Year 850, near the Forest of Giant Trees, aftermath of the 57th Expedition Beyond the Walls...
"Titans approaching! Three ten meters, a fifteen meter and a Variant!" Krista Lenz howled from the ramparts of the temporary Survey Corps base, her keen eyes glimpsing the rapid approach of what looked like ugly piles of skin with arms and legs and...mouths. Teeth. The Titans thundered toward the forest-flanked wall, led by the hideous deformity that was a Variant. It's long, scrawny legs and thick, twisted arms bent at disgusting angles, and its face was one even a mother couldn't love. If Titans had mothers, which, judging by the lack of reproductive organs, they did not.
"Ah! A Variant! If only we could capture it...!" Hanji. Krista glanced down from the wall at the Titan-crazy loon below, wide-eyed. The bespectacled witch had been picking her horse's hoof on the overgrown cobblestone street below when she'd heard the news and flung her pick to the winds in excitement. Krista hummed nervously. Killing a Titan was never easy, and a Variant even more so—but capturing one was impossible. Crazy. Just like Hanji. Krista sighed. The woman was literally drooling.
A quick hiss and the moan of grappling cable announced the arrival of Captain Levi to the wall top. Krista turned to him and pointed out at the approaching Titans. "They're coming fast, sir."
Levi stepped to the very edge of the wall and narrowed his bored eyes.
"Hmm...what's got them so riled up?" he muttered to himself, swiping a stray hair back to its appropriate place. Unlike his hair, however, the Titans wouldn't be so easily removed to their respectful spot. Especially with a Variant among them. The fifteen meter was no pushover either.
Another hiss and whine. Petra joined Levi at the wall's edge in a single long step. "Unusual for them to be clustered together like that, Captain," she said. "I don't like it."
"Mm." That was Levi's only response. His narrowed eyes never left the five Titans. A single hiss brought Oluo to a ready position right behind Krista, who was now slightly unnerved by the quickened pace of the Titans. Oluo swaggered over to Petra's side, grinning roguishly.
""I heard we have some fun headed our way. About time we tested that brat's inner freak in battle." He said, blowing his nose on his hand. Krista's eyes widened as they shot up to Levi's.
"Wait—we're going to let Eren...?"
"Are you getting lazy, Oluo? If you think you need Eren so much, why don't you go tell him so?" Levi interrupted, turning to drill Oluo with his intense stare. Oluo scowled in response.
Krista turned to watch the Titans again. They had rushed into a grove of giant trees less than fifty meters from the wall, only here and there appearing beneath the foliage.
"So are we going to capture the Variant for Hanji?" Petra asked. Levi barely nodded.
"Yes. Krista, get the new recruits. Oluo, Petra, follow me. Let's keep the Titans close." Without another word he leaped from the wall and triggered his ODM's gas, shooting off into the trees with Petra and Oluo close behind.
Eren wasn't shocked to hear about Titans outside the walls of the old Survey Corps fortress—skirmishes with the butt-ugly giants were almost an everyday occurrence now—but he was surprised when Krista told him and the other recruits about Hanji's shopping list. The list had only one item, but it was a complicated one: A Titan Variant—alive and in chains.
Eren had been dusting a hallway with Connie to appease Captain Levi's spotless tendencies when the news had reached them. Now, as the two rushed out of the keep's basement and into the inner courtyard, Mikasa and Armin joined them, donning their cloaks.
"Armin! Mikasa! You heard-?"
"They want all of us, Eren." Mikasa replied, running alongside him on the rough street.
"Do they have a plan for capturing the Variant?" Armin asked, panting.
"I—I don't know. Krista didn't say."
"I heard Levi and the rest of the Elite squad have already engaged the Titans!" Jean said, joining the group as they made it to the outer courtyard.
"What-?" Eren's question was interrupted by the hiss of grappling hooks as he and the others shot for the ramparts.
The minute his feet touched the wall top, Eren could hear the battle cries of the Elite squad in the forest below. For a moment, the symbol of the Wings of Freedom flashed above the foliage before the wearer disappeared beneath the thick branches again. In the next second, the head of a Titan peeked out of the forest, followed by the loud slicing of swords against the back of its neck. Blood soared for a moment before it fell to the earth along with the dead Titan who'd lost it.
Another kill for Captain Levi.
