There were many things Armin hated.
He hated being alone; watching others in pain; the dark; and when his parents fought. But most of all Armin hated feeling helpless. When he was still in grade school Eren always had to stand up for him. He would sit in a corner cowering while Eren fought for him, and he hated it. When his parents fought he could do nothing, to them he was just invisible. His whole life long he had done nothing but sit back and let the world pick on him. Now here he was, once again helpless and confused.
Right after he had finished examining the strange plant, he was ambushed. Some type of tiger-reptile hybrid had leapt out of the grass behind him and pinned him to the ground. As he tried to wriggle free of the monsters grasp a man he assumed to be its master shoved a gag in his mouth and blindfolded him. He then proceeded to tie Armin up. Before long both of his hands had been secured behind his back and his ankles had been tied together.
Armin was at the verge of tears again. That horribly familiar feeling of helplessness settled into his skin. Armin felt him be picked up and fastened to something. Judging from the prickle of fur at the back of his neck he assumed it to be the monster.
He felt the tears fall past the blindfold and down his face. Trying in vain to stop them they just continued to drip down his face.
How stupid. He thought. The helpless boy crying in front of his kidnapper. Real brave Armin.
He tried to shove the terror and self-loathing in his mind aside in favor of rational thought but no matter how hard he tried he couldn't do it. Suddenly he heard a dull hiss. His senses were clouded with a sickly sweet aroma. His thoughts started to cloud and his eyes fell shut. He tried to fight of the sickening drowsy feeling that settled over him like a blanket but it came through his defenses and he was out.
Armin stirred at the sound of a woman's voice. He felt strangely calm.
Go away, I want to sleep. It's so peaceful. He thought.
But the woman's voice didn't quiet down. In fact it just got louder.
Just a little while longer, please? Just let me sleep... It's so nice and peaceful here. He just wanted to stay asleep, is that so bad?
The voice stopped and Armin felt himself slip back into his coma-like slumber. Just a few minutes...
Armin couldn't say how long he was stuck in that peaceful sleepy realm, where it hours, days, weeks. It didn't matter to him. He just wanted to stay like that forever. But, his wishes were not granted. Something horribly cold and wet hit his face. He sat up sputtering and choking. Someone had poured water on him!
"He lives!" He heard a feminine voice say. "Well... I mean as much as you really can live up here."
"Finally, the boy is awake." Said someone else, this voice sounded masculine.
Armin swiveled his head around to face the source of the voice. He hoped his shock and fear were not as obvious as he feared them to be. "Hanji look, you terrified the poor kid!" Said the man.
Well, so much for hiding his fear. He assumed the women next to him must be Hanji.
"Aww, sorry 'bout that. We had to wake you somehow. Seems Erwin here used a little too much sleeping gas on you." wait- SLEEPING GAS? Right! He had been kidnapped! Oh god, where was he!
" Well he is awake now." Erwin turned to face Armin. " I deeply apologize for my actions, I had falsely mistaken you for an enemy. It seems your just a kid, and a new one at that. Say, what's your name?"
"Um.. I'm A-armin."
His voice came out as a pitiful squeak. God dammit Armin! Pull yourself together! It's not like He's going to eat you!
He swung his legs over the side of the bed he had been in. That's when he noticed he wasn't wearing his own clothes. He was panicking again. His clothes had had his journal in them! Those were his notes on the plant!
"Who are you people! What did you do with my clothes? Where the hell am I?" Armin yelled. He honestly hated cussing but he felt that this situation was worthy of a stronger word.
"Oh right, how rude! We forgot to introduce ourselves!" Said the women. "My name is Hanji Zoe! I'm the resident scientist and doctor of the clan!" So he was right about her name. But, what was a clan?
"I am Erwin Smith. I happen to be the current clan leader. As to what we did to your clothing, you will find it, along with the notebook, in the closet." Armin dully noted that his assumption of both names was accurate. What had both of them mean by clans? Every minuet Armin spent in this place supported his thoughts that he was no longer in Oregon.
