Allies and Enemies (AoT Reader Insert)

Chapter 10: The Way Things Aren't

Arc 3: Missions of a Soldier

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Memories are such fickle and untrustworthy things. Even those known for being honest can not be relied on when explaining things from memories.

Things that we think we remember may only be false ones created by our minds.

Moments that we might have obviously been there for may have been wiped from our minds.

And, each and every time a memory is recalled there is a likely chance that something has been changed; yet disregarding a memory may cause the memory to fade.

Really quite the predicament.

The memories of Eldians are even more fickle than those of 'normal' humans as they are able to be altered. The subjects of Ymir Fritz are all connected, and in turn they're connected to the same curse that had infected her.

And currently, the shifter with the ability to alter the memories of others is Eren Jaeger.

A boy born out of survival and raised in a time of contempt.

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Year 854: The Day After the Banquet

5 Weeks Before the Festival

When Eren had gone undercover he hadn't been expecting to make connections with the people there. He hadn't expected the reemergence of those feelings that made his heart well up. He hadn't been expecting it to be so difficult to stick to himself.

He hadn't been expecting many things, but most of all he hadn't been expecting to understand what the Warriors had gone through. And it made him hate himself.

Pretending to be a sick soldier had gone a lot easier than Eren had thought possible. The records that Marley kept of the Eldian soldiers were messy at best. Eren had easily slipped in under the alias of Kruger. The same surname as the Eren who had gone undercover as a Marleyan many years ago. They were both undercover soldiers.

It was poetic justice, ironic and gratifying.

"What was that, Mister Kruger?" A young nurse asked.

Eren kept his head down, "oh. I was just talking to myself."

The nurse gave the 'ill' patient a pitiful smile as she placed a plastic wrapped meal beside Eren before pushing her cart towards the next patient.

Eren hated the looks of pity that the nurses would send him. They left him feeling helpless and useless. They were too reminiscent of the looks people used to give him on Paradis. They only ever saw a lost boy. Not someone who wanted to make a change.

This nurse, in particular, wasn't as bad as the other ones. Sure, her super kind voice was a little too high pitched for Eren's liking but there was nothing he could do about that. But regardless of her status as a Marelyan she was kind towards the Eldians. A genuine kindness that left people feeling happy after speaking to her.

Days were boring and repetitive for Eren. The information he got had been getting less and less as he spent more time here. The only times when something 'interesting' happened was when Eren's older brother, Zeke, came around. The two mostly talked of philosophy and occasionally about their shared father.

Any mention of Grisha Jaeger brought the older brother into an uncontrolled rage. Where he would typically be calm and collected, Eren would see Zeke clench his fist tightly and his practiced smile falter. And while Eren might have wanted to push the topic he chose to relent.