people you tyrannized will this masterpiece be truly complete."
When the scene is shown, everyone widens their eyes in shock. "What the...that's so cruel!" Armin says.
"Should I be relieved that Premier Zachary is on our side? Because that looks uncomfortable..." Eren says.
"I know he has a sense of human, but this is a little too much." Erwin says.
"You just wait and see!" Aruille yelled. "The only blood in you is slave blood! It's nothing like our noble bloodlines! Soon enough, you'll lose your memory and even forget how to shit!"
Zachary chuckled, "That one insult of yours is getting pretty stale! Don't you have anything new?!"
Outside the capital, Pyxis said to Erwin, "This could be bad, Erwin. All the officials are saying similar things. It's just as your father suspected. The Reiss family must be able to alter people's memories as it suits them. From the sound of it, certain bloodlines, including theirs, are immune to the effects."
"Wait, what? Is that true?" Connie asks.
"It's true." Ray says with a frown.
"How is that even...?" Erwin asked.
"If Reiss is able to obtain Eren's "Scream," this uprising will amount to absolutely nothing." Pyxis said. "As proof of that, they're spilling all their secrets with no shame. As if saying we'll get what's coming to us."
"I see... In other words, we may forget even that fact altogether." Erwin said.
"So if Rod Reiss gets Eren's power, we could forget that we did the Coup d'etat, and things are going back to normal..." Armin says.
"That's why we can't let that happen. We've already come this far." Levi says.
"Though, I suppose having them experience torture by the hands of Zachary is better than nothing in my book. I don't understand that man. To think he dedicated so much of his life just so he could do that."
"Commander, you knew about him?" Erwin asked.
"Mmm... 'Twas a slip of the tongue. Indeed... I suspected Dhalis Zachary had such ambitions. Unlike you, I'm not very fond of gambling. And also, unlike you... I value the number of remaining humans over my own life. The reason I backed you was because I believed it was the superior choice for humanity. Had the government been the favorable choice, I was prepared to fight against Zachary. To think, we're comrades just following a coup d'etat, and look what I'm saying... I once heard a song that someday humans will stop fighting, but when will that be?"
Erwin stared at Pyxis before a scout rushed in. "Commander. All troops are prepared and ready! We're ready to go!"
Erwin turned to the scouts, "Humans will continue to fight one another until the day there's one human or less."
Pyxis turned around and said, "I was hoping for a better answer than some bleak hyperbole."
Erwin put his cloak on and yelled, "All troops, fall in! Our mission to recover Eren and Historia will now commence! We make for their location, believed to be the chapel on Reiss territory!"
"Now the Scouts are taking some actions." Hange smiles.
"But what about us? What happened to us while we're going to save Eren and Historia?" Jean asks.
"Don't worry, we can show you now." Ray says.
Back with the Levi Squad, Levi said, "He's Kenny the Ripper. If he's here, he'll be our biggest obstacle. In terms of how much a threat he is, equate him to me as an enemy. No... With those weapons of his, he's deadlier than me."
Everyone gulps at what they've heard from Levi, and Levi says, "That's true."
"Then he's unbeatable, at least for us..." Sasha said as she rode on her horse.
"If we could meet up with the troops-" Connie said.
"Absolutely not." Mikasa bluntly responded.
"I know, absolutely not! If we wait until morning, Eren might end up getting eaten!"
"That is if Historia is going to listen to her father and eat Eren." Jean says.
"Yeah, you won't eat Eren, right? Historia?" Armin asks.
"Of course not. I don't know what I am thinking." Historia says.
"Though, if what the captain said is true, it's not like he has no weak points." Armin said.
"For real, Armin?" Jean asked.
"Yeah, I'm sure he's trained plenty, but having combat experience is something else." Armin said.
"I wonder, how is it that you lived with Kenny the Ripper but know almost nothing about him, Levi?" Hange asked.
"Sorry, but I only found out his full name not too long ago. Apparently, it's Kenny Ackerman." Levi says while turning to Mikasa, "He some relative of yours?"
Mikasa lowers her head and says, "I heard from my parents when they were alive that my dad's side, the Ackermans were persecuted in the cities."
The scene showed a younger Mikasa with her family.
Mikasa held her scarf tight as she really didn't want to remember her parents being killed. Eren notices this and he also puts his hand on her shoulder with worry.
"My mom's family was Oriental, so being a different race meant they didn't fit in anywhere. Both were people chased deep in the mountains near the edge of the walls, so that's how they met and married. But I never found out why the Ackermans were persecuted. My dad didn't seem like a different race like my mom was."
"Has there ever been a moment where it's felt like power suddenly awakened inside you?" Levi asked.
Mikasa perked up as she remembered her holding the knife with electricity flowing in her.
"Wait, that was..." Armin asks.
"Yeah... the day we killed those filthy animals together..." Eren says with sadness.
"Is that what that was?" Mikasa whispers to herself.