"As to where you are." Hanji said. "Welcome to Ervia! So how did you die?"
Armin was taken aback, what did she mean die? He was perfectly alive and breathing thank you very much! Not only that he had never even heard of a place called Ervia!"Um, excuse me Ma'am I believe you are mistaken. See If I were dead it would be impossible for you to have this conversation with me right now."
"Oh my, you seem to have lost your memory." She said. Armin considered this thought. He did have that odd gap in memory.
"Armin, was it?" It was Erwin speaking now. "If you have any gaps in memory at all now would be a good time to tell us. Does anything seem fuzzy to you? Like you're looking at a puzzle and missing the most important pieces?"
He looked up a bit shocked. How had this man been able to describe the situation so perfectly?
"Armin, if anything like that is going on please tell us." Said the older blonde.
After a short metal warfare he decided that it was safe to tell them. "Okay so here goes..."
Eren woke up with a boot to the face and a sword shoved against his throat. What was this? Some sort of fantasy LARP?
"Oi, brat, Get your ass off the ground and hands in the air or I'll kick you again!" Said the owner of the boot.
Deciding against receiving any more foot prints too the face he did as the stranger asked. The odd man still didn't remove the sword.
"State your name." Said the man.
"Eren. My name is Eren Jäger." He said. He reached one hand down to brush the dirt off of his face. The man didn't seem to mind.
"Well ,Eren, would you care to tell me why I found you knocked out on clan territory?" the guy said.
Yep, definitely some sort of LARP. Eren thought.
"Look dude, I'm not part of this fantasy game you're playing. In fact I don't even know how I got here so just let me leave."
The guy looked at him like he had just claimed he was born on mars. "Brat, I don't know where you think you are, but trust me you're not there anymore." Suddenly, a blue sphere appeared in the air in front of the man. The guy was completely unfazed by the appearance of the hologram and grabbed it out of midair.
What the hell kind of LARP is this? How did he do that! Eren was horribly confused.
The guy was ignoring Eren and spoke a command to the cube. "Play the message." Suddenly the cube expanded to a screen like surface and the face of a blond man appeared.
"Hello Levi." Said the blond. So the asshole's name was Levi?
"Make it quick old man I don't have all day. I found an intruder on our land." Levi said to the guy.
"Actually this concerns the intruder." Blond replied. "Remember the glass breaking we saw this morning?" What the hell was a glass breaking?
"Yes, what's that got to do with anything?" Levi replied. He sounded a little pissed off.
"You see, that person you found..."
Realization began to dawn on Levi's face. "No, you're not telling me that this little pile of shit is the newbie?"
"That's not how I would have put it, but yes." The man responded.
Eren was mildly offended. "The pile of shit has a name you asshole!"
Levi turned to glare at Eren. "Yeah, thats right. Its name is Eren."
Said boy shrank back a little at the man's glare, but the person on screen just laughed.
"Levi, play nice! We need him at base in one piece." The man turned his attention to Eren. "Say Eren, did you by chance come here with another person?"
Here? What did he me- Oh. That was right. He had died. Wait, how was that possible? Was he in heaven or something? If so, than why did no one have wings or tacky golden circles surrounding their heads? Well, he did remember dying with someone... that was right! Armin! If he really was dead and in heaven then Armin had to be there somewhere!
"Yes sir. At least I think so..." Eren responded.
"Was it, perhaps, a boy by the name of Armin?"
"Yes! Is he with you? Can I talk to him?" Eren was incredibly relieved. His friend was safe.
"All in due time. Right now Levi is going to take you to base." He turned to face Levi "Don't kill the boy on the way here please."
"Tch." Levi scoffed. "It's not like he can die anyway. " Levi reached out a hand and swiped it downward on the holographic screen. Suddenly the image disappeared and Eren was alone with Levi.
"Oi brat, try not to move too much." With that the shorter male grabbed Eren by the waist and slung him over his shoulder.
"Oh FUCK no! Put me down right now!" Eren began to protest.
"Oh you have no idea how much I wish I could." The man said in monotone, and with that, he began to run.