The silence that followed Hange's announcement was deafening. Everyone stared at them with a mixture of shock, horror, and fear on their faces. Only Eren stared at them with a grin on his face. He was so excited! This was the one thing he had wanted to do ever since he was with the Scouting Regiment, he had worked so hard learning how to use the gear that he had always wanted to know what it felt like using the gear against a titan but Levi and Shadis refused to let him try it. This couldn't have come at a better time, well Eren guessed Shadis is the reason this test is going ahead, he wanted to prove to Mikasa Ackerman that he, Eren Yeager was more prepared to fight the titans than anyone in the training cadets, he knew what the titans were capable of; he knew what their weakness is; he knows the titans' strengths. He knew the titans; he knew the fear they created; he knew what it felt like to be in the hand of one of them; he knew what it felt like being on the edge of death and then to bounce back after being saved. It looks like he will still be Shadis debt for arranging this, just as he was for saving his life years ago.
"No… we can't" Eren heard Mina say horrified as Daz threw up. Armin had gone pale at the sight of seeing a titan again whilst Christa hid behind Ymir. Jean looked sick and Bertholdt clung to Reiner. Eren sighed, maybe he was the weird one. To him, this was an exciting opportunity, but to the others, this was probably their worse nightmare, especially those who had already seen the titans before and planned to never encounter them again. But then again, unlike them, Eren had spent a few months surrounded by the titans. He lived with the scouting regiment, helping Hange and Moblit with their experiments. He was used to the sight of the titans. He didn't fear them like he once did, that couldn't be said for the others. Some had witnessed the horror the titans bring during the fall of Wall Maria. Some had only heard stories about titans and wished to never see them and if they did, it was from the protection of the top of the wall and not on the battlefield, this threw them out of their comfort zone because never had actual titans brought in the training camps well that was until today.
"You heard Squad Leader Hange, this test is to prove whether you can stomach facing a titan," Shadis said stepping up beside the scouting regiment, "you can refuse to take part in this test but by doing so you give up the right of being a soldier. The military needs brave and competent soldiers who are prepared to fight titans, not those who run away in fright at first sight. PREPARE YOURSELVES THAT IS AN ORDER! GET YOUR ODM GEAR AND MET US BACK AT THE FOREST READY FOR THE TEST!".
Everyone scrambled from the courtyard to the ODM gear shed to grab their gear and put it on whilst Eren ran over to Erwin, Levi, and Hange throwing his arms around Hange as Hange hugged him back.
"My baby, look at you. You've grown so much since I last saw you. You've grown into a man I can't believe it," Hange said pulling away from Eren before throwing themselves onto Levi whilst Hange pretended to cry, "Levi, my baby is growing up so fast,".
"Get off me four eyes" Levi snapped pushing Hange off him who lost their balance and fell to the floor but that didn't seem to phase them as Hange pushed themselves to their feet grinning. Eren laughed, the dynamic between Hange and Levi hadn't changed since he last saw them together.
"What you are laughing at brat?!" Levi said glaring at Eren, but it didn't have the same ferocity behind it as it would direct towards someone Levi didn't really know or like.
"Nothing Levi" Eren giggled. Levi's eyes softened and a small smile appeared on his lips.
"Aww, Big Bad Levi is smiling" Hange cooed throwing themselves at Levi once more, who stepped out of their way and Hange fell to the floor once more.
"It's good to see you Eren," Erwin said rolling his eyes at his subordinates and close friends' actions, "How have you been? Have you remembered anything?".
"I've been fine Erwin; a lot has happened since I last saw you but I've been coping well," Eren said, unlike Levi, Hange, and Moblit, Eren had hardly seen Erwin, he had visited him occasionally but not as regularly as Moblit and Hange had been or Levi, "I've remembered bits and pieces but not anything consistent".
"Ooh, like what?" Hange asked.
"I remember that I have an older brother Zeke, my parents are Grisha and Dina Yeager but from what I remember they are probably dead and apparently they did something horrible. The only other thing I can remember is that I inherited something from another traitor, and they took me underground to 'inherit it' but I don't know what. That's all I can really remember… oh I know how to fight, I got into an altercation with another cadet days after joining the training corps and one moment I'm sat down the next I'm stood up and the cadet is on the floor,' Eren explained, he kept the dream he had a secret for now, not that he felt they wouldn't believe him, Eren was fairly sure Hange would believe anything he said but he felt like he couldn't say anything not when he didn't understand what that dream was about. He had no idea what the paths were, he had no idea what he inherited, and he had no idea who that girl was.
"Taken underground?" Levi said, "in Wall Sina, there is an underground city filled with criminals, if Eren lived there then it might make sense why your parents are considered treacherous and how you ended outside the walls,".
"What are you thinking, Levi?" Erwin asked.
"Inheriting something could mean some title or a family heirloom. If Eren grew up in the underground, it would explain why you knew how to fight, that skill is vital to surviving in that place. Your parents could have done something in the underground which got them killed, and if they tried to get rid of the entire family, it might explain why we found you outside the walls. The best place to dispose of a body is outside the walls. Someone could have knocked you out or thought you were dead and put you in a scouting regiment wagon which was taken outside the walls. Maybe you fell off the wagon when you woke up, knocked your head, and stumbled into that forest where Shadis found you. It could explain your memory loss," Levi explained.
