(Nate Orne)
It seemed like we had been living outside of Wall Rose for so long that the days passed by countlessly; we had took refuge in the Forest of Giant Trees south of Trost District. Weirdly, however, we haven't seen or encountered any Titans for the past four days, and on the same day, all of the Titan-Shifters in my squad, including myself, experienced an excruciatingly painful burning sensation throughout our whole body followed by black smoke emitting from the palms of our hands and faces, after that I'd look back and forth all day, especially because I could no longer trust any of my fellow comrades, except for childhood friend Norbert Ven; it all started when we found out Jade's brother, Oscar Calle, a Titan-Shifter that controlled a 13 meter Titan called the Razor-Blade Titan that has razors built into its skeleton and uses them like blades, was trying to kill me along with her, the person who came back to watch over us when we were kids was now the same person who had us fleeing for our lives, but even more threatening than him, at the moment, was when we found out that members of my squad, Swift Fire and Anthony White, had been working for him, way before we had even met them when we all joined the 103rd Trainee Corps, and now I couldn't trust anyone, not even what was left of my blood relatives, which was my two remaining cousins who, fought along-side me, both Titan-Shifters, and now I've learned that Vivian Sevi was once favoring to kill all of humanity with Oscar by breaking the 3 walls and letting the Titans in, which was why she joined the Garrison and injected Gino to ensure that he wouldn't be killed by Titans. I couldn't even trust the love of my life, Jade, because she had cheated on me with Ethan Gill. Now it was nightfall and everybody was asleep, except for me, the Captain of this dysfunctional squad… the squad of misfits.
We had fled from the walls about a year ago, after the central government's publication of Annie Leonhart, the infamous Female Titan, had been successfully captured by Eren Jaeger and members of the Survey Corps in Stohess District; we were hit by the realization that they were many more of us in the walls, and the central government didn't want us in them and they were willing to do whatever it needed to ensure that we wouldn't be a threat to humanity, or them… we then devised a plan to leave the safety of the walls... first it was just going to be me, Jade, Gino, and Swift, but then it became my whole squad; Ethan Gill, Herman Esqui, Cua, and my best friend Norbert Ven that joined us… as we made our escape from the walls at night we were followed by two soldiers of the Survey Corps… Vivian, and Oscar's spy Anthony White who were told to capture me, Jade, and any other Titan-Shifters… according to Vivian, Oscar wanted me dead years ago, especially the day he found out my father was a Titan-Shifter, secretly on humanity's side, so he was permitted to kill him, which is unknown whether he did or didn't, and now he wanted to kill Vivian for sparing me and holding his prodigy, Anthony, captive, but little did he know I wanted him dead just as much, along with what was left of his tribe of Titan-Shifters and their leader, the Ballistic Titan, a 30 meter Titan that has absolute strength and speed, and can control Titans and talk; who it was controlled by was unknown.
I am the Camo Titan, Nate Orne, a 15 meter Titan that can cloak itself and its scent, and also has the ability to talk; my fellow Titan-Shifters are the following: the Female-Warrior Titan, Swift Fire, the strongest 15 meter Titan I have ever seen because it can release adrenaline to power itself, but it gives of a noticeable odor that attracts other Titans; the Strategic Titan, Jade Calle, who has the ability to easily analyze situations and seems to be in a faster world; the Absorbing Titan, Vivian Sevi, a 15 meter Titan that can absorb other Titans into it, causing them to be immediately vaporized inside of it, however, it cannot do this to Titan-Shifters, it can only fight it using its strength; the Scouting Titan, Gino Sevi, a 8 meter Titan that is more agile and faster than all Titans, but its size is its flaw, unable to fight bigger Titans; and the Idiotic Brute Titan, Anthony White, a 15 meter Titan that grows as it gets angrier, but loses its control and attacks everything, max height 20 meters. These were the people I feared the most, except for Jade and Gino; they were the people who had betrayed me before, and who was to say they wouldn't again. I then heard the sounds of gas and hooks about 100 meters to my right… it must be Casey Teni, our inside soldier from the Survey Corps. She'd tell us, in her weekly visits, everything that was going on inside the walls, after transferring from the Military Police to the Survey Corps, but she was a day late, which was unlike her, then sudden clanging sounds and screams shot through the forest from 20 meters to my right… her hook didn't attach to the tree… I immediately jumped into action and shot my hooks in Casey's direction… about 5 meters from the ground I caught her and swung to the nearest branch… I then looked at what was a girl with beautiful red-gold hair, pale white skin, and stunning moonlight blue eyes… but it wasn't Swift… it was somebody else. somebody that wasn't in my group and found us, had been looking for us, and I had to kill them, or at least capture them, either way, I would do whatever I had to protect my squad of traitors and misfits.
