Pretty Little Liar (Aruani Element Shifter AU) ✔️

Twenty Nine

"Armin! God dammit! Wake up!"

I gasped loudly as I woke up, and sat up quickly. I looked around, panicking, but nobody was there to hurt me.

Reiner sat in front of me, Bertholdt behind him, and Eren sitting against a tree to one side, his legs tucked up to his face. He looked in pain, but also sad, annoyed.

"What... what happened?" Did we win?"

Reiner frowned. "Not exactly. We teleported when Eren fainted."

"Let's go back," Eren started, ignoring the comment that was just made. "I can do it. I promise."

"Like hell you can!" Reiner yelled. "You're wounded, Eren. It's far too dangerous. That bitch almost cut your arm off."

I tried to stand, but flinched when pain shot through my arm. Blood was covering my emblem, an enormous bandage wrapped around my arm. I shot a confused look at Reiner, who frowned.

"I stole some bandages from the trainee's bags. You've stopped bleeding, for now at least."

"Thanks," I muttered through the pain.

Reiner's body shot up when we heard some distant yelling.

"Let's go." Bertholdt walked over to us, and made two small domes of water. "Some water. Drink. Stay safe. Climb a tree if you have to."

Eren looked away, embarassed at not being able to help.

"We shouldn't be long," said Reiner, before reaching out his arm and making the trees bend back to form a path.

They ran away before I could say anything. I tried opening my mouth to say something, but no noise came out. The pain in my arm stabbed at me violently.

"Armin?" Eren started. I tried as best as I could to answer, but couldn't bring any sound out of my mouth.

Eren gave up, and silence filled the air, until he stood up angrily, having changed his mind.

"You've been wounded too much," Eren started. "But I can still fight," he muttered. "With a bit of back-up."

Without warning, he grabbed my arm, and examined my cut emblem.

"That should do it," he muttered again. I shot a questioning look, and he shook his head. I tried grabbing on to his foot, stop him, but he shook me off so easily, I might as well have been made out of feathers.

"I have to go Armin."

But Eren had to stop. He turned back and looked, and gasped at me. Not because there was an enemy, not because there was anybody else to help him, because I was on my feet. With help from the wind, I had pushed myself back up, my nostrils flaring, my eyes a bright white that he had never seen before.

The wounds in my arm stabbed violently. I panted angrily, the wind blowing from behind me, straight into him.

"Armin..."

He knew exactly what was happening.  I knew it too. From the books. Only, I couldn't control myself.  I hadn't seen anybody have one, but I knew Reiner and Bertholdt and Eren had already had theirs a while ago.

I almost screamed, a mix of pain, a mix of worry for Christa, heartache, fear, and motivation to help my friend all boiled up inside me.

I was experiencing what they called a Mutating Upgrade. I was becoming at one with my element. My hair turned whiter, highlighting my blond hair as the green did to Eren's. I felt the broken emblem on my skin fix, and the wind grew violent and quick.