The sun beat down heavily early one morning in wall Rose, soldiers marched around in formation, rifles at the ready. They were guarding an enormous, crystalline temple located near Mitras. This temple, adorned with ornate sculptures that were seemingly built into the very foundation of the temple, was known to the walls as "The Tomb of the Black Angel." Entering the temple leads one to the main room of the temple, a massive hollow area surrounded by crystalline walls with several stone statues surrounding it, crystalline pillars holding the towering roof up, and an enormous number of balconies leading up to the roof of the building, each connected by crystal staircases. In the very center of the mountainous temple lies a massive sarcophagus over 200 meters in length, over 50 meters in height, and composed not of the crystal that made up the rest of the temple, but of neigh impenetrable stone. At the ceiling of the temple were several grey boxes attached to thick, black wires, of which no one realized the purpose. Up on the balconies, more soldiers stood guard, watching over the giant coffin.
Or at least, that's what they were hired to do.
In reality, because there was rarely an incident here, they spent most of their days playing cards and getting drunk, much like the majority of the Military Police around the walls. They would also occasionally make jokes questioning how anyone would steal anything here since everything was practically nailed down, or comment on how strange it is that the king puts so much importance on guarding this seemingly unused temple with a seeming lack of importance. The same was true for the guards on the outside, the majority of them just trying to find ways to keep themselves entertained while doing such a dull, boring job.
"Oi!" One of the soldiers called out to another one who was on the verge of dozing off. The soldier held his head up and looked over at his comrade, a woman about a year younger than him, was holding out a deck of cards she brought with her from home. "Wanna play?"
"Sure, I'm game," he said with a yawn and a stretch before the two sat down and began playing poker. While they were playing, however, a third soldier walked up to them both.
"Hey guys, did you hear? The Scouts are returning later this morning."
"Oh yeah?" The woman asked. "How many do you think are dead?"
"Seventy," her poker opponent said.
"One hundred," the soldier standing up said.
"I'm betting all of them," she said as she showed her hand.
Fire. As far as the eye could see, there were only flames and destruction. And at the center of all that destruction was a colossal creature with skin like charcoal and an unwavering grin. Many heroes tried to stop him, but all of them lie dead at his feet. He grabbed one of these fallen heroes by the neck and hoisted him up to eye level. As he held the fallen hero, two more monsters emerged from the flames, one resembling a dark shadow with brightly colored wings, and the other resembling the devil himself. The king's mouth began to open wider, and wider, and wider, and then the two halves of his mouth became three-thirds, as a purple glow began to emanate from within the creature's mouth.
And then, Eren awoke. His vision was blurry at first, but he eventually made out the visage of his lifelong friend, Mikasa Ackerman, kneeling over him and waiting for him to wake up. Eren groggily rubbed his eyes and blinked the sleep out of his eyes as he tried to recall the dream that he just had. Eventually, he found his voice again and spoke to Mikasa.
"Sorry, I guess I just dozed off…" he said while sitting up, his hands grasping blades of grass. "Man… it's like the dream I was having just went on forever."
Mikasa grunted softly in acknowledgment, then picked up her back cart loaded with firewood. She turned to instruct Eren to do the same when she noticed a few misty drops beneath Eren's eyes.
"Eren?" She asked, "have you been crying?"
Eren touched his damp cheek in surprise as a gust of wind blew over the both of them.
The two eventually made it back on their path back home, soon approaching a fifty-meter tall wall that stood between them, and the giant, man-eating monsters on the other side. As the two walked back home, they were discussing the state Mikasa found Eren in, and how Eren had no idea why he was crying, nor why he was asleep in the first place since he didn't feel tired before falling asleep. He just suddenly and spontaneously fell unconscious. As the two talked, they were suddenly stopped by a Garrison member and family friend of theirs, Hannes, who greeted them with his signature warm, red-faced, drunken smile.
"Someone botherin' ya, kid?" He said teasingly as he stood in front of the two.
"Oh, hey ," Eren said, while Mikasa silently waved.
"Or did you just get on Mikasa's bad side?"
"N-NO! That's not i-" Eren stopped mid-sentence and covered his nose in disgust. "Ugh! You smell like a tavern!"
