"Whoever kills the most Titans wins, alright?" Thomas called, smiling at his squad. Everyone grinned shakily back, but he knew they were all thinking the same thing, dreading the same fate. This isn't a game. In an hour, 30 minutes, 10 minutes, we could be dead. Thomas's stomach knotted and unknotted itself uneasily as they waited for the go ahead. Nobody said anything else. Only the whisper of the breeze could be heard, and despite the thunderous vibrations, it seemed almost peaceful and home wasn't too far away…
"That's the go ahead!" Eren called back.
Woken from his reverie, Thomas collected his courage and gave his gear a swift final check before shooting after the rest of Squad 34 over the rooftops of Trost.
Thomas was utterly shocked by what he saw. All of his life, his own fear and imagination had constructed nightmarish images of the Titans for him. But the lumbering monstrosities before him in no way compared to the fantastical shadowy silhouettes of his childhood nightmares. How could he be so naïve? And how could there be so many of them? Chancing glimpses at his companions, he surmised that they too did not expect the situation to be so dire.
"Get it together." He told himself harshly. "Just focu-"
"Abnormal!" He heard someone cry, their voice distorted with panic.
Thomas quickly looked around, fighting to remain at least somewhat calm. Before he knew what happening….
CRASH!
He heard someone scream his name, but why? His head was cloudy and he felt hot, too hot... He could only hoarsely whisper, "Please, help me…" The Titan's teeth closed before him like yellowed gates, taking everything he knew with them. Outside, his friends watched grief stricken as the Titan tipped back its enormous head and swallowed.
"Say wheeeeee!" A voice that sounded vaguely familiar called cheerily to him. Thomas tried to pinpoint the source of the voice, but it seemed to emanate from every point in the Titan's mouth.
"What- AHHH!" Thomas had come to the opening of the throat where to his astonishment he had come upon a red slide. He slid down screaming.
"Not ahhhhh, wheeeeee!" The voice reprimanded. "Seriously, kids these days. No sense of fun. I mean, take my son for instance..."
Thomas twisted around and around, continuing to scream until he was ejected from the slide and deposited on a large orange poof. He tried to get up, but the poof began to suck him further down the more he struggled. At last, he managed to kick it away and he scrambled to his feet.
"Oh, looks like we got a live one guys!" a voice called from behind him. He turned around quickly and saw to his utter astonishment…
"Dr. Jaeger?!"
Sure enough, there sat Grisha Jaeger at a small console, gripping a joystick, donning a colorful buttoned shirt, complete with shorts and sandals. He appeared he was writing on a card that read, "Greetings from Hawaii, SUCKER!"
"Love, your adoring, dedicated father…Why, hey there Theodore! Nice of you to drop in! Haha, thought you were a goner did you? Interesting, that tends to be the standard reaction when people are eaten." He scribbled something down in a journal. "Hey, did you like the slide? It's a new feature on the latest models."
Thomas blinked, ignoring the last question. "Uh, it's Thomas. And, yeah, I did. What are you doing inside a Titan?! What is this place?"
"Beautiful, aren't they? I designed them myself. They're animatronic; at least this one is, with some biological components of course. Yep, just shift this like so…" Dr. Jaeger clutched the joystick, shifted it right, and jammed at a few buttons on the console.
Thomas felt a jerk below him. The Titan had obviously begun to move. Dr. Jaeger gestured him over almost manically. Thomas numbly obeyed.
"Look right out here!" Dr. Jaeger pointed to a small screen on the console. Again, Thomas obeyed. Impossibly, the screen conveyed what was obviously the exterior of the Titan. It was clearly Trost District.
"How did you-"
Dr. Jaeger cut Thomas off. "Look!" He punched a button and the scene of the Titan onslaught outside enlarged, until Thomas could clearly see his horror stricken squad. He felt his stomach sink. He wished he could let them know he was okay.
"AHAHAHA! Look at him! Just hanging there like a monkey!" Thomas jumped. Dr. Jaeger was guffawing loudly, clutching at his sides desperately. "L-look at his FACE!" Thomas followed to where Dr. Jaeger's finger was pointing and he saw Eren, hanging from a rooftop, a horrified expression across his face.
"Your son, Dr. Jaeger? What is so funny?"
The older man ignored him. "Oh, look! Now he's blindly rushing into battle! The idiot." He giggled hysterically.
"Sir, that's your son! We should do something! Aren't you the slightest bit worried?!"
Dr. Jaeger yawned. "Nah, he'll be fine. I think. Any who, where were we? Ah, yes. I was going to tell you all about the T.I.T.A.N.s."
