Pretty Little Liar (Aruani Element Shifter AU) ✔️

Part Two: Forty

Bertholdt frowned. "Can they be trusted?"

"Yeah, believe me. They had every opportunity to hand me in and report me to the council, and they didn't," said Ymir. "They can be trusted. They both resigned from the military this morning."

"What do you think has happened to the girl?" Mike asked. 

"She ran away. They'd definitely punish her for that. I don't think it's pretty," said Annie. Mike frowned at the floor, thinking of his wife. Then, Annie looked at me. 

"Are you two healed?"

"Yes," I answered, lifting my sleeve to look at the healing cut on my arm.

"Okay, good. I can only assume tomorrow Levi's team will attack. The town will be full of council members and you'll have to be ready for that." 

Everyone was silent for a while. 

Annie smirked, then stood up with a smug expression.

"We have company."

"What...?"

"When I destroyed the council building, I destroyed their main technology hub. Their trackers no longer work, so now everybody has the ability to teleport wherever they want."

"And?" Mike started, then Annie looked at her emblem, which was wet. 

Then, two figures emerged in the middle of the flat, surrounded by spiralling water. I was excited to see who it was, but my face dropped in shock when I saw that Mr and Mrs Black, Annie's aunt and uncle, were standing in front of me. They looked so different; older and wilder; fully a part of their element, with bright blue eyes and colourful emblems on their hands.  

Mike ran over and hugged them. They hadn't seen me yet as they spoke to Mike, who moved  them to Bertholdt and Reiner, who they already knew. Annie stayed where she was, with a small smile on her face. When Mike turned his friends around to face Ymir, and to introduce us to Eren and me, their faces were full of confusion when they saw me there.

"Armin? Is that you?" Mrs Black said, walking over and holding my hands, staring at me hard. 

"Yeah."

"I never knew you were a shifter..."

"I'm not. Well, yes, I am. But my story is a bit different," I said, looking at Ymir, who bit her lip.

Mrs Black raised her eyebrow at Ymir, still holding my hands. 

"Ymir! I thought you looked different. Why did you give away your power?"

Ymir chuckled nervously. "Long story."

"Well I want to hear all about it," she said, then turned back to me. "It's so good to see you Armin."

"What brings you here then?" asked Mike. 

"Annie came to see us last night. We were in Scotland with a group of Shifters there."

Annie could always teleport without the restrictions of the council picking up her tracker, because she was that powerful. I never thought about the possibility of visiting other shifters. 

Mr Black addressed all of us as he stood next to Mike with a grin on his face. "We heard that the Council is on the verge of collapsing. We're here to witness history."

Everybody looked at Annie. She looked like a proper leader.

"This is the closest we've come to a revolution in decades. Since the years of my father," Mrs Black added, looking at Annie "Your grandfather always wanted a world where the shifters and the humans could live together, and now we're almost there. We overthrow this council, the headquarters, and it won't be long and others will follow."

Their words lightened the whole flat, but Annie frowned, playing with her knife before putting it away.

"Let's not get ahead of ourselves. The world won't be that open to us. But we defeat our council, and we can finally avenge the lives of everyone who died for this cause, and move further to what our grandparents wanted."

Mike smiled at her. "That sounds good."

Annie turned and caught my eye. I blinked at the dark red eyes staring back at me. Seeing Mr and Mrs Black left me feeling fuzzy and nostalgic. 

"Armin," Mrs Black said, turning back to me, and breaking the eye contact between the two of us. I turned to her. She looked embarrassed, then whispered in my ear; "I'm sorry we had to lie to you. I can only imagine how confusing it must have been seeing Annie alive."

"It was. I still can't believe it. But you had to do it. There was no other option." 

She nodded. "Sure, I shouldn't have told you she was dead, but we didn't want you looking for her or anything. It was the only thing we could do."

"It's okay," I said, then turned to look at her again, but she had disappeared. 

Mrs Black noticed, and whispered in my ear: "I know she's the only fire shifter in the world, and comes across as this dark and scary person, but deep down, she's still your Annie."

I felt the lock and key necklace against my skin under my shirt, and frowned sadly, hoping she was correct.