Attention all readers, this story was supposed to be put out a month after its trailer made its debut on . However, because some of the readers from the trailer believe that I should put a rush order on this story I must get to working on this as soon as possible. So, to satisfy your urges, I'm gonna be working on this now. Even during Christmas. Appreciate this! And, if you want to enjoy it like I did writing it, listen to the Shingeki no Kyojin soundtrack: Rittai Kidou.
Everyone was running and screaming, panic was rampant in the streets as Titans, humanity's one predator, surged through the destroyed wall of Shiganshina. The Colossal Titan, the largest of its kind, vanished in a cloud of smoke and gas as the entire town was overrun by mindless beasts. People were devoured left and right, buildings were crushed and people were trampled as every human being ran for their life.
Eren and Mikasa ran as fast as their legs could carry them to their house. Mother was there! They both turned onto their street and saw the house as nothing more than a pile of rubble. "Mom! Mom!" Eren screamed. The two children ran and ran until they saw her, Carla Jaeger, half-buried under the remains of their house. She had to have been halfway outside before the building collapsed on her and her legs were pinned by what was left of the roof.
"Eren, Mikasa," Carla said weakly as her vision swam. She heard her little boy call out to her as her children went to either side of her. "You have to get out of here, Eren. Take Mikasa with you," she said as her eyesight cleared. Her son violently rejected this as he and his sister went to either side of her and tried to lift the section that pinned her legs.
Her son refused to see reason, despite the ever-growing danger as footsteps like thunder approached. She desperately turned to her reasonable child, Mikasa, and tried to get her to take her brother with her. "No... ," Mikasa muttered, then loudly, "No!"
Carla's eyes were wide in fear for her offspring and she desperately tried to lie to her son that her legs were crushed and that she couldn't run even if they could lift the debris off of her. It was heartbreaking to see the look of despair she put into her brave little boy, but she had to get them to run. A light came into her eyes as a soldier swung down from the rooftops in 3D Maneuver Gear right next to their house. "Hannes!"
The blond-haired man stopped in front of them and knelt down. "Please," Carla begged, "Hannes, you have to get the children out of here!" Hannes just knelt there silently for a little while. "Hannes?" The Garrison Soldier suddenly stood up and headed towards the approaching footsteps. "Hannes, what are you doing?!"
"Carla," Hannes muttered, "Don't you worry. I'm gonna save your kids and you!" His legs began to move faster and faster all on their own as he picked up speed, Carla's yells at his back. 'Don't worry, Carla. I don't plan on dying today!' His hands whipped up and drew his twin swords with a steel ringing sound as he reached a dead sprint, his legs a blur.
He sighted his first Titan, a 7 meter-class crawling on all fours. His locked onto the creature as it saw him too and grinded his teeth together. 'I'm not going to lose,' he thought. "I'm going to protect my friends," he roared as his 3D Maneuver Gear shot its prongs out with a burst of gas. The prongs shot right past the Titan's shoulder and went all the way to the end of the street as it dug in deep in the side of a house. Hannes was lifted off the ground as the Gear's coils went taught and yanked him forward, nothing but a blur as his swords shone in the sunlight.
Sounds. He heard sounds.
Footsteps.
Screaming.
One blue eye cracked open slowly as sunlight shone in on him, lighting up his face. He slowly sat up and climbed out of his bed, already dressed. He reached for his door but stopped short, reaching out again when he had pulled out and emptied his hidden weapons stash.
He pulled open the and was face to face with a Titan, a 15 meter-class, bending down so that its face filled the doorway with that sick grin.
Hannes stood over his kill breathing hard, sweat pouring off him. He checked on the children. No, there were no Titans anywhere nearby. Hannes took to the rooftops and looked out over the district known as Shiganshina.
It was like a battlefield as far as the eye could see. Titans roamed through the town, conquering street by street as the humans ran from their one true predator in this world. Smoke floated up as fires raged in parts of the city, screams of the panicked masses floating on the wind and echoing throughout the whole district. Only a few of the brave and foolish fought against the Titans' charge, but none were within an entire kilometer of him.
