I WILL PROTECT YOU

𝐂𝐡𝐚𝐩𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝟒𝟏

Reader's POV

A warm touch comforted me, I couldn't help but cuddle my head into the warm surface under me. Was I asleep? It felt like it, and it felt nice. Almost as if I was resting my head on my mother's lap, her hand brushing my head as we both sat together in the sun. Her voice ringing like a melody as she told me how much she loved me, my eyes beginning to close. Subconsciously taking my mother's love for granted.

If I was really on her lap, or just dreaming, I felt my eyes begin to water. I missed her. Regretting the way I didn't appreciate every moment I shared with her when I was a child. I could only wish to go back to when I was a kid, to bask under the warmth of my mother and father.

And that's when I felt it. A cold breeze blew against my cheek, strands of my hair blowing onto my face. It didn't feel like I was under the sun with my mother anymore. The wind felt similar, however. My head still on the lap of someone.

Opening my eyes with a groan I found myself in a forest, my eyes looking into the trees that darkened my line of view. I felt tried as I shifted my eyes above me, feeling a hand brushing my hair out of my face. The touch was familiar, but not that of my mother.

That's when I saw her, her blue eyes staring back at me while having my head on her lap. It was Cameron; her hand retreating from my face. I was seeing her with my own eyes, but I remembered where I was before. Just moments ago I stood with Historia and her father, and Eren bounded together. I had touched his shoulder, causing memories to come back to me, those of Cameron and my own. The image of a chapel in ruins flashed in my mind until my memories found themselves here in this forest. Only then did I remember.

Lifting myself off Cameron I searched around hesitantly. There was steam blowing away around me, a titan evaporating near, the remains of what was left of a human body near it. Immediately I brought my hands to my mouth to gag. But it didn't happen, my eyes widening at my small hands. These weren't my hands...

Taking my eyes down I looked at my legs, I was wearing a skirt, a dirty one. My hair was long, going way past my shoulders and down my back. My eyes widened, these were my hands...from five years ago. I was in the body of my ten year old self.

"You're in your memories," I heard Cameron say. "Limbo allows you to enter your memories but you can only see them through your own eyes. You came back to this night from five years ago." She said, getting up from the ground. I gave her a good look before glancing over at the body. From what was left of it, I eyed the bloody clothes. It had the same clothing as Cameron did.

"Is...that you, Cameron?" I mumbled, the memories of a titan appearing in my place and grabbing Cameron flashed in my mind again. "Did...a titan...Are you dead?" Asking her I heard my higher pitch voice ring in my ears. A sickening feeling building inside of me.

"Well, my physical body has been dead for the past five years," her eyes averted to the side, narrowing as she explained. "My conscience is very much alive however." Cameron approached the dead body, her body, and stared at it. "You killed me and inherited the power I once had."

"What?" I gasped. "I...killed you?" Piecing together the memories of Cameron and my own, I started to realize the sickening truth. I turned into a mindless titan and ate Cameron at this exact location. It started to make sense when people asked Cameron if she was going to pass it down to me. "When were you planning on telling me?" My voice was deeper, blinking once, I looked at Cameron from a different height. My head felt lighter, my limbs longer.

"I honestly never planned to, probably wait till you figured it out." She answered me. My brows furrowed and I stepped closer to her. I couldn't believe what she told me...She never planned on telling me this?