The Empire of Titans

A Betrayal

"Annie." 

She takes her eyes off the distant smoke and turns her head to the side where Zeke is standing. "Help me out with Pieck, will you?" he says, nodding down at the girl in his arms. 

He's her superior, so it's not so much a question as it is an order. It's also routine by this point. She follows him onto the ship and down the hallway towards her and Pieck's cabin, all the way keeping her head low to avoid any glances from people. Not that anyone pays them much attention – they're all either drinking in celebration or drinking in mourning. She focuses on the floorboards, Zeke's boots, Pieck's limp arm, and the floor again. 

Annie doesn't usually get pushed to the point of passing out. It's happened on two occasions - just after they got their titans when the army was testing their abilities and limits, and then again not long after. Shifting still leaves her drained, and her limbs ache naturally, but it could be a lot worse. 

"I'm sure she'd rather have a girl help her with this," Zeke says, setting Pieck down on the bed. 

"Yeah, I've got it," Annie snaps. She's too tired and annoyed to bite her tongue, but luckily, Zeke doesn't care how they talk to each other behind closed doors. She waits for him to shuffle out of the room before crouching down at Pieck's backpack to look for a nightgown. Pieck never bothers with unpacking; it's not like she spends any time on missions in human form. 

She lets out a breath to relax now that there is finally silence. This battle ended up dragging on for far too long. She and Marcel took turns on the battlefield, but the Cart was always there, either with the Panzer unit or transporting supplies. The army has started utilizing it for offense much more lately. It turns out Pieck is capable of turning the weakest of the Titans into a ruthless killing machine, its rapid transformations more than making up for its lack of defense.

Unfortunately, that means she gets pushed to her limit way too often. They ended up using nearly all the Titans just to take out the heavy machinery. Annie knows it will only get tougher as the world develops new weapons to counter them. She is not looking forward to it. 

There's a light touch on her cheek, bringing her out of her thoughts, and then a small 'hey' from Pieck. 

"Hi," Annie sits on the bed, a light smile tugging at her own lips. It's nice to see her again, not in titan form, after a long time. She's missed her soft voice. "Can you sit up?" 

"Let's see," she mutters, taking Annie's hand. "I'm sorry they charge you with taking care of me again?" 

"You know I don't mind," Annie says as she gets busy with the uniform's buttons. 

"Still." Pieck clenches and unclenches her fist a few times. There was a scary moment a while back when she ended up dropping a mug due to sudden numbness. Sure, the Cart is able to maintain its form for months, but the payoff is a long recovery time. Except Pieck rarely gets the chance to rest up these days properly.

"I just wish it didn't leave me so..." Annie takes in her glassy gaze, focused on nothing in particular as she searches for a word. "... out of it." 

"We might get some time off now," Annie muses, grabbing some towels and soap and heading to the sink. "They signed the treaty, right?" 

"I hope so. They can just send Bertholdt to blow up whatever else will inevitably come up." 

"Right." 

Annie helps her take the shirt off, then hands her a towel and moves to sit behind her. It's something they got in the habit of doing after particularly exhausting missions, a really makeshift form of basic hygiene, but it works for now until Pieck regains enough strength to make it to a shower. And since Annie shivers at the mere thought of being trapped inside one's titan for several months at a time, she has no problem making sure Pieck is as comfortable as possible in the days after.