One hundred years ago, the monstrous creatures known as Titans appeared and ravaged humanity to near extinction, in desperation, humans constructed three great walls to keep the Titans out. Wall Maria, Rose and Sina.
Humanity bent, but they were not broken, they continued to fight even though it was a futile battle, they managed to kill 200 titans, but lost 600,000 humans. It seemed as if all hope was lost, however the Gods themselves, impressed with humanity's fierce will to survive, gifted certain humans with their Angelic blue flame, branding a part of their bodies with a blue cross to mark the ones who had the gift.
At first, this was seen as a boon, and humanity begin to slowly turn the tides, the Blue Flame holders were called 'Scions' or 'branded', and with their power they began to break the Titans, because the power they had could not only instantly kill almost any Titan, but they had the ability to heal any wound to a human with their flame, as long as they were still alive.
Such was the blessing of the gods. The Scion's fire.
However, human feelings are almost like night and day, because the humans that weren't scions began to fear the power of the blue flame, and with the help of the church, who also feared the strength they possessed, ostracized the branded outside the walls, leaving them to death. However, some non branded logically supported the branded, and a civil war broke out.
Eventually, the branded, giving up the fight to appease the other humans they once fought to protect, left the walls, enraged, hurt and betrayed, the Scions disappeared forever. Virtually condemning the rest of humanity to death.
Or…. So was the consensus.
Line break. Prologue
"That Titan… broke down the wall!" A man said, about 27 years of age, on his right forearm was a brand, a blue cross. He had honey blonde hair, red eyes and an impoverish look on his face, and beside him was a child of about 11 years old, also branded, but this boy was somewhat special, as he had two brands, on on top of his left hand, and the other, in his left eye.
Said boy's multicolored eyes, right one green, like the trees some of the boys clan members currently stood in, as they observed the fall of wall Maria. The other was a burning blue, fitting for the brand that was inside his eye. His hair was ashen, which had a tendency to make the only two other kids in the clan left tease him relentlessly.
Not that he associated with them much anyway, he wasn't really 'allowed' to be a kid, being the grandson of the chieftain essentially forced him to mature early. Instead a lot of his time was spent with his two retainers, which he didn't mind, they had become something like a mother and father to him, since he lost his real ones at birth.
"Yeah? What's your point Jude?" Another clan member asked, a woman in her early 30's, her brand was not currently visible, as it's place was upon the right side of her stomach. But she had long ebony hair tied into a ponytail, with some stray strands falling into her face, her sea blue eyes caught the sunlight, illuminating them as bright as the power of the flame she had. "You see how big that damn thing is?"
"My point, Carla, is that we should go help them! We have this power for a reason!" Jude shot back, setting his hand ablaze with an illustrious blue.
"Put that out or the Titans might see!" Carla hissed. "There's only about twenty of us left you know, and I'm not so keen about helping out the bastards that banished us from humanity, as if we were no better than the damn Titans."
"That was seventy five years ago, these humans could be different!" Jude hissed.
"Quiet." The boy hushed, the first word he had uttered in the conversation thus far. "It's too late anyway, Carla is right. No point in risking our lives for those that are just going to be scared of us."
"But, young master-" Jude began, and was cut off with a swift glare from the child.
"Don't say my first name fool, you already know you aren't allowed too." The boy chided, returning his attention back to the wall.
A loud piercing scream was heard, the fifth one in the span of four hours, the boy observed in awe as a Titan with most of the parts of a female called Titans near the hole in the wall, then swiftly ran off.
"That's a strange abnormal Titan..." The boy whispered, suddenly pulling out a notebook and pen. Flipping to the nearest unused page. "I have to draw her and show Grandfather."
Both older Scions groaned. "Please make it quick young master." Carla begged. "I know your the grandson of the chieftain, but please remember as your retainers we're supposed to watch out for you.
"I could do it quicker if you'd stop rushing me." The boy snaps. Huffing as he made a perfect drawing of the strange female Titan. "I should draw that super big Titan too, and the one with all the armor."
"Young master!" Jude hissed, and the boy sighed, putting his notebook and pen back in his pack, he stood up and stretched his legs.
"Alright, fine. We go back and tell grandfather that wall Maria has fallen, and if we move at night, we should be able to make it to the forest of giant trees by morning."
"Their wall just fell and your already talking about inhabiting it?" Jude asked in disbelief.
"They're not going to need it anymore." Carla, apparently agreeing with the boy's statement said, giving him a nod of approval, the boy smirked in response.
