Chapter 1 – Silver Stained in Crimson
Year 845 – Wall Maria: Shiganshina District
"Wha-what the…. What the hell?!" The girl muttered in a shrill voice as her eyes constantly tried to find a reason for this massive being in front of her. It was definitely a titan, different than the others being absent of skin, but she was sure it was one of them.
"But… but why? Why is it this large? Just why? It's so…. So unfair…"
Within that same instance that she was thinking, the wall shook in a body breaking tremor as the Colossal Titan dug its massive hands into the barrier sending stones and other debris falling to the ground. It had a huge smile on its face, as if it were laughing at mankind's suffering and fear.
"Hey!" The man said as he pulled himself up from the side of the wall, "Are you okay?"
"I'm fine" The girl replied before there was a loud crashing sound heard from the base level of the wall.
Both of them looked down the edge of the wall, "What was that?" The man asked as he tried to scan the area for anything unusual. He saw debris of stone spread about the town, cutting into buildings, stuck in the ground with puddles of blood and loose limbs about on the roads, but he had not known what had exactly happened.
The girl looked around in desperation, but the Colossal Titan that was present a mere seconds before had suddenly disappeared into a cloud of vapor and smoke. "How the…." She cursed to herself as she looked down the other side of the wall where the titan's roamed.
"What the hell did that thing do?" The man asked as he was about to investigate. "I'm going down to take a look."
"Don't!" The girl turned around to grab him by the shoulder. She her violet eyes stared at his with a wave of fear in her trembling pupils, "There's a breach in the wall" She said with a croaky voice pointing towards the crowd of titans that had gathered around a particular spot in the wall.
Shiganshina District: Stationary Guard HQ – Courtyard
"Commander Urdin!" A young soldier saluted as he was running up to await orders.
"Troy, relay this message to the Middle Guard and tell them that civilian evacuations are already undergoing. Tell them to relay this message to the Vanguard and tell them to watch for a yellow flare. If that flare goes up, that means that all the civilians have been successfully evacuated and it's their queue to get the fuck out of there. You hear?" Urdin explained.
"Yessir!" Young Troy yelled out in a shaky voice as he saluted again, only to depart as instructed.
Sighing to himself as he began yelling orders to those who were too scared to even stand. "Hey, what the hell are you guys going!? We've got titans in our midst. So get off your asses, and get out there!" He demanded.
"You're crazy!" One of the recruits pointed in desperation as he was comforting his friend, whom she was vomiting. "You're just going to send us out there to die? I ain't going out there!" He began to shed tears before breaking down.
"Damned idiot! You think you've gone over three years of training just to sit here and cry? Why, if you don't get out there and fight those titans, I'll-"The Commander said before the girl he had met earlier planted a hand on his shoulder, shaking her head.
"Hey" The girl said as she knelt down to the crying soldier, "Do you have family?"
"Y-yea" The boy replied wiping his tears with his sleeve.
"Get up." She said as he did so hastily. Before long, she slapped him on the cheek with a single swipe. "Would your mother be proud of you if she saw you like this?"
"N-No ma'am!"
"Then get out there, make your mother proud" The girl said pointing towards the entrance to the courtyard that led to the carnage outward. Her words weren't filled with a menacing aura, instead, they were filled with a sort of serious, but gentle trust.
"Bu-but…" he hesitated a moment before glaring at his female companion. She had apparently stopped vomiting, and wobbly got back to her feet.
"Drink this with water" The silver haired girl said, handing a small ball of herbs from her pouch.
"C'mon, let's go" The boy said, still in a shaky voice, palming the ball of herbs in one hand while supporting his friend with the other. Before going, he looked back at the girl with silver hair, and then proceeded out the courtyard. He had not known what had compelled him to manage the courage to get up, but something was telling him that everything was going to be okay.
Urdin simply glared in slight surprise before saying, "You sure know how to move your soldiers don't you?"
"You strike fear and discipline in your soldiers. That's admirable." The girl with silver hair began to say as she started, herself, to head out of the courtyard, "But that only works sometimes. They need to find a reason for fighting, not a scolding."
"Hmph, I'll keep that in mind next time" He replied before realizing where she was going. "Oi… where are you going?"
"You said you guys needed some help right? I'm just here to lend a hand" The silver haired girl replied with a slight grin as she looked back at him.
Toothily grinning back at her, the man began to laugh. "Hahahaha! I like you. My name's Urdin Bachmeier by the way."
