Eve of the Expedition

Eren Jaeger crashed to his bunk as dusk approached many, many nights after his friends joined the Survey Corps. His mind wandered, lingering on his question of when they might depart on the coming expedition beyond Wall Rose. It took everything he had to not fall asleep; he yawned, lying there in his rumpled uniform. He even still had his green cloak on, secured with a pin forged only a few days prior. Eren, along with Armin and Mikasa, wore one made in the fashion of the great crest that had been cast over the entry to Shiganshina from the land within Wall Maria. He hoped to see it once more, soon. It would be a brief affair, he knew, but it would be the beginning of the reclamation that helped drive him forward these past five years.

Before he could push away from his bed and begin undressing for sleep, a knock rattled his door. Eren frowned, staring as the rattling became more and more frantic. He was soon left with no choice, and he called out "Wait!" as he stormed over. The door stopped rattling almost immediately, though he suspected whoever waited beyond was quite anxious for him to open the door.

Surprisingly, or perhaps not, Annie Leonhardt was the one waiting on him, arms crossed and foot tapping. Before Eren could greet her, she stormed into his room and sunk down onto his pathetic mattress. He would have been better served with a cot, mere cloth strung across two hourglass-shaped posts.

"We need to talk," she began, her hands searching for something to fiddle with. He frowned at the strange showing of anxiety or doubt. "Before we depart for Shiganshina."

"About what?" asked Eren. He closed his door, went to the small, rickety chair he had, and sat down so his small desk was behind him with the chair between his legs. "Can't it wait until we get back?"

Her blue eyes fluttered away and he could almost sense something like guilty upon her. Her gaze fell, and found something of interest in her left hand. "It's about what happened on that day five years ago, and my involvement in the tragedy which afflicted you."

Eren's heart stuttered and nearly stopped. He stilled, caught between fury and confusion as he stared at her. They warred so painfully, so hotly, that all he could do was stare and ask with a tight rasp, "How?"

Annie was quiet for several seconds, unable to look his way. Suddenly her head popped up and wet eyes met his. Had she been on the verge of tears? "I was born across the sea, beyond the walls you have always called home. In a land called Marley, though it was once part of the Eldian Empire."

Something of that word—Eldian—itched at the back of his mind. Perhaps it was something strange that had been in one of Armin's books about the outside world, something they hadn't paid heed to. Their interest had lied in what would still exist, with the lack of humanity beyond the Walls. The wonders of nature, left untouched by titans. But now that he was faced with the proposition that there could be people beyond the Walls, he felt the fool. They should've taken interest in the past civilizations, if only so they could have names for the strange lands they hoped to travel.

"How does that connect to what happened to my hometown?" he growled. His fury rose, tempered solely by a fear of losing what existed between them. "Why would that matter?"

"Because to the Marleyans, the fact we're Eldian means we're different; other; a diseased minority they suffer because of the unique power in our blood. We exist as long as they can use us. The day our usefulness comes to an end…"

Eren didn't need to ask to know what power she spoke of, nor how their people—their people, such a strange thought to hold in his head—could no longer be of use to these Marleyans. The power of the Titans had quelled an entire people for a hundred years, forced them into an existence barely better than the animals they raised and slaughtered. If what he feared she said yet did not say was true, then only Eldians possessed the capacity to become Titans. If that was true, then what did it mean about the Titans that entered Trost? About the Titans roaming between Walls Maria and Rose? About those beyond Shiganshina, in the wilds occupied only by them?

"The Titans." Eren clenched his hands else they begin shaking. His breathing was suddenly ragged, and he felt his sanity nearing a terrible precipice. Yet he had to know, and he could not turn back. "They're… They were… They were Eldians. Human once."

"Indeed." Annie's jaw clenched, her eyes now stony. She took no joy in revealing this to him. It had to be done, and he wanted to know despite how terrible it would be. There was something she knew about that day which worried her. Perhaps how he might react, learning the truth from someone else. "Most of the history you know is a fabrication, created by a man I now believe a coward. My own education, prior to arriving on Paradis, suggested many things about this land I have learned to be false."

"Paradis?"

"The name of a great island. The island where this land is. These three walls exist at its center, separating it from the rest of the civilized world."

