Chapter 1
It was half past one in the morning, and Eren was having trouble sleeping, as usual. He was seeing figures in the shadows; they would crawl ever so slowly towards him on his bed, tilting their heads and grinning with delight. Eren continuously would have to scold himself to stop seeing these things, he knew they weren't real, and that they couldn't hurt him, but he was never able to control them. He didn't even understand why they occurred, he knew it started about when his mom died about 5 years ago.
He throws his blanket off himself, sits up, and sighs with irritation, "You have to stop this, this is ridiculous." They used to terrify him beyond belief, but now it's more like a jump scare that you don't see coming.
Eren rubs his temples with his index and middle fingers and sighs again. He did need to calm down if he planned on getting any sleep tonight. He knew he'd need it, Levi would probably work him extra hard for forgetting to clean the Captain's room today. Thinking on it, it wasn't really his fault, Hange pulled him aside and asked him for a favor. He did attempt to explain that he needed to finish his chores before anything else, but somehow he got sucked into assisting Hange in one of her experiments. She should know that Eren likes to get his chores done, if the chores were done properly, it meant Eren had a less likely chance of being beaten and scolded at.
Outside, Eren hears an explosion and twists his torso to face the direction of the sound. He sits there for a moment, mouth agape in curiosity. What happened?
Eren's thoughts are cut off by the echoing sound of running footsteps outside his door. Eren quickly gets out of bed and begins to throw on his clothes. While doing so his door flings open and Levi is standing in the door frame.
"Oi, what are you doing?"
Eren manages to pull the rest of his clothes on and stares dumbfounded at his Captain's question. "Er-well I-" "Get your gear on, now."
What happened?! What was that explosion? Eren nods eagerly, pushing all questions to the side for now and Levi leaves his doorframe. With only the hallway lights to illuminate some of the room, Eren fumbles with his Maneuver gear and it takes him a bit longer than it normally would to put it on.
Afteward, Eren races down the now empty hallways to the front doors and bursts through them. Looking around, everyone was awoken and lined up outside; all wearing their maneuver gear and looking ready to get what this was over with so they could go back to sleep.
"Eren, line up with the others" Levi calls out to the tall, tanned teen standing clueless at the front doors. Eren tenses up a bit and runs up to join the others.
"Did you guys hear that explosion?" Armin whispers to Jean, who grunts softly. "Yeah, who didn't? I'm pretty sure it woke everyone up." Jean scratches the back of his neck while shifting his weight onto his right leg.
"What do you think it was?" Armin inquires. Some people around the two of them begin inputting their thoughts and theories. Eren listens in on their conversation, immediately putting at least 90% of their ideas out of the question. Before everyone could get louder with their conversation, Erwin slams his foot against the ground, "Everyone, quiet!". Not a second after, everyone jumps back into a line and stands up straight, awaiting further instruction.
Erwin puts his hands behind his back, and begins to slowly pace back and forth. "I'm sure everyone isn't fully aware about what just happened. To put it lightly, titans have gotten inside the wall."
If anyone was showing absolute no interest, they were at that moment. Everyone's eyes widened, the stone cold silence making some sweat in nervousness.
"How did they get in?" Connie speaks up, trying to control the breaks in his voice. "We don't know yet, but it seems that only a few got in" Erwin promptly answers. Only a few? That didn't make too much sense to Eren.
Armin speaks up, having the same thoughts as Eren, "Um, Sir! What do you mean only a few? Wouldn't they come in by hordes?"
Erwin pauses for a moment, closing his eyes. "We do not know how they got in. There are no reports of the walls being broken down." Now the team is confused on top of tired. How did they get in if there were no reports of the wall breaking? Maybe it did break and no one has found it yet. But that wouldn't explain why only a few titans in inside. Erwin made it sound as if select few fell out of the sky and landed inside the wall…
The moonlight illuminates the ground ever so lightly, the wind blows some leaves up and past Eren's face, dancing in the light and then fading away into the darkness. The town looks serene in a cast of pale and navy blue. It looked like a monochrome painting, it was so beautiful and graceful looking. It was quiet, almost peaceful out this morning Eren thought in the back of his head…
Wait…
"Our orders are to take care of the titans before they cause any serious damage."