"Liette, Liette Herrman" The girl replied as she turned to her right. She searched her pockets for her pipe, but realized that it was missing. She sure needed a smoke right about now with her racing heart and foggy mind. No matter how experienced the soldier, they can't help but feel uneasy around titans. She breathed in for a moment to calm herself down, and pulled the two handles that were attached to the holsters on her side. Then she jumped upward followed by the sound of pressurized gas and the swinging of iron rope.
ooo
"Ahhhh!" Screamed a soldier as he was snatched by a titan, sickly getting the upper portion of his body chewed off.
"Hans!" A boy screeched out in a blood curling cry as he reached his arm out in futile agony.
"Peter! It's too late, he's gone" A girl said as she leaned on the wall of the tower next to them, on the rooftop of a building feeling the urge to vomit again. "W-we have to g-get out of here. T-the vanguards collapsed."
"Bu-but we're going to die here either way!" Peter began to break down in tears again as his body suddenly became numb, "There's no chance. No chance in hell we'll make it…."
"T-there's no chance in hell that yo-you'll make it out w-with that attitude!" Kristell replied angry with his despairing mood. Before she was able to grab his arm to run, she looked upward at the monstrous being behind him.
"What? Isn't this were you're going to grab my arm and force me to run away-?!" Peter asked before, with loud footsteps, a titan had stumbled behind and swung its arm downward to snatch him. "H-help! Help me! Kristell! Oh god! I'm going to die!"
"Peter!" Kristell cried out running to the side jumping off the edge of the roof, tightening the grip on her fingers to fire the iron wire from her waist. Feeling the grappling hook take foot on a level surface, she shifted her weight onto the left portion of her body by lifting her right leg and pulling the grappling hook on her right side loose. She then felt a powerful force of pressure propel her forth from her back, leaving a white trail of steam behind as she sped to her right around the titan's left towards its back.
"Let go of Peter!" She yelled out loud as she arced herself backward slightly, forcing the pressure downward to propel up. Retracting the wire quickly, she aimed the iron wire straight at the titan. Pressing her thumb on the safety, and releasing the other wire while midair, she fired both wires directly towards the back of the titan, latching on promptly. Her heart was racing and her stomach was fluttering like mad, as if she were going to regurgitate her own heart if it kept at this pace. "I said let, GO!" Loudly screeching out her phrase, Kristell furiously choked the handle, releasing as much pressure as possible from the 3DMG to go as fast as possible. Clenching her teeth, she shifted her blades and aimed at the precise location on the titans' neck in order to kill it. With an ear wrenching pierce, her blades seeped through the hot bare flesh of the monster as it fell to the ground, releasing Peter in its death.
Half scared to oblivion, Peter freed himself from the hands of the titan distanced himself from the monstrosity, and awaited Kristell's descent. With his heart beating in his chest as Kristell touched the ground next to him, "T-thank you!" he said with much gratitude from his flowing tears.
"C-come Peter, we m-must get out… of here!" Kristell tried to say amidst the immense pain emanating from her right calf. "Nrgg!" The muscles in her leg were throbbing, as if hot tar was being poured all over it.
"Kristell? Kristell! What's the matter" Peter implored as he helped her stand.
"M-my leg, it hurts. I can barely move it…" She replied limping on one leg as she had the injured leg bent upward. She was barely able to stand without support. "I-I think I overtaxed my leg when I was rotating. Sorry Peter, but, leave me. I'll make it back somehow"
"Kristell?!" Peter objected profusely, "No way! I'm not going to leave you!"
"But if y-you leave me, then you'll have a ch-chance of getting out alive no? Isn't th-that what you want?" Kristell questioned with a nauseated smile on her face.
Taken aback by her response, Peter, "I want to make it out alive, but not like this!" he began to cry again.
"Please, go. I'll catch up, I-I just need time to relax this muscle" His female companion pleaded as she leaned on the edge of the building, sliding down to a sitting position. Her head was spinning and she was on the verge of vomiting again. "Please…"
Peter's lips fumbled as he tried to find the right answer. He couldn't leave his best friend in the bottom of hell, but he sure as hell didn't want to stay there himself. "Mmh…." His chest was tight as his stomach contracted while he yelled out is answer.
"I'll….. I'll…."
ooo
The distant screaming of stragglers was heard from all around town. Citizens that were too slow to evacuate, unfortunate soldiers that just weren't skilled enough to fight off the titans. It was just another cruel reality of life, the strongest survive, and the weak die out. It was sad but true. This town was lost, all knew that. The only thing they were fighting for was to simply slow the titans down; at this point, there was no hope of even winning back the wall.
Many thought of it as a suicide mission, but others thought of it as a chance to fight for humanities survival. Yes the world might seem like a survival of the strongest. The strange reality of it seems to be that the strongest fight in order for the weak to survive.
