Titan-Slayer Steel
Chapter 1: The Fall of Shiganshina
Disclaimer: I do not own Attack on Titan or any of the characters involved except Guardian S. Steel and Guardian M. Metal
It was bright, sunny day inside the walls. A young man was sleeping peacefully on a grassy hill full of wild-flowers. A young girl stood over him, watching his unconscious body. She didn't seem to have any life in her, her eyes were devoid of any emotion.
"Eren, it's time to wake up," she said.
The young man groaned as he stretched his limbs and opened his eyes.
"Is it really that time already Mikasa?" he asked.
She nodded and turned to leave.
"hey, wait a second!"
Eren picked up a box of sticks and slung it over his back, following Mikasa through the city streets, greeting the guards and seeing a patrol of scouting forces return from outside the walls.
"I think the scouts are so cool, when I grow up, I'm gonna join them," Eren told Mikasa as the pair walked through the streets in the afternoon light. They arrived home where they were greeted by Eren's parents.
The family quietly ate their dinner before Eren and Mikasa left to go find their friend Armin. Who was being attack by a gang of kids.
"Hey! Leave him alone!" Eren shouted.
The trio looked over toward his direction and grinned.
"Seems he wants an ass-beating!" one shouted as they readied their fists, letting Armin go.
Their eyes widened as they spotted Mikasa behind him.
"Shit! He's got Mikasa with him, run!"
The kids turned on their heels and ran down the street as fast as they could.
Eren stopped when he met Armin and was gasping for breath.
"Ha… look at that… they ran… at the sight of me,"
Mikasa stopped next to the two boys and looked at them curiously.
"Actually, they saw Mikasa," Armin sighed.
The trio moved to a set of stairs by a river that ran through the city and were discussing their futures. The breeze that had rustled through the city suddenly stopped, everything was calm and quiet.
Then a bolt of lightning pierced the air in front of the city and a large explosion shook the ground.
"What was that?" Armin asked.
"An explosion?" Eren looked toward the gate.
The group noticed people rushing past them and followed, arriving in an open square they looked to the walls in horror.
A large, red, skinless hand was gripping the walls fiercely. Its grip tightened even more causing the wall to break off in large pieces
"It can't be! A titan!?" Eren shouted as he looked on.
A large head that looked the same as the hands raised up over the wall.
"That's impossible, those walls are fifty meters high!" Armin shouted.
The titan lifted its foot into the air behind it, before crashing it into the gate, causing a shockwave that broke buildings, windows, and blew people off their feet.
People rushed away from the wall, but some were crushed by the rubble created by the shockwave.
Meanwhile, two figures appeared in small flashes of gray light on top of the wall. One was clad in chainmail that clinked as he moved, a pair of dark gray boots were strapped to his feet. He stood tall with short gray hair, gray eyes, and his arms at his sides. He looked to be about 18 years old.
His companion looked younger than him, about 16. He grinned as he sat in a crouched position, a large, double-bladed battle-axe was slung over his shoulder. He wore gray pants that tightened on his ankles and an open gray jacket that left the middle of his chest exposed.
"Seems we've arrived late," The younger one said as his grin faded.
"The attack on the city has already begun, it's time we leant a hand," The older said, holding out his hand and summoning an axe identical to the one carried by his friend.
"Metal!" The younger one shouted as he leapt from the wall, "He's so quick on the draw, I thought he was supposed to think things through before jumping into battle,"
"Steel! Are you coming or not?" Metal shouted from the ground.
"Fine!"
Steel looked at the colossal titan behind him and sighed before jumping off the walls down below.
Metal landed first, causing a small crater to form in the ground as he landed.
Steel landed on a Titan's back sending it face-first into the ground.
"Where did you say to aim?" he asked as he rushed up the large creature.
"The nape of the neck, you have a two-inch space to cut," Metal said as he stood, holding his axe in his right hand.
"Got it!" Steel shouted as he leapt into the air, he turned so he was facing toward Metal and the titan's right side. He landed on the ground next to the titan's neck, his axe had cleaved through the portion of the Titan's neck, decapitating it.
"Nice work," Metal said approaching him.
"Now come on, we have to make sure the people don't get eaten,"
"Shouldn't we look for Eren? He's our contact in this world,"
"Agreed, I'll hold the titans back, you find Eren and make sure he gets to safety,"
"Understood," Steel formed his middle fingers into a V his palm facing Metal before he took off.
Metal did the same, the back of his hand facing Steel as he ran off.
"Stay safe my young apprentice,"
Metal heard a crashing sound behind him as a Titan attempted to pick him up. He leapt into the air and aligned himself above the nape of the Titan's neck.
"Steel form"
His body gained a gray shine to it as he plummeted to the ground like a statue, piercing the titan's neck and killing it. He crashed into the ground, crawling out of a crater he formed.