"Let's get down there!" Mikasa cried, and Eren leaped after her, followed by Armin, Connie, Jean and the rest of the newly arrived recruits. The minute he fired a grappling hook into the branch of one of the giant trees and soared forward, Krista flashed ahead ahead of him, cutting the approach of the recruits off with a wide swing.
The recruits followed her deeper into the forest as she yelled over the shrill wind. "Recruits! There are two ten meters, a fifteen meter and a Variant ahead! Our mission is to capture the Variant and bring it back to Hanji before more Titans arrive! Spread out and ready for combat!"
Eren drew his swords and triggered his thrust, shooting toward the glimpse of Titan legs ahead. Running Titan legs. The monsters were ignoring the Elite squad! A jerk of the hips brought Eren hurtling over a massive branch. He aimed for another one and fired off his left grappling hook at it. Suddenly one of the Titans plunged forward and rammed the branch, destroying it with only its body. It was the Variant!
Eren's grappling hook sunk into its arm and he was jerked at a neck-breaking speed toward it. Crying out, he tried to dislodge the hook with a quick burst of gas, but that only succeeded in drawing him closer to the Variant's wide-open mouth.
"Eren!" Mikasa shot down from a nearby branch, fired her hooks directly into the back of the Variant's head, and went straight for its neck, swords ready.
"Mikasa! No!" Eren screamed, flipping himself 360 degrees. He faced the sky and triggered his gas again, harder this time. Still his hook wouldn't break free! As his momentum halted, he found himself face-to-face with the Variant. Its wide grin infuriated him. Without warning, his old rage emerged, bringing with it the memory of his mother, struggling in the grip of the Titan who...
He struggled to control himself. He had to keep his head. Hanji wanted this Variant alive. He was a member of the Survey Corps. He'd fought with the Elite squad—been spared from lifelong imprisonment by Captain Levi himself. He couldn't let them down. If he was stuck to this thing, he might as well try and stall its progress.
"Hello there...," he finally said, the words sounding like something out of Hanji's mouth. He glared at the monster, but didn't have the time to say anything else. The Variant jerked its deformed arm back to keep up its momentum, and Eren was again yanked down. He tried to stay upright, but was twisted upside down until his hair skimmed the earth below. Then he was jerked up again.
As his world spun, he could barely make out the whirling form of Mikasa as she soared ahead of the Variant. Triggering her gas, she shot over the Titan while raking her blades across its head. Eren was flipped in midair and slammed into the Variant's chest as it jerked in a fleeting moment of pain
"Disconnect from it, Eren!" Armin's voice rattled in Eren's skull. His eyes dimmed as again he was plunged toward the earth. The Variant wasn't going to stop. Mikasa's attack had barely made it flinch—what could he do? Unless...he groped for what Armin had said and remembered just as his hair brushed the forest floor again.
He waited until the Variant's arm raised again and fumbled with his ODM gear. He had to disconnect, or he wouldn't be any use to anyone. He struggled with his hook connection, but it took only a second to realize it was locked in place. Jammed. And then...it wasn't. Another body struck Eren at top speed and his grappling hook broke free of the Variant's flesh. Connie.
In seconds, both of them were scrambling onto a high tree branch. Eren shook, unable to control his whirling vision.
"K'sa, Eren! You trying to get yourself killed?" Connie yelled, but Eren couldn't form words. The last thing he remembered was the sound of unfamiliar screaming.
"Captain Levi! Our scouts spotted more Titans coming this way, fast!" Oluo screamed over the boom of the falling corpse of the fifteen meter. Levi whirled in midair and shot one hook into a hanging branch above, landing just as Oluo did. "How many?"
"Dozens, from every direction!" Levi turned from watching Petra dispatch the last ten meter, noticing for the first time the horrific screaming coming from nearer the fortress. It wasn't quite human. It was just a little too loud. The Variant? Or another Titan? His eyes widened as he remembered the last time something like this had happened. The fight with the female Titan. Somewhere in this forest was a Titan-shifter—a human who could take the shape of humanity's greatest enemy.
Levi directed a hook at another branch about twenty meters ahead and fired it. "Get Petra. Follow me. We're going to find whoever is screaming and shut him up before he gets us all killed."
Mikasa shot past the Variant, slashing the tendons at its right heel apart. The running Titan stumbled and fell flat on its face, its weak point at the back of its neck fully exposed. Mikasa weaved over and under tree branches, gazing at her temporarily downed adversary. It would be up in seconds—the wound was already sealing—and seeing it exposed for a killing blow was so, so tempting. But Eren had been right. Seeing him dangling helplessly from the Variant's arm, Mikasa had almost lost her head.
