N.B : If you'd like to get early access to the next 13 chapters of Universal hope (Chapter 14-26) Chapter 13 (Eyes in the day) and Chapter 14 (Fissures), Chapter 15 (The hollowing), Chapter 16 (Night of terror), Chapter 17 (Counter), Chapter 18 (Sunrise), Chapter 19 (Binding wounds), Chapter 20 (Demonic prowl) Chapter 21 (The scent of prey-Part 1), Chapter 22 (The scent of prey-Part 2), Chapter 23 (Scourge), Chapter 24 (Hammer and axil), Chapter 25 (Purge-Part 1) and chapter 26 (Purge-Part 2) for as low as $3, why not consider supporting me at Patreon.com/Weeb Fanthom. Your donations will be very much appreciated.
Wasteland Work Site – Trenches, Southern Wall Rose
The sun hung like a molten coin in the sky, baking the cracked earth of the southern wasteland. Within the wasteland, the trenches ran like old scars through the grey earth; dry, cracked veins carved out by desperate hands and too many shovels. The trenches were deep enough to swallow a Titan, but the MPs watching them kept barking for more; deeper, wider, faster. That's all those greedy bastards ranted all day.
The air reeked of damp soil and sweat as refugee workers dug, hauled, and cursed under their breath. At the moment, the place had become a maze of half-dug ditches where refugees stooped like shadows, their backs bent under the weight of labor and hunger. Mud stuck to their boots, even though it hadn't rained in days. That's what the old trenches did: held on to rot long after the soil dried. The summer sun was merciless above, yet the deeper they dug, the colder it seemed to feel; like something was watching from under the dirt.
Eren's spade struck the dry soil with more force than necessary with a grunt, sending clumps of dirt flying into the trench beside him.
Clang. Clang. Clang.
Each strike was punctuated by the low murmur of other workers, refugees, mostly. Kids his age, some younger, some older, all with the same hollow look in their eyes. Survival had worn them down to the bone.
Sweat matted the brunette's hair to his forehead. His sleeves were rolled up, caked in dust, his infant muscles sore and trembling. Armin knelt beside him, his own spade moving with less aggression but equal exhaustion. His face was smeared with dirt, his blonde hair dull under the dust. At his other side, Mikasa worked with silent precision, her movements efficient, her eyes flicking to Eren every few seconds.
Once again, Eren's spade struck the dirt with unnecessary force, his knuckles were white around the handle and his jaw was clenched so tight it ached.
'Stupid. Stupid. Stupid!' Eren thought to himself as he poured his frustration on the ground below him. He should've taken Hannes' offer. The old garrison soldier had slipped them a way out.
"Just say you're helping me with supply logs, and you can skip the fields today."
But no. Eren had refused. Because somewhere in this godforsaken trench, buried under layers of dirt and despair, was his father's basement key.
And he'd lost it. He could feel the phantom weight of the key around his neck, the absence of it like a missing limb. That key was his last connection to his father. To answers. To something beyond this endless cycle of digging and starving.
And now it was gone.
Fucking idiot!
Every strike of Eren's spade hit harder than the last, until Mikasa finally murmured, "You'll split it in half."
"Good," Eren muttered. "Then I won't have to keep using it."
"Yeager's working hard for once." A very familiar voice cut through the grunts of labor, dripping with mockery.
Speak of the devil. The worst part wasn't the labor. It was who was stationed with them.
"Hey runt," Bran's voice rang out, nasal and smug, from across the trench as he leaned on his shovel like it was a throne scepter. "Try not to break the poor tool, yeah? I know those baby hands are still learning to grip properly."
The other kids chuckled, but no one laughed louder than Bran himself.
Eren's grip on the spade turned white-knuckled, taking all his will power not to turn to the blonde bastard and punch him right on his face. Mikasa's eyes flicked to Bran with quiet venom. "Ignore him."
Eren clenched his jaw. He muttered under his breath, "Why is he here?"
"You're asking that now?" Armin whispered. "We're all assigned randomly, Eren."
"Random my ass," Eren muttered.
Mikasa's gaze sharpened. "If he pushes again, I'll handle it."
"No," Eren muttered bitterly as he just kept digging, faster now. More frantic. "Let me." The key's absence gnawed at him worse than Bran's taunts. But it didn't help that he was here.
Armin, crouched closer beside Eren, giving him a worried glance and leaned in to whisper, voice low enough that only the three of them could hear. "Eren… are you sure you didn't leave it at home?"
Eren paused mid-dig, jaw clenched, eyes dark under the shadow of his bangs. "I've looked. Heck, I turned the room inside out. The shed, the back shelf, even under the floorboards. I even went through the damn stove ash," he hissed. "It's not there."
