The Previous Night

A scream is heard as Falco suddenly perks up, and looks to Gabi, in the bed next to him screaming her eyes filled with terror. "Gabi! Hey! What's wrong?! Hey! Settle down!"

"What's wrong?! What happened?!" The guard says as he opens the door looking at the children worried.

"She's in pain!" Falco says unsure.

"Hey! You okay, missy?" The guard asks approaching Gabi. Gabi suddenly catches her breath and grabs her pillow case and swings it at the guard snapping his neck killing him instantly. She then swings it again to ensure the guard is dead then another few times until Falco restrains her. Gabi then hurries out of the prison with Falco trying to stop her.

"What's running away going to do?" Falco asks.

"We'll be killed if we stay!" Gabi shouts at him.

"But, Mr. Moblit- Marcel, said that he's the commander, and he's forbidding our execution. That guy was worried about you!"

"Can you trust those devils?! I can't even trust Zeke anymore! Or anyone else!" Come the following morning the pair are now riverside in a forest. Gabi cleans her face with the water as Falco stands behind her watching the nearby forest.

"We must've gone pretty far. We ran all throughout the night. Hey, take off your armband. You'll stand out." Falco says.

"If any normal person sees it, they won't know what it means."

"But soldiers will know what it is. Just take it off."

Gabi scoffs. "There're no soldiers out here in the sticks."

"Someone will see it eventually! Who knows if we'll make it back home?!"

Gabi shakes her head. "I don't plan to. I just wanna get answers from Zeke before I'm caught and killed."

"But, Marcel has already given express orders to them not to kill us!" Falco retorts.

Gabi ignores Falco. ""Did you really betray us and Marley?" "Why did you do it?" You can do whatever you want. You don't have to follow me."

"Fine, then. I'll do whatever I want, starting with trashing this." Falco says as he rips the armband off her arm and her response is immediate and harsh. She grabs his collar and tackles him to the ground.

"Give it back!"

"What for?! What's the point of even wearing it here?!"

"I'm a good Eldian! Without that, I'm the same as the island devils!" Gabi roars.

"What are you saying?! You're acting crazy!"

"Then, just leave me alone!" Gabi grabs the torn armband and falls to her knees. She speaks quietly. "Why... did you come with me? You didn't have to die, too!"

"What are you doing?" Kaya, the girl Sasha and Mina saved when Zeke had attacked 4 years earlier is standing at the tree line watching the pair of Warrior Cadets. "It's so early in the morning. Where did you come from?"

"I-I don't wanna say." Falco says quickly trying to make a strategy. "We hated our home and ran away from it all. So, we can't go back." Falco glances to Gabi as she grabs a rock readying it to attack.

"I see. Are you guys hungry? I live nearby, so follow me." The pair glance to each other and eventually the pair follow Kaya to a small village, one a bit more lively four years on from when last seen. Dauper Village. "Wait here a minute."

"Okay." Falco says with a slight nod.

Gabi speaks quietly to Falco after Kaya walks away. "Let's take a horse and run."

Falco whispers to Gabi. "What are you talking about?"

"They'll come and search here, too. We've gotta run farther. Besides, I'm not gonna share a meal with devils."

"You already have, with Marcel, and Mr. Marlo. Listen here-!"

"All right! Come on in!" Kaya shouts back to the pair.

"O-Okay! We'll be right there!" Falco responds before turning to Gabi. "I'll do all the talking, so keep your mouth shut."

"You youngsters are the runaways? Who might ya be?" A man asks, this man is Sasha's father.

'A southern Marley accent?' Gabi thinks hearing Mr. Braus speak.

Falco bows showing respect maybe out of fear. "Nice to meet you! We're siblings, Ben and Mia! We have our reasons, but... we ran away from home! We'll do whatever work you want! Please, just let us stay for a few days!" Grabs Gabi and makes her bow similar to how he is. "Please!"

Mr. Braus chuckles. "You younguns don't need to be bowin' like that. Welcome to the Braus stables. Y'all can stay for as long as ya like. C'mon, join us for breakfast." The pair sit at the table as Gabi sits with a terrified look, Falco keeps his cool, but is shaking internally, without a doubt.

Lisa Braus watches the two children. "Are y'all tired? Go lie down once yer done eatin'."

She rubs Gabi's head but Gabi reacts by taking a sharp inhale swatting her hand away like instinct. Many of the other kids watch in surprise, even Falco is stunned by this for a brief moment.

Mr. Braus turns to his wife, Lisa. "Lisa, the lass is..."

"I'm sorry. I'm sure y'all been through a lot." Lisa apologizes.

"Well..." Gabi begins to speak.

"Sorry about my little sister! Th-Thanks for breakfast! It's... it's good! C'mon! Eat up, Mia!" Falco says panicking, Gabi struggles to raise the spoon to her lips she slowly does eat it despite the stares she's receiving from the others.

A few hours later Gabi & Falco are both working the stables cleaning up as one of the horses (probably Charrette) attempts to eat her hair and in her struggle to escape she slips on some mud and kicks a bucket which bounces around before falling on her head all while Falco shouts for her.

"Why is this happening to me? This is the devils's doing!" Gabi says pulling her head out of the bucket.

