those were the last words Annie heard as she fell to the ground, she had failed her mission and now she couldn't go back home.
she could feel her body being surrounded by crystal, she knew that it was a defence mechanism special only to her titan, she didn't struggle to get free. only allowed herself to shed a few tears before she completely stilled.
unaware of the world around her, Annie continued to sleep in her crystal cocoon peacefully. she couldn't hear or see her surroundings, couldn't feel the pressure of machines drilling into her safe shell in a an attempt to pull her back into the world among the living, where she belonged.
the attempts didn't last long but there was always someone there to watch her and report of any changes, that also stopped after a few years. everyone seemed to give up the hope of saving Annie from her prison, and soon they all continued their lives as if she was never there. she was forgotten.
centuries had passed since that time and Annie still slept through them, the walls of her prison cell had rusted and fell apart in a heap on the floor, now Annie lays in the remains.
x
A lightning bolt boomed across the sky of a clear day in the shinganshina district. hitting the ground of a buried land and cracks echoed loudly.
the new times were awfully peaceful, especially now that dangers were no longer present and threatening to strike any momen.
the strange bolt of lightning raised many questions and so there was who tried to investigate. but as expected, the authorities arrived first at the scene to ward off any curious civilian.
an enthusiastic scientist was checking out the scene for any casualties before allowing the others to participate in finding clues.
"Captin Levi! look what we found"
a short man with dark hair and a blank face looked up at the call of him name, silently looking at what his men were pointing at.
a large boulder, easily bigger than Levi himself, was cracked in the middle and seemed to have light pouring out.
he sudied the cracks before putting his hand on the stone to find a bright blue hand print when he pulled it back.
ignoring the urge to takw out a napkin and wipe his hand off, he instead brushed it against the stone again to remove the dirt.
his body froze at the sight of a hand, a human hand seemed to be buried inside what appears to be a clear crystal.
"Levi! have you seen anything yet?! i can't find anything that could cause such a-"
"look." Levi cut off and pointed at the hand inside the crystal.
"oh my!" Hanji gasped and kneeled to study the details further. "is this what i think it is?!"
"pretty much" Levi replied boredly watching as Hanji tried to clean off the dust with her hands, only to smudge it even further. he retrieved a napkin from his jacket pocket and wordlessly begun to clean a higher spot of the boulder. a face was slowly becoming clearer inside.
"it's a kid!" the napkin dropped from his hand and he pulled Hanji by the arm to look at his discovery.
a blonde haired girl was resting inside with a peaceful yet pained expression. her face had some strange marking on her face and she seemed to be wearing a weird attire.
"Men! carry this boulder and load it into the truck, i think we found what we were looking for" Hanji exclaimed excitedly.
x
the now cleaned crystal sat in the middle of a large room, three figures stood infront of it and studied the girl inside.
"she's dead." Levi deadpanned boredly.
"no she's not! she seems to be in a comatose state, she could still be alive!" Hanji protested. "Erwin you think she's alive right? we should take her out of there"
both gazes turned to look at the tallest figure in the room and awaited his anwer. Erwin stayed silent before deciding his answer.
"it wouldn't hurt to try"
"Yes!" Hanji's cheer echoed once through the room and the sound of hurried footsteps soon followed.
Hanji came back to the room with some tools and a few men to help out.
"even if the girl was alive, we might as well digged her grave by letting her into Hanji's hands" Levi shook his head and stepped closer to the crystal to make sure nothing goes wrong.
"i heard that" Hanji pouted at her friend.
"you were supposed to, four-eyes"
turning back to the crystal, Hanji started calculating the angles they should cut into to avoid harming the girl. she was about to mark some lines on the surface when suddenly a burst of steam left the cracks.
"woah!"
everyone shielded their faces from the hot steam and stepped back when the crack seemed to get bigger. a chunk had fell to the ground before the entire crystal broke into small shards.
now with no support, the girl started falling forward. Erwin moved and grabbed the girl before she fell face first into the broken crystal shards.
it was silent for a moment before Hanji broke the silence. "i guess our work here is done!"
"check her for any injuries and let her rest, when she wakes up we'll start the interrogation"
x
a few days passed before Annie had opened her eyes for the first time in over eleven centuries. she struggled to keep her eyes open under the bright light shining above her. she could hear some frantic calls outside the room.
'so it's finally time for me to face my fate huh' she thought with a frown.
"hello there" a voice to her right said.
Annie jumped lightly and looked at the person sitting next to the bed she was placed in. it was a woman with messy brown hair pulled into a ponytail and goggle-like glasses. she was wearing a thin white coat which had some pens tucked into it and a card tag clipped to the pocket. she had a clipboard on her lap which already had some notes in messy handwriting.
"my name is Hanji and I'll he asking you a few questions if you don't mind"
"o-ok" she didn't notice before but her throat felt really dry now that she tried to speak.
"ok so, what is your name?" Hanji asked while pouring a cup of water from a nearby pitcher and handing it to Annie.
"Annie. Annie Leonhardt" she answered warily, she thought about lying and replying with a fake name but dismissed the idea.
"Alright Annie, how old are you?"
"I'm sixteen" she didn't see any point in lying anymore, they probably knew who she was anyway.
"okay this all I'll be asking you until my partners get here. in the meantime, I'm sure you're hungry and still thirsty so you can help yourself to what I've brought you" she retrieved a tray from the ground and placed it in the bed next to Annie. "and feel free to say if you need to use the restroom"
Annie stayed silent while she ate, she relised how hungry she actually was when she saw the food infront of her. looking at the woman, Hanji, from the corner of her eyes as she shuffled through some papers.
"I'm done, may i use the restroom?" Annie asked politely.
"of course, it's that door over there" she pointed behind her and Annie nodded gratefully. she stumbled when she placed her feet on the ground but managed to walk successfully to the door.
two men walked through the door while Annie was busy, they stood by the door waiting for the blonde to return.
when Annie came back out, she wasn't really suprised to see other people had came. she stared at them and waited to hear what they wanted.
"Annie, come with us please, we have a lot to discuss"
she simply walked behind them to a room that had a table and three chairs facing one more chair. she assumed she was being interrogated and took her seat at the single chair facing the other three.
"let's get right to the point, how and why were you in that crystal?" Levi demanded, leaning forward in his arms.
"now now Levi, is that a way to speak to our guest?" Erwin put his hand on the dark haired man's shoulder. "but yes, we want to know how you ended up in that situation"
Annie's face darkened, as if they didn't know. she glared down at her lap and refused to answer.
"i see you don't want to share your information" Erwin sighed rubbing his chin.
"thats an intresting uniform you're wearing there" Hanji spoke. "are you in some form of organisation?"
"this is the Military Police uniform" she frowned, she knew she didn't deserve to call herself an MP. "do you guys not know what that is"
"no, would you like to tell us?" Hanji offered with a smile. Annie didn't know if she was faking or not but she refused to take any bait they lay to get information from her.
"as if you don't know" shw snarled and crossed her arms.
"we really don't-""cut that crap out and tell us what we want to know"Levi cut off Hanji and slammed his fist on the table. Annie only glared at him.
"Annie" Erwin spoke "how long have you been in that crystal?" he asked.
"i don't know, a few days? months?" she shrugged.
"do you know what year it is?" he asked gently, his eyes showing concern.
"of course, it's year 850" she said as if it was clear as day.
all three seemed to show suprised faces at the response. Hanji let a sad smile and shook her head.
"No Annie, it's 2018"