Darkness is all around him. There is no sky, no ground beneath his feet, no air to breathe and no heart left to beat in his chest.

Am I dead? The cave, the corpse laid out upon a stone slab, Iris, everything is gone. He tries to feel his body and with mixed awe and dread he realizes that he cannot. Unnerved by the possibility of having been reduced to a something floating through endless space or worse, the lack of any space, he feebly tries to push away the sensation of his mounting panic. What is this place?

A thought comes to him that is even worse than all the previous ones. This place might not be a place, maybe it is just void. Who said there is something waiting for us on the other side; there could nothing at all. He feels afraid. This is nothing like the releasing disappearance that he had imagined death to be. The thought of ceasing to exist had always been beyond his comprehension, but now that he finds himself trapped here another far more terrifying possibility presents itself: The world is gone but his memories and the feeling of shame, failure and hopelessness are not. He could be trapped like this forever.

He has heard about damnation but he never believed in it. How any intelligent person could believe in superstitious crap when all powers of observance and science seemed to speak against it had always been a question he found no answer to. And yet all this time he might have been the conceited one, believing more fervently in his own skepticism and rational thought than the believers believed in their god-person.

Iris… Did she come here? He seems to vaguely recall her mentioning someplace like this, but the recollection is so vague and without detail he might just have dreamt it all. He feels a pang of grief thinking of her. He remembers her sad and frightened eyes as her hand had shook, more from the weight her resolve than from that of the gun as she had pointed it at him. She had believed with all her heart there was a force somewhere capable of bringing him back, believed against all common sense that he would come back. "Nothing comes back from the beyond" his logical self urges, but what if all that is wrong? Something has changed in Iris; she looks the same, perhaps she is the same, only more now than she had been before. Her hand regenerating before his eyes, the dead soldiers in the enemy trenches, that grinning corpse with its huge and pointed teeth – All these things point towards a conclusion that his rational mind still refuses to fully digest.

In the midst of this there is his promise gnawing away at the back of his mind. He had promised to try to come back for her, and having broken enough promises already he decides that he will try. But what is he to do?

Not knowing if he still has eyes through which he sees, he makes an effort to look around. There is only darkness. At once he feels his resolve waver and he gives in to despair. The darkness seems to be pressing down upon him with immense force, wanting to devour him like it has devoured all the light. He throws her name to the hungry dark and he feels no sensation of his throat clenching or his vocal chords vibrating, but he hears the sound of her name carried out. He says it again letting the syllables roll musically off his numb tongue. "Your dead tongue" a voice whispers at the back of his mind, and the thought brings up some rather unpleasant mental images.

…Reiner…

He listens intently but all is silent again. He could have sworn it was his name someone had called out, but the sound was distorted and echoing. He goes towards it, or rather tries to go but has no real way of knowing if he is actually moving. He might have considered whether it is possible or not to move through a lack of space the same way one moves through space, but it never occurred to him at that time. His thoughts are of Iris as he tries to move towards the sound of the voice he had heard.

…Reiner…

He definitely hears it this time, closer now than before. He would know that light and tremulous voice anywhere; knows by heart how it quivers with tenderness, rises and trills with laughter, chills with anger and breaks with grief. Far up ahead there is a light, feint and small at first but as he draws nearer it grows in strength. Iris calls his name over and over with desperation and fear in her voice, shining in the dark like the light of a distant star. Her hair is brilliant gold, her skin illuminated with a strange ethereal glow. He calls her name in response but she does not hear his cries.

He moves ever closer, slowly forced to accept that she cannot see or hear him. He is stricken with the certainty that time does not exist in this place. Iris is here and at the same time she is not. She was here once and part of her will always be here, but they must be out of phase with one another somehow. Perhaps in some distant future an echo of her will meet with him long after they are both gone from this place.

Intuition has never been his strong suit, and divining this much from it in such a short period of time is exhausting. He wants to find some practical approach to this situation but finds there is none, and so he is left helplessly gazing her way while she shines a million lightyears away from him; so close but so far away.

Then he sees it.

An immense shadow is creeping up behind her, only distinguishable because of the light she radiates. It dwarfs her, would dwarf any living thing that ever existed, but it moves soundlessly through the oppressive darkness. Once accustomed to seeing it he begins to feel it as well. Its presence feels like an immense pressure, like being deep underwater to the point where your eardrums pop. Even though he knows it is futile he calls out for Iris to get away from it, warns her there is something behind her; but Iris remains where she is. She looks over her shoulder as if sensing it too but the shadow circles out of sight. She turns again, but the thing soundlessly maneuvers its massive form out of the way. He thinks "It walks on all fours" and somehow the realization fills him with dread. Though she must know better, Iris speaks his name again. He hears the question in that utterance, as well as the vane hopes for the voice she so wishes to hear to answer her.

