TEARS WILL FALL.
Chapter 1- Reason.
Year 845, that day, mankind received a grim reminder. We were forced to understand the truth, the truth that we'd so readily chosen to forget, the terror of admitting that whatever we did we would remain subservient to them, the humiliation of being trapped in cages that we are forced to call home. The reminder was that we lived in fear of the Titans, and forced to call these walls, these cages home.
Ryan Yeager could see it in Eren's eyes, the hatred that was emerging, and the abhorrence that was budding. Ryan could feel the wood under his feet creaking as his little brother stood up and slowly shuffled to the edge of the ship. He could feel his rage flaring off him as he watched Shiganshina, his home fade away, knowing he'd never come back, never come back home. Ryan bowed his head in sadness as the memory flashed before his eyes.
He remembered the deafening silence and the chill that ran down his spine as the howling wind came to a sudden stop, he remembered the golden lightning shooting from the sky and hitting the ground, the arid ground beneath them shook and rumbled, he remembered being blown into stairs he, Eren, Mikasa and Armin had gathered at. Vague silhouettes that Ryan could only guess were people came out of the neighboring houses and some pointed at the sky, gasping in astonishment. He remembered seeing his siblings bolt off to the end of the alley, the alley which brought one only a mile or two away from the end of wall Maria. He stood up, still dazed, and charged after them ignoring the searing pain in his neck.
He got to the end of the crowded alley, and looked up to where Armin stared blankly, frozen in horror and what he could only guess was uncertainty. Ryan squinted, there was something enveloped in the thick smoke, something that was moving. Then the smoke cleared…
Ryan gasped in terror, as he saw the hand that was holding onto the wall, he watched, terrified, as that section of the wall, Wall Maria, cracked under the pressure of the hand, he looked on as the hand's grip on the wall tightened. The hand was like a human's completely, except, the hand lacked skin.
"Im…." Armin said. Ryan kept staring; he was too stunned to look at him in the face. "Impossible that wall…that wall is fifty meters high."
There was a deafening silence, as if what had been there had immediately disappeared, not a single bird chirped in the sky. It was just deadly silence.
Ryan gawped as a head emerged from the remaining clouds of smoke. Ryan stared on scared stiff; the monster's shadow went right over them, his teal eyes widened when the neck and shoulders of the beast became visible, the skinless monstrosity gazed upon the city, grinning amusedly with his hundreds of teeth.
Horrified screams filled the air, yet Ryan heard his twin speak under his shaky breath."It's one of them," his eyes widened "A Titan."
Titans, the Titans had come, after a hundred years they were here.
The Titan moved and its foot came crashing through the gates at the bottom, the gathered citizens covered their ears but the sound was nowhere near muffled. The debris of the wall shot off and collided into buildings and crushed people, the faint sound of snapping bones could be heard from where they were standing, the pools of blood could be seen from the distance. People scattered in panic dashing for the opposite gates, screaming at the top of their lungs, as giant naked people that looked as human as anyone walked in through the hole in the wall with wide disconcerting grins on their faces. Ryan suddenly felt heavy as if someone had strapped an anvil to him. Then he felt a hand on his shoulder.
The panicked voice of Armin rang in his ears. "Ryan!" he yelled, tugging at his arm now, "We have to go."
Ryan shook his head and looked in Eren's direction, and looked at his adopted sister Mikasa's face that had turned a deadly pale. Eren and Mikasa slowly moved forward, eyes widened, Ryan stretched his hand forward, ready to scream at Eren to go in the opposite direction, just then he realized what both of them had been looking at, the pathway that was a few meters from the wall that was covered in fallen debris from the wall, their home.
Mom.
He rushed in that direction without thought. There wasn't much to think about, he ran through the now crimson streets.
A man paced about in the middle of the town square, with a bible in his hands, yelling, preaching of strength to a panicked audience who held hands and stood in the circle a few feet away from him. He quaked in his boots as he stammered what was meant to be a reassuring prayer, he looked up in horror and gasped as a titan reached down and grabbed him. He struggled to get free, but to no avail, Ryan watched as the bible fell out of the man's hand and landed with a thud, he kept his eyes forward on the path and ran as fast as his legs could carry him and his younger twin did the same.
Ryan fought his feeling of nausea as he hurdled over the dead bodies that lay on the streets in pools of blood; his fear grew as he saw a woman trying to roll a boulder off her son as her daughter sobbed helplessly clutching her doll.