Eren, Mikasa, and Hannes then overheard some of the other garrison members laughing at Eren's comment while playing cards and drinking ale. Eren was a bit annoyed by the soldiers as they laughed, while Hannes jokingly asked the kids if they cared to join in. Eren didn't acknowledge this, instead changing the subject to a growing concern that this display of laziness gave him.
"Aren't you supposed to be watching the walls?" He asked. Hannes chuckled and pointed up with his thumb before answering the young boy's rhetorical question.
"Yep! Watchin' the old gate, we are!" He then placed his hands on his hips and gave a tired look. "Thirsty work though, playing sentry, and pinochle only goes so far to chase off the boredom. Lil' nip now n' then keeps us all on our courage for a spell. Just one of the perks of being a guard!"
Eren was almost insulted by this display of laziness, apathy, and ignorance. He growled at the man before shouting, "How do you expect to protect us if you're so loose on your feet?!"
Hannes raised an eyebrow and questioned why he would have to fight.
"Why do you think?! What if they break through the walls?! We'd be sitting ducks on your watch!"
Hannes groaned and covered one ear after Eren's outburst. "Kid, not so loud! Use your inside voice, please!"
One of the other garrison members chuckled, commenting on Eren's fiery attitude before stepping up to explain to the kids that there's nothing to worry about.
"Listen, the only thing the titans have done in the past hundred years is scratch at it," he said. "And I have a pretty good feeling that if the titans do get it in their big heads to try something else, we'll be ready for it."
"A FEELING!?" Eren shouted in shock. "WHAT HAVE ANY OF YOU DONE TO BE READY FOR THEM!? DAD SAYS YOU ALWAYS HAVE TO STAY SHARP!"
"Ahh, good ," Hannes said with a pleased tone in his voice. "Yeah, well it's hard to argue with the man who singlehandedly spared us from the plague. But the thing is, he's talking about his scalpel, and what we do isn't half as important. I don't mean any disrespect to your dad, but a soldier's time beyond the wall tends to put things into perspective. When you see them wandering around out there, mindless n' dead-eyed-"
"Wait a minute," Eren interrupted. "It sounds to me like you don't even think they're all that dangerous."
Hannes shrugged, confirming Eren's suspicion. Eren gasped and then gritted his teeth and raised his voice once again.
"OH! Well if that's the case, at least don't tell people you're a garrison! PEOPLE MIGHT GET THE WRONG IDEA!"
Hannes laughed at that and jokingly agreed to Eren's comment. "Look at it this way though. If the garrison is doing what people think it oughta, it means they did get in, and if that happens, then we're up a creek. Personally, I take stock in being called a slacker. It means life is good. Peace of mind, I guess you could call it."
Eren's frustration was immeasurable and his disgust nearly caused bile to rise in his throat. He leaned down and clenched his fists around the straps on his arms, his hands trembling and rattling the firewood on his back.
"Good? You call this good?" Eren quietly hissed. "We live in a cage. All we do is eat and sleep. That's it. Nothing else. We have the peace of mind of livestock, and you call this good? You're wrong! This is no way to live!"
And with that, Eren marched past Hannes, Mikasa following Eren with a soft expression on her face after seeing him like that. Hannes sighed as they walked away, rationalizing that he's just a kid who tends to dream bigger than life wants him to.
On their trek back home, all Eren could think about was how humanity's lives would be so much better if they all worked together to take back the world that was rightfully theirs. How it wasn't fair that the titans were able to bully them into hiding behind these walls, which in his eyes were the ultimate symbol of mankind's submission to the titans. As the two walked, Mikasa decided that now that they were alone, she could confront Eren about his aspirations of joining the military.
"Hey, Eren?" Mikasa said, catching Eren's attention. "I don't think you should join the scout regiment."
Eren huffed in annoyance. "Seriously? Look, I don't care if everyone sees them as a joke! I'm going to join them!"
"Their reputation isn't the problem."