We swung to different branches and drew our blades; it was still dark and she was too far for me to tell her facial expression, but I could guess it was that of a warrior's face… we launched at each other knocking the blades out of our hands and landed on branches opposite to the other… she dropped her remaining blades and swung to the floor… I mimicked her as we stood opposite of each other, dropping our 3-D Maneuver Gears… she wanted to fight face-to-face… little did she know I was the top hand-to-hand combatant in my group, even now more than the unstoppable warrior Swift was… she was no match… we ran at each other, she swung and I slid under her fist, grabbing it and flipping her… but she landed on her feet… it felt like fighting Swift, a much younger Swift… as I jumped to my feet she was there, a meter away from me… I took her punch to the face and flew 11 meters into a tree… she jumped landing in front of me, lifted me up and shot another punch to my face … I caught the hit and shot my knee up to her elbow, breaking it and immediately landed a punch to her face escaping her grasp then kicked her off… if she was like Swift, it would heal quickly… she howled in pain, but still launched her body at me; a black aura emerged around her body and consumed her blue eyes, turning them into pure darkness… she landed on me ready to strike as she looked down with her emotionless stare... until somebody familiar yelled, "Verity stop! He's human! He has a Survey Corps' uniform!" she turned and I kicked her off me, and assumed my combat position; she had broken my ribs and and fractured my left cheekbone, I had fractured the base of my knuckles after punching her those few times… she was strong, beyond human limitations, and already her arm was smoking, healing itself… just like Swift or any other Titan-Shifter… from above, two figures swung down from the trees, and one stood next to her and hugged her… it was none other than Eren Jaeger, and the other was Captain Levi Rivai.
Verity was fighting for her life, against this older kid, and she couldn't help but think that it felt good fighting after four days of almost no action. He was a brilliant fighter, but he didn't have the special skills she still had, even after everything that had happened. The two fighters broke apart as Verity's boyfriend, the legendary Eren Jaeger, swung down with Levi, and instantly, he hugged her, as if to protect her from harm. Trembling from power and rage at being attacked in this way, Verity looked out from behind the orange jacket of Eren at the soldier and decided he seemed safe. The wounds that she had inflicted on him seemed not to bother him which began to disturb her, because on any other person she fought, it would have caused them no small amount of grief and pain. Verity pushed away from Eren, leaping forward at the guy again, determined to wipe the smug grin off his face, when Levi pulled her back. Verity turned at him with black eyes, snarling, and he flipped her onto her back in one fluid motion and placed his foot on her chest. "We don't attack anyone unless absolutely necessary. Remember the talk we had after you tried to kill me?" Verity nods slowly and blinks, allowing her eyes to return to the pale blue color they have always been.
Eren steps forward, looking at the soldier and smirking at him. "You're the Captain of the squad that went missing some time ago, with about five or six other good soldiers. We thought you all had died, eaten by the Titans or worse," The soldier looked up surprised by Eren's statement, raising his eyebrow. "What could be worse than being eaten by Titans?" the soldier asked in a hard voice, full of the same emotions as any soldier that had seen their fair share of death and betrayal in this cruel world. Eren looked at his companions, worry reflected in his eyes, and Levi nodded briefly. "We had gotten rid of the threat that is the Titans four days ago, but, with one menace to humanity gone, another has risen with alarming speed. Gates to hell have been opening and we have been dealing with it, but creatures are coming out, demonic creatures with no known purpose or desire except to destroy a certain kind of humanity. This kind is the Titan-Shifters, at least the ones that had once had the power, which, with the exception of Verity here, is only four people," Eren explained the situation to the astonished soldier.
