Chapter Text
Armin listened as Yelena spoke, her words ringing through his ears, she was going one by one talking about each one of them.
He had to admit, he thought it was a little creepy that she knew so much about each of them, especially when she’s only been on the island for a small amount of time.
“Reiner Braun, after you opened that hole in the wall…”
Armin’s mind went in circles, he understood that she would know a lot about the Warriors, but he froze when she mentioned his name.
“I never thought I would see you, a sensible, decent person, raze a Military port so mercilessly, Armin…”
He looked up, he saw everyone looking at him, he always hated the feeling of eyes on him, always feeling the pressure when people stared at him, his mind was racing as it look of guilt came upon his face. He already regretted his actions, why must she bring it up some more?
“You wielded power you stole from Berthold Hoover most effectively.”
Berthold, not a day goes by that Armin doesn’t wish it was Erwin that was saved instead of him, the guilt of having to kill, no, eat a person, floods Armin‘s head once again, and a feeling of not belonging and shame dominates his brain.
“Assess your military accomplishments for me, relative to the mountain of corpses you left behind. Including dead civilians, please.”
The port, his mind was racing as memories flooded through his head, how many lives did he take that day? how many lives did he ruin, what about the family of the civilians and people he killed? Why was he cursed with such a fate?
“But I also did some digging on your childhood, I found something interesting about your mother, and what happened to her and your father.”
Armin was on even higher alert as Yelena spoke. His mother and father? Why was this relevant? Something interesting about his mother?
“Let me ask you one more favor, tell me what was your mother's maiden name, and her first name, please.”
he was hesitant, but he finally spoke “Jane, her name was Jane, her maiden name was Jane Hopper. Why is this relevant?”
from the corner of Armin‘s eye, he saw the man that was with the cart, Theo Magath, widen his eyes a little. The Warriors tensed up. The cart titan moved her head to face him. What could be so special about his mother's maiden name?
“She was from Marley.” Magath suddenly spoke up Armin froze. His mother was from Marley? How?
“What? How do you Know?” Armin asked quietly, hoping this was just some sick joke.
“She was a part of the Hawkins project, but it’s nothing relevant.” The older man spoke up hesitantly, he could still feel the eyes of others trained on him, and he shifted uncomfortably.
“You can’t just say something like that, and expect us to just accept it! We know how Grisha got here after he came from Marley, how in the hell would Armin‘s mother get here though?”
he turned to face Mikasa, surprised at her sudden outburst. He couldn’t focus on it for long, he had so many questions, why had everyone reacted like that? What was the Hawkins project?
“Discussion over. We are not going to mention this again.” Magath said as he scolded Yelena, she turned to face him and then faced Armin, ignoring the previous warning.
“Are your parents still alive? Specifically your mother.”
He bit the inside of his mouth, he hated talking about his parents “No, they died in a hot air balloon accident, they were trying to get over the walls.”
“Shame, we could’ve used extra help, you see-“
Suddenly Magath shoved his hand on Yelena’s face, shutting her up instantly.
“I said discussion over. Do not defy me again.”
Armin started zoning out as Yelena was being talked to, he pondered what she was about to say, what did she mean by extra help? His head hurt just thinking about it, well, everyone was distracted. He walked deeper into the woods to get some fresh air.
“What is Hawkins?” he was thinking out loud as he paced back and forth in the forest. The wheels turning in his head, maybe it was a codeword? A hawk is a bird. Maybe it has something to do with birds? could it be a location?
He still couldn’t wrap his head around the fact that his mother was from Marley, could she have been a shifter? How would she be able to help the situation they found themselves in with the rumbling at all? What was the truth?
He didn’t know what he was supposed to feel, was he supposed to feel angry at this information? Or sad maybe? The one thing he know he for sure felt was the pure overwhelming feeling of panic, what would this mean for him now? His head was spinning with the replacement of the night.
he backed into a tree and slumped down, often he knew what to do in most situations, but this time he had no clue. He could feel warm, tears falling down his face. How else was he supposed to react?
He brought his knees to his chest and buried his face in his arms, his breath was shaky and short, and the rumbling was already causing his whole world to fall apart, literally, he was cracking under pressure.
“I’m sorry.”
Armin was whispering to himself, he didn’t know who he was apologizing to, or for what. Perhaps it was Bertolt or maybe Eren. He could feel himself shaking.
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Armin didn’t remember exactly when he dozed off, but he did. His eyes flittered open as warm sunlight hit his skin.
he felt something run down his nose, he put his finger to it, it was blood.
“Shit.”
He used his arm to wipe the blood from his nose, he thought nothing of it, having a bloody nose was normal. But what wasn’t normal is the fact that a tree nearby was ripped from its roots, he noticed that the tree was quite far away from where it once stood, he could tell by the distance from it and the crater in the ground.
he was drawn toward the phenomenon, what had done this? They couldn’t possibly be an animal that strong out here, he thought.
