This chapter contains descriptions of cannibalism and other gore and violent imagery. I would consider the writing is still fitted to a "Teens and Up" classification. I would also consider the graphic level in this chapter to be what an aot audience expects from an Attack On Titan story.
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- Year 854 - October 31, The Queen's Farm
[amidst the chaos in the orphanage]
There was blood all over the floor and over the bed in the Queen's room as Historia screamed. She screamed in the pains and agony of labour. After much effort and distress; after the desperation of the staff and the doctor for everything that had recently happened in that very room. Historia finally gave birth to a very small baby girl. Her firstborn.
≃2000 years ago
[after The Titan's death]
The three small girls were locked in their private room, up in the castle's tower. After the 'ceremony'. The five-year-old Rose was sitting on the floor, reflective. She had her youngest sister on her lap and was observing her while she slept. Sina was sleeping very deeply, the toddler had a horrid expression on her face, as she was having a nightmare. Rose caressed the toddler's hair very worriedly.
They all felt extremely sick, they could feel their insides changing. Maria, the oldest, was looking at herself in the mirror as she washed her hands, mouth and face insistently. The girl was desperate, she couldn't fully process what they had just done. What they had been forced to do.
It was a mixture of self-hate, remorse and anguish. Maria couldn't bear to look at her own reflection. The girl screamed. She screamed extremely loudly.
Her anguish could be heard all around the castle and surrounding areas. The power of the otherworldly scream was such that it broke the looking glass into many pieces. Maria now saw her image as she felt inside: shattered, broken. She felt like a monster.
The eldian men guarding the door outside started to comment how those girls were monsters. How they always knew them to be, even if they looked normal on the outside. And Rose heard the mean comments coming from the other side of the locked door. The small girl whispered back: "You! You are the real monsters." Rose had one tear falling down her face.
The girls were tired of crying, they had cried throughout the whole 'experiment' and had been crying ever since. To the point that the smallest one even cried herself to sleep. Her middle sister kept checking from time to time, to make sure Sina was still breathing.
It was a desperate situation: the girls had been forced to eat their mother's brain, heart and even her spine, together with the glowing tissue involving it. They were also forced some muscle and cartilage all accompanied with their mother's blood 'to help wash it all down,' as the King said.
Some of the bravest warriors and the King's closest trustees were given the honour of eating what had remained of the witch's flesh and bones, even her eyeballs. Most of them were reluctant, Eldians were proud cannibals, but also very superstitious. They were afraid the monster's remains would bring them bad luck. Nevertheless they all wanted to be in the King's good graces. So to impress their ruler, they ate the witch's carcass until there was nothing left.
Fritz had decided not to share in the meal, nor let any of his children take part in it either. That was the very first time they were attempting such maleficent ritual and he was apprehensive about it.
"Are you sure we shouldn't be a part of this, father?" Torin asked him as the small girls cried while eating their mother.
"Just be patient," Fritz replied in a low voice. "We need to be sure it will work first," he evilly whispered.
After the ceremony, the girls were taken away, up to the tower. And the eldians kept commemorating, down the castle's open area. It was the army's rest period, so there were thousands of tents around the castle area and near the village. The King didn't want his people to fear now that the Titan was gone. He didn't want them to expect that without the witch they would now lose their battles. So he assured them they would have three new Titans after that night.
Fritz told his people that the gods were on their side and ordered many pigs to be slaughtered, so they could have a great feast. The eldians danced and ate all night, they were having quite a party.
When some of the party near the castle heard the small girl's scream. It was a scream of great pain and agony, but it wasn't just that.
Maria's scream was powerful, but not used correctly yet. Still, her vocal cords accidentally awakened some of the curse inside the soldiers down the tower. It brought something out in the evil men who had eaten her mother.
The men couldn't contain themselves. Their regret was visible in their faces as they were slowly transformed into monsters. The soldiers, servants and villagers near the castle were in tremendous horror as the first ever Pure Titans emerged. The poor, cursed souls started to eat any human in their sight. It was pure compulsion, the mindless Titans just couldn't help themselves.
It was pandemonium down the village, but the girls could barely hear it, they were too high up in that tower.
Maria looked at her broken image, in the broken mirror. The seven-year-old looked down and noticed a piece of the glass had made a cut in her hand. Maria startled as her hand began to slowly heal: she saw a faint sparkle, proceeded by a rising steam. Her hand felt very warm with the otherworldly energy. The girl was in a haze, confused.
"I'm worried about Sina," Rose told her eldest sister while stroking their little sister's face and hair. And that took Maria out of her haze.
The three-year-old was sleeping intensely and Rose was afraid she wouldn't wake up. Those small and sweet girls had already lost too much on that cursed day.
Maria came over to check on the small child. "She's breathing," she told Rose. "Let's not wake her, she's been through enough. We all have." Maria told her middle sister. She then took the toddler and gently placed on their mother's bed. Maria sat next to her sleeping sister and Rose did the same.
As Rose sat on the bed she looked at Maria with wonder, and a little sadness. "I hope dad is alright…" she trailed off in a timid and raspy voice.
The eldest child thought back to the tragedy that had occurred on that very afternoon. And how the other guards had overtaken him and knocked him out. How they took him away. Maria felt deeply saddened, she felt also confused and very conflicted.
The girl loved her mother very much. But she also secretly agreed with her father, and supported him. Azymondeus had promised her he would take them away, even if their mother didn't want to go. He promised he would take his girls somewhere safe, and that they would finally be happy there, far away from those evil men.
The girl also felt he was right to attack that horrible old man, for he deserved to die. She couldn't understand why her mother would protect him, or why Ymir let herself die in that way. The seven-year-old girl was far too young to understand her parents' ideological conflicts.
Maria would never live enough to realise her mother died of sadness and depression; after being proven she didn't love her family. At least not as much as she loved being queen, Ymir had chosen power over her own flesh and blood and over the one she once loved. That was her undoing.
Both girls longingly stared at the locked door. Waiting. "Do you think he's coming for us? To take us away from here… So we can finally live in peace?" Rose asked her older sister. "Like he promised," the small girl added.
Maria was a little older and a little more mature. She was internalising how her mother might had been the one standing in the way of their family's happiness. And now that she was gone, they might finally be a real family, far away from that nightmare.
The eldest of the girls reflected on it for sometime as her middle sister kept staring at the door. Rose was younger and more naive, so she was still hopeful. Maria however, wasn't as hopeful as her younger sister.
"I think… I think if he was going to come rescue us, he would have done it by now," Maria finally told her sister. The two young girls knew their father to be a hero. Their hero. They both knew he would never fail them.
The night had fallen and he was nowhere to be seen.
The girls were aware that their father was known for being unstoppable, so if something had actually stopped him; well, then they should fear for the worst, for it probably meant death.
Rose just didn't want to think like her elder sister. She wasn't ready to say goodbye to their father, at least not yet. The small girl cried once more and reached to Maria for a hug. And Maria did hug her back, but she was holding herself not to cry. She had promised herself she no longer would, for she was tired of crying.
Maria held her sister tight and closed her eyes. She had one single shy tear running down her face.
"You are probably right," Rose concluded. "If he was still here, he would never had let what happened today happen to us." she said with a broken and sad voice, almost as a whisper.
"Yes," Maria agreed. "He would have saved us before-" She stopped herself and took a deeper breath. "Before everything, and taken mom to be buried in a decent way… Away from all these horrible, horrible monsters!" Maria realised.
Rose stayed in silence. The girl stared at the broken glass on the floor and at the broken reflection of the moon and the sky, coming from the window of the tower.
Sina was sleeping more soundly now, near her sisters, and subconsciously hearing their voices. After all that talk about their parents, the three-year-old was now dreaming of chasing butterflies, in the yard, while her loving family had a picnic. It was a bright sunny day and they were all very happy, it was a bright sunny dream.
"It's just us now." Maria was the eldest, she knew she had to take charge. "We only have each other," she told her younger sisters. "Let's get out of here." She said with determination.
Maria was decided to leave that nightmare. So she got up the bed and walked towards the window, the girl then looked down below. Rose followed her and did the same. Both girls stared down the height as the cold wind violently blew their hair.
"We need to find a way to climb down." Maria said. The tower was very high, she was thinking of a way to get down, but unfortunately she couldn't come up with anything.
Rose looked at the broken glass again. "I think I have a way," she said.
The small girl instinctively produced a sharp crystal spike from her forearm and smiled at her sister.
It seems her mother had left them a gift after her demise. The horrid ritual had worked, and now it was going to work in their favour. The girls quickly made their descent, with Rose placing the spikes in between the stones of the tower and Maria very carefully following her down.
The crystal seemed to be unbreakable and it would quickly become firmly attached to the tower wall, which made the girls feel a little safer. Still, they avoided looking down. Except for Sina, the toddler was tied to Maria's waist with a blanket. She was very awake now, and kept staring down below. The little girl was confused, it was like they were flying.
The soldiers had moved the commotion of the Pure Titans away from the village, in the direction of the battalion camping nearby. Killing those beasts would be a great exercise for them. Fritz was rejoicing in the beauty of it, he was unbelievably excited about those prospects! He had spent thirteen years looking for ways and wishing he had more monsters. Now he finally knew how to produce them, well not entirely.
Torin wasn't as easily enticed as the King and was always ahead of his old man, he had a feeling something was off. He thought about the bastard girls locked up in the tower. Maybe they could be smarter than they had given them credit for.
The eldest prince looked over to the darkness of the tower in the distance then back to the slaughter and fun all his soldiers and even his siblings were having. The prince then walked away from the 'party'.
"Where are you going?" Elke asked her twin brother.
She had been enjoying herself while killing those odd titans, the Royal children had even made a bet of how many titans they would slaughter. But she stopped to look as she noticed her brother leaving, Torin looked puzzled and had stopped enjoying the good fight. It wasn't like him.
"Don't worry about it, I just need to check something." Torin replied, then walked away, in the direction of Fritz Castle.
He was curious to know how those Pure Titans came to be, so he went over to investigate. For the prince already had a hunch of what could have happened.
Torin went up the tower and found it empty. So he set off on his own to find the 'little monsters', as that was how he called his father's experiments.
The bitter prince had given that hurtful nickname to Maria on the day the girl was born. He was honestly expecting her to be born as a small demon, or at least, that's what he imagined. He was surprised to see the young princess was pink and fleshy like any other newborn human, still he saw it all as a facade.
Torin was hoping to finally see their true faces. There were countless odd and crude drawings of what their kind supposedly looked like and many evil tales about spells and unhinged rituals the witch had performed to gain her devilish powers and to gestate the devil's seed.
The girls were running fast. They were so close to freedom! The sisters had walked very carefully through the roofs, trying to make no noise. They had arrived safely on the ground and were now fleeing to the dark forest.
When the prince finally surprised the small children: "So you think you can escape me, little monster?" Torin shouted at Maria, the prince had his sword in his hand. He was coming for them.
They stopped right before the dark forest.
"Don't you dare call me that." Maria hissed back at the evil prince.
"And to think that whore actually believed she could make her devil breed into truthful heirs." Torin spat on the ground in hate and gave the girls a look of disgust.
Maria held Sina with care and also held Rose a little closer, the two girls were holding hands. They were thinking, trying to find a way to escape the real monster.
"I'm glad she's dead." the prince told the girls.
The man felt an odd cold breeze as he said it, and that made him nervous. Torin then looked around apprehensively. He was certain Ludvík was capable of handling Azymondeus. Even so, he needed to be careful, for the devil could still be lurking around.
There was pure silence. No answer. As the girls had concluded before, they were now completely alone in that world.
"Where do you think you are going?" he asked the girls. "You are our slaves and you are not allowed to leave." Torin told them, with a sarcastic laugh.
"We are not monsters, and certainly not yours. We are leaving." Maria firmly told him and held Rose's hand tighter. Sina hid her face on her sister's shoulder, for the toddler was scared of that horrible man.
The young vengeful prince raised his sword in their direction.
Maria looked up to the skies. It was like an instinct, a subconscious thought. She knew exactly what to do. Just like her sister Rose, she also had power. She'd inherited from their mother.
The girl screamed. A loud and sad primeval cry.
All around the village, the castle, anywhere nearby, there were thunderous explosions. All of those wretched ones who had eaten a piece, even if very small, of her mother's spine were now turning into monsters. Many of the Pure Titans around the castle immediately came in Torin's direction, they were following the Coordinator's orders.
The girls took the opportunity and ran into the forest. They ran as fast as the wind could carry them.
-.-
- Year 853 - The Lighthouse - Paradise Island
"Oh, look at that! When was the last time you used a brush?" Mikasa complained as she tried to fix up Eren's messy hair. They were in the kitchen, having a late afternoon tea.