"You're absolutely certain?" Armin whispered, barely audible over the scrape of shovels.
Eren's grip on the handle tightened. "I've been tearing everything apart since Sunday" Eren nearly snarled as he stabbed the spade again into the earth. "Yesterday. Morning till night. I didn't even sleep."
"And you think it's here?" Mikasa's voice was low, slightly glancing at the other workers, especially Bran, who was now currently lounged against a half-dug trench wall, smirking in their direction. It was almost tempting to punch that boy's face in.
Eren nodded slowly. "I had it clipped to my jacket the last time I came here for the northern survey shift. It was on me when I—" He caught himself. He couldn't say when I turned into a monster and almost killed a girl. "—I think it… fell off somewhere."
Armin blinked. "Wait, then why are we even here? We could've taken Hannes' offer and helped my Grandpa in the irrigation fields."
"Mr Hannes can't protect us forever. And we can't keep relying on favors." Mikasa said quietly. The garrison had often tried to excuse them from any form of excessive manual labor. It would only be a matter of time before the MPs posted in the refugee camp would take notice, they can't afford for the man to be in trouble because of them.
A bitter laugh escaped Eren's lips. "Right. Because this is so much better." He jammed the spade into the earth again, sending a clump of dirt flying.
Armin exhaled, his shoulders sagging from the numbness of gripping a shovel for a long time. "Eren… if the key is out here, we'll find it. But we have to be careful. If the MPs see us slacking—"
"That key is the only thing left of my father, Armin. The only clue we have. And I lost it." Eren snapped as he cut him off, voice dropped to a growl.
Armin flinched at his friend's unexpected sharp tone at him, making Eren immediately regret the outburst. He dragged a hand through his hair, fingers catching on knots. "I just… I need it back." Eren muttered bitterly, "Because if I don't find that key, none of this will matter. Not the trenches. Not the crops. Not even this goddamn device." His voice cracked slightly at the end. "It's gone…and it's my fault."
Armin's expression softened. "Eren…"
A heavy silence falls between them, the only sound the rhythmic thud of spades and shovels hitting dirt. Then Mikasa quietly asked, "What if someone else found it?"
The possibility made Eren's gut twist. He stared at the dirt pile like it had the answer. "Then we're all screwed."
The weight of those words pressed down on him harder than the harsh sun above. The key; his father's key; the one thing tying him to whatever truth lay beneath their ruined home…was missing. And the last place he remembered having it was…
The forest. With her.
The blonde girl. The one who had seen him transform. The one who had pinned him down like he was nothing.
Eren's stomach twisted.
"Damn, Yeager. You dig like you're trying to bury someone. Got a body to hide?" Bran yelled over from his place, determined to irk the brunette as he watched Eren work.
Eren didn't look up. "Shut up, Bran."
Bran scoffed. "What's the matter, Yeager? Finally realized you're not cut out for real work?" He called out, loud enough to draw attention.
Eren's vision tinged red.
"Bran," Armin warned, voice tense. Mikasa's shovel scraped deliberately loud beside Eren, even she too was getting pissed by the older kid.
Eren's grip on his shovel was white-knuckled once more. "I swear if he says one more—"
"Ignore him," Mikasa said again, this time stepping slightly in front of Eren. "He's just noise."
Bran sneered at the jab. "Oh, come on, princess. Protecting your little boyfriend again? Seriously Jaeger, this is the best you can do? Can't handle a little dirt without your watchdog?"
Eren finally snapped under the rude remarks. "Say that again."
Bran tilted his head. "Did I stutter?"
"Repeat what you just said about Mikasa, Bran." Eren said darkly, already moving towards the bully's position.
Armin barely caught him by the elbow. "Eren, don't! He's not worth it. We can't afford to fight!" Armin said quickly under his breath as he barely restrained his friend from going any further.
"I don't care!" Eren hissed. "I've got a freak in my head whispering murder lullabies, a key that might've just walked away, and this piece of shit thinks I'm gonna play nice?!"
Mikasa stepped in this time, hand firm on Eren's shoulder. "Eren, look at me. Breathe."
The word hit like a command. Eren's chest rose and fell rapidly. He stared at Bran like he wanted to bury him under six feet of gravel.
"Aw, is the little runt crying? Need his bodyguard to wipe his tears?" Bran mocked from across the trench. Eren's entire body tensed up in boiling anger. Mikasa's hand subtly shifted, ready to restrain him if need he lunges.
"Eren, don't. Not here." Armin said quickly in a desperate whisper, still holding onto one of his elbows. "He's just riling you up."
