Vengeance Of A Human

Betrayal: Treetop Talk

Eren

"Oh, Eren. You're awake?" Eren stares up, eyes wide open as he faces Reiner and Bertholdt while sitting on a treetop. Initially, he's confused as to why he's with the pair, then the realization hits him like a boulder. Like with Annie, he was captured by the boys, but unlike Annie, there's no Levi, Mikasa, and Joshua to rescue him.

Grunting, he struggles to get out of his wrapped cloak, but for some reason, he has some difficulty with his arms. But he somehow manages to undo the wrap, getting his first glance at his stumped upper limbs. "What the hell? My arms!"

"Eren." Eren turns to his right to see Ymir sitting nearby, holding up her amputated right-side limbs. "Look at me. I'm in the same shape as you. Guess the both of us are having a bad day."

"Ymir. Why...don't I have any arms?"

"That's my bad," Reiner calls out. "I'm the one who did that." Eren looks up, not so surprised at all. "I was kinda in a hurry. When I rushed to bite your nape, I neglected to take your arms into account."

"I see. I must've lost." Eren sighs, then returns gazing up with a vengeful glare at the Armored and Colossal Titan. With an idea forming in his head, he raises his right arm and bites it.

"Eren, stop!" Bertholdt says warningly.

"Hold your horses, Eren," Ymir says while removing Eren's partially bitten arm from his mouth. "Take a good look around us. We're in the giant forest within Wall Maria. It's not even close to any of the Walls. In other words, we're deep in Titan territory. Take a look." Eren looks down, seeing Titans waiting at the base of the tree. One of them is laying on its back as if it is waiting while relaxing as other Titans climb his body to attempt climbing the tree. "I think that one there is an Abnormal. It looks like he's just lounging around, but he's not taking his eyes off us. There's a lot of small ones down there, too. That alone is dangerous. Over that was is another big one." Indeed it is big, but the Titan also hides behind a neighboring tree. For monsters, Eren will say they have some personality. "He's staring at us, but won't come any closer. I bet you that one's a scaredy-cat. And then you got these chumps. Those dirty bastards. They're the only ones with any ODM gear on. Reiner's wearing gear he took from you. So I don't think changing into a Titan at this point is going to solve anything. Not only can they do that, but they can escape high into the trees as well. Those two aside, there are Titans all around us. Escaping out of this Titan territory would be tough, even with Titan powers. Understand? There's nothing to gain by acting up." Eren sighs in agreement. Escaping will be hard, and he has never transformed this injured. He probably could, but the best-case scenario is that his Titan doesn't have arms.

"No." They look up to Reiner. "You two can't even turn into Titans right now. So don't count on that to help you. Your body is at its limit. It's taking everything you've got to repair the damage."

Eren narrows his eyes. "Are you stupid? Why the hell would I trust anything coming out of your mouth?"

"Well," Ymir says to break the tense staredown of the boys, "it's not like I know the specifics of how Titan powers work. Unlike you guys, I'm pretty clueless about it. Hey, Reiner. You said you would talk once Eren woke up. It's about time one of you says what you plan to do with us."

"We'll take you to our hometown. I realize that you're not going to listen and do as I say. But like Ymir was saying, this place is swarming with Titans. We could beat the shit out of each other right now, but when we're weak, the other Titans would just come and eat us. So until nightfall, when the Titans can't move, we have no choice but to wait here. Whether you try to run and escape from us or don't and we take you away, either way, we wait for night."