She knew the entire reason they were risking their lives was to get that Variant home—but to her, Eren was home. No matter that he could handle himself—no matter the fact that he literally couldn't die even if he was eaten, Mikasa's instinct was to do whatever it took to make sure that didn't happen.
Eren had never talked about what it was like to be swallowed, how he had emerged from the inside of that Titan alive and more powerful than ever. Frankly, Mikasa was afraid to ask. It must have been more terrifying than she could imagine.
She swung onto a long, crooked branch, watching the downed Titan. Eren was safe now. Hopefully. At least he was out of the way. Now she could concentrate on the mission. She breathed, the Variant's blood dripping from her sword. This was what she was bred for.
Other recruits were perched similarly above the Variant, waiting for further command. In a spurt of gas propulsion, Armin shot straight across the clearing. In another movement, he was up beside Mikasa.
"We've got to hold it here until Captain Levi gets here," he said, eyes wide.
"He's not coming." Krista swept past. Mikasa hadn't even realized she'd been gone scouting. With a burst from her propulsion, Krista landed directly atop the Variant's head, bloody blades drawn at the back of its neck. She looked up at the assembled soldiers.
"The Elite squad is going to find the source of that screaming. While they are busy, we will protect this Variant until Hanji comes to take it home." The Titan wriggled underneath her and tried to crawl, but a quick slice to the inside of its right elbow ended any forward movement. Temporarily.
"Protect a Titan? From what?" It was Jean. Mikasa hadn't even realized he was a few branches above her. She could see his hard scowl even from where she was standing. His entire philosophy about Titans centered around killing them. Anything apart from that disgusted him.
Krista turned to look at Jean. "There are several more Titans headed this way fast. We think they're looking for the screamer. If Captain Levi is right, it could be another Titan-shifter like Eren. Where is he?" Mikasa glanced over at Connie, who was now slapping Eren on the face. Slowly her lifelong friend gained consciousness, and after a few hissed words from Connie, got to his feet and looked down at Krista.
"I'm here. There's another like the female Titan?"
"Yes. You have to join the Elite squad-now."
"Yes ma'am!" Eren shouted, dazed but determined as always. Mikasa shook her head. Once again, her attention would be halved between her situation and Eren's. What drove her crazy was how unaffected Eren was by it all.
The only reason Captain Levi would want him to join the Elites in a fight was for his 'Titan power' as they called it. How could Eren go on, himself one moment and a monster the next? How did he stay sane every time he had to jerk himself free of the Titan flesh he generated?
The hiss and whine of Eren shooting off toward the wall disrupted Mikasa's thoughts. She watched Eren disappear, her eyes following the distinctive Wings of Freedom on the back of his cloak—the symbol he had fought so hard to earn.
It was small compensation for the life of humanity's best hope.
They were too late. Captain Levi shot over a mammoth tree branch, staring down at the two ten meter Titans who were cannibalizing a downed fifteen meter in the midst of the clearing. The latter had only its arms, head and torso left—and that the ten meters were actively destroying. It was pounding the ground in apparent fury, evidently helpless to defend itself against the teeth of its kind. His. And the ten meters weren't his kind.
There was no doubt about it—this was a human in Titan form, screaming for help and inadvertently only calling more Titans to an unintended feast. The ten meters were already biting near the vulnerable fifteen meter's neck—and then all hopes for retrieving the human inside would be lost. Although Eren had somehow emerged from within a living Titan, no one really knew if that was an exception to the rule. Somehow, Levi wasn't convinced that Eren was totally invincible. Which only hardened his resolve to rescue this Titan-shifter.
More Titans were coming, and fast. Fifteen meters, ten meters, Variants, some in small groups of three, others alone, all intent on what Levi could only think of as their prey.
"Spread out! Keep them away from it!" The Captain ordered, shooting past one of the eating ten meters and in one motion killing it. Oluo took out the other one. Petra downed a third on the verge of the clearing, and Mike scored another nearby fifteen meter.
None of the Titans were paying them any attention, which made them vulnerable but also pressed Levi and his squad too hard for them to keep up. Soon, although more of the advanced Corps members joined the fight, the invading Titans were pressing in thickly around the flailing, half-eaten fifteen meter on the forest floor.
Within minutes, Levi himself was panting, sweating as he brought down Titan after Titan. Dozens of the grinning freaks corpses littered the forest floor, only to be trampled over by the mad dash of their own kind. For the first time, although his mind denied it, Levi wished Eren were here where his Titan power could be put to use.
