-Chapter One-

~2 Years Later~

Kieth Shadis and his young trainee stood in front of the large group of newly arrived students. This was the 105th trainee group, complete with 50 to 100 students. Kieth was starting to get physically old, and so after the 104th trainee group graduated, he took on an apprentice, whom will later take his place. The young man's name was Gerrit Abano. He looked strong and unforgiving, his mean look almost covered by his dirty blonde hair and blue eyes. Gerrit stepped up to one of the trainees, making them flinch.

"You!" His yell softer, as if he had some kind of medical condition. "Name, residence according to wall. Now."

The trainee formed a fist with their hand and stood up tall, placing their fist on their chest. They saluted.

"Lily Zwingli!" The trainee replied, her voice soft yet loud. "I come from inside wall Sina!"

Gerrit paused, scanning the trainee. A girl no younger then 14. She was small, thin, and probably then continued on.

"What is a tiny little think like you doing in a place like this!?"

"I don't want to sit around and clean houses all day." Lily said, a bit more calmly this time.

"Well let's just see what you're better at doing in the end." Gerrit growled. "Because you're a natural born pro at being Titan food! Next row!"

Gerrit stepped passed Lily and walked over to the second row, Kieth following behind him. Lily's Row turned to face the next row, and the first day continued like it always does. Gerrit walked up to his next victim, whom was another girl, only taller and looked mean. She had white-blonde-silver-whatever hair that went a bit passed her shoulders.

"Name, wall."

"Natalia Arlovskaya. Moved inside Wall Sina after Wall Maria fell." Her voice was stern and had a hint of annoyance.

"And what is a child like you doing in a place that'll cut your head off clean?!" Gerrit Hissed.

"My brother and sister died in Wall Maria, and I can't stand the snobby attitudes of those Sina assholes." Natalia hissed back, her eyes narrowing.

Gerrit paused, kind of surprised. "You know what? I like you. Lets keep that up. NEXT!"

Gerrit went on.

"NAME! WALL!"

"F-Francis Bonnefoy! Wall Rose!"

"Why are you here!?"

"I don't know!"

"WELL YOU BETTER KNOW BY THE END OF THIS SHIT!"

The rows kept turning, and many trainees were yelled at and insulted. Feliciano, who was in the back row, tried to pick them all out. He knew Francis, because that was his cousin. He knew that Ludwig had a friend who was Lily's brother, but all the other names were new. Im Yong Soo, Elizabeta Hedervary, Alfred F. Jones, and someone named Peter Kirkland, who looked 10 years old. He passed Ludwig, Antonio, and even Sebastian. Then, Gerrit finally got to his row. Gerrit approached the trainee standing next to him. His brother.

"NAME AND WALL!"

"Lovino Romano Vargas! Hiltrude, Wall Rose!"

Feliciano flinched. He didn't ask for their home town! Hiltrude was the place they lived, until the Titans claimed it 2 years ago. It was the first of the bait towns to be attacked by the Titans that had breached Wall Maria. Gerrit paused at that answered, angry for the unneeded information.

"So you are one of the lucky rats who lived through the attack, huh?" Gerrit spat. "One of those who will come back and say 'They killed my mother and father and i'll kill them all for that!'. Or maybe those in Wall Rose thought you were a useless piece of shit and decided to make you believe this was a good idea just to get rid of ya."

Romano flinched as spit came from Gerrit's mouth. He also held back his horrible anger issues, knowing he probably shouldn't yell at his trainers. Not on the first day, at least. His hand formed a fist, but nothing more.

"So don't tell me that your reason for being here is to kill them all. The last kid who came there saying that, you probably don't want to end up like him."

"..." Romano said nothing, staring into the eyes of his trainer.

"So answer me this...Why are you here?"

There was a long silence.

"For two reasons." He answered.

"Two, huh?" Gerrit pretended to care.

"Because it was that bastard Antonio's stupid idea, and I don't want my brother to get hurt."

Feliciano knew that was a lie. Well, he knew all his friends didn't want him to get hurt, but Romano's real reason was because he didn't want to stay in wall Sina, where they would have been sent. Like Natalia, he hated those people.

"Aw, well isn't that motherfucking sweet, huh?" Gerrit growled, turning to look at Feliciano.

"Is this your brother. Because he looks a lot damn like you."

"Si."

Gerrit turned to Feliciano.

"So what about you, huh? Whats your name?"

Feliciano didn't like feeling threatened, and that's what he felt. He felt scared and threatened. But either way, the weaker brother answered.

