Chapter 1: Fading

"Eren?"

"Hm?"

Opening his eyes, Eren was greeted by the sight of a girl with stormy grey eyes. He blinked twice, turning his gaze from the girl to his surroundings. Above him was the beautiful emerald green of leaves in light. They rustled as a breeze passed them by, and brushed through his hair with a refreshing coolness. For a moment, he wondered why he was so shocked at the beauty of the grassy hills around him and the pure cerulean of the sky. Clouds were carried towards the west, where the sun preparing to set behind the walls.

Memories threw themselves at him, startling him before he began to come out of his reverie. It was as if, in his dream, he was an entirely different person.

"Wake up," the girl told him gently, her hand resting on his shoulder. She shook him slightly. "We have to go back home now. It'll be dark soon."

Rolling his gaze back to the girl, he examined her face with glossy eyes. She was pretty, with big beautiful eyes that slanted slightly. Her skin was a light peach color, fair and soft-looking in complexion. Her rosy lips were pursed in concern, her eyebrows knitted together as she watched him. She hid her chin and neck behind a maroon scarf, and wore a light pink sweater over a white dress despite the warmth of the day.

Her name came to him then, bringing with it the feeling of care and companionship.

"Mikasa…" the boy spoke then, his eyes clear now. "Your hair is longer, isn't it?"

She stared at him for a moment before turning away, shifting the pile of sticks tied to her back to a more comfortable position. She looked up at the sky, the sunlight making the strands in her eyes flash orange. "You must have been sleeping very tightly," she replied softly, her voice devoid of emotion, "To spout that sort of nonsense upon waking up."

Eren watched her for a moment before wiping the drool of sleep from his mouth. He rolled up from his laying position, glancing to his side and threading his arms through the straps holding his own pile of sticks. With a yawn, he told her, "It's like I just had a really long dream, yknow… But I can't remember what it was about."

The girl glanced at him, and her eyes widened with alarm. "Eren? What's wrong?"

He gave her a confused look.

"Why are you crying?" she asked, turning to him.

"Huh?"

He reached up and touched his cheek, shocked to see the tears on his fingers upon inspection. Too stunned to move, he watched the tear make its way down his index finger and to his palm. "I…" he tried to answer, "I don't know."

Mikasa frowned, and used her pink sleeve to brush the tears from his face. He wiped his fingers off on his red linen sweater.

"It must've been the dream," she reasoned, turning to the direction of home and walking away.

"Yeah…" he replied, following her mechanically as he thought to himself.

What was that dream?


Life in Wall Maria was peaceful. It wasn't glamorous, but Eren would call no other place home. Most of the families here were poor (most outer-wall families were poor), and consisted mainly of farmers, hunters and fishermen. Eren's family lived in the Shiganshina district, just off of the southern-most part of Wall Maria. They lived better than most, his father being a respected doctor that had saved the lives of many people on more than one occasion. Carla, his mother, would stay home and take care of the family, cooking and cleaning. Mikasa would usually be there to help her, but the sticks they'd gathered not too long ago had already been all used up.

The two kids approached the Wall, entering a small crowd that passed freely between the two sides. The piles of sticks on their backs were uncomfortable, and Eren felt sharp edges poke into his back. He shifted the pile in attempts to take away the sensation, only to make it worse.

Sniffing, Eren caught the eyes of Mikasa with a glare. "Not a word to anyone. No one needs to know I've been crying…"

The girl's lips upturned slightly. "I won't."

"Still, though," she thought out loud a few steps later, "Maybe you ought to ask your dad to have a look?"

Eren flushed, and quickly said, "Like hell I'd tell him about that."

"Tell him what?" the loud exclamation of Hannes caused Eren to jump, and the boy nearly tripped over his own feet. "Why've you been crying, huh?"

The tall, blond haired man crouched to Eren's level, his golden eyes narrowed with amusement. He grinned as he questioned the boy, "Did Mikasa get mad at you or something?"

"W-why would I get mad about something like that?!" Eren shot back, his nose scrunching at the sharp scent of alcohol. He covered his nose and lips with his hand. "Have you been drinking again? You reek of booze!"

