A/N: real talk I'm over the roman numerals, so going forward and in the final draft rewrite I'm just straight using numbers for chapters lol. Enjoy the chapter everybody.

Chapter 20: A New Reality

"Didn't you hear what I said? What the hell are you doing out here, girl?"

The lights on the ship as well as the full moon above provided enough brightness to show their faces and one thing was clear: they were not happy to see this strange being lurking around the deck in the dead of night unauthorized, and as each moment of her staring at them in silence passed by they grew even more displeased with her lack of response. The first man who spoke – a tall and lanky fellow who had a gaunt face with eyes that bulged out in contrast to the rest of his features – took a few steps towards her. His companion was shorter, rather stocky with a fuller face and overall he gave off a more calm attitude compared to his partner.

"Don't you speak?" The shorter man asked in a less aggressive manner than his comrade had spoken to her. He stared at her with eyes squinted for a moment before they slowly widened and a look of realization appeared on his face, "Oh... I heard that the Warrior unit picked up someone from the Island... this must be her."

"So, it's just another Eldian then?" The taller man asked, stopping in his approach towards the silent girl. Priscilla stood there half facing them with one hand resting on the guard rail while this man looked her up and down, and then with a dark chuckle his hand drifted to the pistol at his side, "No wonder it's standing around naked and can't even talk, it's just an animal. Not even an intelligent one... Hm, I don't think anyone would mourn this misbehaving dog if it got put down."

"Wait, Jack!" His companion shouted, hurrying forward and grabbing the arm that was reaching for the gun. The man called Jack looked to his comrade with disgust.

"What is this, Boris? Sympathy for the enemy?! The enemy of not just Marley, but the entire world?" He sneered, "You call yourself loyal to our motherland with this kind of behavior? I have half a mind to report you for this..."

"Of course I don't sympathize with a child of the Devil, never in my life would I do that..." Boris defended himself calmly, "But I also heard orders that she is valuable cargo to be delivered to Marley. Something important to the government, allegedly..."

Valuable cargo? Priscilla thought. Her hand started to grip the rail tighter as her face slowly twisted into a glare.

"The hell you'd hear that?" Jack asked doubtfully, not easing up on reaching for his gun despite Boris holding onto his arm.

"Other officers overhearing some things... possibly involving a politically influential party..." Boris spoke, "People are talking and I don't think these things should be ignored..."

"Tch..." Jack finally tore his arm away roughly, "Sounds like a bunch of bullshit rumors then."

Boris had started to sweat at this point, but he continued to make an appeal to his friend's logical side with what little info he had, "Think about it! Why else would one of them be allowed passage to Marley if there wasn't a legitimate reason? If you were to kill a valued asset like that creature supposedly is... do you think that would end well for you? For anyone?"

Asset... Creature... These words cut her deep as her grip grew stronger and the metal of the rail started to dent and morph in her trembling grasp.

Jack frowned, making the deep creases around his mouth all the more pronounced as he considered his comrade's reasonable stance, "I see your point, as much as I hate to be hauling along another Eldian with us... still..." He then swiftly pulled his pistol out before Boris could intervene again and started to casually point it at different parts of her body as he began to muse about what he'd like to do to Priss, "I bet I could get away with a non-lethal shot to teach this thing a lesson. Maybe a strategically placed one to the shoulder... Or part of the hand..."

This sent Boris into a full on panic, "But what if she's one of those Shifters?!" he exclaimed, "If you make her bleed she could turn into a Titan and..."

"Don't be absurd..." Jack growled – he was getting tired of waiting and was annoyed with the excuses Boris kept coming up with, "I think Yeager would have been obligated to disclose that to the commanding officers, and if that hasn't been running through the rumor mill like this whole 'valued cargo' thing is, then I think it's safe to say she's no Titan Shifter."

"Do you really want to take that chance though?" Boris insisted, "Or the chance that you'll be reprimanded for damaging something the government supposedly wants?"

Jack let out a loud, disgruntled sigh as he reluctantly holstered his pistol, "Fine," He took a moment to rub his face and curse under his breath before one of his hands made for his pocket, "I'm getting tired of this nonsense, I need a damn cigarette..."

