Chapter 35: Paths

Priscilla stood in a world of gray mist that stretched out in every direction as far as her eyes could see. If anyone else were there, she herself would certainly blend in with her pale surroundings and be invisible to any onlooker. She had no idea where this place was or how she got there, so all the girl did was stand frozen in place with both her hands clenched tightly against her chest, right above her heart that was starting to beat faster the longer she stood in this eerie, lonely place. Her eyes remained locked looking straight ahead and her body paralyzed until she heard a noise pierce the silence: an infant crying. That sound made her heart rate jump even more and she frantically started to look around for the source. At first it was distant, but as the unseen child continued to cry, it grew louder and louder.

Suddenly, the sound was right beside her and she looked down to see a baby – a boy, her boy. Even though it was just a newborn, Priss knew it had to be her son she was seeing and it made her heart sink into her stomach. Her instincts told her to pick the boy up and try to comfort him so he would calm down, but she halted when she noticed something she somehow initially missed: a red cord running from her navel and connecting to the baby's. She straightened herself back out and stared down at the cord with her eyes following it from her to her son. After a moment of this, she let out a yelp of surprise when another emerged at the base of the original cord – and the same for her son. The new cords grew and traveled rapidly across the ground in a way that suggested they would eventually converge at a specific point – but whatever was at that point was too far off to be seen. Although, if what she was seeing was some kind of umbilical connection, the new strands of it crawling out from her and her child into the seemingly endless gray fog wouldn't lead to something, but rather someone.

However, wherever these branching 'paths' would meet was shrouded in mystery as they extended too far to see them get even close to joining at a singular point; Priss couldn't make out something even vaguely like a silhouette, no less see an actual person. As this strange phenomenon was taking place, her child's cries eventually subsided and he settled into cooing softly.

"Is anyone there?" She finally called out after standing in silence for so long.

No response to her call out, only an eerie echo of her words; she didn't know if that was better or worse than hearing someone reply to her, both options were ripe with the fear of the unknown. With nobody answering back and overall nothing significant coming from the strange cords, the girl finally knelt down and picked up her lost child. Priss made sure to treat him with the utmost care and hold him firmly, but not too tightly, making sure to pay attention to supporting his head. He was delighted and let out squeaky little giggles and reached for his mother's long hair, tugging on it once her managed to grasp at some that had drifted forward across her shoulder. Priscilla looked down at the boy lovingly; she was surprised that she wasn't sobbing as she watched him go from lightly tugging on to chewing her hair and babbling through it.

It must feel nice to finally have him. This would be good, wouldn't it? To get back that which you were denied?

A voice pierced through her mind so severely that she nearly dropped the newborn out of shock. She looked around but there was still nobody there but herself and the child in her arms. Priss was going to attempt to call our into the void again, but her voice was stolen from her throat and she couldn't speak. Her child was still acting playful, but she couldn't hear him making sounds anymore, she had been deafened to everything but a growing white noise in her head that was getting progressively louder, but not just that, it was becoming physically intolerable too. The noise started to trigger physical pain in her head, and the louder it got, the more intense she was hurting. Until finally, she reached her breaking point.

"STOP!" She screamed.

Priscilla's eyes shot open where she found herself laying in her bed, tragically with her son gone as she was in the real world once more. She was left panting heavily and in a cold sweat after having her strange dream. The girl was tense in her bed, a place that should provide rest and relaxation, but she was left on edge and her body was struggling to relax from the rigidity she found herself locked in. Priss breathed in deeply and exhaled for a few moments, which allowed her body to soften then raised a hand to her face to wipe the sweat from it.

"Gross..." She grumbled to herself hoarsely, she took a look at her hand that now had a light sheen of sweat on it from using it to clean her face, before wiping it on the sheet to get it off.

Priss had no intent to lay around feeling all sweaty, so she got herself up and started to head towards the bathroom so she could shower off, and she figured the hot water would surely help any remaining stiffness in her body.

