"…You ever want to just smack someone 'round the head? Like those morons who say 'face your fears'…Clearly they've never met a Titan"-Edith M. Brown Diary, 850
Spring 850
Wall Rose, Trost
In the year 845, two terrifying new Titans appeared - the Colossal and the Armoured - barrelling through the outer walls as if the destruction was child's play. The territory within the circle of Wall Maria was abandoned, 20% of the human race perished.
As the Titan onslaught advanced, our only choice was to withdraw behind Wall Rose. Five years later, in the year 850, the Colossal and Armoured returned to wreck havoc on Wall Rose. -The Fall of Rose, Armin Arlert
Edith was brought out of her terror-induced trance by Eren's scream as he launched himself up on the top of the wall. Following Eren's orders, Edith and the others alighted on the top of the wall just as a tower of smoke billowed outwards, engulfing the top of the wall once more.
Taking a deep breathe to steady herself, Edith pulled out the mono-goggles (used for surgery) from her medi-pack and snapped them into place. Next she pulled the dirty white neckerchief up over her face, so that it sat snug over her nose and mouth. Braving the heated smoke, Edith then leapt forward and ran the length of the wall, making her way over to Sasha who was trying to very gently reel Samuel in.
As she ran, she passed by the others who gathered together and ran to the edge of Wall Rose that overlooked Titan country. She had faith that they would be able to handle themselves. She had to. Skidding to a stop next to Sasha, she helped to bring Samuel up onto the wall top and lay him down on his back.
Falling back on her training, Edith tried to emotionally remove herself from the situation and began to go through the motions, checking first his breathing then his other symptoms. "Is he gonna be okay?" Sasha asked from where she sat to Edith's left, watching over her friend as Connie landed softly next to them.
"He's still breathing which is good" Edith replied as she methodically worked her way through the symptoms, "but he seems to have contracted heatstroke from that Titan blast and the hook in his foot still needs to be removed"
"But you can do that, right?" Connie asked as he watched the older girl flitter around Samuel's unconscious form.
There wasn't an immediate answer as Edith laid Samuel's left arm up above his head and bent his left leg at a right angle, before carefully rolling him over on his side and into the recovery position. Edith then knelt down next to Samuel's head as she made sure his mouth was open and his head was laying on his left arm, so that he wouldn't choke.
Sasha shuffled back as much as she could from Samuel's feet so that Edith could continue in her work, however she could only go so far with her ODM wires were still stuck in Samuel's leg. Upon closer inspection, Edith was able to see that the ODM hook had not only gone straight through his ankle, but the wires wrapped around it several times.
Flicking open her pocket knife, Edith set to work sawing through the wires that were wrapped around Samuel's leg; when they fell loose, Sasha was able to retract her wires and shuffle over to the side as Edith gently pulled the leather boot off and placed it to the side.
With the boot off, Edith then moved to deal with the hook still embedded in the skin. With practised hands, Edith was able to effortlessly and rather painlessly pull the hook from his leg with a quick dip and tug. Said item was dropped next to the boot as Edith then moved to seal up the small wound left behind.
Thankfully Sasha had always been a good shot, even with the ODM gear, and the clean cut was much easier to heal than first thought. Edith knelt next to Samuel's feet and placed the offending ankle in her lap, careful not to jostle him too much as she did so.
There was a small flash of light as Edith clapped her hands together before she cupped the ankle in her hands, the metallic hand gripping the underside and the flesh hand over top, the carved pentagrams on either hand mirroring each other as the skin beneath her hands began to seal themselves back together.
Connie and Sasha watched on in bewitched awe, unsure of what they were seeing as Edith wrapped bandages around the tender limb and carefully placed it back on the ground. "What was that? What did you do?" Connie demanded as Edith collected the bloody hook and wires from the ground. She placed the wire in a pack at her hips and gave the hook back to Sasha, who in turn quickly tied the bloody hook onto her shorter wire.
