Hi again! So I'll be updating more or less frequently these days. I have Summer school so…I could strategically destroy a Titan onslaught with my awesome brain powers but I can't conquer Geometry with a tutor and a pencil. So that's my life story. Also, I forgot to give The Everlasting Non Sequitur another shout out, you're the real MVP. And that's it. Read and review, ya know, all that basic stuff. I'm going to try to add different POV's, not just Cyrena and Eren's, but for now those two just seem more convenient.

Cyrena

My pencil scratches in his hair on my paper. I darken the outline of his face and his eyebrows, keeping my not book close because it might be a little creepy that I'm drawing a picture of Eren Jaeger when I should be paying attention. Truth be told, I'm doing both. I had a dream about him last night, it wasn't romantic or anything, I actually don't remember what it was about. That's the funny thing about dreams, they start to disappear as soon as you wake up. But nightmares, they stay with you, sometimes impossible to forget.

"What surviving historical documents we have access to tell us nothing of the Titans origin. Almost everything about them is obscure. Now that isn't to suggest we are completely ignorant. Thanks to the efforts of the Scout Regiment we do know something of their ecology." Professor speaks at the front of the class. Eren sits at the table in the first row along with Mikasa and Armin, of course. I'm in the row behind them with Mina and Thomas Wagner. Everyone is taking notes, and I'm "taking notes".

The dream, it had something to do with a key.

"Whether Titans possess human-like intelligence is up for debate, of course and to date there have been no reports of high level communication between them."

It was so ethereal, I remember the feeling of dreaming but not the actual dream. He gave me a key.

"We do know that Titan physiology is fundamentally different from most organic life. As they lack reproductive organs it is unclear how they reproduce."

I fight off images of steaming titan sex that threaten my imagination. How the hell do they reproduce? I mean, if that's not an option…

Some type of asexual reproduction, possibly?

"Apart from this to all appearances their physique resembles the average human male. We also know their body temperatures run quite high, and, baffling though it is, their appetites seem geared exclusively towards human beings. In fact, a Titan's driving principle seems to be this appetite. Given that they have subsided for over a century without access to their only source of nourishment, however, we have surmised that the creatures do not, in fact, consume us to live."

Everyone in the class gasps, there are frightened murmurs all around me but I have forgotten how to breathe.

"Let that sink in." Professor continues, annunciating each word, "Titans aren't motivated by hunger as such. They are simply in it for the kill."

I drive my nails into my palm and clutch my stomach, holding my unfinished masterpiece in my lap. I feel like I could retch right here, right now. I saw one Titan bite a lady in half, her blood spilled down its hands arms like red tears. I saw crows land on corpses and pick the meat off their bones. That's why I freaking hate birds. Ever since That Day, I had been somewhat envious of Alani. She will always remember the fear she felt, there is no doubt about that. But the horrid image, her handicap has protected her from them, and in that way she is the luckiest girl in the world. I wonder what she is doing now, as my entire body starts to ache. Suddenly I feel warm skin cover my hand. I turn my head and see Mina smiling at me sympathetically. She touches my hand, and I'm suddenly over come with a strange warmth that I don't feel that often, but I guess lately I've been feeling it a lot. I smile back reassuringly then turn my attention back to the teacher.

"The terrifying vitality of these creatures is beyond scientific dispute. We have only to consider events of the recent past to see this. Mankind has long possessed cannon technology, as you are aware, though, that alone proved tragically insufficient. Even with their heads blown to bits Titans persist. Though there is some variability on this score, a Titan's head usually regenerates within two minutes."

"Is that true?" Thomas asks with a bead of sweat dripping down his temple.

"As if their size wasn't scary enough." Franz adds.

The classroom is alive and restless, Mina squeezes my hand really hard.

I just feel numb at this point. Of course I already knew this, I watched the bastards regenerate with my own two eyes. When Alani and I were cornered I picked up a crushed soldier's swords and tried fighting off that Titan. I cut off her/its fingers. Multiple times. They just kept coming back, we would have been dead if this soldier didn't steal its attention. I never found out whether or not that soldier survived. I guess that means he didn't.

"Excuse me, sir!" Marco jumps to his feet with his hand in the air (I learned his name finally). "Are you basically saying the Titans are immortal?"