Priscilla's ears perked up over that last word and her spine tingled unpleasantly as she watched him produce the thin cylindrical object from his pocket and put it in his mouth. He then pulled a metal object from his pocket as well that he held close to his face, and with a few clicks of this device, the cigarette was lit. Priss was immediately hit with the foul smell of it – a smell that took her back to the most miserable days of her life; it was during this time that she had first encountered smokers, and she had gone so long without encountering someone who smoked that it was a distant, locked away memory. Her eyes went wide and she started to sweat, and it was all made worse when this Jack man took a long drag and then blew the smoke out in her direction with a smarmy grin.

That... smell... She thought as her whole body started shaking uncontrollably. The metal beneath her hand was clenched so tightly now that it was crushed to a point where it could easily be snapped, I remember... that smell...

"Let's get this dog back in it's kennel," Jack said after taking another puff and exhaling the smoke through his nostrils this time, "It's starting to creep me out. Look at those eyes, they're just not human, you know? And it's skin looks like it doesn't even have blood flowing beneath it with how pale it is..."

He smiled smugly as he closed the distance between himself and Priss, sucking on his cigarette once more and then exhaling it directly into her face. She gagged loudly and turned away to cough, covering her nose and mouth as she did so, and all the while this man laughed at her. Time seemed to slow down and his laughter was muffled by her own heart's pounding in her ear; the metal bar of the handrail snapped as her power granted by the moonlight surged through her veins. The combination of her anger and enhanced strength sent her into a senseless berserker rage, lunging at the soldier while shrieking at the top of her lungs, eyes blazing with otherworldly fury. For a brief moment when she looked at this Marleyan soldier, her mind warped him into the horrible man from her past – the faces of all the others associated with him appeared imposed over the soldier's face one after another in a rapid succession, making her lust for blood even stronger.

"Son of a bitch!" Jack shouted as he stumbled backwards and clumsily reached for his pistol in a panic.

Priscilla didn't hesitate in her advance and panted heavily, like the animal they so gladly claimed her to be, as she got her hands on him and forced him to the ground with her supernaturally augmented strength. Her hands wrapped around his throat and with everything happening so fast, he started firing off random shots from his gun while his stunned comrade watched without making a move. Jack was pinned and struggling under the unusual weight of this girl, who managed to force his gun away with strength that this guard didn't expect her to have. He wanted to shout for Boris to kill her, but her grasp on his throat was too tight and he couldn't even choke out a single syllable.

"Stop! Ziegler!"

From the shadows she was tackled off the Marleyan soldier by none other than Zeke, who forced her down on her stomach by holding her arms behind her and sitting himself on her lower back with all his weight to keep her in place. She thrashed around and screamed incoherently and Zeke honestly had trouble keeping her down with all things that were influencing her: her being able to somewhat, if very sloppily, tap into her lunar empowerment, the tragically familiar smell of the cigarette smoke triggering a visceral anger in her – along with the laughing and degrading language Jack aimed at her – it all kept her raging adrenaline flowing. He felt like he was going to be thrown off of her eventually with her continued struggle, so he had to work fast with trying to calm her down. Zeke leaned down so he could quietly speak in her ear...

"Ziegler, you have to understand, you fucked up here..." He muttered angrily to the violently emotional girl, "You need to calm down, it's the only way you'll get out of this alive, and I need you alive. Behave your goddamn self, stay quiet and let me handle this..."

"Yeager!" Another man shouted, the same commanding officer they had spoken to on the beach; the one who had previously revealed the fact about the Tyburs wanting Priscilla to Zeke, "What in God's name is happening here?"

But it wasn't just the commander, a whole squad with guns – some with rifles, others with pistols – pointed at the two were at his back with more approaching rapidly. The sound of the gunshots had put everyone on deck on high alert, and as many people that could leave their post to investigate had come to see what the trouble was about.

"Please, forgive this girl!" Zeke exclaimed as he stood up, leaving a more or less limp and breathless Priscilla face down on the ground, "She's a bit feral, she doesn't understand the world outside the island. She's ignorant and has made an honest mistake in what's she's done tonight because she is a stupid, impulsive child with no sense of decency...!"

"That bitch attacked me!" Jack shouted with a hoarse voice, finally rising back to his feet with assistance from Boris, "Give me one good reason we don't pump that Eldian dog full of lead right now!"