Hannes saw a 15 meter Titan heading his way, a horrible smile lighting up its face. Hannes looked down at the 7 meter-class he'd just beaten. He was exhausted, he couldn't beat another one. "Damnit!" He fired his Maneuver Gear and twisted through the air, crashing down right next to Eren and Mikasa as their muscles strained to lift the beam off their mother. "Have you got it yet," Hannes asked.
"No," Eren gritted through his teeth as he kept trying, "This thing is heavy." Even Mikasa was beginning to tire.
"Hannes," Carla reached out in tears, "Please, you have to get them out of hear!" The woman was desperate to have her children taken away from these monsters, her life be damned!
"NO!" Hannes was in a fury now and stood over Carla, between Eren and Mikasa as they gazed up at him. "We are all getting out of this now," he declared with a ferocity that the boozehound drunk had not felt in his life before. He looked to either side of him at the two kids, "Eren, Mikasa, we're gonna lift this thing right off your mother right now!"
The two kids were inspired and felt their fatigue wash away in a wave of euphoria and braced themselves to lift as hard as they could. Hannes braced himself two and gripped the beam on either side of Carla. "Now!" The three lifted with all their might, the power behind their attempt doubled with the addition of a full-grown adult soldier to their efforts. The beam trembled and budged inch by inch until their strength finally gave out and it settled down on her knees. "Alright, that's it," Hannes growled, shooting his Maneuver Gear into the side of the house on the other side, "No more mister nice guy!"
"Hannes, its useless, you can't lift an entire house off of me!" Carla tried to tell him over and over as he set his feet against the huge piece of wood.
"Kids, get back," Hannes yelled to Eren and Mikasa. They backed away a few feet while he got ready, Carla continually saying that his efforts would be useless and he couldn't lift a house off of her. "I don't need to lift the house," Hannes bellowed as he hit the gas on his Maneuver Gear, "Just this single piece!"
Gas pumped out as the Maneuver Gear fought to real itself in against the heavy obstacle in its way and it would not be denied. Centimeter by centimeter, then inch by inch as it gained momentum as it slid down her calves. With a groan the house finally slid off of the woman, freeing her.
"Mother!" Eren and Mikasa rushed to their mother's side and helped her up as Hannes gasped for breathed, exhausted from his efforts.
"See, Carla," Hannes gasped, "I told you I'd get you out."
A shadow slid over them and blocked out the sun and they all looked up, the 15 meter Titan was here! They couldn't move an inch as the Titan stood smiling down at them, raising a hand and reaching out for them. Hannes and Carla's eyes met and there was no miscommunication, no hesitation.
"Damnit," Hannes swore and used the last of the gas in his Maneuver Gear to shoot forward ahead of the Titan's hand. Carla shoved her children towards him as she turned slowly, picking up a large piece of wood and swinging down. The chunk of lumber held in the Titan's skin, blood dripping out of the wound in the back of its hand as it halted for a moment. A second it should never have wasted.
Hannes grabbed Eren first, then Mikasa, as he swung around mere inches off the ground up and away from the Titan. He passed between the Titan and Carla for a moment and their eyes locked. Hannes wanted to look away, not meet the woman's gaze, but he wouldn't disrespect her like that and held out. He held her stare for as long as was possible before shooting away, carrying her family to Wall Maria.
Carla felt Hannes snatch up her children before she even saw him, felt the air whip into a frenzy as the soldier flew about in his Maneuver Gear. Then she saw him, Mikasa under one arm and Eren over one shoulder as he flew by her. His eyes locked onto hers and she could tell he was sad that he couldn't carry her away too. But, she was too heavy, her children alone would almost be too much for the trained soldier to handle.
He shot past her and carried her children to safety, her little boy yelling for Hannes to go back for her. Tears spilled from her eyes as her babies were taken away, tears of joy, sorrow and anger. Her children would live, that made her happy; she wouldn't be with them, that made her sad; and this Titan was the reason, that made her livid. The Titan reached down again for her, but now it was reaching for a human that knew it would die, but it was gonna go down kicking and screaming.
