A lone boy woke up in the ruins of a broken down village; The sounds of the wind and faint heavy footsteps still ringing in his ears, one minute he was out to get food for his family in a neighbouring village and the next thing he knew…He was laying in the dirt.

In the distance wandered several lumbering figures that were drawn to the recent destruction and eager to capitalise on it; Titans, wandering giants that roamed during the day and varying from the size of a taller than average man all the way to being able to peek over the roof of a house in order to do one thing and one thing only; To sate their hunger for what remained of Humanity.

There wasn't a lot of choice for the boy since it teetered between heading to make it into the interior or going back to the village and even then the Titans were starting to amass more and more in groups though out the countryside, like they were tourists looking for a picnic spot.

The boy began to walk, his first thought was to go back to his village but Titans blocked the way in most directions and left the walls of the biggest City there was as his only option; A bloody rock clenched firmly in his hand as he stepped away from a gangly looking titan with a potbelly and a set of beady eyes that was currently twitching and struggling on the ground after the boy fought it off frantically.

"Someone…Please, someone…Titans…." He mumbled to himself listlessly as he navigated the dirt road into the night; His body aching from the adrenaline catching up with him, the exhaustion from walking on foot and the mental drain finally caught up with him and collapsed at the roadside. His only conscious thoughts as he slipped into the hazy dreamscape was the sound of a carriage rolling closer and a child's voice yelling before his eyes shut.

During that momentary lapse in consciousness gave rise to a dream that he had over numbers of days and regardless of how much he tried to rationalise it, it always never made sense; He was stood in a dark corridor surrounded by red flames and in front of two humanlike shadows that leered down at him like hungry wolves contemplating a rabbit. He tried to talk to the shadows, question them, scream all manner of things at them to understand what it was or what they were but before he saw their lips move, a bright purple and red light blinded his eyes and he felt the ground give out from under him into the abyss below.

With a sudden jerk upright and a sharp inhale as he felt the air getting sucked out of his lungs; He was quickly but gently nudged back down by a woman standing over him; "What…Who are you? And…Where am I?!" He asked hoarsely as the dark haired woman smiled down at him.

"It's alright, young man…You're safe here, my husband is the one who brought you here to our home in Shiganshina." She would calmly assure him as she got up and took the damp cloth from his forehead. "You were found on the roadside when he and our son found you while they traveled home, How about you tell me your's since we'll be having you with us for the night and I'd rather not keep referring to you as Young Man."

"N-Nice to meet you…Miss…My name's James…James McConnelly, ma'am." James croaked as he sat up against the headboard as he took in his surroundings; Despite stating it was a Clinic, this room seemed to look more like a standard bedroom; "You said that your husband brought me here?"

"My, such good manners~ I'm certain that Eren could learn some from you." She joked with a soft chuckle that seemed to make him feel better already; My name is Carla Jaeger and yes, he's a doctor for people who live here in the city…He said that you can stay here for the night but he'll take you to the clinic tomorrow so that you can be looked over." Carla explained as she got up to head for the door; "I'll let him know you're awake so try not to worry too much."

James nodded as the woman left to go tell him the news but a few moments later came another boy around his age arrived to check him out. "So you're awake, Dad found you in a bad way."

"Yeah…Sorry for putting you and your family out…" James apologised as he bowed his head; He felt guilty about taking the extra space and what looked like extra food on their table too.

"Dummy…You think a doctor's gonna leave someone in need on the road because they're gonna get put out? We helped because you needed it." The boy explained; "I'm Eren."

James smiled a little as he looked up towards Eren; "James…"

—A Year later in 845—

"Eren, why are we stopping here again?" Mikasa asked as she, Eren, Armin and James had all come back from doing chores outside when Eren wanted to watch the soldiers from the Scouting Regimen return from their last expedition beyond the wall.