"Commander!" Zeke went on in a pleading tone, dropping to his hands and knees, "You said yourself she is someone who is needed in Marley, and given the party who asked for her, would you allow your men to kill this naive girl for her foolish actions tonight? Surely the consequence of losing someone who must be important greatly outweighs whatever brief joy you'd gain from murdering her?"

The commanding officer sighed deeply as he looked at this mess before him; he indeed remembered his strict orders that came from Magath regarding the girl before he departed on this voyage, and as a man bound by duty he had no intention of deliberately going against what he was tasked with. It was a quick and easy decision...

He shook his head and motioned for his men to stand down."As much as I hate letting behavior like that, Eldian or not, go unpunished..." He spoke firmly, "Orders are orders. Do not kill that woman."

"And I-I will make sure she stays in line!" Zeke proclaimed, swiftly standing up and saluting.

"Good. I imagine she was already your responsibility, so any future indiscretions from her will be seen as a failing on your part as well. Now, whether this incident is reported back to your superiors in Marley... I haven't decided yet. Just take your 'feral' pet back to your quarters now and keep her under control. Understood?"

"Understood, sir!" Zeke repeated.

"Good. Now... get out of my sight," Came the man's final order.

Zeke nodded and kept uttering 'yes sir, yes sir' under his breath as he went and grabbed Priscilla by the arm and yanked her to her feet. All the soldiers watched as he dragged her away, leering and hurling Eldian slurs at the pair, and Jack spat in her direction as she passed by which made her tense up.

"Arghh!" She cried out and winced.

As she was taken away from this mess of a situation combined with the tensing of her body, she felt something stinging on her upper left arm – a feeling mixed between a burn and the cut of a knife. She raised her left arm to examine it and saw a wound, not incredibly deep, but it was still bloody and painful all the same.

"What is it?" Zeke asked with obvious irritation as he pulled her.

"I-I think..." She stuttered as they got back below deck, "He got me."

"What do you mean?" He went on with the same irate tone. He looked back at her and saw what she was talking about – the wound on her arm that she was staring in amazement at as he dragged her along by her other.

"I-I didn't even feel it until just now..." She murmured, still shocked that she didn't immediately realize what happened to her, "I was too blinded by my..."

Zeke stopped and turned fully to take a quick look at it, the only thing that could have caused this was one of the wildly uncoordinated gunshots the soldier fired off when Priscilla attacked him. He sighed with frustration and said with a little less disdain than his previous words, "Looks like the bullet barely grazed you, you're probably a bit burned from the gunpowder too... still, we should clean it and keep it bandaged regardless. The last thing we need right now is you getting an infected wound. I should be able to find some basic first aid supplies to deal with this... come on."

He grabbed her by her wrist again and started to lead her away, and that's when another realization hit her. The rage and adrenaline flowing through her numbed her to most sensations physically, but now in addition to the previous pain she felt after coming down from her 'high,' she detected something off about his touch against her skin.

"...Why are your hands sticky, Zeke?" She asked, more confused than anything, "And... why were you just lurking around and ready to jump into action anyway? What were you doing out there?"

Zeke froze again and quickly pulled his hand off her, not realizing in all the hysteria that was unfolding that there was still some small amount of a telling substance lingering on his hand. He hadn't thought ahead about any of this, and now he was paying the price.

"...Look, you two weren't exactly being quiet before..." He started, voice low.

A look of disgust quickly struck Priscilla's face, "Oh god, are you kidding me? Are you FUCKING kidding me?!"

He spun back around to face her with nostrils flared and an irritated look in his sunken eyes, "You just couldn't help it – selfishly serving yourself with no regard for those around you," he sneered.

"Sounds like you were the one doing some 'self serving'..." She spat back bitterly. She tried to cross her arms tightly but the stinging pain in her left arm prevented that and she just let both her arms fall back to her sides, "So you do a little secret wank and then decide to stalk me? What is it with you?"

"You won't believe me, I'm sure of that, but I was concerned about why you'd go wandering off like you did. I kept hearing you groaning like you were uncomfortable before you got up and left, so I tailed you..." He admitted, and she predictably didn't look all that impressed or thankful, "Well it worked out better this way, didn't it?"

