"You! What are you doing here Krista?! Or should I say Historia Reiss?!"
"How do you..." Historia then remembered.
"Alto Burke, I crown you the new Flare Titan,"
"That's enough Kenny." Rod said
"U-uncle Rod?" Alto asked, confused.
"Bastard." Astell coughed. "Why now? Why take out the laundry now?"
"I can't risk the Founding Titan falling into your hands."
"The 145th King was a coward. And so are you, you were willing to disown Historia, your own daughter, just to save your sorry ass. I'm ashamed to share your blood."
Suddenly lighting sparked, and where Alto had stood, was now a fifteen meter Titan.
Alto roared, unleashing a storm of flame from it's breath like a dragon, forcing the assassins' back.
"You..." She looked down
"What are you doing here?" Alto asked again.
"I was forced to join the army." She looked up, "I thought you'd be dead by now."
Alto laughed mirthlessly "Strangely no one ever came after me. So either they never found me, or they stopped trying."
"Listen... about two years ago, I'm sorr-"
"Save it Historia." Alto snapped. "I don't need apologies."
"A-alright." Historia and Alto fell into silence.
"You know I know what you are." Historia told him.
"So? We both have secrets we'd like not to get out."
"I want to ask you something." Historia said, "Why didn't you finish us off?"
The question echoed in Alto's ears. 'Why didn't I... it's not like they could've stopped me.' Alto remembered
In titan form, Alto watched Historia and Rod Reiss flee. He just stood there, doing nothing. He wanted to run after them, turn them to ash, but he couldn't bring himself to move forward.
Alto sighed, "I don't know."
"And do not forget how the Reiss family betrayed us. How they betrayed the Eldian race!" His fathers words echoed in his head,
'Yeah...but she's not a Reiss anymore.' Alto thought. 'And despite all the bad blood... she's still my family. Albeit quite distantly.'
Alto lifted Sasha up onto his shoulder. "Let's get this idiot back to bed."
"R-right." Historia stood up.
The Next Day
"First! Your aptitude will be tested! Those who fail aren't even worthy enough to be used as bait! Failures will be sent to the reclaimed lands!"
Alto began to balance, but flipped and ended up flopping on the ground.
'Son of a bitch...' He got up, and tried again, this time managing to hold it for a few seconds before flopping.
'Damn, what's everyone else doing that I'm not?' Alto looked around.
"Relax! Don't consciously think about balancing!" Historia called to him, Alto turned to her, and saw she was balancing perfectly. He looked around at all the people who succeeded.
'She's right... all the people who suceeded aren't worrying about falling. They're just... doing it!' Alto breathed, and relaxed his body. Sure enough, he found he could balance,
"W-woah." Alto said as he hung there, "I'm really doing it! Thanks Krista!" He called, Historia gave him a smile.
Hand-to-hand combat training, some weeks later.
"Alright maggots! It's time for hand-to-hand combat! Now! Find a partner and get started!" Shadis ordered. Historia looked around,
"Hey, I'll spar with you. I'll be rogue." Alto walked over to Historia.
"Really? Thanks!" Historia and Alto took her positions, Alto quickly swiped the knife, with Krista moving to block it, Alto then kicked her in the side of the knee, throwing her off balance before pushing her to the ground.
Alto sighed, "You're too focused on not getting hit. You need to start taking a punch or two of your own. Again." This time, Historia was the rogue,
Historia hesitated for a second, then tentatively swung the knife. Alto grabbed the knife arm, and pulled the knife out of her grasp. "Come on Krista. Do it with more determination!" Alto said.
Historia nodded, this time, Historia landed a blow with the knife, but then Alto grabbed her outstretched arm and yanked her forward, throwing her off balance and causing her to fall.
"Better!" Alto helped her up, "Hey and Krista."
"Yes?" She looked at him,
"Uh, about what happened, you know when, I'm not mad at you." He scratched his head, "I know it's not your fault."
Historia smiled, "Thats good. So... there's no bad blood?"
Alto smiled back, "Yeah. And besides, we're the only family either of us has left."
"OOF!" A loud grunt caught Alto's attention. He turned to its source and saw Reiner being flipped over unto the ground by Annie. Eren was already on it.
"Idiots." Alto laughed,
"Hey how about you take her on tough guy!" Eren called getting up.
"I know better than to mess with whats out of my league. Thanks but no."
"What are you chicken Chris?" Reiner said, before making some squawking sounds.
Annie looked at Alto, wondering how he'd respond.
"Fine." Alto walked over to Annie. "So, who's going to be the rogue?"
"I'll be the Rogue." Annie said simply, pulling out a wooden knife.
"Very we-" Annie immediately went on the offensive, aiming a kick to his ankle.
'That shit won't work!' Alto jumped back, out of the kicks range. Annie immediately slashed at his face, Alto dodged the knife before grabbing Annie's arm and flipping her over. Annie, however, managed to land on her feet, and was immediately back on the offensive. Jabbing at Alto's face, only for him to dodge or deflect it. Finally Alto swung his leg into her side, Annie, quick on her feet, grabbed it and threw him behind her. Alto then grappled at the ground, using it to slow his momentum before launching himself at Annie.
By now the fight had garnered quite the crowd. Several of the Cadets even began placing bets. Meanwhile the fight raged on. Alto leveled a kick to the side of Annie's knee, Annie responded by bracing the leg hit before proceeding to throw a jab at Alto's face. Alto dodged before aiming a punch to her face, which was deflected by Annie's right arm, but not before a small cut appeared across Annie's face, created by Alto's nails. However, Alto immediately swung the arm back into Annie's side sending her staggering side ways. Alto followed this up by charging Annie, grabbing her knife hand he tried to force her to the ground, however, Annie kneeled, using the ground as a support to prevent her from being pushed down, while simultaneously trying to force the knife to his throat.
In a stunning move Alto let go of the Knife hand and brought it to Annie's face just as she brought the knife to his throat, Annie removed one hand from the knife, using it to pin Alto's fist under her leg before forcing him down. The final position was Alto throroughly pinned under Annie, with the wooden knife at his throat.
"Annie kicked his ass." "You got that right" Several of the cadets murmured amongst themselves. Alto and Annie tentatively backed up from each other. Then Alto noticed something, the cut had evaporated.
'The hell?!' Alto, his senses fine tuned, noticed that a small bit of steam appeared from where the cut had been. 'I'm imagining things...'
Before Alto could launch his investigation any further. Shadis came over to them.
"Well fought you two. But Annie won, she disarmed you, and had the knife at your throat."
Alto looked down. "Yes sir." He said glumly.
Shadis turned to the rest of them, "Take this as a lesson! Training is not reality! If this was a real fight Holt would be dead no two ways about it!"
Edit A/N: So I came back and edited this chapter mostly on Stormdragonrider's criticism, but also on the fact I'm reading other fanfictions and realized Alto performed way too well for his first fight with Annie.
