AN: WEEEEE! OH YEAH! 70 reviews! I love you! I love all you of you, my lovely readers! By the way, I edited Chapter III; instead of Celeste being sent back to 865, she was sent back to 866 to fit the timeline that she was 15 when she went back to her real time because she was born on March 25, 851. Anyways, here is Chapter XXX! Thanks to those who reviewed, followed and favourited! I hope you guys enjoy this new chapter.
CHAPTER XXX:
DINNER ENCOUNTERS
Later that evening, Celeste was sitting in her locker room, freshly showered and wearing her spare uniform. There was a casual party later on in the track's function room that overlooks the beach. Participating Racers would have to wear their uniforms while everyone else can wear whatever the hell they want.
"Celeste?" She heard someone call for her. Turning back, she saw her mother by the doorway, approaching her and patting her head.
"How are you feeling?" Petra asked. She saw how shocked Celeste was earlier. Almost as if she couldn't believe that she won and what she did.
"Not too good." Celeste admitted.
"Well, do you want to go home?" She asked but she shook her head.
"I'm becoming like him, aren't I? I'm becoming like Dad when he was young."
So that was her problem. Celeste was obviously afraid of being like her father when he was young; someone who committed senseless acts of violence.
"No. Celeste, where we come from being violent is not uncommon. You did what you did to defend us." Petra said in order to comfort her.
"It's not? You mean, I'm not becoming like the thugs of Sina? Or the men who killed Mikasa's parents?" She asked, her eyes clearly begging for some reassurance. Petra patted her head before pinching her cheeks.
"No, my little angel. The men who killed Mikasa's parents and the thugs of Sina are violent for their own gains. I'm not saying I approve but you were violent because you wanted to defend someone. If you take a look at it, what you did wasn't really different from our job in the Legion. We become violent against the titans to protect the citizens of the Walls, don't we?" She said.
"I guess so." Celeste answered with a small smile. Suddenly, they heard a knock.
"Hey, let's go. Winning family goes down the grand staircase." Rex said. They both stood up and walked out of the room. Rex was to escort her down the staircase. Her dad escorts her mom, Duncan is with Janine, Uncle Damon escorts Aunt Natalie and Andrew would escort his twin.
"Yeah, we're ready." She answered. Rex offered his arm, which she took. After that, they headed to the grand staircase.
"Mom, Dad, try to keep your cool, alright. I'll protect you from the bad guys here in the future." She jokingly said.
"Ladies and Gentlemen, the winner of the Santa Monica tracks Brawl Race, Cassandra Knight."
After that, announcement, they went down the staircase while Reporters took pictures of them. When they got to their assigned table, people started asking her questions.
"Where have you been for the past 4 years?" One reporter asked.
"Europe." She answered. Judging from the people and Eren's last name, she theorized that the Walls were in Europe. Possibly even Germany so, she wasn't technically lying.
"So, how did you and your real parents meet? What's your real name?" Another person asked.
"Uh…well…how the 3 of us met is pretty classified. My real name is Celeste. Celeste Ral. Try to get used to it." She replied with a wide smile as she drank her champagne.
"What did you and your parents do in the 4 years that you've been together?"
"That's pretty much none of your fucking business. I'm done with the questions." She answered. With that, the reporters walked away. They ate the food served while her mother and Uncle Damon and Aunt Natalie exchanged embarrassing stories of Celeste's training and while she was growing up, respectively. Levi, who has seen neither parts of Celeste's life, stayed quiet.
"And then she was like…what? 5 years old? She was running around and all of a sudden…BAM! She drops. Falls asleep on the floor in the middle of the living room." Uncle Damon narrates to her parents. Celeste was turning red from embarrassment yet she kept her poker face on.
"Stop it. Please." She begged.
"The closest thing to that back there is when one of the people in our squad, Armin, told us that she fell flat on her face due to broken training equipment. Unfortunately, she got a scar." Petra said as she lifted Celeste's blonde bangs to show them the scar by her eyebrow.
"Oh God. I'm going to get a drink." She said before standing up. She walked up to the bar immediately.
"Grasshopper (1). Stat." She ordered. After a couple of minutes, she received her order and walked back to the table.
"Hey, what are we talking about?" She asked.
"You know, just welcoming your parents to the family." Natalie answered. Celeste simply accepted her answer while she drank her Grasshopper.
"Whoa, you guys are freakishly alike." Andrea pointed out as she eyed Levi and Celeste.
"Oh, how so buddy?" She asked.
"It's not just the eye and the attitude department; it's the cup holding department too." Andrew answered for his twin.
"They're right, you know." Petra said as she popped a grape in her mouth. Celeste looked down immediately. Indeed, they were right. Both she and Levi hold their glasses and cups by the rim of the glass.
"Okay, well. I'm going to get some fresh air." Celeste said before standing up with her drink. Just as she was about to walk up to the balcony, a reporter approached her.
"Ms. Knight, hi. Other reporters and I were just wondering; the wings on your jacket, what do they mean? We noticed that your parents bear the same wings on their jackets." He said. Turning back, she saw that Petra and Levi were wearing their Scouting Legion jackets.
"Uh…where we come from we call these the Wings of Freedom." Celeste answered before walking away. She lingered in the balcony as she drank her grasshopper.
"Fancy seeing you here." A voice behind her said. Turning around, her eyes widened upon seeing her mother's reincarnation. Granted in this time, her parents have been dead for 2000 years so it's not surprising to see her mother's soul manifest in two bodies at the same time but it's just so fucking creepy.
"Oh, hi. What brings you here, Miss…" She trailed off upon realizing that she had no idea what this woman's name is.
"Stella. Stella Monroe." The woman, Stella, answered as she held her hand out. Celeste, who always had the mannerisms of a gentleman, took it and kissed her knuckles. Celeste also noticed the bite mark scar on her right hand.
