Pretty Little Liar (Aruani Element Shifter AU) ✔️

Part Two: Thirty Six

(The next morning)

Under the nose of the council building was a cemetery; a big one, and one that had grown a significant amount in the past few years.

In the cemetery, Sasha stood staring at one grave stone in particular.

Armin Arlert.

She'd already scouted the whole cemetery trying to find names of other kids she may know, but there weren't any. She could only assume that their fake graves were somewhere else, or that they never had one.

"Where are you Armin?" She muttered, as her eyes averted up to stare at the council building..

* * *

"Sasha! What are you doing? This isn't right! We're gonna get in trouble!"

"Listen Connie. We need to tell somebody."

Connie, who started following Sasha when he saw her run past the recovery room, was struggling on crutches to keep up. "Who? Nobody's gonna believe you!"

She turned sharply to stare at him. "I have photo evidence." She carried on, slamming doors open and almost running through the council building corridors; a building neither of them had been in before.

She stopped, though, at a door that lead into the main council area; an open hall with doors leading to different meeting rooms.

"It's locked. We need a key," she muttered.

Connie frowned. "Let's just go. Look, we can tell somebody else. What about his parents? They can do a lot more than we can."

"We're soldiers, Connie! It's our job to keep people safe! Those kids who we had nice, pretty funerals for are still alive! We have to do something."

Luckily, coming through another corridor was Ymir, who was walking down towards where they were. She stopped slowly, as she heared something in their conversation that sounded odd.

"We need to, Connie! I went to school with two boys who dissapeared one day. They were both there in the forest! I saw them! They're still alive! I need to know the truth."

Sasha looked desperately around for anything that could answer the door, then finally resorted to knocking frantically at the door.

Ymir stepped in, though. "Hey, Sasha."

They both turned around in shock.

"Shhh." Ymir took out her staff card and swiped it in the card scanner. The light on the door went green and she pushed it open.

Sasha gawped, not moving, but staring at Ymir. "Wait? Do I know you?"

"Come here," Ymir walked through the door, almost letting it shut before Sasha grabbed it and followed her in. The two followed her down a smaller corridor, then into another door. It was an empty meeting room.

Ymir locked the door. "Shit. We don't have long to talk. They would have seen us on CCTV. Anyway," she looked at the two of them. "You do know me. I used to go to your school, remember? I'm Christa's girlfriend, I've been working here for a few months now."

"Wait, Ymir? You look different... oh!" Connie fell backwards, frantically rushing back, away from her.

"Wait! Are you?"

Ymir smirked, "No, I'm not. I was, but I'm not anymore," she added, turning to Sasha, ignoring a confused Connie. Changing the subject quickly, she asked her: "What are you doing? Why do you need to speak to the council?"

Sasha hesitated before replying. "Um, well..."

"You said you recognised somebody from the battle?" Ymir drew closer to her. "Listen, you can trust me. I would have reported you by now. I can help you," she added.

"These two boys..."

"Armin and Eren," Ymir finished her sentence. "Yeah, so did Christa."

"Christa handed in her resignation this morning. Am I correct then in assuming that Eren and Armin are alive?"

Ymir was quiet for a minute before she replied. "Yes."

Sasha and Connie both stared at each other.

"How? I went to Armin's funeral!" Connie shook his head frantically, in complete denial.

"Yeah. The council lied. I bet they told you that element shifters killed him?"

Connie bit his lip. "Yes. When I joined."

"They weren't killed by element shifters, they are element shifters," Sasha almost whispered.

Ymir nodded, turning to Sasha.

"Why did they do that?"

"There's a whole history to it. Long story short; years ago the council killed all of them off. But now the next generation have all started appearing again."

There was a gap of sad silence. "Christa gave up her whole life to fight for Armin. She thought he was dead," Connie muttered sadly.

"Yeah, she's not the only one," Sasha added. "I saw Armin's mother yesterday. She was distraught."

"But, if Armin is, doesn't that make his parents shifters?"

Ymir shook her head, slowly, avoiding eye contact. "Not always, his grandparents maybe," she added, digging the whole of a lie deeper.

Luckily for her, Sasha's mind was elsewhere, and didn't notice Ymir's unease.

"Where are they now?" she asked next.

"I can't tell you that," Ymir frowned.

Sasha bit her lip. "And you're on their side?"

"Yes. I've been spying on what the council have been doing. I guess you are too now."

Connie and Sasha looked at each other. Connie frowned. "There's one thing I don't understand."

"Yeah?"

"We were sworn to secrecy, but, well, I suppose you know about the water girl?"

Footsteps could be heard from outside the door.

"This way," Ymir ran over to a door that lead out into the back of the building. While Connie caught up, she bit her lip, and rolled up her sleeve. Her emblem was fading quicker every day, but could still work as a weak signal to the rest of them.

She thought about her options for a few seconds before throwing her wrist into a nearby puddle.

Her emblem lit up dimly, and she ran back over to the two soldiers. "We can't stay here. Come on."

They followed her to the nearest forest, far away enough and out of sight.

"Yes," Ymir replied as they gained their breath. "We know. We found her in our land, all battered up and wounded. But last night something happened. She just ran away back to the council, like a switch had been pressed sending her back there."

Connie and Sasha looked again at eachother, but before they could ask anything else:

"Ymir! What the hell?" A voice came from the trees.

"Mike. Listen."

As he approached, his bright blue eyes scaring Sasha, he grimaced.

"What are they doing?"

"No! No! You need to listen to them Mike! They're on our side."

Mike stared at them for a long, long time, then averted his gaze to Ymir.

Sasha nodded nervously. "Please. We know about Armin and Eren."

But before anything else, Mike said one sentence. "You've been fighting the wrong side for years."