AN: This is my first attempt at Attack on Titan/Shingeki no Kyojin fanfiction and I haven't read the manga so while this is a fully OC tale, if I step on any canon toes as far as the world building goes I apologize
Looking over the outside of Wall Rose, Garrison Regiment Officer Jorgen Alberht couldn't shake the feeling of unease washing over him. "I swear I heard something out there…" He turned to his fellow stationary guard on night watch with him.
The other man looked out into the blackness, dim starlight the only thing giving the shadows of buildings and trees that used to be part of human civilization any form. "Come on man, titans aren't exactly stealthy. If there was something moving around out there we'd have heard it by now. Unless it's a… GHOST TITAN!" He made waving gestures at Jorgen with several 'ooooh' and 'ahhh' noises.
"Knock it off! And it didn't sound anything like that. It was almost like… maneuvering gear being used." Jorgen pondered.
"Nonsense, ODM gear use hasn't been authorized inside the walls here yet. And there aren't any scout missions outside the walls right now either. It's not even one of the outlier cities, we're just here as a precaution. Trust me, there's nothing human outside those walls."
Jorgen gave a sigh and nodded. "I suppose I'm just shaky, too on edge after too long of nothing happening."
"Relax, once the night shift is done we'll go and have a drink." He patted Jorgen on the back and laughed softly, earning a small smile from the tall black-haired man.
"No way, you're a mean drunk, not after last ti-"
He was cut off by a loud sound nearby, a familiar sound, similar to a gunshot but not nearly as loud, gas being released at high pressure. It was maneuvering gear after all. Just as he had registered the sound, a harpooned cable stuck itself into his partner's leg, dragging him backwards and his assailant forward. In an instant the blade pierced the man's neck and blood splattered against Jorgen's face.
The assailant stood over the man's corpse, wiping off his sword as the black cloak concealing him in the night fell away. "If you're looking for elephants, it's quite easy for a mouse to slip by unnoticed." An icy gaze pierced Jorgen to his core. It took him a few moments to even get a grip on the person… if it was a person, he was looking at. It didn't look like any man he'd ever seen before.
His skin was a sickly gray, his hair black, greasy and patchy, his limbs thin, boney and long, filled with lean muscle. His eyes were sunken in, bloodshot and a piercing green. Fingernails that clutched at the sword long and unkempt. That was when his eyes were drawn to the sword, not the paring blades used for rending titan flesh by soldiers, but a pointed piece with thin edges. That was a weapon for killing humans. This man looked like a walking gray skeleton that looked completely at home bathed in blood as he was now. "Your friend was right… there is absolutely nothing human outside these walls."
Once Jorgen managed to overcome his shock and steady his hands, he reached for his blade only to have the man's pointed sword slash at the back of his hand, drawing blood. He could've easily taken the hand with that slash, it was a warning. "Don't do that again or you won't get out of here with all your bits attached. Or I could just kick you over the wall right now."
"W-What do you want…?" Jorgen muttered out, trying to stay strong and mask his fear. He was a Garrison soldier on a non-outlier city, he'd been through his paces but he could count the number of truly hairy experiences on one hand, a hand that he would rather like to keep.
"I want to deliver a message. It only takes one person to deliver a message so I of course eliminated the spare." He nodded to Jorgen's comrade. "Tell whoever's in charge that my name is Franz Ivo. And I have come to take vengeance on what's left of humanity inside these walls. The land within these walls is my birthright."
Jorgen slowly backed up, looking over the wall from where the man had emerged, spotting a crack from where his harpoon cable grappling hook had sunk into it. He'd scaled the wall from the outside! "A-Are you a survivor from when Wall Maria was taken?" It had been years, it was hard to believe that someone left behind from the evacuation would've survived all that time.
"No… I am from outside the walls."
"OUTSIDE!? That's impossible!" Jorgen shouted.
Franz gave him an icy glare. "Don't you have a message to be delivering? Shoddy couriers get their pay docked. And considering I'm paying you with your life, I don't think you want that."
Jorgen grunted, backing him again before quickly heading down the wall to alert his superiors.
A thin smirk crossed Franz's face as he looked down upon civilization inside the walls. "Shiver with fear you rotten cows. I have come to purge you."
Dr. Ivan Swift briskly walked down the halls of the military clinic, looking over the files he had been given. "I wonder if the situation is really as you describe it, lieutenant." The white-haired doctor adjusted his glasses and shot a glance to the officer on his right. "It seems too implausible…"
"It's just like I said doctor." The officer nodded. The intruder came over the walls last night, and as if that wasn't bad enough, when Jorgen gave us the message and we gave chase to the attacker, he ducked into a plaza of abandoned buildings, where our men tripped over this girl and… well it's best you see her condition for yourself…"
The doctor opened the door, spotting a woman in her early twenties with blonde hair that went past her shoulders and large, clueless blue eyes. Yes, this was definitely her. "Hello Miss, I am Doctor Swift and I'd like to ask you a few questions if that's alright."
