The Fragments of Us | Levihan |

|{|}| NINE |{|}|

Eren wakes to the smell of rusty iron.

His eyes drift open, adjusting in the dim light. Historia lies beside him in a deep sleep. Moonlight filters in through the silk curtains at the balcony, bathing the chamber in an eerie, milky glow. Nothing appears out of the ordinary... that is, until Eren spots the shadowy figure standing across the room.

He sits up abruptly, squinting. The silhouette appears to be that of a woman. She's wearing the black Scout Regiment suit, her short brown hair pulled into a tight ponytail. The woman's back is facing him, but Eren recognises her immediately.

"... Sasha?" He rasps, overcome with emotion.

Sasha turns. And Eren feels his stomach do the same.

Her eyes, once heartfelt and warm, are now hollow. Empty. Dripping with loathing. Blood flows from the gaping wound in her abdomen, pooling at her feet in a vicious fountain of gore. The corruption spreads, consuming the carpeted floor, the plush chairs, the ornate furnishings in the chamber. Her hand rests limply on the handle of an ebony door hanging ajar... and Eren realises which room she's entered.

His eyes widen in terror.

"Ymir!"

He springs out of bed in a blind panic, tripping over his own feet as he desperately races towards the nursery. Sasha makes no move to stop him.

Heart pounding, he bursts into the room—and finds Ymir lying safely in her crib. Up past her bedtime, but awake nonetheless. She gurgles in delight and kicks her legs, blissfully unaware of the tears blurring her father's vision.

Eren sags into the chair beside the crib, overwhelmed with relief. He rubs his eyes and throws a glance over his shoulder. The ghostly apparition has evaporated entirely from existence and, with her, the blood on his hands.

With nothing else to do, Eren takes Ymir out of her crib, holds her to his chest, and weeps.

⚔️☕️⚔️

Jean treks towards the remains of Wall Sheena—once a part of the imposing fortifications that protected the Paradisians for many a decade, now reduced to mounds of rubble. Levi trudges behind him, rifle trained on the Colonel. Hanji and Emmanuel trail after them as Marco pads on ahead of the group, nose to the ground.

"Our lamps... their light never burns out," whispers Hanji. "What powers them?"

"Iceburst stones," replies Jean. "They're harvested from underground mineral deposits for manufacture."

"They're beautiful... it's as if I'm holding all of the stars in the sky." She lifts up her lamp to study the cloud-blue crystals, which glow like brilliant white beacons in the night.

"It's pretty deserted for a place under military observation," snarls Levi, his voice laced with suspicion.

"Where we're going is closed off from the public and privates," says Jean over his shoulder, visibly annoyed.

They cross through a large passageway among the ruins. Unattended wagons sit beside the debris, loaded with rubble and other material that had been salvaged among the wreckage. As the group weaves around a large boulder in the middle of the path, the Eldians hear Emmanuel cry out.

Peering into their lamplight, they look down in time to see the upper body of a rotten corpse sticking out from under the boulder, face-up. Decayed flesh cling to its skeletal frame in thin tendons, bony hand reaching out in desperation as its mangled jaw gapes wide in a silent scream.

"There were... quite a few civilian casualties during the Rumbling," confesses Jean, voice barely above a whisper. "More are expected to be uncovered."

"You can't even tell if these remains are male or female. The hell will happen to the rest of them?" Demands Levi.