Chapter 7 The 13 Titan Shifters
Eren's POV:
After informing Historia about what Gloria said to us, the three of us decide to meet with Gloria. Gloria says, "I'm glad to meet you in person, your highness."
"So you said that there are 13 Titan Shifters instead of 9, and you're going to show us where they are, is that true?"
"Of course." Gloria says.
With Peter and Odom coming with us, we eventually arrive at a town that is surrounded by walls. Peter asks, "What is this place?"
Gloria says, "Beyond this wall, there is a small village. Right now only four people live here because some of them died while some of them left. The four of them are the current four Titans."
"Wait, if they were here this whole time, why didn't they try to help us fight against Marley?" Mikasa asks.
"Thanks to Eve's will, they can't be seen by anyone unless they trust them." Gloria says. "I was lucky enough to be one of those they trust. When I found this place, I told them the same thing I told you, and to prove my loyalty to Eldia, I helped them kill Marleyan armies who find this place."
"Okay..." Historia says with a sweatdrop, "And since Eldians inside the walls couldn't venture to this place in the past, they are actually safe from our people."
When Gloria knocks on the door, a girl comes out and says, "Gloria, you've-" Before she can finish, she notices 5 people behind her and asks, "Who are they? Why did you bring them here?"
"Katrina. They don't mean any harm." Gloria says. "This is the queen of the walls, Historia, and soldiers of the island who're here to protect her."
"The queen you say? So you're the Coordinate?" The girl named Katrina asks Historia, who shakes her head and says, "No, the coordinate is this person here, Eren Yeager."
"Eren Yeager? The one who chase away the Marley soldiers a year ago. We've heard a lot about you." Katrina says while shaking hands with me. "My name is Katrina Sturm. I am the current Weather Titan."
"Weather Titan?" This is the first time that we actually hear about this name. Katrina says, "The Weather Titan has the power to control the weather, if I want to, I can just make a rain or thunderstorm on my will."
She decides to demonstrate by transforming into a Titan, and then she lets out a roar as the clouds start to gather. After getting out of the Titan, Historia says, "That's cool! To think such a Titan exist..."
After entering the walls, they find that the village consists of four houses, and the rest has been a small farm. A man is working on the farm, and he turns to find Katrina and Gloria bringing us in.
"Visitors?" The boy asks.
"Adler Grice, we have the queen, the Founding Titan, the Ackermann, and two royal blood members here." Katrina says.
"I see...it's nice to meet you." Adler says.
"Wait, your last name is Grice... are you related to Kasper Grice?" Peter asks.
"Kasper Grice was my father, but he's no longer with us...I assume you know him?"
"Kasper used to be an Eldian Restorationist!" Peter says, "But the last thing I saw him was that he was pushed out of the walls..."
Gloria says, "Kasper Grice used to be the Sky Titan, he didn't die that day and instead, he manages to escape here. He married and have Adler, but after the death of his wife, he decided to give his son the power of the Sky Titan and you know what happened."
I say, "I'm sorry to hear that. But you said that you're Titan is the Sky Titan, what does it do?"
"The Sky Titan has wings and the face is like a bird. We can fly in the sky and attack from above." Adler says.
"I was wondering what kind of noise we have here..." A man comes out of the house and Gloria says, "Sorry that we woke you up, Clive."
"It's fine, so I heard that we have visitors. My name is Clive Hoffmann. I have the Titan known as the Defend Titan."
"Defend Titan?" Odom asks, "What can it do?"
"The Defend Titan can create all kinds of barriers to defend itself." Gloria says.
"I would definitely like to see them." I say. "And what about the last member?"
"Our last member was at the market buying food for us, but I'm sure that she'll return soon." Adler says. "While we're waiting for her, how about we have a talk?"
After sitting at the plaza, I decided to ask, "So the world didn't know the four Titans, because your ancestors have been hiding from the sight or that you wouldn't transform in front of the crowd."
Clive says, "Our ancestors were disgusted by the Eldian Empire using the power of the Titans to conquer other nations, killing people without hesitation. That's why we never showed ourselves. Some of your ancestors begged us to come out, but we refused."
Adler says, "Eventually, the world forgot our existence, and we didn't want to transform into Titans. But after the fall of the Eldian Empire, we become the victims of the world instead just because we have the Eldian blood. Everything was just a reverse."
Katrina says, "It is until a year ago, all four of us dreamed of a girl who called herself Founder Ymir, she told us that the only way to end the conflict was to help the Founding Titan use the Rumbling, and thus we can't always stay hidden. At first, the four of us were against the idea, but after seeing the other choice, we realized that we had to do this..."