There's something wrong here…
"Since there is only a few of them, I've been told about 4, it shouldn't take us long; and with no signs of more appearing, this should be simple."
No, Something's not right…
Erwin gestures his hand to tell us to get going. Everyone in line agrees in unison, and all head off in different directions into town.
Eren can't stop thinking. He knew this wasn't right, he could feel it in his chest, but seeing one of the titans a few houses away, he pushes the thoughts into the back of his head.
The sounds of wire and cable accelerating forward occupy the silence in the early morning air. Eren swings himself up on top of a rooftop, and runs across the roofing before shooting more cables at another rooftop and swinging his bodyweight to the next landing. Everything passes by in an instant, Eren being focused on the sole target in front of him. Jumping from rooftop to rooftop to catch up to the titan, who was just wandering around aimlessly. Taking no notice to the titans actions, Eren pounces up off a nearby roof and raising his blades up over his head. In an instant flash, Eren had sliced open the back of the titan neck and landed on the adjacent rooftop.
Before taking another moment to think, Eren locks onto his next target no more than 50 meters away, coming toward him. He charges his way across the roofing and sees Ymir and Christa already taking down the titan Eren was charging after.
His eyebrows furrow as he stops running to quickly look around for another titan that he can slaughter. His hair brushes against his skin from the wind that seemed to be getting more and more heavier. Previous thoughts come up again and Eren stands on the rooftop, observing the situation around him. The town was still quiet, aside from the scraping of the blades against the titans necks, and the heavy thud that always follows.
There's something wrong, this isn't normal…
This thought continuously popped into his head, making him worry more and more about what was actually happening.
Suddenly, Eren is hit by something quite large and is launched forward and falls twenty feet down, meeting the cold hard rocks on the bottom, the object landing on top of him. It takes Eren a bit to register what happened, but rolls over, pushing the object off, and sees a body. A small skinny person with blonde hair and a bowl cut.
"Armin…"
Eren chokes on the air in his throat. Armin didn't look dead, there wasn't any visible wounds, he still had all his limbs, and he looked to be still breathing, but he wasn't moving.
"Armin!" Eren slightly yells, grasping the blondes shoulder. "Armin!" He begins to yell, forcefully turning Armin over. To Eren's relief, Armin groans and slowly picks himself up off the ground. Turning himself to face Eren, Armin smiles at the sight of his friend. He looked okay, Eren thought, maybe him landing on top of Eren helped prevent any injury.
"Hehe, sorry."
Eren smiles at the gigging blonde; he could just assume that Armin was thrown by a titan and just happen to hit him. Being tossed by a titan and hitting a team member happened more often than one might think.
"Glad I caught you though, you could have been really hurt." Eren jokes, standing up, and then lending a hand out to Armin. But, as usual, Armin didn't accept it, and stood on his own. He never did, and it didn't really bother Eren. It just showed him how strong Armin was, and although he enjoyed watching his friend stand on his own without the support of others, Eren was always wanting to be there for him. Just in case…
"The titans aren't responding to us." Armin finally says. Eren stares at Armin bewildered. "W-What do you mean!? They're just ignoring you?" Eren was baffled, just why were the titans ignoring them? In fact now that Eren thought about it, the one he killed didn't seem to care about him too much either.
"I don't know why, but it's making it easier to kill them, and that's a good thing!...right?" Armin stumbles on his own words, doubting himself of the good that's happening.
"Oi!"
Armin and Eren turn their attention to the direction of the voice that was atop the house next to them.
"You brats need to get your heads out of your asses" Levi exclaims, giving them his usual cold glare.
"Y-Yes Sir!" Armin stutters and giving Eren one last glance, runs off passed him. Eren however, using his gear, jumps atop the roof, joining Levi. "How many are left?" Eren asks.
"There's no more, now." Levi raising his blade, pointing to Mikasa slaughtering the last titan. Eren watches for a moment, and then turns his attention back to Levi. "So, does that mean we're done?"
