Chapter 53

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POV: Falco

Part 1.

Silence. That is what we heard on our train right back to Liberio. Why would there be anything but silence. The guardian came and crushed us like we were the bugs, no not us, Marley. A single titan, a single man, is on the verge of bringing an entire country to its knees. Is that truly possible? Though, why question when it's happening before my eyes. I sat at the edge of the boxcar we were inside. From where I sat I saw Colt trying to comfort Gabi. Now, after the adrenaline has exited her system, she's finally breaking to the words of the guardian angel.

"Don't beat yourself up over what she said" Colt says as he patted Gabi's back.

"She's obviously right. The guardian titan is doing what I've been dreaming of doing" Gabi replies as she held her knees to her chest.

"So you're going to cry in defeat because of one crushed dream? This isn't like you" Colt states to her.

"That dream meant everything to me. It's all I was raised on, to crush the island devils and give freedom to all edlians" Gabi says.

"She's really taking it hard" Udo says as he sits down next to me, Zofia alongside him.

"Everything she's ever dreamed for got crushed in front of her, literally" I replied to Udo.

"In my opinion, it's her fault for falling into such delusion, that everything can easily be fixed" Udo says as we watched Colt and Gabi "The guardian may be doing what she dreamed of doing, but what has the guardian sacrificed to get this far? Who did he leave behind on the island to do something for more than him? How much pain has he gone through to get here?"

"I don't think we'll ever know" Zofia replies "However, he may not even be the monster he portrays himself as...a facade really"

"What are you saying Zofia?" I ask her.

"The guardian titan may portray himself as a monster...that doesn't mean he is one...but he has to for the sake of giving Eldians freedom...someone has to bear the sins for what has to be done for such a grand venture" Zofia answers.

"He's trying to hold an entire race on his back" Udo says "He's sacrificing his entire life to the cause he believes in, that is what he's giving up"

"I don't think any of us whether we wanted to or not could bear a burden like that" I say then slump down "Why fight then? If the guardian will free us himself?"

"Just in case he doesn't" Udo states "If Commander Magath thinks the war hammer can take on the guardian, we may fall out of his reach"

"That's if the war hammer is as strong as we think it is" I say as I looked at Gabi and Colt.

"Lighten up Gabi, look, think on the bright side, by the time you gain the armored titan, the guardian will succumb to the curse. Then you can show the power of the armored titan to his successor, if he has one" Colt says, this reigniting the fire in Gabi.

"You're right!, then I can show the world we are the good Eldians and not him!" Gabi exclaims with a bright smile.

"Yeah, something like that" Colt says as he patted her head.

I feel an ache in my heart and put my hand on it "Something tells me, the guardian is the least of our worries" I say.

If it wasn't for our talking, the boxcar would be silent. Back to the internment zone we go. Why didn't we just do as the other soldiers did. Tear off the armband and our uniforms before running to the freedom presented in front of us. It's not like it was a trap, we desire freedom yet didn't take it when given the chance. Are we stupid? Incompetent? Or is it that we are held back by the ones who push us to where we are now. Is making our family honorary marleyans the same as giving us true freedom? No, it's only a sheet of gold laid over us but underneath we are still the devils everyone perceives us as.

"Still...why fight?"

Part 2.

POV: Reiner

I walked the streets of Liberio to mothers where we were having dinner with my uncle and aunt and some family friends. I couldn't get him out of my head, no matter how hard I tried. He just had to come back...what am I thinking..of course he would. As I passed a news stand, there was a crowd of people around it. I go to investigate and there were a few news papers from different countries, however the topic was the same. What happened at Fort Slava, and the appearance of the guardian titan and his campaign to free Eldians. It was all sugar coated though, theirs no way Marley would allow the sale of an uncensored version. I take ahold of one of the news papers.

"The Guardian Titan and the Battle at Fort Slava, Is his campaign for freedom truth or lies?"

As I read through it, it made it sound like (Y/n) had barely won against us, and that he had taken severe damage. However, no mater how they spin it, we still lost at the hand of a single titan. The brass say that the age of titans is near its end. The anti-titan weaponry, technological advancement in aircraft, it dooms titans to just a punching bag. The battle at Fort Slava proves it's not the titans, it's us, it's like they aren't evolving, being the same since before the great titan war. Maybe, they're meant to evolve...but how. I put the paper down and continued walking.

