𝙃𝙚𝙧 𝙁𝙤𝙧𝙜𝙤𝙩𝙩𝙚𝙣 𝙋𝙖𝙨𝙩 || Eren Jaeger

𝒃𝒓𝒆𝒂𝒌𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒑𝒐𝒊𝒏𝒕

*WARNING*

Graphic descriptions ahead. Read at your own discretion.

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Ignore it, I coach myself as another wave of pain turns my stomach. It feels like someone is dragging a rolling pin from the bottom of my ribs all the way down to my navel.

I lean against a wall outside. Mikasa is kneeling on the ground a few feet away with Jean, tying a sling around his arm. He had injured his shoulder while deploying the thunderspears. Nothing major, thankfully. He rejected the idea of the sling at first. It wasn't until I not-so-jokingly offered to make his arm absolutely, 100% sling-dependent that he finally complied.

Some water was all Hanji needed to get back on track. And some bandages wrapped diagonally around her head to cover that eye, too. No doctor has taken an expert look at it yet, but the chances that she'll be able to use it in the future aren't forgiving.

She's not letting this possibly permanent inconvenience bother her, however. She wasted no time tossing Reiner's incapacitated body against a wall. Well, what's left of his body anyway. He's missing all four limbs. His face is unrecognizable; the skin pink and mostly muscle. The features are undefined. Steam wafts over him, and despite Hanji trying again and again to bait him, he doesn't speak.

"If you don't want to talk, I can't make you..." Hanji says debatingly. "You're a tough one. But I'll still ask— will you cooperate and tell us everything you know?"

Reiner's reply is short and sweet. "I won't." His voice rasps.

"Thank you, Reiner. It helps to see—"

"Is Jo there?" He interrupts. "I..."

The others look at me and quickly back at him, and I don't know what to say.

"I heard her earlier."

He cannot see anyone or anything thanks to the blindfold over his singed eyes. Hanji questions me with a raise of her eyebrow, but I shake my head. I can't. I don't want him to see me. I don't know why, but I fear I might get roped back into thinking he's human again. That he's not just some cold blooded killer slouched in front of me getting ready to atone for his sins. As he should.

"No, she's not." Hanji lies.

I see his mouth twitch. His pitiful effort at a knowing smile. "She told you to say that..."

"Well, Reiner. It helps to see that you're ready for death." Hanji gets up and wields her blade. Our breaths stagger as she pulls back and in one swift movement jabs the blade horizontally against his neck. There's a choking noise. Blood.

I'm about to say something. Exactly what, I don't know. But it doesn't matter because Jean beats me to it.

"Hanji, wait! We... We need him alive so we can steal his power!" He objected. But I can tell that history is what's prompting him to act out.

I'll give him props for coming up with such a concrete excuse, though. We do have a titan serum previously owned by Rod Reiss. My father acquired it during the chaos at Reiss's underground lair. But it's only enough to fill one syringe. Meaning it can only save one person from the brink of death.

I remember when the officials announced this groundbreaking information to us soldiers. We were sitting in the mess hall. I remember Commander Erwin handing the case with the syringe to my father, saying that it's power would be entrusted to him.