The ruins of buildings, bloodied corpses, and broken, stained roads didn't concern Marco now. Neither did the battles taking place around him. He couldn't focus on the deaths of his comrades, friends, nor commanders. Instead, his attention was on the three cadets in front of him. Their whispers were filled with ominous and threatening words. Their voices, sickly calm.

His shaken breathes were soon muffled by shock and confusion as he felt himself being grabbed. His hands were forced behind his back, his legs pinned to the ground. Whimpers barely escaped his throat. He felt pathetic. Was this really how he was going to die? Not only was it his first battle, he was dying to a human. He couldn't even put up a fight to his killers.

He felt multiple hands push down on him, while others quickly took his ODM Gear. He couldn't think much before he was kicked in the head and knocked off the building he was on. While his consciousness didn't last long, the last thing he saw was the sun setting in the sky, leaving him behind.

Marco gasped as he woke up, air rushing to his lungs. His mouth had been filled with disgusting amounts of drool, and he started choking on the amount that he had inhaled. After he stopped choking, whipping tears from his eyes, he looked around. It was the same room he had woken up in every morning to start training. His family pictures still hung on the walls, his clothes still neatly lined in piles in the corner, this small table with a couple papers still sat in the middle of the room.

Marco touched his face multiple times, blinking his eyes. He was sure that he had died. He didn't remember who he died to, but he knew he had died at human hands. Although it sounded weird hearing the thought play back in his mind, he was sure of it. Even if it had been a dream, it had to be one of the most vivid dreams he had ever had.

But he felt pain in that dream. There was no way it could have been an actual dream. It was too real.

Distracting him from his thoughts, he heard the sound of yelling and horse neighing outside. This brought him back from his fear, realizing that even if it wasn't a dream, he had to get up and start training, or he would die again.

After getting adequately dressed, he remembered what day today was. It was graduation day.

He opened the door, only to see his friends Jean and Eren stepping out of their own rooms, each one immediately turning and avoiding eye contact with the other.

This was familiar. This had happened in his dream too. Marco started to feel sweaty, but ignored it, seeing that they had just fought, and it would be understandable for him to unconsciously know that they would do that. It was predictable; they detested each other.

All three of them froze when they heard hove beats on the ground. That meant a higher-up was near. They all lined up as quickly as they could and saluted the incoming officer.

"Alright, maggots! We are going on a training exercise! You will follow my horse through the forest and if you can't keep up, it will be marked into your score!" Commander Shadis yelled. Marco waited for him to start moving, before hastily trailing him with Eren and Jean. None of them dared talk casually, as Shadis would punish them if they got cocky.

Marco only looked up to the sky and frowned, seeing as it was gray, and looked like it would storm. He was becoming increasingly unnerved as more things seemed to match the dream.

Marco wheezed and coughed as the reached their destination. Shadis' slowed to a stop as they approached the familiar lunch building. They lined up single-file and each took seats near their friends and family. Lunch was slowly handed out, as usual. There was nothing remarkable. The only thing worth notice was that the women who handed trays out tripped on the same rug she tripped on in his dream.

It was too real. Everything matched the dream! Did that mean that he was going to… die the same way? Maybe he was given a second chance at life! Maybe he was tasked by some god to complete a job, to save others? But why him?

Marco shook his head, ending his thoughts there. That was jumping to conclusions. Maybe it wasn't a dream, but an illusion he was remembering as he went through the game?

No. That was an even worse explanation.

What the hell was going on?

After lunch, the cadets were taken outside and told to fight. The only equipment they had was a singular wooden knife, per pair. Marco didn't do well, but neither did his partner, so the training was funnier than normal, and quicker.

After that exercise, they were told by all the higher-ups and commanders to line up. They were given the same speech in his dream, and at this point, Marco was sure that his dream had either been sent to him to predict the future, or that he had been given a second chance at life. The idea was mind boggling, but it seemed like the only way.

Marco felt immediate fear when he was told he had to climb the wall. He had remembered what happened last time. The Colossal Titan had kicked a gigantic hole into the wall and Trost had to be evacuated and soldiers that hadn't even chosen what branch they wanted to be in had to fight.

After reluctantly going up the wooden stairs that led nearly 50 meters up, he reacted the top, sweating bullets. He didn't bother to clean the cannons. He didn't start conversations with the other Cadets and only responded when he needed to. His finger has constantly shaking over the trigger on his gear.