(Nate Orne)
I glanced over to my squad, all of them still sound asleep, and I fell from shock from what Eren had just told me; I puked, with the realization that the Titans were gone… me and my squad had been hiding here for a year with the Titans… all the trauma I put my squad through… all the mistakes we had made… it was all for nothing… my eyes teared up… "Is that why we don't have our powers; some of my soldiers in the squad are Titan-Shifters, I am one of them… we fled Wall Rose, with all the commotion with Annie Leonhart's capture and we began to think that the central government was hunting down all the Titan-Shifters and I couldn't let the king hang a single member of my squad, not without me putting up a fight, that is, even if it meant going against the king at full force, I became a squad leader to make sure my people didn't die, not without a fight, even if the enemy wasn't human; that's why I attacked you, I thought you were one of Oscar's spies, he's part of a secret group of Titans; some of them live inside of Wall Rose and some are on the outside. We've been hiding from them as well, but we haven't seen them in a while, not in a month, but we do have one of their spies. He's up with the rest of my squad," I turned towards my squad's direction, "Guys get up! We got company!"
Verity watched from behind Eren as the squad of Titan-Shifters woke up, one by one. As each of them got up, the rogue soldier, who later introduced himself as Nate, introduced them to the trio. The first to awaken was Herman, a medium-sized guy with dark hair similar to Eren's and brown eyes that looked like the guy was figuring out the best way to kill her, Ethan, a cute enough guy with pinkish-white skin and blue eyes that seemed glazed, Cua, a huge guy with confused brown eyes and black hair, Anthony, the most handsome of the group, with golden-blonde hair, sky blue eyes, and freckles; he was tied up for some reason, Gino, a guy with dark brown hair and green eyes that were close in color to Eren's, Norbert, a guy that reminded her of a raven with black hair as dark as the feathers and calculating, blue eyes, Jade, a girl who had really pretty black hair and huge brown eyes, and Vivian, the sister of Gino, who had dark brown hair and blue-green eyes like Eren. The final soldier was still asleep, and Gino went over to wake them, while Nate was introduced to her. He looked amused at something and wouldn't say, until Jade stepped forward, took a closer look at her, and said to him, "She looks exactly like Swift, but how? She never told us of her family, and if she had a sister… well, I'd think she'd tell us, what with her powers being inherited," Verity didn't understand any of this, but when the final soldier finally woke, Verity instantly understood everything. Standing before her, looking as shocked as her, impossibly, was her. Verity's older sister, her best friend, Amity Campbell, was alive.
Verity walked forward, looking into the blue eyes of Amity, her sister, who she'd seen get eaten by a Titan so long ago, at the fall of Wall Maria, and seconds later, was in a tight hug with Amity, crying and laughing at the same time. Verity couldn't believe that she was here, with her, after so long. After they broke apart, Nate stepped forward, looking at the two of them, and finally said "Do you know her, Swift?" Amity nodded vigorously, still sobbing and temporarily at a loss to speak. Eren was watching them the whole time, eyes even wider than normal, mouth open at the realization that his girlfriend had a sister. Levi just nodded, like he knew this moment would happen for some time, a small smile on his mouth, and walked forward. "I hate to interrupt this happy reunion, but I have some questions for you, Nate, and your squad," Levi said, eyebrows raised, and pointed a sword at them. Instantly, every member of the lost squad, including Amity, drew their blades, and/or had their hands in their mouths, like they would Shift into Titans. Verity ran forward, putting her body in between Levi's sword and the squad, putting herself into a fighting stance, like she would punch him. The whole squad looked at her like she was crazy, but Verity's eyes met Levi's head on, glaring at him until he lowered his sword. "If you threaten the friends of my sister, I won't hesitate to kill you this time, Levi," Verity said in a dead voice, causing Eren to step forward and kiss her. Her eyes slowly regained their emotion and she kissed him back, just as passionately.
Amity walked forward, smiling at the young couple, and nodded, as if she approved. That same moment, everything went wrong, for a HellGate opened, spewing out two creatures, both lunging at her. Instantly, Amity was at her side, Eren on her other, both forward a bit, like they were protecting her. Amity realized, quickly, that she didn't have her blades on her and Eren's blades were broken, somehow. They both turned to her, seemingly in agreement, and time slowed down. They both pushed her out of the way, as the creatures came forward, grabbing them both in her place, both Eren and Amity screaming, the HellGate closing, and all was silent. The soldiers' eyes, every last one of them, were on the spot where the Gate was last seen, then Levi came forward and helped Verity to her feet. Suddenly, she couldn't hold it all in, and she grabbed onto Levi and clutched him, sobbing into his shoulder, and screaming for Eren to come back, running to the spot and banging at nothing. Verity had lost so much, and now her true love and her sister, who she'd just been reunited with after so long, were gone. And she was left here to mourn their losses, without any goodbye.