But before Mikasa could finish, a church bell started ringing in the distance, signaling that the scouts were returning from their latest expedition. Eren grabbed Mikasa's hand and hurried to the crowd of citizens waiting for them to return. The two arrived just in time to see Eren's heroes riding back through Shingonshina. However, while Eren was initially excited to see them, his excitement turned to confusion when he saw the disheveled looks on the leaders' faces, and then to horror when he saw the state the rest of the scouts were in.
Almost all of them were wounded in some way shape or form. Some were injured to the point where they had to be carried in wagons. Others had unimaginable injuries buried beneath layers upon layers of blood-stained bandages. Even worse, of the hundreds of soldiers sent out to fight the titans, only a handful remained. No one needed to ask what happened to the rest, because they all already knew.
They were eaten by the titans.
"MOSES! MOSES!"
Eren looked over at the other side of the crowd and saw an elderly woman break away from it and confront the commander of the scouts, Kieth Shaddes.
"I beg your pardon, but where is my son?" The woman asked. "Oh please tell me he made it."
"I wish I had better news." Keith turned to a soldier behind her. "Give it to her."
A look of utter panic swept over the woman's face as the implication hit her like a tidal wave. She tried her best to deny the truth, believing in her mind that there was still a chance he was alive, but those hopes were dashed when they handed her something that was swaddled up in a rag. The woman slowly unwrapped it and then screamed in horror when her own son's severed arm met her, the only thing they were able to recover after he was killed.
She began to sob and fell to her knees, prompting Keith to take a knee in front of her in an attempt to console her.
"H-h-he… he was b-brave… yes? Please, tell me my son stood his ground to the bitter end… THAT HIS DEATH MEANT SOMETHING! PLEASE! I NEED TO KNOW HIS SACRIFICE GAVE US A BETTER CHANCE!" The woman screamed with tears streaming down her face.
"He was brave!" Keith began but stopped himself. Anything he said in an attempt to console her besides that would be a lie. A lie he just couldn't bring himself to tell her. "But no. As with all our losses, his death meant nothing! It's ever the same…" Keith finally broke out into tears as well as he laid the truth bare. "THE DAY WAS LOST, AND WE HAVE NOTHING TO SHOW FOR IT! YOUR SON DIED BECAUSE OF ME! I SENT HIM TO HIS DEATH! I SENT ALL OF THEM TO THEIR DEATHS! AND THERE'S NOTHING TO SHOW FOR IT! ALL OF IT AMOUNTS TO NOTHING!"
Eventually, the scouts moved on, disgraced and dejected from yet another failure, leaving the crowd to mutter to themselves. Some even took the opportunity to heckle the Scouts for their repeated failures. However, one of these hecklers was swiftly smacked over the head with a piece of wood by none other than Eren.
"OW! YOU LITTLE PUNK!"
"You… YOU DON'T KNOW WHAT IT'S LIKE!" Eren roared, "YOU BASTARD! YOU DON'T GET TO TALK ABOUT THEM LIKE THA-A-AAAA!" But before Eren could finish, Mikasa dragged him down an alleyway, leaving the man he just hit to scream and shake his fist at him.
Mikasa, thoroughly done with Eren's nonsense, dragged him kicking and screaming before throwing him into a wall, causing him to drop his cart and wood to scatter all over the ground. Eren groaned and clutched his arm and groaned.
"So, are you still determined to become one of them?" Mikasa asked coldly. The two were silent for a few seconds, Eren trying to come up with a retort, but drawing a blank every time. Finally, he broke the silence by ignoring the question entirely.
"Just help me pick these up…" Eren said as he began to gather the dropped firewood.
"Not like there was much, to begin with," Mikasa replied. Still, she did help Eren despite that.
Following that whole ordeal, Eren and Mikasa arrived at home, where Eren's parents were waiting for him. His father, Grisha Jaeger, was writing his down notes on a piece of paper, while his mother, Carla Jaeger, was in front of Grisha doing the dishes. Carla stopped what she was doing to greet Eren with a warm smile, while Grisha looked back for a moment and smiled at his son, before returning to his work.
Eren and Mikasa dumped all their firewood into a nearby chest, and while Mikasa went to help with the dishes, Carla took a break to talk to her son.
"Wow, you must have been working hard to get that much wood," She said while Eren finished dumping his into the chest.