James often watched these with Eren and had stories to tell about what he saw of the world outside; Despite the fact that it was mostly about his time on the farm and his old life, Eren listened nonetheless and even talked with him and Armin about the kinds of things that lived out beyond the confines of their cage. "Why not? Every time they always go out there, they come back with some info that could help us humans get one step closer to fighting back against the Titans." He pointed out as he wasn't so blind as to ignore the sorry states they came back in; "No matter what it takes…"

Mikasa sighed, it took her a little longer for her and James to become friends when they first met. Even then they only managed short talks but that friendship became solid when she noticed that whenever Eren inevitably got into fights with other kids, James was right there and helping to stop the fighting…Albeit mostly with him fighting as well. "But you do see them? Most of them don't come back in one piece….Some don't even come back at all, aren't you worried that you'll upset Mrs Jaeger if you two were to join the Scouts?"

"Maybe but if we don't do what we can to help, nothing will change…" Armin debated as he looked to Mikasa with a serious look.

Before either of the two could discuss further; A sudden rumble of thunder resonated in the sky followed by rising plumes of steam. James looked towards the sound as did numerous other people but he alone felt like it was worse than initially though, only to be proven right when a gigantic skinless hand rose over the top of the wall and clamped down on top. "A Titan?! No…I can't even imagine one that could grow THAT big!" He tried to convince himself only to see the Colossal Titan's head rise over the top of the 50m wall and leered at everyone with a lipless smirk down towards them.

There was no time for forces to be mobilised quickly enough as the Wall inward; spraying the city with broken pieces of rubble and the broken bodies of those unfortunate enough to be close to the wall. It didn't take long for everyone to scramble and run for their homes, their families or those who wanted to make it to the boat as the sounds of the emergency bells rang out.

"Guys…We should go….Now!" James stammered as he felt the fear grip him tight as he saw the smaller Titans lumbering through the now gaping wide hole, The Colossal Titan was gone but the hole that it kicked in the wall made it incredibly easy for the smaller but equally as dangerous Titans to wander into the city and start eating people.

"Mom!" Eren yelled out as he realised where the rubble of the wall landed and suddenly sprinted away from the scene and back towards the house with the other three friends not too far behind. With the Wall now breached and the threat of both Humanity's bane along with the collapsed rubble presented a lot of worries; Though that didn't exactly pose any comfort when they found the Jaeger mother trapped under the debris of their home. "We'll get you out, don't worry!"

James started helping with Mikasa as they tried to lift the collapsed roof off of Carla; He felt the sharp wood splintering into his fingers and the dull thudding of each Titan's monstrous footsteps as they wandered the broken streets. "Come on…Lift…Lift!" He grunted as he strained himself but unfortunately three 11 year old kids were nowhere near strong enough to make it budge.

THOOM!

Staring them down was a Titan that stood as tall as it was gaunt; it's mouth forced wide open in a ghoulish smile as it found new snacks to get at.

Eren and James felt the terror hold on to them as they grew more frantic in trying to lift and get Carla free. "Come on! We're not leaving you here!" Eren yelled determinedly when the sound of an Omni-Directional Gear landed by them as Hannes showed up to help.

"Kids, what are you still doing here?!" Hannes yelled at them but then saw Carla trapped followed by the Smiling Titan in the distance; "Eren, both your parents helped me when I needed it…So get your mom out of there, take your friends and run!" He declared proudly before drawing his two swords and rushed to attack the Titan with a heroic sounding battle cry.

James could practically feel the fear coming off of Hannes as he stared down the giant Titan's unsettling smile and in that instant his brain flashed an image of a stone staircase, at the top were two robe wearing women standing in front of him with glowing hands and clad in a swirling red/purple haze. There was a muffled voice followed by a wry smirk as the purple one as waved her hand and the red one shot a white ball towards him in a blinding flash before he heard three words in his head that shocked him to his core.

"You're too weak…"

James wasn't sure who it was that said it but all he knew was that when he blinked back to consciousness; Hannes sheathed his weapons, turned on his heel to sprint in the other direction while grabbing both Eren and Mikasa to hightail it away from the approaching Smiling Titan.

"RUN FOR IT, JAMES! WE CAN'T HELP HER!" Hannes screamed back to him while trying to keep steady as Mikasa struggled and Eren practically fought tooth and nail to get free.

