This is a little modern day military AU that I've been working on for a while. I'm trying to keep the characters pretty cannon, and I've incorporated a lot of the same things and themes from SnK, but I did change some things up a little.

As for the Marine Corps aspect of this fic, all my experience is with local and federal police, and all of my military friends are either Air Force or Navy, so I apologize for any inconsistencies in that area of the fic. I know that Levi and his squad don't accurately represent the USMC at all, but that's kind of on purpose. They're supposed to be more cannon. As in: Levi's title is Captain in this story, which I don't think is an actual USMC title, but that's what they use (typically) in SnK. I thought about tweaking it to Lance Sergeant or Corporal because I've seen Heichou dubbed to those as well, but I like Captain better :3

Anyways, I'm really fond of this story, so hopefully you guys enjoy it as much as I do.


Chapter 1: Eren

Pulling my hood more securely over my head, I take another look around, my breath steaming when it hits the cold air. The streets are clear, so I pull out my lock picks and kneel before the door to the abandoned hotel. The thing has been abandoned for longer than I can remember, but it has a drained indoor swimming pool below ground that is perfect for skateboarding. I've been busted on more than one occasion for breaking in here. Sure I could just go to the skate park a few blocks down, but where's the fun in that?

When the lock clicks, I grin and grab my board, hurrying inside. Closing the door behind me, I take the stairs two at a time down to the underground floor. Throwing the board out in front of me as I reach the bottom of the stairs, I jump onto it and dip into the empty pool.

Ever since my mom died when I was thirteen and my father abandoned me, I've been living with a family friend, but have honestly spent more time in Juvenile Hall than in that house. I'm not stupid, I've always gotten good grades in school- albeit grades that would've been better if I hadn't missed so much school due to my stints in Juvie- but ever since my parents left me I've never felt like I belonged anywhere. Mikasa has treated me like a brother and has cared for me, but her parents saw me as nothing but a nuisance and a bad influence on their daughter. It wasn't until after my mom died that I started acting up, hanging with the wrong crowds, and getting into trouble. My first arrest was when I was fourteen and I got caught stealing candy bars and a soda from a convenience store. Mikasa tried to keep me in line, and she did a pretty good job, but after we graduated from high school, she enlisted in the Marines and left. I felt abandoned all over again. That is when things took a bad turn for me. I got into smoking, drinking and drugs, and I started committing more serious crimes, like breaking and entering. When I turned twenty, Mikasa's parents kicked me out of their house, and for over a year I've been on my own, living on the streets and stealing food to survive.

After nearly an hour of tearing up the swimming pool, I perch myself on the edge and pull out my pack of smokes. Lighting a cigarette, I lay back on the cool cement and blow a lazy puff of smoke into the air. It's only a minute later that I hear a faint sound in the distance, but it's growing louder, closer. It's a sound very familiar to my ears. The shrill of police sirens.

Tossing the half used cigarette to the ground, I jump to my feet and take off out of the hotel. Once back out on the street, I toss out my skateboard and jump on. I know I must have a shit-eating grin on my face, but I can't help it. I live for this thrill. I know I'm going to get caught, I know I can't outrun the cops, but this is the best part. I live for the chase.

I race down the massive hill behind the abandoned hotel. This whole area is run down, most of the stores and houses boarded up. Cars don't travel these roads, and the pavement is cracked, potted, and covered in tree branches and gravel. I usually don't choose to escape this way, but I thought I'd try something new this time. Perhaps this way will get me a little farther, considering the cop cars will have a hard time maneuvering around the debris in the road. But just as I peel around a corner, going much too fast, my wheel hits a rock and I'm suddenly flying through the air. The last thing I think to do is tuck my head, protecting it with my arms, before I hit the pavement. I feel my shoulder scrape against the asphalt as I slide, then roll. I'm glad for the chilly fall weather that forced me to wear jeans and a sweatshirt, protecting my skin from the asphalt as I roll to a stop, my back against the cold ground. I feel a cold wind and a thick wetness on my shoulder and arm. Damn. The pavement must've ripped through my sweatshirt, shirt, and down to the skin.

A cop car screeches to a halt beside me, and suddenly two large men are flipping me over and roughly pulling my arms behind my back. I hiss in pain.