Eren was screaming and thrashing about as he tried to make Hannes go back for his mother, but the soldier refused to acknowledge him. "We have to go back," he yelled as he beat on the man's shoulder, "Mom is-!" He stopped and saw his mom lifted off the ground, thrashing about as much as Eren as she kicked and screamed. The Titan's other hand came up and wrapped around her.
They rounded the corner at the far end of the street as the Titan raised his unmoving mother to its open maw. All he saw after that was the sky turning red as he screamed. Hannes kept running and didn't look back.
He cut down the Titan with brutal efficiency, landing with nature-borne grace as blood flowed into the air. The headless body slowly fell to the ground, its severed body part landing beside it. He glanced down at the corpse as first its head began to steam, then where he had severed it at the neck, its blood evaporating from his blades as well.
He had escaped the Titan that tried to ambush him inside his home as it searched through the wreckage of his house for his body. He made for Wall Maria, dashing across rooftops, slashing at any Titan who came near him as he ran across the city. He moved swiftly for several minutes, crossing a quarter of the city to the gates before he saw any other Titan, sweat pouring off him and his muscles working to their fullest after a long time. When he saw a 15 meter Titan standing in his path he lunged and cut at its neck.
Once the body had stopped moving he spun around and headed to the nearest intact building to climb and resume heading to the walls. He stopped when he heard a sound. He looked over his shoulder and saw a woman lying amongst the rubble, next to the Titan's hand.
Hannes left Eren and Mikasa aboard the last group of boats carrying people inside the Wall, in the care of their friend Armin and his uncle. Eren sat in a corner, Mikasa by his side, as their friend tried to comfort him. "I'm sorry, Eren," Armin apologized, "Your mom shouldn't have been eaten."
"No," Eren said lowly, "she shouldn't have." Mikasa and Armin looked at each other before looking back at Eren, concerned. "It's all their fault," he went on, head down, "They're gonna pay. I'm gonna make them pay." A chill ran up their spines as Eren lifted his head just enough for them to see his eyes, the raw hatred and rage that tearing its way to the surface. Something humans hadn't felt in a long time was festering, begginning to burn, and that thing would burn those lowly creatures to ashes until there was nothing left. "I'm gonna kill the Titans," he whispered as the boat passed through the gate.
"All of them!"
The man stood up from a makeshift grave he'd shoved together for the woman. Poor thing had died from having her internal organs and entire skeleton crushed. She was barely alive for a minute once he'd killed the Titan, but she had suffered for that minute before she died.
He felt stirrings deep down, deeper than was fathomable, as the scenes around pulled at old memories. Unburying them.
A Titan rounded the corner and saw him standing there, a stupid grin on the dumb animals face as it strode closer like some dumb cow, expecting him to stand there while it came to munch on his flesh.
Blood began pounding in his ears. No, was it on his face? His lips curled into a snarl, or were they smiling? His muscles tensed, then relaxed. His grip on his blades tightened, then slipped.
The Titan reached down to pick him up, bending forward to snatch up the tiny morsel.
All he saw was red, and nothing but.
The Titan was nothing but a pile of steaming guts and gore now, completely pulverized. So was the rest of the street. The sound would draw more of them, but the animals were too stupid to realize this was the last place they would want to be. The blond man's mouth creaked open, a smile coming in that only Titans wore, sounds emerging from his throat that came out like twisted metal and screeching nails. "Heh, heh, heh."
I always remember hearing this old saying that I always thought was true: 'No matter how big the fish is, there is always a bigger fish out there.' Titans were supposed to be something more terrifying than anything mankind has ever seen. I think we know there is something worse out there now.
The reason for Naruto inside the walls is not arbitrary or asinine in the least. I have thought out how and why he ended up there very clearly and carefully. If you have any questions and want to know more, a question sent in to me will be responded to.
