A/N: As always, the policy of 'please no major spoilers in reviews' is a courtesy I ask for going forward. But I'll put that disclaimer in every chapter no matter the content just in case. As always, enjoy! Again, due to life circumstances I feel like I'm not up to my own personal par, but to agonize over perfecting things will make me feel worse and stall the progress, so I hope I'm still doing ok.

Chapter 30: Reticence

Be proud
Fight it out
You are the One

When Anteros and Zeke entered the 'safe house' of the Hyperians where they held their last human sacrifice, Anteros flashed a charismatic grin as he carried in a box that was filled with various types of blades that he threw forward so that they all scattered to the door. Zeke hung back and locked the door – there was no chance anyone would come looking for the Hyperians, but Anteros wanted to make sure all his bases were covered. With the edged weapons scattered about on the floor, the Hyperians went from casual to confused – they knew the son of the Grand Elder was a bit 'odd.' His father was the only one who didn't look mildly confused, fear came over him and he ran towards Anteros.

"Tch." Anteros scoffed as he side stepped his father, leading to the man to fall forwards onto his hands and knees, putting him in between Zeke and Anteros. The white haired teen turned to look down upon his father with disdain, "I know you fear me, father. And I know that you know too."

"Anteros..." His father breathed, lifting his head up and seeing Zeke, who he reached out to in a silent call for help.

"Now." Anteros continued as the mixture of unhinged hatred and euphoria appeared on his face, "I will show you exactly why you are right to fear me."

His father looked behind him to watch his son exert the immense psychic power he held over the rest of the Hyperians. While he looked away from him, Zeke tackled the father to the ground to restrain him. In an instant, they all flocked to the blades in a senseless frenzy and turned the weapons onto themselves. Anteros breathed heavily, veils pulsed on his temple and his eyes grew bloodshot as he focused on forcing a mass suicide via painful self castrations. Women hacked off their breasts and carved out their uteri, following by stabbing over and over into their nether regions until they fell over dead. Men had a shorter job with their genitals, and since that was the only area they destroyed, they ended up laying and waiting to die from bleeding out once the deed was one while the women died off quicker with how much more damage they did to themselves.

"Ohhh YES!" Anteros shouted in glee before falling to his knees. He panted heavily and sweat was pouring off of him, "Oh, I wasn't even sure if I had enough power to influence those sheep on that scale... but oh how easy they fell. They were like dolls, no wills of their own, just my play things to do with as I see fit... but they were ugly and broken toys."

The severely worn out teen looked back over to his father, who had tears in his eyes after watching his son force the last of his people to commit suicide against their wills. The man was still held down by Zeke, but he had no desire to try and retaliate at this point. His people were dead, every last one of them save for his beyond cruel son – for he was only able to hope that his daughter still lived. Anteros let out a sinister chuckle as he regained his strength, rising to stand straight once more. He turned and walked over to his father so that he stood tall directly in front of him, so the man he detested had to look up upon him as if he were a fearsome and vengeful god.

"Now, father, before you join the rest of the dearly departed here..." Anteros said in a soft but dangerous voice, "I wanted to make sure you saw one last thing."

"Just hurry up and kill me too..." His father lamented, "There's nothing you could show me that I'd care about."

"Is that so?" Anteros cocked his head to the side as he reached into his overcoat and pulled something from his pocket, "I guess it doesn't matter to you that I found this, does it?"

A look of despair crossed his father's face, "How did...!? I kept it so well hidden..."

"Perhaps you should have thrown it into the ocean if you wanted to make sure I never got my hands on it," Anteros said smugly, "But deep in your heart you know you still needed it for Addie."

"T-There's no way you can know she's fertile!" The father countered, "That's useless without a viable womb!"

Anteros' expression grew darker, "But you still held out hope for her to be. Why else hold onto this?"

Anteros tapped the box using the index finger of the hand he was holding it with. This box was approximately 7 inches tall, by 4 inches wide by 2.5 inches deep, colored a deep red with golden embellishments. He looked away from his father to gaze lovingly at this box he held. Zeke was curious as hell over what these two were talking about, but based on how they were acting, it must have been of great importance.

"It's a family heirloom passed down since the time of the founders... the leading family is trusted with that, and no matter what, we must protect it until-"

"'Until the day of the rumbling comes.'" Anteros mockingly finished his fathers sentence before he went on in his tone of superiority, "Well, I think it's rather stupid to do that. To just wait around when we can strike at will. My Eldian friend here will be deploying to our homeland, and he will find Adrestia and bring her to me. Then, I'll have gathered all the pieces I need."

"You still don't know if she can bear children..."