James was ignoring them and stubbornly trying to lift; "I'm not leaving her! She took me in and she helped me find a place, I can't just ignore that…." He shouted at himself as he felt the splinters digging into his fingers while he pushed himself more.

"James…Please run…You can't help me even if you could…But promise me that you'll look out for them…Help Mikasa and show Eren that he can achieve what he wants to…" Carla tried to reassure him with an outstretched hand to try convincing him.

"I'm…I'm sorry, Mrs Jaeger…." James mumbled sadly before turning to run; The ache of guilt and the feeling of cowardice burned his insides like a furnace as he sprinted after Hannes, the adrenaline keeping his legs moving and the sound of his heart drumming in his ears blocked out the screams as they made it to the boats.

—Hours later on the Boat to the Inner Walls—

Everyone was struggling to cope with what had happened; The feelings of guilt, grief and to a lesser extent of grim acceptance. Though Armin struggled with the loss of his family and Mikasa was quiet as stone since this was the second mother figure that she had lost but James and Eren were both the hardest hit out of the foursome.

While Mikasa stuck close with Eren to try easing him, Armin went after James who had gone to the side of the ship and simply watched the carnage unfold. "James…Are you…Doing okay?"

The look on James's face was a storming cloud of emotions but the look in his eyes made him appear more shellshocked than anyone of the group right now; Like Armin was staring at one of the Scouting Legions instead of a regular kid. "First it was my home…MY family and everyone in the village…Now they attacked my second chance at a normal life…" He muttered to himself as he vacantly stared to the water. "I'm joining the Military for the Scouting Corps…And I'm gonna make sure that they feel every ounce of pain they gave to us!"

—Years later—

The new cadets were lined up in a row as they stood ready to begin training to become the next line of defence; Though with Keith Shadis at the helm, it would be a challenge.

"Welcome to your first day of Boot Camp, I will be your drill instructor and I expect the first word and the last word out of your filthy little sewer holes are "Sir"! Do you shit stains understand me?!" Shadis barked at the others loud enough for the entire compound to hear.

"SIR, YES SIR!"

"Good! You're already learning but to start your training, you're gonna need to think fast or you're gonna get booted fast!" Shadis marched along the group and scanned them for any sign of weakness; picking out Armin, Jean and Mina until he finally came across a serious looking James who was returning his stone cold glare. "You eyeballin' me there, slick?" He asked with a focused glare; "What's got you looking like a Titan took a shit in your breakfast?!"

"Sir! This is my natural face; Sir!" James responded without even flinching as he kept his composure in the face of the instructor's yelling.

"Well, La-Dee-Fuckin-Dah! How about you lose that mean mug or I might just send you to run laps alongside Potato Girl!"Shadis continued his tirade as plenty of the recruits before him either wilted completely or faltered with this level of intensity. "Now what do you want here?"

James kept quiet but his face didn't change; "Sir! To kill Titans Sir!"

"Alright then, piss for brains…How about you tell me what you want out of this! Instead of what you're already gonna do!" Shadis kept pressing him before starting to repeatedly smack the side of his head. Earning a dirty look from behind by Mikasa and a shared visage of concern from both Armin and Krista.

"Sir, the recruit can't think if the instructor keeps smacking his head, Sir!" James replied through grit teeth as the smacking was starting to get to him.

"Can't think?! You too much of a dumbass to think while I'm giving you a few love taps?!" Shadis quizzed him as the slapping continued; "How are you going to focus on killing a Titan by the nape while other Titans are screaming in your face and eating your comrades?!" The smacking then stopped as The Instructor leaned in closer to be eye to eye. "So then what the fuck are you doing here, numbnuts?"

James turned his glare to Shadis as his temper finally snapped; "SIR! I GOT LOST ON THE WAY TO THE CAPITAL, SIR!" He finally bellowed in Shadis's face, the anger now visible but that auickly faded when he got the same reward as Jean did and took a harder headbutt to the face by Shadis, knocking the younger teen to the ground in the process.

