Sunrises and sunsets over the past few years just didn't look the same way they used to. Maybe she was just used to the same thing every day when Reiner would be on her lap looking out their little window as well, yet even then, the sky looked more colorful than it did now.

It wasn't just her age catching up to her eyesight, and it wasn't the leftover dust in the atmosphere from thousands of Titans which dulled it. They were just another sunrise and sunset, one after the other in a never ending cycle. But who was she to say when that could apply to anything these days? Walks outside in spring weather and sunlight sometimes provided some brief respite- although those did not usually end with houseguests needing medical attention. They wouldn't be working on their letters tonight after all.

Karina sighed as she chopped up some carrots that Sigrid picked up from the street market, which she said had been packed more than usual out of fears of more hate crimes and looming curfews. This bunch wasn't the freshest or cheapest of the produce, though it would have to make do. Nobody dared complain about the taste of their food they may not otherwise be getting in this household. Not when she was the household matriarch.

When Reiner was born, Giuseppe and Mateo would not acknowledge hers and his existence for some time when she was in hiding, even when it was just them in the apartment. When they thought she was busy putting him to sleep, they would snidely remark about how their sister, always eager to please their parents and renounce their ancestors' ways, would be the one to put them into this mess. It was all her fault their mother had to spend time at the asylum after waking up at night screaming about those Eldian hospital workers touching her. It was all her fault that their father was working extra time and returning home bitter every night having to feed this extra mouth, the product of whorish devilry in her veins.

She only had her baby boy for company as she took on the role of housekeeper. None of them bothered to help her when he got colic or if she was sleep deprived for several nights in a row. The only thing that could rectify her Reiner's existence was returning to her father's beliefs in that he was needed somehow and combining that with reading the same books provided by Marley about the history of Ymir's people to him each night. Oh, he loved the pictures of the Titans crushing Lago's city walls, to which she would have to slap his wrist to reprimand him, telling him it was a great atrocity to the Marleyans who lived there, which is why they lived behind fences now.

But what did blood and death mean to a little boy who rarely got to go outside and meet people? He didn't know any different. He didn't have any friends in the building. Did he even know why his grandfather and uncles avoided talking to him? Nothing would change in this household no matter what she did or how sorry she felt for anybody or anything.

Yet something changed when Reiner was five, the day she declared to her brothers and father- her mother having passed away from the trauma hurting her deeply- that her son would be dedicated to the Marleyan government to become a Warrior. Their eyes widened, knowing what it entailed to his lifespan. Was she aware of it? Absolutely. But what did it mean if she got to live as an equal to the man who hurt her? As if he cared about them anymore. And it was getting hard for her father and brothers to get a good wage as Eldians due to a lumber shortage. If they were going to complain about having to feed a growing child that they never wanted here in the first place, they shouldn't have had the right to get upset about sending him off after thirteen years. She was going to have to take charge as the woman of the household without her mother and with Mateo's marriage to Sigrid and their own child on the way.

Her father made peace with the idea that if Reiner was needed to atone for them all, this was how it was going to be. A soldier. A Warrior. A sacrifice for humanity's sake.

For the first time, they began to acknowledge and praise Reiner for the smallest tasks, thanking him for wiping the dust off the counter or washing a plate. Her father even began to read him stories in the short time before training began. And Mateo was happy to let Reiner near newborn Martino, to whom Reiner would fawn over, even if he had different blood than him. The little Warrior Candidate, their hero, was finally accepted in their house.

In the end, they all helped enable her Reiner to become the hero to save them from the island, whether Sigrid and Tina knew about it or not- having only found out about the truth of his lineage years later after they all nearly died off together. Oh, that was another great mess that conflicted Tina especially. How could her Gabi have been looking up to a half-Marleyan this whole time, one that was willingly conceived and not a product of rape? She was instead a textbook case of a daughter of Ymir, even if she wasn't the one who deceived the other into the deed.

This was what would be making tonight's conversation with Gabi and Martino more difficult with the rest of the family there.

The front door swung open. Now that night patrols were out, Giuseppe had brought Gabi home from the Grice's. Gabi stood in the doorway. She had fixed up her hair in a braid instead of her free flowing natural style she started using as an adolescent. She still looked exhausted from last night.

