Chapter 21

Three Years Ago

Willow groans as waves of pain crash into her, pulling her down and drowning her in an endless aching feeling. Her body temperature rises as she feels sweat dripping down her spine and accumulating on her brow. She takes in a breath and her body ignites in pain, setting fire to every nerve with a sharp jab. Her eyes flutter as she attempts to open them and take in her surroundings. She notices four shadows standing before her, looking down at her with fearful eyes as they examine her response.

"She doesn't look so good," a muffled voice responds as it echoes in the walls of her mind.

"Her body is rejecting the serum," another muffled voice returns that's distinguishable as female.

"What does that mean?" the third asks with a pressed aggravation.

"She's dying," she hears before everything goes back to black.

Willow's eyes fight to focus as she pries them open. She notices that it is daylight, and she is laying down in a field atop a small blanket. Her vision begins to slowly come into focus as she notices the white clouds that float weightlessly above her. She wheezes as she tries to breathe, looking up at the sky and taking in the shapes of each cloud.

"She's awake," she hears someone call out in shock, followed by a set of heavy footsteps stomping towards her.

Her eyes flash over at the face that positions itself in front of her view of the clouds. Her eyes take in the hard-pressed eyes that look back at her through narrowed brows. He is blonde with a prominent frown line between his brows and golden eyes that match his hair. His nose is prominent and gives off the impression that he is older than he must be. He watches her with curious eyes as she scans his face to take in his features.

Another face appears in her sights and she sees a stark contrast between the two boys that look down at her. Unlike the first, his hair is dark brown, with kind brown eyes and a long babyish face that is accentuated by the concerned look in his soft eyes for her. She smiles at them both as her vision blurs a bit and she sees Derrek and Malik looking down at her. She lifts her hands up at them, taking their cheeks into her grip as she feels their soft skin kiss her fingertips.

"Are you alright?" Derrek asks.

"Can you hear us?" Malik presses.

"Reiner! Bertolt! Give her some space!" she hears another voice out of her line of sight call out to them. They back out of her sight and her arms fall back to her sides. She whimpers at the loss of their faces, begging for them to come back while her eyes go back to looking at the sky for a moment, wondering what is happening.

Am I dead?

She tries to think of where she is and how she got here, but her mind cannot wrap around the last thing she remembers, feeling as though her mind is blank of all memories.

She groans as she lifts herself into a seated position, feeling the ache of her bones as she moves her body, wondering how long she has been in this sorry state. She looks over to see the two boys sit, watching her eagerly and noticing that they are not Derrek or Malik. Her eyes flash from the two boys to another blonde man with glasses on his face; the reflection of his glasses hiding his eyes from her.

She holds herself up shakily stabilizing herself with her arms on the ground. She looks up at the three men between strands of golden curls. "Where… am I?" she manages as she shakes away the ache in her body.

"You're in the old village of Rollis, just north of Wall Maria," the goggled blonde states. She looks around at the ruins of the old village that decays before her. Her brows press together as to how she got north of the wall in Titan territory with these strange men. "I understand this must be very confusing for you," he continues. "We found you in the woods, you were hurt," he begins, "We took you to safety and kept you here. You've been in and out of consciousness for seven days.

Willow looks down at her hands, trying desperately to try to remember what happened to her last. Her mind is blank and she is unable to recall anything that happened before waking to the three of them. "Where did you find me?" she asks him, trying to retrace her last moments.

"Just northeast from here," he returns and something about his tone makes Willow question the answer's truth, but she keeps her reservations to herself.

She looks over at the younger blonde boy with the deep line between his brows, watching her more carefully than the others. She turns from him, unable to match his shivering gaze. She lifts herself onto her legs as they wobble at the weight of her body on them.

Willow begins walking around the decaying village while the three men watch her with curious eyes. Her eyes scan the village for any memories lost within its crumbling walls, but she is blocked of any remembrance of what happened to her to bring her here.

"My name is Zeke," the blonde with the glasses introduces himself to her. "This is Reiner," he says pointing to the blonde with the intense gaze, "And this is Bertolt," he says about the tall baby-faced brunette.