Jude just sighed in exasperation. "C'mon, we gotta go." He said, turning on his heel and started jumping from branch to branch, Carla and the boy following behind him.
"Remember young master, we should be careful about going to ground." Jude reminded, the irony being the fact that they currently were on the ground, walking through the woods about six miles from the base of the wall.
"You literally don't need to remind me about this Jude." The boy said in response, dropping rocks he infused with the blue flame to light a safe path back once it got dark.
"Smart of you to use those rocks of yours young master." Carla said.
"There's so few of us left, I want to at least try to highlight the safest path, or… one of the safer ones." The boy muttered in response.
"Sir, permission to call you by your last name at least, it's a little easier than saying young master." Jude asked.
The boy sighed. "Permission granted, to be honest, I dont even care if you use my first name, only my grandfather is allowed to though apparently, but even then he calls me by my clan name."
"Morningstar..." Carla mused. "Cyan Morningstar."
"Yep." Cyan said, popping the p. He dropped another flame stone, and sighed when he realized he was all out. "Shit, looks like where going to be moving in the dark."
"We could use our fire to light the way." Jude offered, Sparking a single finger for emphasis.
"The Titans would be all over us in minutes probably." Carla said dryly.
"It's better than running around in the dark." Cyan said. "When we go back at night, I give you permissions to use your flame to the fullest, to see and to fight Titans, I'll do the same."
"Your letting us loose for once? Wow." Carla said in surprise, holding up a large branch for Jude and Cyan to get under, carefully lowering it to avoid making as much noise as possible.
"It's necessary." Jude smiled. "I believe that's the right call."
"Well we'll know whether it's the right call when we make one last trip to the sea." Cyan said.
"What's could be at the sea that's so interesting Morningstar?" Jude asked.
"The whales, fish and other aquatic creatures of course." Cyan said as if that was obvious.
Carla laughed warmly. "You just wanna draw them."
"Yep." Cyan smirked, popping the p again.
"Unfortunately Morningstar, no trip to the sea, we have to prepare to leave if we're really going into wall Maria like you think we should."
"I think we should." Cyan mimed. "Not only would it be interesting to see how things have supposedly changed in 75 years for the unbranded, but it'll be part of history itself."
"I'll admit, I am somewhat intrigued what's past the wall, Only the chieftain has any idea, and he was only four when they were ostracized." Carla said. Pushing more branches out of the way, for Jude and Cyan to get through.
"We're almost there." Jude said, he grunted as he grabbed onto a nearby tree vine, pulling himself up. Carla went next, with Cyan following closely behind.
Eventually after a somewhat exhausting climb the trio reached the treetops where their village was, instead of the conventional houses on the ground, Cyan's clan chose to live above the trees because of Titans, rarely ever sleeping or staying on the ground.
Cyan didn't mind it too much, but he'd be lying if he said he didn't desire to sleep somewhere and not worry about plummeting 65 feet to his death, that happened to a couple of their clan members. A sad way to go.
Along the multiple houses, holding them up was a large wooden platform, connecting between almost the entire forest, allowing the few people they had left to walk freely without fear of falling. (Why this wasn't a thing a long time ago Cyan didn't know). He also wondered how they hadn't been discovered by the unbranded considering that before wall maria fell some large groups of the unbranded would leave the walls and scout the area, a suicidal process that was only slightly stemmed by the strange gear that they invented, allowing them to zip through the air and move faster than most Titans can grab.
Not even the Branded were completely safe from the Titans despite all their power, while they were completely ignored by regular Titans to the point of lethargy, abnormal Titans seemed to be practically fucking magnetized to them, some of them even going so far as to try to climb the trees to get to them.
That's when the clan would use their power to kill the Titans, the chieftain had a rule, 'only use your blue flame when in extreme danger', those extreme dangers being abnormal Titans.
Cyan himself had snuffed out at least 15 of them, not that he found it necessary to keep track of. (Carla did that well enough). He was trained by Jude and Carla to use his powers, and also on how to fight in a style that they created called the Blue Flame Dance.
He hadn't even realized that he had stopped moving completely due to being lost in thought until Carla poked his face. "Morningstar? Everything okay?"
"Yeah, just want to draw." He said, smiling at her, Jude laughed.
"You're always drawing Morningstar, can't you find a different hobby?"
"I don't know, I think it suites him." Carla defended, ruffling the boy's hair.