And then it happened. The Colossal Titan appeared out of nowhere, sending them all flying off. Marco, although not panicking as much as before, knowing that he was prepared and knew what was going to happen, pressed down on the triggers for his ODM Gear as hard as possible. The hooks shot out quickly, attaching to the walls precisely where he wanted them to. It was a stable spot where he could regain his composure.

He stopped thinking completely for a second, only listening to what was happening around him. It seemed like slow motion. He could here the cadets screaming, ODM Gear grinding and clinking, Eren flying over them, Sasha's gear damaging one of the cadet's calves as he fell. Everything seemed to soak into his mind.

Suddenly he felt a rush of adrenaline. He pushed multiple of the buttons on his ODM Gear. He could no longer hear anything other than the blood rushing in his ears. His Gear started to pull him up the wall, next to his hooks. He loosened one of his hooks, aiming to shoot it higher.

Then the Colossal Titan's arm pushed through the top of the wall, destroying the cannons in the process. Marco, only a few feet under the Titan's hand when it happened, realized what he was doing. He froze, mortified at the thought that he could have been crushed and flung off, like the cannons.

He just watched as Eren leaped on the Titan's arm with the agility and power Marco never thought he would ever get close to. Eren fought at the wind, pulling closer to the Titan and swinging, only to hit a cloud of steam as the Titan just disappeared.

Marco felt mentally crushed as he maneuvered his way up the broken wall and looked at all the wreckage. He looked down at Eren, feeling a painful throbbing in his chest. He looked down further, at the massive hole in the wall. All the color drained from his face as he realized that he would have to fight titans next.

The Garrison, the cadets, and the Scouts prepared their gear as fast as they could. It was slightly slower than they had done in the drills, though, as most of them were sweating bullets and shaking, making it infinitely harder to work fast.

As soon as they got out and ready, almost all of the 104th cadets stood on one roof. They all looked out at the titan filled city, dreading the fight. Marco was no exception. He knew he couldn't save all of his friends if he tried his hardest. There was no way.

They were prepared for battle, all of them. None of them wanted to fight, but they had to.

They all raised their swords, preparing for battle. They all jumped off, running and flying across rooftops. And then Marco remembered the Aberrant. Everything slowed down, his mind racing much faster than the things around him, like time stopped. He looked at all his comrades, memorizing where they were flying, trying to pinpoint when the Aberrant would jump.

He didn't need to memorize where they were now. He saw the Aberrant coming.

"Abnormal! Everyone, move out of the way!" Marco screamed at the top of his lungs. He looked around at his friends, seeing they all seemed to be out of its way.

The Abnormal slammed into a tower, narrowly missing Thomas. They all slowed down somewhat, and Thomas landed on a roof, breathing as though he had just been choked. He was nearly crying, and from the smell, his pants were soiled.

Eren sped behind them, aiming his blades at the Abnormal. He was slightly off with the measurements of the slice, but that was good for a trainee like him. It was killed, so it didn't matter.

Eren then went forward to attack another titan nearing them, only to get his leg caught in one of its hands. He let out a cry of pain as it squeezed his leg, until blood started oozing out of the titan's hand. At this point, Eren was screaming in pain.

Mina then jumped off the roof, attaching her hooks slightly above its foot, then diving down and slicing off part of its foot. It then lost balance, falling forward, into a building next to them.

Eren crawled out of its hand, revealing a leg that looked like it had popped like a balloon. Blood and flesh splattered the roof and him, and he was crying.

Marco ran forward and, along with Mina, slashed the titan's nape. The titan fell limp, hitting the ground near the buildings. Armin sprang towards Eren faster than he'd ever gone and started tending to the boy's wound, only to be taken aback by the steam pouring out of it.

"Why is it… steaming? Like a… titan?" Armin watched as the wound started to heal right in front of them. They all stood there, awed by it, even Eren himself.

Then Marco heard the banging. He could only watch as an Aberrant slammed into buildings in its rush to grab them. By this time, they had all switched their attention to it as it dove at them all.

They were fucked. They were all in the same spot, attracting titans to their smell. It was too late to move out of the way. For those that weren't eaten, we would all be injured.

There was nothing else to do, so Marco jumped at it, hoping to block it somewhat. He looked into its wide-open mouth with a terrified face and all he could mutter was,

"Aww shit."

Marco jumped up in bed, his mouth dripping with saliva. With a disgusted face, he spit it all out, only to look at his hands and trace the veins. He didn't want to bring his thoughts to what had happened, but he knew perfectly well that he needed to.

He was time-looping.