"Easy, gentlemen," I tell them, then hiss again as one of them grabs my arm, right over a large patch of missing flesh. "You got me, you got me."

"Damn it Eren," one of them curses, dragging me to my feet. I recognize his voice. He is often the officer that ends up arresting me. I'm proud to say we are now on a first name basis. "When are you going to fucking get it together? Your sister is a good girl. Why can't you act more like her?"

"But what fun would that be, Paul? I have to make sure you don't sit on your ass all night long. I have to make you do something while you're on the job," I joke with him.

"You're a little shit, you know that Eren?" he says, shoving me into the back seat of his car.

"If I wasn't, we wouldn't be having this conversation," I smirk.

...

Early the next morning, with bandages wrapped around my arms and taped across my shoulder and face, I'm dragged into a very familiar courtroom in front of a very familiar judge. He's still finishing up the docket before mine, so the court marshal shoves me into a chair in the corner to wait my turn. The courtroom is mostly empty, save for the judge, a couple of marshals, the prosecutor, and a handful of lawyers waiting for their cases to be called. In the gallery, only three people are seated, observing the court proceedings. Two are what appear to be a couple, and who appear to be the parents of the teenager currently standing before the judge. The mother sniffles and the father looks angry and disappointed. But the third observer sits in the back of the room, in a crisp military uniform. Decorations and symbols of rank adorn his jacket. He's a big man, his blonde hair cut into a military style undercut, and his blue eyes look serious and stern. He doesn't appear to be paying attention to the case currently being heard, so I wonder who he's here for. Possibly the case after mine.

"Next up," the judge suddenly calls, "I have docket number 1257, people versus... oh boy. People versus Eren Jaeger on the charges of breaking and entering."

The court marshal hauls me out of my chair and guides me to the front of the courtroom. He pushes me behind the defendant's table and shoves me down into the chair. I huff at him, trying to get my handcuffed wrists into a more comfortable position.

"Mr. Eren Jaeger..." the judge sighs removing his glasses so he can rub tiredly at his eyes. "You have been traipsing in and out of my courtroom nearly your entire life. You have proven to me that you are neither willing nor capable of changing your lifestyle by yourself. That being said, I don't trust you to be out on the streets any longer. Who knows how far you will escalate. However, seeing as you're twenty-one, I'm willing to give you a choice. I will either tack on second degree burglary with the intent to vandalize and resisting arrest to your charges and sentence you to ten years in Maria Federal Prison, or you may choose military service."

My eyes widen. What did he just say? Ten years in a federal prison for skateboarding in an abandoned hotel's pool? Or... military service?

"You can't give me ten years for breaking and entering. You've only given me three months before," I argue with him.

"You're an adult now, Mr. Jaeger, and your long rap sheet of petty crimes is becoming rather obnoxious. I am ending this behavior for you since you are unwilling to do it yourself. You will be straightened out, either in prison or in the military. It is your choice. You have sixty seconds to decide."

This is so unfair! I can't go to prison for ten years, but military service? I'm not cut out to be a soldier. At least, I don't think I am. When Mikasa left for the military, I never once stopped to think of joining with her. If I had four years ago, I wonder how different my life would be now. Can the military really change me? I don't know why I keep getting in trouble with the law. I'm obviously doing it on purpose, but I don't know what keeps driving me to break laws. Is it that rush? The adrenaline high I get when I know I'm about to be caught? Will I get that same rush serving in the military? Will I be able to follow orders? Well, it beats ten years in federal prison, I think...

"I guess joining the military won't be so bad... I'll get a gun, right?" I joke, trying to play off my discomfort and nervousness.

"Military service it is," the judge says. "Eren Jaeger, I sentence you to one year of service to the Marine Corps, position to be decided by Commander Erwin Smith. If you get yourself dishonorably discharged before the year is up, you will serve the full ten years in Maria Federal Prison. In one year's time, if you wish to leave the military, you must come back before this court and I will deem you ready or not ready to leave. If deemed not ready, you will be sentenced to one more year, and so on. Is this understood?"

"Yes," I say, a frown on my face. A whole year? Hopefully I will survive that long, and then be able to finagle my way out of a second term.

A man steps up to my elbow, and I see that it's the military guy from the back of the room. So that's what he is doing here. He was here for me. I had forgotten about him.