"Hi Mom, hi Aunt Karina," she greeted flatly. "I'm glad that cousin Reiner and the others are okay. Dad told me they had to take Levi to the hospital though."

"Yes dear. He's staying there tonight as a precaution. He hit his head when he fainted from pain. Onyonkopon told me he's doing okay though," Karina replied. "He tells me he's more annoyed about the draftiness of his room than anything."

The poor man. It was fortunate their neighbor Muriel, a nurse, and her husband Adofo were at home that afternoon. Tina had rushed to get her over here, although by then Levi was already sitting himself up, insisting he was fine and brushing off his misery he had been concealing. Yet Muriel was a seasoned nurse and could see his pain. The aforementioned hit to the head was what got him to finally get medical attention much to his protests. None of them were going to let him go on in this condition. If he'd been alone….

No. She shouldn't be getting thoughts like this.

"So he's still in his chipper mood as always?" Giuseppe asked, picking up Gabi's bag to take to her room.

Gabi snorted softly. "Of course he is, Dad. You missed out on it last night." Giuseppe grunted and walked away, not wanting to discuss this for himself.

By the blood of Marley, when was that girl going to learn to think before speaking? Or maybe she was becoming accustomed to their darker sense of humor. They had to make up stupid jokes and games in the internment camp to try to think about something other than what happened that would have otherwise horrified them weeks before. All of it. Did the birds enjoy intestines more than livers? What country did that stain on the ground look like?

Any sense of the smallest shred of morality and empathy toward the unfortunate in them had to be sacrificed just to survive. Again.

"Gabi," Tina stated her daughter's name without emotion. She was sitting in the armchair with Viola on her lap. The little girl babbled on seeing her sister, their matching brown eyes meeting. Gabi breathed deeply a few times.

"Mom," Gabi's voice cracked and eyes brimmed with tears. "Falco says he's sorry about last night. He really is. We were acting like brats. It's nobody's fault in particular that we were Warriors." She exhaled sharply.

Karina had to push aside the carrots and stand close to the separating wall from the living room. This was her compromise with Tina after she'd calmed down that afternoon. They would have to wait a while to write their letters, yet this was a good start.

Tina sat silent. Karina felt her heart sink. "Gabi…." She pulled her daughter onto the unoccupied side of her lap. She buried her head into her shoulder. "Gabi, you are a child. And you are my daughter. You are supposed to be angry at me sometimes. And sometimes, I do deserve it. Your father too."

The two struggled in the chair, trying to balance squirming Viola between them. Why was Gabi looking so much like a little girl again?

"But Mom… we wouldn't be here now either if you hadn't wanted us to be Warriors. And now we're freer here than Liberio, and we don't have Titans anymore. Aren't you happy I was a good soldier?"

"Dear…" she stroked Gabi's face."I can't answer this question. It makes me angry with myself. You did fight so well when asked of you and even when not. We are so proud of you that you survived this far even though we made you do all those things just for our sake."

"I know."

"But you are still alive after all this by a miracle. We were so naive and scared, just like you and Reiner were when you went to that island, and it hurts us so much just the same. It is just how propaganda works to make us make rash judgements."

"Is that why… you and Dad and Aunt Karina never did anything to fight back?" The pain in Karina's heart sharpened. But… she deserved it… hadn't she?

"Yes. And so much more. There is a lot we have to talk about." She stroked Gabi's back. The girl's eyes rolled out fresh tears as she leaned in closer to her mother. She was always a tough one just like her cousin, her hero. It was almost a relief to see her have an emotional moment. Heroes were not allowed to cry before.

Gabi had just been a toddler when Reiner left for Paradis. Like Reiner, she had been too young to understand the bloodshed at Lago, so her parents and Karina had told her stories about who her cousin was and what he was doing. All she knew was that Reiner was going to be a hero and save them from the devils when he and the other three Warriors broke the wall surrounding the city there. There wasn't any hypocrisy to that. After all, they were just beastly animals that couldn't be leashed up and tamed. They wouldn't know any better as to what would hit them. They'd be dead just like the pigs and chickens were at the butcher's, just animals who lost all sense of direction and ate and stole scraps of potatoes. Animals who were not like them in any way even if they had the same blood in their veins.