"Have a little faith, won't you?" Anteros grinned, "And if my personal plan fails, Yeager here has his own ideas about eliminating the Eldians. Not my cup of tea, but it's a backup plan in case Addie's body isn't viable. I may not get everything I want from his plan, but at least it will rid the world of the subhuman filth of the Eldian race... However, my intuition with her is strong, and I am positive she will have a viable body... and together, she and I will bring the world a revolution like it's never seen before."

"You're insane..." His father spat, "And no son of mine."

"No matter to me," Anteros shrugged and tucked the precious item back into his large inner jacket pocket, "I've come to believe I'm actually the son of God to be quite honest. Or perhaps I just carry part of the Heavenly Father in me, unlike the rest of you swine. Either way, it makes me the chosen one! ...Yeager!"

The loud shout put Zeke at attention after disconnecting mentally from the scene before him, "Yes, Anteros?"

Anteros knelt down and picked up the nearest blade he could find, then tossed it up to Zeke, who's training reflexes and general instincts lead him to be able to easily catch it. He had to scramble a bit to do it, and stop holding down his comrade's father, but the man was so broken he didn't need a physical or psychic influence to keep him down. Anteros grinned maliciously, "Kill this man now."

"What?!" Zeke exclaimed.

"Consider this your final test of loyalty, Yeager!" Anteros barked, "Kill my father and prove that you are dedicated to the righteous path."

Zeke felt terrible that it didn't take him long to decide or act. Without any further question, he grabbed the man's white hair, lifting his head to expose his neck and pressed the blade against it.

"May God have mercy upon y-"

Anteros' father tried to utter his final words, but Zeke slit the man's throat with all his might before he could get the entire statement out. He let the man go and his body limply fell forward while blood flowed from his wound and pooled around his head. Anteros elegantly rose back to his feet with a pleased smile on his face. The weapon, now wet with blood, clattered to the floor. He had just committed the crime of not just murder, but partaking in committing what was essentially a genocide

"Well done, Zeke." Anteros said with a kind expression that was more chilling than warm considering everything that just happened. Zeke was a bit shocked since this was the first time Anteros called him by his first name that he could remember, "Now I can be certain... we're in this together and you won't fail me."

"They're all dead..." Zeke murmured, looking over all the mutilated dead bodies strewn about the former ritual hall.

"It's no matter, they were all useless, remember?" Anteros insisted, putting and arm around Zeke and pulling him away from looking at the massacre. The white haired boy leaned in close, as if they truly were friends, as he spoke to him, "I've got all we need right here in my pocket. The rest is up to you to get my sister."

Zeke's brows furrowed when Anteros brought up what was in his pocket again. No name or real description of what was hidden in that box was given during the dialogue exchange.

"...What is it that you have there anyway?" Zeke asked.

"It's the final piece. The last bit we needed to get a hold of to achieve my final solution, as long as you make good on retrieving my sweet Addie of course. Without her, it's nothing. But this here," He said, then pulled it out of his pocketed again and tapped on it with the index finger of the hand he held it in, "Is also necessary. Think of it as the 'key' to Adrestia's 'gate.'"

This still left the young Zeke wondering, "But... what exactly is it?"

"Sir?"

Zeke's snapped out of his day dream, but it was more like being distracted by a waking nightmare than a dream, as he stood in the hospital waiting room where a nurse was right in front of him, "Oh, forgive me, what did you need?"

"We are taking in the girl you brought in now," The detached nurse explained, "Does she have any medical records?"

"No, none at all." Zeke said, which earned him a glare from the nurse, but she wasn't a caring enough person to press on the subject. She just wanted to get her job done. With a huff, she continued...

"Are you aware of any preexisting health conditions?"

Zeke nervously scratched his ear, "All I can tell you is that she is pregnant. Other than that, I'm in the dark on her health."

"Are you the father?" Was the nurse immediate and cold answer.

Zeke choked on the words he tried to get out, thinking of how absurd it is to be asked that question – but how would this overworked nurse know? He was the one that brought her in, so it would safely be assumed by anyone who didn't know better that he sired the child in her womb.

"No, of course not... I barely know the girl," Zeke said rather meekly, but then assume a tone of boldness, "If any of this is about money, send the bill to Zeke Yeager."

Once he had announced his name, the nurse's cold face melted into warm surprise and her eyes traveled to his arm where she noticed his armband.

"I didn't notice you had the armband of the Warrior unit on..." She said apologetically, "Please, excuse my rudeness Warchief Yeager."

"I'll feel better once you make that girl well again," He replied, maintaining his authoritative way of speaking he picked up, "Spare no expense and do everything you can."