"That's fine." The woman brightly smiled and nodded.
"Can you tell me your name?"
"My name is Samantha Kunibert."
"Good, and could you tell me the year and where you are?"
"Of course, the year is 770 and… uhh… I'm not sure where I am at the moment, I'm sorry." Samatha frowned.
Ivan looked up at the lieutenant who nodded softly in affirmation. "I'm sorry but that is incorrect. The year is 848 and you are currently in the city of Altenburg behind Wall Rose."
"Wall… Rose…?" Samantha tilted her head curiously.
The doctor pushed his chair out from the table with a friendly smile. "I'm sorry to confuse you Ms. Kunibert, we'll get this all cleared up, I promise. Please allow me to have a few words with my friend here." He motioned to the lieutenant and walked out of the room. "It's just like in the report after all."
"Yeah, she's either a time traveler or in deep denial… she has absolutely no memory of the walls or the titans and firmly believes we are living in the time before the titans appeared." The lieutenant nodded.
Ivan stroked his chin. "A man from outside the walls led to the discovery of a woman that has no memory of them… It's almost as if we're being guided by fate."
"Do you believe they're connected doctor? She's probably just a nut… but it's still eerie."
"I wouldn't call her a nut lieutenant, but it is quite the coincidence. I'm going to have to ask that you keep her exclusively in my custody for the time being…"
"Protocol says we have to keep her here for forty-eight hours to see if any family comes looking for her. After that she's all yours doctor. I can't imagine anyone better suited to deal with her than you."
Ivan nodded with a troubled look. "Let's hope so lieutenant… I'll get to the bottom of this…"
A few hours later Ivan sat down with Samantha again for another interview, bringing her some bread to eat while they talked. "Tell me Samantha, what is it you do for a living?"
"I'm a fruit merchant." The woman grinned as she took a bite of the bread happily, it felt like it had been forever since she'd eaten. She then looked at the doctor curiously. "…what do you do?"
"I'm a doctor." Ivan smiled.
"So you… cure sick people and bandage up cuts and stuff?" She mumbled over another bite.
"Well I do have some limited medical training. But I specialize in things wrong with people's minds." He tapped his head. "I mainly work with post-traumatic stress, soldiers that have seen too much combat and can't cope and such things."
"Soldiers? Is there a war going on? My village has been rather peaceful for years…"Samantha put down the bread, looking worried. "I hope it's not spreading…"
"It's a war of sorts, against the titans…" The doctor muttered.
"Titans?"
The doctor gasped, realizing he misspoke, not expecting her to hear him. "…never mind all that. It's not important right now. Do you know anything of a man named Franz Ivo? He's a criminal that took refuge in the area you were found in last night. We're looking for him currently but we've no leads so any information at all would be quite helpful."
"I don't know anyone by that name doctor, I'm sorry…" Samantha shook her head, still troubled by his words.
"It's alright, let's just focus for now on getting you comfortable and back where you belong, alright? We'll be keeping you here for now and if no one comes for you within a day or two you'll be staying with me, is that okay?" He propped his chin up on his hands with a smile.
"Ummm… I suppose so. But doctor, why must I be held here at all? I can take care of myself…"
Ivan blinked, he couldn't just tell her everything she knew was a lie and that had to make sure she wouldn't break down or freak out or anything if they released her. "I-It's because we're worried that that criminal may be around where you were staying and we want to keep you here to keep you safe just in case you remember anything…" He whipped up a quick lie.
"I see…" She didn't seem entirely convinced but she didn't fight it either. "Alright then…"
"Good. Now try and get a bit of rest, if you remember anything come to me." He stood up, lifting Samantha's chin and looking deep into her eyes. "Come to me. And. Only. To. Me. Do you understand? We don't want any classified information getting out, okay?"
Samantha nodded hesitantly as the doctor walked out, heading back to the small room that had been prepared for her out of the temporary medical room. She laid down on her bed and sighed, looking out the window. It was nearly sunset by now. She shot up when she heard the door open.
"Oh, sorry. This is the medical room, right?" A tall black-haired man rubbed the back of his neck as he entered. "I just needed to change my bandage." He pointed to a cut on the back of his hand. "Name's Jorgen Alberht. You the girl everyone's been talking about?" He asked.
"I-I guess so…" Samantha nodded softly.
"So what have they told you?" Jorgen sat down at the medical desk, rummaging around for bandages.
"They haven't told me much of anything at all… I get the feeling something's wrong…" The woman huffed and looked down. "I hate it when people aren't straight with me…"
"I get that…" Jorgen nodded, finding the bandages. "After what happened last night I'd give anything to do something that matters for once, it sucks sitting around left in the dark. I guess I didn't realize until now, but that's what I've been doing most of my life."
