Gabi almost didn't even recognize him. She's never seen Reiner look, well, smaller than her. But the more she looks at him, the more she recognizes him - she can barely, barely remember this boy from her youth, she can remember him being around her and then he was just not there anymore. But what she mostly remembers is seeing pictures of him at Aunt Karina's house, and hearing her aunt and her parents tell her how her cousin was the pride of their family, how he had bestowed the highest honor about their family by becoming a Warrior, but fighting for their Motherland Marley, fighting for all of them far away on an island of devils.
Her entire youth, she'd grown up hearing how her cousin Reiner was a hero.
Seeing him like this, younger than she is now, in a foreign land, fearing for his own life, feels her with a lot of conflicting feelings.
"--WHUUUH!"
Whoop, not so alone anymore. Gabi jumps back, hands up when Annie suddenly kicks him and he, similarly, yells his head off. She wants to yell at Annie to knock it off, but of course, she can't hear her. Gabi already knows at this point she can't affect anything in these memories--
--memories. Wait. If this is a memory portal...then someone who this memory belongs to must be in Nightwake?! She quickly looks around and even looks up to make sure nobody's in the tree. This memory...belongs to one of these three. Annie, Bertolt or Reiner. That means one of the Marleyan Warriors is in Nightwake, which...again, fills her with a lot of conflicting feelings that she can't even begin to parse as Bertolt and Annie start to walk off.
(If it's Annie, it's probably fine, right? She may not be popular with Jean and some of the others, but she can explain the alliance to them and Hange-san will back her up, even Levi will even if...she doesn't wanna think about some of the stuff she saw Annie do in Levi's memories, right now....if it's Bertolt, that's a lot more complicated. She never knew Bertolt and he doesn't know about the alliance...)
Gabi's barrage of quick thoughts, all mashed together in the space of a few seconds, are suddenly pierced by another voice.
"I know you'll be able to complete your mission." She places her hands over her ears and blinks. "And I'm sure your father is praying for your success too."
She instantly recognizes the voice of her Aunt Karina. She remembers something like this happening in Levi's memory. When his inner thoughts became so strong, Gabi could hear them as well. This is the same kind of thing. Which can only mean this memory belongs to...
Her eyes fall to the boy on the ground as he calls to his two fellow Warriors. Her breath catches in her throat as she hears two voices saying to wait. She hears both, but her eyes stay on the boy. Just like the Braun behind her, she's too focused on the past to realize what's right next to her just yet. Even if she's focused on a past of a slightly different sort.
"That day, when Marcel was eaten....Annie and Bertolt wanted to abort the mission."
"True..." Annie says, an unpleasant frown on her face. "You" can't go back like this." She then dispassionately lays out the reality of the situation. "If you go back to Marley now, they'll strip you of the Armor for this disgrace. The next warrior will eat you..." And in a way only Annie can, she matter-of-factly adds, "...not that it makes any difference to me."
"And you're so sure that'd only happen to me?"
"Not just to save my own skin, but..."
Within a couple seconds, Reiner is throwing out every conceivable reason to not abandon the mission. All three of them will be purged -- they can't catch the Jaws anyway - if they transform, they'll just attract more titans - they can't go back with nothing to show for it. And with what she's seen in Eren's memories, she understands exactly why he's so desperately arguing to continue on, despite this fiasco.
"Because I wanted to be a hero! I wanted to be respected!"
The boy in front of her is only 12 years old, but at this moment, she can practically see right next to him, down on his knees in practically the same pose, her cousin nearly twice as old, crushed by his guilt, baring his soul to his enemy. She starts to raise a hand.
"Don't..." She murmurs, barely above a whisper.
"If we ever want to go back to our homeland...we need results," he says. "We need the founder...we can't go back without it now..." And Gabi knows that he successfully convinces them. And she knows that they successfully infiltrate the walls. And she knows how they spend the next five years. And now, she knows in agonizing detail what it does to her cousin.
"Your mother was eaten by a titan because of me!" "I can't stand this anymore...please, just kill me!"
