Chapter 4: The Fall

Steam arose hot and thick into the sky and Armin stared wide eyed in fear and disbelief as the enormous Titan raised it's ugly head right over the top of the wall. It was over, it was all over…they were all going to be eaten! How could this have happened? He had just been talking to Eren about how humanity couldn't stay behind the walls forever, something would happen sooner or later…and something definitely had. They were no longer safe.

Before he knew it people were screaming and running and scrambling over each other to try and get away. The giant red faced Titan had kicked a hole in Wall Maria and he could see the looming figures of the smaller Titans starting to enter Shiganshina to gorge themselves on human flesh. He couldn't seem to move, he was frozen, watching the horrendous sight unfold before his very eyes. And then Eren and Mikasa were no longer with him and he was very alone amongst the turmoil. He had to find help! Eren probably ran off to save his mother. His house was in the direction some of the rubble had landed.

Armin thought fast and suddenly found enough of his wits to dash off and look for help. He found Mr. Hannes almost immediately and told him to go help Eren while he looked for his grandfather. Hannes nodded and started off in the direction of Eren's house, while Armin ran to his own home in a panic. Why? Why was this happening? It was like John and Stella Haize had been right all those years ago. His parents had left the walls to see the outside world, the Scout Regiment was pushing to gain even more ground, and now the Titans had breached the wall.

John and Stella Haize…he hadn't thought about them in so long. They had a daughter… Tori…he had been her friend. What was she doing now? Did she know the Titans had breached the walls? Would he even make it out alive?

The blonde shook his head clear of those thoughts and kept on running towards his house, dodging people all around him. He had to focus on staying alive and finding his grandfather.

The noises all around him were overwhelming. The sounds of people screaming and calling for each other, sounds of rubble and buildings crumbling, and the loud thundering footfalls of the Titans as they slowly advanced into Shiganshina, destroying everything in their path on their hunt for human flesh, haunted his thoughts and flooded his ears.

Armin's lungs were on fire when he finally reached his house he looked wildly around for his grandfather, the only family he had left apart from Eren and Mikasa.

"Armin!" he heard his grandfather's voice and he turned sharply to see the older man coming his way. "I was looking all over for you, hurry let's go. We have to make it too the boats and get out of here!"

"Wait, shouldn't we take some things with us?" Armin asked, thinking about supplies and provisions and the personal effects of his parents, all he had left of them.

"There's no time and there's no room. They are going to have to get as many people on board those boats as they can and we can't take up any space with belongings, now come on!" his grandfather yelled.

Armin had already been going back into the house to try and save at least something of his parent's when his grandfather came after him and grabbed him by the collar, dragging him out of the house and towards the Wall gate. "I already lost your mother and father, and I'll be damned if I lose you too! I made them a promise to look after you and I'm going to keep it," the old man said through clenched teeth.

Armin allowed himself to be dragged away with nothing but the memories in his head of what was once his warm and loving home. His eyes had swept the room one last time before he was forced out of it, and the last thing he had seen was a book…the book Tori had given him. Now he'd never be able to return it to her. Out of all the turmoil and pain that surrounded him at that moment, he couldn't understand why that one little fact suddenly seemed to bother him more than anything else.

Armin and his grandfather reached the gate that lead to the interior of Wall Maria. They quickly got in line to board the already overfilling boats that would take then even deeper into Wall Rose where they would be safer. Armin watched the Garrison Regiment prepare cannons to defend the gates until everyone could get out. The soldiers of the Garrison were trying to be brave, but Armin could see their hands shaking and how some of them were fumbling while trying to set up the cannons.

The blonde boy searched the crowd for his friends, Eren and Mikasa. Mr. Hannes should have them by now if all had gone well. The fact that he couldn't spot the green-eyed boy and the solemn girl with the bright red scarf in the crowd worried him immensely. He scanned the faces of the crowd long after he and his grandfather had a place on one of the boats. Where were they? The Titans were coming! Had something gone wrong? He didn't think he could bear it if his two best friends had gotten hurt, or killed. They were always there to pick him up and help him when he was in trouble. Though he resented them for it at times, they didn't deserve to meet a terrible fate at the hands of a Titan. They were strong and brave with kind and courageous hearts. If anyone got eaten it should be him. He was weak and cowardly, no one would miss him in the world except his grandfather and his two friends. But they would all move on and he wouldn't be there to drag them down anymore. He wished he could be more like them and more like his parents who had gone out into the world despite all the warnings and took a chance to make their lives better.

"Sit, Armin," his grandfather told him.

"But Eren and Mikasa still aren't here," Armin said.

Suddenly, Armin's eyes caught a flash of red and he focused in on the color to find it was a red scarf wrapped tightly around the neck of a raven haired girl. Mikasa! Right next to her was his best friend Eren.

