A pair of icy blue eyes fluttered open. She squinted her eyes, the sharp rays of sunlight piercing her irises like needles. Everything around her was silent, eerily silent. Closing her eyes again, she decided to go back to sleep on the hard pillow again.
Her eyes launched open, she sat up abruptly and looked around. She was in a vast hall, hundreds of mattresses were laid about on the cold, unwelcoming stone floor. Hundreds of people sat in groups about the mattresses clearly distressed. People were carrying loaves of bread to individuals. Pushing a tress of her blonde hair out of her vision she absorbed her surroundings. The hall was indeed massive, all the lamps lined along the wall were extinguished and out dry. She looked through a massive window pane noticing the pink of the sky.
She softly kneaded the mattress, confused as to what was going on and where she was. She looked to her left and was gifted to see two young boys sitting by her side. A long, thick silence followed before she spoke.
"Where are we?" she questioned softly. A momentary pause followed before the stouter blonde boy answered.
"Inside Wall Rose..." he muttered.
She blinked once, then a second time. A ray of sunlight seeped through the window and split the air between the three of them. Wall Rose... she thought to herself. Her jaw dropped slightly open, her most recent memories coming back to her.
They had broken Wall Maria.
Bertholdt and Reiner had managed to breach the wall. They really had done it. The last thing Annie could remember was her passing out on the plated collarbone of the Armored Titan. Before that she had been running towards the wall, enveloped by the steaming hot flesh of her titan.
She couldn't remember anything all of a sudden again. Annie glanced at Reiner, his face was glued to the ground, a look of distress on his face. Bertholdt looked no better in any regard, the timid black haired boy looked bothered and upset.
Annie closed her eyes and let her head droop, a sigh escaping her mouth as she did.
"Annie..." She shifted her gaze to Reiner upon hearing him call out her name. "Bertholdt." he muttered, his face grimaced, his teeth grinding together in what seemed to be disgust and yet, desperation. He wrapped an arm around each of them, bringing the trio into a close group hug and said despairingly, "I'm sorry Marcel..." He closed his eyes, his face screwed in pain, "I promise to be a better warrior."...
That was two years ago... Annie thought to herself. She was about to curl up and puke all over the arid soil just seeing Reiner now.
"TELL ME!" barked the instructor. "WHAT THE HELL DID YOU COME HERE FOR?!" roared the instructor what could probably be considered too close for comfort. No, dangerously close.
"To save humanity!" boldly stated Reiner in response to the ferocious beast in front of him.
Her stomach turned upside down in disgust. She had no idea why she even stood there, stupidly with her hands behind her back, a foreign emblem embroidered on her brown jacket's pocket. She had in fact inspected the uniform before hand. The jacket was linen made and so were the pants. The belt was made out of black linen and not leather, something she had not expected.
She glanced to the side and examined her surroundings. This was something Annie had always been able to do quite well, at least to her belief. She made careful not to be caught by the bull dog like instructor who currently had his hands full. The camp was quite large compared to the training camp back in Marley, something Annie had not expected.
From what she had heard, the training facilities to the military of Paradis Island covered thousands of acres of land, a tremendous amount of land for a military base. From mountains to forest, the camp seemed to have everything. But what required such an absurd amount of area?
No. Annie thought to herself, This wasn't the time for her to get distracted. Getting caught by the instructor would be the worst thing possible. Their goal was clear, the three of them had to make it into the top ten. Get into the Military Police and find a way to get to the Founder. How were they going to do it? Annie had no idea specifically. Did she trust Reiner to her life? Absolutely not. Did she trust Reiner to make good decisions? No she didn't. But what else was there to do? It wasn't like Bertholdt nor she herself would be able to make a decision any better than Reiner could. All she knew was that she didn't want to get left behind, as long as she stuck with Reiner and Bertholdt she had a way home.
That was what mattered the most.
That was a long way away though. Three years of training had to be endured, there was no guarantee also that any of them would make it into the top ten. If they did make it into the Interior, who knows how many years it would take for them actually find the Founder. Whatever it was, finding the Founder was the only ticket back home. Anything else was a bargain. Not as if there was anything else worth retrieving.
Annie narrowed her eyes deep in thought, two years had already passed by on Paradis, she had ten years left. Ten years wasn't a lot of time in reality. It was like a terminal disease, living on a clock. The next three years would be spent training to join the Military Police. She'd also probably be the one moving in and out of the interior scavenging for any form of useful information.
It was not like she had been able to do much in the past either. Provided that being a woman, she was the only one among the three of them able to move freely in and out of the interior, the duty of finding information had been bestowed on her.
The first night she had been out in the Interior, she had been left stranded, no idea what to do. A kid, not even fourteen years of age stranded in the middle of a busy town, trying to find information about an entity whose existence none probably knew about. The first night she had come back empty handed to Reiner and Bertholdt, the two of them had appreciated her efforts. It was not like she had been able to put any effort in anyways.
In her two years of scrounging and digging, all she had managed to find was the fact that the King of the walls was all but just a puppet to the real royal family who remained in hiding, with the Coordinate as well. She had suggested to return to Marley with the information they had gathered, but now looking back on the idea, it was a dumb one. They would've been persecuted by Marley and their families disgraced due to their failure to obtain the Founder. Reiner was right...
Bringing back the Coordinate was the only way Annie was going to get to go back to her father. It was the only way any of them were ever getting back to Marley.
The fearsome yells of the instructor seeped into her ears as she was brought back to reality. Whatever it was, three years of hell were just beginning and it surely wasn't a good beginning at all. Annie sighed and shuffled her right boot in the dirt slightly while the instructor brutally headbutt one of the recruits, a sickening pop ringing through the dry air as he did...