"F-Feliciano V-V-Vargas."

"Really? No strange middle name like mister Lovino Romano over here?" Gerrit asked.

"S-Some people," Feliciano gulped. "Some people will call me Veneziano."

"Really, well you know what i'll call you?"

Feliciano asked what.

"I'LL CALL YOU A FAILURE BECAUSE THAT IS WHAT YOU FUCKING LOOK LIKE!"

Feliciano jumped behind his brother, freaked out by the yelling. He felt tears coming to his eyes. You know, failure wasn't to far from the truth. Feliciano did nothing by cry all the time and his whole life really was controlled by his friends. He was more or less a toy, a doll to play with. He noticed his brother stiffen as Gerrit and Kieth chuckle.

"He'll be the first to leave." Gerrit told Kieth as the two walked away.

"Fratello..." Romano turned to Feliciano.

"Si?"

"Get back in line..."

Feliciano felt lonely now that his brother was telling him to stop cowering behind him and stand back in place. He knew he should, but...but for some reason that made Feliciano feel sad...and worthless.

"Please."

Feliciano did as told, but that place lifted his spirits just a bit. His friends were doing all they could for him. And he should be happy for that.

-...-

At dinner, the group sat quiet. Ludwig, Antonio, Sebastian, Romano, and Feliciano all sat, eating in silence. That whole day had been fool of yelling, and Gerrit kept his word about calling Feliciano "Failure". Failure had been his new nickname. Feliciano wanted to go home, but where was home now? It was this horrible place. Hiltrude, mother, and father were gone. Thank god that Romano and Sebastian were still alive.

"Um, Bonjour?"

Feliciano looked up to see cousin Francis. Feliciano smiled, making room for the older teen to sit down. Francis sat down, placing his soup and bread on the table in front of his.

"Ciao, Francis. How are you?" Feliciano asked.

"I'm alright. Surprised to see you here. You and your brothers." Francis said. "The last time I saw you guys was when you were all 3 year olds. I was 6 at the time. But then mother moved and I never saw you again."

"I believe I was 1 year old." Sebastian, who sat across from the two, said.

"Oui! And the cutest little baby I ever saw!" Francis smiled.

"Shut up, bastard." Romano hissed, taking a bite of the bread.

"Well, anyway, i'm sorry about what happened to Hiltrude. I had no idea. Not till today." Francis sighed.

"Why are you here anyway?" Ludwig asked, sitting on the other side of Feliciano.

"Well..." Francis started. "It started as a joke with my friends back home. We've never seen a Titan, so we laughed and joked about them like no tomorrow. One day, one of them said they were going to join the Survey Corps and kill the Titans. We thought he was joking, but we late found he actually left for training. The 104th trainee group had already started, and we didn't have the guts to follow him behind."

"..."

"A year or so later, we went to his house to help his mother with a few things. We saw her crying and screaming, and it turned out she had just found on her son was dead. A Titan killed him. We felt like it was kind of our fault for not going with him and for also making those jokes so long ago."

Then Francis took a deep breath. "So Me, my friend Alfred, his younger brother, and our friend's younger brother, decided to join the 105th trainee group. We didn't want that idiot to be alone in all this."

"..."

"What...what was his name?" Antonio asked.

"His name was Arthur Kirkland."

"Why aren't you sitting with them?" Romano asked with a glare.

"Because I wanted to say hi to my cousins." Francis smiled.

"Well it looks like tomorrow we learn how to use the special awesome gear." Sebastian changed the subject.

"The 3D Maneuver Gear." Ludwig corrected.

"That'll be fun." Romano rolled his eyes.

"It looks easy." Antonio said.

Suddenly there was a loud crack and everyone turned their heads to find out where it came from.

"OW OW OW PLEASE OW STOP GAH STOP GEEZE LADY STOP! OOWWW!"

Alfred must have said something, for he was being kicked and twisted by Natalia. Matthew and Elizabeta sat at the same table, watching Alfred scream for the girl to let go of him.

"Looks like I have to go." Francis said to the group he was with, and then left to go save Alfred.

"Well." Ludwig sighed, turning back to his food.

Suddenly Romano reached across the table and stole the food that Francis had left, taking it and starting to eat what was left.

"Hey! That's not your's!" Antonio hissed.

"Now it is, motherfucker!" Romano said in between the food in his mouth.

"If he gets some of Francis' food, I want some too!" Sebastian laughed.

"Me three!" Feliciano joined in.

"Mine!"

-...-