Professor finishes a drawing on the chalkboard. It's of a person looking down, exposing their nape.

"No I'm not." He replies. "There is, in fact, one way to insure death." He circles the nape, a perfect freaking circle, so perfect it makes me just a little bit angry.

"Strike here." He taps the board. "If the back of the neck receives adequate damage, the Titan will not regenerate. This is the jink in the proverbial armor."

He walks over to a table with to blades on display. The shine slices my eyes as they land on them.

"That is where, you may have surmised, these pair of flesh-bearing blades come in. A good deep strike with one of these to the weak spot and the monster is left with no time to regenerate. They die and stay dead."

I feel a smile tug on the side of my lips.

Finally.

[PAGE BREAK]

Tomorrow we start field exercises, sword bearing and knife wielding. The dangerous stuff. I have to say I am buzzing with excitement, but my stomach is still numbly aching after everything Professor said. The rest of today we are cleaning the campus. I am wearing a regular powder green blouse with a burgundy skirt and a white apron, also a white scarf covering my hair, tied in the kitchen by Sasha: my cleaning clothes. This might have been what Rowan was talking about, most cadets only have one outfit to wash and keep wearing, and I have exactly three. Truth be told, I wore this outfit to class also. Flaunting a false affluent heritage is no longer entertaining. So I keep my mother's blouse folded under my pillow. I'm going to need it when I approach my father after all these years, in case he doesn't recognize me. I have grown a lot, what if he doesn't recognize me? What if he doesn't want me because I look nothing like him or mom? What if he just plain doesn't want me? I mean, he left for a reason, what if I was that reason? Did my family fall apart because I was born? Were they just unable to juggle the responsibility of a child while chasing their dreams, and he just…left? Is that what happened? I push these thoughts into the back of my mind and decide to revisit them later. I have work to do now.

I pull open the curtains, letting in an explosion of light and blue sky. It's so bright I have to squint on impact. Mina is on the other side of the room, dusting off vases that line the fire place in the lobby with Sasha (because girls are supposed to have "delicate hands'). Krista is sweeping, slightly, because there wasn't anything on the floor to begin with. Armin is dusting of the picture frames on the walls of different birds, Thomas[G1] [G2] [G3] is getting the higher placed ones. I already hate this room. Annie sits on the bench of a table, back to us all, examining the feathered duster she was given. Classic Annie. Everyone is silent until Mina speaks.

"So what'd you guys think of the lesson?" she asks. I twist my neck to see her but I don't look her in the eyes. No one answers right away. "Pretty weird stuff right?"

"What's weird is how we've managed to go over a century and only learn, what? Five facts?" I say, thinking out loud.

"And most of it is just a bunch of conjectures." Armin adds. "Truth be told, we don't have a lot of solid information about their origin, or their physiology, or anything really."

"One hundred years…" I say again, picking up a bucket. "How could they remain so obscure?"

"Well for starters, they scare the hell out of people." Thomas says as if it's the most obvious thing in the world. I suppose it is. "I mean, who's gonna get close enough to actually study these things?"

"The Scouts." Krista offers.

"Well, yea, but suppose one of them actually learns something. They'll probably just get killed before they can report it to anybody."

"With that kind of morbid cynicism, I'm surprised you're not one of Shadis favorites." I say sarcastically.

Thomas scoffs. "Does that guy like anyone?"

"He's a tough nut to crack." Mina says.

"I don't know, he seems to like you a lot, Sasha." I tease, getting on my knees to sponge the floors. Sasha snorts.

"Are we talking about the same Shadis? God, he hates me." She say. I grin.

"Nah, I think Connie has it worse than you." Mina states. I laugh, thinking of all the time Shadis had him by the head like a cue ball.

"Guys guys!" Marco say urgently, running in from the next room with a duster in his hand. "What if Shadis keeps picking up Connie by the head, and his neck starts to stretch and stretch it gets super long?"

We all laugh, except for Annie, who sighs unimpressed.

"20 bucks by graduation he's gonna look like a giraffe." Mina says

"At least his head won't look so big." Thomas adds, and we laugh pretty hard at Connie's expense.

"It's called tough love."