"No, stop it," he complained. Eren leaned away, slightly annoyed. "Your kid is right there," he pointed at Azzy. The toddler was sitting on his high chair, having his dinner. Or more likely, playing with his food. "Not here." Eren added, pointing at himself.
"Still, your hair is a mess!" Mikasa continued to fix both his hair and clothes. "You need to take better care of yourself," she added.
"Don't touch my hair," he moved away again with a small smile.
"It's getting too long, when are you going to cut it?" she asked.
"Maybe I won't, maybe I like it this way," Eren considered while fixing up his hair to the way it was before, and Mikasa laughed.
"Good luck! Azzy is just gonna pull it," Mikasa commented while sitting back down again.
"Are you gonna pull my hair?" the uncle asked the small toddler with a funny voice, and Azzy laughed joyously.
Mikasa went back to sipping her tea as Eren drank his coffee again.
"I'm impressed you guys still have some of this," he commented while sipping it away.
"Oh, this is a new batch. We got it from one of the latest shipwrecks," she told him. "Armin wouldn't let it go down with the ship once we all smelled what it was."
"Yeah, we should talk more about that. I think we should limit his transformations a little, having the Colossal Titan right there in the harbour all the time is not the best strategic option. What if our enemies figure out who he is?" Eren argued.
"Who said anything about transformation?" Mikasa laughed. "He just went over ODM gear and all while asking us for help," she explained. "I mean, the coffee would be ruined if it touched the salt water," Mikasa added.
"Gotta save the coffee," Eren added and laughed, sipping his coffee once more.
They smiled and Mikasa went over to help the toddler finish his dinner properly.
Azzy wasn't very interested in some of the food left on his plate. Eren was observing his small nephew; and as the sulky baby closed his mouth and shook his head, rejecting the food, his uncle could see that light again. Azzy would always emit a very faint, but bright light from the center of his pupils whenever he'd be angry.
"You know, I think he might not be in control of that," Eren considered.
"In control of what?" Mikasa asked.
"You know what," Eren replied. "I think there's something else at play," he said. "You know this is part of the curse too, right?" Eren asked her.
Mikasa ignored her brother. "Fine, you win. But just for today," she told the boy and gave him a cookie. It was his favourite kind, so Azzy looked up at his mother with the biggest smile.
"I'm tired of all these curses," she let out as she took the toddler out of the chair and held him in her arms. Mikasa sighed. "I know he'll do good with it," she said as she fixed the boy's hair. "Eventually," she added with a smile.
Mikasa thought about it as they walked to the living room. "Is that what you're afraid of? That your child will be born different because of this curse?" She questioned Eren.
"Don't start," Eren complained.
"What?" she asked.
"I don't need a kid." Eren told her again. "Just because you have your little home life with your little kid, you think everyone needs that too," he complained.
"It's not like that," Mikasa replied as Azzy reached for his uncle.
Eren took him from Mikasa's arms. "It most definitely is." He kept the complaint. "And I already have over fifty," Eren pointed out, talking about the kids he helped take care of, in the orphanage.
"But don't you think Historia wants one that would be actually yours?" Mikasa asked and he became reflective. "Eren…" she said more softly. "You won't be around us for much longer," Mikasa reminded him with a small voice. "I'm sure she would want something left of you after you are gone. We all would. It would be like a good memory. Someone to remember you by."
"Is that why you made yourself a little Armin?" He laughed while asking, to move away from the more difficult topic. Eren pinched the boy's nose.
"He actually looks more like my late father," Mikasa pointed out.
"And Levi," Eren added.
"Not really," Mikasa rebuked.
"Come on! He looks a little," he laughed while keeping his argument, Eren then parted the boy's hair in a similar way to the Captain's, to prove his point. "See?"
"No," Mikasa complained, then fixed Azzy's hair to the way that was before. "You aren't grumpy like the Captain are you, baby boy?" She asked her toddler with a smile as they neared the high stairs.
Eren smiled as he held the small boy, he then hugged his sister, kissing her forehead.
"Who is grumpy?" Armin asked as he walked through the front door. Arriving home.
"Levi, of course," Eren replied.
"That's an understatement," Armin joked.
"Mikasa is trying to convince me to have a kid. Again!" Eren complained to his friend. "I'm starting to think she just wants someone for Azzy to play with," he added.
"Well that too," Mikasa conceded.
"You shouldn't try to convince him," Armin told her. "It's Historia you need to go after." He said while putting his coat and things away.
"Oh, they don't talk," Eren joked with a smile.
"That's not true," Mikasa defended herself.
"Really? I thought I was the one she didn't like," Armin joked back.
"That is not true," Eren pointed out in retaliation.
But it was true. Historia would often become jealous of the amount of attention Eren gave to his best friend and how Armin was the main thing he talked about even when they were back at the farm.
The small toddler was very happy to see Armin had arrived. Azzy jumped away from Eren's arms and reappeared into his father's, across the room.
Armin startled, but he was getting used to that sort of thing, so he reflexively caught the small boy midair.
"What did we talk about?" he admonished the toddler. "You've got to stop acting so recklessly, son. You could get hurt, jumping blindingly like that," Armin admonished him while the toddler held him close and hid his small face underneath Armin's shirt, hiding from the reprehension.
"Eren thinks he is not the one controlling that," Mikasa said.
"He is not even two yet, he is not in control of anything," Armin replied while hugging the boy. "Do you want coffee?" he asked Eren excitedly.
"We just had some," Eren replied while stretching. "I think I'll hit the sack," he added with a yawn.
"It clearly had no effect on you," Mikasa pointed out.
"It never does," they both replied with a laugh.
"But it still tastes wonderfully," Armin added. "So, you're staying?" he asked his friend.
"Yeah. My room is still somewhere around here, right?" Eren asked.
"Of course, of course," Armin replied with his hands on his hips. He had put the toddler down again.
"Good. You can put Azzy to bed," Mikasa told her brother with a smile.
"Do I have to? He takes forever to sleep!" Eren complained. The boy was full of energy.
"You have to tire him down first, that's the trick," Armin advised him with a laugh.
"Come on, he loves you!" Mikasa pleaded while Eren scratched his hair.
"Do you want some coffee?" Armin asked her.
"I'd rather have tea if you don't mind," she replied as they walked to the kitchen, leaving Eren alone with the toddler.
Eren took a deep breath. He slightly leaned down. "Do you want to go to sleep?" he cheerfully asked the boy. Azzy smiled at him and then laughed very joyously. The boy then ran off, hoping to be chased.
"This is going to be a long night," Eren complained while pulling his hair back.
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- Year 854 - The Lighthouse - Paradise Island
[before the rescue mission in Marley]
Armin was walking around the house, he had their boy in his arms. They were about to set sail to a dangerous mission and Armin wanted to spend as much time with Azzy as he could before they left. For he had no idea if he would see his son again. Armin walked up the stairs and entered their room, Mikasa was looking around for something as she prepared her things to go.
"What are you doing in there?" Armin asked, she was scavenging into one of their biggest chests.
"I'm looking for something," Mikasa replied as she removed things from it and looked into the bottom, searching.
"Can I help?" he offered.
Azzy was a little sleepy and he rested his head on his father's chest.
"No, it's fine. I know it's somewhere inside here," she answered, still looking. "See? I found it," Mikasa stood up and showed him her old scarf. Well, Eren's scarf, for he had been the one who had given it to her.
"Are you going to wear that again?" Armin asked with a slight smile. The scarf reminded him of when she was younger, of their late childhood.
"Yes," she replied.
"I thought the whole purpose of putting it away was to preserve it," Armin pointed out. "And avoid it falling apart with time, it's quite an old fabric."
"I know, it has seen better days," Mikasa replied as she examined the old scarf.
Armin laughed. "You know, I think he was actually wearing that when we met. And that was what?" he rapidly did the math. "Thirteen years ago? Wow, I'm old," Armin commented. "And I'm pretty sure it was aunt Carla's before that." he added.
"Well, I'm taking it with me. For luck," Mikasa told him.
"What if it tears up? What does that say about luck?" Armin questioned.
"It won't," she affirmed. "I want to wear it to remind Eren of better times," she said as she put the scarf around her neck. "Of the life he has clearly forgotten." she added, looking at herself in the mirror.
The toddler reached out for his mother and Armin gave the boy for Mikasa to hold. Azzy rested his head on her chest as the mother looked at their reflection in the mirror. He could smell her sweet jasmine scent. The boy had a strange feeling that his mother was going away and leaving him behind.
Armin took out his watch from his pocket to check the time. "We need to go," he pointed out and the toddler slightly startled.
"Don't worry about it, baby boy. We will be back," Mikasa told him in a soft tone.
"Don't promise him that," Armin asked of her, for it was bad luck.
"But we will," Mikasa firmly replied. She turned to the boy. "See you soon," Mikasa promised him, and gave Azzy a kiss on the forehead.
-.-
- Year 854 - October 31, The Queen's Farm
[amidst the chaos in the orphanage]
The Commander stood there, in front of the Queen's bed, with her gun pointed at Historia's head. The heavily pregnant woman was in deep agony with her labour pain but she stared at the Commander in a regal and authoritative way.
Hange had been hiding around the building for a few minutes, so she had no idea that most of the noise outside was coming from the turns of battle. For the dirigible had arrived in the farm, and the Survey Corps troop was outnumbered. Shadis was doing his best to command the troop, but there were just too many of them now.
It was all very difficult for both sides, for both the young Yeagerists and the other cadets were good acquaintances and some were even former friends. But they were now on different sides of a war, so they should fight accordingly.
Hitch had left Gabi in a hidden position near the building's side entrance. And had instructed the young twelve-year-old to only shoot to debilitate the enemy, not to kill. The MP walked into the house, to look after the kids and make sure they were safe. There weren't any soldiers or staff anywhere around, so she went looking for the children in the basement.
The MP walked down the stairs and the nuns startled. "It's okay," Hitch firmly said while raising her hands. "I mean no harm. I'm actually here to protect the children." She affirmed. "Are they all here?" she asked the nuns and they nodded.
Hitch looked around the dim room, searching. 'Where is he?' She thought.
There was silence around the building and all the children were very scared. They all stared at each other, hoping for it to be over.
..
Hange was extremely concentrated on her mission. She looked over to the clock again, on the top of the Queen's bed. It was almost time, she didn't have to hold 'the noise' for much longer. The Commander kept her gun firmly pointed at the pregnant woman, with her finger on the trigger.
..
All the children startled as they heard a single gunshot. A gunshot that could be heard all over the Queen's farm and over the fields beyond.
"Azzy!" Hitch exclamation, she had just confirmed the small toddler wasn't in that basement and became very frightened for the boy's life. She immediately turned back and went running up the stairs.
..
The Queen had rapidly closed her eyes with the shock of the gunshot sound, for it had been extremely loud. Historia opened her eyes again to see the Commander fall to the ground, right in front of her bed. There was blood everywhere for Louise had just entered the room and didn't hesitate to shoot the Commander to protect her queen.
She had shot Hange straight in the head, and the Commander's blood stained the young Yeagerist all over. Including the scarf she was wearing, the one she had previously stolen from her idol.
Louise tried to clean her face and the scarf from it, but the blood remained. "You'll be just fine, ma'am," she assured the Queen and bowed, still with the gun in her hand. Louise then went to the outside door and there she stood, with her gun raised, guarding the entrance.
The doctor and the nurses quickly went to aid the woman, but that had been a fatal wound and they all knew it.
Historia rested her head on the headboard again as she cried. It was all just too much.
The doctor solemnly pronounced the death of the Commander and the nurses took Hange's body to the corner of the room; they then tried their best to clean the blood away but they didn't have time, for the doctor had called them back to action: Historia was bleeding as well.
The Queen cried as she tried to control her breathing, those were the strongest contractions she'd had yet. The first of the twins was about to be born, Ymir was on her way into the world.
.
- Year 854 - October 31, near Tybur Castle
[Mid-Rumbling]
The Armoured Titan had rushed to protect Jean and The Cart from the dynamite explosion, when he realised something had gone wrong. From high up in the skies, the Jaw Titan and Connie watched the explosion very apprehensively; and there was something different about it.
The explosion was twice as great as it should have been. For it hadn't only been made of dynamite, Eren had successfully transformed again. Unfortunately for the younger Yeager, he wasn't able to tap into the Founder's powers once more, for he had lost physical contact with his eldest and royal-blooded half-sibling.
Eren re-emerged from the explosion fallout as a brand-new Titan, he had finally been able to reach his new-found abilities to completion. It hadn't been long since he had consumed the previous War-Hammer Titan holder, and he had finally found harmony between all his Titan's abilities; or at least the ones he could reach without Fritz blood.
