Souls Of Sorrow || 𝐸𝑟𝑒𝑛 𝐽𝑎𝑒𝑔𝑒𝑟 𝑋 𝑅𝑒𝑎𝑑𝑒𝑟

Chapter 44 - You

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I stand amongst a large crowd of Jaegerists gathered on the main floor, mumblings of conversation about what's going on buzzing in my ears.

Eren went to go get the Marleyan girl from the basement an hour or so ago, but some titan shifter that infiltrated the walls got the drop on him. I'm a little unclear on the rest of the details, since I was in the training room when a soldier came to get me. All I know is Eren flipped the situation, and now has said shifter under his control.

Presumably.

I shift on the wall I'm leaning against, drumming my fingers on my tricep. The sound of footsteps gets closer above, and Eren appears, leading the Marleyan girl and the shifter, along with an entire squadron of soldiers.

"No way." One the officers below says, almost amazed. "That dainty thing is a Marleyan soldier?"

"Can we trust her?" Another asks lowly.

Take a wild guess.

I furrow my brows as I watch the woman raise her hands. I notice she's chained to the girl. "Hello, everyone!" she calls out cheerily.

I don't trust her. Not even a little.

And she looks so oddly familiar...why does she look so familiar?

I stare intently as she keeps walking, her face blurring for just a moment. And then it hits me. The figure in the trees, the feeling of paranoia that's haunted me for years. It all crawls its way to the front of my memories.

I push myself off the wall, something akin to anger filling my chest. Weaving through the crowd, I move to follow Eren’s current entourage as they walk out of view and ascend the stairs on the other side of the hall, heading up to the roof.

The girl is asking about something, but I don't care enough to hear what.

I push the soldiers aside despite their surprised grunts of protest, parting the way so I can get through. Eren and the Marleyans turn around at the commotion and I grab the woman's coat collar. Her eyes widen in shock as I slam her against the corridor wall, the girl chained to her jolting with the movement.

"Who are you?" I ask lowly, my nails pressing against her carotid. Her mouth opens and closes, but nothing comes out.

"Y/n, what are you doing?" Eren hisses out the question.

I ignore him, narrowing my eyes at the woman in front of me. "Answer the question, now."

It was her, I know it was. I saw her face amongst the leaves, watching me. All this time I thought I was crazy, that it was just a deer and I was seeing things. Being irrational.

She meets my gaze, raising her hands in surrender. "Pieck Finger. I'm only trying to help Eren locate the infiltrators, so would you mind letting go of me?" she asks politely, her eyes flickering down to my hand at her throat.

The entire corridor is still, holding its breath at the situation. I glare at her intently, making no move to listen to her request. "Who sent you? Why were you watching me?"

Pieck's eyes dart from my face, to my hand, then back. "I don't-"

"Don't fucking lie to me." I say evenly, my nails digging harder into her skin. "You won’t transform without killing the kid, and you can't heal if I rip your head off your body. Talk."