The Devil ⥋ Eren Jaeger

XXIX

Annie knew that everything Yi said was bullshit. She was the queen of an extinct country. The land was in chaos without a ruler. Everytime a government was put into place it would be overthrown by a more violent system and the cycle would repeat. The people of Qin were poor and hungry. They had no diplomatic ties to the rest of the world and were left unguarded. It was only untouched because no one would bother to send their armies and resources to the shithole of a country. There was no guarantee that they would accept Yi as their ruler and no guarantee that Eren would spare the tiny country.

But the woman was hopeful and even if Annie had done bad things in the past, she wasn't going to ruin it for Yi. She hadn't really known the girl that well. She just remembered feeling incredibly jealous of the girl because she had a mother who loved her.

"He has to stop. We are going to stop Eren." Yi said. Although she was more assuring herself than Annie. "And I know that you don't want to fight anymore so I really appreciate you coming with us."

Annie just nodded, feeling slightly uncomfortable with that.

"How are you going to round up your people?" she asked.

Yi was silent. She was raised a commoner and knew nothing about her heritage. Why would the people of Qin accept an outsider with the royal name? She knew that there was a more than good chance that they wouldn't. She had no training on how to be a queen and she had no idea where Kiyomi was and she didn't even know where Qin was. How could she be a ruler?

"To be honest, I don't know. I don't have any sort of help with this. I don't even want to be the queen. I just don't want Eren to die!"

"What if he refuses to stop this genocide? Even if you get to talk to him he won't change. Even though you don't seem like you care, I want to protect my homeland by killing Eren." Annie spat. Love was driving Yi blind and she only knew the guy for a few months.

The rest of the group looked at Annie, her words drawing their attention. "You're going to end up fighting us in order to protect him. Am I wrong?" She continued. "That's how it'd end up right?" she looked at the other dark haired woman. "Mikasa? After all, you've never thought of anything in your life as more important than Eren, right?"

Mikasa stood up angrily, "So you're saying you need to kill me?"

Annie lifted her finger in response, showing her sharp ring, alarming the group. Everyone braced themselves for a titan transformation they were surely wouldn't survive. "I get how you must feel. I also have one reason I want to stop Eren. I don't want my father in Marley to be killed. That's why I need your help. If you think you can talk Eren out of this, great. At least I don't have any problem with you until it comes to that."

Before Miksa could respond, Hange interrupted, announcing that the stew was ready.

===

After a night of planning and arguing with exposing Yelena for being a pick me and Reiner and Annie confessing to Jean about Marco, the group arrived at the Paradis Harbor. Only to find troops with thunder spears on the roof.

"I can't believe Flock outplayed us like this. It's all over for us if the Yeagerists destroy that flying boat." Hange said. They laid on their stomach shielded by the rocks in case any Yeagerist lookouts spotted them.

"Why haven't they done it yet?" Magath spied through a small telescope.

To destroy the plane while Eren eradicated the rest of the Earth would put Paradis behind several hundred years. They would have no access to the technology they had grown comfortable with in the past 2 years. But Eren was leading the titans and crushing everything that stood in their way. There was no way the four titans they had on their side plus a few humans would be a match for Eren.

They couldn't even take down a few Yeagerists and take the plane while hauling a nearly dead man and two children. Yi had no combat experience and there was no way she would be able to fight for herself against trained soldiers.

"I don't want to kill them. We've known some of them since the training corps." Jean spoke up.

"So then what's the plan? How are we going to buy time for the flying ship to be in service and make sure it isn't destroyed and save the Azumabito without killing our enemies?" Annie questioned.

"That plan doesn't exist. Either we settle this in one go, or we mess up and lose the flying boat." Pieck said.

Yi stayed silent on the matter. She didn't know the Yeagerists but the time spent arguing cost another thousand people their lives and their homes. But she wasn't a killer. Well, at least when her bloodlust wasn't activated. It would come in handy if she felt threatened by the Yeagerists but she hoped that it wouldn't come to that. While it provided her protection, it made her go out of her way to brutally harm or kill the person, leaving her exposed to the other enemies.

"Wait, you do know we're here to save people, right?" Connie shouted, nearly breaking down, "How did the first step in our plan become murdering our fellow islanders?!"

Annie looked down, "You're right. None of you ever had an obligation to do this with us. And we can't shove this choice down your throats. If you'd been in our place that day. You probably wouldn't have breached the wall. Unlike us..." she looked at Reiner.

"You five," he looked at Mikasa, Armin, Jean, Connie, and Yi. "Stay with Gabi and Falco. Watch from a safe location. You'll be forced to make a decision whether you want to or not if the Yeagerists find you. But don't get involved."

"I'm not letting you guys die out there! It's three against all those people with thunder spears. You're going to die!" Yi protested.

"Yi, no offense, but you'll have the same fate if you fight with us." Reiner countered. "You're needed with them. You can convince Eren to stop."

"But I can't watch you guys die and do nothing about it. And I'm sure that the others don't want that either, no matter how much they hate you." Yi said. "Marley is my home too and I want to do everything I can to protect it."

"I'm not interested in becoming a spectator." Hange said. "We've already killed four Yeagerists anyway. Don't forget, humanity doesn't have much time left."

The group looked at the sea where large steam clouds gathered. "I saw the titans moving from the shore, giving off a massive amount of steam. Judging by their speed, they've already arrived on the continent of Marley." Hange said.

Yi's heart dropped.

"Marley's cities to the northeast, the ones closest to us, must have been annihilated by now."

Happy AAPI month! Vote and comment or you're racist.