The girl lived a much better life than Reiner ever did. She was the ideal Eldian girl with no dramatic lies from the Eldian side covering up her conception. Her family supported her and her parents from birth, helping around the clock. She was much more spirited than Reiner and Martino, but that liveliness and her early instruction formed her into a dedicated Eldian girl. Karina sighed, remembering her own role in this. She showed her pictures of Reiner in his uniform, explaining just what a Warrior got to do. Gabi grew fascinated with all things about the cadets, shrieking and jumping during the military parades through the streets. When she got her little hands on a pamphlet calling for new Warrior candidates- about two years after Reiner left for Paradis- she begged every waking hour to join.

Giuseppe and Tina had been skeptical at first, already having a nephew bring the family honorary status, which is why Martino's parents never enrolled him. They enjoyed enough protection in the streets with their armbands and the extra pension for food, yet Karina herself insisted that would go away once the time came for Reiner to hand over his Titan power. Thirteen years seemed like a long time at first, but the benefits each week drained up fast with rising prices due to Marleyan intervention overseas. And her father was growing increasingly ill. He had already survived much longer with the Marleyan hospital care than a non-honorary citizen would have with the Eldian care. He held Reiner's photo close to him constantly, weeping. His faith in his old beliefs came to fruition in his cursed and blessed grandson.

So what was one more Warrior child to bring honor to the family? To her father, it was traditionally a sign from Ymir of a fortunate family to have two children have the same Titan. They wouldn't be considered lower than pigs for a longer period of time. And Reiner seemed pretty happy to have done this for them. That was correct. She molded him well as workers in a factory assembled artillery, one after another in an endless line of those before him. He was a good Eldian like the rest of the family.

Then, shortly after Karina's father passed away, Gabi was enrolled as a Warrior trainee, to which she proudly excelled in every way until she graduated to the Candidate Program.

Gabi sniffled, wiping her tears. "Is that why I still hear you recite that list at night sometimes, Mom?" she asked curiously.

Startlement covered Tina's face, and Karina felt her face twist too. Oh dear. Maybe that girl had been better at eavesdropping in this house after all.

"The… list? I-yes. I haven't forgotten my long years of Marleyan education. It seems like you haven't forgotten your spy training either. Oh, well, since we were going to talk about this anyways…. Maybe your Aunt Karina can help explain now."

"What?"

She had to keep to her word with Levi. It was not the time to remember those lashings her brothers got from her hypocritical father about Ymir or her failures, the same ones she repeated over these years. There were only three people who remembered the family story, and they were not about to be the last.

She turned around the corner of the wall to the living room, ignoring the ghosts of her parents and grandparents who had been gnawing at her mind.

"Aunt Karina, Mom, what haven't you been telling me now?" The girl piped up nervously. Viola started whimpering. The excitement of seeing her big sister exhausted her. Karina lifted her up.

"Gabi… do you remember your grandfather Marwig?"

"A little bit. Didn't he die before I became a cadet?"

"It was a little bit after." Her next question was going to sound stupid, but there was no other way to phrase it. "Dear, have you ever wondered what life was like for Eldians before Marley won victory over us?"

Just how much had Marley told them about their suppressed culture? The exposed Ymir cults and the Restorationists peppered in the Internment Zone served as a cautionary tale to little children and as a reminder to report anything that would go against the laws.

Gabi thought. "Other than the atrocities against the Marleyans… no. What does grandfather have to do with this? Did he… do something wrong? Is that why he died at the hospital?"

"No, no. It was only his age. You see… your grandfather's parents- my grandparents- back so long ago… they were a part of the temple of the Ymir cult."

Tina shifted in her chair, not making eye contact with her daughter or Karina. As expected. Her discomfort wore off on Gabi, whose eyes filled with perplexion.

"Huh? The Ymir cult? Are you joking with me? Our family? How?" Gabi looked as if a cockroach were climbing on her. And at the most inopportune moment, Giuseppe returned from the hallway. His eyes furrowed at his daughter. "Dad, what is Aunt Karina talking about? She said our family used to be a part of the Ymir cult!"

"Karina, what the devil are you going off about?" He crossed his arms. Tina signalled him to be silent, even if she did it tepidly. She rested her hand on her forehead, slightly exasperated.

"You know full well our family's history, Giuseppe. We were going to wait for the others to get back with the dog to discuss this further. There are no more excuses to hide these things from our children."

