BLOODSPORT

Episode Unknown [V]

 "Congratulations on your victory. I hear Marley would never have won without the power of the Titans. Ironic isn't it? To hate Titans but use them in desperate times of need."

It had been six months since she'd last seen Reiner. Six months of being experimented on and tortured. Rhea hung her head back in her bed. They had moved her to a cell with bars instead of a steel door and concrete walls. This was for observation purposes only, while she rested in bed, the Doctors and nurse still kept a close eye on Rhea, watching as her body adjusted to the blood manipulation.

Reiner didn't speak as he looked at her.

"Marley's shield. That's what they call you." Rhea continued. "I hear things sometimes when the doctors think I'm unconscious. That's when the secrets start to spill."

"Rhea-"

"Magath said they wanted to do this to me because the world doesn't need Titans. People fear Eldians for what we can become. Yet they rely on a Titan, a monster to survive the war that's been going on for four years. They rely on the Eldian people for war."

"You can get in trouble for saying this." Reiner warned.

Rhea sat up and slowly approached the iron bars. "What more can they do to me?" She stepped into the light and Reiners eyes widened in shock as he gazed down at her.

Although she was still allowed to train, in order to see how her body took the Ackerman bone marrow, Rhea's figure was covered in scars. She looked so frail in spite of the fact she never felt stronger.

"They say the Ackermans' powers awaken when they're in danger. I've been tortured for months and the only thing that has changed is the color of my blood." Rhea brushed her palm over her lips before biting into her skin. She was reminded of Eren when she did this but soon enough the black liquid poured down her wrist and arm.

"They said this is normal. Apparently the Ackerman bloodline, when first created, had black blood. Over time it changed back to red. But it just reminds me that ever since I left Paradise, I haven't been the same."

"Rhea, I-"

"Braun!" Reiner jumped, startled by Magath entering the hall and approaching the cell. "Falco is looking for you. Said it was important."

"Yes sir." Reiner excuses himself, glancing once more at Rhea, pity in his eyes.

Rhea backed away from the bars and sat back on her bed as Magath observed her. He rubbed his chin with his thumb and forefinger before taking in a deep breath and exhaled. "The Doctor said that your transfusion is complete. Your blood manipulation is rather short of a miracle. This can change everything for Marley."

Rhea didn't respond.

Magath continued, "I know you think of us as monsters for what we've put you through. I'm just as sure that us Marleyans are devils ourselves. That said, the Eldians hold the true Devil blood. Without Titans, there will be no more war."

Magath pinched his brows before moving his hand from his face and into his coat pocket, pulling something out. The bronze shone like gold in the dimly lit room. Rhea couldn't believe what she was seeing. All of her possessions were taken from her the day she was captured. She never thought she would lay eyes on her locket again. But there it was, dangling from Magath's fingers.

"All this killing needs to end one day. Those warriors I train and send to their deaths, are still children. Like your brother was." He places the locket in Rhea's hand. Her eyes were wide with disbelief, her mouth was open ajar as she opened the locket and began crying at the sight of Marco.

"Why are you giving this to me, now?" She wiped her tears using the sleeve of her shirt. But when Rhea glanced up from the jewelry, Magath was nowhere to be found.

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She sat in her cell for nearly a quarter of an hour preceding the events of Willy Tyrells speech. Rhea had overheard many warriors discuss the major event while they were on watch. If you remained quiet enough, the guards would eventually grow bored and begin conversation with each other. They never let anything important slip, such as Marley's plans for Paradis, however; occasionally, the guards would converse in small talk of daily events.

Rhea flipped open the locket, staring at the picture Jean drew for her seventeenth birthday. She couldn't believe how long ago this gift was given to her. Since that time, she had grown closer to her friends, learned about Marley and its technology and the rest of civilization that resided beyond Paradis. Rhea remembered a time where she was excited to gain knowledge of the outside world. How the Scouts traveled with Onyonkopon across the sea, ate ice cream for the first time, and got drunk with her friends.

That is all gone now. Her friendships, her family, her home was all but a memory while she was trapped in a cell.

At seventeen she was just a girl who was naive to the rest of the world. At twenty, she was nothing more than an experiment for doctors to conduct tests on.

Suddenly, Rhea felt the floor of her cell vibrate with an intense quake. Guards began to run up and down the halls of her cell, trying to figure out what was going on and who to take orders from. She sat up, pulling the locket around her neck, as she heard the deafening scream of someone she had once called friend.

Eren Yeager, in his Titan form. 

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Finally!!! another chapter!

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