The opening ceremony for the latest batch of cadets had concluded, and the new soldiers in training were given some free time to explore the grounds and socialize before their training began in earnest the following day.
Krista leaned against the back of one of the storage sheds, allowing the smile she had been forcing herself to wear for most of the morning to fade away.
She had spent most of the time doing her best to put on a friendly face, smiling and being open and encouraging to the others. She would do her best to be like the Krista person she had read about growing up, the person whose name she had taken, someone who was caring and kind, who always put others first.
She knew her life meant nothing, that her very existence was a mistake, but she hoped she could do some good in the world while she was there, and that maybe, just maybe, some people would miss her when she was gone.
So she would keep smiling, being the person others needed her to be, even if it meant disregarding her true feelings and ignoring what she actually wanted.
In truth, she didn't know what she wanted. Ever since hearing her mother's last words…
She brushed that thought away. She wouldn't think about that. It didn't matter.
"Hello. Your name was Krista right?"
Krista jerked her head in shock, and saw a male cadet with blond hair looking at her nervously a few feet away.
Surprised, she hastily pulled her smile back on. "Yes. I'm sorry, I don't remember your name."
He smiled awkwardly. "That's okay. It's Armin."
"It's nice to meet you, Armin." She said sweetly, doing her best to keep her nice face on. "Where are you from?"
Armin flinched and looked at the ground. "Um, I'm from Shiganshina."
Her eyes widened. "Oh."
Her face froze, and her forced smile faded as she was overcome with genuine curiosity and concern.
"So...you were there on that day?"
Armin nodded grimly. "Yeah…"
She frowned. "I'm sorry you had to go through that. It must have been awful."
Despite the fake persona she had created for herself, she meant it when she said she was sorry. As lonely as her life had been, having to live through the nightmare of the Titan incursion was surely much worse.
"Yeah...it was." Armin coughed. "Anyways, where are you from?"
She froze. "Oh, nowhere really. Just a farm East of Orvud."
She could see that Armin could tell that she wasn't being entirely truthful, but she hoped he wouldn't ask too many questions, as her past was something she definitely didn't want to discuss with anyone, much less some boy she'd just met.
"I see. Did anyone else you know join the cadets with you?"
She shook her head. "No…"
Armin frowned. "Really? That's a shame. Hey, why don't I introduce you to my friends?"
"Huh? I-I wouldn't want to bother them…"
"Nonsense, I'm sure they'd love to meet you! Come on!"
"Okay…"
As she followed Armin she felt very unsure, but she had to admit that the idea of having friends was nice.
Of course, they wouldn't be friends with her, the real her, just the Krista person she was pretending to be. But it would still be better than nothing.
She smiled softly. This will be interesting.
THREE MONTHS AFTER THE START OF TRAINING
In a dense forest west of Mitras, the four warriors of Marley were busy at work.
Annie was looking over some of their maps, muttering to herself as her eyes scanned the names dotted across the weathered paper.
Reiner was maintaining their campsite, and at the moment was working on skinning several rabbits he'd caught earlier in the day for them to eat later.
Bertolt stood by the river, keeping an eye on their leader.
"You doing okay?" Bertolt asked, his voice slightly hoarse.
"I'll be fine."
Marcel's head was partly submerged in the water, and a wound had been cut into his neck, deep enough to penetrate the top of his spinal column. Now a mixture of blood and spinal fluid was seeping into the flowing water and being carried downstream, where it would eventually flow by a town just south of Mitras's southern gate.
Marcel was careful to control his healing ability so that he healed just enough to constantly replenish the blood and spinal fluid within his body, but not enough to heal the wound. It was important to keep the fluid flowing for as long as possible, to maximize the number of people who would end up drinking the tainted water.
Marcel closed his eyes, running his plan and its numerous contingencies through his mind.
Under his leadership the four warriors had spent the last year obtaining detailed maps of all the walls, with comprehensive information about the various locations within each wall. Some maps had been fairly easy to obtain. Others, namely those containing more sensitive information such as the locations of military bases, supply depots, and the estates of the various nobles, were more tricky. Some they'd gotten by bribing the MPs, others they'd taken by force.