I wipe the sweat off my head with my sleeve and take a breath. My lungs hurt, I feel like my abdomen is squeezing itself. I had totally forgotten about Dad and the Titans and all of the world's un-fun things. I look out the window. It's about noon, the sun is at its peak and from the window you can see where the grass ends abruptly where the ground drops twenty feet and makes a cliff. This area is very hill-y. And on the curve of the cliff I see someone, they're just sitting there. Slacking off while we slave away indoors. I've grown to accept Annie's lackadaisical behavior, but I won't take it from anyone else. I squint my eyes to see who it is. It's a boy, with dark hair and the cadets' uniform. I can't see his face, but I know who it is without thinking twice. The same guy that stepped in front of me and a bully. The same guy that gave me a twisted double take on the first day we met.

She is my business.

Heat rises in my chest like a bonfire. I throw down the sponge I had.

"I'll be back." I announce and make my way towards the cliff.

[PAGE BREAK]

Eren

Everything is glowing in the yellow noon sun, and the grass stands tall, bowing down to the wind. The sky above is unapologetically blue with few clouds, only a few white blots here and there. I stretch my legs out and tilt my head back, leaning back on my arms and breathe in the early autumn breeze. And then I thought hits me.

This is just how the weather was that day.

I frown, and close my eyes, fighting images of lightning bolts and blood splattered lilies. I see the face of the Titan that killed my mother, with its torn grin and dead, merciless eyes. And then I see images of my mom, her sweet smile and hazel eyes and sun kissed skin and her long dark hair, and I am overwhelmed with grief and self-loathing. I remember how I yelled at her, how I disobeyed her to the end, even as she was dying and begging me to honor her one last wish. I don't usually pay mind to these thoughts, but Armin said I should spend time alone so I learn how to calm down and think things through. At first I thought it sounded stupid, now I see it's just torture. Being alone forces you to think, and what if you spend your whole life trying not to think about things? It's so much harder to forget. My eyes are wet, so I quickly convert my grief into anger. I remember the Titan hoards entering the walls, and people screaming as they either died or watched someone they love die.

Kill them all. I think passionately. Every last one.

"Hey." I hear a girl's voice, it's not Mikasa's, and she sounds pretty annoyed so I ignore her hoping that she'll go away. "Hey." She says again, with more force and I recognize her voice immediately. It's Cyrena.

"Lemme guess, you pissed off a squad of cadets and you need me to come play hero again?" I say haughtily, just because I know it will piss her off.

"I didn't need your help yesterday. You are not my hero." She says through gritted teeth.

"You have a funny way of conveying gratitude."

"Why the hell would I be grateful to an impulsive psycho for stepping into the limelight when I didn't need you in the first place? I bet you were ready to fight someone anyway, I just gave you a moral pass."

I turn around quickly.

"What the hell is your problem?" I snap but then I stop. All the tension is released from my body when I look at her. She looks…in those clothes- the apron, the scarf, hair swept to the side- and with her hands on her hips she looks…and this is weird, but she looks just like my mom. Eerily so, but then not so much. They have the same soft features but Cyrena's cheeks are higher and her eyes are green. Maybe she doesn't look like her…maybe I'm just hallucinating, but something about her definitely puts me off.

"My problem?" she repeats loudly but she doesn't finish. She just crosses her arms and sighs. I wonder what she was about to say.

"Why are you looking at me like that?" She asks quietly, her face has softened even though she looks like she wants to be angry.

"Like…what?" I reply dubiously. She frowns at me. And for a moment we just stand there looking at each other, different expressions on our faces. I can't read hers, it gets gradually softer but she has this look of defiance and something else. She's hugging herself and looks down.

"Thank you." She says. And I nod microscopically. I get a warm feeling in me that licks up my gut like smoke. There's a good five feet between us. I take a step closer.

"You're welcome."

Her eyes dark to mine and a flick of a smile paints her face. But just as soon as it arrives it is gone.

"Right," she says, going back to her normal tone, "So everyone is helping out but you. You need to get up off your ass and go wipe down tables or do something just…you can't stay out here." She says.

"And who the hell are you to tell me?" I murmur.

"Excuse me?" she says, I jump.

"Nothing." I say too quickly. She looks me up and down again and then walks away.