(ATTENTION: I updated the first chapters of this story daily so that you all have an idea of how the story is built. I will keep that up with every new story. Now I hope you have decided if you want to hear more about my story because I will change the schedule to updating weekly on Saturdays or Sundays or sometimes twice a week if I can manage to do so with my daily work.
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They buried her outside the village, near the woods where the earth was wet enough to dig a hole for her.
Letting down his mother felt like losing her just another time and it tore at Eren's tattered heart. Mikasa watched him without making any sound. Armin knelt next to her, hands on the ground and his eyes unbelieving and scared.
"Why...just why...", he muttered again and again, not daring to look away from what was playing out in front of him. Eren picked up the earth he had thrown next to the hole and poured the first handful back on the ruined skirt of his mother.
He thought he heard his heart crack. Tears streamed down his face but he stayed silent. No whimper or cry was heard. Not a sound that might show how much he was in pain.
"Eren...", he heard his sister's broken voice behind him. She knelt down beside him, taking a handful of earth herself and threw it with a sob on the corpse.
"Guys? Guys!" The scream sounded familiar. But Eren found he didn't have the strength to turn around. He wanted to keep looking at his mother. He owed her that much. She deserved a peaceful ending, accompanied by her children.
"Jean!", Armin exclaimed shakily and he heard rustling when the blond struggled to get up from the dirt around them.
The flames in the village had died down after some time.
The soldiers hadn't followed them.
"Where are the others?"
Jean's answer came a moment too late.
"They are dead, aren't they?" It was the first thing Eren had said since the words he had spit into the General's face.
"Not all of them. But...some didn't get out fast enough. The soldiers..." Jean's voice died off and Eren knew he had spotted the grave in front of them. And the person lying in it. "No...that's...Eren, how..."
Eren stayed silent. He was still chucking earth on his mother's lifeless body, watching the eyes they had closed for her. Her hands were folded over her lap and if she were anywhere else one would think she was sleeping.
"Is there anyone left of us?", Armin asked, a finished and tired edge tugging at his words. Shock and fear had done their job well in depriving them of any energy they had had left. He joined Eren and Mikasa in burying Carla, diamond-like tears in his eyes.
Eren wanted to send him a grateful smile. But even such a simple gesture was impossible to carry out; took too much strength.
The moon stood high above them by now and cast it's eerie light on the teenagers who were standing around the grave of a woman who had been one of the kindest and most loving people among all of those grumpy and sullen villagers.
"I don't know...I think Reiner got out? Berthold possibly too. They were together when the fire broke out."
"You mean when it was started.", Eren whispered and stopped for a second, his hand stilling over the pile of dirt by his side. "What about Ymir? Marco? Connie? What about all of the other ones? Sasha. Nifa. Franz. Hannah?"
"Franz and Hannah didn't make it." Jean sank down between them, his hands clenched in his lap and his eyes closed. Grime plastered his face like a second layer of skin and bloody wounds and scratches decorated his arms and his face. "I saw their house. They didn't make it out in time. The soldiers appeared in their district first."
"Nifa?"
"I haven't seen her since our walk yesterday."
"Sasha?"
"I don't know. She was with Connie, I think. But..." Jean's voice broke off.
"We came across her house. It was on fire but the entrance wasn't blocked off by something. And I heard no noises inside.", Armin said.
"Ymir?", Eren asked, fearing the answer. But he needed to know. If his friends were still alive. How many of them had escaped the wrath of people they had never seen before.
"I'm sorry Eren, I don't know. I tried to get my parents out of the village. And my little cousins. They are...they were just some small kids."
Eren saved the question what had happened to them. He could imagine.
Silence gathered around them. They were each throwing earth on Carla like a ritual saving them from what had happened. From what was still happening. There were soldiers in the woods. Soldiers from Eldia.
But they were too late. Death had already found his new companions.
Sudden steps behind them startled them and Eren was on his feet in an instant, ready to defend his friends just like Mikasa.
"Woah, that's what I call a greeting. Have you missed me so much, you old fuckers?", Ymir grinned. Blood was splattered on her skin as well and she was definitely limping. She held one of her eyes closed as if she was unable to open it.
But all in all she looked...alive.
"How did you make it out?" Armin jumped up and looked short of hugging her. Relief was written over his face and some of the tension in his shoulders disappeared.
Ymir looked over at Carla's grave and sucked in a breath, a wave of pity flying over her face. She cursed. Eren was thankful that she didn't try to offer any condolences. The pitiful looks of Jean and Armin were hard enough to endure.
"My stepdad was sending me out to get a bottle of wine from one of his friends. I was on my way back when I noticed the fire. But it was already too late." Ymir shrugged her shoulders. Eren knew she hadn't cared for that old son of a bitch but still...