He raced on. In front of him, a giant hand reached down, pulling a woman by the head from the ruins, the beast brought it closer to its mouth, the woman kicked, her little feet grazing the giant's teeth as it lowered her down, the Titan bit off her lower half and swallowed it whole and then tossed the rest of her into his mouth casually. Blood trickled from the giant's lips.
It's okay.
It's going to be fine.
Mom probably went out to look for us.
I'm going to turn left here and our house will be there like always…
He gasped and raced forward, passing Eren and Mikasa as they screamed in unison. "Mom!"
Their house, it had been crushed under a boulder, the roof had caved in and dust rose in a huge cloud. There was nothing but ruin.
"Mom!" He heard Eren shout, and then he saw her, his mother, Kalura Yeager a lovely looking woman with long brown hair, that framed her beautiful light skinned face, and an apron, now drenched in blood, Eren knelt on his knees in front of her, watching in shock her, body lay under a pile of ruins, she was trapped under a pillar Then she groaned, letting them know she was conscious, her eyes opened and she looked up at Eren, and then turned her head to face us. "Eren, Mikasa, Ryan!" She tried to get up, but her body dropped back onto the ground.
"What are you waiting for…?" Eren screamed, his voice going octaves higher than usual and tears streaming down his face. "Help me get her out of here." "Ryan, Mikasa." He screamed "We have to get this pillar off her! Help me!"
Ryan bent down with Mikasa and stuck his hands beneath the pillar, feeling for something he could hold onto. He found something and looked at Eren and Mikasa to see if they were ready, they both nodded and with that he gathered up all of his strength and tried to lift the pillar off his mother. The sound of footsteps in the distance scared Ryan, but he continued. They all continued even as their fingers bled.
The ground shook beneath them; Ryan opened his eyes to see the titan in the distance.
This can't be happening.
"The Titans, the titans are here aren't they?" His mother said panting "Eren, Ryan take Mikasa and get out of here now."
That would have been the rational option, to leave her there and head for the gate out of Shiganshina, he knew, Mikasa knew, Eren knew that was the sensible option, they could get out of this place safely, she was right.
"We're getting out of here together." Eren hollered "We aren't leaving you here!"
She shook her head, smiling gently as if she knew this would come.
"Eren you don't understand." She said calmly, tears starting to flow "My legs have been crushed by the debris." Eren gasped in horror "Even if you did manage to get me out, I couldn't run."
Eren snapped at her. "Then I'll carry you, I don't care how slow we'll be, we will make it out of here somehow!" Tears streaked down his face.
"You are coming with us, mom and that's final!" Ryan said, glaring at her with a cold determination that was almost…scary.
"Why can't you both just listen to me, just this once?"She cried, as tears went down her face. "Just do this one last thing!"
Just then Ryan thought back, to the countless arguments about wanting to join the military and fighting the titans, to the constant bickering and yelling, to the incessant words of caution. She was right; he and Eren were only ten years old, wanting to throw away their lives to see what lay outside these walls, he admitted, was somewhat irrational and he understood that his mother just didn't want to lose either one or both of them, it was why she'd asked Mikasa, their sister, to protect both him and Eren and stop them should their tendency for doing stupid things kick in. He understood fine. He knew Eren understood. That is why neither of them wanted this to be goodbye, which is why they needed to save her. They didn't want a squabble as a final memory.
That wasn't going to happen.
"You are coming with us!" Ryan screamed "Eren, Mikasa, put your backs into it!"
The footsteps of the titan were louder in Ryan's ears, and he could feel the ground shake beneath him. But fear no longer held him in its grasp. He kept right on trying to lift the beam off his mother; he could see that Mikasa and Eren were determined to do the same.
The sound of air being released went through the air; Ryan turned his head to look, Hanne, a member of the watch guard of the military, and a close friend of the Yeagers walked calmly toward them as if preparing to face an enemy. Hannes was a tall, well built man with very short blonde hair, a thin dark moustache, and golden hazel eyes. What was he doing out here? Ryan knew that the rest of his comrades were stationed at the outer gate so why was he here alone?
"Hanne" She said, she looked into his eyes and was slightly taken aback by the determination but she said "Don't you dare think about killing that thing, take the kids and get out of here!"
He closed his eyes and smiled reassuringly, "Don't take me so lightly Kalura" he said, and he opened his eyes and charged forward "I'll slaughter that thing and save every one of you."
