Warning story will contain mature content such as but not limited to graphic injury or deaths, gore, swearing, sexual content and more.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The blonde walked along the streets of Shiganshina, she still bore her dirty faded dress as she walked enjoying the day after some early morning chores. Her dress fluttered in the soft breeze. She nearly skipped down the streets enjoying the warm sunny day, though she was starting to feel hungry and a bit bored as she was walking the streets of the shopping district. The streets lined with little shops where people tried to make some money as they sold whatever they could make. The bright colours of some fresh fruit at a stand drew in big brown eyes as the kid barely in her teens walked up to the stand buying a fresh apple to snack on as she continued to walk.
She had heard the story of the latest scout mission that they had just returned after yet another defeat and great loss. A part of her had always wondered how people who trained so hard could just throw their life away. Or at least that had been her thoughts before that dreaded day. It had seemed like any other normal day, the sun had been shining, people were going about their days. Life had been great for most and at least normal for all. The wall had been their saving grace. But maybe humanity has grown too relaxed? Assuming nothing could break through the wall. Suddenly the sky filled with light and as the flash of lighting suddenly blinded her. And before she knew it the world had gone to hell in the split of a second. The world seemed to freeze around her as she looked up with wide eyes at the head of a titan that loomed over the wall. And suddenly the loud sound of the front gate braking sounded like an explosion beyond belief. Large rocks filled the sky and started to rain down on the people closest to the wall and gate.
Like many others Alex stood frozen struggling to force her body to move. But finally she kicked off and took off running towards the gate. Her father worked in a building not far from the front gate. As people ran away from the devastation she ran towards it forcing her legs to move even though her body had already broken into a cold sweat. She had to help. But how? She didn't know. Her eyes quickly searched the broken town as she came to an area that looked to be nearly flattened. She yelled out for her father hoping he was near by as she wasn't sure where her father may have exactly been as she couldn't even tell what building had been which as they all seemed to be flattened and destroyed. Suddenly a blood curdling scream drew her attention away from someone she had stopped to help to their feet. She froze looking wide eyed as a 13 meter titan started to stroll into the opening. She was defenseless as she watched the creature scoop up a person only to start chewing into them as if it were eating a candy bar. In a second the person was gone and the large pale blue eyes of the creature seemed to suddenly lock onto the kid as she stood there frozen as others had cleared our running for their life. She struggled to move, she was looking into the face of death and she knew it. She watched as the titan started once again to walk towards her.
'Move, damn it move,' she yelled at herself in her mind but she couldn't force her body to move as she stood there suddenly prepared to die as she watched her life flash before her eyes. It was a nice childhood while it lasted just to end up dying the second she saw an actual titan close up and not from the safety of the wall.
She watched the hand reach out for her as the stench of the beast filled her nose. It nearly made her eyes water as she stood there frozen. Suddenly as the hand reached for her nearly grabbing her she watched as a flash of green suddenly filled her vision and the arm that reached for her dropped to the ground from the elbow. The sound of cords screaming filled her ears and she watched as a body flew around the air looking rather graceful as she watched the flashes of green and brown fill her vision before the body disappeared behind the titan before she watched the body drop to the ground in a crash before smoke started to rise from the body. She looked up at a blonde man standing tall on the back of the titan. It was a scout! She could tell by the blood stained green cloak with the freedom wings on the back that he wore. They had barely returned from their last mission; she was surprised to find one in the area. Her brown eyes were met with hard blue eyes.
"You there! Don't just stand there, get moving," the blonde man barked. Her body jolted with the order and strong tone.
"Yes sir," she yelled as she watched a number of bodies suddenly come out of nowhere to land close to the blonde man calling out to him. And with that the young woman turned and started running not about to stick around and listen to the discussion the group was having. She now knew that she was useless at this moment and so she ran for the gate leading to the safety of wall Maria forced to leave her father behind. That day was one she would never forget. The fear, in the people and herself. The many losses of lives as people struggled to escape the Titans that poured into the wall. The knowledge that there was a colossal titan and a hard armored titan had shook the people to their cores. And yet it had truly lit a fire under a particular young woman as she grew up in the slums of wall Trost struggling to survive with her mother who had survived as well. Life was nothing short of hard for the young girl. Alex had grown a new appreciation for the scouts and what they did. And she decided as soon as she was old enough she would join the army.
And so that's what she did. Two years later the blonde woman stood wearing a tight uniform as she stood among less than a hundred other kids roughly her own age. She had dragged herself through hell, and now she was about to start an all new form of hell as she looked up at the bald man who was their teacher as he started to yell at some of the cadets to introduce themselves. Some looked ready to wet themselves and others stood tall not even flinching at the man's yelling. After all some of the people standing there had seen and experienced true fear and this commander was not scary. Finally the commander stood before her as she stood tall refusing to show the man fear as she saluted.
"You! what do you call yourself?" He asked, his voice a boom among the silence.
