Creation began on 09-08-21
Creation ended on 04-30-22
Attack on Titan
The Silent Corps
A/N: Say that the people heard only one truth, but were unaware of an entirely different truth that was meant to ensure they would be content…and that only those that were meant to know…would help to ensure a future, what would you say to that?
People had different reactions to hearing certain revelations, and, regardless of whether or not their reactions were positive or negative, there was no changing what they learned. As of a week ago, after the last attempted expedition to venture beyond the Walls, the Survey Corps, the third branch of the military meant to explore the world beyond the remaining human-ruled lands where giant monsters, the man-eating Titans that reigned for more than one-hundred years, had been officially disbanded due to their lack of results. The people that heard of this either felt relief for the first time in a long time…or anger at such a decision being made to ensure that nobody else was unnecessarily sacrificed to the inhuman might of the Titans. Whether elated or furious, this was an inescapable truth. The Survey Corps…was no more.
However, this was the official truth. The unofficial truth…was something else for only those that were sworn into secrecy in order to know of.
-x-
"…So, while the options for the recruits will be limited to the Garrison and MPs until a new security division has been established," Commander Erwin Smith informed Levi, two days after the Survey Corps was disbanded, "we'll still be going out there in scheduled expeditions, but they'll have to be at night when Titan activity is low."
"But why at night?" Levi asked.
"Because people are less inclined to be out at night and take notice of a small or large number of people going anywhere," said a stranger to them, wrapped in a dark cloak, holding an envelope in his left hand. "Make no mistake, I asked for leniency for your organization, but until further notice, the public cannot know of your continued operation. For now, the night must be where and when you explore the unknown. The night…must be where and when you can take out the enemy without much risk to yourselves."
"And since Titans aren't as active during the night hours, exploration and attacking operations will be easier," said Erwin. "When do we begin?"
"Two days from now, at sunset. I'll make sure you're still financed so you can get adequate results, so be careful out there. Learn from the night as you do from the day. The darkness and shadows can be just as much an ally as it can be an adversary."
The cloaked man gave Erwin the envelope and walked past Levi out the room they were in.
Erwin opened the envelope and extracted a letter.
"Just who is this man?" Levi asked him. "Is he a member of the nobility?"
"According to this letter, he is…and isn't," Erwin answered, reading the letter. "He has connections with different people that don't see eye-to-eye with the government and seek to one day live beyond the Walls. It also seems that we have a new designation. The Silent Corps."
"The Silent Corps?"
"Isn't it obvious? People need to believe that the Survey Corps no longer exists, so we need to be silent about it, and at night…we are silent. Makes perfect sense."
-x-
It might've hurt some people to see that the Survey Corps had been disbanded, but it was a necessity to ensure that the public had nothing else to say about them…and because it would ensure that only those that could stand up for something much greater than themselves and still manage to have a life once it was all said and done. To become a soldier when a crisis is known to you…and to commit to that cup half-full, half-empty lifestyle…was not the way to live, to truly live. As he walked beside the wall of Shiganshina District, the cloaked man, pulled down his hood, revealing a dark face…and even darker eyes…as he looked up at the night sky.
"Let the night hide all sins committed," he uttered. "Let the night turn the land into a place forbidden by most so that only a few that can survive in it thrive in it. Because in the night, in the dark…can you sometimes find hope."
He stopped walking, looked down at a small rock on the ground…and picked it up. When he stood back up, the rock in his right hand was replaced by a small knife with a curved blade.
"So many lives to change, so much time to make those changes…and yet so little time to ensure that my methods are leaving impacts on those that need to change. The boy, I'll give a few days to mellow out over the fact that the Survey Corps is longer an option for him. After that, I'll pay the doctor a visit and change his future. For now, I need to do two more things before this night ends. First, the woman needs a revelation on her own actions…and those people need to reevaluate their choices. So, the knife for the woman…and a bang for the people."
He turned the knife upside-down and pulled back to throw it, sending it into the night sky…and was gone in the blink of an eye.