Keeping a close eye on that thing behind her he draws closer, thinking to touch her with the hopes of somehow connecting them to one another in this timeless space, but the shadow turns and faces toward him and he knows it sees him. He cannot see its eyes but he feels its gaze upon him like millions of spiders crawling underneath his skin. He stops abruptly, and to his shame he fears that it will turn its attention away from Iris and to him. He would have fallen to his knees if he had any knees to fall upon. The shadow stands still watching him and under the weight of its gaze he draws back. He sees Iris's face screw up as if she on some level feels what is happening without being able to see it.

"…Reiner?" Her voice echoes faintly at him. It sounds as if they are stood on opposite ends of a long tunnel shouting to each other. She turns around and this time the shadow remains in place. Her hands fall to her sides as she comes face to face with it. Her head tilts back further and further as she raises her head, trailing her eyes along the height of the thing in the shadows. It leans forward until the dark hollows of its vast eyes swim into view. Reiner looks into those deep pits and finds its eyes to be even blacker than the darkness around it. They are like doors into another dimension, ancient and terrible.

It speaks to her and its voice is cracking thunder, the sound of mountains crumbling and worlds dying. It reverberates through the nothingness, penetrates him and passes through him as if he is nothing while it is everything. He does not understand a single booming word that passes between the things parted lips, and he has no doubt that his understanding is insubstantial to this immense beast. There is a subtle smugness to the way it speaks, as if it revels in the fact that it is great and powerful while he is small and defenseless. Its eyes are fixed on Iris and though she shivers from gravity of that dreadful sonorous voice she stands fast, looking right at it. Words spill from her parted lips but their meanings are unknown to him; she answers the thing in the dark in the same strange tongue as it had addressed her. He hears his name spoken somewhere in the midst of it, and then she falls silent.

The shadow contemplates her for a few moments before a deep, boisterous chuckle cuts through the silence. The sound rumbles with apparent delight, but Reiner's ears hear something humorless and cold hidden underneath the shallow merriment. Its retort is pointed and almost crude sounding, but it seems to please Iris. The first word spoken sounds like "Vai" but he soon loses track of the individual words. Iris listens silently until the end before she bows her head. To his surprise she falls to her knees, raising her hands above her head in a gesture recognizes very well; worship. As she slowly turns her face up he sees that it is pale but her expression is one of resolve; pensive and yet strangely agog with some inexplicit emotion.

The shadow leans into her and begins to change form. It shrinks rapidly as it dives forward, plunging in between her parted lips, through her nose and her eyes, into her ears. Relling and feeling sick to his stomach, he can do nothing but stand and watch in mute horror as the bulk of the thing in the dark forces its way inside Iris. Her body convulses but stays upright, fingers twitching as if playing an invisible piano. The shadow strains and changes form as if it is no more substantial than smoke, entering her through every orifice it can find until it is finally gone. Her body stills and her chin falls forward to rest against her chest. For a moment she seems as still and dead as a statue. Then she moves; her hands clench as she raises her head again and she draws a long heaving breath. Her face is turned away from him and he is almost glad of it. Iris stands up, moving slowly but deliberately as if inspecting this brand new body and all its capabilities.

She turns around and looks right at him. The strange light around her is fading, or at least he thinks it is just the light at first but then he realizes that she is fading too. It is her face that gazes upon him, but it is not her eyes that find him in the darkness. An almost invisible sarcastic little smile settles on its lips. It raises one hand and puts two fingers to its temple in a parting gesture full of promise; "Until next time". Iris fades away and darkness envelops him once more.

His confusion and apprehension mingles with feelings of anger and grief. All at once he feels full of emotion but strangely empty at the same time. Is this all real or is his dying brain just experiencing one final hiccup before it shuts down?

A feeling creeps upon him that tells him he is not alone. There is no sound, no smell and no sensation of that immense pressure that he had felt before and yet he is suddenly convinced that it is there with him now. He feels it moving around him in tight circles as if sizing him up.

Evil… is his only thought.

"Iris" is what his mouth says. "What did you do to her?! You have no right to-"

He is cut off by deafening insolent laughter. A light appears and it takes him a moment to realize that is he who shines now. His body glows with a ghostly amber light, still as numb to him as that of a dead thing. His light illuminates the creature in the shadows, the dark thing now standing right in front of him. He looks into its face and glimpses millennia of the strife of endless peoples and worlds, and he thinks that these features will be burned into his memory for all eternity. He feels as if the thing looks right into him with those terrible eyes, and unable to bear it any longer he turns his face away; instantly forgetting that ancient face and all that he had seen in it. It speaks to him and to his surprise he not only hears the words with perfect clarity, he understands them too.

"μαχητής" the thing mocks and somehow he knows the word means 'warrior'. It rises from all fours to stand upright before it bends and stretches out what he thinks is a massive hand towards him.

It is going to crush me now, either that or force its way into me. I prefer to be crushed; if I feel that thing inside me I will go mad. While he does not feel his body he is certain of his trembling. The thing pauses and he sees that it is indeed a massive shadowy hand hovering above him with its fingers outstretched. It chuckles in a way that is so drawn out and slow it turns what should have been a joyful sound into something garbled and disturbing.

