The AWAKENED

Flashback ~ SOME YEARS AGO ~

"An interface?" Elizabeth (Eren’s mom) hesitantly asked the evening Silas described the program he planned to develop to her.

"Yes," He said, immediately defensive of his idea. "But inside the mind."

With Elizabeth, Silas was rarely ever as meticulous as he was with others when it came to masking his thoughts.

This was owed mainly to the fact that she did not often entertain doubt, as other people were likely to.

This meant that he never nursed the fear that a spontaneous idea would make her think he was insane.

If anything she was far greater an ardent believer than him. Science was her religion.

“Oh Silas…” Elizabeth muttered and then she burst out laughing. "Don't mind me, Silas." She had said, eyes twinkling brightly. "I am just old and tired."

He chuckled…

Present Day ~

So long ago it was.

Then, laughter was not such an alien notion to him.

For months he developed the program; for months without end, she assisted him.

Now, as he stared at her son, to whom she had passed her chiseled jawline and her hair — perpetually tousled, perpetually wild even when patted down with a comb, heavy with half-ringlets that seemed too weary to properly curl into themselves — Silas realized he had not lost all of Elizabeth the day they came for her.

He explained the mechanics of the interface to Eren: essentially, it was made to assist Awakened harness their abilities far more quickly.

What would ordinarily take years to achieve would take a matter of months — if the program ran as expected. It was still a work in progress by the time Elizabeth passed.

It attached itself to the mind like a second consciousness and helped the particular Awakened to whom it was tailored to help.

Eren listened to him with rapt attention. The boy, he mused, would have made an impressive student.

"Tell me, what did you see?" He finally asked Eren when he was finished explaining.

"A message. It says: Do you wish to resume your dream state? What exactly does this mean? I can go back into a coma if I please?"

Silas did not look the boy in the eye.

He did not know how well to tell him without leaving out a chunk of the truth.

The Dream State was far more complicated than a coma.

It was more similar to hibernation than a coma. It was an incubation period.

The Awakened woke stronger, with more abilities than prior to their slumber, sometimes with their personalities mildly altered.

"You are awake, Eren, but you are not fully conscious."

"What does that even mean?" Eren asked, sounding alarmed.

"It means that the two concepts, for the Awakened, are mutually exclusive. Your mind is still going through the incubation process even though you are up. It is like having one foot in the real world, here, with me; and the other foot in the Dream State."

Eren squinted at his arms. "It makes sense, I guess."

Since he woke, living things around him had taken on a curious, blue glow, and they shone in the distinct and dull manner with which glow-in-the-dark stars give off light.

He had chalked it to the concussion.

After being hit so hard, it was to be expected that he would have minor difficulties.

He described the glow to Silas and the man nodded, affirming his suspicion. It was another symptom of the Dream State.

'I am one of the Awakened now,' Eren marveled at himself, staring at his hands. To Silas, he asked, "I can help you, you know?"

Silas was not impressed. "How so?" He asked.

"I am Awakened." He answered by way of explanation. "Now I have the ability to help you in your investigation. This way, you have more hands on deck and I get to find my mother's killers. We both win."

"Eren, I have told you before, and I will say it again, hopefully for the final time—you are not strong enough to take them on—"

"Yet," Eren told him pointedly.

Not missing a beat, Silas carried on. "You have no traction. No powerful friends. No combat skills that we know of. Your abilities will not save you. The other Awakened, they have been preparing for years, even before their awakening. They know what to expect. They know how to wield their gifts better than you. You get into trouble with people like the Winchesters and they will tear you apart, bit by bit. They will savor it, too."

"So I will prepare too. I will make myself ready. I will do anything but let this one go. No more cowering. No more hiding, Silas. I know now what I have to do."

Grimly, the professor considered this.

After a long moment had passed, he said. "You are hell bent on this, aren't you?"

"I am." Eren replied.

Silas spun the chair away from Eren and began to wheel himself away, forcing the young lad to go after him.

He was forced to walk at a brisk pace to keep up and it surprised him to no end, considering that the man was supposed to be the handicapped one between them both.

"I may have a solution to your problem." He told Eren.

"I am listening."

"The Dream State. I explained to you that it was just like an incubation period, right?"

Eren nodded, bobbing his head. "Right."

"And you know it is while in the Dream State that most of the Awakened powers come to its inhabitant, right?"

"What is your point, professor?"

Silas screeched to a halt abruptly, then stared intently at Eren. "The longer a person stays in the Dream State, the stronger they are bound to be when they wake. Or at least, that is the theory. There is no scientific proof of its veracity; but there is no evidence disproving it."

Eren contemplated it.

As much as he could not fault this new position in which he had found himself, he did not wish to return back to a comatose state.

The last time it had happened, it had happened against his will. He was not sure he could allow it to recur, even if it would be by his volition this time.

Being insensate to the world was a lot like being helpless, and the latter was a place he never wished to revisit.

"Do I have any say in the matter?"

Silas pressed his lips into a hard, sharp line. "Not if you want to survive the coming venture, no."

Eren looked heavenward, as though he was searching for answers not to be found below.

Letting out a heavy sigh, he dragged his gaze back to the crippled elder before him. “If I wholly agree, will you show me how?" He asked.