Out of the corner of his eye he saw Mikasa looking off somewhere, eyes narrowed. He followed her gaze to see three other soldiers huddle around a short table with large mugs, chatting and laughing heartily. His eyes widened as his teeth grinded, and a pang of anger made him clench his fists as he lowered his arm.

"You're still at it," he stated, his voice low with irritation.

Hannes smiled. "Want to join us?"

Eren threw a sharp glance towards the drunken so-called soldier. "What about work?"

As if sensing the boy's anger, Hannes straightened and rested his hands on his hips. He looked down into the boy's blazing forest green eyes before explaining to him, "We're manning the gates today, so we have to stay here all day long. It doesn't take long for us to get hungry or thirsty. Alcohol just happens to be one of the things we drink sometimes, that's nothing to worry about."

"And when the situation calls for it, how are you going to fight?" the boy snapped, glaring at Hannes and the other soldier.

The clueless look on the soldiers' faces pushed the boy over the edge.

"I can't believe this," the boy yelled, throwing his arm up to point to the wall on the other side of Shiganshina. "When the Titans break in! What are you going to do about them?!"

A sharp crackle of burning agony made Eren cut his argument, and he clutched his head.

Stop the Ragnarok Project.

A letter written long ago, tattered upon rediscovery.

"Hey, don't shout like that," Hannes muttered, gripping his head as well. His voice broke through to Eren's consciousness, and the boy blinked as the pain faded to a dull throb. He remembered his anger, and opened his mouth to say something when one of the soldiers caught his eye.

The soldier met Eren's blazing eyes with amusement flickering in his own. He had a stupid grin on his face when he told the boy, "Wholesome as ever, eh, doctor's son?!"

Eren opened his mouth to speak again, but the same man continued on before he could, "Look, if they ever do happen to break through the wall, we'll deal with it. But, you see, that hasn't happened once since the walls were built."

"It will happen," he seethed, remembering the words of his father. "We can't let our guards down. My father told me so!"

That seemed to reason with Hannes. The man threw a contemplative look up at the wall.

"You're probably right about that," Hannes drawled as he picked his words carefully. "I don't claim to know any more than the doctor about that, but… Well, becoming a soldier, you might be able to see some of them walking around outside as you're reinforcing the wall."

The man glanced down at the boy as he added matter-of-factly, "This wall is fifty meters high, and there isn't a titan out there that could possibly bring it down, I think."

"So you won't be ready when it happens."

"Nope!"

That cheery denial grated on the boy's nerves and he snapped, "Stop calling yourselves the Stationary Troops and start going by the Wall-Building Squad instead!"

Eren's words didn't have the desired effect, as Hannes and the other soldiers merely laughed at him. "Sounds good!" Hannes chuckled, a big toothy smile stretching across his face. After a moment, something in the man's face changed and he lowered his voice. "But, Eren, an inactive army is a sign of happy times, you know?"

The boy gave him an inquisitive glare.

"An active army is a sign that things have gone wrong, but if we're derided as lazy freeloaders, life is peaceful for everyone," the man explained to the boy gently.

"Yup!" one of the soldiers at the table piped up, "I just don't get those people in the Scouting Legion, going outside the wall and all… It's like they get a thrill out of war."

Eren's brow furrowed. He took a breath as he thought, and looked up into Hannes' eyes evenly as he countered, "So as long as we live inside the walls, have food, rest and everything else needed to stay alive… As long as we can't leave these walls, we're living like cattle ripe for slaughter."

The boy didn't bother listening to the arguments that would surely ensue from such a comment, and he started down the road once more with Mikasa following close by his side. The two walked together in silence, Eren glaring down at the ground. How could they disrespect the Scouting Legion like that? His jaw clenched. "What gives them the right?"

Mikasa glanced at him from the corner of her eyes. When he didn't explain, she called to him, "Eren?"

He acknowledged her with a fierce look.

"You should give up on joining the Scouting Legion."

He couldn't believe it. "What?! You're going to mock them too?"

"No," she responded, her voice feather soft. "It's got nothing to do with mocking them, I just-"

Dong! The sharp, ringing noise of a bell resounded throughout Shiganshina. It was a powerful sound, and the two felt it reverberate in their bones.