"Alright stop. Let's go talk to Grandpa." Cyan sighed, walking through their sky village, ignoring the other clan members, he didn't really associate with them either
He had to admit, it was an isolated existence, he walked through the door of his home, filled with all sorts of random junk or valuables in their travels with Carla and Jude close behind, and dropped his pack after taking his notebook out.
"Grandpa!" Cyan called. "We got some serious news to tell you!"
On cue, Cyan's grandfather strolled out of a nearby room, looking barely a day over forty despite him being easily the oldest Scion. His brand was larger than most, the 'arms' of the cross wrapping around half his neck, the top half partially obscured by a white beard, the bottom half going down into the parka he always wore. His hair was the same color as Cyan's, and his eyes were brown and held the wisdom and pain of knowledge and lost friends and family. The wisdom part came from a special power that he alone had of all the Scions from history.
The power to see the future, however in small increments. Supposedly, he knew before Cyan was even born that the boy would have two brands, a statement backed up by Jude and Carla themselves.
"What is it, Cyan?" His Grandfather asked, giving a nod to both Jude and Carla, Cyan opened his notebook and flipped to the page where he drew the Female Titan, and slid it towards his grandfather.
"Wall Maria has fallen, after 100 years. And this is one of the Titans responsible."
His grandfathers eyes widened, and he picked up the notebook with shaking hands, he stared at the picture for a long time before slowly setting it down and whispering a single word. A name.
"Marley..." He whispered.
Carla and Jude tensed up. But Cyan was left confused, he knew what Marley was, but didn't know anything about it or what it had to do with the current subject."What does the nation of Marley have to do with any of this?"
His grandfather sighed, and gestured for Cyan to sit down. "Everything, Cyan, do you know the origin of the Titans?"
Cyan nodded, sitting down at their dinner table. "Ymir Fritz gained the power of the titans, and when she passed away her soul split into nine pieces or something like that."
"Yes. My boy… allow me to tell you a story about… well everything." His grandfather said.
"Are you sure Goro?" Carla blurted. "He's… so young."
"Yes. I am, he needs to know everything."
"Know everything about what?" Cyan asked, frustration building.
"About the Titans, about Eldia Marley… And our singular purpose, no… your purpose." Goro explained.
Cyan somehow knew what he was talking about, as he subconsciously touched his left eye and hand. "Oh..."
"Okay… child, it starts… like this..."
Line Break five years later.
Cyan woke up from his slumber, the sunlight's rays beating down on him as he rose and rubbed his eyes, now 16 years old, he looked about the area from the treetop he was sleeping on.
No Titans… That's a good thing I suppose, and there's the good ol wall rose. I think the soldiers are supposed to sign in today, which means I gotta make it there soon, if I wanna sign up. Groaning as he stretched, he caught sight of the brand on his left hand and looked at it numbly, then gently touched his left eye bag.
"Six years since that day…" Cyan muttered. "My entire life changed… heh, my entire Purpose as the double branded flame..."
"I'm supposed to kill all Nine Titan Shifters." Cyan sighed. "Honestly, i'm more on Marley's side. But I have to do my duty for my clan… Even though… i'm the last Scion left..."
He breathed a pained breath at the thought. Those Titans… killed them all… they came out of nowhere… and took Carla and Jude from me… Goddammit, they were supposed to fucking get married soon back then!
Cyan did the only thing he could do at times like that to calm down, pulled a notebook out of his pack, sighing in content as he flipped to a new page and began to sketch his favorite thing:
The ocean, he missed the ocean dearly, the sound of the strange white birds, the gentle splashing of the crystal blue salt water, as he drew the sun illuminating off the top of the water he heard the sound of horses.
Looks like it's time. Cyan thought. Tossing his notebook in the pack and beginning his descent down the tree, the horses were getting louder and Cyan new he'd have to move fast.
In his rush to get down he snapped a tree branch and lost his footing, yelling obscenities as he landed back first on another branch, he groaned in pain and regret.
The horses began to slow down, and he heard the sounds of scraping metal which meant that they began to draw their swords. "Be careful men, I heard something, it may be a Titan." A calm, commanding voice said.
"Ughhh that's insulting to my likeness." Cyan groaned, and the soldiers tensed up as he dropped from the branch, standing up straight he attempted to pop his back. "I'm going to feel that for a while..."
A sword suddenly swung in his direction, and years of combat instinct took over, ducking under the swinging blade his hands burst into blue flame, his brand glowing like a full moon at night, and effortlessly melted the blade. Taking a step back he assessed the damage he did.
"What… the hell?" The man asked, he had dead fish eyes in the shape of a permanent scowl on his face, and from what Cyan noticed, he was ridiculously short for a male. (granted cyan was 5'10, not exactly short).
