Annie To The Rescue - AniHisu By @Korben600
The Military Police had been…annoying. The MP's loyal to the old regime had been removed, some by resignation, some by forced resignation, and some by firing squad, but even the least terrible MP's were still the cream of the crop, the top of their class, and they acted like it.
But as annoying as they'd been, they were at least tolerable. The less they got on Historia's nerves, the more likely they were to continue guarding her, far, far away from any combat.
Then the Jaegerists came.
Unlike the MP's, who wore the formal green trench coats signifying their position, but not their battle readiness, the Jaegerists came armed and armored.
Black bodysuits, anti-personnel ODM gear, and angry expressions.
The MP's had a small standoff with them, and looked almost about to lay down their lives for their Queen, figurehead though she might be.
Then the leader of the Yeagerists, Louise, mentioned something about spinal fluid in the wine shipped to them.
The guns came down quickly. Dying was something they signed up for. Turning into Titans was not.
She liked to believe that the Jaegerist promises not to harm her helped soothe their minds too.
They took the MP's away, to places unknown, and Historia was left with new guardians.
However, these guardians were much closer to jailors than their predecessors.
They were liberal with drink, and their opinions regarding the monarchy, neither of which were particularly pleasant for her or her husband.
Eventually, in secret, her husband, ostensibly a farmer, plotted against them.
They'd had…unwelcome visitors…to the farm before. They'd rarely left the farm, and the pigs had been well fed for weeks.
But whereas their old assassins in the Military Police tended to be armed bullies, the Jeagerists were different. The Scouting Regiment had changed a lot. But it still bred hard veterans who knew how to kill.
To her husband's credit, he'd done quite well for a man with no military training, and basic farm implements. A combination of traps, unfortunate accidents, and in one case a particularly vicious kick from her favorite horse, managed to disappear at least 4 Jeagerists before they noticed anything wrong.
But it was a small farm, there were only two suspects, and soldiers are not juries, simply executioners.
Eren's word and her royal blood spared Historia.
Those didn't protect her husband.
As his body crumpled from the bullets, the leader of the group, Louise, looked up to her with a dark expression.
The expression told her that if it weren't for Eren, she'd be bleeding out on the ground next to her husband.
She ignored Louise, and left to cry in her room, taking solace in the fact that her husband's last trick, spiking their food and water with that poison wine, meant that if they turned the military into monsters, those idiots with guns around her would be the first to fall.
That time came sooner than she expected.
As one, every Yeagerist in her homestead collapsed slightly, holding their chest.
They claimed it felt like a bolt of lightning, and while they had no idea what it was, their leader was at least smart enough to realize that it had something to do with her.
Even when Louise held the gun on her, she answered honestly that she didn't know what they experienced, and whatever it was, it wasn't because of her.
Which was technically true, as she didn't know for certain Zeke had just tried to transform the Eldian Military into Titans, and their own aborted transformations were her husband's fault, not hers.
That didn't seem to really dissuade Louise, and she refused to leave Historia without an armed escort at all times.
She didn't mind. Watching those murderers walk around on their tiptoes, scared out of their wits that she would kill them with her mind or something, almost made it worth it to have the armed idiots around her.
Unfortunately, she didn't have very long to cherish the psychological warfare, when everyone at the homestead was overcome with a vision. A vision of a man very familiar to all of them.
She didn't know what Eren told the rest of them.
Historia suspected it was a little different from what he told her, but she kept that information to herself.
It was easy to do so. Even the staunchest, most radical Yeagerists (by which she meant Louise), were left in shock after the pronouncement, and the ensuing earthquakes that validated it.
They'd all known Eren wanted to enact the Rumbling, her included.
But the sound of a million massive footsteps rumbling in the distance was enough to set everyone on edge as they processed the genocide Eren was unleashing.
The earthquakes wouldn't stop for a week.
And even when they had died down, she would swear that if she put her ear to the earth, she could still hear them.
The reverberations of death.
The Yeagerists had functionally ignored her after that.
There were discussions, of course. It was unclear who was in charge, and what their orders were.
A sizable chunk wanted to leave and help secure the government, but in the end Louise decided to stay at the homestead and guard her.
After all, Historia was a part of the government, and Eren had told them to guard her, so they would.
It was almost a month before something of note happened at the farm.
