The Turquoise Cure (Eren X Reader)

Chapter 18: The Trial

- one week after the reclamation of Trost - 

    You awakened with that gnawing pain in the back of your head for what felt like the millionth morning in a row. You rubbed your eyes with you scarred hands as you began to adjust to the light in the room. Above you, you could see the outline of the upper bunk beginning to materialize in your vision, and you could faintly hear Annie breathing in the same, slow rhythm that she always possessed. 

    Another day in the barracks of the interior this was. If it were anything like the other mornings of the past week since Trost, you would be cleaning the interior, doing dishes, repairing your gear, and chatting with your peers. What a boring life compared to a week ago. You hadn't seen Eren in a week, and his sudden disappearance, to you, was in no coincidence to the recent upgrade in security near the stairwells leading to what you presumed was a basement or dungeon of some sort. If you were the sensitive type, you may have worried that he would be scared down there, alone, and likely being accosted by guards and interrogated, but you knew Eren. You knew that he could handle whatever verbal abuse they would throw at him; the question, though, was for how long he could abstain from cracking and tearing at the seams, retaliating and biting back. Please just compose yourself, please. 

    Having some time off wasn't so bad, though, despite worrying about Eren. You had time to catch up with Annie and work through shreds of what she'd seen in Trost, at the fall, and also at the reclamation. Sitting on the ledge of your bottom bunk, her knees curled to her chest with her chin resting atop them, she sighed, "I could have stopped it." Your eyebrows furrowed, confusion dominating your face. Annie was certainly never the type to take responsibility, least of all for something that she couldn't possibly have controlled- a titan attack. "Annie," you nudged her knee, "you know that there is nothing that you could have done to stop that attack. Nobody could have. Not me, not Mikasa, not Eren-" "No," she interrupted. You struggled to read her piercingly cold eyes. "Someone is dead, (Y/N). Someone that we care about, and I-" she choked for a moment, cleared her throat, then continued. "I could have stopped it, but I didn't." You pulled one of her hands closer to yours and squeezed it. "Annie, you were scared. None of us have ever been in a situation like that. You can't be the hero all the time." A pause. "Who-" you began to ask. "I won't tell you." Her voice was harsh, and much colder than it had ever been towards you. She wasn't telling you everything. In fact, she was omitting nearly every viable aspect of her story. "Very well," you said, squeezing her palm once more, "it's your business, I guess." 

    As if saving you from the silence, three figures appeared in the open doorway to your and Annie's dormitory. "(Y/N), a scraggly officer read from a sheet of paper, "you are needed to be a witness at the trial of Eren Jaeger." Your heart momentarily jolted at the unexpected mention of his name and at the realization that he was on trial. You noticed Mikasa and Armin lingering just being the officer, so you knew that they had been summoned as well. "Bye, Annie," you said letting her hand drop on to the mattress. "You're gonna have to tell me one day though..."

    The walk to the courtroom was completely silent. Neither you, Mikasa, nor Armin could mutter a word. The officer leading you seemed much too incompetent and much too impatient to deal with the qualms of fresh recruits. The only thing he said to any of you was as he closed to courtroom door behind the three of you: "Bloody monster." The three of you found a seat at the witness booth towards the front, preferably for the sake of viewing things better. Nobody spoke. Eren was nowhere to be seen in the courtroom, but there was a pole with shackles erected in the middle of the room before the judge, indicating that his arrival was impending, and it was certainly not going to be a warm one.