Annie Leonhardt x Reader

Past Tense

written by: tsukidrama

Summary: Being on duty to watch Annie's crystal is, 99.99% of the time, very boring. after four long years, that 00.01% comes on the day of the Rumbling.

WARNINGS: MANGA SPOILERS! (ALTHOUGH NOT CANON) 

TW: VIOLENCE, EMOTIONAL MANIPULATION

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Deafening crashes fill your ears, and showers of dirt fall from between the boards holding up the ceiling as everything around you shakes. you stumble, and nearly fall to your knees. you lose the grip on the teapot you're holding, and fling it away from you as boiling tea splashes across the back of your hand. you hear a voice that sounds like it's coming from right behind you.

"To all the Subjects of Ymir:" it says.

you turn around despite the fact that you know you're alone. deep underground, five basement levels down a dozen slippery staircases and a terrifyingly dark hallway, you know that you are more than alone. seldom did anyone besides you make the long journey down to the caverns in which Annie's crystal is kept - both due to the cramped mine-like tunnels and for the war prisoner who sits frozen in time at the end of the hallway.

you glance at the door, and begin to move towards it, on your way to check on Annie's crystal.

before you take more than a step forward, your surroundings begin to melt around you. you whirl around, kicking up sand with your boots. you find yourself in a strange twilight. thousands of other people stand around you, all looking as thrown off and confused as you feel.

the voice resumes. "My name is Eren Yeager. I'm using the power of the Founding Titan to address all of Ymir's subjects. The hardening of all the walls present on Paradis Island has come undone and all titans entrapped within them have started marching."

gasping and murmurs fill the air, but Eren continues volumes above everyone else. brilliant light from the branching and interlocked, treelike formation high above casts shadows on the faces of those around you. the shadows pull and disfigure the faces, only makes everything seem more distorted and nightmarish.

"My objective is to protect the people of Paradis, the place where I was born and raised. However, the world wishes for the annihilation of the people of Paradis. The hatred that has been swelling up for so long will certainly not end. Until not just the Paradisians, but all of Ymir's subjects have been eliminated."

the twilight world begins to flicker, and you can once again see the packed dirt walls of the underground prison, yet in a strangely immaterial way as if you're looking through a wavering curtain.

"I reject this wish. The wall titans shall trample all Earth outside of this island underfoot until all life existing there has been exterminated from this world."

you blink, and you're back where you had been. the dungeon is even darker than it normally is, with your eyes not having adjusted back to the dim firelight. for a moment, you stand still and catch your breath, shaking off your burned hand.

an audible splash echoes from underneath the crack of the door, and horror flashes through your mind as you realize which direction it's coming from, and as you realize the implications that undoing all titan hardening would have.

you run across the room, and push the door to the break room open as quietly as you can manage. coughs echo down the hallway, and wet slapping turns into sloshing footsteps as the noises draw closer to you. it is dark enough that you cannot see her until she's close enough to be illuminated by the only lantern in the hallway.