A/N: This chapter has been rewritten. The first one had almost no tension and Annie was too shocked to do anything. My friend, CROD42 (check out his story by the by), pointed this out to me and I decided to look back at the original chapter 2 from the first ALHH. So, I'm going to have them get their drama out of the way early this time like I did last time.
Awakening
They say that people in a coma cannot hear the outside world, that they don't dream. Both of these things would have been true for Annie, were she actually in a coma. But she was, unfortunately, mostly conscious for the duration of her imprisonment. She'd heard what they said, what they tested, what they threatened and hypothesized. In and out for two years, bits and pieces of conversations from people whose voices she didn't recognize. And of course, ones she did, mainly from scouts, like Hanji and Levi, but from others, too. Like Armin, Hitch, and even Krista on occasion. But that just meant that she had every opportunity to go crazy. That night, she had been in one of her many sleep phases, which tended to last for days at a time. Now that she was free, it only took about two for her to wake up.
As the light hit her eyes, for the first time in months true sunlight and not lanterns, she gasped and tightened them, letting out a groan as she shielded herself. It was then that she realized that she could actually move. Opening her sore eyes slowly, she sat up from the uncomfortable pillow, rubbing her face and looking around. Her mind raced as she realized she wasn't in a place she recognized, but neither was she in some sort of facility. She was in a bed in a small room in what seemed to be a house, not some cell or basement. There was nothing in the room except a small night stand and a plate of bread. Her eyes narrowed as she heard movement downstairs. She got up and approached the door. Damn it She thought as she jiggled the handle and found it locked. Hearing voices, she put her ear to the door and she listened.
"… hn, I wanted to thank you for your work with that group of protestors." Said one voice, an older man, aristocratic in bearing.
"Bunch of hippies protesting use of 'sacred plants'? I was happy to do it." A second, younger voice replied. It was somehow familiar, but deeper than any she could remember.
"Indeed. I do wish you had taken it a bit easier on them."
The younger man scoffed. "They annoyed me."
"And that's enough to break four arms, two legs, and who knows how many ribs?" The older man asked, sounding slightly scolding.
"Due respect, Mr. Treybin, but you trust me to do my job. Please let me."
The older man sighed. "Of course. Just, please try not to make it so bloody in the future. Fools or not, they are still innocent people."
The younger man was silent before he too let out a sigh. "Very well, sir. I owe you that much."
"You owe me nothing, dear boy. You've worked off your original debt long ago. However" There was a shifting of furniture. "That information I've given you. You haven't acted on it, have you?"
"What makes you ask that?"
"A certain fire and assault a few days ago."
More silence followed before the younger man began chuckling. "You can't think I'm that crazy, can you?"
"… no, I don't suppose you are." The older man answered, though it was more rhetorical than anything else. "After all, with the life you've carved out, you wouldn't take such risks. Not for a traitor."
"Absolutely not, sir. You've given me a good life, even if it isn't always ethical. I came here for that purpose."
"Indeed." Another shifting of furniture. "Your payment will be delivered. Along with a little extra for any 'guests' you might have. Consider it my congratulations."
"And your separation?"
Now the older male chuckled. "Not yet. You're not crazy enough for that, after all. Have a good day, my boy." A pause. "But you still owe me at least one favor."
The man chuckled. "Yeah, I guess I should have expected that. Stay safe, Mr. Treybin."
A chair moved as a door opened and closed. There was some shuffling and then there were footsteps coming up the stairs. Annie backed away, looking around for anything she could use. With no other option, she grabbed the plate and shoved the food off, getting close to the door once more. As the door unlocked and opened, she swung the plate as hard as she could. It made contact with the one entering the room and shattered, causing him to stumble back out into the hall. She took her chance and ran past him, not even getting a chance to look at him.
Unfortunately for her, he recovered quickly and his front door was locked. She didn't have time to begin undoing the latches before a pair of arms wrapped around her. She threw her head back but hit his chest, so instead she planted her feet on the door and pushed back against her captor, causing him to hit the table, trip, and crash through it. His grip loosened, but not enough she could escape. So, she began elbowing him in the ribs before he reached up and grabbed her arm, holding it down. She was weak and partially atrophied after her sleep, so she wasn't able to resist. "Annie!" He shouted. "Knock it off!"
