Eren couldn't pinpoint the exact time he started hearing voices in his head. All he knew was that his life turned to shit shortly after they manifested themselves. In actuality, they were the least of his problems, he really did have bigger things to worry about. That unholy position resided in an unlikely candidate: Mikasa Ackerman.
This is all her fault, Eren thought sullenly. It was her fault he was marooned on the home of his enemies. It was her fault that he was confined to a mental hospital full of fellow loonies. And it was her fault that he was sitting on a useless stump of a leg.
Well, he thought with a grimace, that might have been his doing.
"Mister Kruger!" Eren's head swiveled in response to his alias, seeing a young blonde boy running at a gait far too eager and carefree for a place like this.
Ah, Falco. One of the constants that Eren's new life of solitude brought.
"Falco… you know how much I hate to see other people running." Eren deadpanned, gesturing to his leg, decapitated at the knee.
"Sorry Mister Kruger, but I really, truly couldn't wait!" Falco bounced on his toes, eyes gleaming with excitement. Eren really, truly doubted that, as he spent most of his time at the hospital waiting. The young Grice had manifested himself early on during Eren's extended stay at Liberio, Marley. His presence reminded Eren of the current problem at hand, one that Falco had offered, or rather begged, to assist him with.
"The Love Doctor is here!" Falco's prepubescent voice chirped loudly in Eren's ear.
"I'm going to pretend that you didn't just say that." Eren said.
Falco plopped himself next to Eren on their signature bench, knocking over one of Eren's crutches in the process.
"So…" Falco leaned conspiratorially in, a quick swish of his cropped blonde head suggesting a cautionary glance to ward off onlookers. "Hows 'The Letter' going?" Falco grinned. "The Letter," referred to a project that Eren and his small co-conspirator had been working on for the past couple weeks.
Eren sighed loudly reached for his crutches. "Not good, Falco. Not good." The overturned piece of wood alluded his grasping hand. "I cant find a word that rhymes with 'manly hands.'"
Falco hmmed, lost in thought, and, ever the helpful caretaker, leaned Eren's crutches against the bench.
"Thanks." Eren deliberated, and took a rumpled piece of paper out of his pocket, casting a critical eye over it. "Are you sure this will even work?"
Falco snorted, boastful. "Of course! I've sent thousands of love letters to Gabi! Its worth it just to see the smile on her face!" Falco neglected to mention that the love letters he had sent remained anonymous and the smile on Gabi's face was actually an expression of absolute dumbfounded confusion.
Eren did not usually make it a habit to take love advice from a twelve year old but at this point, he was desperate and Falco currently was beating him on the amount of girls wooed scoreboard: 1 to 0.
Eren sighed again and reflected back to why he was here.
Five words that had changed everything. "What am I to you?"
He chuckled inwardly at his own naivety. Unable to face his feelings towards his dear friend, Eren had left his place of origin, abandoned his friends in a fruitless navigation of a new fear-inducing, heart-palpitating emotion. But he figured that he might as well make the most of it.
An ungodly screech split the air. Eren and Falco glanced over, displaying little concern for the source of the noise. Dr. Yeager, a local resident of the hospital, and fellow loony had begun his 3 p.m routine of screaming at the top of his lungs.
Eren exhaled. "Falco, go check out a wheelchair at the front office. I'm getting a headache."
It was bright blue sky, a perfect day for a picnic, or for a warrior candidate and his war-veteran amputee associate to commune in a local park near the mental hospital. Eren swung his legs, or rather, leg, brushing dirt with his bare foot. He stared in condemnation at a bird feeder. An all-too-fat squirrel was stuffed in it, vying for escape, hindquarters wriggling fruitlessly.
"All of its freedom… stolen from it…" Eren blinked slowly up at the sad scene before him, eyes glistening.
Falco, who was tracing a circle in the ground with a nearby stick, thought that Mister Kruger could be pretty depressing at times. And he hung out with Reiner on a daily basis.
"Hey Mister Kruger?"