-x-
In his room, a lone boy was upset that the Survey Corps was no longer around. For as long as he could remember, he wanted to join that branch of the military, to go outside the Walls, to not be forced to live in this cage with a bunch of people content to live like cattle. While the people were happy to know that they no longer had their taxes supporting a group of men and women that went out to try and survey as much of the land as they could, only to come back with fewer members than before they left, he was just displeased with the people more than he usually was. He needed to get out of this place, to see what the world was like outside the Walls, one way or another.
I gotta get out of here, he thought as he turned in for the night.
-x-
Nobody saw it happen…but the aftermath was devastating. A woman, beautiful to look at, but with a personality as temperamental as any unfriendly person, fell to the ground as a result of a knife to her back that just…appeared out of nowhere. As she lay on the ground, bleeding from the injury, her eyes perceived a dark-skinned man that looked down on her…and then a little girl with blond hair and a smile that was partially obscured by small bruises and blood seeping from her mouth as she looked at her.
"It can be cruel, poetic, and even blind when it's shared with devotion, purity and joy," she heard the man say to her, kneeling down to meet her gaze, "but when you deny it to those that need it most of all, either because you see them as a mistake or something less than a person, it is the violence of others you will be forced to accept as penance for your actions. Can you answer what it is that you have denied her? Do you even know what it is that you did wrong? You know deep down…and you can't lie to yourself."
The woman couldn't say anything; she was in shock from the knife to her back…and she passed out from the shock of being stabbed.
"You know deep down…and you can't lie to yourself," his voice echoed in her subconscious.
-x-
An empty building was set ablaze with enough force to wake up the entire city…and alert the authorities to something that was as confusing to them as it was to the people that saw it happen as they were walking down the street.
"What the Hell happened?" A firefighter demanded.
"The building just exploded," a woman explained.
"The building was empty, though," a man added.
BOOM! An explosion came from across the city; another empty building was set ablaze.
BOOM, BOOM, BOOM! Three more explosions came, presumably from three more buildings that were empty.
"What the Hell is going on tonight?" Another firefighter wondered.
-x-
Sitting by the docks as the fires destroyed five buildings that he made sure were empty, the dark man sighed as this was only the first of many things he needed to do to change the present and future. But for now, these people of this nation were at the bottom of his list of concerns. The burning buildings were just to distract them from something much bigger; he wouldn't put into effect much more serious actions unless he needed to. And the day after tomorrow, he looked forward to something that would have his attention.
"Okay, Silent Corps," he expressed, "it's your game now. Turn the night into your domain."
-x-
A day later, as the sun began to set and people began to turn in for the night, atop the wall of Shiganshina District, a number of people in dark green cloaks pulled along some horses and carts. Tonight was the night they would start their first official expedition as the repurposed Silent Corps. Lowering the horses and carts down to the ground while they still enough sunlight to guide the way, the expedition crew knew that they would only have two advantages to this new strategy: The decrease in Titan activity due to the lack of sunlight…and their orders to kill any Titan that they find if they couldn't restrain it for capture and study for later on.
"Isn't this exciting?" A young woman with goggles expressed as they were set to venture out.
"Not really the words I'd choose to describe this," went Levi to her, "and keep it quiet; nobody's supposed to know about this except the higher-ups."
"Let's go," Erwin ordered, and they set out into the night, just as the last bit of sunlight disappeared from the sky.
Atop the wall, the man that helped to enable them watched as they rode away from the district.
"Good luck out there," he uttered. "The Survey Corps is no more. Let's see what their successor, the Silent Corps, can do."
To be continued…
A/N: This was hanging in my list of stories that needed to be completed just to get it out there for others to read. Basically, it's based off what occurred in Lost in a Cruel World, where the Survey Corps was disbanded and Mikasa's parents are still alive, but I aim to have more than just a change in the identity of the third branch of the military. I hope you'll take interest in this story until it progresses further. I also want to hear from you what you think will happen in the future.