It had been a slow, gradual process, but eventually they'd obtained everything they needed to know about the world within the walls. With that done, they were able to pinpoint potential targets, take note of dangerous regions where the Scouts or Garrison had a large presence, and examine areas that were still wild or heavily forested that they could pass through relatively unnoticed.
With all that in mind, they were able to plan routes through the walls for when they put their plan into motion. They'd already done some practice runs, though they were always careful to only travel in Titan form at night. Their luck had held out, and they'd managed to move around and maintain the supplies they needed without drawing any attention.
And now they were tainting the river with Marcel's spinal fluid, so that when the time was right they could transform the people in the town south of Mitras into Titans. Marcel couldn't control pure Titans like Zeke could, but they would still serve as a useful distraction, creating enough chaos to give them the chance they needed to complete their mission without the military getting in their way.
While the others had followed his lead without question, Marcel could tell that they were slightly uncomfortable with some of the things he'd had them do, in particular his plans with his spinal fluid.
He couldn't blame them. It wasn't nice, or fair. But if anyplace within the walls deserved to be attacked it was Mitras. And if destroying it enabled them to complete their mission and go home, then so be it.
Marcel swallowed nervously. He only hoped that everything would continue to go smoothly.
SIX MONTHS AFTER THE START OF TRAINING
Hannes knelt down next to one of the wall cannons, double checking to make sure everything was still in working order. Satisfied that it was, he returned his gaze to the city of Trost below, his expression thoughtful.
"Doing alright this morning?"
Hannes turned his head to see Rico, another member of the Garrison, walking toward him, along with several other members of his squad.
He chuckled softly. "I'm doing fine, fine. Just making sure the cannons are in working order. Don't want us to be caught off guard again."
His smile faded as unpleasant memories flooded his mind once again. Failing to save Carla from that grinning monster when Shiganshina fell had haunted him ever since, and probably would hang over him all the way to the grave.
He had failed once. He would not fail again.
Rico glanced out into the land of Maria beyond Wall Rose. "Well, I doubt we will be. We're much better prepared this time around. They won't surprise us this time."
A second later, a strike of lightning occurred just outside of the gate, and suddenly, without any warning, a massive humanoid face was looming over the wall.
They all froze, and Hannes stared up at it dumbly, his mind struggling to process what he was seeing.
Wha…is that-
Before they could recover, all of them were blown off the wall by a blast of steam, flailing through the air before their muscle memory kicked in and they used their ODM gear to save themselves from falling to their deaths.
While they were busy regaining their bearings, the Colossal Titan kicked down the outer gate, sending chunks of debris flying.
The Colossal Titan then swept its massive arm across the wall, destroying the cannons, and disappeared in a shroud of steam.
Within minutes the entire city was ablaze with activity. The evacuation of the civilians had begun, and more soldiers of the Garrison poured into the city to contain the breach.
Less than an hour later, Commander Pixis had arrived, with the Scout regiment not far behind.
Pixis surveyed the now chaotic city with a frown.
I feared this day would come. We can't afford to fail here. If we do…
He quickly began to bark orders, determined to not let this be the day when humanity fell once and for all.
12 DAYS LATER
Countless soldiers milled about near Wall Rose, the inner gate of Trost a short distance away. Some looked bored, others anxious, and all of them were slightly on edge. The rays of the setting sun cast a gloomy light over the wall, which remained secure.
Pixis and Erwin were quietly discussing further tactics and plans, but the same uneasiness was on their faces. After learning of the Colossal Titan's return, they had feared the worst, and had expected the Armored Titan to make an appearance shortly thereafter.
But that hadn't happened. While plenty of normal Titans poured in through the broken outer gate, the Armored Titan had failed to appear. In many ways it was a relief, as without its help the other Titans had been unable to break through the inner gate, but in other ways it left things in a dreadful suspense, making everyone unsure of what to expect next.
