Pretty Little Liar (Aruani Element Shifter AU) ✔️

Part Two: Thirty Five

(Armin's POV)

I couldn't stop staring. Staring was the only way I could tell myself it was real. I was standing in front of Annie. My best friend. She's alive. And she's a fire shifter.

I couldn't speak, and she didn't really seem that interested in talking. She took a long drag of her cigarette, then shook her head, muttering; "I told Ymir not to pick you. I didn't want you near any of this bullshit."

I tried standing up, ignoring what she had just said for a second.

"I can't believe it. Annie, it's you."

I wanted to touch her face. I wanted to pull her into a hug. She was alive, right in front of me. The first, and only girl I had ever fallen in love with.

Her red eyes flared, sparking angry black spirals. The fire around me sparked even more violently as she flared her nostrils.

"Stop talking."

I blinked at her. She was dressed completely in black. Black trousers and a thin black vest. The only colour was her emblem, a vibrant bright red on her shoulder. Even her hair was a pale, colourless dirty blonde, tied in a loose bun behind her. She looked pale. Around her hips, a black belt with a dagger hanging in it's sheath.

Red flames stood either side of me, pushing my head down every time I tried looking up at her.

"Annie...." I tried again, but my tongue burned when I talked.

I coughed in pain, closing my eyes.

I heard her walk forward. "I said be quiet."

With another drag at her cigarette, she hesitated.

"You're so weak. Such a waste of space."

I coughed again. "St... st..."

She smirked. "You're not cut out for all this."

A burning pain shot down my back and I fell to floor.

She walked over and I felt her lift up my head with my hair. Her eyes were burning into me.

"Alright, listen. I'll tell you everything. Say anything and I'll burn your arm off." She let go.

"I always knew I'd become one some day. I never told you because you'd never understand. I didn't know when it was gonna happen. Then one day I started developing this," she pointed at her red emblem.

"While you were away, Bertholdt came to me. He was there, in a cloak, when we were in the library. He told me I was changing. He was the one that put that fucking book there. I didn't know at the time, but that was a sign. He put it there so that I could see it.

My aunt and uncle are water shifters. So was my mother. My father was a fire shifter. I was sent away to live with the Blacks because they didn't want me to be like them. Nobody ever thought I'd be a fire shifter. No girl has ever become a fire shifter.

Then when I started changing they came up with a plan. They'd let me go with Bertholdt, and would go and find my parents. Easy enough then, pretend I was dead so you'd never go looking for me. That obviously didn't work," she muttered that last part.

I looked up at her. She was looking away.

"I told them that I didn't want you anywhere near me. I'm dangerous. And what happened? Ymir fell in love. Then, of all the goddamn people in the world, she gave her powers to you."

She smirked in disgust. The wind was moving furiously, but her hair didn't move. She was emotionless.

"That's it. That's all I'm gonna say."