"Yeah…" Eren said nonchalantly, before suddenly feeling Carla give his ear a gentle pinch. "OW! What was that for?"
"Your earlobe's red. That means you have something to hide," Carla said teasingly. "Mikasa helped you again, didn't she?"
Eren groaned but nodded reluctantly.
After the dishes were finished, lunch was prepared, and the family sat down to eat together. All except Grisha, who was packing his things for an important business trip in the interior wall, Rose. While they were all together, Mikasa finally decided to bring up the topic of Eren's aspirations to the rest of the family.
"So… Eren's thinking about joining the scouts." She said, prompting Carla to gasp in shock and Eren to stop eating as he stared at Mikasa in disbelief.
"WHAT THE HECK, MIKASA!?"
"GET THOSE THOUGHTS OUT OF YOUR HEAD, YOUNG MAN!" Carla shouted, before getting up in Eren's face to scold him. "No son of mine is going to be fodder to those beasts out there! Do you hear me?!"
Eren, undaunted, pushed back against his mother.
"I don't care! It's better than being stuck behind a wall for the rest of my life!"
Grisha nodded with intrigue at Eren's conviction, then spoke up.
"Tell me, Eren, why do you want to go outside the walls so badly?" He asked. "You do know what could happen to you, right?"
"Yeah, I know! I know exactly what can happen to me, but it's better than living the life of a mindless farm animal!"
Grisha's lips stretched into a slight smile. "I see. Well, I'd best be going." Grisha then stood up, grabbed his bag, and headed for the door. Carla tried to stop him, get him to scold his son, and help her convince Eren that this was a bad idea, but he refused, simply pulling the key to the basement out of his coat. "Eren, when I get back, I'll finally show you what I've been working on in the basement."
After dangling that carrot on a stick in front of his son's eyes, he departed, leaving him and his wife to continue to argue while he got on a chariot to the interior. As he departed, he looked out the window and took in all the sights of Shinganshina that they passed by. He almost didn't want to do this. He knew he would miss all of this, and he would never be able to return to it if everything went according to plan. However, seeing the massive wall Maria looming large over him and the rest of Shingonshina made him feel small, weak, and trapped, and all these feelings reminded him of why he was doing this, to begin with.
Meanwhile, a short, blonde-haired boy by the name of Armin Arlert was being pinned against a wall and pummeled by a group of bullies who were teasing him for his sacrilegious desires and beliefs. Despite being beaten down, Armin never fought back, instead choosing to retaliate with wit and words, commenting on the bullies' inferior intellect and how they always resort to violence like a bunch of chimpanzees. The bully was just about to strike at Armin again for daring to talk back to him like that, when Eren and Mikasa, mostly Mikasa, arrived to scare them off. Afterward, Eren helped Armin to his feet, and the three took a walk to the river, where Armin explained to the duo that they were picking on him for mentioning how he believed humanity's future was outside the walls.
"That's so stupid," Eren commented as he chucked a rock into the river. "Why can't they just let us dream?"
"Well, I can see where they're coming from, even if I don't agree," Armin said. "Most people are scared to speak up about this sort of thing for fear of consequences. But more than that, the walls are a powerful idea. They've been standing for over 100 years, and they've kept us safe all this time. It's just human nature. When all's said and done, the government's policies are a reflection of our fears."
"Not mine," Eren countered. "I say to hell with that!"
"Someone's gonna hear you if you keep talking that loudly," Mikasa said.
"What do I care? You'll just rat me out anyway!"
"Hey, I never promised you I'd keep it from your parents."
"Wait, your folks know about the scouts?" Armin asked.
"Yep," Eren replied with a sigh. "And they're not happy."
"Yeah, big shock there…"
As the trio of friends sat by the river, the wind began to kick up as they contemplated the situation. To Eren and Armin, the whole world was against them. They only had each other and a select few other people to turn to, with that list growing smaller with all the time. But no matter what, they knew that they'd always have each other's backs in their quest to liberate themselves from the shackles of safety and be free to see the world.
As they contemplated this, a bolt of lightning suddenly struck down just outside the walls, followed by a massive boom that shook the ground and launched the three friends into the air. When the dust settled, the three saw people running to the town square to get a good look at the wall. The three followed the crowd but stopped in their tracks when they saw it.
