God of Hate
Disclaimer: I do NOT own Godzilla or Attack on Titan
"Eren?!" Connie exclaimed in shock, looking between the gold beast and the others. "Trips is Eren!? The hell!?"
"Be a little louder, I don't think everyone in Sina heard you," Jean muttered numbly, hand over his face.
"If I hadn't seen Ym-the Titan Shifter yesterday, I wouldn't believe it," Marco mused under his breath.
"That's...that's Eren?" Reiner whispered with a shuddering breath, a panic swelling in his chest.
Annie stepped closer to Reiner with a very, very pale expression as she grabbed his arm sharply, her nails digging into his skin. Reiner winced and almost yelled at her before regaining his composure before anyone noticed.
All the while, Mikasa rested against the nose of Eren's middle head, absorbed in his loud yet rhythmic breathing.
But the other two heads now looked to the group watching them. Or, more exactly, Armin.
The blonde approached, his feet moving before he even knew what he was doing. His pace was slow, but from disbelief instead of fear. He had already known the three headed entity meant them no harm. Knowing it was Eren just confirmed that. Still, it was too surreal, as if this might be a dream he'd awaken from at any moment. But if this was real, it raised so many more questions.
Eren's left most head leaned down towards Armin as Mikasa retracted from the snout, keeping one hand on it as she turned to face Armin as well.
Armin couldn't remember the last time Mikasa smiled like that, so true and overflowing with happiness, even if her eyes were still stained with tears. "How..." Armin swallowed, looking up at the head nearest him. "How is this possible?" he asked, slowly reaching out to touch the golden scales.
He almost gasped, and almost laughed, as he saw what might be a smile on this head, as Eren tilted it briefly to indicate its lack of answer.
"O-okay, um...Guys?" Sasha spoke up, and the right most head gave her an annoyed look that made her flinch. "W-what do we do now?"
"That's a good question, Cadet Blouse!"
Everyone looked to the rooftops and saw three other Scouts standing up there with curious and suspicious looks, one obviously being the leader.
Eren just gave the speaker an unamused look with all three heads. He was growing far too used to this one.
"Hey, it's you! The Scout Commander with the drawings!" Sasha recalled, scrunching her brow. "Hanget?"
"Hange," she corrected patiently as she descended from the roof before turning to the two standing nearest their giant ally. "So, I take it you two know something about this handsome devil, eh?" she asked with a grin.
Mikasa had a rather dark look about her eyes, her stare boring into Hange's...until Eren's middle head nudged her in the back. She blinked, turning to see the head was giving her a knowing, scolding look.
Everyone watched with confusion, and amusement in Hange's case, as the right head made a shrill sound that might be a laugh while the left head growled in annoyance at the other.
"He's actually arguing with himself," Jean said under his breath. "Why is that the most believable part of this?"
Armin looked nervously from the scout to Mikasa and Eren...until he caught the middle head's stare. It was pointed, giving him a slow and deliberate nod.
Armin's eyes widened in understanding. Eren wanted him to tell this woman who he was. Steeling himself, he wiped away his tears and turned to Hange with a salute. "Ma'am. I have information to report regarding the..." Armin paused, realizing that there was no official designation for...whatever Eren had become.
"The absolutely gorgeous specimen behind you, yes," Hange filled in with a smile, waving him on eagerly.
Armin was more than a bit bewildered by that description, but decided not to question it as he felt the amused snort of breath from Eren hitting his backside. "We believe we now know his identity."
Hange grew silent, the flames casting a glare onto her goggles. "Is that so?" she asked with utmost seriousness. "I would ask, but I can assume by the looks on your faces that this was a rather...recent discovery," she summarized.
Eren's heads eyed her intently. Eins with warning, Zwei with wariness and Drei with concern.
"You two!" Hange called, her gaze snapping back to the Scouts on the roof. "Report back to the Commander, tell him that I need a meeting with himself and Commander Pixis!"
"Ma'am!" they saluted before flying off on their gear.
Hange waited a moment before turning to the cadets nearby. "I assume you all already know as well?"