"At a time like this? Do you women ever read the newspapers? They're covering the rise of pro-Jaegerism within the Eldian communities around here. The walls are thicker here than Liberio, but the eyes and ears of our neighbors are more open than ever! Do they care if we're powerless in our miniscule numbers to do anything in the government anyways? Or in Mr. Leonhardt's Eldian rights committee? Of course not. We still have to be good, upstanding citizens as refugees. We can't be nostalgic for the Eldian empire to return during a political crisis." He scooped Viola from Karina's arms.

"That is not what I said!"

"I tried telling her the same, dear. But it's very important for the Alliance since we are supposed to trust in their abilities. Onyonkopon insisted." Tina explained. "And it would be good for the children to ground themselves in something. What do you think, Gabi?" Her parents waited for a response.

What do you think? Had Karina ever bothered to ask her Reiner a question like this? And not on frivolous matters of his favorite color. What would he have become if she just let him pick from the paths with thorns like any normal Internment Zone child instead of the one that cursed him to die no matter what? Did he even still have a chance with the way things were now?

"Why would I want to worship Ymir? She's dead. Commander Armin said so. And nobody else here does either. We'd just get in trouble or have some animal blood thrown at us." Gabi folded her hands. "You're not trying to make us join a cult, are you?"

"That's my girl," Giuseppe praised.

"Ymir is long dead and should stay that way. I agree. And nobody here is joining any cult." Karina refuted. "Not even our father participated in such a thing." Giuseppe snorted.

"Gabi, we aren't trying to make you do anything. We just want to tell you the truth, or what we can. Just like you learned on the island. We want you to understand all that you can before you grow up so that you do better than us." Tina reassured her. "As it should be."

Gabi moved from the armchair to the sofa, plucking out the rubber band holding her braid together. Her auburn hair fell freely. Her gaze went back and forth between her parents and Karina. Poor girl must have been so confused.

"I… Marley told us that all of the temples had been abolished and the texts burned. And you would get sent to Paradis if you were caught talking positively about Ymir! Why did grandfather and great-grandfather tell you this? Was it just because Marley told them to say bad things and they couldn't help but rebel against them?"

"Exactly, Gabi. You are a very intelligent young woman. We all have things we cling onto, even in the worst of situations. It's why we are the way we are." Karina stated.

"It's why you sometimes hear me recite the List of Grievances at night, although I truly wish you hadn't. We sometimes just wish things were much simpler and consistent, the time we thought we could be completely certain of our actions, that what we were being told was the truth. And we wanted to show that to those around us. The world and our oppressors. But when you learn so much more after a whole life of being told what is certain, at our age too, you can't help but struggle with the fact you may be wrong."

"Like with Kaya and me and Reiner and the islanders he trained with?"

"Of course. While it is dangerous to be too optimistic about the state of things and then become disappointed, things are changing out there. The only thing we ask of you and Falco now is that you both use what you have learned so that no more children will ever have to suffer what you did. You have long lives ahead of you."

Gabi nodded. "I sometimes still wake up thinking that I have to go to training instead of school. It gives me a routine to focus on instead of what happened. I still want to be a good Eldian so we can get along with other people at school, but some of them sure don't like us here because of the cult, right?"

"Your mother and aunt are right," Giuseppe spoke up, more composed. "It's just difficult to figure out what, if anything, in the past is good to stand by. And it seems to me an awful idea to go about talking about worshipping a dead child." He eyed Karina.

Karina rolled her eyes. "Does talking about the Jaegerists and why they're acting the way they are mean we're for their ideology? Is wanting to answer our wounded children's questions so selfish?" Giuseppe opened his mouth to respond but was without words.

"Aunt Karina!" Gabi exclaimed. That girl hadn't seen her so fiery about her beliefs in a long time. "What's gotten into you?"

Tina sighed. "Well, Gabi, we can owe this to your impulsiveness and favor toward Mr. Ackerman with that book. We can't get a moment's rest this week because of it. He and your aunt think that they figured out something about Ymir that they want to share with the Alliance and that Mikasa girl."

Giuseppe laughed. "Not you too, dear. Marley said that they figured out everything with their books, and so did the Restorationists."

"Uh, what does this have to do with the cult and us?" Gabi asked, not sure which of her elders to turn to at the moment. They were all probably raving lunatics to her. Just then, the door knob shook, and the rest of their family arrived with Theo pulling Martino along. The sudden noise started Viola from her dozing.