He re-emerged in a reformed War-Hammer-Attack Titan state, and he didn't rise alone. As he walked towards the Armoured Titan, countless ghost titans started to re-emerge around them. The mindless husks were coming out of the broken Founder's bones.
The past Titan Shifters surrounded the current Armoured Titan. But Reiner didn't care, he made his way through them like a heavy rock rolling down a hill and swiftly punched Eren's Titan in the face. The War-Hammer-Attack then released crystal spikes out its own face and crushed The Armoured's hand, detaching it from the rest of the body. Eren then kicked him on the knees as Reiner tried to defend himself with his other hand.
Both Titans fell to the ground in the middle of a scuffle and the Armoured tried to cave the War-Hammer-Attack's head into the sand while the War-Hammer-Attack tried to break the Armoured legs.
"We better get out of here, pretty boy," The Cart Titan said and Jean looked down at the Titan's face. Looking at her confused. "W-What did you call me?" he asked.
"Let's go get the big one," Pieck replied. "Hold tight," she added and Jean secured himself in the Titan's hairs.
The Cart ran through a herd of those ghost titans as they rose from the bones, looking for the Colossal Titan.
Connie and Falco watched the scuffle from up in the clouds. "You need to go down there and help Reiner," Connie advised the young Titan Shifter. "You need to go for the nape, even if Eren is crystallised inside, you can still kill him. I'll try to distract and kill these other odd Titans around them." Connie suggested and the Jaw Titan started to descend from the clouds.
..
Armin was having a difficult time, for he hated fights. He had always hated physical conflict since he'd been a young child, he saw no point in it. But he knew it would come to that, eventually.
From the moment the Yeager brothers were disconnected in that explosion, the Pure Colossal Titans became lost and without orders. The Founder could no longer reach them and so they turned to do what mindless Titans do: search for Titan Shifting Eldians to eat.
The Colossal Titan was clearly the easiest and closest target for most of those giant and mindless Titans, so Armin was doing his best to defend himself from the thousands coming his way.
Ymir looked from up her dimension with much annoyance. The rumbling had stopped in the middle of the continent and there were still over half of that filthy human population left alive. She had planned this for so long, and now her Titans were disordered and she couldn't reach them for control. All she could do was send those ghost titans to aid Eren, and that wasn't enough. Ymir thought about it, maybe she could reach control again by using that insolent Tybur's blood.
It was pure chaos. There were thunderous, deafening noises as the Colossal Titan punched, removed heads and threw those pure and mindless Colossal Titans into the distance, to take countless others down and avoid them getting closer. It wasn't too difficult for him, Armin quickly noticed how those Titans were slower and much lighter than him. But still, there were too many of them.
And in the middle of that chaos, the Colossal Titan looked to his left, observing it. Armin could see how those mindless Titans were avoiding to walk near the castle as they came his way. How they avoided the area even when they fell back disoriented in their fight. He started to think about it. Armin remembered when he had been inside that haunted old castle before and the eeriness he himself felt inside those walls.
Armin looked to the front again, in the direction of where the Founding Titan's head once stood. He could see those ghost titans again and the scuffle between Eren and Reiner, he was doing his best to leave his crater and go in that direction. If only there was a way to destroy those thousands and thousands of Pure Colossal Titans, Armin was thinking, he needed to figure out how.
Over the mountains of flesh of the now disintegrating Titans, Armin could see the Cart Titan sprinting. Coming very fast and bringing his friend with her.
ϟ "Jean," ϟ the Colossal Titan bellowed, trying to sound as soft and low as he could.
Armin would always try to whisper when talking in his titan form. But his efforts weren't quite enough, those vocal cords were just too gigantic and hard to control.
"He speaks?!" Pieck asked in surprise, the Cart Titan looked up to the soldier on top of her head.
"Sometimes," Jean replied. He then used his ODM gear to get closer, and stood in the Colossal Titan's neck, near the giant nape.
Armin had removed himself slightly from the Titan's nape, so they could talk. "See that castle over there?" he gestured with his head to the left. "The Titans are avoiding it. I think there's something in there, maybe it could help us." Armin cogitated.
"And you want me to go there and grab it?" Jean asked.
"Not necessarily, I don't know if it's a grabbable thing. But we should investigate," Armin replied, then thought more about it: "I felt weak when we went over there in the summer. There was something strange about it. I remember feeling dizzy when I walked near an old door, full of nails. If there's something there that can somehow defeat those things we need to know."
"Do you want me to go there alone? How am I supposed to find this door?" Jean questioned.
"It must have to do with Shifters. Take a small one with you, it might hurt them less," Armin suggested, remembering the odd pain he felt. "Pieck or Falco," he added.
"Small one? Thanks, big guy," the Cart Titan joined in the conversation. She stood on the Colossal Titan's shoulder. "I'll go. I'm curious," Pieck told them.
"Okay, we go. But you need to go help Reiner," Jean told Armin.
"I know, I'm trying to get to that," Armin replied annoyedly. "But Eren is not a threat anymore and neither is Zeke, as long as they are apart. What we need now is a way to stop those millions of Pure Titans walking around the Earth!"
"We will figure it out, for now just keep holding the fort. Those titans won't walk forward and stomp plain humans while all the shifters are concentrated here, we have time." Pieck made her argument, she then turned to Jean: "Hold on tight, I'm gonna go very fast."
The soldier used his ODM gear again and came near her. "As long as I'm not in your mouth, I think I'll be fine," Jean joked while holding her Titan's hairs.
"Let's show this big guy what Colossals can't do," Pieck added and winked at Armin. The Cart Titan then sprinted down the Colossal Titan's shoulder, down to the ground. Passing incredibly fast between all the pure and ghostly Titans surrounding her. They went straight to Tybur Castle.
Jean held on for his life. "I'm gonna throw up," he said between gallops, nauseated.
The Cart Titan came into a halt. "Woah, what happened?" Jean asked, looking down: at the Titan's face.
"I can't go further than this," the Cart explained.
Jean looked around and saw how the Pure Titans hadn't followed them there either. They were all avoiding that area, surrounding the Castle. "Why do you think that is?" he asked.
"I don't know," the Cart replied.
Suddenly he felt a tremor beneath his feet as the Titan's body started to cave in. And in a strong, heated vapour Pieck emerged right beside him. "AAhhrg!" Jean gave out a squeaky girlish scream and held his fast beating heart after the fright.
"Boo-hoo. There's a human inside the monster!" Pieck said sarcastically.
"I'm sorry, I guess I wasn't expecting you to do that," Jean replied and offered his hand to help her stand up. As Pieck completely disconnected herself from her Titan they both immediately fell inside the sandy flesh and blood mess of the Titan's corpse.
"It seems this body was quicker to disintegrate than expected. I suppose the sprint must've taken its toll on it," Pieck said as they tried to stand up and get out of the disintegrating Titan.
"Why must it always be gooey and sticky with you?" Jean complained while trying to clean the Titan goo from his arms, hair and clothes.
"Come on!" Pieck replied, gesturing for him to walk. "Funny, it looks like a strange energy field," she noticed right in front of her. The thin, almost invisible veil covered the castle like a dome.
"I can't see anything," Jean noted.
"It must be a Titan thing then," Pieck considered. She put her arm through it.
"Should you be doing that?" Jean asked.
"It just stings a little," she replied then passed her body completely through it. "See? It's all good. Let's go," she gestured for him to walk through it too.
Inside the Castle
"Armin is too far off the deep end if he thinks we can find something here. I mean, how are we supposed to find this 'door' in a place the size as this?" Jean complained as he looked at the size of the giant castle, with its enormous halls and high ceilings. It was so empty his voice echoed throughout the entrance hall.
"We are not the firsts here," Pieck noticed the grains of dirt on the floor, suggesting a pair of dirty boosts had recently passed through there. They started to follow the dirt to see where it would lead.
"Are you okay?" Jean noticed she was perspiring.
"I just feel a bit dizzy, but it's fine. There, we need to go there," Pieck pointed at the old and heavy door.
In the battle - Outside the Castle
The Armoured and the War-Hammer-Attack Titans were deep in a scrabble, with the Attack firmly holding the Armoured's torso, and using its War-Hammer spikes for it to break while the Armoured crushed the Attack's skull deep into the ground.
Eren could feel the taste of the sand in his mouth as Reiner caved his head deep into those cursed sand dunes.
"Are you ready to give up?" the Warrior asked. Reiner leaned over, coming near Eren's head. "You can't break me," he ominously added.
They were fighting not only in their accustomed physical form, in their custom dimension. But also in that cursed one, the dimension with a never-ending sky and also never-ending sand dunes.
The War-Hammer-Attack Titan then reached for all its remaining energy and broke the Armoured Titan free from its crystal spikes. All to then launch the heavy Titan up in the air and over the Attack's own head. The Armoured slightly flew over the Attack's head, then landed on its back.
Reiner remained motionless there for a moment and Eren took that opportunity to start rebuilding his Titan. The War-Hammer-Attack Titan then stood up and stared ominously at its enemy; as Eren was catching his breath, the countless ghost titans came over, to try to eat the Armoured's flesh.
They couldn't break through however, for the Armoured's crystal was extremely strong, almost unbreakable. And down from the skies came help: the Jaw Titan was descending fast.
Falco started to desperately and violently gnaw the ghost titans in their napes. The young Shifter feared for his friend's life, so he kept fighting. The Jaw Titan was fairly quick, with its strong jaw and fast wings; he was defeating as many titans as he could while the War-Hammer-Attack stared at the smaller Titan with some annoyance.
The bigger titan grunted and produced crystal from its knuckle. He then threw the crystal spike fast in the direction of the smaller, flying Titan. It hit Falco's Titan in full, right on the smaller titan's chest and it pinned the titan to the ground.
The Jaw let out a loud and desperate growling, asking for help. Connie was further away, killing other titans, when he saw it all quickly happening in the distance.
"Falco!" He shouted in shock and despair. He then used his ODM gear, rushing to help the boy as countless ghost titans were approaching the impaled titan. Falco was desperately twitching and hauling his wings but he couldn't stand up, his titan was truly impaled to the ground by that crystal spike.
The War-Hammer-Attack Titan was fully recovered and it started to make its way to the mountain of titans on top of the Armoured. 'You're mine,' Eren thought as he started to push away those insignificant titanic husks from the top of his enemy.
There were too many ghost titans on top of the Armoured, and the Attack couldn't even see him yet. When suddenly, Eren saw that gigantic arm coming for his neck.
The Armoured grabbed him and pulled him close. Both Titans quickly became face to face and Eren could see the Armoured's eyes starting to glow. He knew what that meant. Eren tried to cover his titan with more crystal to prevent it being too damaged, but there wasn't time. The Armoured exploded away, Reiner had triggered a second transformation.
Both Titans stood further away from one another as the heavy fog of the explosion died down. It had killed all ghost titans around them but the relentless monsters were rising again, from the Founder's bones.
Reiner and Eren stood, not too far away, in front of each other. Again, they were in that cursed dimension, as their titans prepared to fight once more.
"To come all this way, I had to watch my whole world destroyed down below, millions trampled under Titans' feet," Reiner solemnly said. "For everything I did, my consciousness could never rest. Doesn't all this bother you?" he asked.
Eren laughed. "Do you think I'll feel remorse? When you destroyed my whole world. Killed my mother; you hadn't any idea of what you were doing. You were just a child following orders. Obeying." Eren told him with much disgust. He continued: "I know exactly what I'm doing, I am saving our people. Humans are like pests in a field, they need to be exterminated otherwise we can't grow, they keep killing us. Parasites."
"When are you going to understand?" Reiner asked with a smug. "You are the only parasite here."
The Armoured Titan then rushed and punched the War-Hammer-Attack square in the head, dislocating it.
-.-
The Female Titan held the broken half-body of the Beast Titan Shifter in her hand. Zeke was unconscious and appeared very weak. "Good," Annie thought. The Female Titan then closed her fist, pressing what was left of his torso between crystals she had formed in her hand. All while throwing more sharp-edged crystals with her other hand. Aiming with precision at the eyes and necks of the ghostly titans that were mercilessly attacking her.
The countless ghost titans were surrounding and overwhelming her as the Female Titan expertly fought them off with only one hand and both legs. Kicking many of them away and slicing their heads off with the sharp crystals that coated her hand. 'Where is he?' Annie thought.
Levi was struggling to get close. He was killing as many Titans as he could, but he was still hurt, and he couldn't fight anymore as he was used to. The Ackermann wouldn't accept failure, so he kept trying to fight.