The nurse nodded repeatedly, but the look on her face gave away her inner thoughts: she was not optimistic, even though she hadn't spent much time with Priss – as she now was in the hands of a doctor – the nurse knew all she needed to know to make a realistic guess about how things would end.

"I don't know how long she'll be here, she'll need some period of recovery," The nurse informed Zeke, "You can go home and we'll give you a call when she's read-"

"No, I'll wait here." Zeke interrupted her, damn near insulted that she suggested he do anything else.

The nurse nodded again, "Then please have a seat here in the waiting room..."

"I expect updates when you have them," He added as a final demand from this average staff member who he had intimidated with his military standing.

With those last words, the nurse turned and walked away. If all Zeke could do was sit and wait, then that's what he'd do – he wasn't happy with the fact that he had to just wait around, totally in the dark, but he knew there was no way they'd let him into whatever room she was in. If he lied and claimed to be the child's father, then maybe he could have gotten further than the waiting room to keep an eye on her, but he hadn't thought that far ahead; it was hard to make a plan on the spot when you're in the middle of a crisis.

Zeke slumped into one of the horribly uncomfortable chairs provided in the waiting room. It was an Eldian one, so it wasn't nearly as nice as one outside of the Internment Zone that mostly wouldn't dream of treating Eldians. The Warchief wished he could get her seen in one of the better hospitals there were, but between hiding her identity and it taking longer to get outside their walled city to find the best health care, it was better he got her any quality of care as fast as he could. The man sighed heavily and hung his head, hunched over with his elbows resting on his knees leaving his hands to dangle. The room was rather quiet, save for the staff taking calls, some chatter here and there among them – coughs from patients waiting to be seen were what disturbed the peace the most.

As he sat there patients came and went, and every time Zeke heard the doors that lead into the deeper parts of the hospital open, he would straighten up and snap his gaze to it – sadly, she never came.

I don't know how long she'll be here

The nurse's words echoed in Zeke's head, a very potent reminder of how he shouldn't get his hopes up for her to walk out of there very soon... or even with everything ok. Zeke recalled the knowing, saddened glances the admission techs and nurses gave each other when they went over her symptoms and were given the info that she was with child. Zeke couldn't even be sure she was cognizant for any of this – she seemed totally out of it from the pain, like it had numbed and blinded her to everything around her, and all she was able to feel was hurt.

The man sat with his head in his hands, feeling like time had slowed to a halt there. Patients came and went, but Priscilla was still being kept. He wasn't entirely sure why he didn't just leave and come back later to pick her up – this was the girl who endlessly angered him with her defiance, why was he staying and worrying over her and looking up every time he heard someone walk out into the waiting room to see if it was her?

"You're such a piece of shit!"

"Please... Don't do this... I'm sorry."

"What about you? Why won't you say your issue with me?"

"I don't need remarks about being a proper person from a literal dirty ape who tried to kill my Reiner!"

"What the fuck is wrong with you?! I told you I didn't need your stupid help!"

So many of the things she had said to him ever since they met repeated in his mind, blending together in a blur, but he couldn't stand to think of his responses to them – but as hard as he tried to ignore and erase his wrongdoings, with both cruel words and deeds, they could not be undone. He could perfectly see her face twisted in anger, sadness and hatred towards him, but now all of it was being eclipsed by the broken girl he had picked up to bring to the hospital; Zeke saw, perhaps for the first time, a human being in her. For so long he denied she was anything but a tool for his end game goal with Anteros, but now his feelings had swung in the opposite direction... Now, he was struck with a debilitating guilt over the way he treated her, and he had to wonder now if she would even live through what was happening to her. Zeke didn't worry for her survival because of her usefulness as an object, but he wanted desperately now to apologize and try to make things right. No longer was she merely a sexual temptress and desire of his, a tool... she was a person who had been hurt. She, like him, was only going to be used by her parents for their own agenda. Sympathy for the poor girl overwhelmed him, something he never expected to feel towards her.

The question now was, would he be able to continue on his 'righteous path' he had been loyal to for a decade? The road that would render her nothing but an object like he previously thought of her as? Along with that empathy, conflict brewed potently in him with how significantly and swiftly his feelings changed.

"Warchief Yeager?"

So consumed was he in his own turmoil, Zeke didn't notice the doctor approach him. His head snapped up and soon the rest of his body followed, putting him on his feet face to face with the man in a surgical outfit.

"Yes?" Zeke pressed.

"You were the one who brought in the young woman who was having the pregnancy complication, correct?" The man asked, far kinder than the nurse he first talked to was. Zeke looked him up and down, noticing the doctor's garments stained with fluids, one of which certainly had to be blood.