A titan. A titan larger than any titan before it, without any skin on it, only having exposed muscle, and a face resembling a corpse. The Colossal Titan gripped the top of the wall, then lifted its head to look down upon the horrified citizens. It then slowly wound its massive leg back while holding onto the wall with both hands for balance, before slamming it into the gate, causing a massive wave of destruction throughout the city as debris crushed houses and people, and the force of the resulting explosion flattened every house closeby. It was a massacre, but the worst was yet to come. Because now that the wall had been breached, the titans were able to break in.
Eren and Mikasa fled the scene as soon as they realized that one of the rocks landed near their house, and left Armin behind as they disappeared into the crowd. Armin held out his hand but pulled it down as the horror of the situation sank in. Every last one of them was going to be devoured.
Meanwhile, back in Sheena, rumblings were happening there as well, as the guards of the tomb of the Black Angel all felt the earth shake beneath them. Before they could even question what was happening, they looked up and saw the grey boxes on the ceiling of the temple whirr to life before they heard something that sounded like a human voice come from all of them at once. The woman was speaking in a very monotone voice, but she was speaking their language nonetheless. But what she was saying confused all of them.
"Hostile kaiju activity detected. Infinity Engine reactivated."
They understood some of these words, but others were alien to them, and when placed in those two brief non-sentences, they sounded bizarre. And then, the speakers kept going, mentioning things like "weapon systems" and "charged particle generators" and other things that they had never heard of before. Then, just when they thought things couldn't get any stranger, the sarcophagus began to open.
"All systems online. All hard drives restored. Welcome back, Gigan."
What emerged was a towering mass of black metal with a silver beak and bright red lights adorning its body. One of these lights formed a singular eye which blinked several times, before the massive metal dragon arose from his slumber, revealing hands that resembled saws, a tail with a sharpened claw, and large wings with a sail at the center. The soldiers all stood in disbelief. All this time, they thought they were guarding what amounted to nothing more than a superstition, but no. The Black Angel was real. And more than that, he was alive.
After taking in his surroundings, the Angel spread his wings and took to the skies, flying straight out the front door and into the sky, traveling at speeds so quick that the people watching couldn't even perceive it. In their eyes, he was there one moment, and gone the next, without a trace.
As Eren and Mikasa ran home, they saw numerous people crushed by rocks and debris, or simply lying dead on the ground. Eren repeated to himself that their house was fine and that Carla would still be there, but then Eren screamed in horror when he saw his house was completely flattened.
Carla slowly opened her eyes when she heard her son's scream. She then saw Mikasa and Eren get to her sides and attempt to free her. However, they weren't strong enough to make it even budge, and to make matters worse, the titans were approaching them.
"Oh no…" Carla looked up at her son. "Eren, listen to me. Get Mikasa out of here, quickly!"
"NO! I'M NOT LEAVING YOU HERE!"
"Eren, my legs have been completely crushed. I can't come with you."
"THEN I'LL CARRY YOU ON MY BACK!"
Carla tried her best to get Eren to leave her, even asking Mikasa to take him, but no matter what she said, neither of them would leave her side. They both loved her too much to let her die like this. She wished Grisha was here to talk some sense into them, but even then, some part of her believes he would just help them as well. Just when things seemed hopeless, Hannes arrived to help them.
"Hannes, please! Take the children and run!" Carla pleaded, but even Hannes refused.
"Come on, Carla, that's not our only option," he said. "I'm a soldier, remember? This is what I was trained for."
"No! Don't!" Carla pleaded, but it was too late. Hannes already ran towards the titan steadily making its way towards them, planning to kill it on the spot… and then he turned tail and ran the moment he saw its face.
Hannes hoisted Eren and Mikasa into his arms and did as Carla asked, despite Eren's protests. As they ran away, Carla began to sob as she watched them flee. She didn't actually want them to leave her, but she knew deep down that there was no other way, as the titan casually brushed the debris off of her and reached down to grab her. She let out one last scream of terror as the titan's fingers were just about to clamp down onto her, Eren watching from within Hannes' grip as it all went down.
But then something strange happened.