For a second, it looks like Eren might snap; might throw his spade, might charge at Bran, might do something reckless. It wasn't a good sign as Eren's eyes glanced down at where the omnitrix resided on his left wrist, now bandaged for hiding said device.
"Hey what's with the ruckus! Eyes on your work, maggots! No talking!" An MP officer barked from the trench edge having seen that a fight was about to occur.
The moment shatters, but not the tension. Eren exhales sharply, shoulders slumping slightly. He glared at Bran then at the dirt.
For a second, the older boy looked like he might push it, but seeing as the MP officer looked like he might come over, he backed off with a muttered curse. "Tch, whatever. If you'll excuse me dirt-rats, I have digging to do."
Bran turned away with a snort, barking some orders to the other teens in his workgroup; all of them slacking, tossing rocks, or carving dumb messages into trench walls.
With no reason to spring into a fight, Eren let out a slow ragged breath. "I'm losing it.
"You're exhausted," Armin said as he let go of Erens elbow, likewise Mikasa who had been holding down Eren's shoulders.
"No. I'm losing it." Eren corrected, looking at the dirt under his boots. "I keep seeing things. Shadows that twitch. Lights that blink. Phantom's presence anytime I walk." He shook his head. "If I lose that key; that last real connection to Dad…I don't know what I'll do."
Mikasa's voice was soft, but firm. "You'll keep going."
"How?"
"Like you always have. With us."
Eren looked away, biting the inside of his cheek.
A silence settled over them, broken only by the crunch of boots and the occasional clang of metal on stone. In the far distance, near the tree-line of the western side of the fields, they could see figures of other refugee workers. Among them, a familiar older man with a brown hat bent back. Grandpa Arlet was tending to water cans in the irrigation field, occasionally glancing toward the trench line.
Eren followed Armin's gaze. "He's been working nonstop too."
"He's trying to distract himself," Armin murmured. "Grieving quietly. Like you."
Eren swallowed. "Do you think he'd forgive me if he found out… about Phantom? About what's inside me?"
"Would your mother?" Mikasa asked softly.
The silence grew heavier.
"…No," Eren admitted. "She'd scream. Or cry. Or worse, she'd look at me like I'm not her son anymore."
Mikasa gripped Eren's arm, refusing to let him spiral into such thinking. "You are her son, no matter what's in you."
"But I feel like something else is trying to take over." Eren replied in honesty.
"…Do you think the key might've fallen into the wrong hands?" Armin asked after a pregnant pause.
Eren slowly nodded.
"And if that happens?" Armin pressed. "What then?"
Eren looked up toward the distant wasteland horizon, squinting into the sun and watching as a flock of birds flew overheard. "Then we're already too late." His voice came out hoarse.
His voice cuts off as his eyes dart toward the other side of the trench, where Bran lazily flings dirt over his shoulder.
"You think he took it?" Mikasa asked as he eyed Bran for a while. Eren shook his head in disagreement. "No, I don't think so. He is definitely not the kind to have interest in an old key."
Eren wanted to scream. Wanted to break something. Instead, he bent down, picked up his spade, and kept digging. "Let's just get back to work, the sooner we finish the better."
Later, 12:00 PM…
The hours blurred. The sun climbed higher, the heat thickening the air until it felt like breathing soup. Sweat rolled down Eren's temples, mixing with the dirt on his face. His hands were raw; his knees were bruised from kneeling on the hard earth.
Every few minutes as he worked, his fingers would brush against something; a rock, a root; and his heart would leap before crashing back down.
Nothing.
Mikasa and Armin helped in the search while they did their work. The former's eyes kept flicking to Eren, watching the way his frustration simmered beneath the surface. She knew what that key meant to him, knew what it cost him to lose it.
It wasn't until the work shift had ended with the sharp blast of an overseer's whistle, that Eren finally stopped. While other refugees slumped out of the trenches, their bodies aching and their spirits broken from overwork.
Eren's hands were shaking and he barely even noticed.
It's not here.
The key wasn't in the trench. It wasn't buried in the dirt. He had to accept what he had been desperately trying to avoid this whole time. It wasn't lost…
…It was taken.
A flash of memory hit him like a punch: the fight with Annie, the way she'd pinned him, the inevitable fight, him nearly killing her. Then the key…
…The key. He remembered, even if it felt like a blur at the moment. When he was angry and charged at her, something small wrapped around his neck fell loose. His key had fallen.
"No." Eren abruptly said, startling Armin and Mikasa.
Armin frowned. "What?"
Eren's breath came too fast. "She has it."