Despite nobody else being in her lonely abode, she locked the bathroom door anyway before she turned the water on and started to get undressed. She waited a bit for the water to heat up before she stepped inside – the last shower she had was at Karina's house, so it hadn't been terribly long since she got herself cleaned up. The hot water beat down on her, slowly soaking her hair and running down her body while steam spread from the shower out into the rest of the bathroom. The girl just stood there for a long while just enjoying the comforting warmth along with the pleasant memories it brought to her of those naughty little showers with Reiner. It made her smile to think back to those days where things were, or seemed to be, infinitely more simple.

Once she was good and wet, she looked around for soap only to soon realize there was none. She groaned quietly and shook her head – another thing she'd have to go out and get that day; she really underestimated just how bare bones this place was. With an irritated huff she turned the water off and stepped out, thankfully there was a single towel there, which she took and rubbed herself down with as well as gathering her hair in it to try and absorb some of the moisture, but with her amount of hair, just a single towel wasn't going to do much. With that being the case, she wrapped the towel around herself and quickly wrung out some of the water from her hair, but she knew well that it would just have to take time to naturally dry.

Priss stepped out of the steamy bathroom, but she didn't get much more than a moment of reprieve before she heard knocking on her front door.

"Who the...?" She muttered.

She made her way to the stairs and crossed the kitchen to get to the door, drops of water marking her path. Without much thought, she cracked open the door a sliver to see who it was. Priss looked down and saw none other than Gabi who appeared on the sheepish side as opposed to the big ball of energy she normally was, which in itself was perplexing – although given their last interaction, it should be expected that things wouldn't be quite back to normal for them right away, but just the fact that Gabi was there at all was enough to get Priss to smile, however that didn't last long. The longer she had the door ever so slightly open, the more a certain scent drifted towards her and into her home which lead her to swinging the door open fully, greeting the other visitor with a scowl.

"Zeke!" She shouted furiously, unsure of how she didn't notice him behind Gabi, "What's with the cigarette smell again?!"

The man was shocked by not only her perception, but of how passionate she got over it,"What? I had only one and it was hours ago..." He said, choosing to sadly defend himself than match her aggressive energy, "Can you really still smell it?"

"Smoking is bad for your health, Mr. Zeke," Gabi chimed in before Priss could take another jab at him, which proved to be for the best. If Gabi's cute comment, without knowing it was a personal point of contention for them, helped defuse things. Priss looked down at Gabi, nodding towards her and swelling with pride over her little friend's comment supporting Priscilla's stance, even if Gabi had no idea why her 'big sister' figure had such a problem with it.

Zeke was going to launch into his defense of how there weren't health problems to worry about due to his nature as a shifter, but he didn't want to get into it in a 2v1 scenario – and in fairness he only promised not to smoke around Priscilla, but he could see how even the lingering smell bothered her with the dirty look she was still giving him when she raised her head from Gabi to glare at him again. He had no clue how she could be so acutely aware of it, but if it was obviously bothering her, Zeke had to do something about it.

"Maybe I'll just... quit then," He grumbled swiftly, but not so quietly or quickly that the girls didn't pick up on it.

Gabi's face lit up happily, which was relieving for Priss to see, but she couldn't help but find it odd that Zeke would just drop his habit so easily just because she, and to a small extent Gabi, pressured him about it – Priss knew it probably had more to do with her disdain for the smoky smell more than Gabi saying it was bad for him, as Priss already knew there were no health ramifications due to his shifter regenerative powers. She shot the blonde a curious look, but his eyes immediately darted away before she could make eye contact.

"Well, come on in..." Priss said, stepping aside and welcoming them in. Zeke had a large bag with him that made metallic clanging noises as he set it down on the floor. Priss didn't know what to make of that, so she shook off her confusion for the sake of moving things along, "Lemme just run upstairs and get dressed real quick."

Priss turned away and jogged towards the stairs while holding her towel tightly, then slowed to a more steady pace as she ascended and disappeared from view. Her hair was still far from dry, so once she finished getting dressed she haphazardly wrapped it in the already damp towel. Not wanting to keep her guests waiting, she rushed back downstairs.

"So did you two come here together or what?" She asked.

"No, we just happened to cross paths on our way here..." Zeke explained, "Turns out we both had our own reasons to come here."

"Oh?" Priss said, turning to Gabi first and ignoring Zeke, "Really, Gabi? I was afraid you would be upset with me."