Priss scoffed dismissively, blowing her bangs upward, and didn't bother to respond or even look at him anymore. Zeke scowled, turned away from her again and motioned for her to keep following him; he wasn't going to touch her again until he absolutely had to now that his shameful act was once again rightfully called out. Their journey to find some first aid supplies continued in a bitter silence; Zeke was seething in his quietness while Priscilla was just mentally dwelling on the awful actions of this disgusting man and focusing entirely on that aspect, not even slightly considering how he did save her from a life threatening situation that she got herself into.

Zeke came to a stop outside of what seemed to be a small supply room; it was their best bet for finding something helpful since he doubted any Marleyans staffing the medical section of the ship would care to help an 'Eldian' with any sort of wound. Priss stood leaning with her back against the wall, her good arm holding her injured one by the elbow which she idly stroked with her thumb as she waited for Zeke to return and take care of her injury. Soon enough he returned with disinfectant, gauze and a roll of cloth bandaging material.

"Thankfully it's not bad enough to require a suture or anything like that," He commented, trying to mask his anger towards her by narrating his actions as a means to keep him centered.

He first dabbed at the bloody wound to wipe away the excess blood and applied pressure to make an effort to stop any active bleeding still occurring; it wasn't a deep shot she suffered by any means, but the amount of blood was still considerable. She winced and instinctively tried to pull away from him and the source of the additional pain he was imposing on her, but he kept his grip on her with his other hand firm, pulled her back into place.

"You're hurting me!" She whined.

"I'm doing what needs to be done thanks to your own stupidity," Zeke responded; he was slowly starting to lose his ability to mask just how furious he was with her, but she wasn't dumb enough to not be able to see how he was feeling – however, the reality was that she didn't care about how he felt.

As he went on with the wound cleaning and subsequent bandaging things were dead silent between them; Zeke was focused on his task and kept his eyes fixed on her arm while she stared in any direction that wasn't his. Priscilla couldn't help but wince as he worked but honestly did her best to not pull away like she did before.

"There," He said flatly as he finished his work dressing her wound, but he received nothing in response – not a word, no physical motion to indicate anything or even so much as a quick glance his way. There was not a fragment of acknowledgment to be found from her after all he'd done. His mouth twitched and he couldn't help but add, "...Nothing to say? Not even a 'thank you?'"

That's when she finally looked over to him and her face showed not even an ounce of gratitude for what he had done for her that night; not only did he patch her up, but he downright saved her from certain death – yet here she was, acting same as she always did with him, topping it off by growling, "No."

A loud crack echoed through the tight halls as Zeke's hand flew across her face and struck her hard. Priscilla had barely even gotten the word 'no' out of her mouth before he slapped her with merciless force which immediately left a red mark on her pale cheek. Her hand flew to where he hit her and her eyes went wide as he stared at her with the rage of a man who more than had enough of her bullshit. If Reiner had been around then he likely would have held back, or at least tried to, but since he knew he could get away with brutally hitting this thankless wretch with nobody to witness it, he damn well went for it.

"Do you have any understanding of what you did tonight, Ziegler?" He began. The anger in his voice was evident even though he was speaking quietly, "Do you understand that you're seen as my responsibility and anything you do reflects on me? And honestly, you misbehaving the way you did doesn't just embarrass me, but it makes my entire unit look bad – that includes Reiner."

Priscilla inhaled sharply and tears immediately started to form in her eyes. It's true, she didn't give a shit about how the things she did impacted Zeke, but she didn't even realize that Reiner could suffer any consequences due to her impulsive nature that lead her to make decisions that, in this case, were awful from start to finish. Zeke knew right away he had the high ground here and that he could use it to put her in her place.

"That's right, Reiner could very well get punished too if you continue to act like an unhinged lunatic the way you did tonight, didn't think about that did you?" He continued his aggressive lecture with his voice growing louder, "Of course not, why would you think you are anything less than invincible? If I didn't need to make sure you got to your brother alive, you'd be left full of bullet holes with your dead body thrown overboard and I wouldn't think twice about it. God only knows what kind of shit I'll have to deal with for this, and same goes for Reiner. If he gets punished, it's all on you Ziegler."

The first of her tears started to spill from her eyes as she still clutched her reddened and stinging cheek where Zeke had hit her, "I... I don't want him to... I didn't..."