"Seriously man, do I look like a Titan to you?" Cyan gestured to himself, the rest of the other soldiers staring in awe at what transpired. "For one I'm extremely handsome."
"I never thought it could be possible..." The man with the commanding voice took a step forward on his horse and stared down at Cyan with an expression of excitement. "Your a Scion."
"It seems like some of humanity still knows what I am… However, as of last year, I'm the only one left..." Cyan readily admitted.
"Want to tell me what the hell is a Scion Erwin?" The black haired scowler asked. "He just melted my blade with magic."
"Read up on your history Levi." Erwin said, not taking his eyes of Cyan. "The Scion's were humanity's saviors, before our foolishness caused us to abandon them."
There were murmurs throughout the crowd, it seemed to Cyan that Scion's weren't completely forgotten after all, and it did please him how nobody, not even Levi, was looking at him with hostility, just genuine curiosity.
"Wait." Erwin suddenly realized. "You said, you are the last Scion? With all that power… how?"
"We aren't…. we weren't invincible, regular Titans left us alone completely, but an abnormal. Those breeds are drawn to us like moths to light." Cyan explained.
"Wait!" A random soldier suddenly spoke up. "But the Branded were ostracized, and they only had one brand according to history, you have two!"
"I know, I don't know why I have two." Cyan lied, he knew the reason he had two brands was because that was the power required to kill a Titan shifter. "My clan thought it was a birth defect."
"Clan?"
"Last year… there were twenty of us, then while traveling through the fallen wall maria Abnormal Titans overwhelmed us, now… I'm the last savior of humanity. Or whatever you want to call me."
It was silent for a while after that. Then Erwin suddenly dismounted his horse and walked up to Cyan. "What's your name kid?"
"I can't tell you my first name because of my culture, but surname is Morningstar, and my code is Cyan." Cyan said.
Erwin didn't seem to question this, respecting the lone Scions culture and he put his hands on Cyan's shoulders. "Cyan Morningstar. How would you like to join the 104th Training Corps, to fight for humanity in it's darkest hour as the last Scion, being a symbol of hope."
This guy sure knows how to make a speech. Cyan thought. Now to shake things up a bit, just for fun.
"Are you sure that's a good idea Erwin?" Levi asked. "We know nothing about this Scion, they haven't been seen for 75 years."
"A bit strange considering we've lived virtually just outside of wall Maria the entire time." Cyan snarked. "And you haven't seen us once, if you had you would have seen twenty Scions, granted, they hated you just as much as I do."
The scouts falter at the words the Scion growled out. "I bet your wondering why, but really it's obvious, we protected you. We died for you and bled for you. Only for you to throw us away like we were no better than the Titans, how can I trust you unbranded won't banish me out of fear like 75 damn years ago?"
Erwin opened his mouth to answer that question, but a scout suddenly ran up to them in a panic. "Two Abnormals on our six!" He yelled.
"Abnormals shouldn't be out here though!" Erwin gave the side eye to Cyan, who suddenly tensed up.
"Don't look at me like that, I told you they're drawn to Scions." Cyan reiterated.
"Damn." Levi cursed and whipped his horse around. "Everyone, get ready!"
"No need!" Cyan called and walked forward. "I'll handle this for you Unbranded." The scouts scowled at Cyan but he ignored this, instead he threw his pack at Erwin who caught it and stepped in front of the scouts.
Suddenly however, as the Abnormals began to close in, his body posture turned serious, and he gave a half look back. "I promise, on my honor as a Branded, everyone will walk back home alive."
The Abnormals reached out to grab Cyan, but his entire body burst into a bright blue flame, at he last second he jumped out of the way and grabbed the Titans hand, fire traveled up it's body like lightning and the nape of it's neck exploded, killing it.
Levi's jaw dropped, and Erwin tried to hold back a grin. Cyan dashed forward and slid under the Abnormal, rolling out from between it's legs he condensed his blue fire within his hands, and shot it out towards the Abnormal like a flamethrower, completely incinerating the Titan, it's nape also exploding, killing the Titan.
When the Titan hit the ground Cyan looked at the scouts and grinned at them cockily.
"So, shall we sign me up?"
A/N: This is something I'm just testing out, as an Oc fanfiction writer I am fully aware on how… receptive or not receptive readers are to those in the community, If no one likes this then i'll simply delete it lol.
Eh, if you liked it, leave a review? A few short words can be plenty encouraging.