"TODAY YOU HAVE COMPLETED YOUR MILITARY TRAINING!"
All the cadets were lined up in front of the training division headquarters. The night air was blowing on the cadets. Three years ago, most of them were no different from regular people, but today they would finally become soldiers.
"I WILL NOW ANOUNCE THE TEN AMONG YOU WHO HAVE OBTAINED THE TOP TRAINING RESULTS! COME FORWARD IF I CALL YOUR NAME!"
Dina was anxious to hear the results. These five years were long enough for her to know how much she needed to join the military police.
"AT THE TOP OF THE CLASS, MARCEL GALLIARD!"
"SECOND, MIKASA ACKERMAN!"
"NUMBER THREE, REINER BRAUN!"
"NUMBER FOUR, BERTHOLDT HOOVER!"
"NUMBER FIVE, EREN YEAGER!"
These were the members of the first five. Dina felt pride swell within her as she heard Eren's name. He worked really hard for this.
"NUMBER SIX, JEAN KIRSTEIN!"
Dina felt a smile form on her lips.
'He must be really mad about being one place behind Eren' she thought.
"NUMBER SEVEN, MARCO BOTT!"
"NUMBER EIGHT, CONNIE SPRINGER!"
"NUMBER NINE, SASHA BLOUSE!"
This is it. Now or never.
"AND NUMBER TEN, DINA FRITZ!"
She made it. Her plan worked perfectly. She had the right to join the military police. From there, finding the real king was only a formality. She heard a lot about the MP's "work" in the interior, and if she were attentive enough, she could make it into the king's inner circle.
"SOON, I'LL BE ASKING YOU WHICH BRANCH YOU WANT TO BE ASSIGNED TO. BUT AS OF RIGHT NOW, THE TRAINING CORPS IS OFFICIALLY DISBANDED! DISMISSED!"
"YES, SIR!" Yelled not the cadets, but real soldiers.
Dina was sitting at the table with Eren, Mikasa and Armin. Compared to the corps' canteen, the food in the headquarters was tasty, even though it was still simple. She suddenly got reminded of the time they were eating meat before enlisting.
Dina felt sadness overwhelm her, because while the kids didn't know it, she and them would part ways real soon. They were still serious about joining the survey corps. Over the years she was actually hoping for Eren to change his mind. His friend Marcel often advised him to join the military police, but Eren was dead set on his goals. Even though his stance was admirable, Dina hoped he would be spared from the all the suffering.
"Oh, come on!" She heard Jean say, "are you still playing the goody-goody Marco?"
"Tell me how you really feel" he said to the boy "you can't wait to get into the interior, right?"
"We can finally escape this suffocating, front-line town!" Jean exclaimed "a safe, comfortable life is waiting for us in the interior, right?!"
Dina sighed. It seemed like there was no hope for the boy after all. She didn't really condemn people who just wanted to save their own lives, but what Jean expressed was a completely new level of cowardice.
"Shame on you! At least I'm not…" Marco yelled at Jean.
"My bad! I forgot you were a prize pupil!" Jean turned towards others "But what would you guys do?!"
The fledgling soldiers looked down.
"You'd all like to go to the interior, right?!" Jean stated sitting back with a smile.
"Hey…" Eren said suddenly "you said the interior is comfortable…?"
"Until five years ago, this town was part of the interior, too."
Jean looked at Eren, agitated.
"Jean… You don't need to go to the interior. I mean isn't the interior of your brain soft enough for you?"
Reiner spit out his drink barely containing his laughter. Dina watched as Eren stood up. She wasn't concerned about it though, Eren proved that he could take care of himself more than enough.
"Are you trying to say that I'm an idiot, Eren?" Jean said standing up.
The two met halfway from their tables.
"I'm just looking at the reality as it is" Jean started, "four years ago twenty percent of the human population went out and ended up in titans' mouths."
"For every titan that was defeated, an average of thirty humans died. The number of titans exceeds that ratio by far."
Jean closed his eyes.
"I think it's crystal clear. Humanity doesn't stand a chance…"
The atmosphere suddenly got a lot more bitter. Dina knew that Jean's logic was correct, but she wondered if he would sing a different tune, if the king never took his people's memories.
Jean sighed.
"Look… It's like a funeral in here, thanks to you" he said.