The day had started normally. The soldiers had made patrols through the farm and the outlying trees.
Then the patrol hadn't come back.
Louise and the others had tried to keep her in the dark. Idiots.
She was heavily pregnant, banned from communicating from anyone in the outside world, or doing any strenuous activities. She'd memorized their patrol schedule weeks ago.
Their attempt to claim the signal flare in the distance was just a sign of new food shipments was equally laughable.
Ironically, she knew better what the signal was than them. They thought it was members of the insurgent factions in the government attacking, she could hear whispers as they loaded up on ammo and spoke of enemy soldiers.
She'd been a scout too, and Historia's instincts screamed at her that the meaning taught in basic training was what red smoke trail really represented.
Titans.
Louise and two others had stayed behind with her to guard her royal highness.
The distant gunshots worried them, but they were able to hide their shock and concern.
At the yellow lightning, they were not.
More red flares. There was no mistaking their meaning now.
The soldiers were debating furiously whether they should join the fight in the trees.
It was then that Historia spoke for the first time since her husband was killed.
"You know, ODM gear works a lot better in those large trees than on this homestead."
They looked at her, surprised to hear her gravelly voice, and just as surprised to hear valid tactical considerations.
The other two were convinced, but Louise was hesitant, so Historia laid the last nail in the coffin.
"If you're worried about me escaping, you do realize I'm heavily pregnant, right?" She sighed with what she hoped was convincing wistfulness. "I'm not endangering the little guy, now that the Rumbling is over, he might be the last memory of…"
She trailed off.
She knew there were rumors about the baby's parentage. She'd refused to speak one way or the other about them.
She hoped that would pay off one day…and it did.
With barely a stern warning to stay where she was, Louise and her compatriots were gone.
Historia smirked.
If she was right about who was coming, she'd just sentenced them to death in that forest.
The dull vibrations that echoed through the forest, carrying the sound of Titan fists and feet slamming into trees and forest floor, continued for almost half an hour.
An eternity in ODM fighting, as she well knew, and the longer it went on, the more likely the Yeagerists were to lose.
But she still couldn't help but wish it was over, and come out with an outcome, so she wasn't left in the dark.
She rubbed her distended belly.
She hated being helpless.
Then her thoughts were interrupted by two figures dashing out of the forest.
One was Louise. She was on a horse, not her own, and was peeling out of the forest as fast as it could take her back to the homestead.
Behind her, the Female Titan stumbled behind her, running as quickly as she could.
Her eye was missing, one arm was hanging limply by her side, and there were significant chunks missing from her body, consistent with ODM knife strikes, and the weapons test of the new thunder spears she'd attended.
Louise would've never made it normally, Annie was too fast. Even as little as she'd interacted with Annie in combat, she knew the girl's Titan form was incredibly fast.
But just as Annie looked like she was going to catch up to Louise, a blinding fast black form dashed out from the trees, and Louise's second in command attacked the titan.
His blades connected with Annie's Achilles tendon, causing a spray of blood.
Annie began to fall.
Whatever celebration there was between the two remaining Yeagerists was short lived.
Annie, in a show of grace most wouldn't expect of a titan so large, pirouetted in midair.
Her heel swung and clipped the man who'd crippled her.
The force of the tap, with several tons of titan behind it, sent him into a tree, where his remains scattered themselves around.
Meanwhile, her remaining arm reached out and swung for Louise.
It almost missed her.
Almost.
More accurately, her fingers missed the woman, but the backdraft of the swing sent rider and horse flying forward.
The horse, significantly heavier than Louise, and not the target, crashed farther down the road, sprawling about in fear, before realizing it was relatively unharmed, and began to get up sheepishly back onto its legs.
Louise, significantly less heavy, the target, and significantly less lucky, caught the full blast of the wind, and was sent flying into a wooden fence nearby.
Historia couldn't tell what shape she was in, but she could say that she'd seen tougher Scouts turn to paste when impacting objects at that speed.
But neither her, nor Annie, were moving from their spots on the ground, and didn't look like they would soon.
Historia sighed, and grabbed her warmest shawl, as well as a knife, before leaving the house.
She made good time to the two fallen soldiers. Well, good time for someone with a pregnant waddle.
But regardless of her actual speed, both warriors continued to lay still on the ground.
Louise was closer, and the woman made a noise as Historia passed.