Mikasa's head snapped toward him. "Eren, we don't get you…"
"That girl. She has it. That's the only answer." The words tasted like ash in his mouth; the worse part he doesn't even know her name. Beneath Eren's anger upon coming to this conclusion, beneath the frustration, there was something else.
Fear.
His mind was racing at the implications.
The key, if she knew what it opened…
What else would she know?
It didn't matter now. She had the key, his father's key, his key. And he was going to get it back.
__________________
Annie hated manual labor.
Not because it was hard; she could snap a man's spine with her bare hands if she wanted to; but because it was pointless. Uprooting trees in a wasteland? As if that would bring back the farmlands.
She perched on a felled oak, watching her two associates; a blonde slightly muscular (He's still growing I know he is jacked) and a tall black haired boy; far taller for someone his age; wrestle with roots as thick as Titans' arms while she peeled bark from the log she was sitting on with her finger like it owed her something. The roots of dead trees snapped like bones under the blonde male's; Reiner's; heavy axe. He grunted with each swing; developing muscles caked in dirt and sweat. While the tall lanky boy; Bertholdt; stood nearby, hauling cleared trunks to the side, silent but not slacking. Sweat gleamed on their backs, muscles straining while she hadn't lifted a single log since morning.
Nobody had pushed her. Nobody was that stupid.
"You could help," Reiner panted.
"I'm supervising," she deadpanned.
"You know, people are starting to notice you barely do any work almost every time." Reiner retorted as he shot her a look; We're supposed to blend in; but said nothing.
Annie didn't respond as she preoccupied herself with whatever she was doing. Bertholdt spoke up instead. "We'll cover for you if anyone comes. But seriously… what are you doing?"
She rolled the bark into curls in her hand. "Thinking." She said with a low voice.
"About?" The tall boy asked.
"Something stupid."
Neither Reiner nor Bertholdt pushed. They were used to Annie talking in code…Or not at all.
But today, she was thinking. Hard. Her mind was elsewhere: on the iron key burning a hole in her pocket. The key had been stuffed into her coat's inner lining since yesterday. Ever since that boy, or that red titan he was, had run from the woods like something had been breathing down his neck. He'd left it. Dropped it. Or maybe it fell off in that chaotic lightshow of a transformation. Maybe something in him didn't want it anymore, who knows.
Annie hadn't meant to take it…Well that was a lie. She'd definitely meant to take it. Information was power, and this key; laced with an old string rope; was something. But now, after pulling it from her pocket and staring at it in the daylight, she wasn't sure what to do with it.
Eren Yeager. A refugee with a monster in his skin and a key to… what? Some Eldian secret Marley hadn't scrubbed from history? She twirled the key between her fingers.
He wasn't ordinary.
The strange device he had on his wrist, the monstrous forms he unleashed… that wasn't Titan science. That wasn't anything she'd been trained for. Just what the hell-
"Annie." Reiner's voice snapped her back to the present. He was frowning at her. "You've been zoning out all morning. What's up?"
"Nothing," she said automatically.
Before Reiner could say anything, a shout cut him off. "Hey," Reiner said, head turning towards the distance where he heard the noise. "Did you hear that?"
Annie's head snapped up. There; somewhere between the trunks and hills; the same voice echoed faintly.
"…I told you it isn't there! This is a waste of time!"
Annie froze; her spine nearly stiffened on instinct. That voice; raw, young, furious; was unmistakable.
Eren Yeager.
Perfect.
She'd get answers to her questions after all.
Annie's brows furrowed as she stood up from the felled oak she had been sitting on. Her hand slipped the key back into her coat.
"I'm going to check it out." Annie said abruptly.
Reiner blinked. "Wait, what? Annie, the MP supervisors—"
"Tell them I'm bleeding or something. They won't check."
Bertholdt frowned, this was unlike her. "Annie…"
"I'll be back." With that, she pivoted on her heel and started striding toward the source of the voice. Her boots crunched through the gravel with quiet resolve. As she walked, her fingers curled around the key in her pocket.
Time to see what you're really hiding, Eren Yeager.
________________
Eren sighed in frustration, they had been looking for someone who might not even be here in the first place. "It's been nearly 2 hours, and we still haven't found that damn key." Eren hissed. He stopped, dragging his hand across his face.
Mikasa tilted her head. "You think Phantom took it?"
"No." Eren hesitated. "…At least, I don't think so. My key can't just disappear into the device."
Then she appeared.
Annie Leonhardt strode toward them, sunlight glinting off her braid, her expression colder than Wall Rose's shadow. She wasn't expecting Eren had company with him. There, beside him, was a dark-haired girl and a smaller blonde boy. However, Annie's focus wasn't on them, it was completely on Eren.