"ἀσθενέω μαχητής" it jeers and takes him in its massive hand. Reiner tries to prepare himself for everything; to be crushed, to finally cease to exist or to be invaded and defiled by some ancient monster. But before he has managed to accomplish anything in the way of his preparations the thing offers him two final words of command; "μήτις… ἀπολιμπάνω", before it flings him from the darkness. The words ring in his mind as he is bathed in bright light, and he thinks that he hears feint human voices in the far distance. Then there is nothing.

He wakes. Sucking air into his burning lungs he experiences a dizzying sensation of falling from a great height. His body jerks as if to brace himself for the impact but instead he feels himself become aware of the hard ground beneath him. Someone utters a wordless shriek and a moment later something slams into him so hard it knocks the breath out of him. His chest heaves in futile cramps and he feels the weight of the thing lessen. He gives a great gasp and feels his lungs fill with air once more. His whole body burns as if he has been doused in boiling water.

"Sorry" he hears her say, sounding anxious and bashful. "Sorry" she repeats again. He opens his eyes and is blinded by the light from above. He squints and her face swims into view. There are tears of relief and exhilaration in her deep blue eyes. He lies there looking into them and makes no attempt to move or speak. She touches his cheek with the back of her hand as if to gauge his temperature, and then she touches his neck, his shoulders, his chest and his stomach almost as though to check he is really there. There is evident awe in her eyes, mingled with a look of deep devotion and gratitude. He tries to speak but manages only to croak something unintelligible. A crease forms between her eyebrows in a subtle frown, but she looks at him gently.

"You should drink something before you try to speak." She takes out her waterskin and uncorks it. Before putting it against his lips she pauses and says sternly: "Not too much at once. You have been three days gone."

She puts the mouthpiece to his lips and he drinks while he struggles to digest what she had just said to him. I can't have been there more than an hour – Three days? His throat feels parched and sore as he forces himself to swallow in little sips. His stomach rumbles angrily and twists in painful cramps. He stops himself from taking any more water, afraid that he might heave it back up again if he takes too much. She pulls the skin back and shoves the cork into the mouthpiece before tucking it away. He makes a move to sit up but finds no strength in his burning body. Iris takes his hands in hers to assist him, and through shared effort they sit him up. She does not release her hold of him and he does not want her to either.

"Three days?" he croaks and hears the gravel in his own voice, almost as if it has rusted from disuse.

"Yes" she replies, unable to hide the tremor in her voice. He feels shy and self-conscious when she looks at him as if he is the most beautiful and wondrous thing she has ever seen. Her face is alight with overflowing tenderness and joy. "I waited at your side. You were quicker than I was; it must be a good sign."

He is in no way certain that he agrees with her on that account, but he is unwilling to disturb her in this moment of happiness. Something in her words gnaws at him, but unable to grasp it at first he is almost willing to let it go and pass it off as nothing of importance. It comes to him however, and frowning he looks at her in quiet contemplation. Her face falters ever so slightly.

"What is it?" she asks with evident worry.

"How do you know you took longer to return? I thought I had been gone only a short while." Marveling at the absurdity of everything he lifts his hand to brush his fingers at his temple. There is no wound there now, nor any trace of a wound ever having been there. He is certain that it is the right temple he is touching, but he tries the other one anyway just to be sure. A second touch confirms to him beyond reasonable doubt that something he cannot explain in any way has happened to him.

"Oh" Iris replies with a look of relief. "I took six days to return; Jun told me so."

This is not the kind of reply he had expected from her, but he figures that after what he has just been through he ought to be less easily impressed by madness in the future. He looks at her inquiringly and sees her smile falter until it is replaced with a puzzled look. She turns her head and looks behind her, and for the first time since he came to Reiner notices the silent man standing in the shadows some twenty feet away.

"He doesn't…?" she says to Jun who seems to take this as a prompt to come closer. They look at each other in silence for a moment. Then she turns her face around and gazes at him with an air of bewilderment. "You really can't hear him?"

Reiner looks at Jun and thinks that he sees an expression of subtle amusement in the man's face.

"He doesn't talk you know" he sighs with exasperation. She smiles as if he just said something silly.

"He talks to me. I had thought you would hear him too now…" With a look of uncertainty she turns her eyes to Jun again.

Lost in his own thoughts, Reiner watches her side profile. He sees her lips move but does not hear the words. It is inside her now he thinks and finds the thought discomforting. He is willing to bet that it is that thing inside her that is able to hear the words of a man that does not speak. He is rather certain that the thing had never wanted him; there had been scorn and condescension towards him in its words, its jests and laughter. It was her it had wanted. She had named him as her price, and for whatever reason this thing had thought it necessary to give her what she wanted.

"Hello?" Iris waves her hand in front of his face. He blinks and realizes that he had completely submerged himself in his own thoughts. He looks at her and raises his brows inquiringly.

"Do you feel alright?" she asks with the air of someone repeating a question for the second time; with moderate exasperation. He nods slowly, not really sure if it is true or not.

