The Forgotten Twins - An Attack on Titan FanFiction

The Next Morning

When I tried to sit up and stretch that morning, I hit my head against the fallen rubble that constituted the roof of the little structure I had dove under the day before. I groaned partly from pain, partly from annoyance, then I rolled out from underneath the overhang of our little shelter.

With nothing to hit my head against this time, I sat up. 

Surveying the area, I found that most of the buildings around us were in some kind of disrepair. Whole faces of multiple buildings had been sheered off exposing the inner workings of the houses. Many of the house's roofs were smashed in so the titans could get to their prey. There were also giant cracks in the foundations that had formed because the massive weight of the titans shook the very ground and destabilized the foundations. Most of the cobblestones had been cracked and smashed as well.

Speaking of, I felt giant thumps shake the ground but for some reason I didn't panic. In fact, despite the savagery I had witnessed the day before, somehow, I felt fully at ease.

Even though I felt pretty well at ease, I still felt apprehensive about being loud and attracting the attention of the titans, but after a moment's hesitation, I whistled for Samuel, my chocolate border collie mix. After a moment he came bounding up to me with his tongue lolling out of the side of his mouth. He was such a goofy dog, he had so much life and character. I laughed, then scratched his ears just like he loved. His tail never stopped wagging happily. I was glad to have been the one to save him, he was so much better off now than he was before.

I immediately felt better being able to stroke his soft fur. The anxiety that had been coursing through me calmed, if only a little. 

Sam trot along with me when I decided to investigate the source of the sound of the thumping and discovered a huge, maybe twenty meter titan.

I froze in surprise. I had been expecting titans, but not a giant monster of a titan right out of the gate. I tensed, waiting for it to lunge and attack me. The thing looked right at me and I knew it was over in that moment. 

I could see its brain working to register me in its mind, but it didn't attack me. It almost literally nodded to me, and then went on its merry way. I tilted my head. That was way out of the terrifying character that had been drilled into me by everyone I had asked about titans.

Titans were supposed to lunge, attack, crush and devour humans without question. I had seen as much only the day before! And yet, that one just . . .

Okay ? ? ?

I took out my notebook and started drawing the titan and jotting down notes detailing its physique, mannerism, and total lack of interest in me at all. It fascinated me and I wanted to study it. For the better part of the morning I followed it around and recorded the things I watched it do. Which was mostly aimlessly lumber around for -as much as I could tell- no reason at all. There were many titans littering the streets after the fiasco of yesterday, and they all wandered about with no tangible goal.

Much like the one I was observing, others titans that passed us by didn't attack me either, some would watch me curiously as I followed the other titan around before continuing their own activities, while others wouldn't even spare me a glance. Two or three did come close to crushing me, but not because of malcontent. They simply hadn't noticed I was even there at all.

It was unreal.

Why weren't these creatures acting the part of the mindless killing machines they had so eagerly played the day before? What was different? What had changed?

I decided to continue to observe these oddly behaving titans for a while longer.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The sun was high when I caught my first glance. A well proportioned titan, much like that of the Armored Titan as I had dubbed the titan who broke through the gate of wall Maria. It had to be at least forty meters tall, and had almost the same kind of plate armor as the Armored Titan, but its armor seemed to have a sort of crystalline feature to it. 

Unlike the Armored titan however, its plate armor overlapped many of the places where movement occurred. So it was still able to move around, but those places that were vulnerable to attack were covered and only small gaps would allow access to them.

The thing had made a row of town houses on the other side of the canal its own personal couch  and it lounged on them with a fairly disinterested look on its face.

At first, I wanted to go inspect it and look at it's odd armor, but when I got close, warning bells went off in my head and a shiver of terror coursed through me. Some deep and primal feeling was telling me -no, screaming at me- that that thing was dangerous and that I should keep away from it at all costs.

So instead, I decided to go back and see if my dear Rosie was up and about as of yet.

I went back to the little place I'd decided to cram us into the day before. When I got there, I found a wicker basket full of different food items and a short note which read,

'I'm going to look for a better place for us to hunker down. I know I would rather have some semblance of home, since we're probably not going anywhere anytime soon. Don't worry. I'll be safe. Stay here, although I'm sure I'll be back before you are. Love Rosie.'  

After I finished reading her note I was immediately wracked with guilt and anxiety. I wished I had put Samuel on guard for her, there were feral animals stalking the streets that wouldn't hesitate to attack her if they deemed her to be an easy target. He would have been able to protect her and fend the animals off if she needed it.

I sat down and picked through the basket. There wasn't anything very interesting, so I selected an orange and began to peel it.

I hated being alone.

When I was alone images and scenarios of the nine years I'd been in captivity began to flash through my mind.