"Alright!" Karina shouted. "Tina and I will explain everything. If you please let me leave for one moment to get the book, we can have some understanding here." Sigrid and Martino were baffled. In a huff, Karina turned around to the hallway to get to the men's room. Behind her, Giuseppe was muttering something to Mateo about how their sister was making everything a problem. Just like before.

The men's bedroom was drafty with spring evening air from an open window. A little more sunlight should have been good for everyone here. Karina opened the dresser where they decided to store the book to keep it from the dog. It felt unusual to be touching a stranger's clothes to get it, but she brushed the cover off gently.

Flutter.

She shuddered. What was-?

A pair of wings swooped past her head and out the window. A few small feathers were scattered on the dresser top.

…

Meanwhile on Paradis

He tossed and turned but couldn't get back to sleep. Everyone had been over excited by the latest development in their ambassadorship on Paradis- or what many of the civilians had taken to call New Eldia- with Mikasa on their side. Hell, Armin and Jean wouldn't shut up about it. But as quickly as she arrived, she left again, leaving them all with more questions than answers which would hopefully be explained in a matter of time.

These beds were not fit for a night's rest. Years ago in training, on both sides, they had to make do given their conditions. Maybe the concept of luxury had overtaken his mind in the last three years. They didn't deserve that at all, did they? Deep down inside, they didn't. But hey, most of the outside world loved them. They had to put up a show.

Reiner sat up. The only light in the bunker was coming through a small window on the roof. Another night in his life that shouldn't have been happening per the curse. Some other unfortunate kid trying to do the right thing for the world should have been fighting for Marley. Or if it hadn't been for Falco, just a random kid who was born that way. At least less of the kid's life would have been a lie than his. Just being born that way.

Armin's mood that afternoon didn't help anybody. He hadn't changed much since the Survey Corps. He lamented having underestimated the people here and their reaction to their arrival. This wasn't like fighting mindless Titans. How was he supposed to know about world politics when he hadn't even known anything beyond civil conflict the first fifteen years of life? Even seeing the mere memories of Bertholdt and three years of training with the remaining world governmental structures couldn't have prepared him and the others enough for what to expect when they found out the truth of the world except just how cruel it could be.

Bertholdt. He could only hope that he could finally be passive in peace for once, wherever he disappeared to.

Reiner rubbed his eyes and watched the others sleep. Just how much time had they spent screaming at each other in frustration and anger since their unlikely alliance? At least they'd moved past punching each other on a bad day. They had a new role now: be heroes. Or was it really that new?

He wanted to laugh at that book his mother read him as a child about the fall of Lago, in a sickening way. He got her exactly what she wanted. It wasn't entirely her fault she had her little Warrior fulfill that role. It was too complicated for the rest of his family to understand. They were all safe now, thank whatever higher power existed. It had almost been too late. If only he had been able to use his great power he once had to take his family with him to Paradis to show them the truth. They were the ones that needed a hero, not Marley. A proper hero to save them from Marley. Why had he been such a stupid kid?

Oh, but he wasn't any better in the Survey Corps. He was big and strong and encouraging, everything the cadets a few years his junior wanted to be. He loved them all to pieces- really, he did. They were just too naive to know the truth. Maybe he was too.

If he couldn't have been motivated to save the world for his family and Marley anymore, he did at least take a page from one of those few pieces of non-propaganda that his grandfather read to him so he could be his own hero. Knights always defeated the dragons and saved the maidens. He just had to collect the Coordinate and the girl, and then they'd fuck off back to Marley, well- after hiding the girl from those cruel people who would want her for themselves, and they'd be living happily after after.

Too bad the Coordinate was the dragon and the dragon got the maiden before any of them could do a thing about it. He and Bertholdt had been so close before. If Ymir hadn't gotten her way…. Cruel as the irony was about that girl they failed to capture, she did have her reasons any sane person would have for her actions.

Maybe he still could be the knight. The dragon was dead. They just had to get through its hatchlings first, and then she'd be safe.

That didn't sound right. Jean pestered him about it all the time. He knew it wasn't. It gave him something to focus on though. Who cares if it was all for show? He'd get to be something greater.

He shook his head. Why was he doing this, again?