"There they are!" he started to wave at them, but they didn't look his way. Then Armin saw the looks on their faces and stopped waving while slowly lowering his hand back down to his side. Eren looked like a dead man walking and there was a tear on his face. He didn't look at anything but the ground in front of him as he walked slowly forward onto the boat. Mikasa, who was usually so emotionless, looked sadder than he had ever seen her. She too looked at the ground, and occasionally glanced at Eren as if she thought he would disappear at any minute. Eren's mother was nowhere to be seen.

With dread in his heart, Armin started to make his way over to them, but he felt his grandfather's hand on his arm. "Leave them be for now, Armin. They look like they need to be alone. They must be traumatized."

Armin nodded and watched his friends sit down against a wall on the boat. Eren had his head in his hands and Mikasa watched him silently.

A commotion started up at the gate and Armin snapped his head around to see the Garrison soldiers in a panic to shut the gate. A few were protesting the decision, not everyone had made it out, but it was too late and the gate started to slowly lower…but to no avail. Loud thundering steps could be heard and before anyone could react, a massive Titan bowled through the closing gate and sent the pieces of the gate, wall, and people it had destroyed flying in every direction. The Titan had what looked like armor covering its body and it stood in a cloud of dust and steam, watching the small boats hastily make their way down the river. Wall Maria had been over taken just like that.

The screams of the thousands of people that had been left behind echoed through the heads of all those who had been lucky enough to escape. Armin now sat with his friends on the slow moving boat to Wall Rose. Eren was strangely quiet, and then he stood and made his way to the railing of the boat.

"I'm going to…" he said as he walked with anger in his voice.

"Eren, what's gotten into you?" Armin said. Mikasa had a worried look on her face.

"I'm going to drive them out! Every last one from this world!" the young boy yelled with fury in his hard green eyes and tears streaming down his face. There was such hate and anger in him, that Armin grew afraid of his friend. There was a fire in his eyes, a fire to kill and destroy. But what could they do, they had lost everything. They were children, they were weak. They'd have to find a way to be strong.

The news reached Wall Sina in a matter of days. Wall Maria had been breached by the Titans and its citizens had either fled to Wall Rose for safety or had been devoured. Wall Maria had been completely abandoned and humanity had taken a hard hit that day. Refuges were reported to be pouring into Wall Rose and the economy was struggling to support them. How long could they all last?

Though the news was devastating, most of the citizens of Wall Sina were just relieved the refuges weren't pouring in there. Sure it was a tragedy, but they still had important lives to live. Surely the titans couldn't get past Wall Rose, so there wasn't much to worry about and they went on with their days, gossiping about the news.

Tori ground her teeth in frustration and fear. Shiganshina…they had hit Shiganshina first. She had a friend in Shiganshina that she hadn't seen for many years, but now she was sure he was dead. There was no way anyone could have survived. The girl sat in her room, her tan colored dog at her feet, and clutched the worn leather book he had given her so many years ago. She thought about the bright blue eyes and the warm heart full of curiosity and friendship that she had known for only a short time. A tear escaped from her eyes…now she knew she would never see him again. She could never give him back his book; he'd never be able to take her to see the blue bell fields like he promised. She stood up from her bed and went to stare out of her window, looking off into the distance towards the direction Shiganshina was in. She set her face in determination, suddenly angry at the Titans and at the selfish people of Wall Sina. Her fists clenched and she held the book to her chest, promising herself that she would see the outside world, and she would do it for Armin.

Armin and his grandfather, along with Eren and Mikasa, trudged down the boat ramp among the thousands of other refuges from wall Maria. They had nothing but each other. Eren's mother had been eaten, Mikasa's parents were long dead, and no one knew where Eren's father was or how to contact him. They didn't know where to go or what to do, so they ended up trying to find a place to rest for awhile, and collect their thoughts after the tragedy.

Pretty soon the government felt they should do something about the refuges and sent in officers to try and find housing for them all and to ration out food. Wall Maria had been the main staple for crops and livestock for all of humanity. Now that it was gone there were going to be food shortages and rationing was important. More often than not, Armin and his family went hungry and had to sleep in the street when there wasn't enough food or when they were kicked out of housing to be moved somewhere else that wasn't even set up yet. The four of them struggled to survive.

Eren had already been mad enough to strike out at some of the Garrison soldiers a couple times, and each time Mikasa had to hold him back and Armin had to apologize for him. Armin couldn't blame him for being angry, the loss of his parents was more recent to him than to Armin and Mikasa, who had lost theirs long ago. Eren had even gone so far as to call Armin weak and a coward for backing down so easily to the bullying of the Wall Rose Garrison soldiers and for starting to give in and not wanting to fight back. It hurt the blonde boy to hear such things from a friend he trusted and counted on, and even though Mikasa scolded Eren for saying those things and told him that they were all weak and that it wasn't his fault, Armin knew Eren had been right about him, he was starting to back down and become cowardly.

