Conquer

by taleAholic

After making the life-altering decision to join the Recon Corps, it's finally time to face your fears and venture outside the walls. Your goal? To eliminate the Titans. And with no one to come back to, you have nothing to lose. All you've fought for through your life is yourself. But as you continue your journey, someone has begun to matter more to you than possibly even yourself.

It had been a long time coming, and today was finally the day you would officially enter the Survey Corps. After years of relentless training, and continued effort on both the students, and the soldiers sides, the top ten have been born. Being the novice that you had been years ago, you'd never imagined to gain such significant companions in so little time. Your friends that stand beside you today, the ones who used to be novices in the grand scheme of things, are now the ones with humanity's faith burdened on their shoulders. Not once did they falter, and not once did they hesitate. Over the time, you noticed, you and the rest of them had long since lost your capabilities' to feel anything similar to emotion. Each and every one of you that stand here today are living on the sacrifices that have been made by your fellow soldiers throughout the past semester. The ones who had fought hard, and who had given humanity more of a fighting chance than ever before.

But the strongest of the lot, the leader of the group, the supposed emotionless oddity and the man that not only the students, but the citizens looked up to and feared, stands today with a face eerily comparable to contentment. His thin lips are not pressed into a thin line like usual. Instead a slight smile that reaches his lazy eyes engrave his aristocratic face. As he walks through the large group of soldiers, hands behind his back, he administers each student with a short but pleasant nod of recognition. You can't decipher whether his eyes rest on yours for a second longer than the rest of the students.

Breaths are held in, and stances are held tall. And then he spoke, his gravelly voice orotund to the large crowd.

"In these few years, I have seen you all grow physically and emotionally. I was surprised some of you did not give up given the circumstances that were placed upon you without mercy. Proving me wrong is something very few have been able to do. You have all gained my utmost genuine respect." He ended his short pep talk, pausing between each sentence for emphasis. You fidget as you notice him look your way every time he paused. "Make your decision wisely." And with that he turned his back to us, handing the attention to Irvin. This was something not many people were capable of perfecting. But Corporal Rivaille had it down since he joined the Corps'. He could look up with such penetrating eyes, and without muttering even a single word, all the attention in the room would be focused on him, and solely him. He held a terrifying aura that could make one feel as insignificant as a fly, and then as important as the sun to the earth. Needless to say, his overall attractiveness did help with the attention. Many cadets were drawn to his mesmeric figure, yet a minimum amount acted upon their feelings, as he turned down many others without mercy.

After the Corporal's quick speech, Irvin strode up onto the podium and began trying to convince students to join the Recon Corps compared to the other two pathways we could choose. You glanced side to side and noticed your classmates tense. This was the the speech that would make or break the rest of the students' decisions. "You will be able to walk knowing you are the part small division of the military who help in the reclamation of humanity's territory!" He looks at us all so intensely, it's borderline glaring. "I will not sweeten this information you. There will be heavy causalities to be dealt with. But you must not forget the service you are providing humanity. It's a matter of time before we all run out." He glanced around penetratingly. "Now... No one else is going to tell you what to do now. But remember, you are the reason we will survive to gain information to eliminate the Titans for once and for all!" He stepped down, having spoken his mind.

The moment to choose was now upon us. "Those who do not wish to become a part of the Recon Corps are dismissed." Slowly, soldiers began to step away. The sound of hard boots hitting the ground around me swarmed your mind with thoughts of the many loved ones that you've lost. Why couldn't your life have been normal? You wished you could be at home, worrying over the minuscule things 16-year-old girls did 100 years ago, before Titans came into existence. The Titans had ruined everything, ruined the world for its future inhabitants, for all of humanity. This was your newfound realization, what had pushed you further every day-what got you through these years of suffering.

You stood your ground as the rest of the people around you fled. You noticed the orange-tinted sky as it began to set. Looking to your right and left, you made the silhouettes of your fellow comrades. Along your side stood the ones that would accompany you through the never-ending fight for humanity.