Chapter 1: Erwin x OC & Levi x OC

The Titans' dominance against humanity has continued, and with a new threat of a deadly virus running rampant Humanity is closer to the brink of extinction than ever before. In the year 850 the governing officials within wall Sina declared that every man and woman of ages 15 and up are to take part in a grading system to find the most compatible pairs for strong offerings. These pairs are to procreate within eighteen months or be punished by a court of law. I was unaware at the time but it was this decree that would change everything.

"Everyone line up! We have over 500 of you to test and only two hours to do so." The MP Officers were the once placed in charge of gathering all individuals that are of age. This will be the first grading season since the law had passes and myself being 19 years old and a soon to be graduate of the 105th trainee squad was to partake.

"Oi, Rin! There you are." I turn to see my childhood friend Frey standing proud as ever. He was intimidating to say the least with his height of 6 feet and dark hair fanning over is face, and yet his blue eyes always seemed to calm me down. He was placed in the testing group that went an hour ago so of course he would be back already.

"Hey How do you think you did?" I exclaim with a bright smile on my face. The nerves of knowing I'm about to take a test to see who I spend the rest of my life with were starting to get to me. I've never really been good with meeting people, don't get me wrong if you put me in front of a crowd of people I can talk to them and convince them of almost anything but one on one…. Well let's just say it'd be less painful to be eaten alive.

"It went ok I guess, I mean I know I can't have the lowest score on every subject, and stop with the fake smile its creepy when you put that political mask on." Frey reaches out and pats my head messing up my long red apple hair making it fall out of the pony tail I tied it into and onto my pale skin and in front of my emerald green eyes. As for the subjects I guess he's right it would be hard to get a low score on every section when you're about to join the Scouts.

Allow me to explain The law was created to not just help save humanity from extinction but also to perform a type of selective breeding, making it so the strong are asked to reproduce more with similar canadates and the weak told to not reproduce at all. To determine the strong and the weak a grading system was made testing an individual: strength, agility, IQ, and strategic planning, while still looking at their past health records.

"Yeah I know, I know nothing to worry about Im just not good at meeting people and you know that. To the point that I kind of hope I match with you so I dint have to" I can feel his eyes looking down at me after I blush and look at the ground.

"Come on Rin, That isn't even possible you're going to be all the way at the top of the list and Ill be in the middle but either way you know I'll be here for you no matter what." Looking up I can see Frey smiling down at my 5'2" stance and strangely I now feel ok with the idea of being bound to someone I've never even met.

"OK NEXT GROUP LETS GO!" I can hear the MP's yell. It was my turn to show them what I was worth. Stepping forward with my chin held high towards the door. Only to catch Frey yelling one line of encouragement to me.

"Live through this and then we get to join the scouts to leave this damn cage." Smiling to myself I nod in agreement. It was time for my wings to be stretched open and feel the wind under them.

Erwin's POV

"This is idiotic." The short corporal muttered as he and the commander and shitty glasses left the testing site and made their way to the training facility in order to at least try to recruit new members for the survey corp.

"Aren't you the one who said that 'squealing louder won't help your case' It can't be helped Levi really the need in population increase is of up most importance. Besides this might just be the chance you and Erwin have been waiting for." I can feel my eyebrow twitch slightly at the mention of me not being able to find a woman willing on my own but I let it slide. After all it isn't Hanji's fault that I made it my own choice to detach myself from the courting process.

"Hanji is right Levi as distasteful and irritating as it maybe the need to increase our population is a matter that we cannot leave to normal circumstances anymore." I could slightly make out the noise of the smaller man releasing his signature 'tsk' before glaring to the side. "Right now all we need to focus on is how we are going to be able to gain new members. While the titan's attacks on the wall being slowed have helped the number of recruits I'm predicting that with the law demanding the female partner to be with child with in a particular time frame that the number of females joining will decrease drastically."

A silence developed among the three as though they all agreed that the odds of increasing the scouts was even lower than before.

Karin's POV

The test had finished hours ago and I found myself feeling rather proud with myself while being disappointed in the test makers. With all their talk of finding "humanities strongest couples" you would think that the skills would be tested more rigorously. However, when its all said and done Karin quickly put the idiotic "test" out of her mind and could hardly contain her excitement for tonight. The night she would gain her own wings of freedom.

It wasn't long until she found her friends Frey and Freya Arie (they were twins yet looked nothing alike.) Frey standing at 6 feet and Freya remaining at a measly 4'9" the only similarity they had was their black silky hair. Even their eyes were different. Frey with blue orbs and Freya with green jems that held a yellow ring in the iris.

"Rin! There you are how do you think you did?" Frey called out in her small voice. Running over to me with the innocent smile on her face. Just watching her I could feel my smile grow. You never would be able to tell by looking at her that the girl was not only present when wall Maria fell with me and her brother but also picked up a 3DM gear off of a dead officer and killed three titans single handily just at the age of 12. The best part was that she did it with no training all because she saw a titan step on a cat.

"Hey," I reply placing my hand on her head and giving her a pat. "I think I did well, but with you taking it I know I didn't get the number one spot." I know she hates when I point out how strong she is because she hates the responsibility but it was true she was by far the strongest person I knew personally.

"Come on Rin that isn't fa-"her protest was cut off by the screaming of commands for all graduates to fall into ranks in order to pick their regiment.

