Forgotten Bonds

At a certain port, a group of figures sat inside a ship docked there. In front of it was a huge, tall wall. It was the infamous dumping ground for Eldians, who would be turned into titans and spend their lives forever haunting the accursed places beyond.

"Marcel is dead … and Annie has been captured?"

"He died trying to save me, it was all my fault."

"What a complete disaster … and we still have no idea who now holds the power of the Jaw Titan," Zeke said.

The Marley High Command would surely be furious if they returned in this state. Not only did they fail to test their latest secret weapon in turning Eldians into pure titans, but two of Marley's seven precious titans had also been lost.

And of all the titans, it had to be the Jaw and Female Titan, the very two titans that could conduct assault roles.

"There are already several small skirmishes between Duclaria Reich and our motherland breaking out amongst the borders. I just received news that General Wendell has perished at the eastern border. Normally such an incident would warrant our motherland sending out the titan shifters to handle the situation. If we do not quickly wrap up the matter here and return to assist, it is only a matter of time before the Mid-East countries notice what is going on and be rallied under the call of the Kaiser; a major continental war will surely ensure.

"The situation at Marley has become that serious?" Reiner asked.

Zeke gave a weary nod, continuing to keep up the act of concern for Marley, but deep down he could not be bothered in the slightest about the country's welfare. Something else was more important right now, the pulse that he felt surging him through the battlefield, there was a person there that held the Coordinate - the key to his plan to save all Eldians.

"Let's put that aside for now. What happened back at the fields … was clearly the act of the Coordinate being activated. Who was it?"

"It was Eren Yeager," Bertholdt said.

"Eren … Yeager?"

"Yes, Eren is the holder of the Founding Titan. The details of how that came to be are apparently not clear to him as well. However, the basement of Eren's house in the Shiganshina District appears to hold some very important information there."

Zeke took a sip of water, "Hmm, did you hear anything about Eren's parents?"

"We were pretty close during our Cadet Days. He said that his dad was a doctor."

Zeke's hands froze, eyes wide behind his glasses.

There was no doubt, that doctor … was his father.

"I see. All of you may leave now. We'll discuss this again later."

Reiner and Bertholdt stood up, saluted and left the room.

Zeke placed his glasses on a desk and planted his palms on his face.

"Father apparently lived … he must have somehow come into the possession of the Attack Titan, whose whereabouts had been unknown since the Great Titan War. Using it, he stole the Founding Titan from the King of the walls, and had Eren eat him. Mother must have also been somehow turned into a mindless titan as well, and touched him during the field. At that point, this allowed him to access the coordinate."

He gripped his hair tightly now. At least Eren didn't manage to enter the Paths yet given how nothing drastic happened since then. It appeared that contact with a pure titan of royal blood only granted limited access to the certain powers of the Coordinate for a short time.

Mr Ksaver's theory was correct. If a pure titan of royal blood coming into contact with Eren could already allow him to access the coordinate for such a limited time; then if he, a titan shifter of royal blood coming into contact with Eren would mean surely ...

He needed to get his brother on his side. Nothing else mattered.

"Eren, we're all victims of our father. He has brainwashed you into suffering the same thing as me."

A deafening silence settled over the room for a moment.

"I will definitely save you. Wait for your elder brother, Eren."

=====

Beneath the grounds of the capital city of Mitras, in the underground world, a lone man in a trench coat strode along its poorly maintained houses and dirty streets. The place had been where he found his beloved sister's son, starving and on the verge of death beside her corpse. He was no man of emotion, yet, to abandon the very last family member of his fate was something he couldn't.

After all, it was because of his service and request to Uri Reiss that the persecution of his clan stopped with the Ackerman Proclamation. He had made use of every effort then to locate his family, his sister, but it was too late by the time he tracked her down.

Might makes right. For him, Violence wasn't the answer. Violence was a question and the answer was yes. If one had absolute power, they would never be stepped on, never be trampled up, that was the cruel and harsh truth of the world they lived in.

He wondered what compelled him to suddenly want to pay a visit to his sister's home. Was it because the thought that he would soon need to kill his very nephew, stirred out the long forgotten and suppressed emotions within him? Or was it because he met another relative of his recently at the graveyard in Inner Mitras? Or maybe both? Either way, Rod Reiss had just made clear his intention to deal with the Survey Corps, and there was a good chance he would have to face both of them.

It seemed no matter how hard one tried, severing the bonds of those close to one was truly difficult. Fate can be cruel at times, to think both his nephew and relative were in the Survey Corps, the very enemy he would soon have to turn his blade upon.

"Ridiculous …" he uttered quietly.

The man stepped into an abandoned dusty house and slowly climbed the stairs. He had long noticed another pair of fresh footsteps and was already prepared to deal with any enemy that might attack him. Killing, theft, rapes, burglary, and all kinds of vices and crimes were the bread and butter of those who lived in this hellish environment. One could never let their guard down at any point if they wanted to survive.

The last time he visited this place was when he first met Levi. He trained him for a year and left him. Kenny heard several years later that the brat had since made a pretty good name for himself in the Survey Corps, although he would never admit it out loud: Levi was his pride and joy.

He stopped, then pulled his knife and pressed it against the throat of a person.

"Eek!"

"Speak. Whatcha doing here, snoppin' round Kuchel's room?"

"I-I'll speak! I'll speak! I-I'm just cleaning and maintaining the area!"

"Who was it?" he pressed the knife closer to the man's throat, as a trail of blood begin to taint it.

"Humanity's Strongest Soldier! I-It's Levi! He's been paying me to do this for years. I'm just a poor cleaner! P-please, don't kill me!" he continued "I-if you're looking for him to settle a debt, he already left a few weeks ago!"

"Hmm, that brat? A few weeks … sounds just around the time Lord Reiss had some documents stolen from his mansion. Makes sense now. Only he would know those secret routes here and have the skills to pull it off." he lowered his knife, flipped it, and slid it into his pocket. "My mood's all ruined now that ya mentioned him."

Kenny took one good look at the room and saw a fresh stalk of flower on the bed.

"Was that his doing?"

The man nodded, his breath still uneven. 'Y-yes. I've been instructed to do the same thing every year on this particular day."

He pulled at his hat. "Your son's all grown up now, Kuchel. To think he even remembers your death anniversary …" he took a step towards the door. "But I won't show mercy to anyone who stands in the way of my dream."

(1.3k words+)