"There has." Mikasa replied.
"Kenny Ackerman had a moment like that, too." Levi said while the scene showed the road in front of them. "One time, out of nowhere, he felt an absurd amount of strength surging within him and he knew exactly what he had to do. I've felt moments like that, too."
"So that is proof that both Mikasa and Captain Levi, as well as Kenny are related." Connie says.
Is it possible I'm related to that damn runt? That I still have family left? Mikasa thinks.
The group arrived at Reiss Chapel, and inside the cavern, Kenny was staring at his own knife as he started to recall his memory.
"Fess up, Gramps. You're about to die anyways, right?" A younger Kenny was at his grandfather's bedside.
We're looking to Kenny's past this time? Levi widens his eyes.
"Kenny...Were you out killing more Military Police?"
"Yeah... If you're talking about those goons snooping around, they're in the ground helping the trees grow." Kenny sat down by his bed. "Speaking of branches, the branch family moved down south around Shiganshina. But it turns out someone's interfering with their business there, too, so they're still poor as hell."
"That must mean Mikasa's family?" Armin asks. "So they are just one of the branch families?"
"What's the big deal?" Kenny asked. "Didn't the Ackermans use to be a family of warriors protecting the King? Now the whole family is on the verge of extinction. The hell did you do to piss off the King so much?"
His grandfather stayed silent. "C'mon, fess up. Wontcha tell your cute grandson?"
"What cute grandson?" Kenny's grandfather sat up. "The one who's Kenny the Ripper, the terror of the capital? The Ackerman family isn't hated by the King. It's just, they're afraid of us. It's because the King isn't able to control the Ackerman family."
"Control?" Kenny asked.
"I personally don't know all there is to know. But it's true that our family was once the King's sword and one of their vital supporters. However, the King passes down the Power of the Titans from generation to generation."
"Huh? What's this Power of the Titans?" Kenny asked.
"It's an immense power they possess to alter all of humanity's memories and make them entirely forget the past. Except for a few noble bloodlines. Among them, there were two groups that turned their back on the King. That is, the Oriental clan and the Ackerman family."
Mikasa widens her eyes in shock, and everyone is also surprised. Sasha says, "So that means Mikasa's memories won't be altered if Reiss used the Scream?"
"And that means Captain Levi as well!" Eren says.
"Seems like we did get some useful information from Kenny after all." Levi says.
"Hence the persecution." Kenny said.
"Such a dreadful story." Kenny's grandfather coughed before lying on the bed again.
"It ain't the heartwarming story you wanna hear on your deathbed, but I did find my little sister." Kenny said. "Kuchel's been working at a brothel in the underground. Got pregnant by one of her customers. Wants to have it and won't listen to me."
"Hell..."
"Being born in this piece of the shit world...Ain't a single damn dream worth suffering through it." Kenny said.
Levi can't believe what he had heard, he knew his mother was named Kuchel, which means Kenny is his uncle. As much as he doesn't want to believe it, it seems to be an undeniable truth.
"What's wrong, Levi?" Erwin asks.
"Nothing... I was just processing what we've heard from Kenny, about our bloodline." Levi says.
Back in the Chapel, Levi Squad walked in. "Found it, a hidden door. Eren's gotta be here with the enemy. Hopefully, the layout in there is like I predicted."
"These presents better pay off, considering we went out of the way to prepare them."
Under the crystal caverns, the Anti-Personnel Control Squad was there. "There are seven enemies at least. You can be sure Levi's among them. As you know, Levi got completely ambushed last time, and yet he still killed 12 of our comrades. The rest of the Interior Police are out of the picture, not to mention the government lost control. It's a bad situation all around."
"It really is a bad situation." Armin says, "We're going to fight all of them at once?"
"It seems very hard to believe it, but yeah." Jean says.
"In a world as tiny as ours, dying would be preferable to the life that awaits us the second we surrender." Caven said, "Then again, is a life stuck in these walls any different? We've got an enemy we can't defeat and all we can do is wait till they break down the walls and destroy us. We chose to join the Military Police, aspired to be Interior Police, and joined up with Kenny. All to seek meaning in our meaningless lives in this meaningless world. Let's keep believing all the way to the end that Kenny and his dream can turn the tables on this world."
We're also seeking meanings for this world as well. Erwin thinks. Just because we're on different sides meaning we're enemies...how cruel is that.
In the chapel, Armin prepared the weapons and said, "All right, we're good to go!"
"Are we?" Levi asked. "Is everyone ready to get their hands dirty, too?"
Armin, Sasha, Mikasa, Connie, and Jean were nervous, and Levi said, "Guess so."
"Yeah, when it comes to killing people in cold blood, we will neer be ready for it..." Armin frowns.
"But we have to do it, I guess..." Jean adds.
"How about we take another break? This episode already gives you a lot of thoughts." Ray says as the others nod.
And here is a new chapter, I hope you like it.