What If Bertholdt had Survived

Aftermath

Bertholdt was in shock. It he didn't know what was more surprising, that Zeke had been working with the Survey Corps or that Reiner was standing there in the sleek black uniform of the scouts.

"Who are these brats?" Levi asked breaking the silence.

"They snuck on using Lobov's ODM gear, this one" Jean nodded his head towards Gabi, "shot Sasha".

Levi's eyes briefly flashed with panic.

"Luckily Bertholdt here was right behind her. She managed to knick her shoulder but she'll live"

The tension in the room eased a bit.

Levi turned to Zeke. "Do you know them?"

"They were just simple miscalculations" he said calmly.

That snapped Bertholdt out of his shock. "Miscalculations!?! You're their Captain!"

"and you are their vice captain yet here you are."

"I tried to protected them!"

"and betrayed Marley"

Bertholdt's jaw tightened.

Reiner spoke up "Commander Hange, this is my cousin Gabi. I don't know the boy thought, but I'm sure he won't cause trouble"

Hange let out a sigh. "Jean you can loosen your grip"

Jean let go of the two kids shoulders. Gabi immediately ran to Reiner, throwing her arms around him.

"Are you ok? Why are they forcing you to work with these devils? What have they done to you?"

Reiner let go of Gabi and knelt down in front of her. "Look I'm ok, and I promise I will explain everything."

"But Reiner look what they did to our home...that she devil..." Gabi could feel the hot tears coming, "they were my friends..."

The door swung open as Connie escorted Sasha into the cabin.

"Are they ok? The two kids who came aboard?" She asked.

Falco was a bit surprised that despite Gabi shooting her, her biggest concern was their safety.

"How dare you?!? You're lucky this traitor" glaring a Bertholdt, "messed up my shot!"

"Gabi stop." Reiner said putting his hand on her shoulder.

"Why?!? What's happened to you? Are you just like Bertholdt?!?"

Bertholdt was about to speak when Sasha interrupted

"You have every right to be angry with me, to want revenge. I killed two people who were close to you, and Bertholdt tried to stop me, so your anger should be with me not him."

Gabi clenched her jaw.

Sasha slowly made her way to Gabi.

"I'm so sorry. I'm sorry for what happened to your home. I'm sorry for killing your friends. I was just trying to help...you reminded me of someone back home"

Gabi spit in her face.

Connie stepped forward to confront her, but Sasha held her good arm out. "I deserved that, and this" she said gingerly placing her hand on her bow bandaged shoulder.

"Commander, Captain, I would like to request that you go easy on these kids. They weren't supposed to get caught up in this."

Hange and Levi looked at each other. "We will make sure they are taken care of, it's the least we can do after Reiner's years of cooperation with us."

"Come on Sash you need to lie down and rest" Connie said gently.

Sasha let herself lean into Connie as he carried her back to the other part of the airship.

"So what do we do with these kids?" Jean asked.

"I'm staying with Reiner" Gabi said defiantly.

"Commander if it's alright with you, I'll look after them until we get to the island" Reiner said.

"I'll allow it. Take then to the back. That way they won't be harassed by the other scouts, there should be some water back there too"

"Thank you Hange" he led a still fuming Gabi and a shocked Falco out of the compartment.

"You think it's ok to let the go through the mass of the scouts" Bertholdt asked. "If it weren't for me they would have beaten them to death"

"They won't try anything against Reiner" Hange said.

Bertholdt felt a bit more relaxed, but with the kids out of the room, he turned back to Eren.

"So care to explain what they f*ck you were thinking?"

Eren just shrugged. "I did what needed to be done"

"And the rest of you" Bertholdt scanned the room. "Where you in on this? This isn't what we agree upon Hange"

The anger in his voice was beginning to rise as he stepped towards her.

Before he could get close enough, Levi stood in between him.

"This isn't exactly what we had planned either, we hadn't planned on Eren going rouge on us" Levi glared at Eren.

"And since when did you start working with Zeke?"

Bertholdt turned to Zeke. "What do you have to gain from this?"

Zeke remained silent adjusting his glasses.

"Look why don't you go and get those wounds treated by Louise, and we can debrief when we get to Paradis" Hange said.

To be Continued