"No, it's okay," Gabi said, showing a shocking amount of maturity for her age, "It's sad, but it's more sad for you."

Priss then knelt down in front of Gabi, lightly laying her hands on the child's shoulders as she looked her in the eyes, "I need to ask you something important now Gabi," She said in a direly serious tone. Gabi nodded, "Did you tell anyone?"

"Huh? No I didn't... I didn't want to think about it. Or talk about it."

Priscilla sighed with relief and stood up, "Good. This is something that I want to be able to tell people when I'm ready. So I appreciate you keeping it to yourself."

She gave Gabi an affectionate pat on the head and a warm smile, but she could feel the eyes of Zeke boring into the back of her head. She swiftly turned around, and just as quickly as she did, Zeke turned his gaze away. Priss exhaled sharply, already getting annoyed with his weird bullshit behavior that had grown increasingly more strange in new ways and returned her attention to Gabi.

"So why did you wanna come over today?" Priss asked.

Gabi, not wanting to waste time, shoved her hand into one of her pockets and produced a small packet that she held out to Priss, "I used my allowance money to buy you some flower seeds!" She announced proudly.

Priscilla went starry eyed over this gesture and took the single packet of seeds, which had a picture of a white lily on it with the words 'lilium longiflorum' under the picture; the name of the flower in it's scientific form. The white haired girl stared down at the gift with a grateful smile, but raised her head back up when she heard Gabi start to speak again.

"I wanted to get rose seeds but they were too expensive..." Gabi lamented and hung her head, "I hope those are good enough. I just wanted to help you feel better."

"Gabi..." Priss breathed, placing her hand on the young girl's chin and tilting it back up, "These are perfect."

The young girl's eyes glittered and a smile quickly spread across her face, "Really Prissy?"

"Mhmm..." Priss nodded, "And maybe we can plant them together. There isn't much room in the backyard, if you can even call it that, but there's a small plot of soil we can put these in..."

Gabi jumped forward and threw herself towards Priss, who managed to be alert enough to receive the little girl and lift her up into a tight hug. The two of them were grinning with glee as Priss pulled Gabi close so they were cheek to cheek, swaying back and forth lightly. Gabi's legs hung like a rag doll for a moment before she latched her legs around this new family member of hers, which let the child give Priscilla a full body squeeze with all her might. Zeke stood idly by and watched the sugary sweet scene that was unfolding before him like he wasn't even there, but it wasn't just simply watching the pair of girls sharing a wonderful moment... he was witnessing what could have been if Priss didn't have her own child torn away from her before she ever got to hold it or name it.

He internally thanked God for Reiner having this young cousin for Priss to bond with since her own chance at motherhood was gone for the foreseeable future – Zeke didn't want to be pessimistic, but war is never easy, especially with the world adapting and growing stronger than the Titans of the Marleyan military... The man was determined to bring Reiner home to his lovely wife, but he knew they were looking at a battle that they shouldn't take so lightly compared to the past where Titans could be considered weapons of mass destruction – which had a touch of irony considering that the girl in front of Zeke who was showing an outpouring of love was supposedly a weapon of mass destruction on an unprecedented scale.

Zeke continued to just watch the jovial scene in a painful silence; he told Anteros he wasn't having any reservations about what they planned to do, but in moments like this, moments where he actually was there with her and seeing Priss for the person she is... That is what made him start to wonder if he was really on the supposed 'righteous path' towards a greater good as Anteros would call it.

"Acckkghh! Gabi, you're squeezing the life out of me!" Priss choked out, which only made Gabi laugh but as the good child she was, Gabi eased up. The little one relaxed and laid her head down on Priscilla's shoulder – the sheer size difference in the two made it easy Priss to hold her in such a way; Gabi was rather small for her age.

With the energy dying down, Priss finally chose to grace Zeke with her attention, but her broad smile diminished into one that just tugged at the corners of her lips in the slightest way only to remain polite.

"And what bring you here?" She asked with a heavy sigh. She tried not to sound as exasperated as she really was with him, but Zeke could still detect it.

