Arc 5: Home Away From Home
---
"After the great Titan war, we, the Tyber family, sided with Karl Fritz in exchange for our family's assured safety. We sold out the Eldians to Marley and then, despite being Eldians, enjoyed lives free from prosecution and were respected by the world."
When Gabi Bruan was only three years old, her cousin, the current Vice War Chief, was sent on a mission across the sea to the Island of Paradis. Being such a young age, Gabi had never gotten to know her older cousin properly. Yet despite this fact, Gabi had gotten to learn all about Reiner through her loving, though doting, aunt Karina.
Gabi had heard time and time again about how hard Reiner had trained to become a Warrior. There were countless nights where Reiner had stayed up to study for tests that were weeks away, and many days where Reiner would return home just as the curfew bell rang due to how hard he had been training. To Gabi, there was nothing more amazing than listening to her aunt's stories of how hardworking her cousin was. A part of her wanted to be praised in the same way - it always seemed to make her aunt so proud. She just knew that if she was able to do something as grand, her parents would be just as happy, too. That was why, at the young age of 5, Gabi decided that she would be the next person to inherit the Armoured Titan.
The years of training weren't easy, and goodness knows just how many scrapes and bruises Gabi had gained over the years, but she didn't mind. To her, every injury she gained was a badge of honour. Proof of how hard she worked and evidence that she deserved to inherit a Titan. Needless to say, Gabi's efforts didn't go unnoticed.
It wasn't until Gabi was several years into the Warrior Training Program that she realised just how important of a role Warriors held. It wasn't as though Gabi thought becoming a Warrior was all sunshine and rainbows, but she had never truly understood the kind of pressure that fell onto the shoulders of those who had the power of the Titans. It just so happened that this epiphany of hers happened around the time Porco Galliard had received the powers of the Jaw Titan - around the time in which her cousin returned home.
Despite how she had never met Reiner before (well, not at a time she could actually remember meeting him), Gabi knew who he was as soon as she laid her eyes on him.
Reiner was everything she thought he'd be. He was a strong, intelligent and proud Warrior of Marley, just as her aunt had always told her. In fact, the other Warriors paled in comparison to her cousin. While the Warriors who had travelled to the Island were good in their own right, Gabi thought it was absolutely incredible how Reiner had stepped up to the task of leading the mission when the previous leader had gotten himself killed. Though it was a pity, Gabi didn't know the other Warriors like how she knew Reiner. The previous leader's death was simply a stone being tossed into the sea.
Watching Mister Porco receive the powers of the Titan was a terrifying thing. Gabi had never seen a (mindless) Titan before. To watch one of her superiors turn into a mindless Titan was even more terrifying than she thought it would be.
In order to gain the power of a Titan Shifter, someone had to die.
A part of Gabi had always known this, but she never really understood it until she watched it happen. Although there were no screams or cries of pain, there was blood. There was so much blood. Despite how her stomach had turned and her mouth dried, Gabi wasn't able to look away. The sight of blood stained cloth on the floor still lingered in her mind these days, but she'd never admit that to anyone. She needed to stay strong - just like Reiner.
It was on that day that Gabi finally understood why she wanted to become a Warrior. It wasn't because of the praise or the glory, but because she wanted to prove that people like her, second class citizens from the Libero District, were good Eldians. People like her should get to live lives without fear of becoming mindless Titans. The only people who should ever have to go through such a thing were the bad Eldians - the devils of Paradis who had forsaken everyone and everything just to save their own behinds. Why should they be the ones to live happy and blissful lives when the Eldians in the Libero district worked so hard just to survive?
YOU ARE READING
Allies and Enemies (AoT Reader Insert)
Romance"We were made to live." Second installment of "A Tenth Shifter; The Crystal Titan" Series.
