This was originally going to be a one-shot, but it's been sitting on my computer since back when I was writing "Finding the Words," so I thought I'd try posting it as a multi-chapter story to help get some ideas bouncing around for it. I don't really know what's going on in the manga right now, but I'm going to say it's probably not canon-compliant at this point if only because with the way people get killed off in Shingeki no Kyojin/Attack on Titan, someone that I've got alive here has probably died in the meantime.

Disclaimer: I do not own Shingeki no Kyojin/Attack on Titan or any affiliates.


When he was twenty-five, he released her from the crystal.

It had taken years and years of research, but they'd finally managed to figure out how to break Annie's crystal with the help of samples taken from areas where the walls had cracked and broken off. It seemed that certain light frequencies caused the crystal to, for lack of a better word, melt. It wasn't enough to make the stuff run like water, but it would become viscous enough to slowly slough off if they scraped at it.

They'd spent well over a year carefully melting different parts of the crystal and scraping it down around Annie's body as if she was a precious artifact of an ancient civilization, and today, they'd finally break through to skin. Not a lot of skin, mind you, they were planning to focus on just releasing one of her hands to prevent potential damage to more vital regions of the body, but since there was a risk that the exposure would wake her up, people armed with muskets and titan-slaying blades were packed into the room.

Armin set his jaw and turned on the machine. While it was admittedly somewhat suicidal to be the closest one to Annie should she wake up considering the events that had transpired immediately before her self-inflicted entombment, he had no intention of letting anyone else have her first. He was an adult; he'd take responsibility for his actions and finish what he'd started. Besides, he cast his eyes backward for a moment to survey the grim faces of some of the more distinguished attendees, he had no desire for her first breath to be her last.

Everyone tensed, ready to spring into action, when he laboriously wiped off a glop of goo over the back of her hand and made skin-on-skin contact.

But no response.

Armin squashed his disappointment and continued working on freeing the rest of her hand. With a few weeks of careful work, they'd get the rest of her out. Maybe then, she'd wake up. By the time her hand had been fully exposed, the air in the room had relaxed. Some people, mostly newer recruits, had already left, deciding that there was no threat and that the Female Titan had died within her prison. Armin was ready to pass the machine to someone on the excavation team when he noticed an almost invisible cloud of condensation over her nose and mouth.

She was breathing.

Changing his angle, he immediately set to work on melting that area over her face, ignoring the panicked squawk of the head of the excavation team. His eyes sharpened as the space between her and the air dwindled to a thin glistening almost transparent layer. His fingers made contact first with the point of her nose, then the curve of her lips. And as she took her first breath of air, her crystalline encasement shimmered and flowed like it had during its creation and slid off her body, pitching her forward into his arms. He tensed when he heard the guns cock and the blades unsheathe, but soon forgot about them when the frail girl in his arms slowly fluttered open her eyes, and all he could think of was how relieved he was that she was alive.

"Who…?" Her eyes were hazy and unfocused as they looked up to him. Eventually, blue met blue. "Ar…min…?" Her voice sounded rusty and gravely from disuse.

"That's right, Annie, it's me." He heard the shuffling of feet as people surrounded them on all sides.

"Why…are—?" her voice cut off as he stuffed a gag in her mouth; the clink of her ring bouncing off the floor and a click of handcuffs behind her back shortly followed. He held her like a vice as she struggled weakly against him, making sure she wouldn't be able to work the gag out of her mouth.

"Out of the way," a rough voice growled from behind him.

"So you can kill her? No, thanks," he replied levelly. He noticed Annie had stopped struggling. It seemed she was figuring out what was going on. "She's more valuable to humanity alive than dead." He ignored her stiffening. "At best, she could fight for us." Armin pulled her further into his protective embrace when she attempted to extricate herself again, clamping down even harder to make sure neither of her legs could wiggle free. "And at worst, we can torture information out of her and use her for experiments." His tongue thankfully slid back into his mouth just in time to avoid getting bitten in half by her headbutt to his chin.

"Everyone, stand down," an authoritative female voice ordered.

Armin could hear grumbling and a particularly fearsome snarl from behind him, but the weapons were lowered and blades were sheathed.

"You can let go, Armin." The bespectacled commander walked in front of him. "I don't have any intention of letting her die." An ominous light glinted in her eyes. "She's not getting off that easily."

Armin looked back in warning to the glaring men behind him before nodding and allowing two other soldiers to pull Annie away.


And...that's chapter 1. Since this was originally supposed to be a one-shot, chapters will not be particularly long. I'm aiming for this story to cover a 10-year span, so 10 chapters total: 1 per year. Sorry for posting this instead of an update on some of my other stories!