"I know more than just your cousin's name is Gabi. I know far more than you can imagine."
Zeke's gravelly voice rumbled from the Beast Titan's maw. His golden eyes gleamed as though he were staring not only at Reiner, Annie, and Bertholdt, but through them—into their pasts, their futures, their regrets.
He thought of that little girl, Gabi Braun. So much like her cousin, she had joined the army at ten, dreaming of inheriting the Armored Titan.
Her loyalty to Marley burned as fiercely as Reiner's once had, yet she surpassed him in one thing—talent. Especially with a rifle. Her aim was peerless.
And it was that very rifle, held by her trembling hands, that would one day fire the shot which blew off his brother's head.
Even now, Zeke shuddered at the memory.
If he hadn't caught Eren's head in time… if the Paths hadn't opened in that instant… then the boy he despised, yet longed to save, would have vanished forever.
Just recalling it made his chest tighten.
Gabi Braun—too much, far too much.
And now, gazing at the three young warriors pinned before him, Zeke felt a twisted mercy rise up. Let them die with open eyes, he thought. Let them die knowing everything they are, everything they will never become.
"Poor Reiner," Zeke began, voice low and venomous, "you swore allegiance to Marley your whole life. But tell me, were you ever truly loyal? No—you became a warrior only to obey your mother. Only to fulfill her desperate little dream."
Reiner's body stiffened, but Zeke pressed on, relentlessly.
"Do you know what all your sacrifice amounted to? Nothing. You believed that if you piled up victories on the battlefield, if you returned as a decorated hero, your father would finally accept you. You thought he would come back to you and your mother. But the truth—" Zeke leaned closer, snarling, "—is that from the moment he learned you carried Eldian blood, he hated you both. He saw you as devils. He fled you like a curse. How could such a man ever recognize you?"
Reiner's eyes went wide, his body slack.
"Yes," Zeke whispered, his voice now cruelly gentle, "you and your poor mother never had him. Not when you returned from Paradis. Not even at the end, when the world itself crumbled. Your father never came back. He never once called you his son. He died as he lived—loathing you."
Reiner stopped struggling. His breath came shallow, eyes staring into nothing.
Zeke turned away. "You're not the only pitiful ones here."
His gaze swept to Annie and Bertholdt, and he sighed as though pity weighed down his massive shoulders.
"You too… pathetic creatures."
He fixed his burning stare on Annie first.
"You wanted nothing more than to go home. But you failed your mission. Captured alive, you sealed yourself in crystal, waiting for rescue that never came. Did Marley send for you? No. You were discarded like a broken pawn, abandoned on this cursed island. And your father—the man you dreamed of reuniting with—he was beaten to death by Marley's own officials for daring to rebel. That was your empire. That was your reward for loyalty."
Annie's pale face twisted, her eyes wide with horror.
But Zeke had seen it all already.
When Eren had tricked him within the Paths, he hadn't gained the Founding Titan's power, but for one blinding instant, all Eldians were connected.
In that river of memories, Zeke had glimpsed every fate, every thread of despair.
Now he used that knowledge like a blade, carving into their hearts.
"And you, Bertholdt…" His voice dropped, dark with irony. "You never even saw the end. You died here, before the rumbling, before Marley could call you home. Your father, sick and waiting, never saw you again. You died on Paradis, swallowed by a slip of a boy with yellow hair. Weak, unassuming, yet she devoured you whole. Your Titan body and the girl you loved were both stolen by the same person. Tragic, isn't it?"
Bertholdt's lips trembled. His face drained of all color.
"Do you see now?" Zeke said coldly. "Even when I promised you freedom—even when I claimed I'd lead you back to your families—the truth is, you were always doomed to end here. Perhaps I should have devoured you all when we first landed. If I had, none of this would have unfolded."
His massive shoulders heaved in something like a sigh. For a fleeting moment, he almost looked weary.
Why hadn't he? Why hadn't he consumed them as he had Willy Tybur?
Because of Eren. Because his foolish little brother, in that other life, had shown mercy.
Class 104—those children were the only warmth Eren had known in a life of endless cruelty. Friends he was willing to burn the world to protect.
That memory stayed in Zeke's hand until now.
But mercy had its limits.
His massive fingers tightened around Reiner's broken body, lifting him high toward the Titan's waiting maw.
"There's no path left for you, Armored Titan," Zeke rumbled. "Marley will not praise you. They will curse your name. And when they punish your family, when your mother becomes one of the mindless, it will be your cousin—little Gabi, grown into a soldier—who aims her rifle at their skulls. Nine years from now, she will finish what you began. How fitting."
Reiner's eyes filled with horror. His voice cracked, disbelieving. "How… how do you know my cousin's name?"
Zeke's lips peeled back into a chilling grin.
Because he knew everything.
…
Zeke was always too talkative. If he hadn't been so talkative in his past life, perhaps Eren wouldn't have outplayed him.
Perhaps his grandmother wouldn't have been stolen away. But Zeke couldn't help it—his curse was that he knew too much, and could never resist telling it all.
...
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