"I owe you some things, remember?" He said as his tic to scratch his ear kicked in, "I need to make good on my word."

Priss nodded along with his words, "Right, right..." She murmured but then raised her voice back up to normal and said with a smug grin, "Hope you got deep pockets, Mr. Warchief, I'm not holding back."

"I didn't expect you to," Zeke spoke calmly, "Get whatever you want, I'll manage."

"Uh huh. So..." She nodded her head towards the bag he brought with him, "What's the deal with that?"

Zeke bent down to pick up the bag and set it on her nearby kitchen table, "Hand-me-down clothes weren't something my grandmother had that could fit you, but what she was able to offer were some old kitchen supplies. There's an apron in there too."

Priscilla let out a quiet, gasp of astonishment as her expression softened from 'obligatory politeness' to a sincerely surprised one. Zeke started pulling out pots and pans of various sizes, a kettle, a whisk and other miscellaneous items to help with cooking, including a musty cookbook.

"Old, but nothing wrong with any of them," He said, "No utensils though. She got rid of her older sets when she replaced them."

"Oh..." Priss marveled at the gifts laid out on her table. She opened her mouth but couldn't muster up anything to say since she was in such shock over the grand display before her. Gabi, who was still nestled in Priscilla's arms, narrowed her eyes at what Zeke brought and frowned.

"...Those aren't very fun presents!" Gabi spoke up bluntly.

"Gabi!" Priss hushed her quietly and finally put her back on her own two feet before she looked at the more than generous offering laid out for her, "This is uh, this is a lot. I didn't expect anything like this. You're really pulling through for me, Zeke."

"It's no problem..." He dismissed, "If they're just going unused, better to give them to someone who can get some use out of them. Only makes sense."

Gabi had picked up one of the pots, examining it with a resolute look on her face before she put in on her head like a soldier's helmet. As mature as Gabi could be with certain emotional subjects, there was still a playful child in there.

"I'll be fighting as a warrior for Marley one day! Bang bang!" She imitated firing guns, "And then I'll inherit The Armored Titan!"

Priss let out the best attempt of a laugh from behind an obviously pained smile. She knew all too well what being a warrior and a shifter meant, and Priscilla couldn't stand the thought of losing someone else she cared for to such a dreadful fate. Even though Gabi was having some harmless fun, Priss reached for the handle of the pot and lifted it off the child.

"These aren't toys, Gabi," Priss said with a motherly but still stern tone that she used to mask her woe, "And we should be very grateful to Zeke for bringing all this."

Willy sat at his desk in the study at his villa. He had just gotten off the phone with a General at Fort Lakua who he exchanged words with about the latest testing of the new weapons technology Willy had invested his time and money in, and even though both of them knew their phone line was secure, they spoke in somewhat of a coded way. The man ran his hand through his long blonde hair and looked to the family photo off on the left corner of his desk. With all the work he had been putting himself through, the time spent with his family had suffered. A wife and a sister can be more understanding, but he knew how hard it had to be on his children for him to be locked away attending to clandestine business.

"So the detonation test was a success," He mused to himself. Willy opened a drawer to pull out an ornate notepad and a fountain pen, starting to take notes that he spoke out loud as he wrote, "Some lives were lost in the recent air drop detonation... unfortunate, but they underestimated how powerful a nuclear weapon can be. Better precautions will be taken next time, but there should be consideration for people who are too close to the blast, but not close enough to be killed by it. What are the health effects of being exposed to that level of radiation? We may unfortunately have to perform tests with that in mind. Using unknowing people as guinea pigs, not my most noble idea.

Still, the blast radius still leaves something to be desired as it is, I made sure to express that to the General after he told me their results. Things are far from being considered 'complete' but we are moving faster than I anticipated. Underwater detonations may soon begin to test their effectiveness against naval fleets, but we shouldn't ignore any further atmospheric or underground testing. My estimate is that these bombs will be detonated after dropped from a plane, but we need to have all bases covered to make sure Marley maintains it's reigning military power."

Willy sat back in his chair, sighing as he placed his pen down next to his notepad. There was still so much to work on with the project before anyone could even think of implementing it in warfare; despite years of research gone into it before any testing had begun, nuclear weaponry was in it's infancy and is something no other nations were trying to develop. Again his eyes, tired and sad, looked towards his family photo again.