He went for the nape of one of the Pure Colossal Titans and missed it slightly. 'Damn it,' he thought as he landed on the head of another one. That's when he saw a brief shadow quickly slice the Titan's nape correctly. Mikasa stood on another Titan's back while the one she'd sliced fell over other two.
"You will kill yourself this way!" She shouted.
"What are you doing here?" Levi asked the younger Ackermann, slightly annoyed.
"Trying to prevent that very thing!" Mikasa explained her concern. "Levi, you are hurt. This is madness! You can't be expected to fight-" Mikasa was interrupted by the Female Titan growling in the distance, even the Titans around them stopped for a moment because of the Female Titan's scream.
"She's got him," Levi said, preparing himself to go in the direction of the Titan scream. He turned to Mikasa. "Go to your post, soldier," he ordered and left.
"-In the same way," Mikasa continued her sentence, "as you did before." She finished and looked back to the Castle. She went that direction, opposite Levi's, and both Ackermanns slaughtered as many ghostly titans as they could while heading in opposite directions.
Levi landed on the Female Titan's shoulder. "You're doing great," he said as Annie killed the Titans around her; with only one hand, for she held the Beast Titan holder in the other. Levi went down her arm to check the prey: Zeke was still unconscious and very weak. But he was already fuming in regeneration, healing his body around the crystals Annie had impaled him with.
'This isn't good,' Levi thought.
The Ackermann looked to the castle in the distance. "We have to go there!" he shouted to the Female Titan while pointing at the Castle.
Inside the Castle
Jean and Pieck had walked through the door with nails and were now descending countless stairs. They were deep underneath the castle and in deep darkness as they found the Castle's underground vault.
It was all extremely dark, except for Jean's makeshift torch. As they arrived at the very bottom of the stairs, they saw that the heavy, metallic door of the vault was wide open.
They looked at each other and Pieck shrugged, she didn't care, she just walked right in.
"This place gives me the heebie-jeebies," Jean commented as he followed her.
"The heebie what?" Pieck asked back with a laugh.
The vault itself was gigantic and had many relics from many different points in time. Lots of gold and jewels and many priceless artefacts. It was any thief's dream.
Pieck looked around, wondering where to go from there. She walked to one of the furthest rooms; it had grabbed her attention, for Pieck thought she could almost see a faint blue fog coming out of there.
Jean had stopped to admire a bold and fancy necklace and wonder how good it would look on his person. When he saw Pieck blindly going into yet another dark room.
"Where are you going?" he whispered while following her.
Jean became paralysed when he walked into that room. For they had found the body of a young man: he had been cut in half and was wearing familiar clothes. Jean fearfully went closer to the body, to confirm his suspicions.
"Oh man, I can't believe this," he let out, very saddened.
"Who is this? Was he your friend?" Pieck asked.
"Far from it, but still, we go way back," Jean said, sounding very upset.
He closed the corpse's eyelids and placed his Survey Corps cloak over the body, covering Floch's pale face. He stayed there for a moment while Pieck investigated around the vault. She couldn't find anything or any sign of what they were supposed to be looking for.
"You are not going to like this," she said.
"What?" Jean asked.
"We need to search him," she pointed at the corpse.
Jean sighed, that would be upsetting. He took a deep breath then started to look around the corpse's pockets.
"He is not carrying anything of importance." Jean affirmed as he turned the upper-half of the body over.
They then saw a hand-drawn map, it had been under the corpse and was drenched in blood. Jean couldn't make much of it, but he could tell there were instructions, directions to that castle and that vault.
He couldn't make out most of the words, because of the bloodstains, but he recognised Eren's handwriting. Jean sighed.
"Why would you send him here, Eren? Just to die..?" Jean let out while shaking his head, in sadness and disappointment.
"But who killed him?" Pieck wondered. "Or better yet, what?"
Pieck kneeled next to Jean to examine the wound, it was a clean cut that had divided the body into two, going diagonally from one side to the other.
"I don't think a human is strong enough to do this," she concluded.
"I know a couple that could. Have you seen where the Captain or Mikasa are? Maybe one of them has been here already," Jean considered.
"This body has been dead for some time," Pieck argued.
Jean thought about it. "Places like this are known for booby traps, maybe he stepped into one," he cogitated.
They both swiftly stood up and started to observe the room and walk more carefully, for they didn't want to inadvertently fall into a trap and end up like that.
"What are we even looking for?" Pieck complained.
"Something Eren is clearly after too," Jean argued.
"Well, he failed," Pieck pointed at the evidence: Floch was dead. "The point is, we don't even know what 'it' is, and what exactly it can do," she argued while staring at her companion.
"What are you looking at me for? You are the Titan here," Jean pointed out.
"Well I can't seem to find anything to open, any secret compartment, at least not at first sight," Pieck was analysing the room. "Either there's nothing here or whoever made this vault knew what they were doing."
"And are you smart enough to figure it out?" Jean asked her with a tease.
"Don't insult me," she replied with a smirk.
Pieck looked over and started to concentrate on the ancient inscriptions. They were all over the walls, but they all seemed to focus and end on one specific point. Pieck had found her door.
"Maybe this isn't just about intelligence," she said as she rested her hand over one of the odd symbols on the walls. She then turned to Jean with a smirk. "Maybe it's about magic."
"Oh, give me a break," Jean complained very sceptically while crossing his arms. But he became stunned when Pieck's eyes started to glow.
She smiled at him with her glowing red eyes.
"What-What are you doing?" Jean asked her in confusion.
"You just said it yourself," Pieck replied, then looked back with concentration to the smaller vault in the wall. "I'm the Titan here."
"You-You are not going to transform here, right?" he nervously asked.
"Of course not. I just need a hand to read this," Pieck explained as she tried to concentrate on the more instinctive side of her cursed brain.
"What does that even mean? We don't even know how old these symbols are-" Jean was confusedly complaining when Pieck interrupted him: "About two thousand years or so," she carelessly replied while slightly possessed.
"The immortal's heart," Pieck read the ancient text in front of the coded door. 'Interesting,' Pieck thought, she then instinctively started to turn around some of the pieces, for the Cart Titan had its own code.
The pieces then started to turn on their own, as if to send her a reply and Pieck laughed.
"What is happening? What does it say?" Jean asked, extremely confused.
Pieck then translated the symbols for him: "What is it, Tait?" she said.
"Who is Tait?" Jean asked.
"An old friend of mine," she replied with a smile.
Pieck instinctively knew this to be an old joke, or better yet a slight bullying Tait had suffered in his life, all those years ago. So she moved her pieces, spelling out the answer.
"I am the little prince," she said out loud as she spelled, turning the symbols.
"You are the little what now?" Jean asked.
"Shut up!" Pieck replied, she could hear the door of the smaller vault finally being unlocked.
They both waited with excitement but also trepidation as the door finally clicked open.
Pieck still had her glowing red eyes, she should have let Tait go, it was a bad omen.
As the door opened they saw there was nothing inside. "The immortal's heart" was no longer there, but some remaining fumes started to come out of the ancient space, out the door and into the room they were in.
The Titan Shifter dropped to the floor in deep agony. Pieck had inhaled that odd and otherworldly fume and it was making her extremely sick.
"Get it out! Get it out!" she yelled in agony.
Pieck was gasping for air and Jean could see her spine was glowing inside her skin, and there was something moving around it.
"It's ripping me out!" She cried with difficulty, Pieck wasn't breathing properly. "Please, get it out..." she said before passing out.
Jean carried her lifeless body, and rapidly left the vault.
"Damn it," he said while rushing up the stairs. "Just hang in there," Jean was very worried, for she was still unconscious.
When Pieck finally showed signs of life once again, she started to slowly wake up and open her eyes.
Jean was relieved. He stopped in the middle of the stairs and gently placed her on the steps. "I thought I'd lost you for a second," he told her with a timid smile.
"I don't die that easily," she replied, with a half-smile, Pieck was still very weak.
"Just rest," Jean told her softly. This had been quite a scare.
He caressed her hair and she closed her eyes again. Jean then stood up and looked down the dark stairs again, and thought for a moment.
"What's wrong?" she asked, Pieck noticed he was conflicted.
"Are you safe here?" Jean asked her softly.
"I am feeling better now, I was certainly dying before," Pieck replied.
"I need to go down there again," Jean told her.
Pieck raised her head from the steps. "Are you crazy?" she asked in disbelief.
"I can't just leave him in there," he told her. Jean then went down to the vault again, on his own now, to retrieve Floch's body.
He walked into that cursed, ancient room again. Jean walked very apprehensively, approaching his former comrade's body. But something called his attention. There was just something in those odd and otherworldly fumes, coming out of the ancient vault.
Jean walked towards it and he became dazed by it, only for a second.
"Do you want to end up like this too?" he heard a familiar voice asking him from behind.
Jean came out of his daze and smiled in disbelief.
"Armin? How the hell did you get down here so fast-" he said while turning to look, but Jean stopped himself before he could finish that sentence. For he had been mistaken.
The knight was all dressed in black, standing near the door and he ominously pointed with his sword at Floch's corpse.
Jean couldn't really tell much, for the man was completely covered. He had just sounded a lot like his friend, yes, and he did have blue eyes, similar to Armin's - that was the only part of his body that wasn't covered in armour - but he had a different presence and he was definitely taller.
"Wow, the palace staff here is pretty hardcore," Jean joked about those garments.
The guard didn't seem to enjoy the joke. He just stood there looking very serious.
In reality it was a quite unnerving situation for the Ackermann, for he hadn't seen that face in a very long time. He hadn't seen Jean since he had been a child, in a very different life. And Az longed for that life and he would never hurt one of his parents' closest friends.
"I'm sorry, I was confused for a moment," Jean scratched his head, a little nervously. "You sound like one of my friends. A-Are you one of those Tyburs?" he asked, trying to make conversation.
"Yes," the man replied, slightly trying to mask his voice.
They both looked at the corpse, on the side of the room and the man pointed at it with his sword again.
"Just take that and leave," he said while pointing at the corpse. Az then turned to exit the room. "Fast. Before I change my mind," he added while walking out the door.
Jean instinctively walked after the man, but he saw nothing as he entered the next room. He looked around the entire vault and the knight was nowhere to be seen. The man had vanished like a ghost.
As he carefully carried Floch's two halves up the stairs, Jean was reflecting on all the madness he had just experienced. He hadn't eaten in a long time because of that rumbling craziness and he thought maybe he was going a little crazy himself.
'Maybe this is all a weird hallucination or just a very long dream,' Jean considered as he met Pieck again on the steps.
She still looked quite sick but she seemed to have improved slightly.
"Hey, you haven't seen a tall guard dressed all in black come up these stairs by any chance, have you?" he casually asked her.
"What?" she asked back in confusion. "You are probably hallucinating," Pieck suggested and then closed her eyes again.
Outside in the gardens
Levi came down the walls of the castle with his ODM gear, carrying the debilitated torso of his enemy. The Ackermann swiftly landed on the sides of the castle's garden and started to look around the trees.
Outside the limits of the castle, the Female Titan's carcass was steaming out. Annie had just removed herself from the Titan. She looked back to all the fight happening in the distance and thought about it; but decided to first help the Captain instead, at least while she rebuilt her energy.
The Titan Shifter then followed the Captain and also climbed the castle's wall with her ODM gear.
"See if you can find any matches," the Captain told her.
"Matches?" Annie asked, confused.
"We are going to burn him," Levi said with determination.
Zeke finally opened his eyes and laughed sarcastically to the sound of that. He was now only a weak man, with no limbs and half his sides missing. The older Yeager was the picture of defeat, quite a sad appearance, and still he knew how to hit Levi's nerves.
The Ackermann slapped Zeke's face with the side of his hand, quite angrily. He then came closer to Zeke's ear. "I will set fire to your sad undead corpse and I will watch it burn, until I am sure there's nothing left."
Levi had made his threat. He then began to make multiple deep cuts around the Shifter's body, to make sure he wouldn't build enough energy to transform again.
Zeke was very weak, but he was still slowly regenerating and the extra wounds Levi had inflicted him did slow his recovery down.
The Captain and the Warrior then started to chop down some of the trees, so they could have enough wood for the cremation.
"Cutting trees, that wasn't what I expected when they told me we would be 'saving the world'," Annie gestured in air quotes as she chopped down a tree trunk.
Zeke could barely speak as he watched the other two preparing the proceedings for his cremation. Annie and Levi had made quite a wooden structure and then used one of the garden's torches to set it all on fire.
The Ackermann then came over to take his prize: he couldn't wait to finally fulfil his promise to kill that beast. The older Yeager had been reflective the entire time, he had noticed Levi would avoid looking to the giant lake in the distance. And Zeke knew why.
