Chapter 6: Meetings

I do not own Attack on Titan/Shingeki no Kyojin or its characters. It belongs to Hajime Isayama.

Author's Note

Hello everyone! I'm so surprised at the feedback I've gotten; I didn't think I'd get anything haha! I'm eternally grateful for everything, and I always will listen to any corrections or suggestions you guys have. :) Thank you all, and I hope you enjoy this chapter!

The plane landed after a little while, and the group began to get up and stretch. They air surrounding them all was slightly tense, as it always was before the official start of a mission. After a couple minutes of checking luggage and preparing weapons and devices, they made a line to exit the plane, and into the foggy air of Germany. Levi glanced at his surroundings and scowled. There was an unfriendliness about the settings of trees and abandoned buildings around the airport.

Hanji excitedly ran ahead of the rest of the group, brandishing a camera from her bag, and whipping her head around at everything to take close looks. The group arrived into the terminal lobby, and stopped to listen to Levi's further instruction. "We get as far into the city as we can tonight, I highly doubt we will actually reach our destination until a couple days from now. Be cautious of everything, we don't quite know what we are dealing with." They all nodded, and proceeded to head out into the city, unaware of the history being made with every step closer they took.

Within a couple hours, they covered quite a lot of ground. They passed by many rural communities, a couple shopping centers, and had now entered into a forest-like area. Gunther checked his map. "We seem to have traveled around 7 or so miles from the airport. Do you want to keep going captain?" He asked. Levi looked around. At the edge of the forest was likely the safest, in case they needed to make a swift get away from either side. "Yes, we can camp out here for the night." He answered. The rest of the team took this order in silence, the only noise resonating in the forest was the chirps of birds and rustling of leaves in the cool wind. "How long until we reach the point of origin?" Erd asked. "About 4 miles from here, so not long. We should be there tomorrow." Levi silently acknowledged this. He hoped they wouldn't have trouble tomorrow.

Eren

As per his routine, Eren laid in his bed. Staring aimlessly at his ceiling. The 17 year old kept extremely still, listening to the sounds of nature outside his house. The house's exterior had grown weeds and cracks, because no one tended to it in 7 years. That's mom's job. Eren thought. He didn't feel sad anymore. Sometimes, when he let his emotions show, he portrayed anger. Never fear, as his greatest fears already happened. He didn't think much about the outside world. He didn't find himself caring too much anymore.

At 2:30am, as usual, he slowly got up. Silently, he reenacted his behavior from that fateful night. He crouched over by Mikasa's bed, and within a couple minutes he wandered slowly downstairs. He ducked behind the couch. He crept around, and then dashed to the open front door, and ran to the alley. The reenactment could never be 100% correct, as it took him 2 seconds rather than 2 minutes to reach the alley due to his inhuman speed. He reached the opening to the alley. Slowly, he walked to the wall at the end. His eyes were like slits, his grey irises peeking out at the bottom, and his face devoid of emotion. He hung his head, brown hair cascading his forehead, but never going past his ears. Here, he stood and listened.

Something happened, that had not happened in 7 whole years. Eren slowly lifted his head, and opened his eyes slightly more to look up at the dark night. He tilted his head, and listened. He was correct in what he heard. Not too far away…voices. He wondered, was he going crazy? Or was this finally his chance at interaction? Were they humans? Were they the creatures? Could they kill me? All these thoughts raced through his mind. Adrenaline raced through his veins, but not his heart, as he propelled himself off the ground, and towards the sound.

The squad was wide awake, now. Petra checked her watch. 2:50am. Erd woke the team up, yelling and tripping out of his tent. The entire team took a matter of 3 seconds to jump out and at the ready with guns trained on the scene. It turned out a small sparrow flew into the tent, and as soon as they all noticed, numerous sighs of exasperation echoed through the site, and they lowered their weapons. Levi was a little pissed. "Erd, you scared us all!" Petra scolded. "I'm sorry, I didn't know!" He replied, putting his hands up in defense. Levi rolled his eyes. You think a titan is a 5 inch flying fat blob?" Hanji snickered. Erd just grunted and sat down, head in his hands. The fire that had been lit was still there, but slightly dying down, and the group went to sit around it. Levi sat down, once he checked the campsite, and made sure his crew was okay. There was no use in going back to sleep now, with all of them riled up.