"Commander Smith, he's all yours," the judge says, slamming down his gavel.

A court marshal removes my handcuffs and hands me a bag containing the belongings I had on me when I was arrested: my backpack, a pocket knife, my lock picking tools, a pack of gum, a handful of packs of cigarettes, my lighter, a handful of granola bars, two shirts, a pair of ripped jeans, two half full water bottles, and approximately twelve dollars in change and one dollar bills. It is all I have to my name. Riffling through it as the commander guy ushers me out of the courthouse, I see that they've confiscated my lock picking tools and my pocket knife. At least they left me my smokes. Once we step out of the courthouse and into the brisk autumn air, I pull out a cigarette and stick it in the corner of my mouth. Before I can even find my lighter though, Erwin pulls the cigarette from my mouth and tosses it in a garbage can.

"No smoking while you're around me," he says, not looking down at me as he leads me by my arm down the sidewalk.

"When will I not be around you then?" I retort. I want to pull out another one, but I know he'll just throw that one away too, and I don't want him wasting my smokes.

"Not for a while," is his reply. I groan, and he stops me beside a sleek black sedan. "Get in."

I reach for the door of the passenger's seat, but he slaps my hand away and yanks the back door open for me. I stick my tongue out at him when he turns his back, but slide into the car anyway.

"So where are we going, Commander Sir? You shipping me off to boot camp or something? You should know that I have absolutely zero military or police training. I only know how to run from them. And piss them off," I tell the back of his head as he starts the car. I know Mikasa was in basic training for a couple of months. Basics are going to suck, but every day I'm in a training camp is one less day I'll be out in the Middle East somewhere getting turned into Swiss cheese.

"You're not going to basic training," he replies, pulling into traffic.

I sit upright, my eyes wide. "What do you mean I'm not going to basics? You just going to hand me a gun and ship me off to Afghanistan and tell me to go get shot?"

"I am the commander of over six hundred soldiers, all divided into about fifty squads," he starts to explain. "I am assigning you straight into one of these squads. It's a small squad and less than four dozen people in the world know what they do, including military and government personnel. It's a special operations squad, and my captain who runs that squad is the only officer that I believe will be able to straighten you out. He is humanity's strongest soldier, and he's the best equipped to handle your situation."

"Uh huh..." I say skeptically, crossing my arms over my chest. He's sending me, an untrained, rebellious nobody to a super secret special ops squad just so that this super skilled captain can beat me into submission? I'm not sure I believe him. That doesn't make any sense. "So... when are you sending me off? And where am I even going?"

"The location of the squad is confidential."

"What, are you going to blindfold me?"

"No, but you won't know where you are," he promises me.

"I have eyes, you know," I retort.

He doesn't say anything, driving down the road in silence. I slouch back into my seat, closing my eyes and resting my head back against the head rest.

"Is there anything you need to pick up before we leave? I have a plane on stand-by, but I'd like to leave as soon as possible," he says.

"Nope. All my worldly possessions are here in this backpack," I tell him, patting my backpack that sits at my feet. "When you live on the streets, you tend to not weigh yourself down with unnecessary junk. All it does is get in the way."

I catch him glance back at me in his rearview mirror. His expression is a little surprised. Then, he smiles. "Yes, my captain will definitely be able to help you."

...

Erwin pulls up to a hanger a few miles outside of the city. It's a military base, and big, green cargo planes line the tarmac. He pulls the car up next to one of these planes, its engine running loudly. He steps out of the car and I follow behind him, looking around at all the uniformed men busying themselves with the planes and the cargo. Why can't I end up here? They are all a part of the military as well.

Erwin takes my arm and I wince as he squeezes one of my wounds. He doesn't care though, pulling me towards the plane. Three soldiers salute him as we approach the steps. He salutes them back, and they follow us up onto the cargo plane.

"What is our destination, sir?" one of the soldiers asks as the hatch closes and the engines rev.

"You're dropping us off with the special operations squads. I have the flight plans," Erwin tells them. "For now, head east. I'll join you in the cockpit in a moment."

"Yes, Commander," the solider salutes, then heads into the cockpit.

The other two soldiers takes their seats in the few seats that line the sides of the cargo plane. Erwin leads me to the row across the plane from the two soldiers and sits me down.