Zeke looked back up to the doctor's face, "Yes... is she alright?"

"We were able to save her life," The doctor began, front loading with the good news, "However, the fetus wasn't viable. She could have died if we didn't complete the termination that had started naturally. We weren't able to find a clear reason, it's likely there was a faulty genetic component that lead to the fetus being miscarried. It's very strange for such an early pregnancy to be so dire in the event of a miscarriage."

And there it was: the dreaded 'm' word that Zeke didn't want to even think about. A thousand yard stare took over Zeke's now pallid face. The man knew damn well how excited she was to be a mother and how much that unborn child mattered to her, with all the things that had ran through his mind moments before, there was no other other way to describe what he was feeling: grief.

"You're a hero, Warchief Yeager," Said the doctor, capturing Zeke's attention, "If you didn't rush her here for treatment, both she and the fetus likely wouldn't have made it."

"Hero?" Zeke repeated flatly, "No. What I did was just basic human decency... saving that child would have been something heroic, and I couldn't make that happen."

The doctor wasn't exactly equipped to handle the emotional fallout of loss, he was just there to do his job, so he had to somewhat callously move things along, "The young lady is still sleeping and sedated. We had to knock her out since painkillers weren't enough for the procedure. We expect her to wake up soon, but she'll be feeling the lingering cognitive impairments from the medications for sure, so she'll be needing someone to escort her home."

"Right, right..." Zeke said dismissively, then took a seat again, "I'll be here. I'll wait as long as I need to."

Again he retreated into his inner world where he was trying to make sense of these new feelings and cope with his guilt, while also trying to reconcile that this wasn't all about him, but Priscilla was not around for him to talk with yet, so all he could do was continue to ruminate.

"Oh dear..." Anteros murmured to himself, gently running his fingers over his chest, "She's hurting..."

He wasn't feeling the same level of pain she was, but the inherent bond he had gave him the otherworldly intuition to know and sense something was very wrong, but he couldn't tell what – he could only hazard a guess as to what could be tormenting her physically and emotionally.

"Seems being half Eldian didn't save that demon's seed from it's curse after all... Such is the way of things. It's just a shame she had to learn the so called 'power of love' can't overcome how we were designed the hard way... The path of destiny has corrected itself, and that is quite splendid, even if the way it happened was tragic for my dearest sister."

Zeke had kept up his vigil of looking towards the doors to see if it was Priss walking out, and finally his diligent watch paid off. There she was, the one he only used to see as a nuisance and pain in his ass, being carefully guided out by a nurse – a different one from before. Priscilla could barely hold her head up, but Zeke could catch glimpses of her expression as they approached: she was confused, likely thanks to the effects of the sedating and painkilling drugs, but there was the unmistakable sadness there too.

"We have to let her go now to free up rooms," The nurse explained once she was close to Zeke, "Please be careful with her, she's not 'all there' yet."

Zeke nodded and the two started the process of transferring her from the nurse's care to Zeke's arms where he was mindful of the best way to support her. There was no more business to take care of in this place, and that's exactly what a hospital is at the end of the day: a business. Priss was a customer they had to rush out to make room for another customer even though she was still out of sorts and couldn't walk on her own.

"Are you sure you want to walk?" Zeke asked, supporting her by slinging her arm closest to his body around his shoulders and then carefully holding her by the waist with his two arms, letting her lean her weight onto him, "I can carry you."

"No..." Came her first weary word, "Let me walk"

The words of hers would normally be vitriolic from what their past interactions would indicate, but in that moment they weren't. In fact, he could detect an honest amount of gratitude despite what she said being a denial of extra help.

"Well then just keep leaning on me then," He instructed, I can manage fine."

"Yeah..." She replied. She put as much weight as she needed to on him, but she was doing her damndest to support herself too, she couldn't help herself from trying not to rely on him.

As they went along, quiet weeps started to reach his ear. Zeke turned and tilted his face down where he could see that she was obviously crying, even with her bangs obscuring part of her face.

"I lost my baby," She said through her tears, "Reiner's baby... Our boy is gone. I don't... I don't know what to say to him."

"You don't have to tell him until you figure it out," Zeke spoke, "And I won't say a word. It's not my place to tell him."