The titan stopped.
In fact, all the titans stopped.
Save for a few dozen abnormal titans, all the titans stopped in their tracks, the people they were about to devour unexpectedly spared a gruesome fate, as they all looked up to the sky. Eren looked up as well and saw a strange, black figure flying in front of the sun. Its arms were stretched out to its sides and a low-pitched, repetitive noise came from it, drawing the attention of all the titans. The figure then flew over to the breach in the wall, hovering just above it and luring all the titans over to it, before flying away into the distance, with the majority of the titans following, almost as though they were in some kind of trance.
"Well, I'll be damned…" Hannes said. As soon as the majority of titans cleared the area, Hannes put Mikasa and Eren down and the three returned to Carla, then pulled her out of whatever debris was left behind. Hannes then ripped off pieces of his clothes to act as makeshift bandages for her bleeding legs before carrying her to an escape boat with the kids in toe, making sure to avoid any abnormal titans or even just regular titans that were left behind by the flying creature.
They thankfully made it just in time for Eren, Mikasa, and Carla to reach the last boat. Before Hannes left to attend to his duties, he took a knee in front of Eren and placed his hands on his shoulders.
"Listen, kid, I need to go help fight off these bastards. While I'm out there, I need you and Mikasa to get Carla to a hospital as soon as you get off the boat. Do you understand?"
Eren nodded with a determined look in his eyes. "Yes sir!"
Hannes nodded before zipping off with his ODM gear as just one thought crossed his mind. 'It's time to be a damn hero.'
As Hannes flew away, he contemplated why the titans would chase that creature in the sky. He figured that maybe the titans had beef with it or something, but whatever the case may be, he was just happy that it showed up when it did, and even more so that his mother was okay. Even if she lost her legs, she was alive, and that was all that mattered to him right now. Eren remained close to his mother throughout the remainder of the trip, tears welling up in both their eyes as they both held onto eachother. Mikasa and Armin both saw this and were happy the two had eachother, though Armin eventually had to ask what happened to Carla's legs.
"That huge titan did this…" Eren growled. "When he kicked the wall, one of the pieces of debris fell onto our house, with my mom still inside. Her legs were completely crushed, and she was trapped. She could have died if it weren't for that… thing."
"Oh…" Armin stood up and took a seat next to his best friend. "I'm sorry Eren."
"Don't apologize, Armin. It's not your fault," he said. He then looked up and saw the remaining titans rampaging through his home and his hate boiled. "It's theirs… and I'm going to eradicate every single one of them."
Meanwhile, down in an alleyway, a blond, muscular young girl leaned against a wall with her arms crossed, waiting for her associates to arrive. Eventually, he heard the rumbling of heavy footsteps as a titan covered head to toe in armor plating arrived with a human cupped in his hands. The Armored Titan dropped the brown-haired, slightly darker-skinned tall boy off with Annie before nodding to both of them and rushing towards the gate leading deeper into wall Maria.
"So… why did Reiner just drop you here in his Armored form, Bertholdt?" The girl asked with crossed arms. "Wasn't I supposed to do it while he goes straight for the gate?"
"I'm sorry, Annie," he said. "But Reiner saw I was about to get eaten by a titan, so he came and rescued me."
Annie rolled her eyes. "So you're telling me your idea to exit your titan as soon as you kicked the wall was a bad idea? What a shock."
The lambasting from Annie was interrupted when a titan loomed over them. Annie sighed upon seeing it and held one hand up to her mouth.
"We'll talk about this later."
Out in the countryside, Gigan landed in a clearing so far away from the walls that they were completely out of sight. He then aimed his chainsaw hand to the ground and it suddenly slipped into his arm, which then shifted and deformed and in just a second transformed into a square-shaped nozzle that sprayed out a tiny amount of nano metal that then replicated and coalesced into a large device with the letters "O.R.C.A." written on the front of it. It released the same noise that his own in-built O.R.C.A. was making, but without the ability to create a new Infinity Engine, this O.R.C.A. would only last a few days max. He hoped that would give the humans enough time to patch up the hole in their wall while he took flight, flying off to find his old friend Ymir Fritz, and find out what on Earth happened that made her do this.