Shadis decided to glare down at James; though the fact that his forehead after the headbutt now dripped blood made him all the more intimidating. "Godsfucking damn! Little Shit's got a hard head…I guess that comes in handy if he gets caught by a Titan's fat fingers…." Shadis thought to himself as it felt like he had tried to headbutt an iron cage door. "Now listen up…You double deckered PIG FART!" Shadis yelled as he roughly grabbed James by the collar and pulled him to his feet; "You talk back to me like that again, cadet…and I'll send you to the infirmary so that the nurse can pull your head! OUT OF YOUR HAMSTER HOLE! YOU GOT THAT?!"

"SIR! CLEAR AS DAY, SIR!" James barked back as he oddly enough didn't seemed hurt from the headbutt whereas Jean seemed to be nursing his bloody nose.

"Good! Now that we got all of you awake, we're gonna start your training by practicing your ODM Proficiencies…Make your way to the cabin and get suited up, on the double!" Shadis ordered as he dismissed everyone to go prep.

As the days went on, each training was like putting a cadet through hell but for the sake of fighting back against Titans or for self preservation; people were willing to do whatever it took, this particular day was "Marksmanship" aka how to blow off smaller Titan's heads with a rifle. "Alright you maggots! It's time to see how good of a shot you are! Take your rifle and take aim at the targets! Then we move on to bows and arrows!" Shadis barked his orders at the other initiates.

Outside of the firing range were several targets shaped like Titans ranging from the smallest all the way up to 15m. The first ones up on the range were selected and each took their own shots to earn their scores; Plenty of which had such colourful phrases from Shadis to motivate them.

"Well, look at that! You must be a real crackshot to shoot into the woods like that Jaeger! Too bad we're not hunting deer! TRY AGAIN!"

"Kirstein! You talk a lot about joining the MPs but you can't even hold your rifle straight!"

By the time he got to Armin and Shadis was about to comment on his lack of nerve with a rifle; Several shots rang out from the next range over enough times to signal that the shooter had emptied the magazine.

After going to investigate who it was, Shadis found his eyes on James laying on his belly in a sniper's position with the smoking barrel; The targets at the eyes, the nape of the neck and the Achilles tendons were shot so precisely that the bullet marks were clean through with no exit resistance.

"McConnelly, you didn't tell me that a sack of manure like you could handle a rifle like that." Shadis drilled him without using his louder Instructor voice since he was both impressed at his precision but also curious about where and how he learned.

"I hunted in a Village outside of the Walls sir, I either hit the target and eat or don't eat at all." James explained as he shouldered the gun.

"Well congratu-fuckin-lations, you've managed to earn top marks in shooting over the others here, that's the first thing I've seen from you that you're good at!"

—The Next Day, During Hand to Hand-

Combat training was always hard with some people; Eren and Jean spent the time arguing if Jean and James weren't already butting heads, Annie Leonhardt kept to herself and was effortlessly brutal on either side even when she had a partner...For right now it was Krista Lenz who had decided to approach James. "M-McConnelly? I was wondering if you'd be my sparring partner today." She asked him timidly since this aspect of her training wasn't her greatest and considering other options that were competent were Reiner, Eren, Mikasa or Annie; James seemed to be the more understanding.

For James, Hand to hand was a middle point; while he wasn't the biggest guy around like Reiner or Bertholdt nor the most capable like Annie or Mikasa, James had a knack for helping others grasp the concept while maintaining a decent rank. "Sure…Though wouldn't you rather go with Ymir? She always seems eager to help you." He asked her curiously.

"I could, though I think Ymir's been taking it too easy on me with this, if I'm gonna join the Corps or the Military Police then I need to learn properly…I would have asked Mikasa or Annie but they honestly scare me a little. Mina told me that you had good advise so I wanted to see if you were able." Krista explained and then had one of her saintly smiles adorned on her face, the light shining from the sun and the fact that Krista had to look up made it difficult for anyone let alone James to say no with a straight face.

"A-Alright, I guess I can give it a shot." James accepted with a faint blush in his cheeks before clearing his throat; "Most people in our group tend to have the advantage of being stronger but when I see you fight, you have trouble trying to counter other people with a hard enough hit…One thing I can suggest you do is to go with it."