"It's time," the Captain ominously said while approaching him.
"How fitting of you to choose this as my final rest," Zeke mumbled in his weak voice as Levi approached him with swords raised.
He looked down at the lake in the distance and Levi followed his eyes. "Do you know what that lake is?" He asked with a grin and his mouth full of blood. Zeke started to laugh maniacally. "It's your family's cursed graveyard!" He said mid-laugh.
Levi looked at him with anger then mutilated what was left of his body. The man was still alive and he kept laughing as Annie and Levi burned his body.
In the Castle's entrance hall
"Here," Mikasa gave Pieck some water as the Titan Shifter sat down. Pieck still looked quite dizzy. "What happened down there?" she then asked Jean.
"A lot," Jean replied while trying to clean himself from the corpse's blood and lymph. He looked at Floch's two halves again, very distraught. "What should I do with him?" he asked the others.
"I wouldn't consider that a priority with everything that is happening outside," Mikasa replied, in a very cold tone.
"Yeah, by the way…" Jean trailed off. "You didn't… do this, by any chance… Right?"
"Why would I do that?" Mikasa crossed her arms. "I didn't even know he was here."
"I mean, that level of laceration is quite brutal, so it must have been one of you. Do you know where Levi is?" Jean asked.
"Levi is too weak for now, I don't think he could have done that," Mikasa argued.
"Well," Jean crossed his arms. "There's no one else out there who could have done it," he made his point.
"So you think I did it and am lying to you about it?" Mikasa somberly confronted him.
"Wasn't it your magic Tybur man?" Pieck asked Jean with a tease, she still had her eyes closed and looked somewhat delirious.
"What is she talking about?" Mikasa asked him.
"Nothing," Jean replied.
"Jean saw a ghost down there," Pieck explained with a small childish laugh.
"A ghost?" Mikasa asked him in disbelief.
Jean nervously scratched his head. "It wasn't like that, I just thought I saw someone but it was nothing. It was just for a moment that I thought… that he sounded a lot like…" he trailed off.
"Like who?" Mikasa asked.
"It doesn't matter. It was probably some illusion caused by that gas," Jean concluded.
"Then who killed your friend?" Pieck argued.
"Maybe I should go down there myself, and get to the bottom of this," Mikasa firmly considered, and the others shook their heads.
"I don't think that's a good idea," Jean warned her.
"Like you said, what is happening outside is more important, we should focus on that," Pieck reminded the Ackermann.
"True," Jean turned towards Pieck in confirmation. "Hopefully the others will figure out a way to stop those things walking outside. We should-"
He turned to face Mikasa once more, but she had already left. "Where did she go? Jean looked around, confused.
"Maybe she disappeared, like your ghost," Pieck teased him. She then stood up, and started to walk out, slowly, for she still felt quite weak.
"Where are you going?" Jean asked.
"To get some fresh air," Pieck said, walking outside, to the front garden.
In the Titan battle outside Tybur Castle
'I need to find a way to stop this. There must be some way to destroy these things completely. It will never end if we have to kill them one by one. There are millions!' Armin desperately thought to himself as he fought those countless Titans. 'I can't keep doing this forever.'
Suddenly he found himself in that cursed dimension again. Armin looked up to the high skies, to all those otherworldly stars and down to the infinite sand dunes. The Titan Shifter looked up again and followed with his eyes one of the constellations in the skies, for it was his Titan's guide.
He was immediately transported to the source. The place where all the Path Ways converged: the tree of light. And there she was. Armin took his opportunity to confront the witch.
"Why are you doing this?" he angrily asked and Ymir turned to face him. "You must understand, all this destruction is unreasonable. Innocent people are dying, and for nothing! Innocent children-"
"Do you have children?" Ymir interrupted him, asking a question she already knew the answer to.
"Yes." Armin firmly replied. "And I couldn't bear to see his life ending in this way. To watch my child be trampled and knowing I'm unable to do anything about it."
Ymir laughed. "You don't have to worry about that. These parents won't have that feeling, they will be dead too," she told him with a smile.
"How can you talk like this?" Armin admonished her.
Ymir became angry. "You filthy humans sicken me," she complained with slightly anguish.
She finally decided to let it all out: "You killed my children!" Ymir screamed in anger.
"You used them! You destroyed them! I should destroy everything and everyone!" She shouted and then reconsidered her steps: "I have chosen to spare Eldians, for that was a request, but maybe I should destroy you all! And end this here and now."
"No!" Armin shouted back at her. "You need to stop this! This is madness!"
"You can't tell me what to do. No one can. I have my own mind," Ymir firmly replied. "And I've made up my mind about this a long time ago."
"This is completely insane! All this killing-" Armin was arguing but she interrupted him, for Ymir couldn't stand to look at him anymore, it was just too familiar.
"You know what bothers me most about you? He has your eyes." She told Armin and he looked at her confused.
"What?" Armin asked as Ymir raised her hand and closed her fist.
The witch had control over that dimension and she had decided to put her lover's father under a spell: Armin immediately felt the world pulling him down, the sand where he was standing started to give in, and he was completely eaten by it. Disappearing from Ymir's presence.
"Only they are darker." Ymir finished her sentence, thinking about her lost love.
Armin sank deep and deep into the sand, feeling suffocated.
- Year 858 - Summertime - Tybur Castle
Sonnenblume ran around the castle halls and the gardens. The three-year-old was playing tag with her brother, Azymondeus was a little older, he was six. They were both running around the ancient building, having a lot of fun as their parents discussed with other adults things they didn't understand.
Sunny stopped around the kitchens to catch her breath and Azzy quickly tagged her, they both laughed.
There was a giant wooden table in the middle of the room, full of sweets the castle staff had prepared. And both children stopped to admire it, looking amazed.
The staff told them they could help themselves to the sweets and the siblings looked at each other with a giant smile.
The two children hopped on the wooden bench, preparing themselves to taste some of those sugary delights, when Sonnen stopped and became more reflective. The small child passed her hand on a notch she had found on the wooden table, very contemplative.
Sonnenblume had been born unearthly empathic and that very spot gave her a fearful and sad feeling.
The little girl then ran off with a spooked look on her face. "Mummy!" She went looking for her mother.
Azzy shrugged and went back to eating his sweets.
- Year 854 - Tybur Castle
[Mid-Rumbling]
Azymondeus walked around the kitchens, thinking of the earliest memories he'd had in that castle. He remembered the kitchen staff and how much fun he'd had with his sister there. He passed his hands on the now empty wooden table. Azzy looked around for the notch, but the surface was smooth, 'I guess that hasn't happened yet,' the time traveller thought.
He was already leaving the empty room when he quickly heard a swooshing sound. Az had no time to react. A sharp knife came flying by and pinned his right arm to the wooden wall with much force.
"What?" Az looked at the knife with confusion then reached with his other hand to remove it.
"Don't even try," Mikasa said as she quickly threw another knife, now pinning both his arms into the wooden wall. He was now completely trapped.
It was quite painful. "You know, that hurts!" Azzy complained as he tried to yank his arms out, it was of no use, his mother knew what she was doing and she was inhumanly strong.
"Yes, I know," Mikasa said while crossing her arms. She still had yet another knife at hand. "And I also know you can't disappear from my sight while you are still regenerating," the mother firmly said. "So don't you even dare," she warned.
He sighed, that tone made him feel like a teenager again.
"Funny thing, I'm technically older than you now," he argued and his mother just stared at him in pure discontent.
She pointed the extra knife at him. "What are you doing here?" Mikasa firmly asked.
"If you wanna talk, we can just talk," he said, waving his trapped hands. "We are both adults here, I'm not just going to run away," he argued.
"Who do you think you are talking to?" Mikasa asked back. "I know that face. You always make it when you are in trouble," she argued. "As soon as you have a way out, you are going to run away from me."
"No I won't. And you can't even see my face!" Azzy complained. He was wearing a helmet.
"Your eyes and that tone are enough for me," the mother explained. "And I don't even want to see your face. Do you know how upset I am with you right now?" Mikasa started to admonish her child.
"Mom!" He complained, showing her his trapped hands.
"Fine," Mikasa walked over and freed him. She threw the knives to the side and they fell to the floor, with his unearthly blood steaming away from the metal. "The harbour?" Mikasa confronted him.
"Right, that. Well I was just helping the team get here faster," Az argued as he checked his wounds.
"By mercilessly killing those soldiers?" Mikasa asked.
"Those idiots were just going to slow you down," he explained. "If you must know, that saved millions of lives. Also why would you judge me? I mean, how many people have you killed?" Az questioned his mother.
"That's different. I'm a soldier," Mikasa justified herself.
"Well, so am I!" he argued.
"Shut up! I don't want to know about the future!" the mother admonished him.
'Try the past,' Azzy thought.
Mikasa thought for a moment. "And the airplane?" she asked.
"You could tell about the plane?" Az asked back, a little let down, he had tried his best to make it look similar.
"The engineers could," Mikasa said.
"That was a tricky one, but I did my best," Az replied.
"Why would you even attempt to bring something from the future here? Do you know how dangerous that is? The implications of what that could cause?" She confronted her boy.
"Well, that prototype thing couldn't really fly. You can't blame me for helping you manage your time better," he pointed out with some charm.
Mikasa then angrily stabbed the table with the knife she still had, then removed it, leaving behind quite a deep mark.
'Right, there is the notch,' Azzy thought to himself, thinking of his childhood.
"You don't get to do that!" she yelled at him, pointing the knife in his direction again. "You shouldn't be here in the first place! You need to go back to your time, to our future!" she ordered.
"To what? There's nothing to go back to! The whole world is destroyed," Az revealed.
Mikasa looked at him disconcerted.
"Let's just say the last Eldian King didn't do very nice things," he started to explain.
"Stop talking." Mikasa said.
"Which is not surprising considering their history…" Az kept going.
"I said stop!" She ordered.
Azzy sighed. "The point is, I can't go to the future, because everything and everyone is dead there," he declared and Mikasa became very upset. "And I can't reach the past either," he added.
Mikasa started to pace around the room.
"So tell me, mother: where should I go?" He sincerely asked, sounding very broken and Mikasa said nothing.
The mother looked down, contemplative.
"Maybe I shouldn't be asking you that. Come to think of it, you are the last person I should ask," he complained.
"Why do you say that?" Mikasa raised her head again.
"Because all this is your fault. You started this! You made me go there," he revealed.
"Where?" his mother asked.
"To 'a safe place', the safest I could reach," Az said, remembering the past. "You made me take her there! And now we are in this mess."
Mikasa looked at him very somberly. "Maybe you shouldn't have gone anywhere," she argued. "Maybe you should have never used this cursed power in the first place," the mother let out.
"What was I supposed to do about it? I was born with it," Az retaliated. "I know you resent me for that," he added in a smaller voice.
His mother then held her stomach very worriedly. Mikasa looked down, reflective.
"Don't worry about her. She's going to be just fine," Az reassured his mother. "She's normal. That's what I heard all my life. She's the good one and I'm the troubled one, right? I've always known," he let out. "How you both loved her more than you loved me."
"Oh, spare me the drama," Az heard another familiar voice say from across the room.
He turned to look and there her apparition was: Sonnenblume rolled her eyes and crossed her arms.
Sonnen looked much older, she definitely was no longer a teenager, like the last time they had met. And like she had done once before - in another world, of course - Sunny had used that timeless dimension to talk to her reckless brother. And so, he was the only one who could see her apparition.
"Hey! You're here too!" Azzy said excitedly, as he looked to the other side of the room, talking to nothing.
"Who are you talking to?" his mother asked him in confusion.
Sunny pointed upwards then disappeared again. And Azzy understood: they needed to talk.
He turned to Mikasa again. "Sorry, mother," Azzy said with a charming smile. He raised his hand, as his wounds finished healing, extremely fast.
Az then waved goodbye. "I'll see you soon," he added before jumping away from his mother's presence.
He went up to the roof, to talk to his sister.
"No, wait!" Mikasa said, but it was already too late, her son was gone.
.
In the Titan battle outside Tybur Castle
The Armoured Titan had punched his enemy square in the face, to the point of dislocating the War-Hammer-Attack's head out of place. In a similar way, Reiner had just punched Eren's face, up in the cursed dimension.
Eren fell back unbalanced, he reached for his face with his hand while turning to the side. The younger Yeager looked unsettled as he saw blood all over his hand. His nose and mouth were bleeding, because of the punch.
'This is getting interesting,' Reiner thought.
The War-Hammer-Attack snapped its neck back into place.
Both Titans then ran towards each other once more, to continue their fight.