"My name is Willow," she says, knowing that much for sure. "What are you three doing out here so far from the Walls?" she asks them with furrowing brows.

"We're in the Training Corps," Reiner speaks up. "We are going to be Scouts, so we figured we'd check out life beyond the walls." Bertolt looks over at Reiner with concerned eyes, cautious on whether or not he should disclose that information with her.

She looks down at her shaking hands with wide eyes. She was a Scout. She swallows hard as memories begin crashing into her mind.

Her puppeteering.

Flying on ODM gear.

Fighting the Armored Titan.

Hal…

She grabs onto her head as the images crash into her and make her ache at the memories. She looks down her body to see that she is not wearing her ODM gear, but is still in her blue button down shirt and white pants that are caked in dirt and grime. Her jacket and cape are gone, and any remnant of the Scout Regiment. She swallows hard as to why they would strip her of her Scout gear, and desperately tries to remember her last memories.

She watches the trio with cautious eyes, feeling a malignant aura building from them. She decides there is more to their story than they are giving off, figuring they are bandits and thieves that corner Scouts and steal their ODM gear or other military equipment to sell it in the Underground.

Willow bides her time, knowing that she will need to separate from them and make her way back to HQ and warn the others. She does not know who these men are and what their intentions might be with her since they've already taken her gear, but their story of finding her in the northeast does not add up as most of the scouting missions she has been on have been to the south. If she was saved after a failed scouting mission, it would have to have been from the south.

"You must be hungry," Zeke begins and they all sit in a courtyard while Zeke starts a fire to cook their snare.

Willow swallow hard, feeling her throat burning as she watches him skin the snare. She thinks about an inconsistency in their story and debates if she should bring it up, knowing that once she does, their hospitality might turn. She looks over to see the horses tied up not too far from her. She can ask, and if the conversation heads south, she can make a run for the horses. She will have the advantage over them and will be able to escape them with ease. Then she can go back to base and tell them of these imposters.

Her heart beats wildly as she asks, "Why are you hunting and cooking your snare if you are from the Training Corps just checking out life beyond the walls?" Zeke stiffens and so do Reiner and Bertolt as she questions their story. "The Training Corps doesn't allow people outside of the walls," she says, getting her legs ready to jump up.

"We are on a reconnaissance mission," Reiner says between gritted teeth.

"No, you're not," she challenges him. "The Scouts don't even do reconnaissance missions like this."

Reiner jumps up and she runs for the horses as quickly as she can. She grabs one of the reins of the horses, and Reiner forcefully takes her wrist. She punches him in the face, and he staggers back holding his bloodied nose as she lifts herself onto the horse and rides from them.

She gallops hard, looking around frantically as she tries to gather an idea of where she is when she realizes that she is not in the northeast region based off of the positioning of the sun. She halts her gallop and searches around frantically, trying to gather her bearing of where she could be located.

She shakes her head and continues her pace, figuring her best thing is to get as far away from those three men and back to the Scouts. Visions begin breaking her mind of the Armored and her hands shake holding the reins of her horse as she thinks about the beast.

Her heart jumps when she hears a thunderous clap behind her, and she looks back to see a yellow lightning strike. To her horror, charging from the tree line is the Armored Titan, coming full speed towards her. She turns from the Titan, knowing that she does not have the weapons to even consider taking him on. She forces the horse into a gallop as quickly as it will allow her, but the horse is not nearly as quick enough.

She looks in horror as the Armored reaches and takes hold of her effortlessly from the back of her horse. She panics as the memory comes flooding into her head. "I…will…kill…you," she remembers the words she spoke to him before he flung her from his grip and wrapped her around the tree.

I was dead.

"Reiner!" Zeke yells as he approaches them riding quickly on horseback with Bertolt following shortly behind. "She cannot trust us if you act like this!" he scolds him.