"Captain Levi! I'm here!" Levi couldn't believe his luck. Above him, Eren was soaring into the clearing. Levi triggered his propulsion, landing on the nearest branch to Eren, who twisted and yanked his line to do the same.
"Eren. Can I trust you?" Levi said before Eren could ask. Eren shut his open mouth and set his jaw. Gritting his teeth, he jerked his tightened fist to his heart. "Yes sir!" Levi narrowed his eyes at his charge. "And can you control it?" Eren squeezed his eyes shut, sweat spilling down his strained face before he opened them, fiery and determined. "Yes!" he cried, unwavering in his salute. Levi nodded at the half-eaten fifteen meter below.
"Protect this one. I want him out alive." Eren nodded so hard Levi thought his head might pop off. Tension reaching a new high, Levi let his instinct take over. He tightened his fist. "Do it."
Eren turned, leaped off the tree branch, and in a blinding flash of something like lightning, was gone.
The thundering roar of Eren's transformation shook the new recruits, who were already tensed beyond what they thought they could handle.
"God, what's happening back there?" Connie mumbled to himself. Jean tensed his muscles, straining for calm in his situation. "I hate this. We can't stand here doing nothing while Eren and the others-" he clutched his sweating skull. "But if they shut that Titan-shifter up...if Eren can control himself..."
Armin listened to Jean, having come to the same conclusion minutes earlier. If the Titan-shifter stopped calling other Titans, the small army that were gathering would turn their focus on the Survey Corps again, and they could all die in this forest.
Armin wasn't sure if he should cheer for Eren, or hope he wouldn't succeed. Staring down at the Variant below, he was beginning to worry. Mikasa, Jean and Reiner had all taken turns handicapping the Titan, only for it to heal and start moving again in seconds. They couldn't keep it down forever. Even as he thought about it, the giant twisted onto its back and began wriggling away on its freakishly angled elbows.
"It's moving again!" Connie yelled, stating the obvious as was his wont. Armin watched the Variant, eyes widening. Until now, they'd been lucky. With the Titan facing down, all its weak points had been exposed. But now, its invulnerable front was facing the new recruits, its grinning mouth glistening with massive teeth that would bite them in two if they got too close.
Armin gritted his teeth, quaking, and gripped his swords tightly. He knew what he had to do, but he could only hope that he would be strong enough and quick enough. Without another thought, he leaped from his tree branch.
"Armin-!" Mikasa's voice followed him, but he couldn't stop now. Wind screamed all around him, freezing the sweat on his face as he hurtled toward the scrambling Variant. Armin had been in battle with the Titans before—in fact, if it weren't for Eren, he would have been in one's stomach—but he'd always lacked offensive capability, unlike Mikasa. Yet for some reason he couldn't explain, he had to handle this one on his own this time. Whether it was because he really had to or because he was afraid of being useless, he couldn't say.
The Variant's eyes met his. His momentum was carrying him straight for its mouth. Screaming at the last moment, Armin jerked his swords forward, loosing the blades from their handles in the same motion. The super-sharp weapons sliced the air for one shrill moment before lodging deeply in the Titan's eyes.
The Variant stopped instantly, opening its mouth wide for a deafening roar. Its breath broke on Armin like scalding water. He writhed in midair, aiming away from the Titan, and triggered his propulsion. Only the hiss of gas didn't come. With a cry, Armin fell directly into the Variant's open mouth, splitting his back on one of its teeth before lodging on its reeking tongue. He moved to stop his descent into its throat with his blades, only to realize he'd lost them both in the Variant's eyes already.
Choking on his own screams, he barely managed to make his brain function. Pure terror guided his every movement in a slow blur as he fell further into the Titan's mouth. He fired both grappling hooks in a last desperate attempt to escape, watching both sail agonizingly slow through the gap between the Variant's teeth and out into the now-blinding sunlight. Only one hook lodged itself in what Armin hoped was a tree. In the next second, he was jerked forward and rammed face first into the back of the Variant's teeth-pressed up against the rancid human-killing weapons,
Armin writhed, gibbering uncontrollably. How had this simple plan gone so wrong so quickly? The Titan opened its mouth slightly to scream again. Powerful hot breath and the yank of the hook propelled Armin just over the Variant's bottom row of teeth...and then, without warning, its top row closed on him.