"Hm?"
"Do you think a guy like me has any chance inheriting the Armor?"
Eren already had the words, "no," on his tongue until he registered the question.
"Wait," Eren began slowly. "The Armor? As in… the Armored Titan?"
"Well yeah, uh duh!" Falco laughed. "Remember? When you gave me advice about surpassing Gabi!"
Eren remembered. He remembered telling a vaguely annoying, but well-meaning, kid some bullshit about "moving forward," some recycled speech from Reiner. Reiner. The Armored Titan. Maybe he should've listened to Falco more often.
"Falco. Reiner and I. We're actually old friends," Eren said.
Falco glanced up to Eren in surprise, his stick falling with a clatter.
"Huh!? No way! Really?" Falco babbled. "Why didn't you say anything when I mentioned Vice Captain Braun!?"
Eren scratched his ear. "That's uh.. because I wasn't listening. Anyways, seeing an old friend might make me feel a lot better."
Falco leaped up, invigorated with a sense of purpose. "The festival! You guys could meet at the festival!"
Eren smiled. Reiner would know what to do about his current situation. Maybe some good could be salvaged from this disaster.
"Hey! You Eldians aren't supposed to be here!" Eren saw a knob-nosed Marleyan guard marching towards him and Falco, then turned to look at who he was talking to. Wait. Eren glanced at his armband.
Oh, right. Eldians.
"Push, Falco, push!" Eren shouted. Falco hurriedly grabbed the metaphysical reigns and, with the help of Eren pantomiming the movement of a row-boat with his crutches, sped off in the direction of the hospital.
Levi considered himself a lot of things. Sloppy was not one of them. That was, until he lost the damn founder. Perhaps it was divine punishment for his sloppiness that he was now sitting, cross-armed, at a dusty conference table alongside Hange and the rest of the freshly instated ruling military.
Premier Zackly cleared his throat. "We have received a letter from Eren Yeager, passed on by his brother, Zeke."
A collective wave of shock rippled through the room. The Scouting Legion reacted in a particularly volatile manner.
Levi raised an eyebrow. Maybe this meeting was a blessing in disguise.
Zackly placed the crumpled paper on the table. "I must say… the contents are a bit hard to decipher. The handwriting is absolutely atrocious."
"Lemme see." Levi grabbed the letter and held it up. He read aloud. "Dearest Mikasa, the Heart Doth requires its soulmate and I find myself missing you as much as I miss my severed Leg- Okay what the fuck is this shit?"
He glanced to Mikasa for an answer but she looked just as confused as the rest of them.
Armin raised a tentative hand. "Permission to speak sir?"
"Granted O Colossal One." Zackly said.
Armin shifted uncomfortably, partly because of the title and partly because he couldn't tell if the Premier was joking or not. Then he spoke eagerly, "Its encrypted! Eren must've taken measures to make sure it doesn't fall into enemy hands!"
"You're right, Armin!" Hange chimed in, excited at the idea.
"Uh.." Connie scratched his shaved head, holding the letter sideways. "I don't know guys… It doesn't really seem like something Eren would do."
Jean agreed. "Who the hell writes this kind of stuff? And it says, 'For Mikasa's beautiful sparkling eyes only?' What a creep!"
Levi snatched the letter back from Connie's grasp, and leaned back on his chair. "Mikasa. Anything stand out to you as a code of some sorts?"
Mikasa took the offending paper and read it over, eyebrows raising incredulously, invisible behind dark strands of hair.
"This certainly seems like Eren's handwriting sir. If I were to guess…" Mikasa pursed her lips. "I would say its a call for help."
The operation for retaking the founder would begin at nightfall. Armin had some misgivings on the both the reliability of Zeke Yeager's cooperation and the volunteers abilities to carry out their tasks.
He could feel the nervous tension in the air as the Survey Corps prepared for the fight of their lives. For the fifth time. His hands trembled slightly, an old habit, as he clasped metal bar to metal bar on his uniform.