"… Do you know what that thing was?" He sees excitement grow on her face as she hears his question. Her eyes glimmer and her cheeks look slightly flushed as she answers him.

"You remember? You remember what you saw?" She sounds eager.

Confused and a little disturbed that she evidently does not remember her encounter with the thing, he looks to Jun. The man gives him an almost invisible shake of the head as if to say "Don't". Don't what though? Don't tell her that she has been possessed by something of unidentifiable nature? Or perhaps the shake of the head means "Be careful" - There really is no way to know for sure. He feels an uneasy stir in the pit of his stomach as he thinks that everything she hears, the other hears too most likely. He lets his eyes rest upon her face but finds no clue as to what is going on underneath the surface there.

"I remember a little. I remember darkness, and there was something in that darkness waiting for us. It is getting fuzzy, but I think I saw you and that you met with the thing in the dark. It spoke to you, and to me too even though I did not know the words." He stops, unwilling to expand any further upon his recollection. Fervent eagerness shines on Iris's face, much like it had when she fell to her knees and raised her hands in worship of the shadow.

"Yes, now that you say it I have a vague recollection of it too, only I did not see you. I was alone until he came to me."

"Who came?" he asks, thinking he knows where this is heading but asking anyway.

"Acleidon." Her eyes glimmer.

"How do you know that though?" He masks his unease and looks at her calmly. He is not a believer and would probably not know a god to be a god even if it presented itself to him. He recalls that the bible thumpers like to use the wrath of god as a means of persuasion in their line of work, and that a wrathful god is supposed to be a terrible thing to face. Only that no one has ever faced a wrathful god and lived to tell the story, so how do they know? In the fatherland people only pray to one god, and it is certainly not the one Iris just named. Plus, the thing he had met had not struck him as wroth, only terrible.

"You saw the bones of Aclerius" she argues but sees that does little to convince him. "The gods reside in the spaces in between the worlds, outside of the influence of los. Only gods have the power to grant life anew. It was Acleidon, I feel it was."

Her words stir a memory in him, a vague recollection of looking into a pair of eyes and seeing endless worlds layered over one another. He tries to grasp the memory to make it clearer but it slips from him instead until it feels like nothing more than half forgotten dream.

"I don't know" he says slowly and thinks to add some explanation as to what it is he does not know, but he finds that the statement stands well on its own. He feels like he knows nothing at all anymore.

"Time will tell. What matters now is that you are here" she replies tenderly and again looks at him as if he is the most marvelous thing she has ever seen, like he is perfect and can do no wrong, like she has been granted a gift of unimaginable value. He feels shy and awkward in light of those shining eyes, and he cannot help but ask himself if his affection for her is not lesser than hers is for him. Would he make the same journey for her, and if not, does he deserve her love? He looks at her from underneath his brows and feels that he loves her, but the feeling is somehow dwarfed by his perception of her love for him.

"It's just… gods don't go around granting favors to people do they? If your god is the reason to why we are here then he should be expecting us to do something for him" he says uneasily.

"I expect so." Iris stands and holds her hand out to him to help him up. "Do you feel any different?" He takes her hand and gets to his feet, feeling weak and out of breath. Some food would not go amiss.

"Different how?" he asks and frowns. Her question prompts him to do a sort of physical and emotional inventory of himself. His body feels like it has seen better days, but on the whole he feels alright… even a little good, he supposes. The last part is surprising considering the fact that he is also feeling rather bad for various reasons, but the good overshadows the rest.

"I don't know... different. You are not the titan's vessel anymore, and maybe I am only speaking for myself but I felt a little different once I came back."

"Not a titan shifter" he replies slowly, tasting the unfamiliar words and finding them unbelievable. "Are you sure of that?"

"You were dead for three days; cold. The power should have passed to a living host. Why don't you try it if you are in doubt? Have some more water before we head outside, when we reach the sands above you should eat a little. Then try to turn; you will not succeed."

The words 'dead', 'cold' and the term 'living host' profoundly upsets something in him. Few things are certain but he always took death and its persistence for one of them, now everything is askew.

"You sound so certain" he says, envying her for her conviction. He remembers the power there is in conviction, the state in which you know that all your actions are a part of something greater than yourself and that as long as you follow the directions you have been given the outcome will be something true and righteous.

"I am." She offers him her waterskin and he takes a few sips before handing it back. She takes him by the hand, and after giving the bones of Aclerius one final look she leads him towards the way outside. Their things are gone, perhaps already loaded onto the horses outside… If there still are any horses outside. He follows her, and despite his fears and doubts about the nature of the thing that she carries within her, he finds comfort in her assured sense of purpose and in her leadership. He follows her because it is all he wishes to do now, and inside he feels just as she had said; a little different from before.

They reach the mouth of the cave and he finds that someone has been diligent in the task of keeping it open to the outside. The rope hangs down the side, but he worries that even with the help of the rope he will be too weak to climb out.

"You two have been busy" he says.