"That seems like a lot of trouble to go through just to dispose of a body," Hange said. Levi shrugged.
"It is, but the wagons aren't checked in the morning when we leave on an expedition, so in theory, it wouldn't be hard to hide a body in the wagon. We lose so many people outside the walls we don't recover that we probably wouldn't notice it," Levi said. He knew it sounded impossible, but he knew what lengths someone in the underground would go to, to hide a body.
"Whilst that sounds likely we can't rule for definite that it did in fact happened like you suggest Levi," Erwin said before turning to Eren who had stayed quiet so far, "You're slowly remembering stuff about your life so there is a chance that you will remember everything but don't worry if you don't,".
"I know," Eren said, "but a part of me wants to know what happened in my life before I met you whilst another part of me is scared to find out,".
"It doesn't matter Eren," Hange said wrapping their arms around Eren pulling him close, "who you are and what you are doing now is what matters,".
"Thanks, Hange," Eren said, pulling away from them, "I better prepare for the test,".
"You better. I didn't train you to slack off," Levi snapped at him, but his voice didn't hold any malice, "I'm expecting to see perfection and nothing less,".
"Yes Sir," Eren said, saluting before running off to get his gear.
They had teamed Eren up with Reiner, Bertholdt, Ymir, and Christa whilst Connie and Sasha were with Marco and Jean. Eren hadn't paid attention to the other groups. Instead, he focused on Levi and Hange, who were standing beside the two titans. According to Shadis, there were twelve checkpoints hidden throughout the forest they were meant to find whilst avoiding the two titans who were being released whilst being followed by their handlers – Levi and Hange. Hange following the seven-meter and Levi with the fifteen-meter.
"You will have a five-minute head start, then the titans will be released. Wait for the starting signal, it's the same as the scouting regiment used to change direction," Shadis smirked knowing full well only one person amongst the cadets knew the signal which was why he used it.
"And what would that fucking be?" Ymir growled in annoyance at their instructor. Eren grinned.
"Green signal flare," Eren said, his grin only widened when a green flare emanated from inside the forest, Eren could only assume that Erwin was the one who fired it considering he was the only person currently not present in the courtyard. The others seemed to falter, staring at the flare whilst Eren's team took off. He only just heard Hange screaming 'he could do it' before he propelled himself into the air and into the forest. The first checkpoint had been easy to find – it was three trees into the forest, probably placed there to give the cadets some confidence to find the rest of them. Erwin must have created this course because like hell would Shadis do something so kind.
"Names," the soldier said when the team landed on the branch.
"Eren Yeager, Reiner Braun, Bertholdt Hoover, Ymir and Christa Lenz" Eren recited. The soldier nodded quickly jotted their names down on a piece of paper before signaling to them to continue.
"We should aim to find as many as we can before the titans are released" Eren shouted to the others, he knew Erwin, he had seen him work at his desk in the room they shared for months, so he could probably guess where Erwin roughly put each checkpoint, they would have been evenly spaced out throughout the forest, some being easier to find than others.
"Where should we look first?" Reiner asked.
"We should probably search the front of the forest, then work our way to the back. Each checkpoint is going to be evenly spaced out through the forest, each varying in difficulty to find, some are going to be obvious whilst others are going to be hidden. We must keep an eye out looking for places which would be perfect to hide in," Eren explained landing on a branch letting the others catch up with him. He could easily forget that they weren't at his level of skill.
"How can you be so sure?" Christa asked, Eren shrugged. It wasn't like he could tell them he had lived with the scouting regiment, could he?
"It's just a suspicion," he said. Not even ten seconds later, his suspicion was proven right when Eren noticed their second checkpoint, they had nearly gone straight past it, the soldier was hidden among the leaves and if he hadn't accidentally rustled some leaves, then Eren wouldn't have noticed them but because Levi had hammered into Eren about relying on his senses to work out where to hear, feel or smell the titans before seeing them, it meant that small movement from the soldier had given their position away to Eren. A minute later they found another checkpoint this time more visible than the last one, Ymir opened her mouth to speak when a red flare shot up into the sky.
"What was that?" Reiner asked, looking at Eren for some explanation.
"For the scouting regiment red means titan sighted, they're probably using it to alert us that the titans have entered the forest," Eren said, Christa paled, and Ymir wrapped her arm around her.
"What should we do now?" Bertholdt asked as he subconsciously moved closer to Reiner, seeking support.
"We should head to the back of the forest and look there before working our way forward. It's most likely the titans will go after the closest human smell so it's unlikely they will come after us if we are all the way at the back so we should realistically only run into the titans when we come back to search the front or the middle of the forest later on and the other teams have moved further into the forest" Eren explained, Hange had always said that smell was the titans best sense and unless they were abnormals, they would seek a large closest human group, then something further away and consider Hange said themselves that abnormals were tricky to capture Eren really doubted that the seven and fifteen meter titans were abnormals. The others nodded before jumping off the branch and flew towards the other side of the forest, putting as much distance as they could between them and the titans.