"Didn't what? Didn't think?!" Zeke was now full on shouting at Priscilla, who started to sink down to the floor, sliding with her back against the wall until she was plopped down on the ground while this man aggressively loomed over her and continued to berate her, "No! Why would you ever do something as basic as think? You were right on the mark when you told me you weren't very smart, I really have to wonder if you ever even have a meaningful thought in that head of yours! All you do is act without consideration for anything or anyone!"

Priscilla's quiet tear shedding turned into whimpering sobs, "Please... don't let anything bad happen to him...!" she cried desperately.

"I don't have the power to do that, even if I wanted to," He said with a scowl, "And I certainly don't want to. I know the only way to get you to behave your damn self is to involve him and hold his well being over your head, so if the Marleyans choose to reprimand him for any reason, I will let it happen."

"B-But you said I'm your responsibility!" She wailed in despair, "This has nothing to do with him!"

"If the Marleyans want to punish my unit as a whole, like I said before, I don't have the power to stop them..." He spoke ominously to the distraught girl cowering and crying below him – he was enjoying this moment in a sick way since he never got to exert such power over her with no way for her to contest him. He had her right where he wanted her and right where he believed she belonged. For once, he had successfully reduced her to a state of helplessness, and there was a dark sense of victory to it for him buried in his rage, "Consider this a wake up call for what it's like to live in the real world, Ziegler. You can't act like a maniac and expect to survive in civilized society. You're not and never will be free of consequences for your actions. Remember that."

With that, Zeke left her there alone – crying, naked and cradling her cheek that still stung harshly from the slap that he didn't hold back on at all; she wasn't crying over the pain though, she was completely absorbed now in the fear that Reiner may suffer in some way because of her behavior. If Zeke didn't come out with that hard hitting fact she very well would have slapped him back or elbowed him in the throat, but he drove the knife right into her heart when he invoked Reiner's name into this situation; there was no way she could fight back when Zeke shot her with her personal silver bullet.

After a few minutes of just sitting there and ruminating, she slowly rose back to her feet and began to head off in the same direction Zeke did. She stumbled along, trying to hold herself together, until she finally found the room she shared with the other two. Priss very, very quietly entered and tip toed over to her and Reiner's bed – he was still sleeping with that handsome smile on his face. Under normal circumstances seeing this would have made her heart sing, but with how she was feeling now, all it did was make her gasp sharply while her chest tightened as she tried to hold back full-on sobs over the guilt that was piling onto her shoulders.

Priss was glad her uncontrolled outburst of noise didn't wake him, and she hoped to god that getting back into bed with him wouldn't either. However, she found herself unable to move; she ended up frozen in place beside his bed and looking down on him with her tear stained cheeks before she sank to her knees, shuffled around and sat on the ground against the bed – utterly defeated.

I don't deserve to lay with him...

She drew her legs up to her chest and hugged them tightly, which only acted to irritate the pain in her left arm, so she let it drop limply to her side. Her head fell forward and she rested it against her knees, making herself feel as small as she possibly could. Priss forced herself to not cry too loudly, but she couldn't completely stop herself from weeping. This brought her back to that moment on Paradis where Zeke punished her by commanding Reiner to duel him in their Titan forms. This instance now was different though; Zeke was still using him against her, but there was a higher authority other than just Zeke involved this time which made the outcome frighteningly more unpredictable.

Priscilla had no notion of what the military could possibly do to punish Reiner. Her rational side tried to convince her Zeke was full of shit, but in moments like these, there was no way for her to see reason on her own; any sense of rationality was effortlessly squashed by visceral, unbridled emotion. When at war with herself like this, it was the easier thing to do to succumb to the worst case scenario: that now something bad would happen to Reiner and she would be the one to cause it, even with no logical ground to stand on for that assumption other than the word of Zeke. The more she dwelt on this grim idea, the worse she felt. Her body shook as she tried to hold herself back from going into an all out sob again.

Then, her head snapped back up from it's resting position as her brain frantically jumped to another thought.

Can I fix this?

Her eyes darted side to side as her mind started to work to figure out a way to make up for the shit she pulled. Would getting down on her hands and knees to beg forgiveness like Zeke did do anything to put a bandage on the situation? Even with the begging and groveling of the Warchief, the only thing that really saved her skin was the fact that some family called the "Tyburs" demanded her presence – and she honestly had no idea what that meant but she supposed she should be thankful for it. If it weren't for that fact, she deduced that no amount of crying and begging would have saved her life after attacking the Marleyan soldier. She sniffled quietly and then wiped her eyes and nose; focusing on trying to right her wrong at least distracted her from the non-stop crying, even if it was a fruitless effort to seek any sort of fix. There was nothing she could offer these Marleyans that would make them forgive her.