"I never left your side… Jun did it by himself." She seems to be ashamed of having left her companion to do the heavy work. Said companion walks past them, giving each in turn an unreadable look before he nimbly and with ease climbs through the loose sand and disappears up ahead.

"So, he talks to you?" Reiner questions her in a hushed voice. Iris smiles serenely and nods.

"What… what does he say?" he continues with the awkward suspicion that Jun can hear him from outside.

"Not much. Sometimes I think he is shy but at other times I feel like he has much that he wants to say, though for some reason he cannot."

"You trust him even though brought you here and let you die instead of treating your wounds." He does not think he sounds accusatory as he says this, but he sees her screw up her face upon hearing his words.

"You don't trust him and that is fine by me, but please don't be so quick to judge him harshly. I could never have come this far without his help."

"I didn't really mean to say that, it's just… do you remember that I told you once that you could do with being just a little more suspicious?"

"I do. You were talking about yourself though." The recollection causes him to feel a pang of old guilt surfacing again. He tells himself that it is time he owns up to a lot of things he has done and said; no more running away.

"In a way I guess, but my point still stands. Had you even heard of this god before Jun told you this story about Aclerius? Doesn't it seem a little convenient that this man found you and brought you to the forgotten tomb of an old prophet serving some obscure god? I'm not saying that whatever it was we met with was not powerful; I am saying that people lie. Clever people lie to manipulate others into doing their will."

She listens to him the way someone does when presented with a particularly feeble argument, in no way laughing at him of dismissing his opinion but merely finding it inaccurate and narrow minded.

"Jun did not tell me the story of Aclerius, Lira did. You think I am being naïve, don't deny it; for all your tact you are not very subtle. I feel Acleidon in my heart Reiner, I have ever since I came back. I have not been commanded to do anything as I recall, but it does not mean that I have not been tasked with something – I have no illusions about that. But he gave you back to me… you… that must mean something right? You are free."

She smiles that blinding smile of hers but he refuses to be pacified by it. He is not sure he feels very free. He searches for a response that will not force him to lie, nor upset her.

"Who is Lira?" he questions, carefully avoiding the whole god-thing. The unassuming question has a strange effect on her; she turns pale and with her smile she manages to look both dismayed and obsequious at the same time.

"Oh, just a girl I travelled with for some time. She told many stories."

She stares him right in the eyes as she responds to his question, but despite her outward appearance of openness he can tell that she does not want to say any more about it. Her hand brushes against his and he takes it firmly. Her face relaxes.

"Do you think you'll be able to climb out?"

"I believe that I'm going to dry" he replies bravely, not wanting her to know just how doubtful of his success he really is.

"That's the spirit" she jokes, obviously not fooled by his bravado. She looks very pretty when she smiles like this, and he makes no attempt to resist the impulse to kiss her. He takes her face in his hands and presses his lips to hers. When they break apart her face is flushed and she seems a little surprised to see his mild and open expression of tenderness.

"I'm sorry I left" he says, thinking that she will understand the meaning of those words without any further clarification. "I won't do it again."

Her smile and the look in her eyes say that she wants to believe him.

"I'm sorry I threatened you and made you choose between me and your family. I will try to give them back to you, I promise."

He nods, wanting to accept her promise and her apology. Right now he feels like he can.

"How are we going to do that though?"

"All things in due time, first we need to get your heavy ass out of here." She pokes her finger into his chest. He looks down, eyeing himself critically.

"I don't think I'm heavy, especially not around the ass" he says, half in jest and half in seriousness. He pats his chest with his hands, feeling his breast bone protruding underneath the skin and muscle. She giggles at his physical inventory of himself.

"Prove it, climb out. It might not be as daunting as you think" she teases with a look of mischief in her eyes.

He wonders about that coy look of hers but decides to let it go. Wading through the loose sand he grabs hold of the rope and pulls himself up. A minute later he reaches the surface, experiencing none of the crushing fatigue he had expected from the climb. He is tired and shaky but feels like his body has more to give still. "I felt a little different" she had said, and perhaps this is what she had meant. He sees that Jun has prepared a little fire, and roasting above it is some kind of large rodent. His stomach turns a little at the thought of eating a huge desert rat, but then he imagines it to be a rabbit or something close to that instead and finds the thought more appeasing. It smells good.

Iris climbs out while he sits himself down by the fire. Jun offers him a mild and conciliatory look, handing him a handful of greens of some kind. With a movement of his other hand he signs that they are for eating, and with some amount of trepidation Reiner puts them into his mouth and chews them slowly. They taste sweet, tangy and not at all unpleasant. Out of the corner of his eye he sees Iris detach the rope before she pulls it out of the sandy drop.

"The entrance should be covered within a few hours. No one will ever know we were here" she says as she comes to sit close beside him. The sun is setting and already the air is getting cooler. The fire warms him yet he enjoys feeling the heat from her body.

Jun cuts the rodent to pieces with deft hands, evidently not bothered by the hot flesh. He gives Reiner half of the share, and unnecessarily Iris tells him to eat slowly. He gives them a meaningful look as they split the remaining half between them.