Tori sat at her usual table in the Library her parents ran for the city. She was reading another one of her fantasy novels, but she kept the book Armin had given her close by even though she had already read it several times. It was all about the different branches of the military that protected the walls and how they had come to be.

She already knew a lot about the Military Police, they made up the majority of the military presence where she lived. Most of them mean, rude, and just wanted to be left alone to do their own thing. She learned her lesson to never have anything to do with them if she could help it. The only thing they had going for them was safety and the guarantee to never have to deal with Titans directly.

The Garrison Regiment protected the walls and were in charge of supplies and equipment. They had an important job, but they were nowhere near as exciting as the Scout Regiment! Those were the brave men and women that ventured out into Titan territory to take back lands for humanity. Those were the people she admired most. In fact, if she could get away with it without her parents finding out, Tori hoped to join the Scout Regiment some day. That was her plan to get a chance to see the outside world like she had promised Armin she would.

Thinking about Armin made her sad, and she suddenly didn't feel like reading anymore. He was certainly eaten by a Titan. The Haize's hadn't been in contact with the Arlert's since that day they had split up at the library. She didn't even know if his parent's ever went on their trip to the outside world. None of that mattered now though. No one was going to be going outside the walls for a long time now that Wall Maria had been destroyed and suspicions were at an all time high. That's why she had to join the Scouts. They were the only ones who still ventured out, and she might as well take down some of the Titans that had murdered her friend while she was at it.

Armin tried his best to drag the heavy planting spade through the packed dirt, but being only ten years old and as weak as a blade of grass was making his farming assignment rather difficult. The sun was hot and scorching his back through the thin shirt he wore, and he had sweat trickling down his face and causing his hair to stick wetly to his head. Next to him, Eren struggled less with the actual labor, but more with the fact that he was being forced to do it. His eyes were angry and he hacked viciously at the dirt. Mikasa had been put on water duty somewhere else, but she could probably do a better job at the plowing than the two of them put together.

"Armin," Eren said and threw his spade to the side. "Let's go get some water or something. This is dumb and we're not doing any good here anyways."

"But we were assigned to work here today until the job was finished," Armin pointed out, secretly hoping Eren would dissuade him from the work, it was agonizing.

"Screw that, no one's the boss of me," Eren replied hotly.

"If we don't do our part we won't be able to eat. Everyone has to do their share so that there will be enough food to go around. That's why we were assigned to the fields," Armin argued.

"Well I want a different job to do. I am just a helpless child, after all. It's not like they're going to keep food from me," came the boy's sarcastic remark.

"They might, times are desperate," Armin said quietly.

"Well I want to help humanity in a different way, a better way! I want to destroy all the Titans and then we won't have to do all this miserable plowing. Besides, I'm pretty sure all those fat rich people in Wall Sina have all they can eat and more. There's probably plenty of food to go around, why don't they share?" Eren retorted and then angrily stomped off towards the water barrels.

Armin got tiredly to his knees and followed, knowing there was no sense in arguing with Eren about his thoughts on how to help humanity. Eren had always wanted to join the Scout Regiment, he shared Armin's passions about seeing the outside world and breaking out of the cage they were forced to live in, but they were too young right now. All they could do now was do as they were told and hope to get by. It was probably true what Eren had said about the people behind Wall Sina. Armin had seen it first hand for himself, and he couldn't imagine people like that going hungry. Did Tori feel that way? Did she sit in her big house and eat all the food she could want and forget about the people from Wall Maria, struggling to survive? He couldn't imagine that she did, not of what he about her. But she was only a child in this world just like he was and there probably wasn't much she could do about it.

The newborn baby boy squealed and cried in Tori's arms when she held him for the first time. Her parents had just given her a baby brother and she couldn't be more excited. It had been just her and her dog, Waggy, for so long, but now she would have a new friend to go on her adventures with.

The baby opened his eyes and stared at her blue ones with his light brown, caramel colored eyes. When he saw his big sister, he stopped crying and a smile appeared on his chubby baby cheeks. He giggled and his face turned red as he tried to reach out for Tori's hair. Oh yes, they would be the best of friends.

"What are we naming him?" she asked her parents who stood nearby, watching them.

"Samuel," said her mother.

"I like that name, I can call him Sam for short," Tori said.

So, originally I had this chapter and chapter 5 all together in one chapter, but realized it was way, way too long so I split them up. I'm skipping around through Tori and Armin's lives and just hitting some of the major highlights that I feel like are most important to the story. Also, I'm sticking with Armin's point of view through the known events of his timeline, since we all already know exactly what happened to Eren and Mikasa. Hope you liked it! Make sure you read chapter five! It really ties some things up.

MaybeAYoutuber: Thank you so much for your amazing review of my story! I don't think you said too much at all, it was great . You have no idea how thrilled I was to receive it! Anyways, I hope your question was answered by reading this chapter! Also, you guessed half of the reason she is joining the military, you'll find out the other reason why in chapter 5.