Armin looked around them, watching the destroyed village and they all listened to the screaming and the sound of marching shoes dying down.
"What are we supposed to do now?", he croaked.
Eren stepped in the middle of them, making a step forward.
"Marley should pay for what they did to us.", Ymir hissed, her gaze filled with flaming anger and her brows furrowed.
"I don't think they were from Marley.", Eren muttered, thinking back on how one of the soldiers was talking about a 'leader', not a Queen.
"Does it matter who it was?", Mikasa answered back. "Our home is gone. Our mother is gone. We are alone."
Eren turned around and gave everyone a determined look.
Ymir crossed her arms, one leg bent. On her forehead he saw a wound, a scratch as if someone had scratched their nails over the skin, splitting it and drawing blood. Her eye was injured. She might never see again on it if her pained reaction whenever she tried to open it a bit was anything to go by. She was the definition of a survivor. A dragon for fire couldn't kill her.
Armin restlessly shifted his weight from one foot to the other. His worried eyes were fixed on the chaos below the hill they had climbed with the corpse of Carla. His dirty fingers were clawed in his sleeves like it was the only thing keeping him from running back. Even if there was nothing waiting for them down there.
Mikasa watched her brother carefully and waited patiently what he was going to do next. He knew she would support him as long as his plans weren't that much of a suicide squad. In her eyes he saw the same rage and hate reflected that he himself felt inside his heart. She would stay by his side. Always.
Jean huffed petulantly, tilting his head, and avoided having to look at the corpse behind him. Eren hadn't asked what had happened to Marco. Maybe he knew. Maybe he didn't. For now it was insignificant. They had all lost someone that night. In Jean he saw the epitome of determination not to lose anyone else ever again.
They all had something to lose.
They all were mortal.
And in that moment, when the village had burned down below them and the corpses littered the streets, they all were painfully aware of that fact.
"We will find a way to avenge our fallen friends and families.", Eren said now, fury glinting in the green orbs that were his eyes. His friends were listening to him, no hope left in their tired and spent faces. The memories from ten years ago fueled his hate, his anger, his wrath.
"The King of Eldia has started a war between two countries and possibly another, third party. Many villages will end up like Shiganshina did. Many more families will die. That is if we don't stop him and end this war against Marley."
"What the fuck are you trying to say, suicidal bastard?", Jean interrupted him, breathlessly huffing at the boy's words. "That's a war between two strong kingdoms. We are only five simple kids. We should go and find a place to live where war can never find us again."
"Jean." Eren's voice was as stern as it was compassionate. "We have only faced the beginning of this war. We will never escape it. It will tear down our whole world. A world we're captured in. Many children will lose their parents." Ymir straightened up at his words. "Many orphans will lose what they have left of a family." Armin looked away, baring his teeth and hiding the tears in his eyes. "What about them, Jean? Can you live with the thought that you had the chance to change the world, to rescue so many people but didn't do anything?"
"We don't have anything left, Eren!", Jean shouted, desperation and exhaustion deeply anchored in his every word. He made a step forward. Eren stayed where he was. "We are alone in this world! Why should we risk the life we got to live once more?"
Eren met his gaze with a willpower Jean hadn't expected. He opened and closes his mouth without any sound coming out.
"We may be orphans. We may have lost our homes. But we have never been alone.", he stated resolutely.
"He is right tho.", Ymir interjected. "How do you expect us to help those people? We are nothing but snotty teenagers."
Eren breathed through his nose. He had never before told anyone but Mikasa about his heritage. He hadn't told anyone about the danger his very existence could represent.
"I am the key to our plans. I have something important to tell you." He took a deep breath and looked back at his mother. "But once I have told you, you may be in great danger. I know I should protect you from those coming for me once the time is ready but I need you and..."
"You never shut up, do you?", Jean snorted and Eren winced.
"But I...."
"Look, yes, we have our differences. But you're right." The boy sighed, pulling at the strands of his sandy hair. "We have nothing left. Nothing to lose."
"Eren." Mikasa grabbed his hand and smiled softly at him. "They will understand."
"Let's get this show on, fuckface.", Ymir grinned. "Why not save the world when we're at it?"
The gratefulness for his friends couldn't be put in words. He struggled to find the right words.
"I...this secret...I know I should have told you but...." He gathered enough air for the next sentences. He gazed back to his mother and walked up to her, kneeling down next to her.
The rest of them followed Eren and waited for what he was about to tell them.
"This woman..." He smiled sadly. "This woman was once the Queen of Eldia. Queen Carla, wife of King Grisha."
He didn't turn around to face the pale, shocked faces of his comrades.
He closed his eyes, bracing himself for what was about to come with his next words.
"And I am her son. Prince Eren Yaeger of Eldia, son of King Grisha and second heir to the throne of Eldia."