"I should go play with the children..." He whispered to himself, "I've had enough of this work for today."

The group ended up having to make two trips; with Priscilla's new home being barren of food, a grocery trip was in order, and they chose to bring all that back home before going on a trip for new clothes and other items – the milk and eggs especially. While at the store, Priss was dumbfounded by all the foods she never came across on Paradis Island.

The girl tapped on Zeke's shoulder, "What the hell is this?" she loudly asked after he turned around, holding up a yellow fruit with a touch of red near the stem.

"It's a mango," Zeke answered, "Imported from tropical regions. It's not a good season to be buying them though, if you want to try them you should wait unt-"

"What's a tropical region?"

"...That doesn't matter, go find some eggs."

"How many should I get?"

Zeke sighed as he shook his head, he didn't expect grocery shopping to be this much of an arduous task,"They come in a carton of 12, you don't buy the eggs individually. Just get one carton. I'll wait for you here."

Priss nodded and then turned to go seek out the eggs, which Zeke insisted were something a person should always have in their kitchen. He sent her alone so she could start figuring out the layout of the store by herself and not have her hand held hopelessly. It wasn't a terribly confusing place, so he had faith she'd make it back alright.

"Mr Zeke?" Gabi piped up behind him. He half turned to look down at the child, totally unprepared for what she was about to ask him, "Why do you stare at Prissy so much?"

Zeke was caught off guard with that question,"Err... I... It's hard to explain," He replied with his words stumbling out of his mouth, "But I guess you could say I feel sad for her, for one thing."

His mind flashed back to Anteros stopping Zeke from leaving, when he wanted to tell Zeke something that he would have to 'live with knowing for the rest of his human life.' It was no exaggeration either, the haunting words he spoke to Zeke wouldn't leave his mind. It was something Zeke would have rather gone the rest of existence without knowing, but there was no way to take it back...

Each of them were carrying bags, even Gabi wanted to help, but she obviously took the least of the burden; Zeke obviously carrying the most of what they had picked up after the food shopping adventure came to an end.

"I feel like I'm getting the royal treatment here," Said Priss, but she started to sound morose as she went on, "I just wish Reiner were here to enjoy it with us."

"Yeah, I wish he was here too..." Gabi lamented, "I miss him."

Priss looked down at Gabi with a pained expression, "Yeah. I miss him too."

Zeke had been walking a few steps behind the girls and listening to them talk; he was far from oblivious to the fact that he was unfairly taking Reiner's place in what he'd been doing for Priss, but if she had nobody else, it wouldn't be right to leave her to fend for herself. She showed no sign of being legitimately happy that he was with her, which cut him a bit, but he shook it off because he had no right to seek validation for his good deeds in the situation that they were in.

The sun had just set on the trio's busy day once they returned to her house, where they immediately rushed inside to relieve their arms of all the things they had bought to make Priscilla's house start to feel more like a home. Priss went over to a nearby window and frowned as she looked out into the poorly-lit area.

"Gabi," She said, turning to the young one, "Why don't you stay with me for the night? I don't want you walking home alone when it's dark."

"Really?" Gabi's eyes widened, "Yeah! I just, um, better call my mom and dad to let them know. Where's the phone?"

Priscilla's eyes glazed over and the gears in her brain came to a halt as she realized she didn't know where, or even what, the 'phone' was. Zeke quickly stepped in once he saw that the pale girl was clueless.

"It's over here, Gabi," He ushered the young girl over to it. Gabi seemed to know how to work it right away and soon enough was speaking into the device she had held up to her head.

Zeke stepped away, heading back to Priss, "I'll give you a quick rundown on that when I can," He murmured to her, "It's not too hard."

"Easy for you to say..." She grumbled back to him, her edgy attitude towards him flaring back up.

Zeke clapped one of his hands on her shoulder, which startled her, and he leaned in closer to speak to her quietly, "I know I'm not the one you want here, the one to have gone out with you today. You deserve to have your husband doing all this for you. Just like that day when..."