"What? You are much bigger than we are" she says and winks slyly at him.

Well, it is true. He is much bigger than the two of them, and he has not eaten in days after all. This he tells himself and refrains from commenting on her teasing. He eats his somewhat tough but sweet tasting meat in silence for a few minutes.

"So" he says with his mouth full. He chews and swallows before he continues, remembering that it is bad etiquette to do any less. "What do we do now?"

Iris leans forward, placing her elbows on her knees as she looks into the fire. Her voice is calm and clear as she answers him.

"We go east to find my father. Since I know his habits we should have no trouble tracking him down."

"The father who used to be Marley's lackey?" he asks incredulously. He drops the rodent's leg into the bottom of his canteen cup with a 'clonk'.

"Last I checked I only had one father" she replies ironically.

"Ha ha, funny. From what I have heard he is about the last person in the world I would turn to for help."

"He wants to see Marley fall."

"He is a tyrant who tortured you as a kid, not to mention created a weapon targeting Eldians" he cries out in exasperation. Iris looks coolly at him and her eyes express unyielding obstinacy.

"I will not defend his methods. What matters is that he is a powerful ally, and we need leverage if we are to succeed."

"Didn't you say he is not a man that can be controlled? What use is he to us if we will be at the mercy of his whims?"

"I can control him."

"What makes you think that? You said he refused to help you."

"Only because he thought you were a lost cause. When I return with you at my side he will see my strength. Plus we will have help from someone more powerful than he is."

"Who… oh no, no don't say it" he groans.

"We have god on our side" Iris says with a stubborn smile. Reiner shakes his head but hears himself chuckle while he does it. God on our side… fucking ridiculous. "Counsel… leave no" the thing she names a god had said to him before it tossed him out of its realm, but what good is his counsel if she does not listen to a thing she says?

"Let's say he agrees to help us. What then? What will you do if his idea of helping is another weapon like Jormungandr?"

"Oh I have no doubt of it."

He is startled by her response. "And you are alright with that? I thought you said Jormungandr was a thing of evil; you even tried to get him to destroy it, but now you are alright with it? Is this the kind of people we are now?" he asks, acutely aware that he has begun to use the collective noun 'we' instead of saying 'you', like they are just two parts of one unit.

"I don't like it, but as long as none of us intend to use a weapon like that I see no harm in having it as leverage."

"Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely" he replies with a troubled frown, quoting the words of a historian who had mysteriously disappeared after Marley officials had placed a gag order upon him, taking control over all his published works and forbidding common folk to be in possession of said scriptures. Iris nods appreciatively.

"Surprisingly bookish coming from you" she remarks with apparent glee, but growing somber once again she continues: "You are not wrong I suppose, and so it will be our duty to keep my father and others like him from giving in to their whims and fancies."

"And if we can't, what then?"

"Then we kill them" she says with such startling indifference he shuffles his seat uneasily. She sees this reaction and in his face she reads the very same thought he would have had trouble articulating to himself.

"You do not want to live that way anymore, do you?" Her voice is soft and slow as she says this, and she looks at him in that special way again; like he can do no wrong. He shakes his head slowly.

"No, I don't" he murmurs in response, feeling as though it is somehow shameful to feel this way; like he is a racehorse having lost the will to win and is now content with growing fat and complacent as he meanders around the meadow.

"It's alright" she says as if hearing his thoughts. "You don't have to; I will do it for you. We will do it."

She obviously means 'we' as in 'Jun and I'. Said man inclines his head slightly as she looks at him. His black velvety eyes gaze upon her steadily, and in his face Reiner sees solidarity, faith and something deep and secret, akin to- He leaves off his train of thought.

"I will do what needs to be done." He sighs, knowing it must be so but regretting it anyway. "Nothing's for free, I get that… But I keep thinking that at some point there must have been a Marleyan who raised his face towards the sky and dreamt of better things, of hope, prosperity and freedom; and just look where they are now. I want to save my family of course, but at what cost?" He does not expect her to answer him per se, he is merely voicing his train of thought and giving air to some of the doubts he has been lugging around for quite some time now.

"There is no way of knowing that in advance, but just because the outcome is uncertain does not make it right to sit back and do nothing."

"I know, I know." He sighs again. "I just wish it was more clear that there will be something good at the end of it." And that there will still be someone around who deserves that good.

She seems a little confused by his moral trepidation, perhaps thinking it uncharacteristic of him. The question of worth and what is good, or even if there is such a thing as goodness has long been on his mind. He used to think he could live thoughtlessly; that glory would only and could only be bestowed upon him by the proper authority under which he served. But now he thinks there are two kinds of glory, the empty kind which generals hand over to lesser men out of duty and habit, and the real kind that can only be attained by doing good – But when good for one might be bad for the other, is there really such a thing as an ultimate good for all?

"How could freedom for your people be anything but good?" she asks uncertainly.

"That depends on what they do with their freedom… if we even get that far."