"Go…with it?" Krista asked as she looked confused; "You mean like keep trying to hit them?"

"No…Try to lower your stance and brace." James instructed as he watched Krista do so before lightly pushing her to test her stance; "See? Now you're a little more difficult to knock down…The next step is to not resist what comes…So if I go to hit you, grab me like you were taught and throw. No resistance or adjusting, just let your body flow and move….Let's try."

Krista nodded as she braced herself; Granted it did take her a few tries but once she felt ready, she watched James rush forward with the fake knife and with that same quick grab, she let him stumble past her and hit the ground while she held him in the pin; "How was that?"

"Damn…For someone so light and quick, you really hit hard." James complimented her and caused her to blush a little at the praise. "Now…Let's try it again until you get it down right and then you can start kicking butt with no problem."

—Graduation Day—

"Alright, Members of the 104th Squadron! You all have managed to get through your basic training and you've now proven yourselves as competent enough to handle the responsibilities of being Soldiers to defend the kingdom's walls." The Chief Instructor commanded to the group standing in front of him; "You now have three choices ahead of you for which Squad you want to serve in…The first is the Garrison which typically man and operate the walls for defence and basic Titan deterring, the second is the Military Police which guards the inner Capital and we only reserve for the Top Ten because of it."

The group nodded as they took in stock and figured out what they wanted to do; Eren, Mikasa and James all knew where they wanted to go, plenty of the others were set on others but Jean Kirstein was preening himself because since the "Incident" he had been preening and putting himself forward to try scoring points and earn his way into that position for the safety of the inner walls.

"First up is Top of the Class: Mikasa Ackerman!"

Mikasa stepped forward and made her salute.

"Second is Reiner Braun!"

The list slowly went down and it made Jean all the more giddy at the fact that he felt like a shoo in. "I might have made an error in judgement but naturally I should be getting in regardless."

"In joint fifth and sixth! Eren Jaeger! James McConnelly!" The Instructor called out and earned a look of surprise from everyone questioning how there was a joint ranking.

"Joint ranking?! How is that even..Never mind…It may not be the upper echelons of the top ten but I can still potentially make it."

Finally the full list came about and each person had stepped forward:

1. Mikasa Ackerman
2. Reiner Braun
3. Bertolt Hoover
4. Annie Leonhart
5. Eren Jaeger
6. James McConnelly
7. Connie Springer
8. Sasha Blouse
9. Armin Arlert
10. Krista Lenz

Each of the group who were called were stepped forward and plenty of people clapped for them, the only exceptions being Jean who was begrudgingly clapping while stifling down any hint of seething resentment towards Eren and James being called and he hadn't.

It took a good few days for the groups to fall out and before they could get assigned to a Squad so for now, everyone in the 104th Squadron was now poised on the wall for a mock patrol to see if the Garrison was the fit for them.

"You think we can really do this?" Connie asked as he peered over the edge; "In just a few days, we're gonna go join up in killing Titans…It just feels…Weird." "That's just nerves…Once we're in the squad we picked then we can settle, no problem." James explained as he saw Sasha coming over with her hands tucked in her cloak; "Sasha…Whatcha got there?"

"James…Don't freak out, but I managed to swipe this meat for us to share~" Sasha said to him in a hushed whisper and a goofy grin on her face; Ever since he had "Saved" her by giving her some of his food after her arduous runs, she had essentially latched onto him as her favourite person for leftover food and when she needs someone to be nice to her.

"Sasha! You better put that back to where you found it or we ALL get into shit." James yelled at her in a similar whisper; He was used to her gluttony at this point but the fact that she had the audacity to steal from the Instructors and MEAT no less was horrifying and bordering on impressive.

"Well…If we survive through this and start fighting back then we can all eat it together." Sasha pointed out as the others quickly agreed….Though it wasn't going to last for long as a cloud of steam rose into the sky and from the wall emerged a face that had haunted plenty of Cadets from that very day.

The Colossal Titan had returned….