"It's not important" Edith replied as she tried in vain to figure out how to bring down Samuel's fever. There wasn't any shade up here on the wall, and placing cloth over his head to shield him from the sun could make things worse. "Samuel's gonna be fine, he just needs to rest and get out of the sun"
Connie went to say more when Thomas' call sounded over near the edge of the wall where Eren had disappeared to. "Eren, where'd he go? Did you get him or take him out?"
"He's gone. Exactly like five years ago, he's here one moment and gone the next, just like that" came Eren's voice over the wall. Edith looked up as Connie and Sasha had moved to greet the others and Eren had come back up the wall.
"I'm sorry, I-" Eren began.
"Don't apologise, look at us, we were too scared to move" Thomas interrupted.
"Hey! Wallow on your own time! In case you hadn't noticed there's a breach, we have to act now! If they start getting in, that's it!" Connie interjected as he stared down the wall, unable to really believe what had just happened.
"Look alive!" A Garrison soldier called as he landed on the edge of the wall and garnered the group's attention as they saluted him from where they were situated, "Operation Colossal Titan Response is in effect! I expect you to take part! Report to HQ, if you were close to the damn thing we need details!"
"Sir!" chorused the group.
Back at the Trost HQ, cadets ran around like headless chickens as they readied themselves for battle. Edith stood gathered around the medical supplies with the other field medics (many of them older than her and with more experience) as they went through their supplies and made sure that they had everything they would need.
One of their professors, Lukas Norfolk, was decked out in his Garrison uniform and checking his own pack as he barked out orders, his voice barely heard over the sound of another Garrison soldier who was barking out orders for the other cadets across the room.
"LISTEN UP SHIT HEADS! YOU'RE GOING OUT INTO TITAN TERRITORY! YOUR ASSES WILL BE ON THE LINE! TRUST IN YOUR SQUAD AND STICK TO THEM LIKE GLUE! MORE THAN ONE OF YOUR SQUAD WILL DIE TODAY! NO MATTER WHAT HAPPENS, YOU MUST BE THE LAST OF YOUR SQUAD TO DIE!" as usual Norfolk had no qualms about bluntly expressing things, it was probably why he had always been one of Edith's favourite professors. He never sugar coated things; either you said it or you didn't, sugar coating was for children, not medics.
Once all military personnel were kitted out and gathered in the courtyard, they stood in uniform rows as they awaited orders. Up on the stage Captain Kitz Weilman stood barking orders, his lieutenants spread out in a line behind him.
"…ALL SQUADRONS ARE RESPONSIBLE FOR SUPPLY RUNS, MESSAGE RELAY AND ENEMY COMBAT UNDER THE COMMAND OF THE GARRISON REGIMENT! THE INNERMOST SQUADRON WILL BE TAKING THE VANGUARD, CADETS WILL BE TAKING THE MIDDLE GUARD LED BY THE SUPPORT SQUAD AND REAR GUARD WILL GO TO THE ELITES! I EXPECT YOU ALL TO MAN YOUR POSTS, KNOWING THE ADVANCED TEAM HAS BEEN WIPED OUT!
THAT'S RIGHT! THE OUTER GATE IS HISTORY! THE TITANS ARE IN! THIS MEANS THAT THE ARMOURED TITAN IS LIKELY TO APPEAR AND WHEN HE DOES, THE INNER GATE WILL ALSO BE HISTORY!" What?… Edith thought in horror, her fear mirrored in the people around her, many muttering about incredulity of the situation.
"QUIET! RIGHT THOSE WITH THE VANGUARD BE READY! THE WHOLE AREA IS SATURATED WITH TITANS! YOUR MISSION IS A VERY SIMPLE ONE, DEFEND THE WALL TILL THE EVACUATION'S DONE! NOW BE AWARE, THAT FOR ALL OF YOU THAT DESERTION IS PUNISHABLE BY EXECUTION! IF IT COMES TO IT, LAY DOWN YOUR LIVES! DISMISSED!"
"SIR!" the crowd chorused, saluting the officers on stage.