Most of all, he doubted his own abilities to go through with the plan that he had devised.
"Mikasa." Armin called out. "Do you think the contents of that letter seemed a little… strange?"
Mikasa sat with her back slightly curved, experimentally testing the trigger of her modified ODM gear.
Armin continued. "I know it had seemed like Eren wanted us to stage a night time attack on Liberio, Marley at exactly 9:00 p.m Eastern time, but I can't help but wonder… were those Eren's true intentions?"
Mikasa stood, sighed, and grabbed her customary scarf. "I don't know."
She wound it around her neck slowly and rested a hand on the worn piece of fabric.
"All I know is that Eren needs us."
Sister Tybur really had thought that the Attack Titan would be a more formidable opponent.
The Warhammer stood, feet planted firmly on the ground, a rigid statue. The massive hammer in its hands swayed gently as she brought it up for another blow. Alarms rang, signaling the evacuation of Liberio.
Embalmed in white, she stared impassively through vertical strips of flesh at the miserable cusp of a titan, holding the Founder inside of it. With the nape exposed, she could make out his ragged form. Sister Tybur narrowed her eyes and spoke, feeling her titan mimic her action of speech.
"Usurper…Eren Yeager. Have you any final words?"
This was the most fun Sister Tybur had in years.
Eren was seeing stars after that hit. Through a puff of steam he could just make out the form of the Warhammer Titan readying its weapon. No matter. He would just simply jump off his titan form and-
Eren tugged at his leg. Nerve strands ran all the way up his thighs, connecting him solidly to the minced nape of the Attack Titan. He was stuck.
Dammit, Eren thought sourly. Of all the times…
Eren quickly bent double and began rapidly plucking fleshly red tendrils off his lower torso, as easy as pulling weeds.
The Warhammer spoke in a deep melodious reverberation.
Last words huh? Eren thought as he frantically pulled nerve ends, tossing them behind his back. 'I'm too young to die' came to mind. As did 'Please give me a closed-casket funeral.'
In the end, Eren decided on something a little more melodramatic.
"Mikasaaa!"
Eren squeezed his eyes shut.
BAM
I'm dead, he thought. He felt a presence near him, familiar and warm.
An angel perhaps?
"Eren… please… come home."
Eren opened his eyes to see his angel manifested itself in the form of Mikasa. Close cropped black hair blew gently in the night breeze, and a slab of gleaming metal on her chest bore the Wings of Freedom crest.
"Eren… do… do you have any idea what you've done?"
Eren gawked, beginning to realize that he was, in fact, alive and Mikasa was here. In Liberio. He selected a word from a probably-dead Falco's reservoir: "Eep!"
"How... why-?!"
Eren was interrupted by a long spear-like projectile hurtling straight to his immediate location. Mikasa grabbed Eren's arm with one hand, shot a grapple into a nearby tower with the other and swung to safety. Eren gasped as his arm was nearly wrenched out of its socket.
"I got your letter, Eren," Mikasa said grimly.
Eren, busy with the task of trying to comb his grimy hair, looked up at her quickly.
"Oh. Heh. You did, huh? And what did you think?" Eren tried to gauge her reaction.
Mikasa crossed her arms. "We all made it. Armin too."
"Huh?"
BOOM
An enormous explosion punctuated her words. Eren whipped around to see huge plumes of smoke and steam making their way up from a spot near the harbor.
"What the fuck, what the fuck, what the fuuuccck," Eren whispered, peering over his precarious spot on the radio tower.
"I'll distract the titan, but," Mikasa looked back at Eren. "Ultimately, you're going to have to take it down, Eren.
Eren just nodded, what else could he do? The whirr of modified metal on cable sounded and off Mikasa flew.
Eyes narrowed, Eren thought back to when the Warhammer had first materialized. His mouth set in a hard line. Mikasa needed him.
Time for a hail mary.