Ryan kept his head low and tried harder to lift the beam off her, looking at her, with a reassuring smile. This was why he and his brother wanted to join the military to fight for the sake of humanity, to give them freedom in the future. True, Hanne was a drunkard but Ryan thought even guys like him had their moments of glory and this was going to be his. He was going to prove his worth as a soldier; he was going to show what it meant to bear that title.
Hanne, with a scared look on his face, tossed a blade to the ground and it glistened in the sunlight a few feet from where he was kneeling. Ryan looked up to see a shocked Eren trying to shake himself free from Hanne's shoulder and Mikasa under his arm. His legs, they were shaking wildly.
"P-Pick it up," he said, his breath was shaky.
Ryan did as he asked and watched as he rushed off in the direction, "Run boy,"
Ryan turned and looked at his mom's face.
"Don't start this," she said, tears welling in her eyes. "Ryan, please run, live. Protect your brother and sister. Please, this one last time, listen to me and run. You can't stay here, that thing will devour both of us. Please go."
He cried, tears streamed down his face, but with that he turned, with the blade in his hand. "I love you." He heard her say this before he rushed off to join them. He fought the urge to look back and kept his head low as he heard the rustling behind him.
Don't do it Ryan, Don't do it.
Tears flowed down his face as he sped to catch up with them. He could hear his brother screaming in the distance as he closed the gap.
"Stop! No! Put her down! Please!" his voice shot up octaves higher.
He knew what was happening behind him. He knew that was what she wanted. So he didn't look back, he forced himself not to look back, he kept right on, charging straight at them trying to maintain a safe distance. As the tears ran down his cheeks, he ran on and decided to move forward and not look back, because she was right, it was high-time he listened to her, high time he did what she wanted.
….
Eren was sure there was no way he could forgive that thing for taking away his home, and more importantly his mom. But now that they were on the ship heading for Trost in Wall Rose, one thing just didn't sit right with him. Why had his brother stopped him when he attacked Hanne?
He remembered it clearly, he remembered Hanne setting him down in front of the gate, and he remembered kicking him and yelling.
"You could have saved her." He said as he threw a punch that Hanne caught with ease. "So why didn't you?" He remembered the tears that were flowing from his eyes, the anger that coursed through his veins and the genuine intent in his mind to kill the fucking bastard. "So why didn't you?" Eren cried "Answer me!"
He clenched his fist and tried to punch him again, knowing of the futility of the situation but deciding not to care.
Just then he spoke.
"You know why Eren?" Ryan said as he came panting with a blade in his hand that was now blunt. "Because, mom didn't want to be saved."
"She did!" Eren yelled angrily. "She wanted…"
"Eren, I know you're angry, but think." Ryan said calmly "Should Mom have come with us, we'd all die, it was either her or all of us she didn't want that. Hanne was scared; you can't blame him for that. In the end he did what he had to…"
"Shut up!" Eren yelled, drawing in heavy breaths "You're talking as if she's not your mother as if you didn't know her."
Ryan suddenly had a shocked look on his face, as if he finally realized what was going on. But he spoke calmly, almost coldly.
"Eren, pay attention, you have no right to attack Hanne." He said."Mom gave him a simple task, and that was to save us. Killing that titan, it seemed brave but it was actually stupid. I ran here, dodging boulders and running in meander patterns trying to stay alive, just as Hanne did with you. If mom came along, there were going to be two outcomes, either she dies or we all die, and we would have to live with it anyway."
Eren sat down with his head between his legs and screamed, knowing that what his twin was saying made sense felt like he was throwing away his humanity. By understanding his words, he felt like he was becoming a monster by accepting reason.
"She didn't deserve to die!" He rasped, "She didn't deserve to die!"
Ryan went up to his brother and bent over, tears streamed down his face. "I know."
Now as they were on that boat and he cried, he looked out into the horizon as the city slowly drifted away. He was angry, enraged, furious. Those monsters had taken away his home and his mom. Dad, who'd left earlier today, would probably think they were dead. Today the Titans had made him lose so much and for that, for the tears that he had shed, for the tears that he saw flow down Ryan's face, for Mikasa bland expression of shock for his mother. These Titans were going to pay.
"I will kill the titans." He rasped coldly, with his teeth gritted and his eyes full of hate. "Every single fucking one."
…
So this chapter draws to a close, I decided to skip the entire introduction and bring it in later because I felt that Wall Maria was never that grand a place to deserve such a peaceful beginning. There will be a grand change of plot but it will still be the Shingeki no Kyojin you know. Review and tell me how you like the twin so far and the story. Feel free to be bashful and tell me how to improve.
Youkai Zeta.