"We will" she assures, and then she ponders for a moment while she looks at him intently as if trying to figure him out. He sees genuine bewilderment on her face as if she has just discovered a whole new and fascinating aspect of him. "Reiner; do you believe there is good in everyone, no matter how small or insignificant it may be?"

"I don't know. No" he admits.

"Well, I do. I believe that people strive for better things in all ages and in all situations. Don't look back and judge the future from the past; who are we to judge all the people that will help shape the fate of the world? We will do our best; it is all we can do and so what we must do, and los will decide the rest."

He is stirred by her words, perhaps because she speaks them with such utter conviction. Could he still do his best? At times he had thought all such things lay behind him.

"You never told me what los is" he replies softly, genuinely curious to know.

"Los is the engine of all worlds, I suppose. Outside of its influence there is no space and no time, no beginning and no end."

"Like the place we went" he comments darkly.

"The gods inhabit the spaces in between" she murmurs softly as if musing to herself rather than him.

"How do you know?"

"I just do. No, don't look at me that way you do, like I'm mad. Xšassan scripture speaks of it, of los and the possibility of endless worlds."

"Alright" he says. He is not sure he believes any of it, because so far there has been no proof and because he is inclined to believe in the things he has seen for himself rather than the gospel of others. He saw a shadow take hold of Iris, and while that is troubling she seems to be her usual self now. He tells himself that perhaps it meant nothing, or he is mistaken in what he saw, even though deep down he does not believe such to be gods and los he has seen nothing at all to convince him as of yet, so there they stand.

"We go to find your father, and then what?"

"Then we go home. Back to Eldia."

He snaps his head around to stare at her, suddenly cold with anxiety. Her eyes meet his with the outmost calm and collection, showing unflinching and absolutely certainty that this is how it will be.

"I can't go back there" he argues. "It's impossible; I can never show my face there again."

"You can. You will" she says with unyielding obstinacy. "Eldians are hated all across the world; even if we get your people out of Marley they will never be safe, never truly free. We must make your people cast off their shackles and restore Eldia to what it once was, only then will they be truly free. To do that we must go back, we must return home."

He shakes his head all the while she is speaking.

"It won't work, Iris. They might accept you but not me, never me. We will be shot on sight at best, you too because you happen to be beside me."

"It will work." Her jaw is firmly set in an expression of stubborn conviction.

"How?"

"We will not give them any choice" she says and pauses. He looks at her, hoping for some clarification. He is not disappointed.

"They will hear us out because we will have Jormungandr with us, and they will have to let us go with our lives if no agreement can be reached."

Somewhere he had expected this; why not when she was so dead set on getting her father to join them, but this explanation still disheartens him. He looks at his hands and makes no reply.

"I don't like it either, but as you say we will be shot on sight or detained if we do not stoop to these levels. It'll be a shaky ground to build upon but at least we will have somewhere to start. If they can't put their old grudges aside, Eldia will never be free."

"Even if they do, how can Eldia ever be free when Marley controls a third of the earth?"

"Through cunning and brute strength. I think that if given the right incentive other great nations can be roused against Marley."

"I would never have taken you for an Eldia restorationist" he says and smiles despite himself. He has the creeping notion that promises of new weaponry could be one of the incentives by which other nations might rise against Marley; and the thought disturbs him.

"I only care about Eldia because they are your people, and because you care about them. Although I think that somewhere in this we might find the reason to why we are still here; our task you might say."

"… So I will return to Paradis" he says with a mixed feeling of excitement and dread.

"Yes but not as the armored titan or as an invader; you might yet become legendary Helos." She smiles at him. "Go on, try to turn into your titan now."

Her comment of Helos excites him but at the same time he feels afraid and ashamed of his excitement. Stupid dreams such as those had already led him to make decisions whose consequences had been big and evil things. He has no right to aspire to heroism, he should live his life on his knees with his head bent in humility instead of looking up and dreaming of bigger things. He is not cut out for these kinds of matters, is afraid of them, wants them too much.

"I'll have to move a bit away so I won't hurt any of you or the horses" he says, choosing to make no further comment on the Paradis issue – It will be as she says and they both know it.

"No, do it here. Nothing will happen." She smiles with absolute certainty.

Feeling far from certain himself he accepts the dagger than Jun hands him and places it against the skin of his palm. The steel feels cool and sharp, able to cut through flesh with close to no effort from its wielder. He hesitates.

"Go on" Iris urges him and he swallows hard. He braces himself, breathes, and makes a slicing motion with the knife.

Instead of pain and the burning sensation that accompanies the transformation into a titan, he feels nothing at all. Realizing that he has his eyes closed he opens them and looks down. The skin of his palm is pure and unblemished; though he knows he sliced hard with the knife. His mouth falls open.

"Oh, that is interesting" Iris muses and looks into his uninjured hand. "Try again."

He puts the tip of the knife against the palm of his hand and presses down hard. Half of him is prepared for the excruciating pain that accompanies impalement, but the other half of him naively feels that he will be alright. The latter part turns out to be right, the tip of the blade not sink into his skin no matter how hard he presses on the knife, and the dull throb he feels in his hand comes more from the force of the pressure than from any actual injury to his person.