His supportive assurance just made he start to cry harder and kept mumbling Reiner's name under her breath. In the past, he would find her cries to be nothing but a bother and want nothing more than for her to be quiet, but now he wanted to comfort her and try to ease her broken heart. He was aware that she'd much rather Reiner have been the one to be holding her right now, but knowing that fact didn't stop him from feeling the way he did – he felt something like how Reiner felt for this woman. No longer were lust and frustration the only feelings she stirred in him; no longer were her cries irritating to him, they roused legitimate empathy within him. Seeing her suffering and not shunning his help, despite her not liking him much at all, brought something new. He now had a desire to protect the goddess that he managed to get into his arms in that moment, to see her smile and hear her laugh.

Zeke couldn't deny that he had unexpectedly and very quickly fallen in love with Priss now. This event on top of the fuel of the empathy of their similar family situations in terms of being exploited by them left him with a deep longing.

He knew she would never feel the same way about him, but his feelings would not waver. He also knew that she would continue to reject any advances he might make, but that would not stop his want for her – it already hadn't caused his lust to cease, so why would her rejecting him deter the new found affection added into the mix? In that moment, looking upon and feeling her body against his didn't drive him into a sexual frenzy, this time all he wanted was to ease her pain and for her to accept the love he suddenly desired to give her... as delusional as it was to even want that from her. She was a married woman in her mind (and hopefully soon legally), and even if she wasn't she would never stray from Reiner. Zeke would have to live in silent longing because making his love for her known to anyone would complicate the relationship between not just him and Priss, but Reiner as well, more than it already was.

"Thank you," Priss said, pulling him out of his thoughts, "I really owe you one."

"Don't say that," He responded, "What kind of man would I be if I didn't help you? You don't owe me anything."

By now, Priscilla had a change of heart too, but not in the way Zeke did. She now thought he was a good man, despite all he had done. She was grateful and appreciative of him being there for her and asking nothing in return. After their slow going walk, they reached the Braun home where she was still staying for the time being.

"I think I can walk okay now," She said to Zeke, looking up towards him and weakly flashing a smile.

"As you wish," Zeke replied, "But if you need help, don't hesitate to ask."

With a soft hum of acknowledgment, she opened the door; she was relieved that Karina hadn't returned and that Gabi was absent too, indicating that she probably headed back to her own home. Priss wasn't ready to explain to Gabi what went wrong that day but, much like with Reiner, she would have to eventually since she already told Gabi a baby was on the way. That's not exactly something she could "take back" or say she was just kidding about. She let out a shuddering sigh as she made for the stairs so she could go rest in Reiner's bed until she felt back to normal – physically anyway, she also very much hadn't fully processed the devastation and the full force of the grief was yet to come. She was both in shock and too doped up to comprehend much of anything.

"Wait!" Zeke called after her. She paused, keeping her hand on the railing for support, and turned her head with a curious raised eyebrow. Zeke took a firm stance and his face expressed a conviction in a way she hadn't seen before from him towards her, "I will make sure you and Reiner are married. I'll handle to documents, I'll walk you through anything you need to be involved in beyond a signature."

Priss gasped a bit; this was the man who not too long ago was annoyingly hesitant about the idea, but now here he was making declarations that he would make this legal marriage happen.

"Thank you, but I have to ask... what's with the change of heart?"

Zeke scratched his ear, "It's as simple as that. A change of heart. I know no amount of apologizing is enough to earn your forgiveness, and helping you out shouldn't either. I have been horrible to you and with what happened today, it's clearer than ever that you are more than an object that I shouldn't see as a person. So... I'm beyond sorry for everything I've done, and I swear I will see that you and the love of your life are married ASAP."

With tears in her eyes again she let out a simple, sweet, yet sorrowful "Thank you, Zeke."

The tone in which she just spoke to him was enough to make his newly changed heart beat faster, but he couldn't risk showing that on his face, so he turned around and simply said, "Of course... If you need anything though, don't hesitate to ask." before departing.

Priss laid in the bed that was too small for her and stared and the ceiling. Little by little the gravity of the situation was hitting her; the son she had envisioned in her daydreams, the fact that he would be the lasting legacy of herself and Reiner, he would be a source of happiness for them both. It wasn't just her who was excited either, Reiner naturally was as well, but Gabi and Karina had instantly found joy in the idea that a new member of the Braun family was on the way.

But now?

He was gone. And nobody could tell her why.

"Could it have been..." She whispered, "The genetic issue with Eldians I have?"

She rolled over suddenly and pulled her legs up to her chest and hugged them tightly, "No, no, no... I can't think something so horrible... that couldn't be the reason this happened... it just... couldn't."

Priscilla began to cry again, but she accelerated into full on sobs quickly since she felt so guilty for considering for just one second that Reiner's lineage was to blame. She sobbed trying to forget she thought such a thing, she sobbed trying to search for a way to blame herself or someone else, and she sobbed until she couldn't cry anymore and fell asleep.