She swore she recognized his voice in the back of her mind. But her instincts now were to escape. She planted her legs and used them to lift her up a bit, using the position to finally reach his face, bringing her head back into his nose. That finally caused him to release her as he instinctively clutched the bleeding part of his face. The confusion lasted long enough for her to undo the lock on the door and yank it open. It led into a small entrance area, with an unlocked door. She rushed forward, but her assailant managed to lunge and grab her ankle, causing her to trip. She looked back down and went to kick him in the face, but he caught her foot. She started to try and struggle but that's when she saw him. Even through the blood and the time apart, she knew him, and she stopped cold.
"John?" She said in a shaky voice. It'd been two years since she spoke, but that just meant her voice was hoarse. Her emotions were welling up, emotions she long thought buried. She didn't have time to say anything else as he grabbed her by her other ankle and yanked her back inside, clambering atop her to pin her down under his knee. He was panting and bleeding as he slammed the door shut again, locking it. Once that was done, he got off of her and pulled her up, dragging her over and shoving her into a chair against the wall. As soon as she landed, looking at him with a wide range of emotions, he let out a heavy sigh as he collapsed onto the floor, sitting up as he held his nose.
"Ya still got a helluva kick." He said, panting as he shook his hand, his palm red.
"I thought you were… I don't know, someone else." She defended weakly, still starting at him. "How are you alive?"
"What, you thought I wasn't?" He said, smiling as he chuckled. "They can't kill me."
"They said you—"
"They said a lot of things, Annie." He pointed out as he stood up, straightening his nose without so much as a flinch. He sniffed, still holding it to get the bleeding stopped. "They said you were dead, too."
"Obviously, I'm not." She said quietly. "How'd you get here?"
"I escaped. Clearly." He retrieved a chair with his free hand and turned it away from her, sitting with his arms leaning on the back. "Dad paid off the captain of a boat. He shipped us here under the cover of night with a couple horses, and we rode as fast as we could towards the walls. I made it. He didn't."
"Was it what they did to you? After you were…"
"Rejected from being a warrior? Yeah, something like that. They thought I was a failure. Alexander disagreed. Then again, he was my father."
Annie stayed quiet. She didn't know what to think here. After all, the only one she'd considered a friend that she thought had died a decade ago was here before her, in the flesh, alive. She didn't know how to handle it.
"You broke me out." She finally said.
"Yes. I did. Way to state the obvious." He said, removing his hand and sniffing to make sure he wasn't still bleeding.
"No." She said coldly, looking at him. "You broke me out. Why?"
"Why not?"
"You know why. You're not an idiot, John. Word of the Female Titan gets around… you knew who I was and what I did."
"Yeah. And?"
"Are you going to kill me?" She asked flatly, looking at him with a blank expression.
"Yes, Annie. I broke you out of a high security jail, fractured dozens of legs, spent lots of crowns, and broke at least a dozen laws. Just to kill you." He responded sarcastically as he looked her in the eyes.
"You hated the titans." She muttered. "You hated the warrior project. You hated the plan. You hated the others."
"So that means I hate you." He surmised. It wasn't a question.
"I broke down the walls. Fought the scouts. Destroyed most of Stohess. You wouldn't have forgotten all that, or forgiven it. I know you, John."
"And I know you, Annie." He shot back. "I know you probably hate what you did. Consider it unforgivable, irredeemable. Even if you'd do it all over again." He stood up and walked over to her, causing her to stiffen. He knelt down in front of her, regarding her with sincerity. "Annie, I don't know your motivations. Maybe it's your father, maybe it's some sort of desire to be equal. But honestly? Intent, while important, isn't what I care about. What I DO care about? That you regret your actions. Do you?"
"… yes." She answered quietly, looking away. For some reason, he had a unique effect on her no one else did: She had a hard time lying to him. She looked him in the eye as she remembered why. "John. We made a promise all those years ago not to lie to one another, right?"