"Pleasure to meet you, Miss Monroe. Your first name fits you. Stella is Latin for Star and indeed, your beauty makes you the star of the party." She commented. Smooth as a baby's bottom. She'd be getting girls left and right if ONLY she was born a guy!
"Pleasure. Do your real parents know about your playboy-ish ways?" Stella asked the girl.
"Oh, no. They'd be devastated and keep wondering if they're daughter was really born a son or not. My mother doesn't call me her little angel for nothing. Also it's very weird to be talking to you like this when the first time we met in the mall parking lot in North Dakota, we were talking like normal adults." Celeste replied with a wide smile.
"I see. Well, in these gatherings, being a proper lady is pretty much demanded of me by my family. As for what brings me here as you inquired earlier, aside from supporting my sister, whom you raced with earlier and took down in the first lap, I am also here to support my fiancée." She answered.
"Oh…Fiancée. Congratulations on your engagement, then. I'm curious though. Do you mind if I inquire on that scar on your hand? The one that looks like a bite mark." Celeste said. "I am merely curious of its origins."
Stella chuckled before answering her.
"Well then, Miss Knight. If it serves to quench your curiosity, I'll indulge you; it was a birth mark. Why it has taken that form is a mystery."
'Mystery for you but I have the answer. Not that I'm telling you, though.' Celeste thought before chuckling.
"As of all birth marks, we never really know why they take a certain form. Who is your sister?" Celeste followed up. She needed to know who the hell she took without her knowing.
"See that brunette with the ponytail, wearing a green uniform that says Monroe Motors? That's my sister, Hannah." Stella pointed out. And fucking hell, did Celeste's eyes widen like plates. Hannah Monroe was Hanji's reincarnation.
"I see. And your fiancée?" Celeste asked.
"He's over there with his brothers and his younger brother's fiancée." She answered. Looking over, she saw that her fiancée's brothers were the reincarnation of Eren and Commander Irvin, except the Commander became a red head and Eren became blonde. Eren was obviously the runt of that litter. His fiancée was a splitting image of Mikasa. Except she was a brunette. Stella's fiancée, who was approaching them, was none other than Michael Bennett, her dad's reincarnation.
'FUCKING HELL!' She screamed internally as she took a sip of her grasshopper.
"The Blue Lion of New York and my cousin's rival is your fiancée." Celeste said in amazement.
"Forgive me for not telling you who I am on our first encounter. I was hoping we'd race today and I feared you'd go easy on me if you knew who I really was." He said apathetically.
"You're mistaken, Bennett, I don't go easy on people. Especially the newbies in my eyes. Tough Love." She said with a small smile.
"Yes, well, if you'll excuse me. I'll just whisk my fiancée away for a dance. It was a pleasure to battle the Black Knight of North Dakota. I hope we race again on the 3 stop race in Vegas. I've been chosen to participate by the Racing League Council since you took all the points and Gardener came in 2nd for being the last man standing." Bennett said as he took Stella's hand and they went inside once more.
"Yes, a pleasure." Celeste said and just as she was drinking the last of her drink, Gardener approached her.
"Haven't you had enough?" She asked him as she put her glass down.
"Oh, I've had enough, alright. I've had enough of being 2nd fiddle to a 19 year old brat." Lewis said through gritted teeth.
"Are you going to kill me? Not too late to turn back. Once you kill me or even try, the authorities would know who to chase and you'd risk ruining your family. I'm giving you a chance to turn back now." Celeste warned him as she turned to face him.
"Whatever. It's a risk I'm willing to take." He said and he lunged at her. Unfortunately, due to her being a bit woozy thanks to the alcohol, she wasn't able to move or block in time and she felt something pierce her stomach. Celeste looked down and saw a blue knife embedded in her stomach. She held Lewis close to her and whispered in his ear.
"Just remember, you chose this. You should drill this in your head; women like me, we have quite the set of lungs."
With that, she released a loud howl of pain as she held him close. Gardener broke away from her just in time for Rex, Duncan and Michael Bennett to arrive. They immediately held him down. Looking at her stomach once more, Celeste saw that the blade was still in her stomach but the hilt was missing. She knew what type of knife this was. Every member of the Gardener family has one. Once left in the body, whenever someone would try to pull the blade out, it would retreat deeper into the body. She keeled over just as Levi caught her and reporters were swarming the scene.
"No. Celeste, stay awake! Stay awake, soldier." He yelled at her as Andrew called an ambulance. Petra tried to pull the blade out but instead, all she heard was her daughter's cry of pain.
"Don't. It would only retreat further into her body. Let a doctor handle this. We'll take her to the nearby hospital." Janine said.
"Get a stretcher over here!" They heard Andrea yell. Immediately, a stretcher was brought in and loaded Celeste in it while the cops arrested Gardener.
"I'll be okay, Celeste. Try to stay awake." Petra told her as she tightly held her hand.
"Get in the ambulance with her. We'll follow." Natalie told them. They both nodded and got in the ambulance.
"Celeste, stay awake. That's an order, soldier." Levi told her in a commanding tone. Unfortunately, it was an order she couldn't follow because eventually, everything went black.
AN: AAAH! Did you guys see that coming? Especially the ones with the Reincarnations? If you guys did, kudos to you then. If you didn't, I hope I surprised you guys. Anyways, here's what the number means:
1 – For those who don't know, a Grasshopper is an alcoholic drink. You guys can Wikipedia it if you want but if you watch The Big Bang Theory, you guys will know what a Grasshopper is.
And that is the 30th Chapter of Link through Time and part 8 of I-have-no-fucking-idea-how-many of the Future Arc! I hope you guys enjoyed this. Thanks to those who reviewed to the previous chapters and will review!