Everything had been going well, they had found six of the twelve checkpoints. They hadn't run into any other teams so Eren could only guess they were still near the front of the forest, which meant so were the titans and probably the remaining checkpoints they had yet to find. They needed to create a plan which would maximise their chances of finding the checkpoints but minimise the risk of running into any titans. Eren opened his mouth to ask just that question, but before he could get any words out, he heard it. A bone chilling scream which made his entire body freeze. What made it worse was he knew that voice. That voice belonged to Hange.
Eren barely waited for the others as he took off gliding through the forest going in the scream's direction. He knew Hange. They would never scream unless they were taken off guard and considering Hange was meant to be following a titan, Eren could only imagine what had happened. It was worse than he imagined when he finally arrived, landing beside Jean. Eren watched in horror as the seven-meter titan held Hange in its one hand. The metal plate which was meant to be covering both its one arm and mouth were gone.
"What happened?" Eren asked Jean as he looked at the others. Marco, Connie, and Sasha were there too, but there was no sign of Levi, Erwin, or any other skilled soldier.
"Connie accidentally cut its arm off whilst Squad Leader Hange was dealing with an injured Sasha. One of her cables had snapped and cut her leg. Squad Leader was checking over her when Connie shouted, but by the time anyone had reacted, the titan's arm had regenerated, and somehow pulled off the metal plate over its mouth. It went for Connie, but the Squad Leader pushed him out the way and it grabbed them instead," Jean explained, his voice wobbled every so often showing how scared the horse face boy really was. Eren gulped as he turned to look at Hange whilst his team arrived, only just catching up with him. Hange was still in the titan's hand, but now it was moving it towards its open mouth.
All Eren's ability to think had been thrown out the window as he jumped off the branch he had landed on, barely listening to Marco and Christa shouting his name as he flew towards Hange. The titan stopped moving its hand to its mouth instead its eyes watched Eren apparently becoming more interested in the human in front of it instead of the one in its hand, but it still didn't let Hange go. Eren swooped under the titan's arm barely avoiding its teeth as it tried to grab him out of the air but Eren expertly manoeuvred around it, he stopped releasing gas, allowing himself to free fall a little which took him out of the titan's mouth reach before shooting out his cables into the titan's other still bound arm and swung himself around so he was now positioned behind the titan. Its eyes were still tracking him but Eren just grinned, the titan was too big to turn around quickly so he used that advantage and released a little more gas than usual and shot around to the other side of the titan raising his blades bringing them down onto the part of the titan's arm where it bends and severed it in one fell swoop. Steam gushed out of the wound, but Eren didn't care as he watched Hange use their own gear to get back up to safety. Eren felt his heart relax, only to tense up again when he heard Levi shouting.
Levi knew this test was a ridiculous idea, he had tried to stop Erwin from agreeing to do it but Erwin saw it would be a good opportunity for the cadets to familiarise themselves being in the presence of titans but Levi knew something like this would happen and now the cadets were at risk and Hange was in the fucking grasp of a titan. Hange themselves looked like they were having a whale of a time because of course, that fucking idiot would enjoy themselves when they are so close to death, Levi could only be glad that Moblit stayed at headquarters because he was sure that Hange's boyfriend would have had a heart attack if he saw this.
"Shit" Levi swore when he finally saw the titan. The cadets were spread out whilst on the tree branches watching frozen whilst another cadet swooped underneath the titan's one arm just missing the teeth which nearly clamped down onto the cadet. Levi recognised that movement, how couldn't he! It was the same technique he taught that brat all those years ago, hell out of all the cadets, Eren was the only person trained enough to deal with a titan, the others still had two years to go until they should be prepared to face one if anything this test should have been delayed two years. Eren swung behind the titan faster than Levi's eyes could keep up, and before he could even realise it, Eren had chopped the arm off and Hange was free. He was going to kill that four eyes if they ever pulled a stunt like this again.
"Eren kill it" Levi shouted. He saw the titan move again, aiming for another human. This time it was a cadet. The stupidly tall one. Levi didn't want to put Eren at any more risk, but even he knew he couldn't make it in time before the titan had taken a large bite out of the tall cadet.
Eren didn't think, he just reacted. He severed the tendons in the titan's legs first, causing it to collapse onto its knees, releasing his damaged blades before hooking up his spares all whilst he glided to the nape. Eren knew he was acting like a show off, but he didn't care as he moved towards the titan's nape in a continuous spin, only stopping after he felt his blades cut the titan's nape. He couldn't help but smirk as he watched the rest of the titan's steaming body slump to the floor – he couldn't believe it; he had just killed his first titan, and he hadn't even graduated yet.
Eren shot his cables into the nearest tree branch landing right in front of Mikasa who was staring at him eyes wide. Eren smirked as he sheeted his blades, "See Ackerman, I don't need your protection".