"So what?" Eren suddenly asked Jean.
"Huh?" Jean raised his head to look at the boy, "were you even listening to me?"
"So, what you're saying is, 'I don't think we can win, so I'm giving up'. Tell me, what's so good about giving up?" Everyone looked at Eren as he was explaining, "is it better to escape from reality to the point where you're throwing away your hope?"
Now that he got everyone's attention, Eren continued:
"In the first place, it's a given that we'd lose to the titans in material terms. One of the causes of the defeat four years ago was our ignorance about the titans. We lost then, but the information we gained will surely lead to our hope for the future. And yet you're going to give up on developing strategies to fight them? Do you want to be titan food that badly?"
It seemed that his words had some effect upon the crowd. Seeing this, Eren continued his speech.
"I have a dream" he said, "it's to exterminate the titans and leave this walled up world."
Jean snorted at that.
"What the hell are you talking about?! You must be the one with the soft noggin!"
Eren closed his eyes.
"You may be right. But I'm not going to wait until the other walls are broken. Enjoy your comfortable life, what'll be left of it that is."
With that Eren walked out of the room.
Dina quickly finished up and went after him. She didn't need to look for long, he was just outside the door.
"Hey" she said bringing Eren out of his thoughts, "that was some really neat speech you delivered just a moment ago."
Eren looked at her for a moment and returned his gaze towards the night sky.
"The prick deserved a beating."
Dina sat down by his side. She put a hand on his shoulder.
"Yet I'm glad you didn't get into a fight."
Eren's lips formed a smile.
"Well, you were the one who taught me to control my anger so…"
Dina looked him in the eyes. This green shade was one of the first things she noticed about Eren, way back in Shiganshina. Now that she thought about it, his green eyes really reminded her of something. She knew it was very important. She could almost feel it, the memory of something…
"There you are!" She suddenly heard a voice.
Dina looked behind. It was Armin and Mikasa.
"The party's breaking up" Armin said, "what are you two doing here?"
"Oh, come and sit here you two!" Dina said to them. These were possibly their last moments all together, and she wanted to remember them forever. Mikasa and Armin sat down with them.
She suddenly heard voices and looked up. A garrison officer was instructing some soldiers.
"All right, you're dismissed."
"Yes, sir!"
Dina stood up along with the trio, to salute the officer as he was walking by. When she looked at his face, she remembered the man. He was the one who tried to save Eren's mother all those years ago. He suddenly saw them and started walking towards them with a smile.
"At ease" he said as he reached them, "discipline is important, but when it comes to you guys, I just can't get used to it… Been a long time, huh?"
"I can't get used to it either" Eren said with a grin "a drunkard like you, now a squad leader in the garrison…"
Officer Hannes smiled at the trio.
"You runts have gotten bigger again, haven't you?" He looked at Dina "ah, I remember you too ma'am. I see you took good care of the kids."
"It's Dina" she said with a smile "and don't call me ma'am, I'm way younger than you."
"Ha-ha" he laughed back at her "understood ma'am."
Hannes made a serious face and looked at Eren.
"I'm sorry I couldn't save your mother."
"Enough about that already" Eren said "you didn't have a choice."
Hannes sighed.
"Before you guys were even born, my family came down the disease that killed so much of our town. But then one day, Doctor Yeager appeared with the antibody for it. My whole family was cured."
"Now I'll never be able to repay that debt…"
"That's okay. Don't worry about it."
Dina was deep in thought. When Hannes walked away, she asked Eren:
"You never told me your father was a doctor."
Eren looked back at her.
"Oh yeah, I guess I never did. But this information is useless anyway. He disappeared the day wall Maria was breached."
As Dina was walking to the dorm, she thought about the information on Eren's father. He was a Yeager and a doctor, who suddenly appeared with an unknown cure.
'I'm probably thinking too much into this.'
The next morning, she had a maintenance duty within the barracks in the Trost district. She was polishing cannons along with Mikasa and Armin. In short time, she'd have to say goodbye. Dina thought about Eren. Right now, he was probably at the top of the wall, right above the outer gate.
It was weird how fast those years went by.
THUD!
The ground shook suddenly. Firearms fell from the shelves, cannonballs rolled on the ground.
Everybody fell to their knees.
As Dina stood up, she already knew what was happening.
The warriors were making their move.