Connie was doing his best to kill the ghost titans attacking the Jaw Titan, as the poor thing was still impaled to the ground. Falco shook around miserably, but he still couldn't get up.
When the Armoured Titan came flying back in their direction. Reiner fell beside the younger Titan Shifter and he growled for his attention. The Armoured understood, he swiftly removed the spike, freeing the Jaw Titan.
Falco stopped for a moment to catch his breath, while his Titan's torso regenerated. He saw the Armoured running again towards the Attack, to fight and he was ready to join his fellow Warrior.
The Jaw Titan then flew high up the skies and came down again very fast.
He came straight for the War-Hammer-Attack's neck. Gnawing at it vigorously to remove the Shifter from there. Eren was fighting Reiner with one hand and with the other he quickly grabbed the smaller titan and threw it away, into the distance.
Before Falco could recover, the War-Hammer-Attack growled very loudly and all around the Jaw Titan, the Founder's bones started to reform: they became ghosts of the previous Jaw Titans. The more recent ones, who Falco could recognise.
The young Titan Shifter became very frightened of his Titan's past lives. He tried to fly away, but the ghost Jaw Titans quickly grabbed onto him and started to tear his wings apart with their jaws.
The Jaw Titan growled in desperation as the others overtook him and detained him from flying.
The Attack could now concentrate on his nemesis once more. Both Titans proceeded with their fight when they heard a familiar growl coming from far away.
All the pure and ghost titans felt disoriented for a second. They stopped what they were doing and turned to look: the Female Titan had transformed again.
Her eyes glowed as she stared straight at Eren's and the Female Titan started to sprint their way. Annie ran very fast and the War-Hammer-Attack became paralysed.
Reiner gave out a smug. He took the opportunity to subdue his enemy, but Eren caught on to it fast and they found each other in a scuffle once more.
Still, the Female Titan sprinted towards their fight. 'You're mine,' Annie angrily thought.
The Founder Ymir noticed the situation from up in her dimension and then decided to give Annie a gift.
"It's disappointing," Ymir sighed annoyedly. "How all of you seem to inherit her insolence and arrogance," she complained out of her hate for the Original Female Titan.
Ymir then snapped her fingers and instantly - out of some of the Founding's bones scattered on the ground - the previous Colossal Titan was formed before Annie's eyes, and started to walk towards her.
"Leonhart do something!" Levi screamed from the distance. He was standing on top of the castle's walls.
The Ackermann then looked back towards the cremation site, he didn't want to leave it there, he needed to be sure the Beast was dead for good. Levi wanted to make sure Zeke was burned to ashes. So Annie was on her own.
"That is not Bertholdt! That is just a mindless husk!" He shouted to her, but Annie was paralysed.
When Annie finally came back to her senses, she started to run back towards the castle walls. And the giant titan followed her, and so did others around it, both Pure Colossal Titans and the ghosts of previous Titan Shifters.
The Female Titan felt weaker as she passed the invisible barrier surrounding the castle. Annie stopped for a moment to catch her breath, then turned to see the other Titans coming her way, and the previous colossal titan staring straight into her eyes. Annie knew those eyes.
'I'm sorry I wasn't there. I'm sorry I gave up and left you to fight without me. I'm sorry I couldn't prevent your death.' She asked for forgiveness, only in her mind. Annie was motionless.
The Female Titan instinctively screamed. She growled extremely loudly, and that called the attention of all the Titans surrounding the castle and further beyond. They all stared back towards her, it was like a mother calling her children or a queen calling for her subjects. That was the power The Female Titan had over all mindless Titans, it was like a spell.
Even more Titans started to come in her direction. The Female Titan ran below Bertholdt's Titan's husk and started to run parallel to the castle walls; as all other Titans followed her. Suddenly the previous Colossal Titan started to collapse and the Female Titan turned back to look.
Mikasa had cut through the Colossal Titan's nape, destroying her blades in doing so.
As the giant Titan started to collapse and fall to the ground, parts of it that were close to the invisible force field dissipated completely. It was like the Titan was disintegrating into sand. As it fell through the barrier it was cut to dust, with only some parts of it left on the other side, steaming away in the wind.
The younger Ackermann came crashing down with the disintegrating and evaporating Titan. And the Female Titan caught her in its hands before Mikasa's body could reach the cold ground. The Female Titan then walked backwards, and leaned on the castle walls as Levi came closer to them. The three of them turned to stare at a herd of titans coming in their direction.
The Female Titan then neared her titan hand closer to the castle wall so Mikasa could join Levi up there. Mikasa quickly looked at the fire burning in the castle's garden and the trees they had chopped down, it was a foul smell.
"Did you call them to you with that scream?" Levi asked.
And Annie confusedly turned to look at the titans coming their way, 'I didn't mean to call them,' she thought.
Both Ackermanns readied their weapons, they were prepared to fight those titans coming their way. But as the titans passed through the barrier, they quickly turned to sand as well, just like Bertholdt's husk had. The strange dome of energy was protecting them and the old castle.
Annie worriedly held her human heart, inside her titan. There was this small, but sharp pain she felt and an unconscious need to leave the limits of the castle as well. It felt like a spell, like a curse, she knew she couldn't stay in there for much longer, at least not in titan form.
Mikasa jumped again on her shoulder. "Do that again," she suggested. "If you can get more and more to follow you here, we can exterminate the ones surrounding Eren, and Reiner can get to him faster."
Annie thought about it. She knew she couldn't hold much longer but she decided to do it: run out there and shout for the pure and ghost titans to bring them across the magical barrier to be destroyed. She did that countless times, bringing many into the barrier and causing their demise.
Ymir looked down from her dimension with much annoyance, Annie was relentless, still she created more and more of those titans out of spite. 'You'll die soon enough,' she thought. The old queen was taking her posthumous hate for Elke out on the current Female Titan.
Eventually Annie started to fail, her titan form was tired and she felt a lot of pain in her human body. The Female Titan was succumbing to the pain. Mikasa took Levi's spare blades and went to remove Annie from her titan form. She held Annie in her arms as the titans were still falling and disintegrating into the barrier.
"You did pretty well," Mikasa said to her softly, while holding Annie in her arms. The Titan Shifter gave her a half-smile and slowly fell into a slumber. The Female Titan had exhausted her energies.
-.-
Armin was still falling and falling into the sand. He was living a terrifying illusion in that dimension. He couldn't breathe as a force pulled him further and further down into the sand. That witch had really done a number on him. Armin kept telling himself it was all an illusion as he kept gasping for air. He had to get his mind out of that dimension, for the illusion was feeling more and more real with each second, he was suffocating.
The Colossal Titan was leaning forward and paralysed amidst his internal struggle. And the other titans were slowly making their way and fighting over who would get to bite his nape to taste the glory of freedom. The sand Armin was engulfed by started to inexplicably come out of his facial orifices: his eyes, his ears, nose and mouth. It was as if that sand was being produced or released by a gateway in his mind, and coming out of his brain.
The sand then started to come out of the Titan's brain in the exact same way. It was building out and flooding the insides of the Colossal Titan, until it overflowed to outside the Titan's facial orifices in the same way as Armin's human form. The sand was rapidly flowing out and descending the Colossal Titan's body to the point that even the mindless Titans became confused and scared of that situation.
"What's wrong with Armin?" Connie asked, calling the attention of the Jaw and the Armoured Titans. They all turned to look, including Eren's titan form.
Armin couldn't breathe, he had never felt such agony in his life. His titan was spilling out that sand like it had an infinite desert in its insides. He'd slowly and somewhat instinctively kneeled down his titan form. Armin was feeling very weak and close to death as he mindlessly resorted to some ancient skill; he slowly started to produce a crystal spike out of his human form.
Coming out from the insides of his left forearm, the crystal was sharp and hard enough. So he quickly - but with some difficulty - raised his arm through the multitude of sand and using all the strength he could muster, he stabbed himself through the chest. Superficially piercing his own heart. All to jumpstart the chain reaction of his transformation once more.
The thunderous noise could be heard all over the castle region and beyond, and all of them startled and turned to see: the immense second explosion of the Colossal Titan's transformation.
Onyankopon stood up on one of the airplane wings trying to look over the castle walls. He had landed the plane very far, on the other side of the castle terrain, to be far away from the confusion around the Founder's bones. Still, the pilot could feel the titan explosion very strongly and it even rocked the plane slightly as the mass of hot air eventually reached the air machine.
..
Jean and Pieck were somewhere in the castle's front garden when the explosion occurred. Jean had laid Floch's mutilated corpse in one of the stone tables in the garden and was respectfully covering the dead body with a thin white sheet. While Pieck was sitting among the grass and flowers, still slightly dizzy, recovering.
"Are you feeling better now?" Jean worriedly asked as he offered his hand for her to stand up. So they could walk out of the castle. Jean was pleased to have found a quiet spot in the castle for Floch's severed body to rest, just for that while.
"I'm fine, let's just leave this haunted place." She replied as they walked towards the heavy door.
When they both heard and startled because of the explosion. They looked at each other and ran outside the castle to find out what was happening.
..
Mikasa still had Annie in her arms as she turned to see the giant explosion happening not so far away. "Armin!" she quietly shouted to herself.
"Go," Levi told her as he came closer, "I can take care of her," he added, taking Annie from her arms. Mikasa then used her ODM gear and left, taking the rest of Levi's blades. She went towards the explosion, to investigate.
..
Jean and Pieck left the giant and heavy outside doors of the castle to see the colossal explosion still erupting in the distance. It had taken everyone by surprise, "shit," Pieck let out.
"Were they too close?" Jean asked open-mouthed. He was staring at the explosion, waiting for the heavy fog to dissipate. Looking for his friends. "I-I didn't see it. Did you?"
"Reiner could probably survive that, because of the Armour. But Falco's titan wouldn't, and Connie…" she trailed off.
"I hope they weren't too close," Jean was considering, "or that Reiner had time to protect them."
They stared at the vast explosion, the radius was too big, it had destroyed all mindless Colossal Titans around it.
Pieck was analysing the vast blast and considering a few things. "If Eren mastered his War-Hammer abilities, he can withstand this, if not," she looked at Jean. "We've won." she declared.
Jean couldn't commemorate that, he couldn't even bring himself to think that he could have just lost his friends.
He had known Connie for so long, they were practically brothers. And Falco was just a child! A sweet child. Even Reiner; Jean was worried about them all. "What was Armin thinking? What-what happened?" he stuttered.
"Let's check," Pieck suggested. She started running in the direction of the blast, and as soon as she passed through the invisible barrier Pieck felt strong enough again. She immediately transformed into the Cart Titan and sprinted towards the battle.
Jean used his ODM gear to follow, attaching it to the decomposing flesh of the fallen Colossals near the barrier, to boost his speed. He looked back for a moment, to the castle in the distance. The sun was blocking his view but he was almost sure he could see that ghost again. The knight dressed all in black, standing on the top of the Castle's highest tower.
-.-
As the smoke cleared, Connie and Falco found themselves alive, with the Armoured Titan standing in front of them. But he wasn't the one to have protected them, not completely. Eren had instinctively used his War-Hammer abilities to create a giant arc, almost like a shield, to protect them all from the blast. For he, even if instinctively, still cared very deeply for them all.
The War-Hammer-Attack Titan stared at the fallout of the explosion very longingly. Eren was very troubled about what could have happened to his childhood friend, he couldn't sense Armin properly. And despite being able to transform, the Colossal Titan was unconscious.
The gigantic creature laid on the ground like a stone, or better yet: a dead man; as the mindless Colossal Titans started slowly to approach him. For all of them could smell and see the Titan Shifter amidst their cursed delirium, and they all wanted that taste of freedom.
All those cursed souls wanted was to be human again.
Eren felt deep fear and agony. Armin was unconscious and couldn't defend himself. For most of their lives, he felt it was his job to protect him. The younger Yeager was paralysed.
That was the perfect opportunity. And the Armoured Titan took it: he quickly sank his crystal nails into his enemy's skull and Eren had no time to react. Reiner split the Titan's head into two, tearing it down with much force. He then quickly stretched open his Titan's jaw and bit the nape of the War-Hammer-Attack Titan.
Eren fell unconscious.
The Armoured Titan spit out the crystal on the ground and growled, looking towards the Jaw Titan, and gesturing with his head.
Falco understood. He went over and broke the crystal with his Titan's teeth. And as the crystal was broken, all the ghostly titans around them dissipated into sand.
Ymir weakly sat on the sandy ground, in her dimension, she was extremely upset. She looked around the vast starry skies and the sand dunes that would go forever. She had lost contact with him, she couldn't believe Eren was gone. The small girl was all alone now. Ymir shed a small tear. She then looked at the tree of light again, looking for guidance.