"Yeah? Why, is this some government secret?" Connie asked in confusion.
"Not yet, but it might be best not to let this spread," Hange said before turning to Armin again. "What are your names, Cadets?"
"Armin Artlert, Ma'am," Armin answered dutifully.
"Mikasa Ackerman," Mikasa answered simply, still eyeing Hange somewhat.
Hange nodded, filing their names to memory. "Tell me."
Armin took a deep breath. "His name is Eren Yeager, of the 104th."
It was very telling that Hange didn't look at all surprised by that information. "So, you are human," Hange said, glancing to Eren with a rather knowing look on her face.
"Wait, what?" Jean spoke up, scowling through his shock. "You already knew that? How the hell?"
"It was mostly suspicion, but it was starting to become rather strange," Hange elaborated, never taking her eyes off Eren. "Understanding the human language is one thing, but you knew too many concepts to have not been living among humans at some point."
Eren didn't deny that. He hadn't exactly been trying to hide who or what he was before.
"He was...is in my squad," Armin continued when Hange looked to him again. "We thought he was...dead, Ma'am."
Eren's left head let out a low rumble that somehow sounded apologetic. Armin and Mikasa stared in surprise before smiling.
"I feel like we're intruding on something private," Marco whispered awkwardly.
"Shhhh!" Sasha said, watching with rapid attention.
"Dead, not missing," Hange noted after a brief pause.
Armin flinched. "I...saw him get eaten by a Titan," Armin answered, his head bowed in shame.
Hange's eyes widened, and it seemed as though she might lunge at the boy and start shooting a thousand new things she wanted to ask. But she restrained herself, if barely. Clearing her throat, she turned her attention back to Eren. "I suppose if you knew how to change back, you would have already?"
Eren's middle head nodded firmly, his left head growling in displeasure.
"Which is going to make getting anything besides yes or no answers from you a problem," Hange said with a sigh, looking from Mikasa and Armin, to the other cadets nearby. "It should go without saying that there is a gag order on this information until the higher ups decide otherwise. Understood?"
They all took a moment to regather themselves, but the cadets all gave their murmurs of "Yes, Ma'am."
"Good. Now, as much as I'd like to pull an all-nighter, you should all turn in for the night. There will be more work in the morning even if we don't have questions for all of you," Hange instructed.
"I'm staying," Mikasa said with a deadly serious tone.
Hange sighed, wondering how to approach this. It didn't take a genius to know that Mikasa had been close to the human Eren had been. "Listen, I wouldn't mind trying to take a nap on his golden backside either, but now isn't really the time."
"...Did she really just say that?" Connie asked, feeling utterly lost now.
Jean gave a look to Eren, at least the left most head, who caught his look out of the corner of his eye. Jean pointed to Hange with a look of dread and questioning.
Eren just nodded as subtly as possibly, indicating that yes, Hange was always like this in his experience.
"I'm staying," Mikasa repeated, a dark look in her eyes.
Everyone grew tense at the little stand off- which caused even Hange to jump in alarm when Eren slammed one of his tails on the ground. Not too hard, but enough to spook them.
"Dammit, Trips! You're going to give me a heart attack at this rate!" Connie yelled, clutching his chest.
"You're still calling him Trips," Annie pointed out, the least startled of the bunch.
"I don't give a damn right now!" Connie retorted in frustration.
The trio of friends, plus the scientist, ignored the others as they looked up at the golden beast. "Eren?" Mikasa asked in confusion.
Eren's heads were giving her a rather stern look, with the right being more annoyed and the left being more...concerned? Reluctant? Exasperated?
Reptilian facial expressions weren't anyone's specialty.
The middle head nodded Mikasa in Hange's direction, his meaning fairly obvious now. "No, I'm not leaving you again!" Mikasa insisted.
"Mikasa..." Armin said softly, knowing this was hard for her. He blinked as the heads looked towards him, growling something before the middle head nodded pointedly to something. Armin followed the direction, until he realized Eren wasn't nodding to Hange. But rather, to the pyre behind her. He scrunched his brow, looking to Eren again, who nodded meaningfully to Mikasa and flames. "Ohhhhhh," Armin said in understanding.
