The Gods that swallow us whole
Chapter 3: When Dot Pixis watches you
The compartment spat him to the ground. Eren coughed the simulation liquid out of his mouth, seeing that he was damp all over with perspiration and the blue liquid oozing out of his skin. His body was already rejecting whatever the fuck they injected him with, his right shoulder was throbbing, a soothing rhythm matching that of his heart. Once the rush of adrenaline was over he felt the sharp pain emanating from the thick wrappings on his arm. He took a deep breath and tried to remember.
My name's Eren Jaeger. I'm 18 years old, my home's compound 901 in the 10th level of the underground. I live with Berik and the other assholes and Annie. We've enlisted in the military 6 years ago and we were accepted. Today's our final test, simulation on duo capacities. I fucked it up, Annie fucked it up. I'm doomed.
That was it. What an interesting life he had. Better rejoice in it immediately since his hours to live are becoming countable. He lay on the ground, took a deep breath and rose.
The room was infinite and dark. He stood before a cocoon-like shape, medium height and width, within which he saw the metal chair and the tubes. The room had a limitless number of cocoons like his own, except they were shut tight. He wanted to meet the architect who designed this silly invention and congratulate them.
The machine beside him opened for yet another ejection. Annie was kneeling on the ground, still, but in a similar mess.
"I will strangle you."
"Easy now, can we negotiate?"
She stood. He topped her with three heads and was twice her weight but still, she was fucking intimidating. She didn't move but he pointed at his arm.
"This is how I found out about the glitch in the system." He whispered.
"I don't care how you found the glitch that ruined our exam."
"No Annie for real." He massaged his ruptured organ. "I fell during the jet pack flying test, remember? Back then, they installed a gigantic titan puppet and since we all rushed in to 'kill' it, we couldn't see the smaller cyborg titans. That's how I got my injury."
She lifted an eyebrow.
"We all can say you don't have great vision."
"Annie." He hissed "It's the same trick in the simulation. My brain's caught the hint and my arm started vibrating and that's when I knew something's wrong."
She looked bored, but he didn't really care. She always looked bored.
"It doesn't matter if we fucked up." They were both clad in the elastic fabric covering all their bodies, it's their official uniform once they're handed their body suits. It was supposedly designed as the most comfortable thing in the world but it usually made Eren itchy. Usually the marvelous sensation of his flight would rule it out, but now he felt exceptionally fidgety.
"Why does it not matter, genius?" She asked sarcastically, monitoring her way through the rows of simulation machines.
"Because the glitch will spread like wildfire, soon all these" He gestured around him, "will be ejected out of their simulations like we were and the exam will have to be rescheduled."
"What if it's not a virus asshole, what if it's you who woke up within the simulation and destroyed it."
She had a point. Usually, this system only functions on sleeping brains, the fact that he figured out what they were living for an hour was not real probed him to regain consciousness.
It still doesn't make any sense.
"We've failed. Time to kiss our ranks goodbye, that is if they don't kick us out of the army." Annie grumbled.
Eren fell silent. Usually, the higher-ups would punish you with extra laps or push-ups if you slack off, but this is serious business. They don't like to be shown as fools, but since they're watching the simulations live and thus hearing interactions between each duo, that meant that his revelation had been broadcasted out by now. If was not a normal thing, if you marvel at it. Their program was so perfect that no one who ever got injected with the serums woke midway into the experience. There was a first to everything after all, hadn't his father said "There's always a crack in the system."
He just found one, but the consequences were not known, after all it was a first.
"They won't." He declared confidently. Everyone knew him as extremely arrogant and brash, but they knew there were very little things in his life he could thrust blindly. He trusted his actions. BIG mistake, in Annie's opinion.
They were getting lost within that maze when a bald headed mustached man appeared before a couple of agape cocoons. Theirs, so they were going in a blind circle after all.
"Annie Leonheart and Eren Jaeger."
It wasn't a question but an acknowledgment. They followed the man (whom Eren recognized as the infamous Dot Pixis), reaching a set of giant doors, going past and into corridors where floors were glass paned and transparent, giving way to a continuation of tubes with the same Neon liquid running in, their main source of energy, after they were stripped of their sunlight. They reached an empty meeting room where the elderly soldier faced them both.
"You two have a cunning sense of partnership."
Eren's mouth fell agape; even Annie was surprised, her brows crooked in a thoughtful frown. They were expecting to get dissed at not complimented.
"Thank you sir.."
"I'm serious." He declared "The testers absolutely loved your work; you two have had our biggest titans programmed in hand slaughtered neat and easy, as easy as killing bugs.
"Not only that, but you two also excelled in strategy making, we've been expecting good news from the lot of you, we heard."
By heard, he probably meant what their instructors said about them. Good, but not fantastic and their performances were not spectacular. But as a team, they nailed these missions like child play. Annie had a natural talent in hand-to-hand combat. Her fighting techniques varied from range to range. She was actually petite and quite slight in weight which gave her the upper hand in defense, since she was perfectly capable of dodging any hits and flipping any opponent no matter his weight over her shoulder (not that he experienced it head-on). Her figure also helped her in Jetpack flights, magnitude maneuvers since she usually possessed the perfect momentum to spin or to dodge or to make a sharp cut.
Eren backed her experience with strength she lacked. He had full figure and could pack a punch that would puncture through a wall. Under Annie's watch he excelled in hand-to-hand combat, though never managing to completely beat her with her own techniques, he managed to flip her around by tricking her numerous times. They both knew each other well and were familiar with each other's bodies; they both had their talents and their weaknesses and were both at their most vulnerable when against each other.
In short, they've both given each other numerous bruises.
But that was it. They fit like an completed puzzle and their instructors insisted they train together; it was no wonder that during their first simulation three years ago, they landed first in duo performance.
Pixis snapped him out of his line of thought, patting Eren on the shoulder, the punctured shoulder.
"Good job my boy."
"Me? What'd I do?"
"You figured the titans' trick in the simulation. It's currently running in the other duos too and you're the first who figured it out."
Silence, Pixis gave them his greetings. "I was assigned to watch you while you were in there you know, so I'm familiar with your case, you know at the end of the week you'll receive your badges and your graduation forms, you two choose between the three divisions. Better yet, choose together, you work extremely well in pair, better not waste that talent." He turned on his heel "And Eren.. hope that arm o' yours' fine."
And he went about his way. Eren looked at Annie, she looked back.
"You can say it now." She murmured.
"He sounds full of shit."
They weren't distant. Perhaps they knew each other a tad too well.