The fact that they were under the assumption that she was Eldian made it so there was no way the Marleyans would ever think positively of her, and Zeke did say that revealing she's not Eldian would cause more problems than it would solve; it would lead to questions being brought up that would be difficult to answer. Priss wasn't Zeke's biggest fan by any stretch of the imagination, but this was a case where she trusted that he knew better than her with the forces they were dealing with here.

"I'll survive"

Her words from when Zeke first informed her about how she'd be treated under the assumption that she was Eldian tumbled back to her mind – sure, she was 'surviving,' but she was sitting there after making supremely dumb choices that resulted in a minor bullet wound that could have easily lead to fatal shots if Zeke hadn't intervened.

"You can't act like a maniac and expect to survive in civilized society."

"He's..." She murmured as her head sank back down in defeat, "He's right."

She had come from a culture for as long as she remembered was 'do whatever you can to survive' – it was brutal; she went through training to fight against horrible monsters and could easily see her life ended at any moment. Even as a homeless child, it was a desperate struggle to survive and to endure the trials that came every day with that. The normalized life of fighting tooth and nail to survive was deeply embedded in her, but now she was on her way to a new world... one that was, according to Zeke, more advanced and civilized, and his words implied the way she acts would not be tolerated in such a society.

Priscilla would not give up on being herself, never would she do that, but she started to consider that as she was growing up on her way to being a wife and mother meant that she needed to reel herself in a bit. A little self reflection never hurt anybody, but to adjust one's personality was no easy task. She turned her heavy head and looked over her shoulder at Reiner, who still slept peacefully with that beautiful and peaceful smile.

"For him, for our baby.." She whispered as tears formed in her eyes again, "I have to start at least trying to be better..."

She shifted so that she sat with her side against the bed and rested her good arm and head against the edge so she could look at him. Whether or not she could revamp herself, quickly or even at all, wasn't something she could predict – but the point was she at least recognized that out in a civil society, she had to conduct herself like a stable human as best she could. It also brought to the front of her mind just how different Marley would be from Paradis Island. She hadn't given a great amount of thought into the potential culture shock – she just figured as long as Reiner was there to guide her through it, things would be easy enough to cope with.

But now the freedom she had been chasing started to feel... ominous, and the thought of Reiner suffering consequences that could separate him from her to help her get through it terrified her even more. Before she would shiver with excitement for what the future held for them in a world without barricades, but now she had begun to tremble in fear over the haunting uncertainty that inherently went hand in hand with freedom.

"Arrgh!"

Anteros screamed as he threw himself from his lavish bed, tripping over the sheets he was tangled up in and crashing against the door he was heading for. He furiously grabbed the door handle with one hand while his other clung to his throbbing head that was being pierced by an unbearable pain. After he struggled with the door, he swung it open hard – the man had no care for the rest of the inhabitants of the Tybur Villa who were asleep at this god forsaken hour of the night. He grunted and groaned as he stumbled his way to where he knew a balcony was – where he'd find salvation from his suffering – but as he went he kept bumping into furniture and making a horrible ruckus, on top of his groans of agony.

His vision was slightly blurred with how much he was hurting, pulses of pain making waves from the core of his brain and spreading outward, but he soon saw the familiar outline of the double doors that lead to the balcony. Anteros ran forward and swung them open, fell to his knees and found himself under the blessed light of the full moon that he had sought to cure him. The strong light embraced him and lifted the pain from his body almost instantly, leading him to let out a hard exhale as if he'd been holding his breath the whole time he made his frantic journey to the balcony. He breathed heavily as he spread his arms wide out and stared up at the celestial body hanging in the sky that he swore was smiling down upon him... and even speaking to him.

"What's all this commotion, Anteros?" Behind him a tired Willy Tybur had appeared who had been awakened by all the noise his usual guest had made, "It's well after midnight..."

"Ah...haha..." Anteros laughed deviously, "She connected strongly with the moon tonight... but she was very erratic when she did... and I felt it, even in my sleep."

Willy rubbed one of his eyes and mumbled in his sleepy confusion, "Who now? What?"

