fools | jean kirstein x reader [OLD]

23: Shadis Recalls

You, Eren, Jean, Mikasa, Armin, Connie, Sasha, Hange, Levi, and Erwin all followed Commander Keith Shadis into his office. He offered seats around his big table. Though, Sasha stood.

"Blouse, you aren't going to sit?" Shadis asked.

"N-no sir! I am fine where I am!" Sasha replied, clearly still afraid of Shadis.

Shadis took a seat.

"It's only been several months since I last saw you, but you all changed into different people." Shadis said, looking around. He noticed a ring on your finger and stared at you and Jean in particular.

"And the last time we saw you," Levi said, pausing. "Was five years ago. You've also changed."

"Commander Shadis," Hange started. "No... instructor. Have you guessed the reason we have come here, despite being on the brink of reclaiming wall Maria?"

"Eren, you really take after your mother." Shadis said. "But those piercing eyes, those are your father's."

Shadis glimpsed at you again, but you could tell he couldn't even bare to look at you at the moment. You reminded him too much of an old friend of his that recently passed.

Eren then stood up, his face was filled with determination. "Please tell me everything you know!"

Shadows cast over Shadis' eyes. "I know nothing," he said. "If you want to cut the case, if you're fine with a story the will likely be of no benefit to humanity, then listen. My story as a bystander."

"Go ahead." You said. "Anything is okay."

"I met Grisha twenty years ago now, outside the walls, just near the Maria gate..."

"Hey you! What are you doing here?" Keith shouted. "How did you get past the wall?"

"Ah, I could ask you the same. What are you doing outside the walls?" Grisha stuttered. "You're not fighting, are you?"

"We sent him into jail, until we confirmed that he wasn't a threat. Shortly after, we sent him to a hospital, and made him work there." Shadis said. "He was a peculiar man. He knew nothing. The history of the walls, the names of places, even the value of money. I don't know if it was because of alcohol or what, but he did seem to have a true memory impairment. He seemed to be very interested in our way of life." Shadis explained. "We talked and I even got him a well paying job. In fact, your father, [Y/N], had taken your father in and worked together. He met Carla because of me.

"Grisha! Carla's come down with the same sickness!" Shadis shouted, carrying the sick Carla in his arms. "Can you do something?"

"The bed in the back." Grisha pointed.

"Doctor Yeager," Carla murmured. "My parents are in worse shape... please."

"It'll be alright! We'll save everyone!" Grisha exclaimed.

"Grisha had found a cure, and healed everyone with ease. That's when I believe Carla fell in love with Grisha."

"Shit! The commander's down! Retreat!" A soldier shouted a command.

"Damian!" Christina shouted.

"Christina, lets get a move on!" Aristide, Brendan's mother, shouted.

"But,"

"Lets go, cadet!" Shadis shouted.

"Who was Damian?" You asked.

"Well, he was your mother's boyfriend at the time. They had also had a son, which I'm not sure of anymore." Shadis explained.

You were in awe. You had a step-brother?

"Soon after that incident, Christina had married Charle, and eventually gave birth to you." He said. "I had lost contact with her. Until that day I came back from another expedition..."

"Keith," Shadis heard an all too familiar voice.

He looked over to his left and saw Christina, holding a baby. "Christina... this child is..."

"[Y/N], a girl. The message didn't get to you, huh?" Christina said, smiling at you and playing with your hands. "I'm sure Charle is also worried."

"Ah, I've been busy, sorry." Shadis looked at you.

"Keith, are you going to continue like this, until the day you die?" Christina asked.

"I shouted at her, things I absolutely regret." Shadis looked ashamed. "But she still continued to respect me and be my friend after that. I don't know why she did it. Similar things happened with you and Carla, Eren. Soon, Charle had found out a way that he could give [Y/N] the titan injection a few years later, without having to die. A few years down the road the titans breached the wall, Eren had been injected and eaten his own father, and Charle had died of a heart attack."

"Is that all?" Eren asked.

"That's all I know." Shadis said.

"Just as the instructor said, I wasn't anything special." You noted.

"I was just the son of a special father. And so was [Y/N]." Eren said.

"And that's the only reason we were trusted with the power of the titans." You said.

"I'm glad I know for sure." Eren said.

Shadis' eyes filled with grief.

"[Y/N]... your mother — Christina — said this to me."

"Do you have to be special? Do you have to be acknowledged by others? I don't believe that, at the very least, this girl... it's alright if she doesn't become a great woman, why does she have to better than everyone else?" Christina said. "After all, just look. She's so cute. This child's already great. After all, she was born into the world with a reason."

"I never forgot what she said. Never."