"Despite me giving my life up for you, I can't help but feel scared Peter."
During her train of thought, a wandering 5 meter titan had found an easy snack to feast upon. She vomited out of fear. It was quite normal for her to vomit when she felt extreme amounts of anxiety. Feeling her natural instinct to survive kicking in, she attempted to stand up and run, but she simply couldn't. Her injured muscle contracted, inflicting a tear jerking pain to her leg as she dropped to her knees. Her throat was burning from the vomit, and it made it hard to breathe.
"I'm scared beyond comprehension. Is this how you feel when you see danger? My chest feels cold, and my mind is foggy. Haha, maybe this is all my fault that I'm like this. I should have practiced that maneuver more instead of screwing around with the other trainees…"
The titan wrapped its hand around Kristell, slowly staring at its prey in the eye before feasting.
"Is this what staring in the face of death feels like?" Kristell cried out, laughing, but at the same time, crying uncontrollably while she felt the hot, putrid breath of the titan envelope her person and the large cave of its mouth stand before her, getting closer and closer.
"Waaahhhh! Kristell!" The wailing voice of Peter was heard, running down the street with his nose dripping and his tears streaming until he dropped to his knees in front of Kristell.
Planting her hands on her hips, Kristell flicked peter in the forehead, "What are you crying about this time?"
"Ow!- The kids down by the church are bullying me again! They call me crybaby, and the call me names, and-… ow!"
Kristell flicking him on the head again. "Peter you idiot" she laughed, "Haven't you heard that only the strongest survive? How are you going to make it in this world without getting strong yourself?"
"I-I… I don't know…" Peter said momentarily thinking about it, "How… will I get strong?"
Kristell simply giggled, "Don't worry about it!" She winked as she ran her hand over her upper arm, "Let us protect you so that you'll grow stronger!"
ooo
"Yes…. Yes! That's must be how it's like!" Kristell thought to herself, remaining there still with a fitful of tears in her eyes. "Go on Peter. Live life. The strong sacrifice themselves for the weak; that is the nature of humanity. We don't stop until we see the ones we love, safe and sound, even if it kills us."
Smiling as a sign of her final words, Kristell closed her eyes to await a quick and painless death.
Painless indeed it was, but death it was not. Kristell suddenly found herself lying on the ground in a daze, with a pool of blood oozing out from the severed hand of the titan. She stared in blank surprise through the blurry scope of her tears. Was it even possible for a person to apply enough force to server the hand of a titan?
"P-Peter?!" Kristell asked as she watched her rescuer zip through the air with precision and grace. "No! It… it isn't Peter, it's… her!"
That unmistakable silver hair made Kristell recognize immediately who it was: the girl who had given her the stomach medicine earlier.
"The blades been dulled" Liette said slightly annoyed as she released the grappling hook to fling herself up and around to face the titan from the rear. Like standard titan killing protocol, she latched the grappling hook towards the monster, getting a firm holding in for an easy kill.
"No use throwing away blades when they're still good!" The silver haired girl said before delivering the killing blow. With a single slice, the neck of the titan split open, nearly cutting through to decapitate it. "Now they aren't good anymore" Liette mumbled.
Kristell managed to stand up trying to keep her injured leg as straight as possible without causing too much pain. "Y-you…."
"You're lucky I was watching you two" Liette said as she wrapped her arm around Kristell's shoulder to support her.
"T-thank you for the stomach medicine earlier…" Kristell said as she jumped on one leg to keep up with Liette.
"I just hate seeing vomit" Liette smiled slightly, though, as if she had something heavy on her mind.
ooo
"I'll….. I'll go then!" Peter yelled as he began to whimper while crying. "Just…. Just promise me… that you'll back it back!" Not even looking back, he began to run as he pressed himself onward with his 3DMG.
"I'm sorry Peter, but I don't think I can make that promise this time" Kristell said to herself looking down at the ground.
Keeping his eyes open with tears flying with the wind, Peter proceeded his way back towards the HQ to meet up with the rest of the survivors. "Peter you idiot! How could you leave her?! You're always so selfish. Running away at the first sign of danger, always so cowardly….coward…..coward…coward!" He screamed out before he had hit what felt like a wall face first. Falling off and down, rolling backward, he looked up to only meet terror. "A…titan….?" He murmured feeling a stinging in his head. Reaching to feel the hot blood seeping from a cut on his head, he began to cry. There was one right in front of him, grinning wildly with huge eyes staring in dumb excitement.
The strange part is that he wasn't crying out of fear, rather, he was crying out of agony.