She stopped, and walked slowly to the woman.
"His-toria." Louise wheezed. Her body was mangled and broken, arms visibly broken in unhealthy directions, and her legs were shredded. Historia was amazed she was even capable of breathing, let alone the words she sputtered around each exhalation. "She-is after-the baby. Take-horse. Get-Eren's-baby-out of here."
Historia's face was blank, so used to schooling it in front of her captors.
Then the edges of her mouth twitched up.
Soon she was full on grinning, then chuckling, then laughing uproariously.
It was a harsh, ugly laugh that hadn't been used in a while. But it was real, and it was mocking.
"Oh. You poor deluded idiot." Historia smiled cruelly. "Annie's not here to kill my baby. She's here to rescue me."
She refused to look at Louise's broken and confused face as she left.
"Annie?" Historia said next to the Titan's ear. "Annie, it's me. His-Krista. From the 104th."
There was almost no response from the Titan. Its remaining eye was closed, as though it was sleeping.
"I…I know you're here to save me, Annie." She continued. "And I'm grateful. But…I need to save you first."
She put a hand up to stroke the girl's face, hoping she could still feel that.
"We need to get out of here." She continued. "And I can't take you in your Titan form. You need to let go. You need to expose yourself so I can cut you out."
The eyelid stirred slightly. It cracked open, and the dark iris bored into her.
"...you can trust me."
The eye closed.
For a second, she'd worried that Annie finally passed out. Then a great blast of air came from the Female Titan's nape.
Despite Historia's best efforts, it took almost half an hour for her to climb the Female Titan's body, and cut Annie out.
When it came to getting her down, she just let her old friend slide to the ground with a rough grunt.
The impact seemed to stir Annie slightly, and as Historia dragged her away, she gained some semblance of consciousness.
"How'd you get here, Annie?" She said, more to take her mind off the work of dragging the girl who was larger than her, even with her pregnancy weight.
"Walked." came the exhausted response from below her.
"Har dee har har." She said sarcastically. "Fine, then what the hell hurt you like this? I've never seen you this beat up, even by Eren."
"Me." Annie said quietly.
"What?" Historia said, pausing in her exertion.
"I walked here." She reiterated softly. "Swam across the sea. Ran across the island. Titan, human. Just…ran."
"Across the sea?" Historia said in confusion, picking the girl up by her shoulders and dragging her again. "Annie…how long have you been running here?"
"...two weeks."
Historia froze, mid-pull. "How-"
"Didn't sleep."
She looked down at her old friend. Her cheeks were sunken, and her skin was a sickly pallor. The bags under her eyes confirmed she was telling the truth.
"Why?" She whispered quietly as she continued to pull her back towards the fence.
The next words were so quiet, Historia barely made them out.
"Couldn't."
Something in her tone caused Historia's mind to start working. Mentally plotting the time it took for Annie to get there, the likely starting location, and backdating as to what would've happened two weeks ago-
"...Annie?" She said, as delicately as possible. "Where did you run here from?"
She'd never seen the girl cry. Never even seen her crack a smile, or a frown, or anything.
But there was only one explanation for the water dripping down her friend's face.
"...Marley." Annie said quietly. "I came from Marley…what's left of it."
Historia sighed. The defeated look on Annie's face told her all she needed to know, but she asked anyway.
"...you guys couldn't stop him, could you?"
Annie shook her head minutely.
There was silence, only broken by the sounds of Annie's legs dragged over the dirt road.
She was going to ask who died, but she didn't think Annie had the strength for a list that long, so she went with a more blunt but useful question.
"Who's left? Of us, I mean?"
The warrior sighed. "Me. Armin. Mikasa. These…kids. Others."
Historia looked at her curiously. "Why'd you come to save me then?"
If Annie took offense, she didn't show it…or she was too tired to show it.
"Armin and Mikasa evacuating people. Needed Colossal Titan." She finished more quietly than she started. "It won't be many, but…it's something."
By this point, Historia had managed to drag Annie over to the fence, coincidentally just a few feet away from where Louise lay, her body still moving with rasping breaths.
"Rest, Annie. But don't close your eyes." She said in as soothing a tone as she could. "You can sleep soon, but I need you to at least get on the horse for me, first, okay?"
The girl nodded, and tilted her head back to press her skull against the cool wood.