Suddenly a sound came from behind him, he jerked around to see Jean.
“Hey Ari, we’re taking off, we’re going to go retrieve the flying boat.”
Armin smiled at the sight of his boyfriend. “Thanks for telling me.” he walked past Jean and gave him a quick kiss on the cheek, but suddenly he was spun around by the other man grabbing his arm and holding him.
“Armin, are you okay? I know that was a lot to take in last night.”
He could feel Jean stroking his head and bearing his face in his hair, peppering that one spot with small kisses as he spoke.
Armin could feel the blush rising on his face, but he didn’t fight the soft embrace, he wanted to cry.
“Yeah, it’s just a lot to take in…”
Armin pulled away from the hug, still squeezing Jean's hand.
Both of them started walking back to the others, when they got back to the campsite the cart titan was gone, Mikasa explained that Pieck was doing a quick reconnaissance.
Armin began to help Connie lift a few boxes they brought onto the cart, Annie and Reiner were untying the horses. No one said a thing, it all felt very awkward with what happened the night before.
“Hey, Blondie.”
Armin turned around to see Magath, looking stoic. “Whatever Yelena said to you last night, ignore it, pretend it never happened. We need you to focus on the mission ahead.”
Armin just nodded, how the hell was he just supposed to forget it? This was more than just a random fact about his heritage, it’s about something bigger than that but it would be better just to agree for now.
“Good.” he watched the older man walk off.
Armin got on the cart with Jean and Connie and Mikasa, followed by Annie and Reiner after they got the horses ready, and the others followed after. then they were riding down to the Paradis port.
“So what’s the plan?” Armin asked sheepishly, it was still pretty tense.
“We are going to get the flying boat from the port. It should be pretty easy as long as we get there before the yeagerists.” Reiner responded.
As they rode down towards the ocean, he couldn’t help thinking about that mysterious project. Why would Yelena bring it up? Magath I wasn’t telling the whole story. why else would he shut Yelena up like that?
He thought back to his earliest memories with his mother, he didn’t have many memories of her but they were enough for him.
He thought back to a summer day in the garden of his old house, his father was trimming bushes while his mother read, and before the hot air balloon accident he and his family used to live in another outlier district across from Trost, but he had to move once his parents died.
The book she was reading was called “The Dragon in the Dungeon” he remembered how when he asked her about it she said she only liked it because it reminded her of her old friend group.
He remembered her long curly brown hair, how she never showed her right wrist, he always found that odd.
Armin was pulled out from his train of thought when the cart titan suddenly appeared in front of them as they rode next to a hill.
“Pieck!” Annie spoke up, Pieck emerge from the nape of her titan “We were too late, the Yeagerists are at the docks, they have the flying boat wrapped in explosives.”
Armin’s heart sank, were they too late to stop the rumbling anyway?
“Your kidding, please say you’re joking!”
Connie stood up and continued to speak, “You have to be kidding though, we made it all this way for nothing?”
Armin was listening as they started throwing ideas out for what they should do, in the end, they agreed that they were going to fight for the boat.
“We could trick them into thinking that we are siding with them still.” Armin chipped in.
“Good idea Armin,” Jean said as he squeezed his hand in support, Armin smiled back.
did they arrive at the docks? They all got off the wooden cart, and they stood on the small ledge, contemplating what they should do.
“We are probably going to have to kill them…” Mikasa spoke up. “The comrades we worked with since the cadet days.”
Pain filled his heart as he realized, how many friends would he have to kill today to get that flying boat?
"You sure you guys can do this?" Annie spoke up, "Kill your comrades?"
Armin looked hesitant, his eyes threatened to swell with tears, first the rumbling then the truth about his mom, and now this? Why was his life going to hell in a week, he thought.
"We have to".
"So what's the plan here? What are we going to do? We can't exactly go up to Floch and ask for the ship."
Hange spoke up, they were right, they needed a plan "Speaking of Floch, where is he?"
"He has Lady Azumabito and the engineers hostage in the main building," Pieck replied. An idea came to Armin, he and Connie could ride in on horseback and lie about what happened to the others.
"Guys let Connie and I ride into the harbor and tell Floch that we have been pursuing the Cart Titan ever since it devoured Jean and Onyankopon. Then we tell Floch to send the Azumabito mechanics to help them start the ship so we can continue our pursuit."
Armin planned that he and the others were going to leave with the flying boat no matter what.
✰⋆｡:ﾟ･*☽:ﾟ･⋆｡✰⋆｡:ﾟ･*☽:ﾟ･⋆｡✰⋆｡:ﾟ･*☽