"No mater what I do, or what Marley does, they can't kill or stop (Y/n) until he succumbs to the curse. Funny really, the only thing possible of killing him is something he can't stop, that or whoever he chooses as his successor" I thought as I walked, getting drowned in it once more..

Without knowing it, I accidentally bump into someone "Sorry, I wasn't paying attention" I say then looked up and saw a girl with blond hair braided into two tails going forward and glasses with a hat on her head.

She wore a trench coat and a civilian Eldian armband. She didn't even look up at me, maybe she fears I'd say something to the brass "Um, are you okay?" I ask her.

"I'm fine" she says as she didn't meet my gaze. I felt like I recognized that voice. In a blink of an eye she was no longer in front of me and she was already walking away. After she was already gone, I felt dread coarse through me.

"Wait, was that, no it can't be. Why would she be here?"

"Reiner!" I hear someone shout my name and I see Gabi and her mom and dad.

"Oh, hey" I say as I tried to shake the feeling of dread I just had.

"Reiner, it's been some time" Uncle says.

"Yes it has" I reply.

"The military needs to keep you home more, your mother's been worrying" Auntie says.

"I know, but I'm the armored titan, I have to do my duty to serve the motherland" I reply.

"Well, the war is over so you'll be around more" Uncle says.

"But we lost" Gabi grumbles.

"But you're alive, that's what matters" Auntie says and boops Gabi on the nose.

"We're only alive because (Y/n) is merciful. For everything that's happened to him, Marley didn't come and just start a path of destruction"

{Time Skip}

We sat at the dinner table, Mom and I at the heads of the table. Gabi was telling a grand retelling of the battle at Fort Slava, before everything with (Y/n) happened. She was trying to repress what (Y/n)'s sister had told her, I could see it.

"We got to a point that we couldn't get any forward, after saving falco all hope seemed to be lost, then Pieck showed up with the Panzer Unit" Gabi exclaims proudly with a smile.

"What happens next dear?" Auntie asks.

"And then, and then...." Gabi says, her smile starting to fade "He showed up"

"Who showed up Gabi?" Uncle ask.

"The guardian titan" Gabi states.

"You should stop your story there Gabi" I say and she nodded with a now saddened look on her face.

"The guardian titan? He's been all the roar in Liberio, Supposedly he's the one who will save all Eldians" One of Mom's friends says.

"He is a monster" I state to them getting their attention "He did not earn the monicker of Monster of Paradise through being a merciful man"

"That's a lie"

"You met him on that island didn't you? What was he like?" Uncle asks me.

"Dad, what happened on that island isn't some light hearted war story, those devils put him through hell" Gabi says.

"That's a lie"

"It's alright Gabi, it's natural to want to know" I say "The guardian titan was a guy who, to put it simply, is the definition of a monster"

"lie"

"He's brutal, cruel, a blood thirsty fighter who'd break someone without a second thought"

"Lie"

"He forced women to serve him, so he could indulge with his endless lust, payment for him protecting the island. One of those girls being a pure, kind hearted goddess with royal blood"

"LIES"

"The only reason he didn't kill us at Fort Slava was so he could beat us down once more like punching bags. Humiliate us and Marley"

"LIES!"

"If he desired, he'd destroy the entirety of Marley including the internment zone just because he woke up on the side of the bed"

"LIES!!"

The room was quiet besides the clatter of the window shutters in the wind. The dreadful looks on their faces, including mothers, like it's they had been described the devil himself. An all powerful being who is chaos and insanity.

"I've said way too much" I say as I felt a my whole body want to implode.

"An example on how those island devils are nothing like us, we are the good Eldians" Mother says "They run to their island, build them selves a paradise and leaving us to suffer. We have to punish those devils for what they've done"

"Devils...they're all people just like us"

I stand up from my seat "I'm going to go up to my room" I say.