His voice trailed off as he caught himself about to say something out of line; he didn't even need to directly state what he was alluding to, and it was evident in her eyes when they began to water. Priss tried to harden her expression but it wasn't working to mask the devastating memory Zeke had just pulled into the conversation.

"I think you should leave now," She whispered scornfully.

Zeke backed away, more than willing to respect her wishes, and headed towards her front door. However, he paused before he took his leave.

"We still need to get your picture taken to give to Reiner before he leaves," He called to the woman who had her back to him, posture stiff, "We can get that done tomorrow."

"Ok, done!" Gabi announced once her conversation with her parents was over, "They said they're ok with it."

Priss smiled weakly at the girl, making her best attempt at sounding happy, "That's good. We're going to have to share a bed though, but it's big enough for us both," Gabi nodded as Priss spoke and the white haired girl let out a sigh, "But I need to put away all these things we bought first."

"Can I help?"

"Hm?" Priss was caught off guard, "Well, sure, yeah... You can start taking the soap, towel and shower stuff up. Don't carry too many things at once, now."

Gabi was happy to lend a head to Priss and carefully started to look through the bags for what she was told to put away; the kid didn't take everything in one go, she was just fine making more than one trip. Priss turned to watch her walk up the stairs and disappear from view while Zeke kept his eyes on her.

"...You know I can tell you're staring, right?" She said flatly, dropping any amount of happiness she had put on for Gabi's sake. Priss shifted back to face him, arms crossed and her face just as joyful as her voice was.

"Hm," He merely hummed in response and chose to deflect, "So how are you going to feed that child tonight?"

"Huh? Er..." Priss had been caught out, she hadn't thought of what would happen next. It was approaching dinner time and Priss had no idea what to do. She had a stocked fridge, she had an old cookbook, but she was terrified of just diving in headfirst. If it was just her by herself it'd be one thing, but having to prepare something for Gabi was the real stress inducing part of it.

"Well, now what?" Zeke probed, "Are you going to let her down and tell her she has to go home because you didn't think things through?"

Priss had quickly grown irritable again – mostly with herself instead of Zeke – roughly pulling out one of her dining chairs, sitting down with a loud thunk and falling forward with her head face down on the table. Low grumbles could be heard from her, followed by her muttering 'I hate this.'

"You hate it? Being a responsible adult alone in the world now?" Zeke scolded her. The sympathy he had for her that night had crumbled as she started showing signs of her lingering childishness still so present in her. However, if Zeke had learned something about this girl, it's that she wouldn't respond well to him berating her in, what was arguably, a time where she desperately needed help.

"...cudyuduit..."

Her face was still planted on her wooden table, but Zeke definitely heard her say something – or rather, incoherently mumble something. He raised his brow, "What are you saying? Speak clearly, for the love of God..."

Priss turned her face so that she could be seen, her white hair cascading over her reddened face. She huffed followed by a deep inhale before she made her plea more clear, "Could you do it?"

Her embarrassment was painfully evident, even with some of her hair still keeping her face obscured. Priss felt pathetic for having to so blatantly ask for his help due to her not considering feeding anyone but herself; she didn't even think about making dinner just for herself either. Zeke took off his glasses and then ran his hand down his face, ending with a stroke of his beard.

"I'm no cook," Zeke sighed. He took the edge of his shirt and started to rub the lenses of his glasses with it, "But... I'll see what I can do. And you better pay attention."

Priss slowly sat back up, still red as a beet from her humiliating experience. Zeke finished up rubbing down his lenses, raised them up to the light to expect them and put his glasses back on. Curiously, Priss was the one with her eyes locked on her not-at-all-secret admirer for a change. It didn't take long for Zeke to notice she was staring at him in a peculiar manner either and he, of course, couldn't help but speak up about it like she did whenever she called him out for his own weird gazes directed at her.

"...Something wrong?" He asked calmly, not letting his underlying pride over capturing her attention be known.

"It's just I never noticed..." She began, enamored with whatever about him caught her eye. Zeke's heart skipped a beat thinking about what she was going to say, but her lips twitching into a cheeky grin as she went on gave her thoughts away, "How much your glasses cover up your terrible under eye circles."