For a long moment, the two just stared at each other; jade meeting steel blue once again.
Then, slowly, Annie pulled the key from her pocket.
Armin stiffened. "No way."
Eren's blood turned to slush. The key dangled from her fingers, catching the sunlight and swinging like a pendulum. His key.
"Looking for this?" Annie asked, voice flat and cool.
Eren's breath hitched, then his eyes narrowed. Mikasa's hand shot out, gripping Eren's wrist before he could lunge. They can't be acting rashly at the moment.
Armin stepped forward, eyes wide. "You—you have his key?" Annie's gaze never left Eren's as she answered Armin's dreaded question. "He dropped it."
Eren's voice came out as a growl. "Give. It. Back."
Annie tilted her head, not really fazed by his aggression. "Or what? You'll turn into that thing again?"
The air between them crackled. And all Eren saw at the moment was red…
BLEEP! BLEEP!
The Omnitrix pulsed under his bandages, a jolt of purple searing up his veins. Phantom's voice slithered through his skull for a brief second.
"Crush her. You know you want to."
Eren gasped, staggering back a bit and earning worried expressions from his two friends.
"Eren?" Mikasa said with concern. Eren's vision cleared as the omnitrix settled, he shook his head to get rid of any residual echoes of Phantom's voice.
"I'm fine", he muttered. Annie's eyes had flicked down when she caught something moving out of her field of vision. Saw when a shadow twitched at Eren's feet…and it was smiling…at her. Annie blinked just for a second, only to see that his shadow was normal again.
What the hell was that?
Afterwards a silence standoff pressed down like gravity as neither of the four moved from their position. Eren's fists trembled at his sides. Every part of his body screamed to move, to strike, to take the key back, but a part of him remembered the way how she had easily pinned him down the last time they met had he not activated the device. The way how she fought and moved wasn't like your average brawler in the streets. She was skilled, very much so at that.
Annie stood still, calm and unblinking. She was provoking him-No-she was testing him.
"You're not scared of me, why?" Eren said slowly, voice low and tight.
Annie gave a faint shrug. "Maybe I should, maybe I shouldn't. I'm just more cautious."
Mikasa's eyes were sharp as blades. She stepped forward, placing herself between Annie and Eren now, stance subtle but ready. "You picked something up that doesn't belong to you. Give it back."
"Maybe I will." Annie said as she let the key dangle again, then closed her fist around it. "But first, I want answers."
Eren clenched his jaw. "You don't get to ask questions."
Annie raised her eyebrow. "Then maybe I'll just hang onto it until I do."
Mikasa stepped forward. "I wouldn't ask again. Give it back."
Armin quickly cut in, stepping between the girls before anything could escalate. "Let's… everyone just take a breath." His voice came out calm but strained. "We can talk this through. Eh...sorry I didn't catch your name."
Annie didn't respond immediately. Her gaze remained locked on Eren's, even as she spoke. "Annie."
"Ok, Annie. Why don't you just tell us what you want to know?"
Annie's gaze flicked from Eren's face to his bandaged wrist, already knowing what is hidden beneath it. "That thing in your wrist. It's not… anything I've ever seen." Her tone was hard, clipped. "What is it?"
Mikasa and Armin's brows furrowed in both shock and confusion, they certainly expecting that question. What's she talking about?
Annie's question hung in the air like a blade. Eren didn't answer. Couldn't. The Omnitrix on his wrist pulsed once beneath the bandages, like it could feel the question digging in. Around them, the wasteland held its breath, tension brewing to the surface.
Eren's bandaged wrist suddenly felt like a beacon. On instinct, he pulled his sleeve down further, hoping to hide the device within it from Annie's pensive stare. Unfortunately for him, Annie's steel-blue eyes didn't waver.
"It's just bandages." Mikasa said sternly, her voice cut through the tension like a blade though you could tell there was a bit of slight apprehension within her voice.
Annie's lips twitched slightly, almost a smirk. "I find that nearly had to believe. Seems too convenient to hide something."
Armin, ever the diplomat, forced a nervous laugh. "The bandages? Oh, that's—uh—just a sprain! From digging. Right, Eren?"
Eren didn't answer. His eyes were still locked onto Annie's, his jaw was clenched so tight his teeth ached. Annie's expression didn't change likewise. She tilted her head, slow and deliberate, like a predator sizing up prey. "A sprain," she repeated, voice flat. "That's why it glows green? And turns you can into monsters?"
Armin's breath hitched. She knows. His mind raced; how did Annie know? How much did she understand?