"So you were the same as well..." I frown.
"Katrina, Adler, Clive, I need some help here." Just then, I flinch after hearing the voice of the woman. Mikasa feels the same way, and I gasp. "It can't be..."
The two of us turned around and we saw a woman carrying a lot of meat in her hands, I can't believe what I'm seeing. I rush toward her and say, "I'll help you."
The woman also flinches, and with the meat in my hands, we finally get to have eye contact with each other. There's no doubt about it! The woman in front of me... the person who I assumed was being eaten by a Titan...
"M-Mom?" I stutter while I give the meat to Katrina, Mikasa is beside me and she also helps carry the rest of the stuff from my Mom's hands.
"Eren... Mikasa... is that you two?" Carla asks.
The two of us hug each other with tears in our eyes, and the others are also surprised at the revelation. Mikasa also joins in the hug, she also has tears in her eyes as well.
"Mom? You were alive this whole time? But how? And why?" I ask.
My mother frowns and says, "If you're able to reach here, that means the Titans outside the walls are now gone..."
"They're gone. But our enemies are still here..." I reply.
After calming down, my Mom sits down and says, "Eren... I'm sorry to hide the truth from you, but the thing is, I'm a Titan Shifter. I have the Titan known as the Deceiver Titan."
"Deceiver Titan?" I ask.
"Deceiver Titan is one of the strongest Titans, as a Titan, I can create a substitute of myself outside of my Titan body, basically I can control two bodies at the same time... The day when Wall Maria fell, my true body was actually outside of the walls. I sensed my substitute being eaten by a Titan, and I also thought you were killed... Since my power can't be found by anyone, I found Clive and we set up a base here."
"I see... so it was just like us... you thought that I was dead... but if you were a Royal Blood of the Deceiver Titan, does that mean..."
"Yes, you also have the Blood of the Rin Family." My mom says. "One of the traits of the Rin Family is that when we lie, our ears will become red."
I blush in embarrassment as I remember how many times my ears are red when I try to lie. But that's why I now have long hair instead of short hair...
"Judging by your outfits, I assume that you two still joined the Survey Corps despite I kept telling you not to?" My mom sighs.
"Ever since your death, I vowed to destroy all enemies... and getting back to my Dad's basement has been our goal because it revealed everything about the outside world." I say.
"At least you're still safe." My mom sighs and seeing how Historia doesn't know how to say a thing, I say, "Mom... this is Historia Reiss, she's the queen of the walls."
"It... it's an honor to meet you." Historia says with a bow.
"We've heard of the uprising, and it is nice to meet you, your highness." Carla smiles at her.
"Just call me Historia, please..." Historia says.
"You see, Mom... I am dating both Mikasa and Historia..." I blush and the two girls are having the same.
"Oh my..." Carla blinks with surprise, "Looks like my son sure is a ladies man."
Gloria coughs and says, "Sorry to interrupt your family reunion. But didn't we have a meeting that we need to go to?"
"Right." I say with a frown. "Mom... about the Rumbling..."
"I know, I've heard everything from the Founder herself. My husband, Grisha, was also a Titan shifter like me, he took the Founding Titan from the Reiss Family and also give both Titans to you. And now you also have the power to wake up the Colossal Titans and have them trample outside the walls."
"I don't want to do it... but if I don't do it, everyone that I care about is going to die..." I say.
"It's true that you're the one with the big burden." Clive says. "If you want to do this, you would have done it right now."
Gloria says, "So what we can do now is we try to negotiate with the other nations first. And if they try to attack us, we will need the other four powers to show yourselves as well. Shiganshina is now under the protection of Eren Yeager and the Queen, so I suggest that the four of you move there as well. We can help train the soldiers there and that's what I'm going to do. We of the Tybur family not only adapted the Warrior style training, but we also combined some of our own so the War Hammer Titan can be the strongest other than the Founding Titan."
"And combined with the Scouts' training, the soldiers in our faction will be stronger than the military." Historia says.
Then we spend some time helping them move to Shiganshina, Mikasa and I also decide to talk about our experiences as scouts and the truth to our Mom. My Mom was at first heartbroken a little once she heard that my father married someone before her, but then she understood the situation. Of course, my Mom was going to stay at our home like we used to, only that the two of us were going back to Survey Corp duties while Historia has to return to the position as the queen.
Here is a new chapter, and as you can see, Carla is still alive, I decide to try something new in this fic and I hope you like it. The next chapter will be Hizuru meeting.