I walkout of the room and up stairs to my room. I enter my room, it hasn't changed since the last time I was in here. I sit down on a chair and sighed, closing my hands together and putting them to my head.

"Fabrications, what's wrong with me, (Y/n) is none of those things. What he's doing is the closest anyone will ever get to freeing all Eldians" I say with a sigh.

"Look at you, you deserve all of this, you were given a chance to atone" I hear.

I turn my in surprise and at the window I see the girl I had bumped into "Annie?"

"So you can still see, congratulations" Annie states.

"Why are you here?" I question as I started slowly stand up.

She whips a pistol out of her trench coat and points it at me "Sit. Let's not get too rowdy, wouldn't want to let the family find a dead man"

"Alright, put the gun down Annie" I say as I slowly sat back down.

"I got some questions for you Reiner" She says, slowly getting out of the window seal.

"What kind of questions?" I ask her. Gun still pointed at me.

"For starters, whose in charge of Marleyan Public Security now?" Annie asks me.

"Briggs, Commander Briggs" I state to her "Why would she want to know that?"

"Next question, his office, where is it?" She questions.

"I don't know, probably at the Marleyan Public Safety HQ building" I answer.

"No fucking shit. Useless" Annie says then got closer, gun up to my fore head "Why didn't didn't you commit during your fight with (Y/n) at Fort Slava, you could of easily had killed him with a surprise attack like that, if not a committed Suplex, you gone for his nape, question is why?"

"You are seriously questioning why I didn't kill your boyfriend?" I question and she pulls the hammer back on the pistol.

"Don't get smart Reiner, you aren't good at that. So tell me why" Annie says as she looked down at me through the glasses.

I clenched my teeth then relaxed as I spoke "I didn't want to kill him...." I say with a sigh.

"And why would that be Reiner? This hasn't stopped you just the past" Annie tells me then pushes the gun "So why?"

The words chocked up in my throat "I knew, if (Y/n) was here, there was a reason, he wouldn't ally with the Mid-East alliance for no reason. He has Commander Erwin at his side, so it only makes sense that he's here to free Eldians. Why else?" I explained to her.

Annie smirks "Because maybe it would lessen the guilt in your conscience, Or-" Annie leans down a bit "You regret what not staying in Eldia and atoning for what you've done. I have, Bertholdt has, yet your pride always got in the way, even when it would make your life better"

"If you're going to shoot, then shoot" I tell her while clenching my jaw.

She pulls the trigger and there was only a click of the hammer. A light giggle escapes her lips, I've never heard her giggle once. Being with (Y/n) changed her "I'm not going to ease your suffering Reiner, you deserve to bask in your guilt" Annie says while pulling the pistol away and standing up straight "If it wasn't for you're pride, things would be so much better for you. Next time your given the chance to atone. Do it, that weight on your shoulders will disappear like a feather in the wind"

"How did you do it?" I ask her as she began to turn away.

"I did what I had to and got a little selfish as well. I care about my mother but sometimes, the sacrifice of one for the many is the better option, even when the one is family" Annie explains to me.

"So you'd sacrifice (Y/n) to Marley if it meant the protection of Eldia?" I ask her. She giggles once more, this time an unnerving giggle.

"You can't pull one over on me Reiner. Even if I wanted to, what would the point be? Hmm? He's already doing it. Sacrificing himself for Eldia, and the world, to free Eldians" She says with a smile creeping onto her face, an almost unhinged smile "He does it all and in the process, heading for his ultimate goal of tearing Marley limb for limb like a wolf on a helpless lamb. You must understand Reiner, (Y/n) is more than just the Monster of Paradise, He is the guardian titan, breaker of the cycle of hatred"

"Has love driven her deranged? No, maybe that's the kind of person you have to be to the inherit the female titan. (Y/n)'s sister seemed to be the same way, a hidden persona that comes out when they're serious. Annie has never showed a side like this"

"You've been driven mad" I tell Annie.

"No Reiner, I haven't, I simply understand what's under the veil placed over the world" Annie says the steps back towards the window "Commit, It will make life so much easier for you"

My body shook, not in hatred, or fear, but that she's right. Everything she said was right "If only I stayed in Paradise"