Anticipating the Armored Titan to appear eventually, they had gathered as many reinforcements from both the Scouts and the Garrison as they could, so that they would be able to fight off the Titans should they break through the inner gate into Wall Rose. They'd also begun to block off the inner gate, sealing it off brick layer by brick layer, in the hopes that when the Armored Titan did appear, it would be enough to stop his momentum.
Several days later, the Armored Titan had still failed to appear, and they'd managed to completely seal off the inner gate. It had gotten to the point where, starting after dark, they'd carefully begun to do the same to the outer gate, and while a large number of Titans had entered Trost, no more could, and they had begun to dispose of the ones that were there by cannon fire.
Near the edge of the camp, several of the veteran Scouts were standing near one of the now abandoned houses.
Levi paced back and forth, a fierce scowl on his face. "I don't like this. I don't like this at all."
Mike watched Levi for a moment before turning his gaze to their resident scientist. "What do you make of this Hange?"
Hange rubbed her chin thoughtfully. "I don't know. Based on the attack on Wall Maria, we were expecting the possibility of a similar attack on Wall Rose. But while the Colossal Titan appeared again, the Armored Titan didn't."
"Could this be a distraction?" Mike suggested. "Maybe they attacked Trost to get our attention, and then they'll attack one of the other outer districts."
Hange nodded absently. "Maybe. But realistically it would have made more sense for them to just attack both gates one after the other. It feels like we're missing something. We thought that the Colossal and Armored Titans were just trying to destroy humanity, same as the other Titans. But now, I'm not so sure."
Levi sighed. "A better question would be how the hell a 60 meter monstrosity appears and disappears seemingly out of nowhere."
"Hmm, that is a puzzler. We know it's at least somewhat intelligent. Maybe it can disguise itself as a normal Titan, and only reveal itself when it wants to use its full strength."
Levi scoffed. "Sounds kind of far fetched. But I suppose it's no crazier than-"
They were interrupted by someone on horseback suddenly arriving.
"Someone get commander Erwin and commander Pixis! It's an emergency!"
The soldier didn't so much dismount as collapse off of his horse onto the ground.
Levi was surprised. From the man's uniform he could tell that he was an MP, but he looked utterly exhausted, as if he'd been riding for hours on end with no rest.
A moment later Pixis, Erwin, and several other officers had gathered around the MP, waiting to hear his news.
"So, what's happened?"
The MP looked up at them, his face a mixture of exhaustion and terror. "Mitras is under attack by Titans."
In the stunned silence that followed, he elaborated.
"This morning, the Colossal Titan appeared and broke down the city's southern gate. A horde of regular Titans came out of nowhere and poured through the broken gate. At the head of the horde was the Armored Titan, but there were two other new types of Titan with it. There was a Female Titan, and a five meter Titan with a vicious looking jaw and sharp claws. The five meter Titan appeared to be giving orders to the other Titans."
Intense murmuring broke out among the soldiers there at this shocking news.
Pixis frowned. "What were they doing? Did they seem to have a plan, or was it just wanton destruction?"
The MP shook his head helplessly. "I don't know, I was dispatched to get help almost as soon as the battle started."
Pixis patted him on the shoulder. "I see. Well, go get some rest, soldier, you've earned it."
As the MP staggered off, Erwin's face darkened.
"We've been tricked. We assumed that the Titans wanted humanity dead, and so brought most of our military forces here to prevent that from happening. But it appears that these special Titans have somehow found a way to bypass the walls, and tricked us into thinking that humanity was in danger, enabling them to carry out their objective at the capital without any opposition."
"But what is their objective?" Pixis asked.
"I don't know." Erwin admitted. "But I intend to find out. Pixis, you and your forces stay here at Trost, just in case they do try to break through. I will lead the Scouts to Mitras. We must stop the Titan attack, and find out what is going on."
A short while later, all of the Scouts were on horseback and riding as hard as they could to the north, their anxiety and dread giving way to determination.
Author's Note: So this was one of the stories in my series of oneshots What If, but I decided to flesh it out into a full story. I'm planning to update once a month, though we'll see how that goes. Leave a review and let me know what you thought.