Edith stood with the other field medics as Norfolk read from a list, assigning medics to squads as he did so. "…AMELIA GREY SQUAD 44, NIAL COLLINGWOOD SQUAD 32, STEPHEN FEN SQUAD 28, EDITH BROWN SQUAD 34, LUCILLE GREAVES SQUAD 25, MEGAN SMITH SQUAD 40. DISMISSED!"
"SIR!" the medics chorused as they saluted, before they scattered, turning on their heels and made their way to their assigned squads.
Edith met up with squad 34 on the rooftops close to Trost HQ, thankful that she recognised some of the faces in the group. Eren stood at the helm, looking out towards the Walls as he listened to the sounds of fighting and the evacuation going on in the streets below them. Immediately behind him stood Armin & Thomas and the last two faces she couldn't name, but she recognised their faces from training.
Coming to a stop in line with Thomas, Edith's thoughts turned to their lessons on Titans as she waited with the others for orders from the Garrison. Now, on the cusp of possible death, she almost missed the stuffy lecture halls.
"…What surviving historical documents we do have access to, tell us nothing of the Titan's origin. Almost everything about them is obscure. Now that isn't to suggest we're completely ignorant. Thanks to the efforts of the Scout Regiment, we do know something of their ecology.
Whether Titans posses human-like intelligence is up for debate of course and to date there have been no reports of high level communication between them. We do know that the Titan physiology is fundamentally different than most organic life, as they lack reproductive organs it's unclear how they reproduce.
Apart from this, to all appearances their physique appears to resemble the average human male. We also know their body's temperature runs rather high and baffling though it is, their appetite seems geared exclusively towards human beings. In fact, a Titan's driving principle appears to be this appetite.
Given that they've lasted for over a century without access to their only source of nourishment however, we summarise that these creatures do not in fact consume us to live. Let that sink in. Titan's aren't motivated by hunger as such, they're simply in it for the kill.
A terrifying vitality of these creatures is beyond scientific dispute; we've only to consider events of the recent past to see this. Mankind has long possessed canon technology as you know, but that alone proved tragically insufficient; even with their heads blown to bits, the Titans persist. Though there is some variability in this, a Titan's head usually regenerates within two minutes" The professor droned on, his voice bouncing around the large room.
"Excuse me sir, are you basically saying that Titans are immortal?!" Marco piped up, waving his hand in the air.
"No, I'm not" the professor replied as he turned and drew a diagram on the blackboard, "There is in fact one way to insure death. Strike here, at the back of the neck. If the nape takes significant damage, a Titan will not regenerate. This is the chink in the proverbial armour. That is, you may've summarised, is where the flesh-pairing blades you see here come in. A good deep strike to the back of the neck and the monster has no time to regenerate, they die and stay dead"
Edith was brought out of her thoughts by Eren who was clearly trying to reassure himself as much as Armin. "…Look at it this way, Armin. It's a golden opportunity, I mean if we prove our worth as soldiers right here, we'll rise up right through the ranks. Before long, we could be leading our own squad. We could bypass rookie status all together!"
"…Sounds good, I'm with you all the way" Armin replied, a smirk upon his face.
"Now, now boys, you're not the only ones in your class. Save some for the rest of us" Edith smirked, arms crossed as the two boys turned to look at the group behind them, suddenly remembering they weren't alone.
"Good luck beating us to the punch a second time, Eren. No head starts for you this time round" Thomas added.
"Is that a challenge?" Eren replied.
"Listen up, whoever kills the most Titans get bragging rights"
"Heh, better not fudge your scores"
"SQUADRON 34! MOVE OUT!" called the Garrison soldier a few rooftops over, "THE VANGUARD NEEDS SUPPORT!"
"RIGHT! GIVE 'EM HELL!" Eren ordered as everyone rushed off of the rooftop with a holler and towards the Titan onslaught.
Coming up on the bell tower, the extent of the damage was slowly becoming evident. The squad flew over the deserted streets, the situation eerily similar to the fall of Shiganshina was bringing forth unwanted and repressed memories to the forefront of Edith's mind. Something she did not need right now.
"Holy shit! There's so many of them!" Edith breathed, her smug facade falling as she looked out at the Titans wandering about the streets, picking the buildings apart as if they were doll houses.
