𝗸𝗶𝗹𝗹𝗲𝗿 𝗶𝗻𝘀𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗰𝘁𝘀, 𝗷𝗲𝗮𝗻 𝗸𝗶𝗿𝘀𝗰𝗵𝘁𝗲𝗶𝗻

𝟬𝟮 || 𝗰𝗹𝗲𝗮𝗻 𝘀𝗹𝗮𝘁𝗲

"Cheer up, bitchface. Maybe this can be a new beginning for me... I can use my skills for good!"

"Tch, I've never heard you sound so dreamy. Since when did you ever care what was good?"

"Oh, lay off of it. I know you've had your fair share of fresh starts, but this is the first one for me...  I've finally made it out of the Underground..."

Her words hit you a little with a bittersweet pain, as you realised that your life was merely a repeating cycle of mistakes and elaborate ways of covering them up.

ˏˋ°•*⁀➷

"Hmph, you little vermin...  I've had enough of you; should have killed you a long time ago.  Our lovely Lance isn't home right now, is he?  You seem to forget that this is my home too."

A sharpened steak knife was brandished in her hand.

"I'll give you ten seconds to leave. Leave, and never come back.  I'll tell Lancey that one minute you were here, and the next you had ran away - that you'd only been using us for our food and clothing, a roof over your head.  It's the truth that boy needs to hear, he's so in denial because of those innocent eyes of yours, those evil eyes, always playing the goddamn victim and the hero, all at the same time.  Go, or I'll stab the life out of them."

Evil.

That was the end of your first 'fresh start' and also the end of your second victim's life.

From that point onwards, you were no longer y/n l/n.  You were Zara Sokolov, who lived in the Underground.

ˏˋ°•*⁀➷

For a brief moment, a feeling of dizziness caused your world to twirl as the words you had imagined stung you like it was the very first time hearing them.  You ended up stumbling against Elisha; she grabbed hold of you.

"You alright Za-  y/n?"

Shaking the feeling off, you got ahold of yourself. "Fine, just fine."

ˏˋ°•*⁀➷

You stood atop of Wall Rose, two titans already gathering near the foot of the vast structure. 

"Perfect conditions.  Enough titans to make a useful training device, but not so many that it will overwhelm you, hopefully," Hange analysed, looking down at the titans below; a grizzly sight, really. 

Huge stubby fingers, hands that had surely held humans hostage before, and dry lips that had definitely tasted live flesh.  Yet, Hange looked down on them with a glimmer in their eyes, rather than the dread that captivated everyone else's.

"Right, let's go then!" you exclaimed, eager to get it over with, as you unsheathed a sword from your side.

Levi eyed you up and down before speaking, "Not so fast, unless you want to kill yourself on your first day.  Did you even bother to do up those straps?"
"Well I did but-"
"You talk a lot for a completely incapable fool.  If I hadn't spotted that, you would've been their lunch," he gestured down to the titans who stared up at you all with mindless eyes.

"Fine, give me a minute," you subsided, starting to fiddle with the straps on your thighs while the others' patience with you began to dwindle.
Levi's hand met his face in a disappointed look, the eyes of all the other Scouts drilling into the back of your head as you tried to understand the mechanism.