"What is going on?" he asks worriedly. Iris takes the knife from him and feels the sharp edge. Then she looks at him with amazement.

"It is like I said, you are special." Her eyes are shining as she looks to Jun. "Show him" she says, and before his eyes the man begins to fade from view, turning shadowy until he is completely see through. He stares at the spot where Jun was sitting a moment ago, too shocked to think any intelligent thoughts at this very moment.

"You are both extraordinary" Iris says breathlessly and caresses the unbroken skin of his palm. "It is no coincidence the armored titan passed to you, and now this."

"I could still be a titan host, this skin protection might just… disguise it or something" he mutters, head spinning.

"Maybe, but do you still feel the other hosts in you? Do you feel their memories like you did before?"

He is about to say he does when he stops himself and really takes a moment to feel for it. He searches for his predecessors inside himself but does not find them. For the first time since he came to he can narrow down the way in which he feels different now from what he had been before: He feels whole, alone inside his own body.

"They are gone" he marvels.

"If the stories are to be believed they are not gone, just taking up residence inside someone else now."

He does not much like to be reminded that someone else has to carry the burden now. "If that is the way it must be then someone will always have to carry the burden" he tells himself and feels a little better about it.

"I guess time will tell what I am" he says and looks into her shining eyes. She looks very excited, and from the way she speaks of it he deduces that she is not like them, not 'special' as she put it. "Are we mortal?"

"Of course we are. Immortality is not for things of this world" she says as though it were obvious. "But we can heal even the most grievous wounds like I showed you, and you may have noticed that you are stronger than you were before. We are just as we were, only a little better now that he has touched us."

He ignores the comment on he and his gifts. "The trick with the flask? What was it you actually drank, I thought it was spirits of some sort?"

"It is spirits. Be careful with them from now on, you will notice they do not affect you as they did before."

"What do you mean by that?"

"You will see, in time." She smiles enigmatically.

Jun swims back into view, looking as though he never moved. He shows no sign of excitement at Reiner being gifted, nor does he seem reproachful that he is no longer one of a kind. Trying to come to terms with the idea of their course from here on and of all the trials that lay before them, Reiner gnaws the last trips of meat off the bone of his meal while the others pack up the last of their things. Tossing the bones aside he screws the cap onto his canteen cup and shoves it into his packing.

Back to Paradis to face my demons… yes, that is how it will be. I am no hero but… one day I might be a man. He checks the saddle girth of his horse, mulling over his doubts about their plan. He does not like the idea of relying on a man such as Dieter Holt for anything. From what little he has heard of the man he would be glad to keep Iris away from him for all time. He does not see how they can approach Paradis and be accepted, or how any trust could ever grow in soil that has been spoilt by threats of annihilation. Do their people even wish to be free with all the dangers that freedom would impose on them?

… Perhaps this is why it is better to leave it up to her to do the planning. I believe in nothing and so I expect nothing from others. She says 'freedom', I hear 'conflict', and my imagination only goes as far as to show me the cost of conflict; strife, sickness and death. I see nothing beyond it. I have no visions and thus I have no future unless I go with her; she is the only thing I still believe in. That dark thing inside her might not sleep forever and when it wakes I might need to stand against it. How? I have no idea, but perhaps I will be brave enough to try. This misbegotten and disillusioned thing I am could do nothing but watch while it took her, but a man might have done something. A man might have tried.

He hears a sharp whistle and can only deduce that he had fallen so deep in thought that he had lost all sense of what he had been doing. He looks up and sees that the other two are already mounted on their horses.

"Welcome to earth, I am so glad you could join us" she trills and flashes her lopsided little smile at him. His heart gives a little twinge of pleasure and gladness seeing her tug her headscarf into place as her horse eagerly treads back and forth. He looks at her and feels a small, frightened sense of rising hope within him. It might not be too late for everything; some things may still lie ahead of him.

"Are we in a rush?" he retorts, lazily checking himself before he gets ready to climb into the saddle. The food and water has given him some of his strength back and he feels young, strong and even eager. Is it destiny he hears calling?

"I think we might be" she says with deadly seriousness. "The defeat of the allied Mid-East is inevitable and there is much to do before then."

He takes his seat upon his horse.

"Well then what are we waiting for? Let's go." He looks from her to Jun. He supposes that he will have to get used to the man even if me might never like him. Turning his gaze back to Iris he sees that she is looking at a point north of their position. Her face shows deep concentration, but her eyes are vacant. He rides up to her side, touching her leg with his hand. She cranes her neck around, the expression in her eyes unreadable.

"I thought I heard something…" She listens a moment more, then shrugs. "Let us go, Qiubei lies many leagues from here. If we are lucky we might even catch a glimpse of the emperor." The last bit is uttered with a certain amount of irony as she urges her horse forward. With a thrill of excitement he chases after her, and all three horses break into a gallop.

Side by side the three of them ride across the desert sands and into the last light of the setting sun.

The End