"Hm? Do you know what he's trying to say?" Hange asked with interest.
"I think he's saying Mikasa should go since the corpses haven't been cleared out of Trost?" Armin tried, looking to Eren as he continued. "And he's worried she'll get sick sleeping in Trost?"
The left head nodded, one of their tails coming around to actually point at Armin, who instinctively stepped back at the sudden action, but smiled at realizing he had read his friend correctly.
"Awww, that's actually kind of sweet," Sasha said with a smile. Which turned sheepish under the annoyed look of the right head.
Mikasa looked both touched by the sentiment, while wanting to refute the concern.
Hange stroked her chin, seeing the girl's continued reluctance. "If it makes you feel any better, you'll probably be the main one assigned to watching him after tonight," she offered, which did seem to relieve Mikasa somewhat.
Eren's heads shared a look. Mikasa with official guard duty over him. Great. On the bright side, she couldn't even try to drag him away now.
With great reluctance on Mikasa's part, the young soldiers dispersed, still trying to come to grips with this new revelations.
Meanwhile
Bertholt knew something was wrong the moment the moment he saw Annie enter the room. Reiner was...unpredictable, and it was not always easy to tell if he was talking to the soldier or the warrior. But Annie? Her pale face and empty eyes told him that their mission just got a lot harder than it already was.
"What is it?" he asked quietly.
Reiner sat down with a pensive face. "It's Eren," he said bluntly, vaguely, ominously.
Bertholt blinked. But Eren died, didn't he? "He survived? That's, well, good I guess?" he tried, not sure why they were spooked yet.
"Bertholt," Annie said coldly. "It is Eren."
He furrowed his brow at the emphasis before understanding shook him to his very core, draining the color from his face. "You mean...that thing...?" he stammered. At their looks, he buried his face in his hands. Eren was that...creature. That wrathful, powerful, titan-killing creature. "Are you sure?"
"It wrapped the scarf around Mikasa, with its tongue," Annie explained bluntly.
"Shit," Bertholt hissed. He should have tried taking it...him out when he had the chance. "How is that possible? The Beast Titan is back in Marley."
"The Nine had to have spread off from the Founder. Maybe he's a new, tenth shifter?" Reiner remarked grimly. "But that raises more questions than answers. Only the Cart could last this long, and no Titan heals like that, with no steam or anything."
Annie sat in silence for a moment. "He's stuck in Trost if he can't change back. He's not an issue, yet," Annie pointed out. "Nobody suspects us for now."
"What about Ymir?" Bertholt asked with a frown. "I mean, would she...remember us?"
Reiner and Annie flinched, remembering the day Marcel died. It was possible she did. Memories from their time as a Pure Titan were strange things, brief as they were. Annie had flashes of eating her predecessor, while Reiner had no memory of it all. How long had Ymir even been a Pure Titan?
"I'm pretty sure she does, by the look on her face when I saved her from getting eaten," Annie remarked.
"Even if she does, I don't think she's said anything yet," Reiner countered. "Either way, we need to find out where they're holding her."
"But...that might give us away. They'd suspect anyone snooping about for her to be other shifters," Berthold reasoned cautiously.
"Fuck. He's right," Annie said with a sigh. "Even if she doesn't say anything, Ymir screwed us with that reveal."
"Why wouldn't she say anything though? About anything?" Reiner wondered. "They obviously don't trust her after that stunt."
Annie paused. "Ymir might be an idiot but she's not dumb. She probably figured out that the ones in power don't want the truth to get out. But the ones not in the loop will still try and interrogate her."
"So, we have some time to figure that out," Reiner mused. "For now, we keep an eye on everything. It'll be hard to keep Ymir completely a secret, but if Eren does turn back? This all gets a lot more complicated."
"Do you think you two could beat him? Or...?" Bertholt paused meaningfully, wondering if he'd have to use his destructive transformation to deal with such a foe.
