The Past and Present

The dark, musty cell was the only comfort Annie had. It had been almost 2 weeks since she had given herself up in front of the scouts.

Failure, Weak, Useless Devil!

Those thoughts rang throughout here, echoing through the endless days and nights, hell if she could tell when the day was day and night was night. The cell had provided little entertainment for her. Nothing but a toilet and a rack to sleep on, nothing much to do without destroying it. She could, could have escaped, but she didn't try even once. It broke her on the inside to do so. To see Reiner and Bertholdt in front of her as she failed her mission, all because of him, that man. That man, of all the people that could, him?

Her first failure in her mission was falling for him in training, loving him, an island devil, and he the audacity to reciprocate the feelings back.

"Ugh!!!"

Frustrated out loud, she slammed her fists into the bars, not that she cared about the pain, it would soon steam away, it was the release of anger that drove her to slam and slam and slam, over and over for minutes on end throughout these timeless days, reliving regrets of the past was the only thing to break them up.

"I know of the true royal family. I know what happened to them and the Founding Titan. Her titan stopped, looking at him with shock. It was just the two of them, the rest long gone. She had left him alive, for the past they had once shared, but at that moment, more than any in the past, she just wanted to crush him. He could see it too, fear glinting in his eyes as he stepped closer to talk, not that he needed to goad her into killing him even more. "Come on," he said. "Both of us know what I said. I know who has the Founder now, and the story of why it is not with the true royal family, the Reiss family, anymore. Just come back with us, Annie." "How?" she questioned on the inside of her titan, now blankly staring at him. How could he know, where Reiner and Berthodlt compromised also? Shit! "This isn't you, the true you, or was the person you showed me the night before graduation a lie to?" It wasn't, it was the first time she had truly felt happy in her short life. The first time she had no regret for her actions. He looked deeper into her titan, compassion, no, love filled his eyes. "Prove me wrong. We can be together again, if you wish, for the rest of our lives," he started to beg, going to his feet in front of hers, "Just…" sniffles were heard, "Just come back, come back with us."

Time slowed down at that moment, like a river reaching a bend, trying to eb and flow around it, with all its might, but couldn't. She wanted to, come back to him, but the warrior in her screamed. Kill the devils. Burn them! Whatever it takes! Her mission or her love, she vacillated the options. Why not both? He said he knew of the Founder, but how could he know of it, there was more to time as there was more to her. Both sides continued to war within her as her titan towered over him, looking downwards at him just kneeling there, crying. The horses and smoke and the shouts and the world were turned aside from her attention, all for him.

Her heart ranged throughout her after an eternity past, winning. As she left her titan, steaming, the horses now closer, guns being loaded, shouts echoing in the disturbed silence, nothing phased her. Reiner and Berthodlt looked at each other, then her, unseen by the others, horror-stricken upon their faces. She had failed, now and forever in Marley's eyes. Even as she fell from her titan, nothing could keep her from looking away from him. He had captured her now in mind and body, for love.

Love, love, love, of all things, this, she thought, is worth failing the mission for. Just as she was about to strike the ground, a call was heard, shaking her from her gaze upon him. It was from him, looking up now at her, calling, "Annie!" .....

She kept reliving those moments, those oh-so-precious moments for hours and hours, until the sound of walking reached her, grabbing her back to reality. It didn't feel like it was mealtime, but she could never time if it was random or scheduled, time was nothing here. A voice said, "It's fine, I would need you. If she wanted to escape, she could of already, and she might just only want to talk to me, no one else." It was him! After what seemed like years, he was coming, to explain himself hopefully. She had wished him to come sooner, her feelings wanting to burst forward since then. "Why's that?" asked one of the guards. "It was I who brought her in after all. Stopped her from going on too much on a rampage. We also have, uh, some "unfinished business" from training, we were in the same group, you see." Unfinished? She scoffed. It was more than that. "Alright your highness," Highness? What was he, the king? "..we'll wait outside for when you are done, just call."

Steps could be heard, approaching her cell. Just a pair of feet this time, a door slamming confirming that, approached her cell. As he arrived, he grabbed the bench opposite her cell and brought it right in front of it, sitting down.

"Nathaniel," she began, shirking away from his calm gaze, "What brings you down here?" Nathaniel, for his part, also looked away, staring at the floor. The silence could have been cut with a butter knife. After a while, Nathaniel said, "You, my love." So he still said that. "Wanting you, course I've been business the month and a half you been down here." So that's how long it had been, Annie thought. "Could say the same for you, your…. Highness" curtly replied Annie. "Where did you get that title?"

I am the king of the walls now."

"I knew the king was fake, and you said the real royal family was the Reiss family, but aren't they are mostly gone now and you not a Reiss?"

"My little lie, to you and everyone else, I am the eldest bastard son of Rod Reiss, the true king before me."

Silence overtook them again, both looking away from each other, then Annie asked,

"I can believe that, no not can do, but what happened to the others, you must know but now?"

Nathaniel looked around like someone was watching them, before replying,

"Reiner and Bertholdt escaped with the Jaw Titan, to Wall Maria. They are fine."

Turning, truly looking at him for the first time in the conversation, Annie asked,

"That's good, but who's the Jaw?" Not phased by him knowing of the Jaw, especially if he was of the true royal family, but wasn't he a bastard, more questions for later.

"The Jaw is or was, I don't know, my sister's girlfriend, Ymir."

Annie was stunned, her, impossible!

"Decades she suffered as a Pure, now she tries to redeem herself and the mission by going with the 2 knuckleheads."

Annie eventually formed a word from her shocked shell of self,

"Sister?"

"Historia is my half-sister, also a bastard of my father."

They sat there then, looking at each other, both seemed to be slightly broken, what sins had he committed? Annie wondered. He could handle the burden, but how much? Was he ready for her luggage? She did not know.

"I let you out, my love.." trailed Nathaniel, "Free to choose, to go back to them, or help us "island devils", your choice. I just need something from you."

To be free, she knew she wanted, but to go back to Marley, after she blew her cover, she didn't know what would come of it. Or stay here, after she killed some of the "island devils", she did not know what path to take, all she knew is that she wanted to start walking, away from here.

"What is the cost?" she inquired.

"A favor, to help us, especially me," replied Nathaniel

"How so a favor?"

"Just tell me here and now, your true motives and…" he trailed off, " ... feelings for me, my love."