"Don't touch anything, don't get up, and don't speak," he tells me as the plane starts to move.

"Yes, sir," I mock with a half-assed salute.

He just stares at me with hard eyes. "I dare you to pull shit like that with your new captain. You won't live past the week." He's trying to sound humorous, but I can hear the threat beneath his tone. It should probably bother me more than it does. He turns to the two soldiers across the plane from us. "Watch him."

I raise an eyebrow at him, but he's turning his back and walking towards the cockpit. I exhale and lean back in my seat, crossing my arms over my chest and resting one leg over the other. The two soldiers stare at me, not looking at all impressed. I stare back at them, trying to make them feel uncomfortable. But they don't waver.

"So..." I say. "Do either of you know where we're going?" I ask them.

They don't say a word, just continuing to stare at me. The one on the left is a big guy, his arms thick, and his brown eyes intense, just like Erwin's. His brown hair is cut into the typical crew cut. The other guy isn't small, but looks much smaller sitting next to Muscles. His blue eyes are relaxed though, not intense like Muscles' eyes.

"Do you guys know how to talk?" I ask.

Still nothing. I shrug and lay back across the row of uncomfortable seats. I didn't get much sleep in lockup last night. Might as well catch up on my beauty sleep. Who knows how long we'll be flying anyway.

...

"This is him? I was expecting... more. He looks like a brat."

The voice that wakes me is unfamiliar, but it's a smooth, slightly deep voice, and it's comforting. I realize that it's very quiet, that I can't hear an engine running, and that the rocking has stopped. We must have landed. I open my eyes and sit up. Erwin is standing there with another man at his elbow.

The man has the most intense grey eyes I've ever seen, beating out Erwin's and Muscles' eyes hands down. His lips are drawn down in a frown. His black hair is cut in the same military style undercut as Erwin's, only his long hair is much longer, his slightly parted bangs hanging almost down to his eyes. He's wearing a pristine, almost too clean uniform just like Erwin's, only he doesn't have as many distinguishing stripes on his shoulders, and he has an addition of a white cravat. He looks unapproachable and intimidating, but... he's so short. He appears to stand nearly a foot shorter than Erwin. I'm somewhat of a short guy myself, but even I must be taller than he is. I have to admit though... he's actually really hot.

Wait a second... "Did you just call me a brat?" I ask, standing. Yup, he's shorter than me by at least two inches.

"You have a problem with that?" he asks, raising an eyebrow at me. Yes, I have a problem with that! He's ruining his good looks in my eyes by talking to me like I'm a child.

"Mr. Jaeger," Erwin says. "This is Captain Levi Ackerman. Levi, this is your new recruit, Eren."

My eyes widen, and before I can stop myself, I say, "You mean this shorty is my Commanding Officer? He's humanity's strongest soldier?"

Levi is in my face in a heartbeat. Before I can say a word, I'm suddenly on the floor on my back with Levi's boot against my throat. From this angle, I can see up his coat and can clearing make out the under-the-arm gun holsters, each with a shiny black gun nestled inside. Maybe provoking this man isn't such a good idea. I push against his boot, but the short man is surprisingly strong. When I struggle, he pushes down on my neck harder. I can still breathe, but it effectively stops my struggling.

"This brat has no respect, does he?" Levi growls at Erwin. "Why the fuck are you saddling me with him?"

"He was arrested last night for breaking and entering. His rap sheet is filled with similar charges dating back seven years," Erwin starts to explain.

"If you're trying to impress me, Erwin, you're doing a horrible job," Levi says.

"He's been living on the streets. His mother is dead and his father abandoned him. That was when he started acting out. All his crimes are crimes of attention. He needs your help to straighten him out, Levi. The court assigned him to me for a year, and I'm assigning him to you."

As Erwin talks, I watch Levi's expression soften ever so slightly. He removes his boot from my neck and turns towards the open hatch. I sit up, rubbing my throat. Levi stops in the doorway, turning to look back at me.

"Are you coming or what?" he snaps at me.

I jump to my feet and follow the intriguing captain out of the plane. "Yes, sir," I say, my tone genuine.

"I'll be back in a week to check on his progress and address any concerns," Erwin calls down the ramp after us. "Everything you need to know about the kid is in the paperwork I gave you." Levi raises a hand, an understanding yet dismissive gesture.