Mikasa's grip tightened. "What did you just say?"
Annie's fingers flexed around the key. "You heard me."
Armin stepped forward, hands raised in a placating gesture. "Look, there's been a misunderstanding. Let's not overcomplicate things—"
"Enough with the lies, I'm not stupid." Annie's voice was ice. "I saw him. The things he turns into." Her fingers tightened around the key. "Tell me what it is, or you could forget ever seeing this again."
"You don't know what you're talking about," Eren snarled, stepping forward. Mikasa barely held him back. Eren's vision tunneled. The Omnitrix pulsed under his bandages, a sickly purple flicker seeping through the fabric.
"Tell her. No, better—show her. Let her understand what kind of thing she's playing with." Phantom purred from the depths of his mind.
Eren gritted his teeth. "You don't know what you're messing with."
Annie tilted her head. "Then enlighten me."
Eren's pulse spiked. His fingers twitched toward the bandages, but Armin and Mikasa stopped him before he could react. The looks in their eyes said it all.
Don't do it, please.
Mikasa's attention turned to the person who still held Eren's key at bay, her hand twitched toward the makeshift knife (Who allowed her to carry that around?) hidden in her boot. "Last chance. Hand over the key."
Annie's eyes studied the trio intently, clearly not willing to budge. A sigh escaped her lips, barely fazed by Mikasa's warning. "Too bad. I think I'll be keeping this with me for the time being, unless you have something to prove."
Annie watched Eren's expression carefully. "You're not normal, Yeager. Not even weird. You're something else." Her eyes narrowed slightly. "And I think the MPs would be very interested to hear about it."
Mikasa's fingers twitched around the hilt of the knife she had hidden. "Are you threatening him?" she said flatly.
"No," Annie replied. "I'm warning him."
The words hung in the air like smoke.
Armin's voice was tight now. "If you give it to the wrong person… if you report this—"
Annie didn't flinch. "I haven't told anyone. Not yet."
That "yet" was a knife at all their throats.
Heavy silence laced between the four of them. This wasn't just a threat, this was an ultimatum. Even if Eren refuses to show her what he's hiding or find the opportunity to snatch the key from her, she could easily report to the MPs about this. So many unanswered questions rung in the air, but one question remained in the minds of Mikasa and Armin.
Who's this girl?...And how did she know Eren?
Eren finally stepped forward, slightly brushing Mikasa's hand aside. His eyes burned; not with rage, but with something worse.
Determination.
"If you want answers, then fine. But you have to promise me you'll give me the key, and keep this a secret." he said quietly.
Annie's expression flickered, just slightly. "I'm all ears."
Armin's voice cracked with panic. "Eren, don't—" But Eren was already yanking his sleeve up, revealing the Omnitrix beneath the bandages. The device pulsed faintly, its green glow reflecting in Annie's icy blue eyes making her instincts screamed in slight apprehension, recalling what happened the other day before yesterday.
"Well, are you satisfied?" Annie's gaze flicked from the device to Eren's face. "No. Because you still haven't told me what it is."
Mikasa's eyes narrowed slightly, just who the hell does this girl think she is? "It's none of your business." Her voice carried a razor's edge.
"It is if he's hiding a weapon that could level this camp." Mikasa and Armin stiffened slightly, just how did she know that?
What was Eren really hiding?
Eren barked a laugh. "You look like more of the lone wolf type to me."
Annie's eyes narrowed. "I care about threats."
The tension coiled tighter, suffocating. Armin's breath came too fast. Mikasa's knuckles whitened around Eren's wrist.
"I barely understand what I'm capable of, what's inside me," Eren said, his voice lower now, more haunted. "I wouldn't wish it on anyone. Not even you."
He didn't finish.
He didn't have to, because she understands, had seen it first hand.
Annie's grip on the key faltered, just slightly. Her gaze finally broke from Eren's. She looked at Armin, then at Mikasa, then down at the key again. Then she walked forward with slow, deliberate movements.
The trio tensed as Annie stopped a foot in front of Eren. Her eyes were unreadable. "Finders keepers doesn't always work, Yeager," she murmured. Then, almost anticlimactically, she reached out; and dropped the key into his palm.
The moment got shattered with a distant scream. A scream that tore through the wasteland.
All four of them jerked toward the sound. The scream came from the far side of the wasteland where the MPs had been patrolling. It wasn't a shout of anger, neither a cry of pain.
It was Terror. Raw, unfiltered terror.
Afterwards a cacophony of shouts erupted from. Refugees were running, clustering around something near the irrigation ditches. MPs barked orders, their voices sharp with panic.
