Ymir stared down at Porco, her expression resigned and miserable. She was chained to an elevated platform in a dimly lit underground room. Porco held in his hand the Titan serum. Behind him stood a row of Marleyan officers, including Magath.

The time had come for the transfer. In just a moment Porco would eat her, and take back the power of the Jaw Titan that she had stolen from his brother.

Porco readied the syringe.

She closed her eyes.

I'm sorry Historia…

"VAIT!"

Her eyes shot open at the unexpected yell, while Porco and the others turned around to see who had yelled.

Magath scowled. "Ah, there you are Dr. Ludwig. Nice of you to finally join us."

Ludwig held out his hand. "Don't carry out ze transfer just yet!"

Magath pinched the bridge of his nose. "What, is this about that experimental procedure you wanted to try? I've already told you several times, it's not worth the risk, and your request has been denied. Now stop bringing it up."

Ludwig smirked. "Actually, my request has been approved."

Magath frowned. "What? By whom?"

Ludwig pulled out an official looking letter, and handed it to Magath. Magath took it, and after reaching the bottom of the page his face rapidly paled.

Ludwig casually adjusted his glasses. "Of course, if you still zink ze procedure is a vaste of time, zen by all means-"

"N-no, of course not." Magath hastily interjected. "Gentlemen, I'm sorry, we'll have to stop things for today. Take her back to her cell."

Utterly nonplussed, the officers began to disperse, most of them leaving, while a few went to unchain Ymir.

Porco looked at them in confusion. "Huh? What's going on?"

Ymir frowned. Your guess is as good as mine.

A few days later, Ymir and Porco were taken to an operating room with a lot of sophisticated and rather dangerous looking equipment.

Ludwig surveyed them with an imperious smirk. "Now you're probably vondering vat zis is all about. Vell, based on some experiments I've done in ze past, I believe zat it may be possible to transfer ze Titan powers vithout killing ze previous holder. Zat is vhat zis operation is all about."

Ymir and Porco glanced at each other. At least now they knew what was going on.

"Of course, zis is uncharted territory, so ve don't yet know vat all ze side effects vill be. But I zink it vill be a preferable alternative to being eaten alive. Now zen, let's get started!"

A few hours after the operation, Galliard had demonstrated that he had successfully inherited the Jaw Titan.

At around the same time, Ymir slowly woke up with a low groan. Several Marleyan officers were watching her cautiously, including Magath.

Ludwig smiled. "Ah, you see? Success. How are you feeling?"

Ymir rubbed the back of her head gingerly. "A little achy, but basically fine I guess."

Ludwig nodded. "Good, good. Zere, you see? I knew vat I vas doing."

Magath frowned. "Hmm, so it would seem. Now the question is, what do we do with her?"

One of the Marleyan officers eyed her dismissively. "We should just kill her."

Ludwig looked scandalized. "No you imbecile, you can't do zat! She's a valuable specimen! I'll need her alive in order to study ze long term effects of ze procedure."

The officer glared at the doctor. "What did you just-"

"He raises a valid point." Magath interjected. "In any case, we don't need to make a decision right away. Take her back to her cell."

Ymir spent the next month or so in the same cell. It had a toilet and a sink, and she was provided with regular if unexciting meals, but she was getting pretty tired of it.

Her only regular visitor was Dr. Ludwig, who occasionally examined her and asked questions about how she was feeling to determine the ongoing effects of the procedure that had removed the Titan power from her. At other times he would just prattle on about various scientific topics that she didn't really understand or care about. But she was grateful for the company, and since he was the one keeping her alive she did her best to be polite, even if he did grate on her nerves at times.

One day, though, he came in looking more serious than usual.

She felt her back stiffen. "Something wrong?"

Ludwig shrugged. "Vell, ve just got vord from ze Varrior unit. Zey've returned from Paradis. Ze mission vas a failure. Not only did zey fail to secure ze Founding Titan, zey also lost ze Colossal Titan."

Ymir blinked in surprise. Perhaps the island truly did have a future.

"Reiner has taken full responsibility for ze failure, and since ve've just discovered a method for transferring ze Titan powers vithout killing ze previous holder, Reiner vill be stripped of his Titan, and ze Armored vill be passed on to ze next Varrior in line, vhich I believe is a young man named Colt. Of course, Reiner vill still remain an honorary Marleyan for all his hard vork and dedication, and he's already been assigned a new task once ze transfer occurs: he'll be responsible for keeping an eye on you. But as long as you behave yourself and keep your head down you von't have anyzing to vorry about."

Ymir let out a sigh of relief. "So I finally get to leave this shithole?"

Ludwig nodded. "I'm afraid you'll have to stay here for a few more days, but zen yes, you vill be moved to a more pleasant lodging vithin ze internment zone."

Ludwig extended his hand through the bars. "Zhank you so much, your cooperation really is appreciated."

He shook her hand, and then promptly turned around and left.

As soon as he was gone, Ymir discreetly looked at the note that Ludwig had slipped her.

Dear Ymir,

Reiner tells me that the one person you care the most about in the world is someone called Historia, who lives on Paradis. From what I can gather you would very much like to be reunited with her someday, correct? If you help me, I believe that can be arranged.

I have a goal, a dream I wish to achieve, something that matters to me more than my loyalty to Marley. After the failure at Shiganshina, I must now consider new strategies for fulfilling my goal. It will take time, but if I can count on your cooperation, and discretion, you can count on me to one day return you to that island.

Sincerely,

Zeke

After making sure she understood the letter, Ymir crumpled it up and swallowed it, destroying the evidence. She then sat down and contemplated her next move.

Wait for me Historia. I promise you, I will come back.

Author's Note: So this is another idea I've had for quite a while. You might have noticed that I borrowed some ideas from my story Darkest Before the Dawn, most notably the cure I came up with there. The basic premise of this story is what would have happened if somehow Ymir didn't die, and what would the repercussions of that be? And I think the cure I came up with for DBTD works well for this purpose, though in this scenario the cure is discovered much earlier. Obviously this is just a short story, but there's definitely a lot of potential with this premise, and I might expand on it more someday. Or I might not. I don't know.

By the way, the letter Ludwig handed to Magath was from the Tybur family. After all, they would be very interested in a procedure that lets one transfer the Titan powers without killing the previous holder, seeing as they have the Warhammer Titan.

Anyways, be sure to let me know what you thought.