Historia walked off to corral the horse Louise rode, while Annie waited.
Even though the sun was obscured by overcast clouds, it didn't detract from the serenity of the farm itself. Quiet meadows and open fields, as far as Annie could see.
The air wasn't too cold, or too warm, just a bit cool and breezy.
Distantly, she saw livestock grazing peacefully, oblivious to the world they inhabited.
It was almost perfect.
Her dad would've loved to be there.
Her eyes teared up slightly.
But as she was enjoying the view, a smell broke through her senses.
A familiar smell.
Oil, gas from ODM gear, and blood.
Lots of blood.
With what felt like a herculean effort, Annie turned her head to the destroyed fence next to her.
She couldn't really see the face of the woman lying on the ground, but she could tell the woman was grievously injured.
The pool of blood and the broken and battered limbs definitely attested to that.
The contrast with the serenity of the farm, and the groundswell of emotions in her made her decide to do something she'd never done before.
And as Historia walked back, she did it.
"I'm sorry, Krista." Her voice was thin and raspy.
Historia stopped, horse's reins in hand. "What?"
"I'm. Sorry."
"For what?" her friend said, with genuine confusion.
"For…killing." Annie said uncertainty. "This place seems…peaceful."
Historia gave her a sad smile. "Oh. Oh Annie."
She knelt down, and grasped the girl's shoulders, forehead coming down to gently tap Annie's.
"Annie, you came here to save me. And for that, I will be forever grateful." She said quietly, before bringing the girl's chin up so she could look her in the eye. "But let me make it clear. I brought this here. Not you."
Historia gently pulled herself from the girl, and started walking towards the Yeagerist lying behind her, drawing her knife. .
Amazingly, the girl was still alive when she walked up to her.
And more incredibly, she was still conscious. As far as Historia could tell, only through sheer force of will.
She intended to change both of those conditions.
She knelt next to the woman, careful not to sit in a way that was uncomfortable to her distended stomach.
Her knife came out, and she made a show of looking it over, drawing a tiny drop of blood from her finger as if to test the sharpness. When she'd put her finger in her mouth to suck the blood off, her expression turned darker, and the knife came down.
It was a slow, careful, and precise incision. Born of an intimate knowledge of the human body, and a deep well of rage Historia was surprised she even possessed it.
The cut wouldn't kill her…immediately.
Despite being cut into her throat, it missed all major arteries, and didn't even cause that much blood to splatter on her dress.
However, that was intent, not happenstance.
Her real target was the esophagus.
A small incision, but large enough to let in blood.
Slowly.
Slowly enough that she wouldn't die for several minutes.
Slowly enough that Louise would know, and have time to reconcile with the fact that she was drowning in her own blood.
Historia sighed, and got up, admiring her handiwork, as her victim coughed and sputtered with every ounce of blood entering her airways.
The soldier, to her credit, didn't scream, or beg.
In fact, her face was a rictus of confusion and betrayal.
She only had one last word.
"...why?"
At that, Historia's face flashed with a burning, brutal anger that had spent months simmering in the back of her mind.
"Are you…are you serious?" She said, anger and confusion lacing her tone. "You dare ask me why-"
She paused, and breathed.
Anger was bad for the baby.
Probably.
Instead, she looked down at the woman with cold eyes, and gave her the answer to her question.
"Why? Because you killed my husband."
She walked away, not looking back.
She didn't need to watch vermin die.
"Come on Annie, get up." She coaxed her friend, dragging her to the horse.
Annie summoned a bit of energy, and slung a foot into the stirrup, and barely managed to get onto the horse's back.
Historia only had marginally less trouble, being pregnant and all, but she'd had months of practice (much to her minder's consternation), and she managed.
"Here, hold me around my neck, and you can get some rest while I ride."
Annie wrapped her arms around the girl, but paused.
"Krista-is this blood?"
"Don't worry." Historia continued honestly. "It's not mine."
Annie sighed, too tired to think, and put her head into the crook of Historia's shoulder, almost falling asleep.
But as the horse began to move, she asked another question.
"Where are we going?"
Historia shrugged as well as she could with the girl on her shoulder. "Anywhere but here."
"...okay."
She paused as she urged the horse forward into a faster canter.
"And Annie?" She said softly as the girl drifted off to sleep.
"Yea?"
"You can call me Historia."