"Of course." He said with a shrug.
"Then cut the shit." She spat, glaring. "Answer me for real. Why are you really doing this?"
"I already told you—"
"John. Stop." She said quietly, looking away. "You were never this nonchalant. Never this forgiving, this affable. You almost killed Pieck when she talked about your mother. I'm different to you, but I'm not that different." She fixed him in her glare once more. "I want to trust you, John. But someone who isn't trying to kill me seems too good to be true."
The smile on the mans face fell. He looked down at the ground, his features hardening. His eyes darkened considerably and Annie could practically feel the blood lust rising off of him. She regretted this now, but ultimately, if she was going to trust him, the mask had to come off. She had to know his intentions.
"What do you want me to say, Annie?" He asked darkly. "That I've thought about all the things I could do to you until I'm satisfied?" He looked up at her, his eyes burning with vengeance. "To take a centimeter of flesh off of you for every person who you've killed here? To hurt you over and over, let you regenerate, then repeat the process? To break all your bones, maybe even rip them out and make you choke on them, turn them into weapons to stab and cut you with? Maybe put you over a fire in Yarckel and slow roast you one side at a time, letting the burnt side heal before charring it again?" She couldn't help but shiver at how vivid these descriptions were, but despite her anxiety rising, she didn't break eye contact. "The truth is, Annie? I want to do so much to you to hurt you." He closed his eyes and took a deep breath, letting it out as a sigh. "But aside from ruin the only meaningful relationship from my old life, it'd do nothing. It wouldn't bring back the people who died. It wouldn't make me feel better. And it wouldn't save me from the Scouts or the MPs or whoever might be hunting me."
"Then why do it in the first place?" She asked for the third time. Stop dodging! She begged inwardly.
"… Because I've been without someone for a long time." He whispered. "I lost my mother. Then my father. And then good friends to the Titans and to the Coup." Coup? She thought, confused. "I only have a few people left. And I'm not going to let one of those few just rot there."
"And you're sure I won't run." She crossed her arms.
"Even if your father were still alive, which I doubt at this point, you think they'd just welcome you back with open arms? That it's truly as simple as just 'hey, Marley, I'm home'?" She sighed. Damn it, I hate how he knows me so well. "That said." He continued before she could reply. "If you really want to leave, I'm not going to stop you."
That took her a little off guard. "You'd go through all the trouble of getting me, to not only resist the urge to torture me and kill me, to not only give me food and a bed, but to just let me walk out?" She asked, clearly disbelieving.
"I'm not some creep, Annie. I'm not your husband or your brother or your parent. I'm not someone who's going to try and force a life on you. As long as no one gets hurt and it's really what you want, I'll even help you with it. But if you stay, I'll do everything in my power to try and keep you safe."
Annie was perplexed. Even in the walls, the idea of someone doing something out of kindness or just because they could confused her to no end. The world wasn't like that, most of the time. Eldian or Marleyan, people always had a motive. And yet, she knew John wouldn't. The logical part of her brain was in denial of this, but the part of her brain that understood him also understood that that he didn't have a dishonest bone in his body. Always honest to a fault. She remembered. With a sigh, she brought her legs up to her chest and rested her head on them. "Give me some time to think."
It wasn't the answer he wanted, if his expression was anything to go by. But he took a breath and nodded. "Of course." He stood up and put the chair back by the broken table. "I'm going to get a new lock for the door and a new table." He then gave her that smile again, his previous blood lust seeming to evaporate. although that was probably just convincing acting. "Try not to run away until I get back, yeah?"
She didn't reply as he went out the back door. She let out a sigh and put her legs down to lean over her knees, rubbing her eyes. John. I don't know what kind of game you're playing or if you're actually being sincere. Either way… you're an idiot. She leaned back and closed her eyes to think, but this didn't last long as the adrenaline wore off from their scuffle and his threats and she unintentionally drifted off to a dreamless sleep.
A/N: Left out the threats this time. That's going to be addressed in the next chapter. After she meets his mentor. Thanks for reading!