She tries to reach out and grab him. She tries to call out to him. She should know that he can't actually hear her. But she's still practically begging a 12-year old ghost to do something that's simply not an option for him, in any sense of the world.
"We were wrong, Reiner...! Please, don't break the wall!"
no prob I'm doing the same
Her entire youth, she'd grown up hearing how her cousin Reiner was a hero.
Seeing him like this, younger than she is now, in a foreign land, fearing for his own life, feels her with a lot of conflicting feelings.
"--WHUUUH!"
Whoop, not so alone anymore. Gabi jumps back, hands up when Annie suddenly kicks him and he, similarly, yells his head off. She wants to yell at Annie to knock it off, but of course, she can't hear her. Gabi already knows at this point she can't affect anything in these memories--
--memories. Wait. If this is a memory portal...then someone who this memory belongs to must be in Nightwake?! She quickly looks around and even looks up to make sure nobody's in the tree. This memory...belongs to one of these three. Annie, Bertolt or Reiner. That means one of the Marleyan Warriors is in Nightwake, which...again, fills her with a lot of conflicting feelings that she can't even begin to parse as Bertolt and Annie start to walk off.
(If it's Annie, it's probably fine, right? She may not be popular with Jean and some of the others, but she can explain the alliance to them and Hange-san will back her up, even Levi will even if...she doesn't wanna think about some of the stuff she saw Annie do in Levi's memories, right now....if it's Bertolt, that's a lot more complicated. She never knew Bertolt and he doesn't know about the alliance...)
Gabi's barrage of quick thoughts, all mashed together in the space of a few seconds, are suddenly pierced by another voice.
"I know you'll be able to complete your mission." She places her hands over her ears and blinks. "And I'm sure your father is praying for your success too."
She instantly recognizes the voice of her Aunt Karina. She remembers something like this happening in Levi's memory. When his inner thoughts became so strong, Gabi could hear them as well. This is the same kind of thing. Which can only mean this memory belongs to...
Her eyes fall to the boy on the ground as he calls to his two fellow Warriors. Her breath catches in her throat as she hears two voices saying to wait. She hears both, but her eyes stay on the boy. Just like the Braun behind her, she's too focused on the past to realize what's right next to her just yet. Even if she's focused on a past of a slightly different sort.
"That day, when Marcel was eaten....Annie and Bertolt wanted to abort the mission."
"True..." Annie says, an unpleasant frown on her face. "You" can't go back like this." She then dispassionately lays out the reality of the situation. "If you go back to Marley now, they'll strip you of the Armor for this disgrace. The next warrior will eat you..." And in a way only Annie can, she matter-of-factly adds, "...not that it makes any difference to me."
"And you're so sure that'd only happen to me?"
"Not just to save my own skin, but..."
Within a couple seconds, Reiner is throwing out every conceivable reason to not abandon the mission. All three of them will be purged -- they can't catch the Jaws anyway - if they transform, they'll just attract more titans - they can't go back with nothing to show for it. And with what she's seen in Eren's memories, she understands exactly why he's so desperately arguing to continue on, despite this fiasco.
"Because I wanted to be a hero! I wanted to be respected!"
The boy in front of her is only 12 years old, but at this moment, she can practically see right next to him, down on his knees in practically the same pose, her cousin nearly twice as old, crushed by his guilt, baring his soul to his enemy. She starts to raise a hand.
"Don't..." She murmurs, barely above a whisper.
"If we ever want to go back to our homeland...we need results," he says. "We need the founder...we can't go back without it now..." And Gabi knows that he successfully convinces them. And she knows that they successfully infiltrate the walls. And she knows how they spend the next five years. And now, she knows in agonizing detail what it does to her cousin.
"Your mother was eaten by a titan because of me!"
"I can't stand this anymore...please, just kill me!"
She tries to reach out and grab him. She tries to call out to him. She should know that he can't actually hear her. But she's still practically begging a 12-year old ghost to do something that's simply not an option for him, in any sense of the world.
"We were wrong, Reiner...! Please, don't break the wall!"