"Sweet Addie..." Anteros clarified, then inhaled the night air deeply and closed his eyes, "I don't know what had her feeling in such a bad way, but it was potent enough for me to be so overwhelmed..."

"You people really are..." Willy began, but paused as he searched for the right word, "...Anomalies."

"Oh?!" Anteros snapped, turning and revealing his bright green eyes emitting an eerie glow, "The Eldian dares call me and my kind anomalies? When it is your filthy race that carries the most cursed blood and monstrous nature ever known to man?!"

Willy let out a displeased but defeated grunt – he was well aware of what being an Eldian meant and he couldn't deny that; still, he found Anteros and his 'sweet sister' to be so peculiar in how different they functioned from the rest of the world. He wasn't privy to every detail of Hyperia that Anteros could offer, but it was very clear already that these Hyperians were beings that exceeded other humans. Willy often pondered whether their race could even be called 'human' from what he knew of them. Eldians were always degraded as less than people and likened to animals while to Willy the Hyperians seemed to exist on the opposite end of being 'inhuman' – they are high above all others, while Eldians exist far below the rest.

"...I apologize, I didn't mean that in a derogatory way... But, about your sister, you talk about sensing her and all these nebulous connections..." Willy went on, getting more lucid in his curiosity, "Does she feel things too? The way you do?"

"No..." Anteros replied, clearly bitter, as he rose to his feet and fell into a frantic ramble, "Her disconnection from our race for all these years has damaged her innate abilities... they're still there, they must be, they need to be awakened... I can help her with that. I must. It's crucial... But I'm content for now, just from time to time looking in on her... however vague what I see may be, it's all I can get for the time being. But ohhh once she's here physically with me... That's when it'll all start coming together. When the reconnection can begin."

"The other day you said she'd be coming soon..." Willy recalled, "How can you be so sure of that at all?"

"Oh the moon, it communes with me as she draws closer! After so long, it's making sure I know when she will return to me! The moon and universe sing for her glorious advent!" Anteros exclaimed loudly as he threw his arms out dramatically, again with no consideration for anyone else who would be sleeping; he was getting so worked up that he was running out of breath and took a moment to compose himself before he continued, "It tells me she's started crossing the ocean already. She'll reach the continent in less than 17 hours at this point..."

Willy shook his head, "This is assuming the cruiser maintains it's speed and no issues aris-"

"She will be here!" Anteros shouted, his eyes flaring with that strange glow again, "And finally... I'll be able to lay my eyes on her, to see her right in front of me again... to feel her body again... after so long will be simply... rapturous."

Priscilla sat in the same position as unknown hours passed her by, just staring at Reiner while he peacefully slept; half the time she managed to find herself pleasantly distracted by loving thoughts about him, but the worry of how she'd soon enough have to explain to him the events that had occurred overnight would creep up on her. At one point her ears picked up on Zeke getting out of his bed, shuffling around and eventually exiting the room without a word, but she stayed put and paid him no mind. Priss had nothing to say to that man, so to even look his way would be a waste of energy – a resource she was running low on at this point.

"Hey..."

In her growing sleepy haze, she didn't notice Reiner's naturally narrow eyes crack open a sliver until he quietly called out to her in a mix of adoration and confusion, "What are you doing on the floor?" He added.

"I- I uh," Priscilla choked on her words as she sat up straight. Reiner was still half asleep and not cognizant enough to question anything but the obvious fact of her not being in bed with him.

Reiner reached out to gently caress her face and play with her hair that framed it, "Come back to bed, I bet we still got time to sleep a little longer..." he mumbled wearily.

Her stomach twisted with lingering guilt but her heart urged her forward to find refuge, even if brief, in the arms of her lover. It didn't take much time for Priss to give into what her heart desired – she carefully climbed back into the bed and under the thin blanket while Reiner smiled warmly at her. She laid on her right side, which was facing Reiner, so she wouldn't have to rest her weight on her wounded arm that went unnoticed by him for the time being. She wriggled forward and nestled against him so her face was against his chest and he could rest his chin on her head. Priscilla listened closely to his breathing as he seemed to fall back to sleep within moments. At this point, not even the anxiety she had been grappling with for who knows how long now could keep her up; between her depleted energy and the comfort that Reiner's presence and embrace brought her, she soon found herself sleeping once more.