Eren tasted the Captain's boot for the first time in a long time. Levi's leather-clad foot connected with the tender area of his exposed jaw, the impact throwing him bodily and evicting some spare moths residing in his hair. His skull knocked, hard, into the wall of the airship,
"That was for dragging the Survey Corp into this shit show. And for being filthy." Eren stared cross-eyed up at Levi, brain still rattling.
"M' think you gave me unh' concussion." Eren kneaded aching temples with one hand, the other still pressed on the cold metal of the airship. Cold… Eren thought. He pressed his cheek to the grimy floor. "Ahhhh…"
Levi was still talking. "…never thought I'd see you like this."
Hey. Get up. Stand, Eren.
Eren felt rubber boot heels dig cruelly into slushy brain matter. Electrified, he jumped to his feet. The world spun. "Gnh."
A steadying hand pressed into his shoulder. Mikasa.
"Is he okay?" Armin's concerned voice rang out.
"Concussion…" Eren gasped again.
"He transformed three times." Mikasa explained. Was nobody listening to him? She gently guided him to a metal bench and Eren sat heavily.
Pretty woman fawning over you? I'm jealous.
A cigarette was lit, plumes of smoke floated lazily through Eren's mind. He gnashed his teeth trying to dispel the all-to-familiar voice. The floor of the massive flying machine spun.
An airship, huh? Love these things.
"Shut up please." Eren furiously rubbed his temples against images of a man, tall in height with a beak of a nose, appraising his successor. Eren Kruger put out his cigarette, dying hiss under grooved boots.
Eren's half-brother, Zeke, sat in the corner, stumps hissing, crowing softly, "Yesss, all according to plan. Hee-hee hoo."
Wonder boy, Kruger thought.
"Wonder boy!" Eren blurted.
Armin's face came into focus. Then bright, searing light. Eren reeled backwards, temporarily blinded.
Armin leaned back to standing position, holding a small flashlight.
"Yep, one eye is bigger than the other. He's concussed."
"Why doesn't he just heal?" Levi said. "I didn't kick him that hard."
Mikasa frowned. "Hard enough to give him a concussion. And he transformed three times."
A metal door slammed open, marking Jean's sudden arrival, two children in tow. One, a dark haired girl, eyes wide with the shock of seeing her War Chief alive and well. The other…
"Falco? You're alive?" Eren exclaimed.
"Mister Zeke?! Mister Kruger?!"
Eren could feel the real Kruger's pointed gaze on him.
Falco didn't looked too pissed on the whole collapsing-a-building on him business. Reiner really pulled through that time.
The boy's eyes flitted from Mikasa to Eren then back to Mikasa. Eren felt a Falco-sized headache coming on. Falco dropped suddenly to the ground, out of Jean's grasp.
"Uhh..! My contacts fell out!"
"I'll help him look." Eren said blandly, also dropping to his hands and knees. Jean stared, bewildered. While they groped for a non-existent pair of contacts, Falco whispered excitedly to his dirty partner-in-crime.
"How'd 'The Letter' go?"
"Not good Falco, not good," Eren sighed quietly. "She showed it to all my friends. And the entire military."
"Sheesh! Good thing you didn't sign it right?"
Eren turned to him. "Eh…"
Jean grabbed Falco by the scruff, eliciting a small, "Eep!" and sat him down next to a shell-shocked Gabi.
"Eren, what the hell is going on? Sasha almost got shot you know!"
Eren held a finger up and opened his mouth to respond with, 'Shit happened, tempers rose and now I got the Warhammer in my belly. Also I may or may not be hearing voices of dead people.' Instead-
Incoming, Kruger said.
Eren's stomach turned inside out. "Urp! Blarrhggh." Bile, a testament to Eren's swollen brain and the sloppy festival food he ate earlier, splashed onto Jean's shoes. The Owl stepped nimbly over the puddle.
"Yeearrrgh! Disgusting, man!"
Eren guilty wiped his lips.
"Vomit," Zeke astutely observed.
The blimp ride back home was quiet after that, apart from the Survey Corps talking Levi out of killing Eren.