Falco sighs dejectedly at Gabi's thinking. "No, I think it's the horse's doing." Gabi backs away and sits down as Falco takes care of the horse scrubbing it down while keeping it away from his hair. "There's not a horse that would let you ride it."

"Well, I wasn't trained to ride one. We won't learn a thing out here in the sticks." Gabi says.

"I think it's better to hunker down here than roam around." Falco admits.

"What are you talking about?"

"We can stay here and wait for help. Eventually the world will attack the island. I bet Reiner and my brother will come, too."

"Aren't you pissed at Zeke?! There was a traitor among us!"

Falco shakes his head. "There's nothing we can do."

"And what the hell is "Mia"? Why am I your little sister?!"

"Does it even matter?"

Kaya walks in interrupting the pair. "Hey, guys. Let's have lunch." The three all walk to a nearby fence where they lean against it while eating. "You're quick learners and hard-working, too."

"You think?" Falco asks, getting a nod from Kaya. "Thank you. By the way, Kaya. I noticed all the workers here are pretty young."

"Yeah. Everyone here is an orphan."

Falco looks down. "Oh, really?"

"Queen Historia's policies give support to kids without families. All of us here lost our parents four years ago." Kaya says looking at several of the younger kids.

"You haven't accepted your guilt." Gabi says quietly.

"Wha-?!" Gabi foes to speak but he nearly chokes on his food.

"Huh?" Kaya says.

"Have you forgotten the atrocities the people of this island committed? Only when an Eldian accepts the depths of their sins can they begin to atone." Gabi says staring off into the distance.

"Is that related to our parents dying?"

"Of course. Even if you act like a saint, your sins are too great to escape."

"Is that what they teach you in Marley?" Kaya asks.

Falco turns to Gabi. "We're in her debt, you know! Would you just...?"
"These are indisputable truths!"

Falco and Gabi both go quiet at Kaya's question. "What did you just say?" Falco asks.

"You two came from Marley, right?" Kaya asks.

"How did you...?"

"You have to ask? You yelled it out loud."

"Huh? Uh... you knew from the get-go? Really from the start? I'm so embarrassed...!" Gabi walks over to grab a pitchfork and attempts to attack Kaya but is stopped by Falco. "What are you doing?!"

"The Devil revealed her true colors! I knew something was up! Island devils can't be this kind!"

"Stop, you idiot!"

"Hey! What's all the fuss about?" One of the older kids asks watching the three.

Kaya turns and shouts back. "Mia's jealous and thinks I'm stealing her brother!"

"Kaya's actually getting along with people? She's cheered up some." One of the female kids says.

"Good grief... Don't horse around or you'll get hurt!"

Falco takes the pitchfork. "Sorry!" He then looks at Kaya confused. "Why?"

Kaya requests the duo follow her as they do they travel to a town in ruins, one familiar to Kaya and maybe a few others. "This village used to be my home. Four years ago, a Titan showed up here. The villagers ran when they saw it and left my mom, who couldn't run. There was nothing I could do, so I sat down. From right here, I sat and listened to my mom get eaten. She was alive the whole time it happened. Eventually she went silent. I think she screamed until she lost her voice. They say humanity outside the walls thinks that we're devils. But I don't understand why were hated so much. Mia, Ben. Tell me. What exactly did my mom do? What did she do to be hated so much?"

"Your kind slaughtered people for thousands of years!" Gabi shouts.

"Thousands?. Kaya asks.

"Don't tell me you forgot it! Eldians used the power of the titans to trample and rule the world for millennia! They wiped out other cultures, forced them to bear their children and murdered endless droves of people! Stop playing the victim!"

"My mom was born and raised here. She never did anything like that." Kaya says her face growing more exasperated.

"But a century ago, the sins of your ancestors were terrible and great!"

"A century ago? What about the people who live now.? How have we sinned?"

"Not long ago, you guys trampled my home."

"My mom was killed four years ago so it's not her fault." Kaya says.

"I'm telling you, your ancestors killed people all over the—!"

"My mom didn't kill anyone!" Kaya now shouts. "Answer me, Mia! Why did my mom have to suffer like that? There has to be a reason! It's crazy if there's not! Why was my mom eaten alive, huh? Why was she killed?! Huh?! Why?!"

"It was recon-in-Force." Falco speaks calmly, interrupting the pair. "The invasion of Paradis four years ago was staging for a larger attack. You and your mother were caught up in it. Your mom didn't do anything wrong. I'm sorry." After his explanation Kaya walks away sitting by the entrance leaving Falco and Gabi together were they were before.

"You're leaking secrets to the enemy? And why apologize?" Gabi asks.

Kaya nods. "Thanks for letting me know, Ben. But it's weird for you to apologize for Marley. You were just born there."

Falco speaks as they all exit. "So, how did you manage to escape and survive?"

"Two girls a bit older than I am now fought off the Titan."

"No way! That's crazy!" Falco says in awe.

"Yeah. They put themselves between me and the Titan and allowed me to escape. If she was awake, she wouldn't abandon people like you with nowhere to go. Just like she didn't abandon me. We were invited to a restaurant a Marleyan is working at. If you come along, you might find a way to go back home."

"Why...?" Gabi asks.

"I want to become a person like them." Kaya says.

Chapter End.