"The vanguard's been completely overwhelmed!" Thomas cried, "I don't believe this! Those guys always talked so big!"
"ABNORMAL! SCATTER!" Eren suddenly shouted as a Titan launched itself at the group like a flying squirrel.
Edith managed to slam on the breaks at the call, using the recoil of her wire to come to a rough stop on a rooftop not too far from one of the bell towers. She took a deep breath to try and calm her wildly beating heart as she did a head count of her squad. There were only four of them standing on the rooftops with her and with a quick glance down she saw that Eren hung from the gutters like a monkey. But they were still missing someone.
Following the squad's eye line, Edith soon found what they were all gawking at. The abnormal had somehow wrapped itself around the bell tower, clinging to it like a child would a parent's leg. The group watched on in silent wide-eyed horror as the Abnormal poked its head out from around the building it clung to. In its mouth lay the body of Thomas Wagner. From this far away, they couldn't hear what he was saying, but Edith could hazard a guess that he was pleading for his life.
It felt like a lifetime had passed, but in reality it was only a few seconds as Thomas slipped down the Titans throat, the vile creature swallowing him whole. Thomas didn't even get a chance to scream. Once the Titan had had its fill of Thomas, it got up and wandered off down the street, completely ignorant to what it had just done.
Edith was stuck frozen to her spot on the roof as she watched Thomas die. Sure they had been warned that their squad mates would probably die, Maria! They couldn't have mentioned it more! But to have it actually happen, to watch your friend, your classmate who stood next to you one minute and the next, disappear in a shower of blood.
The droplets a poor imitation of flower petals floating in the wind and the blatant disregard the Titans had? Words couldn't even begin to describe. So it really shouldn't have come as a surprise to anyone, that Eren was the first to leap forth, zooming after the Titan screaming insults with promised murder in his eyes.
One by one, everyone in squad 34 followed after him, if only to make sure that he didn't get himself killed as well. Edith took the rear, intent on keeping an eye on the others, fearful that she would likely lose them as well.
She watched on with everyone else as Eren put the pedal to the metal and zoomed down the street, intent on exacting his revenge on the Titan that had killed Thomas, probably with some half-baked plan in mind. However, just as he turned a sharp corner, he had to quickly pull up to avoid the jaws of a shorter Abnormal, the Titan jumping up like a fish trying to catch the bait.
He came to a stop a few rooftops over, blood dripped into his eye as he sat up and watched his squad get decimated by the Titans that lined the streets behind him. He had being going so fast beforehand, that he hadn't really taken notice of how populated this area was, but looking back he couldn't really see how he could have missed them.
His intent to find the Thomas-killing Titan disappeared as he watched his fellow classmates drop like flies. He couldn't quite believe it, they had been laughing with him only moments before. How could this be real?
After Thomas, Mark and Billy were summarily eaten, yanked from the sky like yo-yos. Limbs were bitten off and bodies were left lying around the place like macabre ornaments with their faces forever frozen in expressions of fear. Eren's eyes frantically scanned the street for someone, anyone who had survived the sudden ambush.
There! Rebounding off of the closest building, Edith brought up the rear cutting through the napes of the Titans as if they were made of butter. She moved quickly and with intent, her blades slicing through the flesh at the back of the neck as she spun & twirled back and forth like a pinball. She eventually rolled to a stop on a rooftop across from Eren, her eyes never leaving the trail of destruction and what was left of their classmates as she did a headcount once again.
Eren and Edith had never really been close, sure they had talked now and then, usually when they had eaten meals together - her and Armin could talk about everything and nothing, something he and Mikasa would never understand. Despite this, Eren's gaze roved over her crouched form, trying to decipher if she was hiding any injuries, but aside from the quickly evaporating Titan blood she appeared to be fine.
Suddenly her gaze snapped towards the sound of approaching footsteps, ones that couldn't be anything other than a Titan. Eren watched as Edith's eyes widened and she clutched onto her blades, preparing to leap forward once more. Following her gaze, he saw something that turned his insides cold.