"Hard to say," Annie said with a scowl. "He seems to be tough as shit, but no arms has to be a handicap. But I have no idea how his teeth do against our hardening."
"There is a more important question, actually," Reiner said with a scowl.
Annie raised an eyebrow. "What are you talking about?"
"What happens if we kill him?" Reiner questioned.
Bertholt looked confused while Annie narrowed her eyes. "What?"
"If he dies, will another devil get that power?" Reiner elaborated. "Or does it die with him? If not, how would we take it from him?"
Bertholt looked down. Reiner had a point. If Eren's powers worked like a Titan's in any way, that might mean that a newborn would get the power. Or, more importantly, that they could steal it by...devouring Eren, his true body within that creature. But where would it be, with three different necks, all of them so long?
"Reiner," Annie said with a sigh. "If there was ever a time to consider jumping ship and just reporting what we know, this would be the time."
Reiner had to admit, Annie had a point. Even more than usual. However..."If we go awol now, they'll probably figure out it was us. And we'll have no chance at finding the coordinates."
Annie didn't like it, but she conceded that point.
"If things start to go south again, we go home," Reiner decided. "But I think we need to take a shot at him before we turn tail and run. Or we might find ourselves replaced very quickly."
They all grew silent at that. None of them said it, but they all knew it. None of them wanted to continue this course, but they had few other options and had to tread carefully to keep their secret now.
They were in a bind.
The Next Day
Ymir was in a bind.
She knew it, and she knew she had to do something about that. The trouble was, she wasn't entirely sure what option would fuck her over the least.
Option one, say nothing to anyone. Probably lead to them torturing her for information and then killing her to try and understand her powers as a Titan Shifter. She could try to escape in there, they were bound to fuck up at least once. Hopefully. But even if she did get out of here, where would she even go? It's not like there was any place in the outside world for her. Marley would just have her eaten to get their Titan back, and almost anywhere else would be a death sentence.
Option two, spill her guts to the people of the walls. Honestly, on its face, it was the better idea. She tells the truth about this messed up lie they lived under, and she probably wins enough good will to not get executed. The only problem? The lie itself. The people of the walls truly believed that they were the last of humanity, that the Titans had conquered everything. They didn't even know that Titans were their own kind, or that the Eldian Empire existed. Even if it had been a hundred years ago, it was impossible for knowledge and history of that scale to be completely suppressed and destroyed.
Which only meant one thing: Titan-fuckery was a foot.
She had come from the age just after the Eldian Empire fell, when the memory of it was still ripe for everyone. Tales of the Founding Titan, the King's Titan, were still whispered in awe and terror. It made these walls, walls made of Colossal titans. If the legends were true, it had made all Eldians immune to a plague once. What else could it do? Erasing the entire memories of a group of people didn't seem unlikely.
So, the King of the Walls wanted the truth to remain hidden, or whoever was really in charge now did. And the Founding Titan hadn't done anything to stop the Fall of Wall Maria. What could that mean? Ymir wasn't sure, but it summed up her problem with telling the truth.
Either the Founding Titan was still in play and telling the truth would bring its wrath upon her, or it was out of commission somehow. If so, she doubted there was any future for the people behind these walls. If Marley sent four of their seven Shifters to this island, they were playing for keeps. And if she told the truth, that would just put her on Marley's shit-list even more, if they ever cared to find out the people here didn't know anything.
So, say nothing and hope for an opening, or throw her lot in with a doomed cause? What wonderful choices.
Speaking of wonderful choices, she was starting to prefer her other guards over Levi. She could at least get a reaction out of them if she wanted, he just kept giving her this stare like he was debating which limb to cut off.
All while drinking tea.
"Who the hell holds a cup like that anyway?" Ymir asked with a sigh.
Levi didn't answer, but she felt him taking another sip was somehow mocking her.
"Seriously, is that a nobility thing or something? Were you some pampered brat before you became a badass?" Ymir asked with a smirk.
Levi's eyes narrowed, just a bit, and Ymir suddenly felt he was adding her tongue to the list of options to cut off from her body.
