Wings [Levi Daughter]

Chapter Forty-Nine

Iris stood before the mirror as she fixed her hair, she struggled – as usual – as she tried to put it in a bun, when her hair slipped from her hold, she groaned in frustration and simply ties it to a braid, to keep it from falling to her face.

"You done?" Leon came into the room. "It's taking you forever – we will start without you, you know."

"Just finished, asshole." Iris said as she went to the door and left the room.

Leon closed the door and followed Iris down the hall to where they were told to meet with Hange and the others.

"New hairstyle?" Leon mused as he noticed the braid.

"I can't put it up." Iris said.

"How the hell can't you put it up? You've been tying your hair to that bun for the past few years."

When they came to the room, Iris and Leon saw Levi with Eren, Mikasa and Armin.

"Captain." Leon and Iris greeted him with a salute.

Levi rendered the salute with a nod and then knocked on the door. Once it was open, the group went inside and greeted Historia with a bow.

"Your Majesty." They greeted.

"Stop it. It's not an official position yet." Historia said. "So much has happened, hasn't it? But all I did was stare at the south sky from within the Walls."

"It's an important duty of yours just to stay alive." Armin spoke.

"That's right." Eren agreed and so did Mikasa.

"I'm glad to see you're all acting like usual." Historia said.

Glances were shared with the five.

"It just hasn't sunk in for us yet." Eren said.

Historia turned to Iris, she smiled sadly.

"I heard about what happened." Historia said. "And I'm sorry..."

"Thank you... Historia." Iris said.

"Shall we get this going?" Hange said as she and Jean gathered the papers.

~*~

Every officer of the military brigades sat in the room – the Garrison at the right, and the Military Police at the left, at the very front were the Queen, Zachary and another officer, and seated at the seats at the center were what was left of the Scouts.

"The Early Life of Grisha Yeager, The Extent of Our Knowledge of Titans and Their History. Information About the World Beyond the Walls... the only people who know about the existence of these books are those here in this very room." Zachary spoke. He turned to the Scouts. "These were gained by the efforts of eleven living Scouts... and the one-hundred and ninety-nine who are not here today. Today in the Queen's presence I would like to assess our situation... and establish an agreement in terms of our course of action... Scout Commander Hange Zoe."

Hange stood from her seat and spoke,

"The Scouts have lost a great deal, including Erwin Smith. But in exchange for the many heroes that we lost, we have retaken Wall Maria and stolen the Colossal Titan's powers, and as well as Julius Reed and Maria Reed's Titan abilities..."

Iris, who sat beside Hange balled her hands to a fist as memories of her devouring her mother came back.

"However," Hange continued. "Eldians that lives within the Walls remain in precarious situation. It would be a relief were Titans the only monsters we had for enemies – however, just like what Iris Reed have said, the true identity of the enemies we're been fighting are humans. A civilization – the world. From what we gathered from the First King's memories, we're a special race called Subjects of Ymir who can turn into Titans. There's also a belief that we may rule the world again that's why the world wishes to eradicate us Subjects of Ymir for good... Grisha Jaeger sought out to find the Founding Titan and accomplished his mission, and entrusted the Founding Titan to his son, Eren. In order to weild the Founding Titan's full power, it must be possessed by someone with royal blood... however, those who are made to a Founding Titan are enslaved by the King's ideals, that is the vow renouncing all wars... in our case, Iris Reed holds the Founding Titan as well, has royal blood, but because of her Ackerman blood, it rejects other abilities of the Founding Titan's ability, making her a simple Titan with our history. However, Eren was able to control Pure Titans in the past to escape a dire situation. So, it may be possible even without royal blood for Eren to wield that power as well –"