Eren swallowed thickly. "You were born on the other side of the sea, weren't you." It was a statement, not a question. He wanted confirmation. He needed it, and he would like to know her other secrets, as well.

"So was your father, if what I suspect is true."

He blinked at that. Eren had almost forgotten about his father in the wake of Wall Maria's fall. He remembered a strange dream of Grisha Jaeger, hovering over him while screaming, a syringe in one hand and the key to the basement in another. Eren remembered being afraid, terrified by this strange, almost unnatural side of his father; and then he remembered naught at all but waking in the same camp as Armin and Mikasa days after the Fall of Shiganshina.

His hand rose, touching where that very key rested beneath his shirt. He had yet to tell others about it, though Eren also found he couldn't remember the last time the key had been anywhere other than around his neck. Annie stared at his hand for several seconds, then glanced back up to his face.

"I… I have the key to the basement, back in Shiganshina," he said. "I think… I think my father left me something important there."

"Maybe a record of his life before he came to Paradis. It would make sense to leave that behind, given my suspicions of him, and someone else."

"And those are?" A pause before he continued: "Tell me, Annie!"

Eren hadn't meant to shout, to be so angry with Annie for keeping a secret about him from him, but his words came out like that regardless. Her blues were so wide he thought he might be able to see the sea in them, to imagine what that great ocean, greater than any lake, might look like.

After some time, she said, "I believe you have a half-brother, older than you. He sold out his parents for being Eldian Restorationists. Somehow, your father was given a Titan power. With it, he came to the Walls, and eventually came to reside within them. And then he had you."

Eren took in a shuddering breath. He leaned back against his desk, a hand rising to grab his hair. He gave his brown locks a single harsh yank, as if that would change anything. He had always looked to his anger to push him through, to draw him closer to his dream of freedom beyond the walls. His father had been born to that freedom, and had it stolen by enemies.

And one of those enemies, one of his enemies, was his own blood, a brother who decided to side with this Marleyan foe, a brother unknown to Eren until now. He had to breathe in a slow, measured manner, else he start shouting and raving about this traitor. Yet when he actually thought of what Annie had said, chances were he only existed because of this brother and his betrayal. Without that betrayal which banished his father to Paradis, there would be no Eren Jaeger. There probably wouldn't be a Mikasa Ackerman now, nor could he assume those around him would still be alive. Perhaps they would be, or perhaps the Armored and Colossal Titans would still have attacked Shiganshina and Trost, and without his power to push back the tide, Wall Sina would be all that remained. Perhaps not even that.

And that thought sparked another. A question that boiled in his veins.

"Who are they?" he asked, voice shaking with dwindling restraint. At Annie's furrowed brows, he clarified with: "The Armored and Colossal Titans. Who are they? You must know their names."

Eren was disappointed when Annie failed to immediately answer with names. Her gaze lingered on his face for several seconds, and then she suddenly sighed. She then surprised him by saying, "Follow me," before slipping from his room. He barely hesitated before clambering from his chair to follow Annie from his room. Curfew was nearly upon them, if it hadn't come already. They would need to be careful. He just spotted her slip into the nearest stairwell. He hurried after her, struggling not to make noise in his rush to not lose her trail.

Is she…? He moved swiftly, and was rewarded with faint voices, far beyond the stairs he was only now reaching the base of. She must be. She's leading me to them! Eren grinned at the realization. He moved faster, almost hearing the wind in his ears as he rushed toward the opening where the voices were coming from.

He slowed upon approaching the opening, which was a door left open, and kneeled near the threshold, sticking to the dark shadow of night. Annie was over a dozen meters away, down in the year. She stood with two others. They, unlike her, were dressed in the green cloak of the Survey Corps. Their hoods covered their faces. From their height and size, Eren judged they were men.

"…doesn't explain why you wanted to speak with me here," Annie said. Her voice carried just enough to reach where Eren was. For a moment, he considered lowering onto his belly and crawling toward the railing a meter or so before him.

That thought fled his mind the moment he heard one of the men speak.

"Because we're worried about you, Annie. You've been going native, spending so much time with Jaeger. Worse, you went against orders and helped seal that breach. Don't tell me you've become like these demons. You know what they've done. What they would do, given the chance."