"You know, I heard what you said the other day. How's it feel to be the strongest human and stuck on babysitting duty?" Ymir inquired with a chuckle. "Got to admit, that'd suck a bit, but at least it gives you a chance to drink."
"I'm actually disappointed," Levi said idly. "It took you only a day for your boredom to get to you."
"Hey, I tried counting the bricks in the ceiling, but it lost its appeal after the eleventh time," Ymir countered sarcastically.
Their conversation stopped as footsteps filled the air, prompting Levi to look off to the side. "Well, congrats. Things are about to get more interesting for you."
Ymir scowled. She didn't like the way he said that, and it made her feel all the more tense as the steps grew louder in her ears until-
SLAM!
Ymir nearly jumped out of her bed as a woman appeared, having slammed her hands against the bars, staring at Ymir with an unnerving intensity, before melting into a too-friendly smile. "And how are we today?"
"The fuck is wrong with you people?!" Ymir yelled, catching her breath.
"So, you're Ymir," Hange greeted, completely unbothered. "I'm Hange Zoe. I see you've met my gloomy friend."
"Get on with it, Four-Eyes," Levi said calmly.
"Great. Let me guess, you talk too much because he doesn't talk enough?" Ymir asked sarcastically.
Hange just chuckled. "Sorry, sorry. I've actually been eager to meet you, buuut our friend up there has kept us preoccupied," she explained apologetically.
Ymir rolled her eyes. "I already told shorty over there, I don't know anything about the lizard."
"Is that right?" Hange mused, looking to Levi. "Didn't she turn into a Titan right after that gorgeous bastard saved another cadet?"
"Gorgeous?" Ymir asked before blinking as she looked to Levi while pointing to Hange. "Is she talking about-?"
"The scaly bastard, yeah," Levi confirmed, glancing to the mad science woman. "And yeah, she did."
"Maybe she's an accomplice in all this?" Hange suggested with a rather dangerous smile. "Perhaps she'll be more talkative."
"Wait, wait," Ymir spoke up with a sigh of resignation. "You're both assholes, you know that, Shrimp, Freak?"
"More than you know," Levi agreed. "Now, what do you want to say?"
"I don't know, okay?" Ymir answered with a sigh. "I've never seen that thing before in my life."
"Perhaps," Hange said with interest. "But you have to know a great deal about Titans. You know, seeing as you are one."
Ymir didn't answer, just stared at the scout with narrowed eyes.
"Then what's so important about this other cadet?" Levi asked pointedly. "Don't tell me you went berserk over a crush?"
Ymir clenched her fists before she could stop herself.
"Oh, so it is that," Levi observed.
"She has nothing to do with any of this, okay? She didn't know about me, about...what I am," Ymir swore tiredly.
"And what are you, really?" Hange inquired, narrowing her eyes at the shifter. "Titan? Human?"
Ymir took a deep breath at that. "You probably don't want to know," she warned with a frown. "But I won't tell you anything more. Not until I've had a chance to see Krista."
"Do you think you're in a position to bargain?" Levi countered with a raised eyebrow.
"Yes," Ymir countered with a small smirk. "We both have something the other wants. You want answers, I want to see Krista," Ymir pointed out before something crossed her face. "Unless she's..."
"She's alive," Hange confirmed quickly. "Though, if you're telling the truth about her, what makes you think she'll even want to see you now?"
Ymir's smirk became hollow. "If not, she can tell me so to my face at least."
Levi stared at her for a moment. "Give us something useful and we'll consider it."
Ymir remained silent and resolved, as if challenging them to call her bluff.
Hange sighed deeply. "Look, this is kind of your last chance to cooperate, to give us some reason to believe you're not our enemy. Otherwise, I imagine this conversation will get a lot less civil."
Ymir smirked, and it wasn't completely fake. She had survived a few rounds of torture before getting shipped off to Paradise, then the decades of being a Titan. And she could regenerate. She could take whatever they could throw at her. "Bite me."
Hange shrugged in disappointment. "Okay, come on over," Hange said, waving to someone else in the hall, outside of Ymir's view.
