The Guardian's Tale (AOT fanfiction)

-Violence-

(A/N : So there WILL be slight manga spoilers in this chapter due to flashforwards, I am so sorry in advance. If you do not wish to see them, skip the bolded/italic sentences.)

No one had ever questioned what made someone evil, what made them a threat to someone's life or what made them a traitor, yet as I looked into the cold emerald eyes that once held love and kindness, lies upon lies filled my mind, lies that he had nonchalantly spat out. As my palms slowly burnt away at the table, the silence only got heavier with every passing second and kept drowning me deeper into an ocean of emptiness as the love I had learned to feel slowly faded.

"I want to have a nice, calm talk." Eren finally spoke up in an emotionless voice. "We don't need to fight to solve Eldia's problems. Don't worry about Hange and your friends, we're just moving them somewhere else, that's all."

The chains binding me to the Founder only got tighter and Armin voiced the questions that we all wanted answers too, why had he attacked Marley on his own but more importantly...had Zeke and Yelena really managed to convince him to join them ? Despite his ever lasting silence, his eyes spoke for themselves and were as translucent as the glass windows beside us, he had been controlled this entire times just as I had and made into the same oblivious puppet.

"I am free." He calmly objected. "No matter what I do or how I do it, I'm acting of my own free will."

This lie just piled onto every single excuses he had tried to carve into my mind for the past few weeks, the dream he had always seeked to achieve but chosen to crush to dust. Even the ashes and destruction left behind by my flames could not compare to the chaos that was his mind.

"It's no use lying Eren." I whispered. "Can you not see yourself as clearly as I can ?"

"She's right." Mikasa agreed. "You're being manipulated. You'd never get innocent or children involved, even those from an enemy nation, and you care about us more than anything else !"

As Mikasa started to finally speak her pain, I focused my gaze on the table and tried to think of every possible outcome of this conversation but could only see one, the one where he chose his plan over our lives. He can't transform in here...but now I can't be sure of anything. I used Eren's distracted state to quietly bring my hands inches above the table as I hardened my finger, but just as I was about to slice my palm open, his voice echoed through the room.

"I said keep your hands on the table." He warned. "Or do you want to finally own up to your title of monster and be the reason for yet another death...Yuki ?"

Shocked and horrified by his words, I placed my shaking hands back onto the tablecloth and my glassy eyes locked with his, hoping to catch a glimpse of even the slightest bit of regret or guilt but found nothing except for pure apathy. His voice lost all traces of anger and he revealed that when we were both in Liberio, he had spoken to Zeke alone while I was sleeping, which led him to discover that he knew more about Titans than Marley did.

"Armin, you're still going to see Annie right ?" He asked. "Are you doing that of your own free will ? If memories make us who we are, then part of you has turned into Bertholdt. An enemy soldier who's in love with another one of our enemies. Armin, Bertholdt has taken over your brain. You're the one being manipulated by the enemy."

"Eren that's enough !" I growled. "What do y-"

"That goes for you too, Yuki." He interrupted coldly. "Your Titan's role is merely to obey me like a perfect little puppet or in your case...an assassin. Don't you ever forget who controls your life."

For a moment his words echoed through my mind even though I knew all too well that I hadn't been created because my parents wanted me, but rather to tear my family apart and make me a designated killer for the rest of my life. Before I had time to get a single word in, he looked at Mikasa and told her what I had always feared for her to hear, the Ackerman family was formed to protect the king of Eldia. I was about to get up when his heel started digging into my ankle with all the strength in his body, forcing me to stay down and preventing me from being able to reach him.

"That day, you obeyed my orders in a life or death situation." He continued. "Just then, your instincts were awakened. Your hallucinations in that moment made you think I was the one you needed to protect."

"EREN SHUT UP !" I yelled in a trembling voice. "I should have done it...the day you dragged me to Marley I should have killed you. Yet you're still here in front of us, and you know why that is ? I loved you like my own brother, and you still chose to betray us time and time again. Do you have any idea just how much this hurts ?! Do you-"

The darkness I had tried to keep hidden for so long finally broke free and I could feel its claws slowly tearing my heart apart as cold tears flowed down my cheeks. Eren slowly laced his hand with mine but despite the warmth his touch brought to my fading heart, I slid my hand back to the edge of the table as an image briefly appeared in my mind. Why are you doing this to me ? I don't understand.

"You're wrong..." Mikasa spoke. "It wasn't by chance, I became strong because it was you. It was because of you !"

"When an Ackerman's power awakens, they supposedly experience sudden headaches." Eren informed her. "It's a product of the original identity resisting the compulsion to protect the host. In other words, you're a family that lost its original identity and now exists only to follow orders, in this sense, you and Yuki are the exact same. You're both slaves."

"SHUT UP !" I yelled as a splitting headache took over my mind. "Stop it...please."

"You know what I hate the most in this world ?" He asked. "People who aren't free. They're no more than cattle. Just looking at her used to piss me off like crazy and now I finally know why. I couldn't stand looking at a slave who just faithfully obeyed orders without question. Ever since we were kids, I've always hated you Mikasa."

Protect Me. Armin leaped over the table in an attempt to get to Eren but I hardened my fingers and, without a second thought, pressed them against his neck until a small pearl of blood rolled down his skin as Mikasa restrained him. When the boy's blue eyes met mine, I immediately took a step back and looked in horror at what I had done to my own friend, at what losing control of my mind for a split second had done. How did I...

"All your life, you've just been strung along by the whims of your bloods." Eren said. "That's all you are."

Faster than my naked eye could see, Armin got back up and landed a punch straight in Eren's face, knocking him out of his chair but as he attempted to land another blow, Eren regained his senses and threw him against a wine cabinet. I leaped over the table and watched helplessly as the emerald eyed boy landed relentless hits on Armin, barely giving him any time to breathe.

"Stop it !" I yelled as I grabbed his wrist. "Have you gone ins-"

Before I could finish my sentence, my eyes went blank and images flashed through my mind but this time, they seemed to be scenes taken from my worst nightmare. Colossal Titans swarmed the cities, turning anything that blocked their way into nothing more than fragments of bricks and crushed bones. The terrified screams of children and adults alike filled my ears as a spider-like Titan towered above it all, with green eyes that seemed to be oblivious to the chaos and death he had caused below him. Eren pulled his hand away and when I saw the shocked look on his face, I could tell that he had seen the same thing except that he knew what this all was, what it meant for all of us.

"Y-You..." I whispered. "You're the real slave to a piece of shit...and you're going to kill us all."

Without a word or so much as a glance to me, he picked up a rather large piece of glass from the floor and started walking towards me, holding it as though it was a knife while the pieces all clicked together in my mind. Don't Move. Despite my best attempts to keep my muscles in my own control, I had lost all resistance and simply stood still as he looked at me dead in the eyes before slicing my throat.

Shocked and now in immense pain, I tried to scream as loudly as I could but nothing came out, not even the smallest whimper and when I tried to ask the simple question 'why', the only thing that left my mouth was air. He cut them...I can't heal them...my vocal chords.

"What's a songbird...without its voice ?"

TO BE CONTINUED !

(A/N : I cried while writing this last part because her voice is so important not only to her but to other people and AHH ! I'm sorry you guys but it had to be done.)