Already Gone

Chapter 10: At the harbor, alone

full flashback chapter once again

i apologize for taking so long to upload this chapter, I had some really bad writing block!

I lowkey cried when writing this ...enjoy :)
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It was early in the morning.

The spot where Zeke would usually lay in till late morning had gone cold. The outline of his body that was indented in the mattress was the only evidence that he had even slept in their bed. Liesl—who kept her eyes close despite being awake—reached out her hand, extending her fingers as far as they would go. Hoping to hit his skin rather than empty sheets.

"Zeke?" She whispered—although it seemed far louder to her since it was dead silent.

There was no answer, which didn't come as a surprise to her. She knew he was leaving, she knew today was the day where rather than ignore the truth like she had been, she would soon come to terms with reality. Whether she wanted to, or not.

Zeke had left before the sun made its descent in to the sky. He made sure to move quickly out of the bed, in to the living room, and out the door to avoid loitering around the apartment.

He truly believed that if he wasted anytime in between getting out of bed and going out the door that he would loose sight of what was important and come crawling back to Liesl.

It wasn't that she wasn't important. It was that Zeke was on a journey, one that unfortunately didn't involve love or happiness.

It involved rescuing the Eldians.

As he made his way to HQ the sound of his fathers screams still echoed in his ear. Zeke had to do this, there was no other way.

"You ready?" Pieck asked as she grabbed the map of Paradis and shoved it in her coat pocket. Her eyes were surrounded by the color of bruises, and they were squinted ever so slightly.

"The quicker we get this done the sooner we can end this war," Zeke said sliding on his boots and running a hand through his hair.

"What about Liesl, and your grandparents? How did they take all of this?"

"Liesl is a big girl Pieck, don't worry she's gonna be okay. As for my grandparents, they were pretty upset to hear I was going so soon, but they're still proud to have such an amazing grandson," he grinned slyly.

Pieck chuckled and rolled her eyes, wishing that for a moment Zeke would be a bit more serious.

"My father was upset, really upset." She said.

"He told me that he would've risked his health for me to just be a normal Eldian, but I told him that it wasn't his leg that made me become a Warrior," Pieck looked over toward Zeke and realized that his attention was no longer on her. "I told him the reason I became a Warrior was because I was in love with Magath."

"Huh?" Zeke suddenly returned back to earth.

"Glad to see you're paying attention War Chief Jaeger," Pieck sighed.

"Do Braun and Hoover know we're coming?"

"Nope, it'll be quite the surprise huh," Pieck laughed.

"I wouldn't call it a surprise, more like a reminder of their failure," Zeke looked up and noticed Pieck's concerned look. "But uh yeah, surprise works."

Magath barged in to the room with a sense of urgency that made Pieck and Zeke immediately stand and salute. The Commander seemed to be aging faster with every failed mission, and unfortunately for him it was happening far too often. This next mission was vital for Marley.