Eren was still unconscious as Connie removed him from inside the crystal. He was carefully taking Yeager out as he and the Jaw startled with a noise. They turned to look, and Reiner had removed himself from the Armoured Titan.
Reiner solemnly walked towards them, he took Eren unconscious and tired body by the back of his shirt and started to drag him away.
"Where-Where are you going?" Connie asked, but Reiner said nothing, he just kept dragging Eren through the ground as he walked towards the castle.
-.-
Up in the highest tower of the ancient Tybur Castle, two siblings were having a much needed and timeless conversation.
"This is a mess," Azzy commented as he removed his helmet and put it to the side.
"That's an understatement," Sunny replied.
"You've gotten pretty good at this," Azzy joked while passing his hands through her ghostly figure.
"I told you that you wouldn't keep me out of the loop this time," she reminded him with a smug.
Her brother kept passing his hands through her ghostly apparition, in a naive, childish way. Az was reminiscing as he thought back to their first encounter, similar to this one, on a rooftop in Shiganshina. In a completely different world.
Sonnen swiftly grabbed his arm in a reprimanding way. Their arms emitted a green light as they came into contact, just as it had happened in that first reality. "What are you even doing here?" she asked, slightly annoyed.
"Oh, not much," he carelessly replied. "Just making sure of our future, well, your past clearly," her brother pointed out while checking her figure. Sonnenblume looked much older than when they last met. "How old are you now?" he asked.
"It doesn't matter," Sunny replied with annoyance.
"And what's with the getup?" her brother kept questioning. "These are not Hizurian clothes."
"I think we need to focus on how to fix this situation and not on what I'm wearing," his sister complained. Sonnenblume was a queen now, and she didn't want for her brother to get to that realisation.
They both looked forward, to the Titan Battle ahead. The two siblings noted how their father was deliberately throwing the Pure Titans into the Castle's direction and that they were being dissipated by that otherworldly energy field.
"What even is that? Do you know?" Azzy asked his sister. "I mean I don't know if the Tyburs had some sort of future technology to protect this castle or if they just used some ancient spell-" he was trying to guess when his sister interrupted him.
"It's a grave," Sonnen said very sternly.
"What?" Azzy asked her confused.
"It has nothing to do with this Castle." Sunny explained. "The Castle just happens to be built on top of it," she closed her eyes, to concentrate. "Very very further down, deep inside the Earth there's a grave," Sunny then held her heart, "it is full of this strange energy, made of crystals-"
She turned to her brother in surprise: "And you have been there?!"
"You are so strange, and I hate when you do that." Az complained. "First of all: get out of my head."
"I'm not in your head, well I am, but just so we could talk," Sonnen explained herself.
"And second," he scratched his head, slightly confused. "I think I might have jumped at some point into a place with a bunch of crystals, yes," Az conceded.
"When?" she asked.
"I don't know," he shrugged. "At some point, when I was a kid. Are you saying that's a graveyard?" Azzy asked.
"Not a graveyard. One single grave," Sonnen corrected him.
"Whose grave?" Az curiously asked.
"I don't think it's a person's grave but rather a thing, something very ancient," Sonnen replied.
"How can you tell it's a thing, not a person?" Azzy asked.
"Because people have souls. And even after they are gone, there are still imprints of their souls left everywhere," Sonnenblume argued.
"Right. 'Souls', I forgot that is your whole thing." Azzy shrugged.
Sunny sighed. "I can sense all of their souls," she disclosed, looking around the castle. "I hate old structures, they are full of imprints."
She kept looking around and her eyes stopped at the lake, Sonnenblume shed a small tear. "And I don't understand why they weren't freed," she let out.
"Who?" Az asked.
Sonnen pointed. "The lake, it's a strange curse. Even after you left there, two years ago, somehow they are still trapped in it. For thousands of years, so many generations yearning for freedom," she said very longingly.
Sonnenblume looked at her brother but he looked down, Az seemed confused and disconcerted.
"Do you remember," she asked softly, "where you came from?"
"Yes," Az said as he stared at the lake.
"And do you know why?" his sister inquired.
"I'm not completely sure," Az disclosed.
"Your essence was in them, and they were buried there," Sonnen explained, she then looked closer at the lake, very concentrated. "And now they want to help you," she told her brother.
"Help me?" Azzy turned to face her, confused. He then looked at the lake again.
Sonnenblume became reflective. "All of this can be avoided," she revealed.
"You mean all of it? All those deaths? How?" he asked.
"You know how, you have failed before." Sonnen said.
"I have failed in many things, you'll have to be more specific," he joked.
"You need to finish your mission," Sonnenblume told him very sternly. "You need to go there. You need to face Ymir."
"What?! No. I can't do that. You have no idea how much we've been through, I-I can't," he said in much distress while shaking his head.
As they were talking, both siblings turned to look: there was a giant explosion in the horizon, for their father, the Colossal Titan had just transformed again.
Az looked at the explosion in the horizon very reflectively.
"I know about everything," Sonnen disclosed.
"How?" he asked.
"You told me, well, not yet. But you will tell me," she explained.
Az sighed. "My life is a mess," he complained, resting his upper body on the tower's barricade. He passed his hands through his hair while considering a few things.
"Even if I wanted to go there, I couldn't," Az argued. "I'm not sure if you know this, but my constitution doesn't really hold together in that dimension. I literally fall apart in that stupid sand. And it hurts!"
"Then you'll just have to hold yourself together for long enough," his sister advised. "Just avoid crumbling into sand, you can regenerate, how hard could that be?"
"I can't just walk there and talk to her!" Az let out.
"Talk to her?! That is not what I meant," Sonnenblume firmly said. She came in closer and told him in a very somber tone: "You have to kill her."
Az looked at his sister like a frightened small child. That was the last thing he wanted to hear, but deep down, he knew it was the only way.
"Finish what you failed to do before," Sonnen insisted.
Her brother just looked down, avoiding her eyes, he wasn't ready to deal with the truth. Azymondeus wasn't ready to face reality.
"Look around you! Billions of people are dead after today," she said while gesturing with open arms. "And all of this doesn't even compare to what will happen in the future." Sonnen revealed and her brother looked up at her confused.
"I've seen the future…" he timidly said. "I-I've jumped there and there is nothing left. What happened?" Az anxiously inquired.
Sonnen came closer to him and told him very sternly: "Ymir can never meet her brother. I know you regret what you did all those years ago, but it was actually a good thing. They must be kept apart."
She then started to pace around the tower. "And clearly two thousand years apart wasn't enough!" She looked up at the sun with anguish, then looked back at her brother: "Ymir needs to die. I know that is difficult for you to hear, but that is the only way."
Az was very reflective for a while. "I understand," he told his sister while grabbing his helmet again. "She already died," he disclosed, "all those years ago. And so did I."
He then built his energy once again, and left the tower. Azymondeus reappeared in a dimension he had avoided for so long. For too long.
Sonnen's apparition stayed there alone up in the high tower, for a little longer. She could see the Colossal Titan was just laying on the ground, motionless. 'Are you all right, father?' Sunny thought.
.
The Ackermann walked around the infinite sand dunes, trying to concentrate on keeping his body together as his cells tried to crumble away and mix with the cursed sand. When he stumbled on something, the man had just hit his foot on a metal object.
'Metal?' Azzy thought. And he reached down the sand to grab it: a sword.
As he removed the sword from under the sand, Az noticed it wasn't just any sword, it was Lud's Azumabito sword. He then realised that had been what Sunny meant, when the souls of the lake told her they wanted to help him.
He took the sword and put on his scabbard. Az looked into the distance, at the tree light, and took a deep breath.
This would be difficult, but it was time: he had to finally kill Ymir.
.
- Year 854 - October 31, The Queen's Farm
[amidst the chaos in the orphanage]
Azzy was scared, but the young soul was also very curious about the noise outside. The sounds of battle brought out memories to the future soldier that he obviously didn't have yet; so the boy was very curious to know what they meant. The boy wasn't bound by time, or space and he knew it, even if only instinctively. That was his curse.
When no one was looking, the toddler took the opportunity. He quickly spaced-jumped out of the orphanage's basement and started to walk around the floors of the empty building. He curiously started to watch the battle from one of the windows. He then jumped around the building a few more times, to the point the toddler forgot what he was doing there in the first place.
..
The Queen had given birth to a healthy but fragile and small baby girl. Like all twins, Ymir had been born premature.
"Just breathe, Your Majesty, and rest for a moment," the doctor advised as Historia rested her head against the headboard again, she closed her tired eyes. "You still have some time, ma'am. The second one will come out in a few minutes," he said as the nurses were cleaning and wrapping up the small newborn.
Suddenly a group of soldiers rushed into the room and they all startled to see their Commander dead on the floor. The young soldiers started to raise their guns and angrily asked questions. Who could have done something so cruel?
In the middle of the mess the staff noticed the Queen was gone. Historia had taken her small baby and rushed out of the room.
Historia walked in the corridors very frightened and in a lot of pain. She held the newborn close. "It's going to be okay. It will all be okay," she assured her small baby and kissed Ymir in her forehead.
The Queen kept walking around the corridors, looking for shelter as her contractions started to increase again.
Historia was feeling very dizzy and short of breath as she leaned on one of the walls. 'What am I going to do?' the mother thought to herself in desperation as she felt contractions once more, they were only increasing.
Until she saw the small boy wandering the halls, the toddler turned to her and looked at the Queen with some concern. Azzy slightly tilted his head.
"You-" Historia smiled and took a deeper breath so she could properly speak. "You are here. That's right! You are here!" Historia exclaimed in a weak voice. She had forgotten the boy had been left there in her care.
The boy only stared at her from further away, a little confused and unsure of what to do. Azzy recognised 'the nice lady' but he didn't know why she looked so tired and swollen. The boy was a little curious of what she was carrying in her arms.
"Come!" The Queen extended her arm as she held her baby with the other. She smiled at the boy again and he came in her direction.
Azzy looked down to see what she was carrying, and the not yet three-year-old startled and opened his eyes wide when he saw the Queen was carrying a tiny human in her arms.
"She is beautiful isn't she?" Historia commented as she held her stomach, trying to withstand the pain of yet another contraction. "So sweet and delicate. My little angel," the mother smiled and the boy smiled back at her.
They could both hear the gunshot noises outside. And the men loudly speaking, most of them were already in the building, barging into rooms and making a mess.
"Those men out there, they are bad men." Historia explained softly. "They want to take my baby away, they want to hurt her," she told the boy, sounding very upset. "But you won't let anyone hurt her," she instructed the boy. "You can protect her. Hide her somewhere safe."
Historia placed the tiny baby in the boy's arms. "Take her somewhere safe, away from all this," she told the boy. "Far away," she added.
Azzy looked at the baby then looked up at Historia concerned. "And'wab out yu?" the toddler worriedly babbled his words.
Historia held the side of his face and smiled. "Don't worry about me, I'll be fine," she said, slightly gasping for air. "Just go. And come back to me. Bring her back safe, when all this is over."
The boy looked at the small baby again and started to build up his energy. Historia watched as he disappeared in front of her eyes, taking her child away with him. Taking her somewhere safe.
The Queen sighed in relief, and then rested her head on the corridor wall. When she started to feel the pain again. "No, no, no!" Historia quietly said to herself in anguish. "Not just yet," she asked. "Please, baby, just wait a little longer. We are not safe yet," the mother pleaded.
She couldn't hold any longer, the mother longed for help. Historia screamed very loudly, and as she screamed, her eyes turned completely black. They became fully dark, the sclera, the iris and pupils, the entirety of both eyes.
Her second child was coming. Ezra was on his way into the world.
And the boy brought with him a gift. The Eldian Prince had just inherited the Founding Titan. Historia was pleading for help in her mind as she screamed, and unbeknown to her, her scream had great effect.
There were thunderous explosions all over the fields outside. The eldian men fighting for the Queen, the Yeagerists, were instantly becoming mindless Titans as they heard their queen's scream. And the recently created Titans started to eat their adversaries.
Historia kept screaming and inadvertently creating more titans as she felt the agonising pains of labour.
.
- Year 854 - October 31, near Tybur Castle
[Mid-Rumbling]
Armin was oddly happy. He felt relief, the Titan Shifter had found himself in quite a nice house, sitting at a warm dinner table. He couldn't tell exactly where he was, but he could tell it looked Oriental. That would explain some of his companions: the extensive and fancy table included some faces he recognised, Kiyomi was one of them and a few other diplomat types.