Ymir felt all the bark and courage drain from her face as she saw who came into sight. It was a soldier, handcuffed with a bag over their head, while being lead roughly by another soldier with white hair. But they were short. Really short.
'No. Nonononononononoono,' Ymir's mind was in a loop as she prayed she was wrong, that this was a trick.
Rico kept a firm grip on her captive and pulled the bag off, revealing Ymir's fear.
"Ymir?"
"Krista!" Ymir yelled, pulling forth and lurching against her chains.
"My, what a reaction," Hange teased with a chuckle, patting Krista on the shoulder, the Cadet wincing at the touch. "We've been having some interesting, but rather uninformative talks with Ms. Lenz here."
Ymir gritted her teeth as she stared at Krista. She looked tired, exhausted, but her face was painted with this look that nearly broke Ymir's heart. It was confusion and hurt, boarding on betrayal.
"Ymir, I...I don't understand what's going on. Is it true? Did you...You turned into a Titan?" Krista asked softly.
Ymir shut her eyes as hard as she could before the fight drained out of her. "Yeah. Yeah, that's true. That was my big secret," Ymir said with a hollow smile. "I'm sorry. I didn't want you to find out this way."
"Then why did you do it?!" Krista cried out, Hange leaning away in surprise at the outburst. "You had to know that you couldn't take on that monster by yourself! So, what was it? Were...were you expecting help, from someone?"
Ymir blinked, her hands trembling as she realized what Krista, Krista of all people was asking her, accusing her of.
"Ymir, are you helping the Armor and Colossal titans? Are you...are you trying to kill us all?" Krista asked, her tone desperate to believe it wasn't true.
"Krista, I...do you really...that's not..." Ymir stopped, the words trapped in her throat.
"Please, I want to understand! I want to believe you're not our enemy," Krista all but begged, eyes glistening with tears.
That you're not my enemy. They both knew that was what Krista meant.
Ymir couldn't take it. She could live with Krista thinking anything else, except that she wanted to harm her, kill her. "No, Krista. I'm...I'm not with them. I never was, I swear," Ymir answered solemnly.
"Then who are you with, exactly?" Hange interrupted with a raised eyebrow.
Ymir tsked and looked away.
"Oi, brat, get your act together," Levi called out in annoyance. "The higher ups aren't convinced that your friend here knows nothing. So if we don't get answers from you..."
Ymir inhaled sharply. It wasn't too hard to imagine them torturing Krista, uselessly because the small blond really knew nothing about this. They already had her in chains. "Fucking damn you all," Ymir hissed with a trembling voice.
"Ymir, please. Everyone is just scared and confused," Krista all but begged. "If you just tell them what you know-"
"It doesn't matter! You're all fucked!" Ymir exclaimed in frustration, Krista taking a step back in shock. "There is no future beyond these walls! Even with that scaly bastard up there, that won't be enough! You're all doomed, don't you get it!?"
"We've been doomed for a hundred years," Hange remarked casually. "That hasn't stopped us from trying anyway."
"If we're doomed, why are you here?" Krista asked with a frown. "Ymir, why did you-"
"I thought you were dead, okay?" Ymir said with an empty tone. "I saw red. Wanted to make the overgrown lizard pay for eating you. Didn't really register or care that you would have died if it hadn't done anything."
"So you were just trying to avenge your...friend," Hange said knowingly.
Ymir glared a bit at the meaning but didn't refute it.
"You're lucky nobody else got hurt or killed trying to fight you," Levi remarked. "We're not promising shit. Because we can't. But we can at least try and keep you from getting turned into a corpse and taken apart."
Ymir sat there for a long, long moment. The question was becoming more and more akin to asking how she wanted to die.
"Well, you don't need to decide just yet," Hange said suddenly, nodding to Rico and Krista. The small woman nodded, pulling the cadet away roughly.
"Hey. Hey! Where are you taking her?!" Ymir yelled suddenly, sweat forming on her brow.
"We're not taking her anywhere," Levi said, puling up a key as he approached the cell next to Ymir's.
"We're just going to get Ms. Lenz here situated in her own cell," Hange explained amicably.
