Zuri: Attack On Titan

Just At The Right Time

     A couple months go by. Slowly the hole in my torso heals, until I'm able to stand up and walk across the room and back to the bed without pain. My diet throughout my healing consists of oats boiled to a mush and water, with brown sugar on top of the oats. One special day I get a half glass of orange juice with my breakfast of mush and sugar instead of water. The doctor never stays with me more than 20 minutes, and my three friends (Yes, I count Mikasa.) come and see me every day. The affection in Armin and Eren's eyes doesn't go away, and Mikasa seems a bit moody. One moment she's indifferent towards me, the next her eyes burns with dark anger. I try to act the same towards her, which is difficult when the boys are around. Eren, the emotional, humorous one who always has something to say, usually about beating the wretched Titans. Armin, the smart, affectionate one who I have l loved since we met all those years ago.

    And I had no idea if either of them felt the same way about me.

      The way they had both been looking at me before, who knows? As Armin said, the painkillers may have made me delusional. It could have all been an illusion. Maybe they were looking at me with hatred, or anger? The thought sends chills through me every time I wonder about it.

         I turn the page in my book right as my friends come through the door. Armin is first, as usual, then Eren, and lastly Mikasa. They each grab a chair and pull it up to my bed, and I close my book. I playfully set it on Armin's head, only barely flinching to the pain I feel on my torso. He grabs it and sets it on the bedside table without even as much as a giggle, and returns his gaze to me. He stares angrily at me, and I realize that the others are staring at me the same way. *What did I do?* I think, exasperated. *I have barely left this room!*

     I blink and then Im suddenly out of the hospital room, standing in the dungeon. I'm staring at the crystal, roped down tightly. The crystal, of course, is inhabited by Annie Leonhardt, the wall-to-wall known Titan Shifter who attempted to wipe out the Scout Regiment Entirely, and then to keep her secrets incased herself in an unbreakable crystal. *Coward..* I think to myself.

    "You call me a coward?" I hear a voice say. I look closer at the crystal, and Annie's eyes suddenly open. "You watch, you Winged Freak." The voice says. Her lips curve in a smile. "I get out of here, and I'll take Armin for myself and kill him with my own two hands. But, those hands will be bigger than these." She says, lifting up her hands inside the crystal and looking at them. She looks back up and smiles evilly at me. "And humanity will fall because it lost you, and you'll join me." She says this, and her hand extends out of the crystal.

   I slowly, extremely slowly start moving my hand towards her's against my will. "No.. leave him be!" I scream, still reaching to her. "Maybe." She says. She steps out of the crystal, and it breaks into shatters behind her. "Tell you what. I'll let Armin live.. If you turn against humanity." She reaches forward, gripping my hand extremely hard. Her fingernails dig into my skin. "No.. you liar!" I say. "Oh, Zuri." She says. "I let Armin live twice. I'll gladly do it again if you listen to me."

With that, the world goes black.   

     I sit up in my bed abruptly screaming, ignoring the pain in my torso. Armin and the others are there, and they instantly stand up. I grip the sheets and stop screaming, breathing hard as if I had just run a long distance. "Zuri!" Armin says. "Zuri, do you hear me? Can you hear me, Zuri?" He sounds panicked. I cover my face in my hands and try to hide the tears that run down my face, but they swim between my fingers and drip onto my lap. "Zuri...?" Armin says. Suddenly there's a hand on my arm, and I look up instantly, tears streaming down my face.

Armin spends the next hour calming me down, and in the next hour he receives help from Eren and even Mikasa. Finally, the tears stop coming, and I stop sobbing. I wipe the tears from my face harshly. "Yeah, I can hear you, doofus." I say. I hear Armin laugh, a sound of both humor and intense relief. Mikasa sighs and Eren joins her, though his sounds much more relieved and hers sounds annoyed.

   I tell them everything about my dream, how I had been in here and they had all been staring daggers at me. How then I was suddenly in front of Annie, and how she had said she was going to kill Armin and how she so easily stepped out of the crystal.

    "Huh." They all say simultaneously. 

    "I wonder if this was some sort of vision." Eren says, rubbing his head. "I wonder the same thing." Armin says, slowly inching his hand onto mine, which was slicing into the sheets. As soon as he touches it, I force myself to unclench it, to make him feel better. Because I know he cares about me now, the way he looked at me. Even Mikasa, as blunt and rude as she is, had at least a speck of respect and caring towards me.

     "EREN! MIKASA! ARMIN! ZURI!" says the sudden, unwanted voice from the door. We all jump, except for Mikasa, who seemed to be expecting it. A scout unknown to me starts speaking extremely quickly, and Mikasa steps forward, and slams her in the shoulder with her palm. The scout tumbles back a bit, then starts speaking slowly enough to understand.

   "A..Annie is breaking free of her crystal! I was guarding her alone and it starting shrinking and she was talking to me! Please! Come help!" The scout then falls to the ground, passed out. I cover my mouth with my hand, standing up from my bed. "This is awful!" Armin says, grabbing his head in his hands. "We need he-" He begins, and Eren steps forward, stopping him. "Armin, there isn't any time to get help." He says. His eyes shine with excitement ad determination. "We can get her to talk, finally. And if something goes wrong, we've got two Titan shifters to match her." He says this, looking over at me. He gives me a soft smile. "Then what're we waiting for?" Mikasa says, stepping between Eren and I. "Lets go!"

I quickly slip out of my hospital gown and then sprint after the group that had already left me. This is it.

I'm gonna take Annie out of this world and down into Hell where she belongs. Before she even attempts to lay a finger on Armin.