For Eren, however, it brought him out of his bitterness and into a world of excitement. Earlier that day, the Scouts had left – this was the signal that they'd returned! The heroes had returned triumphant.

"They're back!" the boy cried, and grabbed Mikasa's wrist as he bolted towards the gates. "Come on!"


They arrived only to find it crowded along the streets, and Eren had to climb up on top of boxes stacked against a house in order to see over the heads of the other people. Mikasa crawled up beside him, her eyes staring towards the soldiers with curiosity rather than wonder.

It wasn't long before Eren's huge smile dropped, and his mouth was agape as he met the eyes of a blond-haired soldier with a face shadowed with remorse. The soldier tore his gaze away from him quickly.

At that moment, a stabbing pain in Eren's head made him wince.

Huge chunks of debris flying across the city, destroying buildings upon landing.

A woman screaming to the heavens as she holds the lifeless hand of a child, crushed beneath a stone.

Screaming cut off by a snap. Silence. Crunch, crunch, crunch…

Watching him quietly, Mikasa rested a hand on the boy's cheek. His eyes had glazed over with pain, and he was staring off into a place she could not see. She recognized this look from earlier, though it had not lasted for more than a second. Mikasa found that her hand was on his cheek of its own volition, her hand cool against the heat emanating from his skin.

"Eren?" she whispered his name, leaning close to get a better look of his face.

He started at the sound of his name, and blinked his eyes back into focus and shook his head.

"Sorry," he apologized, sounding very confused. "I have a head ache."

She nodded, and withdrew her hand a moment later.

"Excuse me!"

The shout of a woman tugged on Eren's attention, and he watched as a middle-aged woman pushed her way past the crowd and to the soldier leading his comrades through the street. She dropped to her knees in front of him, grabbing a hold of his hands and asking him, "Brown? Where is my son, Brown?"

The soldier turned to one of the others and said something quietly to a light-haired soldier. The light haired soldier nodded, his face twisted with sadness as he walked to one of the carts and returned to the woman and the leading soldier with a bloody package, wrapped in fabric. Denial and anger flashed in her eyes, and she quickly moved to unwrap it. But, upon seeing what was given to her, she pulled the cloth back over. There was silence among the crowd as the woman sobbed, her chest heaving as she took in shallow breaths to scream.

Eren's heart twisted. The dismembered arm of a son returned to the mother left behind.

What happened next was enough to break the spirits of everyone around them. The mother looked up towards the soldier, her eyes wide with panic and pain as she begged the soldier in front of her to tell her that her son had contributed to humanity's cause. The soldier had wanted to tell her he had, and had begun to do so until his own emotions twisted his words, and he cried out, "No! We didn't make any progress at all! It was all for naught…"

He continued, but Eren's ears could no longer hear him.

"Tch," a man in front of him grunted. "This is horrible. To think, our taxes are being wasted on these guys…"

"So true," someone else added.

"As it our taxes only serve to fatten them up by sending our men out to feed the-"

The man was cut off by a sharp strike to the back of the head. Eren clenched the stick in his hand, his eyes wild with fury as the man turned to him.

Grabbing Eren by the collar of his shirt, Mikasa quickly sprinted off and down an alley way in an effort to get away from the man that would shout after them angrily. She dragged him off until he yelled at her to stop, to which she responded by throwing him into the building across from them, earning a surprised yelp and effectively scattering his pile of sticks among the ground.

"What the hell, Mikasa?" Eren yelled, more shocked than angry. "The wood's all over the place!"

She looked at him from under her lashes, her eyes emotionless but he could feel the concern in her as she asked him, "You're still considering joining the Scouting Legion, aren't you?"

The hand of a lover outstretched to a man as he is taken away.

"Please! Come back!"

Eren blinked as he stood, and met the girl's grey gaze with a determined one of his own. Her face went soft with worry then, her emotionless façade dissolving and she opened her mouth to say something.

"Hey," Eren spoke before she could and crouched to pick up the sticks. "Help me with this."

He gripped his aching head as they went about gathering the lost sticks, the splitting agony beginning to melt away. He closed his eyes and willed himself to see what he had seen only seconds before, but the images had gone along with the images from his dream and greeting the Legion as they returned. He rubbed his temples, coaxing the pain to leave.

What was this?