Mission Success: A Different Story

Titan Life

Reiner groggily blinked his golden eyes open, groaning happily as he stretched. Magath had finally replaced his tiny, broken bed with one to hold his size and weight, and moved Bertholdt into the other room with a brand new bed of his own. Sleep had never been so good.

A quiet knock sounded on his door before it opened to reveal his green eyed friend.

"Reiner? You up?"

The blonde chuckled." Maybe..."

Bertholdt smiled and shook his head, stepping fully into the room." Well you should get up. Magath wants us to get back on a schedule for training soon."

Reiner sat up with a groan." Is that why you're up so early?"

Bertholdt sat down at the end of his bed." Yeah...."

Reiner swiped a hand over his face before swinging his legs out from under the blankets and onto the floor. He stood up with another stretch and crossed his tiny room to the closet.

"Right.... So what's going on today?" the blonde asked as he started getting dressed. Bertholdt started counting off his fingers.

"Well... Paperwork as usual... And we will be giving Eren a full tour of the Warrior facilities, like the training grounds and the shooting range, since he's pretty much become a permanent fixture here. That's going to take a while..."

"Yeah... Anything else?" Reiner asked, buttoning the shirt he had pulled on.

Bertholdt went quiet for a moment. Reiner looked at him quizzically as he straightened the collar on his shirt.

"Bertl?"

"Reiner...we should probably tell them about the Curse." The blonde froze in place, a grim look etched on his face.

"I mean, we have to tell Ymir about her upcoming extraction, too, so... Shouldn't we explain the whole thing to them?"

Reiner slowly finished with his shirt and leaned against the wall with a sigh." Yeah...They both deserve to know... I just don't know how they'll take it."

Bertholdt fiddled with his hair." Yeah...but with the experiment, we should all live, right?"

Reiner shrugged." To be honest... I don't know. Sienna didn't know either. That's something that still needs to be found out."

The green eyed giant deflated a little bit." Yeah..."

There was a beat of silence before Bertholdt looked down at his feet, his eyes hidden in shadow.

"We've got six years, right?"

Reiner scuffed his socked foot on the floor." Yeah..."

"Do you think...," Bertholdt's voice dropped to a whisper as he clenched his hands together.

"Do you think... We'll get to see Annie again?..."

Reiner felt a pang of pity and guilt run through him. They hadn't talked about their missing team mate since the spat on the island, and the blonde could see that the thought of Annie being alone at the hands of people who wanted her dead was gnawing at his best friend. If only he'd won that fight....

Reiner pushed off the wall and sat next to Bertholdt." Bertl, we will go back for her. I promised to get you guys home, and you promised Annie that if she got in any kind of trouble, you would go and get her. And we will. And you should know that Armin can think of things on a whim that messes with people's heads. Seriously, when I gave her Eren's position on that expedition, she was just about to kill Jean when he starts hollering about how she crushed a suicidal bastard."