"What's going on back there?" Armin whispered as the distant thud of boots pounding dirt grew louder.
Annie's expression didn't change, but her eyebrows slightly furrowed. "Trouble."
This time, a feminine scream echoed again, shrill and jagged, cutting through the wasteland like a knife.
Mikasa tugged on Eren's arm. "We need to go. Now."
But Eren didn't move. His eyes were locked on the horizon, where the crowd was gathering. Something was wrong. Deeply wrong.
Eren's fingers clenched around the key, the metal biting into his palm. His pulse roared in his ears, drowning out the distant chaos. For a split second, his vision flickered—purple at the edges, like static creeping in.
"Run," Phantom's voice slithered through his skull. "Before they see what you've done."
Eren shuddered. What I've done?
Before he knew it, the brunette was already walking towards the commotion, his feet moving on their own as his feet kicked up dust. The key burned in his fist, but his mind was elsewhere; locked onto that scream, and sheer terror etched in it.
"Eren!" Mikasa yelled.
"Wait—!" Armin called after him, but he didn't stop. With that the two took off after Eren, gaining up on him at his heels.
Annie hesitated for a second watching as they left, then followed after them. Just what the hell was she doing?
________________
Irrigation ditch site.
The refugees were a writhing mass of panic, their voices overlapping in a cacophony of fear as they could only watch the sheer disaster they were looking at. As Eren, Mikasa, Armin and Annie parted their way through, they could make out some of the conversations the crowd was discussing among themselves.
"They found him like that."
"—no way a person did that."
"But the eyes were still open—"
MPs were still barking orders, shoving people back as they cordoned off a section of the irrigation ditch. Their faces were pale, their hands twitching near their rifles. One of them; a grizzled officer with a scar down his cheek; vomited into the dirt, barely able to stomach what he was looking at. Eren pushed through the crowd, his heart hammering.
When he reached the front, that's when he saw it.
At the center, two MPs inspecting a corpse from the trench.
The body lay sprawled in the ditch; limbs twisted at unnatural angles. The dead man's uniform identified him as an MP officer, but it was torn with the fabric stiff with dried blood. The corpse was fresh; maybe a day or two old; but the skin was already mottled green-black, bloated from the summer heat. However, that wasn't what made Eren's stomach lurch.
It was the face.
The man's eyes were wide, bulging, the whites shot through with burst capillaries. His mouth was frozen in a silent scream, lips peeled back from teeth stained pink. But worst of all…
…The marks on his neck.
Dark, finger-shaped bruises wrapped around his throat like a grotesque necklace. The skin was split in places, as if something with claws had dug in and squeezed until the bones beneath cracked.
All of a sudden, a too familiar laughter echoed in his skull.
"You don't remember? Let me remind you." Phantom's voice slithered like repressed oil.
A memory surged violently, unbidding Eren's view as it morphed into something else…
…Darkness. The Omnitrix's glow, sickly purple with dark lines eerily similar to phantom's streamlined along his body. His body was moving like it was being controlled, and he didn't know where he was heading to.
A man's flashlight swept through the trees in the forest near the refugee camp. "Who's there?" The man called out.
The only response he got was a snarl. Not Eren's, and definitely not human despite emitting from the boy's throat.
The memory was cut short with a new one showing a pale hand, small but impossibly strong, wrapped around a throat. The man's face was purpling; his hands were desperately scrabbling around the wrist of the fingers choking the life out of him. Except it barely did a thing, only made the sickly digit fingers close tighter around the man's throat; effectively silencing his screams.
A shrill voice began laughing—no, not laughing. Purring.
"Pathetic. You humans break so easily." It rattled with the mix of Eren and Phantom's voice etched together as one.
Eren's breath hitched as the flashback abruptly ended. He staggered back, bile rising in his throat. This dead MP, was the man that was strangled in his flashback, and those hands…that would mean-
No.
That wasn't his memory.
It couldn't be.
But the bruises on his own arms; the ones he'd woken with yesterday (Remember that small scene from chapter 12 when Eren woke up); ached in phantom sympathy despite them being completely healed.
"Eren?" He didn't know who was talking, the voice was distant.
Eren looked down at his own hands. His human hands. But in his mind, they were alien. Clawed and pale, strong enough to crush bone.
Phantom's hands…His hands…
"Oh god," Eren whispered.
The MP hadn't been killed by a Thug.
He'd been strangled.
And Phantom—He—had done it.
The world tilted. The voices around him blurred into static.
"Eren!" Armin's voice yanked him back from his turmoil. Eren gasped, his knees buckled beneath him, barley able to hold him upright. The crowd's murmurs crescendoed around him.