Hanji began excitedly spewing one of her crazy stories of titans and her experience with them. Most of the team groaned, except for Levi. Who closed his eyes and tuned her out. He suddenly heard a small snap of a branch, and in the same second jumped up and trained his gun on the trees behind them. Behind him, the group stood shocked at attention, and drew their weapons too. "Did you hear that?" Levi asked out loud. They all glanced at each other. "Not really sir?" Was the reply. "A branch snapped. It's dark out there, we might need to move back." The hairs on the back of his neck stood up. He backed in line with his troops, all had their eyes and weapons steadily trained on the darkness of the forest slightly below them.

Eren cursed to himself mentally. He had located the source of the voices. It was a camp of humans, a bunch of tents and a small fire set up by the forest entrance behind his town. He got extremely curious, and didn't notice the medium sized branch he was about to step on while his thoughts raced. He had glanced down, only to glance back up and realize the noise caused them all to stand at attention and glance in his direction. They all pointed guns. Eren froze in place, not making another move. He suspected they couldn't see him, as they didn't fire. They started whispering, and Eren took the short time to debate something in his mind.

He had showered and changed his clothes in the past day, so he looked fairly presentable as a human. His skin was pale, but in his opinion, not abnormally so. When he had seen his mirror reflection, he noted that his eyes were not glazed over, and his pupils were still dark and functional, so he wouldn't appear dead. With hesitance, but curiosity winning his choice, he put his hands up in a defensive pose, and silently walked forward.

Levi stopped whispering orders to his team. He glanced once more in front of him. "Captain!" He heard Gunther whisper in panic. He didn't glance behind, but felt his team stiffen up slightly and trained his eyes back in the forest. Someone was there, and they were walking towards them. "Who are you?" Levi called out. "Say something, or we will shoot."

Crap. Eren thought. He hasn't said anything in 7 years. What would his voice sound like? He went out on a limb and spoke up. "Please don't shoot." His voice sounded slightly raspy, but, from what he remembered, like his own voice, but deeper.

Levi's eyes widened slightly. Confusion swirled in his mind. A teenager came into the light of the forest, and slowly stopped in front of the camp where they stationed. The group was completely silent, and looked around at each other in the same kind of confusion. "Are you human?" Petra asked, slightly afraid.

Eren thought of that for a second. Might as well. He thought. "Yes, I am." He answered to the strawberry blonde girl.

"How the hell are you out here?" Said another of the humans. This one caught Eren's attention. He was Eren's height, had sleek black hair in an undercut, and had stormy blueish eyes that were hardened and analyzing every one of Eren's moves. His skin was flawless and pale, and he seemed well fit. For a second of distraction, Eren mentally noted how attractive he was.

"I…" He stammered. "I hid." He stated blankly. The group looked at each other again. This time, a brunette, with glasses spoke up. "Oh, come on you guys! He's obviously not a titan. Put your guns down and welcome the guy!" They slowly complied, and Eren took this time to lower his hands. They were all staring at him. Shock, and disbelief, and also confusion, Eren recognized.

"How did you hide? And from what?" The same glasses girl asked. Eren opened his mouth, but no sound came out for a couple seconds. "I stayed in an alley. And I don't know. Some thing, some creature, but it left after a while." Before anyone could respond to him, Hanji bounded over, and took Eren's hand. She felt his wrist, then looked into his eyes. Eren felt nervous for a minute. She had a weird look on her face, but turned around and said "He's fine! Come over and introduce yourselves!" To her other friends. She didn't let go of Eren's arm, but he didn't notice, as the others came closer and surrounded him. "This is Petra, Gunther, Erd, Olou, Isabel, Farlan, and Levi. I'm Hanji." She explained.

She went on to explain how they were here on a mission, and they were apart of the military. Eren understood most of her, except when she started talking about "titans." What the hell are those? Instead of asking, Eren just listened, and sat down when they offered him a seat in front of the fire. They all asked him questions, like where he was from and when he got here. He mainly replied the truth, about him living in this city, but he didn't explicitly say where. He told them he was 17, and that he didn't remember much about the creature. They all seemed to accept him, except for their captain, Levi, who eyed him warily.

"Well, it's almost sunrise. We should start up again." Levi explained. They group all got up, and started packing up. Eren silently stood to the side, helping out a little here and there. "I guess you'll have to come with us, we don't want you getting lost or hurt, okay?" Petra softly told Eren. The group seemed kind, and acted like he was not a threat. Eren was amazed. As they all started walked down into the forest, Levi tugged on Eren's arm. He glanced down, and then up at Levi. He had a passive look on his face. "I'm keeping an eye on you. Stay with me." He said. And let go of his arm. Hanji looked at them, and giggled. Levi swung, but missed hitting her with his bag. Eren was confused, but noted he felt weird. He felt emotions he never felt before. One thing was for certain.

This would get interesting.