Steel darted through the city streets, his axe bouncing loosely in his grip. He looked around until he spotted Eren and Mikasa.
"Our house will be around the corner, standing there like always," Eren said as he and Mikasa turned the corner, going out of Steel's sight.
"Damn it," Steel said as he leapt into the air, crashing onto the roof of a nearby building, he saw Eren and Mikasa run for their house, a crumpled pile of stones and wood.
"Mom!" Eren shouted.
Steel stirred as he heard the word. His mind drifted back to a hazy memory of a woman with gray hair looking down on him with a smile on her face as his vision blackened. He grabbed his forehead with his free hand, sucking in air between his teeth.
"What was that?" he asked.
"Mom!" Eren shouted again.
He looked up to see Eren and Mikasa trying vainly to get the house off their mother.
"Eren, get Mikasa out of here, the Titans have gotten into the city!"
"No way!" Eren shouted through his teeth as he tried to lift the pillar pinning his mother.
Steel looked over to see two titans coming straight for the children.
"Damn!" he shouted to himself before leaping across the rooftops toward them. He sliced one's check before turning to face the other one, dodging a slap attack just in time.
Eren and Mikasa heard a voice behind them.
"Kids!" it shouted.
It was the guard from before, Hannes.
"Mr. Hannes!" Eren shouted happily.
"Hannes, get the kids out of here!" Eren's mom shouted.
"Don't go underestimatin' me Carla, I'll slaughter these Titans and get you all outta here," Hannes said with a grin.
He stood up and rushed to engage the Titan, drawing a sword from a large box on his waist.
"No! Don't fight them!" Carla shouted at him.
He looked up and saw the Titan's face, it stared at him, he stared at it. A chill ran up his spine as he sheathed his sword and rushed back to the house, grabbing Eren and Mikasa.
"No! What are you doing Hannes!" Eren shouted flailing his arms to escape.
"Thank you Hannes!" Carla said to him as Hannes took off with the children.
Steel looked over to see the Titan lift the remains of the house like it was nothing and pick up Eren's mom. He closed his eyes and sheathed his axe on his back, clenching his hands into fists, they shook with his anger at the situation.
"I can't do anything to alter the timeline of the world too severely, saving Eren's mother would change his goal in life,"
Eren watched in horror as his mother got smaller and smaller, she tried to punch the titan's hand, but it grabbed her legs with its other free hand and broke them, before putting her in its mouth and clenching its teeth down hard, causing blood to spray into the air.
"Being a Guardian may have its perks, but this is one of the prices we have to pay," Steel said to himself, reciting a line from one of his training instructors.
Eren and Mikasa escaped to the gate leading into the next section of the city with Hannes while the defense forces held the titans back. Metal arrived at Steel's location and found him sitting with his head between his knees.
"Are you alright?" he asked, leaning down and putting a hand on his shoulder.
"How can you stay calm in all this?" Steel asked him.
Metal remained quiet, looking at the ground.
"We are Guardians of Steel and Metal, we must have wills stronger than anything else," he said.
"Don't feed me that line!" Steel shouted looking up at him, "I mean how can you stand idly by and watch as people are killed before you when you can do something? We're Guardians of Order damn it!"
"Order, not Justice or Good, we make sure the worlds retain their way to avoid the corruption of the Chaos Guardians, you know this. You swore an oath on it when you became a Guardian,"
"I didn't know what it meant at the time," Steel said.
"Well now you do, so stand up and fight, if we don't this world will have even less hope than it did before,"
Steel sat in an angry silence before standing and unsheathing his axe.
"In that case I'll make sure every one of these titans pays the price for destroying this world,"
Metal watched as Steel leapt off to engage a group of titans.
A crashing sound and screaming drew his attention quickly as he watched an armored titan break through the gate leading into the next section of wall.
"Damn it," he said leaping into the air after it.
The armored titan opened its mouth and released a stream of fire as the boats carrying the survivors sailed away.
Eren looked on at what was once his home, he clenched his fist to his chest.
"I'll kill them," he said.
Mikasa and Armin looked to him.
"I'll kill them all! The Titans!" he shouted looking up at the armored titan.
Steel slashed through another titans neck.
"I'll make sure this world has nothing left for the Chaos Guardians to use, this world will be protected by the steel of my blade!" he shouted.
Over the next few years the titans were kept out of the walls leading deeper into Human territory, but all the survivors fleeing into the other parts of the city caused the place to become crowded and overpopulated, food became a scarce resource and eventually the government issued an order that the refugees were to earn their keep, sending anyone over the age of eighteen off to fight the titans and attempt to take back their homes. This was in vain, even as Steel and Metal attempted to help them the attack ended in slaughters for the human side. The two Guardians eventually fell into the city and waited there, biding their time for when the new wave of human will would take the fight to the titans.