What is he talking about? she thinks to herself as she looks up at the smiling Titan. She watches in shock as the Armored's head falls slightly and from the nape of the Titan's neck, covered in a cloud of steam, the blonde appears as tendons detach from under his eyes. She shakes at the sight as he looks onto her with the line between his brows growing deeper.

The fist of the Titan that holds her loosens as the body decomposes before them. She lands harshly on her feet, looking up at the body that falls before her in a cloud of steam. She staggers away from the sight as she sees the blonde emerging from the steam.

"Just listen to us," he begins with a harsh tone as he approaches her with tight shoulders.

"What the fuck is going on?" she asks with a whimper in her tone, staggering away from him.

"I told you we shouldn't have given her the serum," Reiner growls at Zeke. "This was a terrible idea."

"Willow listen to us, please," Zeke begins as it starts to click in Willow's mind. "The Titans are beyond what you may understand—"

Before he can finish, Willow snarls, releasing a war cry as she attacks Reiner. She charges at him, crashing into his hard body as she tackles him to the ground, positioning herself on top of him and straddling her legs around his hips as she laces her hands around his neck. She presses her grip into his neck, choking him wildly as the image of him bursting through her home's walls crashes into her mind.

He tries to fight her, and she moves her knees on his chest, crushing him under her weight as she continues to press down on him, reveling as she watches the blood cells in his eyes bursting under her vicious grip. She lifts his head and slams it into the ground. Reiner grunts in pain and she slams his head into the ground again, her hands still laced around his neck.

Reiner quickly lifts her small frame off of him, shoving her to the ground as he lifts himself into a seated position. She crawls after him, wildly clawing to get his life fading in her hands once more. She lands on top of him and he twists her in his grip, taking hold of her and slamming her against his chest, locking her throat in his forearm as he holds her into place on top of him in a headlock.

He squeezes her throat tightly in his grip, "Would you listen to us!" he yells at her as she begins gagging in his hold.

"Fuck…you…" she manages as her vision tunnels.

She begins struggling in his grip, pulling her arm up and scratching his face with her sharp nails. He releases a grunt in pain as he tightens his hold on her throat, collapsing her esophagus. She begins wiggling in his grip, fisting the grass at her sides as she struggles to breathe. She looks up at him seeing the line between his brows deepen as her vision turns red and she falls into unconsciousness.

Willow's eyes blur as she comes to, looking up at the clouds that float above her. She quickly lifts herself into a seated position to see that her hands and feet are bound by a rope, and she is gagged with a piece of cloth tied around her lips.

Her eyes shoot up and she sees the three of them sitting across from her with a considerable distance between her. She breathes heavily at what they could possibly want from her.

"We would really just like to speak with you," Zeke begins in a diplomatic tone. "We can remove the gag, but you have to listen to us. Can you do that?" he asks her, and she nods once.

Zeke looks over at Reiner, commanding him without words to remove her restraints, since he was the one who insisted on them in the first place. Reiner groans as he moves towards her, kneeling down at her feet. He looks up at her and gives her a hard glare while she watches him carefully through wet bloodshot eyes. He cuts the rope around her ankles with a knife, and Willow knows that she will not be able to run in this moment, as he will just knock her down. She waits for the perfect moment as he moves from her feet to her face.

He shimmies closer to her on his knees as he approaches her face. He places the knife down on the ground as he reaches around her head, burying her face in his chest at his reach. She cannot headbutt him in this position, so she needs to get him in a better one for the perfect attack to stun him and make a run for it.

He pulls away the gag and looks at her with intense gold eyes that she is taken aback by, seeing a sense of regret in them. She doesn't allow this to faulter her plan and she moves quickly, twisting her head in his direction and biting down on his hand with as much force as her jaw can clamp down on.

"You fucking feral animal!" he roars as he pulls his hand out of her mouth. She looks up at him as his blood spills from her lips with a wild hate as she headbutts him away from her. He falls back and she takes his knife in her still bound hands, lifting herself to her feet and running as fast as she can from the three of them.