A grey-haired Titan that reminded him of Armin's grandfather, had Armin in its grasp and was holding him above his mouth, ready to drop him in and swallow him whole. Something seemed to be wrong since Armin wasn't so much as twitching, he was stock still, staring down the tunnel to hell. Maybe it was shock?
Unbidden, a memory surged to the forefront of his mind as he watched his best friend hang over the cusp of death.
"Eren! Eren! Look what I've got!" A young Armin cried as he ran over to where a young Eren was cloud watching on the river bank in the setting sun.
"Ugh, why are you shouting?" Eren groaned as his lolled over to where Armin stood with an old leather-bound book was clasped in his hands.
"Sorry" Armin replied, not sounding sorry at all "I found a book my Grandpa keeps hidden away. Believe it or not, it's about life on the outside!"
"I really hope this is your idea of a joke. Stuff about the outside world is illegal, seriously, you could go to jail for that"
"Trust me! You'd change your mind if you knew what was actually out there! For example, according to this book, most of the world is covered with salty water so deep you can't reach the bottom! There's even a name for it too! They call it the ocean!"
"Salty? For real? C'mon you're making it up, if something valuable like salt was just floating around underwater the merchants would've just scooped it out ages ago"
"That's just it! The ocean never runs out! It's that big!"
"Yeah, whatever"
"Just bear with me, there's a lot more than salty water. Water that glows like fire, fields of ice, giant rocks that take days to climb! Imagine how huge the outside world must be!"
"It does sound really neat…"
"Okay, you've gotta promise on your life you're not gonna tell anyone. But my parents are, uh, well, they're gonna sneak outside the Walls to see for themselves"
"They'll know what it's like firsthand"
"Look at me. We should do it ourselves one day, we could have adventures like the guy that wrote this book…"
"ARMIN!" Eren cried as he launched himself forward without a thought. The familiar sound of the ODM gear greeted his ears and he knew that Edith was not far behind him. He pressed on the gas when he watched Armin hit the Titan's tongue with a cry, his screams finally reaching Eren's ears as he slid down the tongue. Eren let out a breath of relief he didn't know he was holding when he grabbed onto Armin's outstretched arm. He'd made it just in time.
Eren had never been one to think things through, that's what Armin was for. He was good at that kind of thing. And despite pretending he was the toughest out of the three of his friends, his family, Eren wore his heart on his sleeve, using emotion to drive himself forward.
And so it was that when he grasped onto Armin's outstretched arm, he didn't think twice about flinging his surrogate brother out of the Titan's mouth and towards the rooftop behind him, effectively taking Armin's place in the process. He watched too many people die today, he lost his parents to the fall of Wall Maria and there was no way in hell he was going to lose his brother as well.
Eren could only watch as Edith landed roughly next to Armin, a look of shock on her face as she stumbled to the edge of the roof. It was through slitted eyes that he watched Edith swallow hard before sending one of her wires towards him that bounced off the back of the Titan's throat, a gagging sound escaping the beast as she did so.
It was clear she meant for him to grab onto the wire, but he was busy trying to keep the creature's jaws from closing in on him. Propping a foot up against the edge of the bottom teeth, Eren wrapped his left arm around the wire in a futile attempt to survive and reached out to Armin with tears in his eyes as he began muttering his last words. "Armin, listen…we're still going to the outside world…the things you told me about…I have to see them…I have to…"
"EREN! NO!" Armin cried, crawling to the edge of the rooftop reaching out for his brother's hand. In a knee-jerk reaction, Edith yanked on the wire wrapped around Eren's arm, pulling hard as she watched another classmate die right before her eyes. Her desperate attempt to save Eren failed as only the arm wrapped in her ODM wire escaped the Titan's clamped jaws. She watched with deadened eyes as the offending limb bounced and rolled to a stop at her feet.
It took her a moment to reach down with shaking hands and untangle the limb from the wire, whereupon Armin clutched onto the bloody arm, hugging it to his chest much like Moses' mother had done all those years ago as he wailed for the brother he had lost.