Grisha twisted and fell off the carriage unto the floor.
"You're awake?"
Shadis sat opposite him frowning for all he was worth. Grisha blinked at him.
"How?"
"What- would be a better fit." Shadis grumbled with a pointed look at his trousers.
Grisha peered down and realised his trousers had bloodstains over them.
Oh.
"Eren?" He asked fearfully, it was fairly obvious what the dream meant but he didn't want to take any chances, his growing apprehension was relieved when Shadis threw a thumb in the direction of the door. He opened the door to look at the surrounding area; a stable with his coach facing the barn doors.
"It's private here, we can talk."
What about? Is ther-
His thoughts were interrupted by the flaring pain of a knife being drawn across his wrist. The steam irrupted from the wound, he made no move to stop it letting it heal the wound as even the blood cleared off. He sat up from the floor and buried his head in his hands. Shadis patiently waited, knife in hand as though he hadn't just cut Grisha's wrist.
"There are nine of us. Humans who can turn into Titans, at will. Eren is now one and so am I. What else is there to say?"
"The origin of all Titans for one. How to get that power you handed over, for another; why you deceived Carla and I; when you got this power and if you have the time what your plans are?"
The Commander's voice trembled ever slightly as he fought to keep his voice down.
"Shadis, listen, as the Commander-"
"I've resigned." The news was a huge surprise and a blow to any little plan he held. It meant Keith's authority as a soldier was borrowed time.
"Then wh- Can you trust your successor?"
"Erwin Smith. Yes. Once your children are back we'll go upstairs and meet him. He's here in Trost, lucky you." He replied.
"And so is Hange, unlucky you." He grumbled to himself.
"Where are they? Eren and the others?"
Shadis stepped out, and beckoned him out.
"Let's pick them up."
"Wait. We're in the military barracks?"
"My resignation is not yet official and a doctor can be easily explained." His tone making it absolutely clear he was losing his patience.
They locked the coach up and exited the stable, Grisha wearing a white shirt from his few clothes. They sighted the kids standing off on their own. Eren ran over all memory of the previous night completely vanished with Mikasa and Armin trailing behind. Grandpa Arlelt was trudging round the corner and he gave the younger man a weak smile. Eren was mouthing off about poor treatment from the Garrison and Shadis stalked away.
"I'm glad to see you all but I promise we'll talk later. I have to arrange a few things first." He rubbed their heads in turn and pulled away after Shadis. Their walk was silent until they reached a dinner hall where hundreds of soldiers sat eating in gloomy silence. Shadis strode through them until he reached a table of blondes with a singular redhead. The entire table fell silent and stood up leaving their plates in various states. He signalled Grisha over and he tailed the group till they reached an office where a young teenager was cleaning the top of a bookshelf with gusto. He turned around, glowering at being interrupted and yanked the nose cloth down.
"Grisha, this is Commander Erwin Smith." The blue-eyed blonde gave him a firm handshake and had already begun assessing him. In a way he reminded him of Armin, if only more confident. The other five were subordinates including the short teenager Levi, who nodded from a socially respectable distance.
"Mr Grisha Jaeger here, has some information he thinks we need. Nanaba, would you be as kind as to sit out and watch the corridor?"
The female soldier's face fell but she saluted and turned out to the door while the rest sat down.
Not one of them said a word when he sat down and breathed heavily. Which piece of news should he hit them with first?
"Well, I am Grisha Jaeger-" The short teen, Levi snorted.
"How useful." His voice was surprisingly deep and the frowns from Erwin and Keith were similar.
"Pardon the interruption, Levi tends to speak his mind." Erwin said with a sharp glance at the boy.
"No offence, my children aren't even teenagers yet-" he gestured at the boy, "-and they get easily bored. As long as he fulfils the conditions..." He noticed the boy looking incredibly pissed at him before Keith interrupted,
"Yes, he does. They all do."
"So, you know about the Armoured titan and the Colossal Titan? Well, there are more." The proclamation didn't get even half the surprise he expected only looks of resignation and heaviness... from most of them.
"There are nine human beings, who possess the ability to turn into Titans at will." They all blinked at him including Shadis.
"What?!"
"Is this some joke?"
"Are you saying Titans are humans?" The last question shut everybody up with fear surfacing in their faces. Grisha opened his mouth... and closed it. No. Not the Scouts, he couldn't tell a room of soldiers who fought for humanity they murdered humans for a living.
"Not really. This is going to sound ridiculous but I want you all to listen closely. Titans are made from humans."
"Huh?!" The redhead looked so perplexed he almost laughed.
"They are made from the souls and corpses of human beings." He lied.
"That's a load of bullsh-"
"Then explain how they regenerate! There's a pen, write how many animals you know that stand on 2 legs above 3 metres. No? What about the formula for a 4 metre titan's weight?!"
"The Titans are unusually light for their sizes." The redhead spoke quietly.
"So, Titans don't live off the sun? They just act of it? It's all muscle memory from the corpses of human beings?" She asked. Grisha was impressed by her deductions and dumbly nodded.
"Their origin?" Shadis prompted. Grisha breathed to steady himself. The soldiers took his breathing as a warning and tensed up.
"Here goes."
A/N: Reviews, corrections and requests welcome as always!
Looking to that Bright Dawn