Reiner looks back at Zeke for guidance and he nods towards the girl, telling him to go retrieve her. Reiner grits his teeth, no longer finding her disobedience cute. He runs after her, catching up to her quickly since she is restrained and cannot run as swiftly as he can.

She looks back to see how far he has advanced on her and he takes this opportunity to launch himself at her, tackling her to the ground and pinning her down while he waits for Zeke and Bertolt to join them. She writhes beneath him and he sits on her chest to keep her from escaping, pinning her arms down under his knees. She tries to bend her arm towards him, in an attempt to stab him, and Reiner pries the knife out of her grip and takes the blade for his own.

She huffs as she tries to keep her chest from collapsing at his massive build. "I understand your confusion and frustration with the situation," Zeke says in a leveled tone as he approaches the two of them, with Bertolt following behind and a timid look on his face. "But hear us out and we will be able to help one another."

"I don't want anything from you!" she cries out over the weight of Reiner on her chest. "All I want is revenge!" she snarls looking up at the man who stole everything from her through stray golden strands of hair.

"Revenge?" Zeke asks with intrigue, "Then why are you fighting us?" he tilts his head to the side as he watches her curiously.

Her brows furrow in confusion and she lets out a huff of air as she tries to shift under Reiner. "Are you dense?" she grunts as her chest is crushed under the muscular blonde. "This heavy bastard is who I want revenge against! It's his fault I'm in this mess! He took everything from me!" she cries out in frustration as her wild eyes glare daggers into him, only to have Reiner return with a smug smile. "Keep that smile on your face while it lasts, because I am going to gut you with your own knife!" she threatens between clenched teeth.

"But did Reiner take everything from you?" Zeke challenges her.

"Of course!" she groans under his weight. "He's the Armored Titan, he killed my friends!" she spits.

"Yes, he did kill them, but what about the ones that abandoned you?" Zeke asks her as his glasses glimmer in the sunlight. "Reiner delivered the blow, true; but what of the reinforcements that never showed? What about the ones that retreated when you had the upper hand on the Armored? You were so close to killing him. Had they arrived, he would have surely fallen." Willow watches him with doubt lacing her eyes and he continues. "No, it's true, tell her Reiner. Were you not close to falling to their hands?"

Reiner looks back at Zeke, knowing that though they had him stunned, his armor was not going to be penetrated by those swords of theirs, and he was nowhere near in danger. But he sees the intent in Zeke's eyes and he recognizes what he is doing with her. "Yeah," Reiner murmurs, "Another round of those artillery cannons and I would have been open to a fatal attack."

Willow gasps and Zeke hides the smile from his lips as he knows he has her in the palm of his hands. "Another round that never arrived. You were just another round away from gaining retribution for those you lost during the fall of the Walls, but it was because the cannons never arrived and it was because of their retreat that you failed, and your friends died in vain. Is it not?" Willow shutters at the idea and Zeke smiles to himself, "Now would you give us a moment and listen?"

Willow shuts her eyes tightly as involuntary tears fall down the sides of her face. Reiner slowly lifts himself off of her chest, holding the knife tightly in his hands as he is mindful of another potential attack. He shuffles away from her and after a moment of hesitation, she lifts herself into a kneeling position to listen to what he has to say to her.

Zeke outwardly smiles at her cooperation, "What you know about the Titans is all wrong," he begins.

"There are humans inside," she exhales.

"Yes," Zeke answers.

"All of them?" she asks.

"Yes," he returns, and she releases a building sigh. "There are differences as I am sure you have come to gather: Normals and Abnormals. They are all humans inside, just husks, unable to control or understand what they are doing. They cannot exit their form of their own fruition, and simply move towards a singular purpose to eat and survive."

"What about him?" she asks Zeke with hate-filled eyes staring down at Reiner.

"A Warrior," Zeke informs her. "Reiner holds the Armored Titan with full control over his actions."

"So, you knew what you were doing when you tore down Wall Maria. When you annihilated my friends!" she cries as her voice carries in the woods as the blonde keeps his face expressionless.