For such a short man, he has a long stride. I nearly have to jog to keep up. I'm still wearing the same clothes I was arrested in last night, and the cold air chills my skin where the asphalt ripped my sweatshirt and shirt. Hoisting my backpack more securely onto my shoulder to cover the hole, I look around. We're on a short runway in the middle of a thick forest. The air is very thin, and I can see off the front of the runway that we're way up in the mountains. The view is beautiful, a rushing river and deep canyon many, many miles below the runway. I've never been anywhere except for that small dank city in the California valley before. The only time I've ever left the city was to go to the next city's jail. I've never seen anything like this before. I've never seen anything other than flat, hot, dusty farmlands. It's quiet out here, the only sounds that of the birds and the wind. The air is cool and fresh, and it feels so good. I could never leave this place and be perfectly happy for the rest of my life.

Levi is striding towards a dark green jeep with no doors or windows. It's a standard jeep with two seats in the front and a couple of sacks and cases in the back. I hear the plane rev up behind us, and I look back to see Erwin closing the hatch. The plane starts to roll back down the runway, and moments later, it takes off, soaring over the beautiful mountains and disappearing from sight.

I hurry after Levi and he gestures to the jeep. "Get in," he demands of me, climbing into the driver's side of the jeep. He starts the engine and I hurriedly run around the back of the jeep to climb into the passenger's side. Levi pulls out onto the runway the second my ass is in the seat.

"Where are we?" I ask him as he drives down the runway towards a dirt road that curves down and to the right, down the side of the mountain.

"That's confidential," he replies, his eyes on the road as he weaves in and around the thick trees down the rough dirt road. "You will learn our location only if I decide to keep you in my squad. This base is small as far as Marine Corps bases go, and is kept secret from the public. Only three top secret special operations squads use this base, mine being one of them."

I nod, looking around at the thick forests around us. I see no signs of human life. An active military base should show some signs, shouldn't it? I wonder how far away the base is from the runway. I look back at Levi to ask, but instead I end up watching him drive the jeep. I find myself really liking the way he handles the vehicle. It must sound weird, but he looks so smooth and... masculine. Clutch, shift, brake, turn, clutch, shift, gas... I've always loved manual cars. They make the men, and women too I guess, driving them look so-

"What the fuck are you staring at," he demands, not taking his eyes off the road.

I start and look back out into the forest. "Nothing." Is it just me or is the air suddenly even thinner than normal up here?

"What is your military experience?" Levi asks me, effectively breaking the tension.

"None," I reply.

He actually looks at me then for a moment before focusing back on the weaving road. A frown mars his face. "Any basic training?"

"Nope," I say.

"No, Captain," he corrects me.

"Nope, Captain," I repeat with a slight sneer.

Levi's fist is suddenly gripping a handful of my hair. I wince, trying to pry his hand off, but his grip doesn't waver. "This isn't a game, Jaeger," he snaps at me, not taking his intense eyes off the road. "This is the military. You will learn to respect me really quickly or I will make your life a living hell. That is, if your disrespect doesn't get you killed first."

"Yes, Captain," I reply quickly. It's usually snarky comments that my mouth spits out in such situations, getting me into more trouble, but for some reason, none come to me now. I'm quick to comply with whatever this intimidating man says or does. What is happening to me?

"So tell me, Eren," he says, his voice a little softer as he releases my hair. "How does an untrained brat with no experience like you end up in my elite squad?"

"I don't know, Captain," I tell him honestly. "All I know is that the judge offered me the choice of military service or ten years in federal lockup. I chose this. I had no idea that I was being assigned to your squad on a secret military base. I was kind of hoping I'd end up in a communications center or something."

"I meant before that," he says. "Erwin said you lived on the streets. How long?"

"Why does that matter?" I automatically retort before I can stop myself. I wait for him to hurt me again, but he doesn't.

"There are some things I need to know about you so that I can properly train you, Eren," he says. He seems to be very comfortable using my first name. I thought the military was more formal than that. "You have absolutely no training, which means I need to train you from nothing into someone worthy of my squad. I need to straighten you out, and that's going to take a lot of work on my part. Knowing some things about your past will help."