"Alexandra Racher, from Shiganshina," she replied, giving her first and last name like every other person before her. Though she could feel a few eyes glance over at her for the briefest of seconds before returning to look ahead. It seemed that was all the man needed before he moved to the shivering body standing beside her. There was no comment about her short stature or how she wouldn't even make it as a snack for a titan. The determined look on her face and her home town was enough to earn her some form of respect it seemed. She had glanced around earlier at her fellow cadets, it probably wasn't easy to guess with her small stature and slim build of the girl who barely stood a full 156 centimetres tall even in her uniform boots, was probably one of the older cadets in the group. At the age of 15 she still wasn't as tall as some of the cadets that were still 12. She had tried enrolling earlier with the 103 training Corp but she had been told she was too tiny and they didn't believe her age. But that didn't stop her from finally being enlisted as she stood tall and ready to start her training.
The early days of training had been brutal. Her body ached. Learning to use the ODM gear had not been overly easy for her but once she got the hang of it she picked it up fast enough to not end up eating ground like a handful of others. The first person to come to mind on the first few days was watching Eren Yeager struggle and continuously bash his head against the ground. For a few days it looked like he would be shipped off to the fields. But he pulled through, and ended up he had a broken piece on his belt. But not all had been as lucky the numbers dwindled down fast at first as people gave up when they hit roadblocks or found the training just too hard. But most pushed through spending the three years honing their skill and trying to learn to survive. The blonde had been quiet and often kept to herself. She got along well enough with everyone around her but she didn't go out of her way to make friends like others did. She didn't see the experience as one to be making friends, she kept her mind on the fact she was there to learn how to kill titans and nothing else. And that determination seemed to pay off as she got good grades. Still not the best out of everyone but still her hard work paid off over the three years.
She had always been a bit of a clumsy kid and she couldn't deny at first she worried about how that would affect her. Hand to hand combat was her toughest thing to excel at. On the ground she could still easily trip over her feet if she wasn't careful. But once hooked up to her ODM gear the girl could soar. Her small body made it easy to twist and flip in the air almost making it look like she was dancing as she flew around. Though compared to the class her grades were not top ten she had a lot of competition and any other year she may have ranked top of the class. But to be honest she never cared about being the best. She had already made up her mind where she was going to enlist. Just like a few of her fellow cadets she was aiming to be a scout. And yet it felt like the three years she had spend at the training Corp flew by and before she knew it she was standing with her fellow comrades ready to celebrate their graduation from training as they stood outside in the dark listening to the remind them to pick their future wisely and which of the three regiments they would decide to enter and who had made the top ten in the trainees before they were dismissed and left to go eat and drink to their success.
Alex was sitting at a table sipping some water as she had finished her meal as people seemed to be happy and celebrating. Suddenly the all to familiar voice of her fellow comrade filled the room and everything but his rant fell silent. It wasn't hard to know the kids feeling about the titan's, or how he would join the scouts. Her brown eyes watched as the brunette kid stormed out of the mess hall and his two friends took off after him. No surprise Eren always seemed to make a lot of noise any chance he got, it seemed nothing had changed in the three years of their training. And yet he somehow seemed to know how to influence those around him even if neither him or the people around him realized it. It was easy to read the room even after he had run out upset. Those who looked down at their own feet felt something. He had passion, and dare she even say at times some charisma but at the end of the day he was a hit headed kid who took things to the extreme.
"That goddamn suicidal maniac is gonna get himself killed," she heard the all too familiar complaint from Jean who had been sitting a little ways down the table from her.
"I don't know, I think he's got spunk," she replied, her tone soft but playful as she lifted her glass up to her lips to take a swig. She noticed Jean tense up and looked over at her seemingly surprised to hear her reply. Sure she had kept to herself and usually didn't go out if her way to make small chat but hell. This may be one of the last times she gets to see the man since he had made it so clear during their training years he would work inside the safety of the most inner wall as an MP.
"Call it what you want he's still an idiot," she heard the hiss from Jean which caused her to laugh lightly. A rather foreign sound that caused his eyes to grow wide and his brows to shoot up and hell it even looked like a blush crossed his cheeks a little. Not only was she chatting with him but for the first time in probably her three years of knowing him she had laughed in front of him.
"I never said he wasn't an idiot," she said as she laughed, not at all disagreeing with him. It was one of the instances where she agreed with Jean. Eren could often be an idiot who Mikasa had to tend to and help keep out of trouble for those stupid decisions he would usually make. She placed her now empty cup down on the table as he laughing had stopped before she moved to get up.
"Well I'm going to retire for the night, good night Jean," she said as she pushed herself to her feet about to walk away when he suddenly called out to her. His face now beet red as she paused to look over her shoulder a delicate eyebrow raised to ask him what without voicing her question.
"Oh uhm you should laugh more often, it's a beautiful sound," he stuttered struggling to force himself to say the words. After all what harm could it do surely in a few days the two would never see each other again. The one to become a scout and the other planned to work as a military officer.
"I'll try to remember that Jean," she said, flashing him a soft smile before she gave him a lazy wave and started to walk out of the mess hall leaving the man a mess of nerves and sweat after having worked up the courage to say what he did.