"Willow, you said you would listen," Zeke reminds her in a leveled tone, and she places her head down, looking at her shaking bound hands. "Outside of these Walls, there are more humans," he informs her, and she looks up at him with wide disbelieving eyes.

"We come from a nation called Marley, but there are many, many more similar great nations full of thousands of civilians around the world," she looks down, unable to look at him as he speaks. "Humans with the ability to transform into Titans are known as Subjects of Ymir—or more commonly—Eldians. Over one hundred years ago when these walls were erected, King Fritz altered the memories of his people using his Titan powers to make his subjects believe that beyond the walls, humanity had gone extinct."

"However, like Marley," he continues, "the hundreds of other nations all collectively believe Eldians are a race of Devils for their ability to transform into Titans. You see, the ability to transform into a Titan frightens these other civilizations, and with the impending potential of ultimate retaliation from the Eldians, the Marleyans have gathered loyal Eldians to fight amongst their ranks to defeat the Titan threat and dethrone the King of his Founding Titan," he says as Willow takes in his words.

"The Founding Titan has the ability to control all other Titans, as well as awaken Titans. This may not seem too big of a threat upon initial glance, however, consider this: King Fritz erected these three Walls you hide behind using the hardening ability of Colossal Titans." Willow looks up at him with wide eyes.

"Imagine the day Wall Maria fell and the Colossal looked over your 50-meter wall. Now imagine those walls crumbling down as thousands of Colossal Titans march from the rubble towards the unsuspecting nation," he says, and she looks back down at her shaking hands. "Imagine the lives lost if the King so decided to release the Founding Titan's powers."

"That is why we are here," he informs her. "We came to locate the Founding Titan, and strip it from the King so he cannot erect such devastation onto the world."

"Puncturing the wall was to draw him out," she guesses, and he nods, "And it didn't work," she guesses again and again he nods. "So, you panic and join the Training Corps?" she asks lifting her brows at their plan.

"Joining the regiment will allow us to intercept their military and get wind of the Founding Titan's location," Reiner speaks up, defending his plan.

"So, why tell me all of this? Where am I fitting in all of this?"

Zeke pulls out an empty syringe and places it in front of Willow. "Inside every Eldian is the ability to transform into a Titan, but this serum implants a Pure Titan inside the bloodstream of the Eldian. When we saw you fighting in the woods, I knew you'd be perfect."

Reiner glances over at Zeke, taking note that he doesn't mention her devouring the Female Titan's predecessor, figuring that the information may cause her to react more adversely than she already has. He presses his lips down to a flat line and keeps the information from her as well, wondering if they will ever tell her the true story of why they chose her as the Female Titan's new successor.

Willow begins to panic, feeling her body flush in heat and she shuffles away from Zeke, putting distance between them. "What are you saying? I'm a fucking Titan?"

"We need your assistance on this, the Founding Titan is stubborn and remains dormant."

Willow buries her face into her hands as she begins sweating at the idea. "You want me to turn with you," she shakes.

"Reiner and Bertolt have infiltrated the military successfully—"

"But if a sentient Titan suddenly appears mowing everyone down, and these two are conveniently missing every time, it tends to raise a few eyebrows," she presses angrily.

"Astute observation," he smiles to himself.

"No better of a cover than a dead girl," she exhales with a wave of nausea crashing into her. "Kind of a gamble to place all your bets on the off chance that I would agree to help you," she says looking up with him with a hard-pressed gaze that challenges his thought-out plan.

"Yes, it was," Zeke admits, scratching behind his ear, "but our hands were tied," he says vaguely. "Plus, if you do not comply, then Reiner will devour you and take over the Female Titan's ability. It will be a waste of a Warrior Titan, but it was a risk I was willing to take."

"That's the thing isn't it," she scoffs almost to herself, "all these risks people are so easily willing to gamble when their lives are not the ones they are risking."

"You help us, and you will gain so much in return."

"Is that so?"

Zeke smiles to himself, knowing that he has her in the palm of his hand, "Well for starters, we can give you revenge against those who truly stripped you of everything. Revenge against those who abandoned you for death."