Shortly after falling in the speeches from each commander was given. Starting with the MP's and ending with the Scouts. As commander Erwin and captain Levi walked across stage I could hear the small whispers of wishful girls hoping that they scored high enough on todays 'exam' to be paired with them. Simply rolling my eyes I held back a chuckle. I knew most of the women making the wishes and fantasies and I could already tell them that they would be lucky to even be paired with a merchant from within wall rose.

The murmuring behind me grew quite as his speech went on and the gasp at the fatality rate seemed defining and by the end of the commander's performance the men and women alike quickly turned and walked away from the stage destined to remain trapped in these walls for the rest of their pitiful lives. Once the footsteps cleared I heard the commander give us his up most respect and I knew that I was in the right group of people. Looking around me I saw about sixty people total remaining out of the four hundred from our class; however, the most shocking thing was that of those sixty the only women present was myself and Freya.

Two weeks have passed since joining the scouts and we have already been on our first mission. Given It was a small venture to simply get the 'green horns'' feet wet but it was enough to get Freya, and myself placed into a higher ranking squad. Fray with Levi's squad so to her quick reflexes and ability to seemingly take down any threat no matter the size. Finally I was placed in Erwin's squad for my ability to 'make quick and reliable decisions at the drop of a hat' has the commander put it.

The mission was simply to go out and secure a supply base for future recon missions however even something as simple as that led to the death of twelve men from my graduation class, including Frey who was a dumb ass and decided to play hero. I can't say that I really mourned over anyone except for him though, of course I felt bad for not being able to save them and that their families would have to live knowing that their sons were never coming home, but I never really got close to anyone except for Frey and Freya. If I'm being completely honest I didn't even really know their names. Freya however I worried about the most, while I quickly recovered from the loss of my old friend Freya never even shed a tear for her brother which only worried me more.

"Hey Rin did you hear, the results for the mating pairs have come back and we find out tonight who we got matched with." Over the past week me and Freya started making a joke about how it was nothing but a mating ritual at this point.

"Yeah I heard apparently the names will be called out and everyone whose pair isn't another solider was told that their partner would be coming to the base to meet them tonight." I replied with a piece of stale bread raised to my lips.

"I wonder who we got…" Freya continued to day dream about the idea of meeting her "perfect match" I was able to drown it out simply wanting to be alone in my train of thought. I feel as though I did well in the exam but at the same time you can't help but wonder who else you matched with. Would we even be able to get along, or would we want to rip each other's throats out.

"ALL SOLDIERS REPORT OUTSIDE FOR THE REVILE OF YOUR MATCHES!" The command echoed though out the chow hall. The tension in the room grew. Some with excitement and other with nervous jitters. Getting up I soon felt a small tug on my sleeve only to look down to see Freya holding on to me. Noticing her slight trimmer I kneel down to make eye contact with her.

"Hey, come on you don't want to keep prince charming waiting right?" the words were hollow but they seemed to snap her out of whatever panic she was having. She was so strong sometimes I had to remind even myself that she was a girl as well, hell even more so than me. Freya has always had a good habit of keeping her feelings under wrap but when they bubble over there was not stopping the panic.

Correcting herself quickly she stood up has tall as she could with her small size and smile brightly before walking with the crowd to the makeshift stage the MP official stood on. It was odd being ordered by the MP's but considering they were already match it made since. The Commander and the other squad leaders would be meeting their matches as well tonight.

"ALRIGHT! Ill first call up the male partner and then the women. If both are within the corps and are in the same regiment then they are to decide amongst themselves which room they will both be moving into. If they are either in different regiments or one partner is a citizen the soldier will be required to stay with the other partner for one week's time in order to start the procreation process." He paused as if to invite any objection but everyone remained silent. "Ok, lets begin."

Name after name was called. Gasp of delight, shock, and distaste filled the air but still no one uttered a word. The silence that seemed to be defining grew even quieter when the name "Levi Ackerman" The tension passing through the women could be felt with a knife. I didn't matter how strong his match was whoever she was, she was about to make enemies with almost every woman here.

The tension reached its climax as soon as the words "Freya Arie" were called. Those two words seemed to start all hell. Every eye turned in both mine and Freya's direction before screams where thrown at her as she slowly made her way up to the stage. Remember how I said she was strong but she still was innocent in a sense? That innocence seemed to radiate off of her. Her eyes kept to the ground and her small pale face seemed to be airbrushed read. It wasn't until one women got the idea to stick her foot out to trip the smaller woman that the captain acted. He quickly reacted catching Freya against his chest one arm wrapping around the girls slim form before he turns to glare at the offender and uttered one phrase.

"Cleaning duty, tomorrow until your hands bleed" The protesters stopped their arguments instantaneously and the newly restored silence made it possible to make out the small sound of Freya's voice.

"Umm, Captain? Do you think you can let me go now? I have my footing back." I might have imagined it but I could have sworn I saw the captain actually smirk, but I didn't have time to contemplate that because the name of commander Erwin was quickly called out. The murmuring from before came back. All the hopes of the women quickly dashed when the words "Karin Johnson"

The stairs once again landed in my direction, and I simply froze. Even by the time I was walking I couldn't tell if it was really me. My legs seemed to understand the order of meeting the commander on stage thankfully but my head had yet to wrap around the idea.