Mikasa's normally composed voice was sharp with worry beside him, having caught him before he completely buckled to the floor. "Eren. Look at me, Eren!"
He couldn't. His gaze was locked on the corpse.
The MP's dead eyes seemed to stare right at him. Accusing.
You did this.
In the commotion of the crowd, Annie stood frozen at the edge of the crowd, not too far from the trio of friends, but her eyes locked on the corpse, then on Eren's disarrayed state. It was no rocket science on why he's acting like this, unless, he knew what happened or worse… he did this.
The blonde girl didn't want to believe this, but a part of her knew. Instantly remembering how the boy in that red titan form nearly strangled her to death.
Eren met her gaze, his own wide with horror.
The world narrowed to a single, horrifying point: Annie's eyes locking onto Eren's, her expression dangerously unreadable.
For a heartbeat, no one moved.
The corpse lay between them like an accusation, the MPs barked orders, the refugees whispered in hushed terror. But in that frozen moment, only two things mattered:
The key in Eren's fist.
And the truth in Annie's gaze.
She knows it is him that likely did this.
The realization hit Eren like a blade between the ribs. Annie didn't speak. She didn't need to. Her gaze flicked from the dead MP's throat to Eren's trembling hands, then back to his face. Her expression didn't change, but something in her stance did; subtle; like a blade being drawn an inch from its sheath.
You did this.
Eren's mouth moved soundlessly, wanting to deny what Annie was thinking.
I didn't— But the memory was there, clawing at the edges of his mind: Phantom's laughter, the sickening crunch of cartilage, the way the man's legs had kicked uselessly in the dirt before going still.
And worse, the satisfaction that had curled through him in that moment when he took the innocent life.
Not his.
Never his.
But it had been his hands.
Eren's blood turned to ice as Phantom's laughter slithered through his skull, oily and triumphant. "Whoops. Guess the cat's out of the bag."
"EVERYONE, BACK UP!" An MP roared, shoving through the crowd. "This area is now a crime scene! Anyone caught lingering will be detained!"
The spell shattered. The crowd surged backward, jostling Eren and his friends apart. A presence came at their midst, revealing to be grandpa Arlet.
"Grandpa…" Armin called out only to freeze at the shaken expression on the old man's face. "We need to go. This place isn't safe for now." Grandpa Arlet reasoned as he grabbed hold of the three kids and took them away from the crowd of shaken people.
Eren didn't argue. He couldn't tear his eyes away from Annie.
She stood perfectly still amidst the chaos, her gaze never leaving his receding figure. Annie took a single step back, and just like that, she melted into the crowd, vanishing like a ghost. One second, she was there; her silent expression heavy with accusation. The next, she was gone, vanished into the sea of panicked refugees and barking MPs.
Eren's breath came in ragged gasps. His fingers clenched around the key, the metal biting into his palm. She knows.
The world blurred as Grandpa Arlet dragged them toward the safety camp. The silence would have been comforting, but all Eren felt was the wrongness squirming under his skin. The Omnitrix pulsed, its green glow flickering…then purple. Just for a few seconds.
"Let me out, Eren… and this ends." A whisper slithered through the silence. Eren's breath hitched. The voice wasn't just in his head…it was behind him. He whirled his head to see who was behind him, only to see nothing. As he kept walking with his two friends and grandpa Arlet, an intangible grip on his shoulder made him freeze, unable to ignore the dreaded feeling, Eren's green eyes turned back, and there Phantom stood. Not in the Omnitrix. Not in his mind. Outside. Behind him.
The brunette wanted to scream but he couldn't, not without making a scene. The tunnel of his vision blurred at the edges, purple static creeping in as Phantom drew closer till his ash like breath etched near Eren's ear. "Let me out," Phantom's voice slithered as his ghostly grip tightened around the boy's shoulder's, "or the next body won't be a stranger."
This made Eren's eyes widen, before he could respond, the world snapped back into focus. Phantom's presence was gone. But the threat lingered in his mind.
Chapter 14-26: Chapter 14 (Fissures), Chapter 15 (The hollowing), Chapter 16 (Night of terror), Chapter 17 (Counter), Chapter 18 (Sunrise), Chapter 19 (Binding wounds), Chapter 20 (Demonic prowl), Chapter 21 (The scent of prey- Part 1), Chapter 22 (The scent of prey- Part 2), Chapter 23 (Scourge), Chapter 24 (Hammer and axil), Chapter 25 (Purge-Part 1) and chapter 26 (Purge-Part 2) are already available on Patreon.com/Weeb Fanthom for as low as $3.