Eren didn't need to see his face to know Reiner Braun's voice. A cold sweat trickled down Eren's spine. He had to stuff a hand into his mouth to prevent an outraged shout from emerging. He did need to draw back slightly, for Bertholdt—Bertholdt, friendly Bertholdt!—suddenly asked, "Did someone follow you?"

"Do you really think I'd be that stupid?" hissed Annie. Her voice was still loud enough to reach Eren, though there was an edge, as if she were now caught in a moment of life and death. Given what he now suspected about Reiner and Bertholdt, he couldn't blame her. The wrong word, the wrong trigger, and one of them might kill her, or worse, in the middle of the Survey Corps' present base. Terror on Annie's behalf gripped Eren. "You know what they would do if they found me out. I'd have an appointment with the gallows, and the MPs would finally get to open me up as they want."

"Shame they wouldn't learn anything. Though there'll be a lot of trouble for our superiors, having to track down the Female Titan's power. I'd almost feel bad for the child born with it."

"So you say," Annie grumbled. "Still, you two are worried about nothing. I imagine the War Chief would approve of me getting close to Eren."

Some time passed before Bertholdt said, "He was displeased about what you did at Trost. I fear he's already decided you're a lost cause, Annie. You need to do something to prove your loyalties haven't changed."

She hummed. "So he's that worried? Has he guessed that Eren and him share a father? Or does he think the name 'Jaeger' is merely a coincidence?"

The silence that followed her questions disturbed Eren. He nearly retreated back to his room. Before he could decide, Reiner asked, "Are you serious? He's related to one of them?"

"It makes sense," muttered Bertholdt. Eren was pleased that he could still hear them, though he wasn't sure he should push his luck and draw closer. "Eren had to get his Titan power somehow, and it isn't as though the power we were sent to retrieve would be with some random child from an outlying district. His father must have had that power before him."

"Exactly what I suspect," Annie replied. "We all know the War Chief's parents were Eldian Restorationists. I wouldn't be surprised if he sold them out in exchange for protection. You know what happened with Marcel's family, along with yours, Bert."

"…they aren't family of mine. Not anymore."

"Good on you!" Reiner said, much louder than he should. "I wouldn't recognize any restorationist scum as family of mine. And what about you, Annie?"

"I don't have any family, Reiner. My father is dead. My mother, wherever she is, probably lives with the shame she whelped some Eldian man's offspring."

"You didn't answer my question."

Annie sighed. "If he were a restorationist, I think he would have done anything except beg me to return, delirious upon his death bed."

"So you're doing it for him."

"I guess. If our superiors know what was done with his corpse, then it would be nice to learn where his remains rest. Otherwise, I will do what I must."

"Just be careful, Leonhardt. I don't want to report that you've gone rogue—or worse, turned traitor."

"Then stop being an idiot and try to plan for once, Braun. I don't know why you thought striking Trost was a wise idea. If the King wasn't going to react to losing the outer wall, then he won't react to the second one falling. You would have been smarter to join the Military Police, anyway, unless you've received new orders."

"We have, and I don't trust you enough with them. When the time comes, I expect you will do your duty as a warrior. Am I understood?"

"Sure. Just don't get us all killed—or worse, captured."

"Don't worry about it, Annie. This plan is Zeke's, not mine."

"Alright. You two should go get some sleep. I doubt the other captains are as difficult as Levi, but you'll certainly get punished for violating curfew." There was a scuffling noise, leather shifting against the ground without rising. "I am heading to bed."

"Good night, Annie."

"Night."

Eren scuttled further away from the opening before rising to his feet and scurrying back to his room. He leaned against his door, heart hammering as he thought over everything he had been told and everything he had overheard. What he knew for certain was that Annie had been a traitor, that Bertholdt and Reiner were certainly traitors, and that his father had a secret life beyond the walls. Would he have ever learned the truth without Shiganshina being destroyed on that day? Maybe, or maybe not. It mattered no longer, for his father was long dead and he lived in a world where Wall Maria had been lost for five years.

