Short first chapter for introductory purposes.
Eren didn't think he'd seen a black so dark before.
That's what everything was: black. Strange, whirring noises buzzed around him, but he couldn't see anything yet. His own fingers felt so… foreign.
What the hell happened?
He couldn't remember. The blood in his brain was wishing around too much. Something was under him, he could feel it. Soft and supple. Smelled familiar, but at the same time so alien. The blackness before his eyes flushed red. Slowly, he regained his bearings. A voice called to him.
"Eren."
His ears barely registered. The sweeping breeze, though, he could hear. Like a symphony whittled from reed and seashore waves. Reminded him of home…
...home.
What, what had happened again? Why couldn't he see anything?
"Eren."
The voice was clearer, he could feel the anxiety. More sunlight seeped into his corneas. It all felt so warm. Eren didn't want to wake up. He much preferred this half-dreamy trance to…
...wait. What the hell happened?
"EREN!" A different voice.
Someone slapped him across the cheek. His eyes shot open, body upright. There it was: the sky; a serene pool of azure, tempered by marshmallow clouds and sunray. It looked so familiar.
*SLAP*.
Eren's head snapped downward. This horseface he recognized quickly. Except, instead of his usual smirk or idiotic grimace, Jean seemed pretty fucking terrified. Sweat and sunburn coated his cheeks. The sharpness in his eyes bared like fretful daggers.
"Jean…?" Eren blinked the fog out of his lashes. Someone pulled his body away with gorilla force.
"Eren."
It was one of two faces he could never in any circumstance forget.
"Mikasa…?" He blinked twice more. Her face illuminated with relief, but no less stressed. Eren looked around him. Under his fingers, the soft feeling - it was just grass. A patch of it. Behind him loomed a formidable tree with a caved hole.
"What…" It was so tall, so… strange. "What happened?"
She didn't answer. Couldn't answer. Eren's eyes danced around, swallowing the situation and scene. He saw Armin. He was crying, gaping into the distance on his knees. Next to him, an unconscious Connie… and Sasha, who was weeping unintelligibly with eyes wide in fear. At the helm of the frond-filled mound stood Hange and Captain Levi. They perused the horizon, deathly glints beneath their creased brows.
"Ah!" Eren caressed his head. It throbbed crazily, like his entire cortex had just imploded. Mikasa's rigid but soft arms swirled around him.
"Are you alright?" She looked abnormally distraught. She'd never lost her cool like this since… since Hannes. Since….
Eren casually shrugged her off, wipes the blear left in his eyes. "What happened?"
"Nobody fucking knows, dipshit." Jean's cuss was weak, shaky.
Eren glared at him. "What's got your tongue so caught-up?"
But Jean wasn't paying attention. Like the rest of them, he was looking into the distance. Mikasa placed a hand on Eren's shoulder.
"Eren… look around."
He got up with effort, blocked the sun with his hand. Fell right back down. All around him, blotting out the horizon, were massive buildings. As tall as the walls, but they were buildings. He could tell because the shadows of people bustled around within them. Roadways were paved black and dotted yellow, and flowing with…
...he didn't even know. There was no way to describe them. People sat inside the contraptions, but moved around. Fast. Alongside them pedestrians wore funky outfits and fingered shiny, rectangular stones in their hands. Except stones don't shine like that.
Eren's head pounded again. It was too much: too many colors, noises and scents. Mikasa's hand didn't leave him.
He glanced at her. "What... where… are we?"
Nobody answered him. Hange and Levi talked sternly in front. Eren looked behind, at the tree he'd woken beside. Electricity surged within him. Images poured through his mind.
He saw a glade, surrounded by trees. The nine of them on horses. Captain Levi scouting. A giant tree with a hole. Historia inside, Eren touching her. And then…
...black.
Levi swiveled his head around. For the first time, Eren saw fear behind his eyes.
"Get up." He sheathed his blades. "We're going somewhere secluded."
"And then what?" Jean screeched like a banshee.
"And then we'll figure this shit out."
Hange didn't seem any more convinced. "Come on, soldiers. Don't lose your heads here."
"I'm so..." Sasha trembled like a drum. "I'm so… hungry."
Eren looked up at the Sun. It was the same orange and red, blistering without mercy. Even the air felt thicker but the Sun was just as always. He reached out for it.
Somehow, Eren noticed the rest were doing the same.