"I suppose so"
With that, Levi begins to round everyone up and tell them to go back. Eren watches him leave, frozen in place. He was done, he could go back to bed now and worry about what he would have to do later, but something still didn't feel right to him. Out of the corner of his eye, Eren notices something; something moving. He turns his head to get a better look and is stunned to see the titan he watched Ymir and Christa kill …get back up…
Eren doesn't really understand how that was possible, but he knew he was going to kill it. Somehow…
His grip tightens around the handles of his blades as he jumps off the roof and swings towards the titan. Speeding at full velocity, Eren makes a final jump above the titan, raising his blades over his head again. Before Eren can finish the titan off, he's dragged down by his feet to the unfriendly ground and slams his torso and head into the gravel. Taking in a sharp breath, Eren jumps up to see Levi towering over him. "C-Captain!?"
"Eren, are you blind, or do you have a death wish?" Eren gets up, slightly confused by Levi's question. What did he do wrong now? Levi lifts up his blade and points it to abnormal titans crawling up and down the streets and roof tops. One in particular on the roof next to where Eren was, it looks at him tilting it's head and grinning. Oh. That's what he's talking about, Eren thought. Levi was saving him from becoming titan food for that abnormal titan on the roof…
"Um, thank you…" Eren manages to blurt out upon understanding. Levi gives his usual glare and turns his attention to the titan Eren was after, that is now a good 50 meters away now. "Let's just get this over with." Levi looks to Eren for agreement. When Eren nods happily, Levi darts forward chasing after the titan, with Eren following close behind.
Closing in on the titan, Levi swings his left arm out, "Eren! Take care of the titan on that roof! I'll take this one!" Eren agrees to the arrangement and swings himself up into the roof where another abnormal titan was perched up, it's back to Eren. Levi grapples onto the back of his titans neck and pulls himself up to slice it open. Eren is now in the air over his titan and about to come down with his blades when-
Eren's ears are filled with a loud, ominous, dull boom and is flung forward onto the titans neck. He falls down hitting the roof panels and begins to slide down them before he's hit by blast of a dark gas like wind, knocking the breath out of him. He hears the sound of metal clanging and looks over the roofing to see Levi sprawled on the ground, face up.
"Oi!" Eren immediately panics and jumps down to the ground. Before he gets to him, Levi has already sat up and is staring up with a surprised look on his face. Eren takes a step back; Levi never shows emotion, unless it was anger, especially out in the town. Eren pauses for a moment to stare at his Captains face before actually looking at what he was looking at.
Eren becomes frozen in place at the sight of it; this large sphere mixed with hues of dark purple and black is just…floating above them.
"The titan…" Levi mutters. Eren doesn't turn to him, but makes a noise in questioning.
"The titan…it disappeared when I attacked it…" Levi's voice slowly starts to become normal again as he stands up, still staring at the sphere floating above them.
Disappeared…? How was that even…
Eren didn't seem to question it much, there was a mysterious object floating in the sky, how much did he really expect to make sense at this point.
Like moths to the flame, the rest of the team slowly made their way over to the sphere in the sky. They all stared in awe and fear; no one has ever seen anything like this before. It just sat up there, making odd, water like movements around itself, sometimes the black and purple gas would act was water and drip from the bottom for the sphere, splashing and puddle up together below on the ground
The titan on the roofing Eren was unable to attack, soon turns around to look at the sphere. It flashes a grin and steps off the roof toward it, reaching his hand out. Everyone holds their breaths as it does this and ever so slightly, its finger tips touch the shell of the sphere. Instantly, the sphere sucks the titans hand in, and contracts, pulling the titan in more. It contracts until it's nothing but a small dot, the titans shoulder now immersed inside the small dot. The titan begins fighting back, but touches it with his other arm and that too is immediately sucked into the vortex
In a matter of minutes the dot had what looked to be, "eaten" the titan. A millisecond after, it explodes and sends everyone flying in different directions; the air is filled with ear piercing screeching and ringing. Eren and Levi are thrown and rolled several hundred meters away from the now dissipated sphere.
They roll to a stop, and groan in pain. Eren sits up and looks around; The buildings have been slightly destroyed from the blast, and he can only imagine where everyone landed…
He groans in pain from his newly found bruises and probably fractures and notices two bodies lying about 5 meters away from him and Levi. Taking a closer look, Eren stops and backs away quickly. What he saw wasn't real was it!? That couldn't have possibly, there's absolutely no way the bodies are who he thinks they are…
It was them.
Eren was staring at him a Levi…