'Is this Hizuru?' Armin questioned to himself. 'But I wasn't here before… Where was I?' He kept wondering as he looked around the table, all his guests looked quite happy, they seemed to be enjoying their time. Armin's eyes stopped as he saw a young teenage boy at the corner of the table, who he immediately recognised as his son. 'Is this the future?' Armin considered.
He took one of the bigger spoons to try to look at his reflection. Armin was trying to confirm if he was in fact older, when he noticed someone coming near him. He looked to his other side to see the Captain sitting next to him. Armin noted Levi's face was clean, it had only small scars. 'Where are your bandages?' he asked the Captain. 'You were hurt. …But how were you hurt?'
Armin was feeling confused, he kept searching for his memories, trying to make sense of it all.
'This is a dream!' He realised. 'I need to wake up!'
He was trying to find a way out of his dream when he heard a joyous laugh. It sounded just like his mother's. Armin looked around the table again, searching. His eyes stopped on the small girl. She was sitting in the corner, right next to Azzy as they smiled and chatted away.
'I have a daughter?!' Armin was surprised with the realisation.
"Wake up," he heard that soft familiar voice and looked forward. Mikasa was sitting right in front of him. Armin stopped to admire her beauty: Mikasa looked slightly more mature, she wore a nice Oriental hairdo and beautiful jewels and gown.
He smiled at her, but Mikasa looked very serious.
"Wake up," she said again, but Armin only tilted his head in confusion.
That's when he saw her do something strange: Mikasa took a small pea from her plate, then catapulted it from a small spoon. It went straight into his left eye. "Wake up!" Mikasa said again.
.
Armin held his eye with both hands and slightly jerked his body upwards. He was now laying in that sand again, in the curseful dimension. The Titan Shifter mumbled, complaining under his breath about the pain. 'It stings!' he thought. Armin was feeling a small but sharp pain and it wouldn't go away. He looked up to the stars of that vast sky and they became stained in red. His eye had started to bleed and he became more confused.
"Stand up!" He heard Mikasa shouting, her voice echoed throughout the cursed dimension.
The Colossal Titan finally opened his eyes. Armin saw countless Titans surrounding him, many of them already steaming away in disintegration but also many others coming for him.
And there Mikasa was: standing in the very front of his vision. The young Ackermann had stabbed his eye with the only blade she had left.
"Come on!" she shouted as she stood on the Colossal Titan's left eye. "I am out of blades! And they will be too soon enough!" Mikasa pointed at his friends: Jean and Connie were doing their best to keep the mindless Colossal Titans away from Armin.
The Jaw and the Cart Titans were also there, trying to help, but they were being chased down themselves. For the Pure Titans could sense the Shifters inside.
ϟ "Hold on!" ϟ the Colossal Titan told Mikasa as he stood up to fight. And she secured herself with her ODM gear near the Titan's neck. Still, Armin made sure to create a thin coat of crystal to help support her there, to make sure she wouldn't fall.
They were fighting countless Titans as Levi stood further away, on the Castle's wall. He looked back into the garden to see the last of the cremation fire going out. Zeke was dead.
Annie was still sound asleep underneath one of the trees in that very garden, still recovering. And Reiner was still walking towards the castle. Slowly making his way while dragging Eren's unconscious body through the ground, grabbing him by his ragged shirt.
Eren had a giant scar across his neck that slowed steamed in regeneration. His arms were slowly regenerating, and his legs were slowly regrowing as well, coming out of his torn pants.
-.-
Mikasa stood near the Colossal Titan's neck as Armin fought off the countless titans coming their way. She looked down at the small remainings of her blades. "I am useless here," she let out.
And Armin heard, he then had an idea.
She looked up to see the Titan staring down at her for a moment, then its face became numb and Mikasa looked at it confused.
"Mikasa!" she heard his voice shouting from behind and quickly looked over, towards the nape: Armin had slightly removed himself out of the Titan to talk to her. "Stab me!" he shouted.
"What?" Mikasa asked in disbelief.
"Just stab me in the shoulder!" Armin shouted, then went back inside his Titan again.
Mikasa shrugged, she had no idea where he was going with that. But it was Armin, so as always, she trusted him: the young Ackermann then stabbed the Colossal Titan's shoulder.
She instantly saw something glowing inside, so she then slowly removed the handle to see a brand-new crystal blade firmly encrusted around it. Mikasa smiled, she immediately did the same with her other handle, and voilà: she had brand-new swords, and not just any swords, for they had been made from Titan Crystal. This was the perfect weapon to kill Colossal Titans.
Mikasa flew over with her ODM gear and landed on top of the Colossal Titan's head. She looked down at Armin's blue eyes and he looked up at her. "Thank you," she told him. And: 'I love you,' Mikasa thought.
She showed the boys her new swords, then flew away, to slaughter as many Titans as she could, for Mikasa loved a good fight. Jean and Connie then showed Armin their worn out swords, and the Colossal Titan offered them its arm.
"Now, this is a real sword," Jean said to Connie as he removed his brand-new crystal blade from the Titan's arm.
Connie didn't really seem to share his enthusiasm, for he was beyond tired, and there were millions of Titans out there. He just looked at the crystal blade, contemplative.
"Don't give up just yet, we can still do some damage!" Jean said, trying to cheer up his tired friend.
"It's great all right, but what happens when we run out of gas?" Connie questioned.
ϟ "Then it's just me," ϟ the Colossal Titan replied. Armin looked over to see the millions of Titans, he sighed and kept fighting.
..
Down in the battlefield a small boy appeared out of nowhere. The toddler came out from a fog of blue energy and he carried an even smaller child in his arms. Azzy was confused, the boy was looking for his mother.
Connie swiftly went near his friend Jean with his ODM gear. "Is that who I think it is?" he asked as they both looked at the toddler, further down in the ground.
Armin had already noticed the toddler and was doing his best to avoid any titans going near the boy.
ϟ "Mikasa!" ϟ the Colossal Titan warned as he held yet another titan from falling over where the little boy was standing. Azzy looked up at his father and the other Colossal Titans, very frightened.
Mikasa looked towards the direction the Colossal Titan's eyes were showing her and she startled. The mother then immediately used her ODM gear and flew down in the direction of the small boy.
"How did you get here?!" she asked the boy as she came down.
"Mummy!" the boy cried for his mother.
Mikasa came closer and saw the newborn baby in his arms, and she started to conclude a few things; Mikasa was thinking very fast.
She knew that was Eren's recently born child and she also assumed something must've had happened to Historia, something very bad, for the desperate mother to trust her newborn to a toddler.
Mikasa also knew all this had to be related to the unhinged plan of attacking that orphanage. And she concluded something really went wrong in that plan. She was feeling guilty, but in seeing her son once again, now as he should be: as a toddler. And in thinking of guilt, Mikasa remembered their recent conversation.
"Mummy, help!" the small toddler pleaded.
'You are the one who told me to go there,' she remembered her son's own words earlier in that day. He shouldn't have told her the future.
"Listen to me," she said while grabbing his shoulders. "Everything is going to be just fine," the mother promised in a soft tone as the giant titans were falling all around them. "Just hide. I need you to hide," she told the boy.
"But I want to be with you," the toddler pleaded, he was very scared.
"I know, I know," Mikasa replied, soothingly. "Just hide. Go to the safest place that you can think of. The safest you can reach! And I'll be there for you when this is over. I promise you, baby boy," the mother said. "Everything will be okay, sweetheart," Mikasa told him softly.
She kissed her son's forehead and fixed the baby's blanket, checking to make sure the newborn was fine. Baby Ymir was sound asleep in the toddler's arms.
"I'll see you soon," Mikasa said as the toddler started to slowly build up his energy. He disappeared in front of her eyes in a multitude of blue light. Taking the small newborn with him, holding Ymir in his arms.
-.-
Falco was flying around the Colossal Titan and growling extremely loudly for its attention. The Jaw Titan showed him how the Cart Titan was trapped, Pieck was desperately growling and twisting as three giant titans had completely cornered the small thing.
The Colossal Titan then removed the mindless beasts, one by one and the Cart quickly sprinted away with much annoyance. She then went back to jump from Colossal Titan to Colossal Titan, swiftly biting their napes off. Pieck was vexed and vicious, and she kept fighting.
The Jaw titan was doing the same, flying from beast to beast, and gnawing on their napes. And the Colossal Titan as well: biting their napes, or splitting their heads completely, then throwing their carcass into the distance to slow the others down.
They were quickly making their way, but there were still millions ahead.
..
Levi was checking Annie's pulse, as she slept under one of the trees in the garden.
It was inevitable. Her peaceful image was a contrast to the sad and gory last image he had of Petra. The Captain was in a haze for a moment, and he did consider his revenge for a brief while. When Jean yelled at him from the wall, and that took the Captain out of his haze.
Jean was asking for backup, he had come with multiple crystal swords on his hands: "Is she still alive?" he asked with concern.
"Barely," Levi answered. "But she'll recover," he added.
Jean offered back his swords, now encrusted in Titan Crystal. "We need more people out there," he told the Captain.
Levi swiftly climbed up the castle wall with his ODM gear. He checked the new blades around, then looked over to the battle in the distance.
"Where's Reiner?" Levi asked.
"I have no idea," Jean replied as they both set out to fight.
-.-
'I need to end this,' Armin thought as he kept fighting the equality giant Titans. 'We can't keep fighting these things forever! There's too many of them! I need to find a way to stop this!'
Armin suddenly found himself in that cursed dimension again. "Perhaps I could be of some help," he heard a strangely familiar voice say. It was coming from behind him and Armin turned to look.
.
- Year 852 - January 30, 02:41am - Tybur Castle
In the vault
Willy rushed down the countless stairs of his vault with a gun in his hand. For he knew there was an intruder down there.
As he finally got to the furthest room, he saw a man, with figure quite similar to his own. He was standing in front of the small vault, observing it.
"Who are you?" William Tybur furiously asked the intruder.
He nonchalantly looked back at Willy, then turned to face the vault on the wall once more.
"You know, these codes are pretty easy, I mean if you know the language…" he shrugged while commenting about it. "And also, I have lived around those idiots for quite a long time-"
"Who are you?" Willy asked again "I demand an answer!"
"I'm sorry, okay, Osmond wasn't really an idiot. I think we can both agree to that," he conceded.
Willy looked up and down the man. "You are wearing my robe!" he noted.
And Az kept babbling: "He was actually a pretty decent guy! And in my humble opinion, the least worst of them," he commented. "And I'm not just saying that because he was my great-great-great-great-great…" Az stopped to catch his breath. "You get my point."
"Remove my robe! Right this instant!" The nobleman ordered.
"Are you sure you want that?" Az turned to him with a smug. "I'm not wearing anything underneath."
"What?" William asked, baffled.
"Regeneration, man. It's a weird thing," he commented. The man turned his concentration to the vault again, and started to move some of the pieces.
"You can't open that! No one has been able to for years!" Willy told him in a challenging way as Az kept turning around the pieces.
Az sighed. "Ever since I was here again, I felt empty. And I could sense something was calling me, something in this very room." he let out.
The vault then started to open, they could both hear the clicks. "I knew there was something missing inside me, and now I know what," Az said as the door opened and they saw the ancient crystal there.
Willy became slightly dazed with the blue fog all around them.
Az took the crystal heart in his hand.
Willy was paralysed, he had never seen that vault open before and had no idea of its contents.
"You know, the funny thing about all this is that: this is not even my heart," Az let out a small laugh while holding the ancient crystal heart. He then crushed the seemingly 'unbreakable' crystal with his bare hand. "This is Lud's heart. He died eating mine," the Ackermann revealed.
Az then inhaled all of the blue energy coming out of the crushed crystal: he was now complete again.
The crystal remains then dissipated away, into dust.
"How dare you?" Willy said with much entitlement. "This relic has been in my family for-"
"Two thousand years?" Azzy interrupted him.
Willy then took out his gun and shot the man out of spite. The man didn't even flinch, Az just stared at him as the wound steamed out in regeneration.
"Well, now your silk robe is ruined," Az joked, showing him the hole the bullet had made.
"How is that possible?" the man asked in disbelief. 'He can't be a Shifter,' William thought, for he had all Nine Titans accounted for.
"You're right, it is quite impossible," Azzy said while waving his hands around in the most spooky way. "Maybe this is all an illusion!" he took the piss.
And Willy shot him again, this time closer to the heart. A heart Az had just had a lot of trouble to get it back into its place.
Az looked down, now a little more angrily. He genuinely considered killing the man as he watched his wound heal. But he thought it was best to leave it all to Time and History.
He raised his head up again. "Your day is coming," Az said, then completely disappeared amidst his blue energy.
End of Chapter Thirteen: "A Safe Place"