"Nrrrggggg!" He wailed between his teeth as he pulled the blades out of his sheathes, "Get…. The FUCK….. out of my way!" Feeling the pull of the iron wire and the push of the gas emission propel him forward, he charged forward forgetting all the fear that held his heart in arrest towards the smiling death.
"Kristell told me to make it back safely, and I won't let anything stop me!"
ooo
"Is that…. Your blood?" Kristell asked, glancing at the stream of blood rolling down Liette's head, and the assorted blood stains on her hair.
Liette shook her head, "Not all of it, but I wish the rest of it were mine also" she said, wiping the bleak crimson from her face. Her eyes were filled with distress, and her mouth quivered at the thought of an unpleasant memory.
Kristell remained silent as Liette helped her limp back towards the HQ. "Who is this girl?" Liette looked around 18, not too young, but not that old either. Despite the blood on her face, the appearance of the young soldier struck Kristell by surprise. Her pale skin gleamed like a blanket of snow. That unmistakably rare silver hair that was tied into a single tail almost seemed as if it were that of a goddess. Her violet eyes kindled with tranquility as if it were a sea of calmness despite the air of distress. No one else Kristell has ever seen in her life has had a hair color even remotely similar to this girl.
"Hey! You two! Are you alright?" Someone called from the rooftop above as the rest of his squad caught up.
"This girls got a leg injury" Liette replied as she looked up at the squad. To her surprise, it was Urdin Bachmeier and his squad, "Aren't you supposed to be getting the civilians out of here?"
"Didn't you see the yellow flare? I'm just helping wrangle up stragglers" He replied as he jumped down approaching Liette and Kristell. "You're the girl puking up earlier weren't you?"
"Ye-Yessir!" Kristell saluted feeling another wave of nausea creep up upon her again. "P-Peter sir! D-did he make it back?"
"Eh? You mean the crybaby? Er… Yea. That kids got more fight in him than I thought. I found him peeing himself dry over the body of a dead titan." The Commander said ordering is squad members to support Kristell up, "But yea, that kids probably still crying in the safe zone"
Kristell sighed out of relief.
"C'mon team! Let's get the hell out of here!" Urdin said as they continued their retreat.
"You guys go on ahead" Liette said turning her back to Urdin's squad, walking away.
"Whoa, what about you? It's suicide to stay out here any longer." Urdin advised, wanting to know Liette's reasons for staying in hell like this for any longer.
"I have to retrieve something"
"B-But wait! The town is crawling with titans now! You'll die!"
"Didn't I tell you? I'm in the Scouting Legion. I'm used to this. Besides, I won't be long." The silver haired girl said as the sound of her Iron Wire pulled her forward, departing from Urdin.
The broad chested commander just stared at the diminishing figure of Liette with astonishment. "So that's who they call the Silver Haired Striker"
ooo
Liette advanced forward as she constantly latched her grappling hooks to whatever surface she could. These buildings were going to be used anymore, so it didn't matter whether or not she scratched them with her iron wire. Pushing herself on the rooftops, she began running.
It was a terrible sight. Wreckage everywhere, blood stains all over the walls. People crushed by rocks from the initial breach. Liette looked away angered and saddened by the chaos that had disrupted a century of peace.
"Fzzzzzzzzz!" The iron wire whirred as it was pushed out of the canister. The pressurized gas blew her through the air as she repeated the same process over and over towards the Wall Maria.
I'm such a fool….Why? Why am I so weak?
She thought this to herself as she saw an abnormal titan jump upward attempting to slam downward on her with its mouth gaping open. Sharply shifting her weight to her left and down, the force pushed her slightly upward and left while at the same time releasing the grappling hook on her right, causing an immediate stop forward and a turn midair.
The force of the titan slamming into the house felt like an earthquake as Liette narrowly dodged it, releasing her other grappling hook, flying in midair down towards the titan.
If I can't even protect other people, then how am I strong?
Spinning to her right while reaching her blades outward to cut down, Liette sped downward. She sliced once into the titan's neck, and again with her other blade.
How can I be as strong as Rivaille….If I keep failing?
She straightened her back as her mind refocused. Standing on the dead body of the freshly killed titan, she looked up towards the sky.
"Am I a failure?"
1 Hour Earlier
"Faster….. faster! I need to get there faster!" This thought repeated itself in Liette's head as she ran and ran over the rooftops towards the sound of ear piercing screaming. Sifting through the air as fast as she could, she took sight of a 7 meter class titan, holding what looked like a young child.
"No!" Liette cried out as she turned her sights to the titan that was going to devour the helpless child. After latching onto the nearby tower, she closed the gap between her and the titan. "Almost…..there…!" She tilted herself to the left, swinging around the left of the tower rotating back to the center on the other side, preparing her blades to strike.