Ymir's eyes dilated as she heard the chains being attached to Krista, and her situation began to sink in. Transforming in this small area was risky but not impossible since her Titan was so small. But if she did, she'd probably kill Krista as well. And if they did decide to torture Krista for information...they'd do it right there, right next to her. So she could hear every. fucking. thing.
Meanwhile, Krista sat uneasily on the bed while Hange secured the chains...to nothing at all.
"There you go, all set," Hange said, placing a hand on Krista's shoulder and giving her an encouraging nod.
Krista nodded and sighed as they moved away, locking her in the cell. After all, they had to make this convincing.
Flashback
Krista wasn't too nervous, not at the beginning. When she had attempted to report for duty, she had been escorted to a small room with a table and been told to wait here.
That sounded scary to most people, but under the circumstances, it made sense. With the situation as it was, they had to make use of the rooms they could work with in the area. She just assumed they wanted an in-depth report on her...encounter with the creature that saved her.
She shivered, though not exactly in fear. The memories had started to resurface after she initially woke up. It was so strange and uncomfortable, being in the mouth of another creature, let alone the tongue wrapping around her like a snake. Not to mention the strange jolt that ran through her body. Though, she wasn't sure what made her black out. Maybe the jolt was some kind of paralytic or non-lethal venom? Or had she just not been able to breath properly in that thing's mouth?
Regardless, she knew Ymir and the others would never let her live this down. She could hear the jokes about how she tasted already.
Speaking of Ymir, she was surprised she hadn't seen her instead of Armin when she awoke. She wondered how much effort it took to force her away from her bedside. She would have asked if "Trips" hadn't started waking up.
Discomfort aside, she'd have to thank that...creature at some point, if she was even allowed close to it. What would happen to it now, Krista didn't have the slightest idea about, and decided not to inquire about it.
After the first couple hours, she felt a bit guilty, knowing her friends were out doing the grunt work of cleaning up the bodies of the fallen while she sat peacefully in this room. But the hours stretched on, and she grew concerned. What was taking them so long? Had an emergency happened? Did they remember she was here?
...Was this a set up? Had the people who killed her mother decided it was time to finish her off?
No, no she'd already be dead by now, or somewhere further away at least.
She bolted upright in her chair as the door opened, and a man walked in. "I'm sorry to keep you waiting. We've been very busy."
"I understand," Krista said as the man took a seat, looking him over. "Wait, aren't you...?"
"Commander Erwin Smith of the Survey Corp, yes," Erwin confirmed as he took a seat. "We have much to speak about, Cadet."
She nodded, trying to hide her unease. Was this normal? She guessed the golden creature was important, but was her tale about being in its mouth really that crucial? "About the beast, Sir?"
"In part," Erwin said idly. "I take it that no one has attempted to inform you of the incident that happened just after your near-death."
It was almost eerie how casually the Commander brought up her near fatal fall, but she suppose that was just part of being in the military. "I don't believe so, Sir. Why, what happened?"
Erwin's stare was intense, as if he was studying every inch of her face in an instant. She swallowed, wondering if he would even answer. When he did, it only made her more confused.
"We're calling it a Titan-Shifter."
End of Chapter
And there we go. This is mainly a continuation of last chapter, people starting reacting to the "Trips is Eren" thing. Armin is as observant as ever, Mikasa is Mikasa, and Hange continues to disturb everyone with her continous compliments to Eren's new form. And the Warriors are trying not to shit bricks.
And now we get to Ymir's side of things, and I clarrified why she's reluctant to talk to anyone. Obviously, due to the way she was revealed, she's geting worse treatment than even Eren. Canon-Eren saved Trost, Hate-Ymir tried to kill the thing that saved Trost. Hence, Krista gets dragged into this to apply preassure.
We've entered the funny part of the fic where the rest of the cast has to try and guess what Erendorah is trying to say. Did not realize how funny this would be until I was writting it.
PS To everyone still asking, yes, Eren will eventually get the wings, gravity beams, and everything else.
p a treon . com (slash) akumakami64