I frown. I just met this man, and we haven't exactly gotten off on the right foot either, but he wants me to just spill my guts to him? Whine about my dead mother and a father that abandoned me? About how nobody really wanted me, how the only way I could get attention from anybody was by acting out? But I end up telling him anyway. Something about him just drags it all out of me. I don't know why, but I... I trust him.

"My mother died with I was thirteen and I guess my father couldn't handle it because he abandoned me. I moved in with a friend and her family, but her parents didn't like me. They thought I was a bad influence on their daughter. They kicked me out about a year and a half ago and I've been on the streets ever since. What else is there to say? I started hanging out with the wrong people, they got me into trouble, and I never got out of trouble. I've been in and out of lockup my whole life. I guess I want to change, I've just never tried," I tell him. I instinctively reach for my cigarettes and pop one into my mouth. Levi snatches it away and tosses it out of the jeep. I wonder if he taught that move to Erwin or if Erwin taught it to him.

"That's disgusting," he says, then, "I'll be able to help you, but you need to let me help you, Jaeger. This bullshit where you rebel against everyone won't fly. This is the Marine Corps, the most heavily trained branch of the greatest military in the world. I will treat you like a soldier. Not a felon, not a child to be coddled, a soldier. I don't give a fuck about your past. I will use it to train you, but other than that, it won't matter. Not to me. I will make you a new man, a man that is actually worth something to humankind, and not a fucked up little brat."

"Yes, sir," I reply. No one has ever done that for me before. I've always been the screw up, the nuisance, the troublesome punk. I've never really been treated like an equal before, but suddenly this complete stranger is making me feel like I could actually matter in this world. "Thank you."

"Don't thank me, just listen to my orders and respect me, and we'll be fine. Disrespect me or betray my trust and you won't get a second chance. I'll send you back to that court so they can throw your ass in federal lockup."

"Yes, sir," I reply firmly. That wasn't an empty threat, and I know it.

It falls quiet again, just the sound of the jeep rumbling through the empty forest. I think over what Levi said, and I start to get nervous. I have a feeling my training is going to be intense, and even after training it's not going to be a walk in the park. This is a top secret special operations squad. They don't get that title for the easy, laidback operations are assigned.

"Do you know what it is my squad does?" Levi asks me, drawing me from my thoughts.

"No. Erwin just told me that your squad was a special ops squad that only a very small number of people are aware of."

"Our special operations is reconnaissance. We scout enemy lines before the rest of the military makes its move. We report back information that will be helpful in our forces' victory. We literally work on the front lines. If not for us our forces would go into most fights blind. We call ourselves the Scouts Regiment."

"That sounds... dangerous," I say. "Important, but dangerous."

"It is. My squad is only five strong, and we scout installations with hundreds, sometimes thousands of troops. It's dangerous, but it needs to be done. That is why I am confused as to why Erwin sent you here. It takes a lot of specialized training to get a soldier ready for the kind of work we do."

I frown in determination. What Levi and his squad does scares me, especially thinking I'll have to go out and do it too, but I have this sudden need to show this intimidating man that I can do it. He's putting his faith in me, agreeing to spend a lot of time and energy to train me. I can do it. I have to do it. I'm ready to actually be something other than my usual, messed up self. For some unexplainable reason, I want to make this ill-tempered, high-strung, unapproachable man proud of me.


I know that the court scene is inaccurate. Trust me, I'm a Criminology major, so I understand that everything that happened in the court scene with Eren's charges and sentencing is probably not legal, but that's just how it had to work out.

This story is still a work in progress. I usually wait until the fic is finished before I start posting because for some reason I just love to go back and constantly change things. But this one is really long, and I wanted to start posting it, so here it is! I have a number of chapters already written and lined up, so updates will be regularly on Tuesdays (because I have another fic with updates on Fridays, and why not Tuesday?) until I catch up to what I have written. Hopefully the updates will remain regular after that, but I am a busy college student so I can't be sure of anything unfortunately.

Anywho, I'll stop rambling now. Thank you for reading the first chapter of this new story. Feel free to leave questions/comments/concerns/constructive criticism/whathaveyou, either here or on tumblr zoey04ereri. tumblr. com. You can also find me under the same pen name on AO3. That will be my primary fanfiction sight.