"All of you...! Go to hell!" The Silver Haired Striker screamed out blindly as she felt a painful force rack her from behind. Widening her eyes out of desperation, she had realized that there was a Deviant class titan that clipped her in the legs by jumping upward and swinging at her with its hand. The immense torque caused her to spin forward a couple of times before crashing into the second floor of a home.
The shards of glass caused a gash on her head, but that was the least of her concern as she quickly got back up to her feet and jumped out. The titan was on the right side of the building she had just crashed into. Turning to the same direction, she ejected her iron wire directed towards the tree that was behind the titan, and began to reel herself in.
The child, still screaming and crying, saw a beacon of hope as Liette zoned in to try to rescue him. She navigated to her right and around the titan, approaching it from its right side.
Her course of action was to sever the hand of the titan, which proved to be a useful skill that Liette had picked up from her squad instructor out on expeditions with the Scouting Legion.
Releasing her grappling hook to fly freely towards the child, she had her blades out ready to make a clean cut. Liette had expected everything to come out smoothly before she heard another scream. Within the second that it occurred, Liette looked to her side, her sight began to become blurry because of the trauma done to her head, but it appeared that another child was running down the street towards the titan she was engaged in fighting in.
He seemingly wasn't being chased by anything, but in the blink of an eye, the Deviant titan from earlier had pounced right on top of him, slamming its head down on the ground where he was. In its quake, a splatter of blood was all that was left of the child.
With horror stricken in her eyes, she couldn't take her gaze off the terrible sight until she had felt her blades sink into flesh. She thought it was the flesh of the titan, until she felt a pain wretched scream flood her ears. Turning her head back in front of her, her heart nearly collapse in itself at what she had done.
Amidst turning to see the other child get killed, her mind was so unfocused that she had swerved too much to the left, accidently cutting into the child she was trying to rescue instead of the wrist of the titan. She could see it clearly, her sword cut through his right shoulder and into his chest, nearly cutting his arm off. Blood splattered everywhere, raining itself down her face and dying her silver hair a crimson red. His eyes, they were blank as he thrashed about in pain for the last moments of his life.
Liette's mind couldn't think for a single moment within those minutes except a single word: Failure.
Slowly, her mind managed to compose itself again as she found herself standing next to the corpse of the boy she had killed. Staring down at him as his empty eyes stared back, she knelt down and closed them.
Wiping the blood and tears from her face, she walked away, away from the corpse of the child, away from the corpses of the two titans.
"It's my fault. I tried to save one, but in the end, they all died…."
ooo
Taking a heavy step at the top of the Wall Maria, Liette glared at the setting sun at the distant horizon. The last time she stood here, she was enjoying a quiet afternoon without any worries about the titan's beyond. Now, her legs were killing her and she was bleeding from a gash on her head. Her mind was in disarray and her heart was swelling with sorrow.
"How ironic…." She muttered to herself as she bent down to pick up an object. It was her pipe. "….and idiotic…." To think that she walked through the valley of hell to retrieve this little thing,
"I must be such an idiot" She smiled bitterly. Checking to see if there was some good tobacco still in it, she lit a match and took an extremely long drag before blowing it all out. Sighing heavily, her eyes began to flood with tears as she wailed out in sorrow.
Maybe it was seconds, maybe it was minutes. Eventually, Liette managed to wipe the tears and blood from her face and stood up. Forcing the tobacco out of her pipe, she stuffed it in her pocket, wiping the last of tears before looking back at the setting sun.
"Why..." She asked herself before running down the path of the wall, back towards the retreating Stationary Guard.
"….is everyone dying again…?"
A/N: This chapter deviated from where I originally planned, but I think that I liked the way it turned out better. Anyway, trying to avoid Mary Sue's is quite difficult, especially without the aid of the reader to point out flaws and potential qualities of a Mary Sue. If you see any signs of one, please inform me because I just really want to avoid making Liette into one as much as possible.
Anyway, a somewhat lengthy violence filled first chapter, tied directly with the events occurring in the first episode. I wanted to somehow write about Eren and Mikasa, but I couldn't find any good openings with what I already have, so I scratched it out.
Oh and for those of you who are wondering, I have no plans of any romantic relationship between Liette and Eren or Rivaille and any other canon character in the series, or any characters that I have made up. I don't have any plans, but that doesn't mean that I'm not open to adding some romance into the story. Just not involving Liette.
Sorry for those who are disappointed about wanting some sort of relationships, but they're just not on the table at the moment.
But don't lose hope! If I see an opportunity to add some romance in, I'll try my best to do so! But for now, stay tuned for another chapter and don't forget to leave a review!