Samantha looked at the bandages and nodded to them. "Can I help you with that?" Jorgen nodded and unwrapped his hand, showing the fresh gash on the back of it. "It's nice to be able to help with something…" She sighed as she grabbed the antibiotics and swapped the wound, earning a hiss from the Garrison soldier.
"What exactly do you remember?" He grunted, trying to take his mind off the wound being cleaned.
"I remember I am Samantha Kunibert, fruit merchant and that the year is 770 and… not much else." She hung her head as she began wrapping the bandages around his hand.
"Not your age, birthday, favorite color, anything?" Jorgen's eyes softened.
"I remember brief snippets from my village… it was a peaceful place… but it doesn't seem to match what people say to me at all. I don't remember anything about titans or walls or anything… I feel so helpless."
Jorgen gazed at the woman for a long moment, his eyes slowly solidifying in resolve before nodding at her. "Come with me."
"Where are we going?" She gasped as he stood up.
"You deserve to know the truth, and to see it with your own eyes."
"Lieutenant, where is my patient?" Doctor Swift asked the officer, a steely cold gaze observing the area.
"Oh, Jorgen Alberht took her out for some fresh air. Said he wasn't going far so I allowed it."
"He what!?" The doctor's glasses slid down his nose, his eye twitching with anger. He clenched his fist before slamming it against the wall behind him. "You fucking IDIOTS!" He quickly ran out of the building and down the streets.
"This… this is what the world looks like now…?" Samatha's eyes widened in shock as she looked over the top of Wall Rose. Jorgen had taken her to his post, to the sight he saw every day. Destroyed towns, broken trees, and in the far distance the breached Wall Maria stood across the horizon. The blonde stared down at the giant, naked humanoid figures, bathed in the orange sunset light.
"These are titans." Jorgen said with a somber tone. Approximately one hundred years ago they appeared and drove the remnants of humanity behind these walls. A few years ago Wall Maria was breached and we were forced to fall back here behind Wall Rose. They are killing machines with a taste for human flesh and almost invincible, these walls are all that stand between us and them."
Samantha was silent for a few minutes, staring out on the sight and taking in this new revelation. Jorgen was frightened for a moment about how she'd take it, until eventually she spoke.
"That wall, Wall Maria. Is there any way we can get it back?"
A smirk crossed Jorgen's face. "The first time you see a titan, your mind instantly goes to fighting them instead of pissing yourself? You might make a decent soldier some day Sam." His somber tone then returned. "We've never taken back any territory overrun with Titans before, but I suppose nothing's impossible the future's not written in stone."
"It's natural isn't it? To want to take back what's been taken from you? Like my memories…" Sam's face sunk.
Jorgen shook his head and patted her on the shoulder. "Come on, I think that's enough for today. It's getting dark, we better get back before the doctor throws a fit that I kept you out this long." He chuckled, looking up at the increasingly dark sky as clouds began to gather while night fell "Looks like rain too."
They headed down and began to walk through the streets just as a light drizzle began to fall. Suddenly they started to notice Garrison soldiers rushing back and forth. Jorgen stopped one of his friends and looked at him. "What's going on?"
"That man from last night, Franz Ivo. He's been sited in the area. Reports say he may be wearing a military hooded cloak to avoid being detected on sight. We should get any civilians out of here and try to apprehend him as soon as possible."
Jorgen nodded and took Samantha's wrist. "Stay close to me Sam, we're getting you out of here and keeping our eyes out for anyone else who needs our help." He ducked into an alleyway as it began to rain harder. The two pairs of feet splashed in the puddles along the stone streets as they rushed to clear the area.
As if on cue, a figure in a green hooded cloak belonging to the military descended with a slight 'ziiiip' sound from their maneuvering gear before their boots touched the ground.
Jorgen gasped and pushed Samantha back. "Stay back Sam!" He drew his swords. "I won't run from you this time!" He shouted down the alleyway at the figure, who silently drew his sword as well.
Jorgen rushed at his target, swinging his swords only for the rogue man to duck under the crossed blades, sneaking his own under and between them and stabbing it up through his gut and through his chest. "Now die." He whispered, the killer pulling his sword out as Jorgen fell to his knees and then to his face into a puddle.
Samantha screamed as she watched the scene unfold, drawing the attention of several Garrison soldiers who rushed over as she ran over to Jorgen, holding his body as his blood mixed with the water. "No…" She sobbed quietly as the killer shot his grappling hooks to the rooftops and climbed away, not wanting to get caught by the oncoming troops.
"Don't die…" Samantha clutched Jorgen's body, tears streaming from her eyes as they filled with realization. She understood now, this was how all those people who had talker to her saw the world now. This is what they were hiding from her.
A world where death was everywhere.