Three hard knocks on his door drove him from his thoughts and the wood against his back. Eren found he was shaking as he opened the door. Where he should have control, his body decided otherwise.

Annie slipped into his room the moment he opened the door wide enough. She slammed it close behind him. He hoped it wasn't loud enough to wake Levi or any others in their squad. Chances were, though, that it had been. They were on borrowed time now.

"You heard everything, I assume?" she asked, her gaze just not meeting his.

"I did. If I hadn't overheard all of that, I might have doubted being told instead." Part of him didn't want to believe. Had the words not come from their mouths, he never would have suspected Reiner and Bertholdt as traitors. Well, spies, actually. They had never been loyal to humanity behind the walls.

"Do you have any questions about what you heard?"

For several seconds, Eren found himself at a loss. So he took a leap of faith, opened his mouth, and he found himself saying, "Tell me about my brother."

Annie stiffened, and eventually met his gaze. "You… You want to know about Zeke?"

Eren nodded.

She sighed, and sat on his bed, arms crossed. "He's the oldest of us, our leader as you heard. He inherited his power, the Beast Titan, several years ago. I doubt he has more than six years left in his term."

"Term?"

Annie stared at something on the wall. Eren knew she was worried about his reaction to being told what this 'term' could be. He had lashed out with anger and frustration in the past.

"Those of us who inherit a Titan's power—the Power of Ymir, according to…older traditions—only have thirteen years to live after we acquire our power."

"That name…Ymir. You panicked when Hange mentioned her. Is that because of our powers, and not the Ymir we know?"

She hesitated before saying, "Yes, but—"

Whatever Annie would have said stopped, for the door was yanked open. Levi stood there, his grey eyes flickering from one to the other. Seconds passed as he looked between them, judgment writ boldly upon his dark face.

"Curfew was several minutes ago. What are you two up to, breaking it?" he asked, voice soft and hard. It was easy to forget just how powerful this man was, though from how Annie stiffened, she knew better than Eren the fear he could strike into their hearts. "Either of you care to answer?"

"Annie was explaining a few things to me," said Eren, stepping between her and Levi. "I won't apologize for asking, even if I might have chosen the wrong time to speak with her."

Levi hummed thoughtfully. His gaze didn't drift past Eren, yet somehow he could feel the captain looking at Annie. "You two should go to bed. Erwin wants us to depart early in the morning, and we will be setting out from Karanes District tomorrow."

"Setting out…?" asked Eren, hating how easily he held onto hope. "You mean we're heading beyond Wall Rose? Already?"

"It's been planned for months now," admitted Levi. "You brats have done nothing to change the date, though Erwin has modified some of his plans." He looked toward Annie, who was still behind Eren. "Your information has been greatly beneficial for how we've approached this expedition."

"That is not something Commander Smith should have done." Annie stepped around Eren, a harsh frown upon her face. "I just had a confrontation with my 'former' compatriots. I had to calm their suspicions of me, and I cannot say I did a fine job of it."

"It's true, sir," added Eren. "She told me about what happened, and I followed her. Listened to their conversation."

Levi rubbed his jaw, looking between them. "I doubt your little pow-wow will disrupt Erwin's plans, though I will inform him once we're in Kannes. He has been curious about those two. He thought they would join the MPs instead of joining the Corps. It's opened new avenues."

"You expected them to join the MPs?"

"With what Leonhardt said and what Erwin and Zackly discussed? Yes, that was the expectation." Levi clicked his tongue. "Instead, they joined the Corps. Erwin was pleased over their choice, the bastard. I'd bet he already has a plan to restrain them, should they attempt to transform—"

"Shift," Eren and Annie said. They glanced at each other; he smiled while she rolled her eyes.

"Shift, yes." Levi tapped his boot a few times, then crossed his arms. "Leonhardt, head to bed. You as well, Jaeger. There will be a mission briefing tomorrow— No. The day after, once beyond Wall Rose."

They saluted. Annie left Eren's room before Levi.

Eren sighed, then yawned widely. He found that even after he changed and snuck out to the bathroom, he could not fall asleep. Soon, he would be in the field, truly a proper soldier of the Survey Corps. Enemies—traitors and spies—would be there with them, and he hated that he could fear what they might do.