Break The Walls (Ghost!Armin x Reader AU)

Prologue Pt. 1: Armin's Past

 Germany – WW2 Era 

Hitler is rising. Armin and his two friends, Eren and Mikasa were recruited as child soldiers. What’s the one thing the three have in common? The fact that they were all left orphans, the war has taken not only their lives, but their parents too. He has so little memory of what his parents were like. Although he did remember that his dad was a soldier and his mum a nurse. Since his father left him when he was little, he spent quite a lot of time with his mum reading medical books, some of them illegal. He had learned a lot, like how to differentiate poisonous from remedial herbs, dealing with wounds so it won’t become infected, and so on and so forth. He decided he wanted to save lives, not end them. He had settled his mind on becoming a doctor. One day, hoards of army men with their trucks came to town. Little Armin thought that they were going to take the men, as usual. It has happened before; some men had signed up to join the army and the big trucks will come and go to pick them up, sometimes, well most of the time, they are filled with dead or injured men; men who are not fitted to fight alongside Hitler. Little Armin was playing chess with his grandpa when the soldiers came into his house. He was very much surprised when they took his mum away from him. Little Armin was scared and confused. He didn’t want to part with his mum. No words, no sentences and no questions left Armin’s tiny mouth. Truth is, he was scared. He didn’t want his mum to go away. Not now. Not ever. When his grandpa asked why, the soldiers said nothing more than “For medical reasons, she’s a nurse, we’ll need her to save our injured men”. There was nothing that could be done, so little Armin and his grandpa just stood there in silence, watching as they took away another one of their family members.

It has been months since his mum was taken away. Poor Armin has never received a letter from both his mum and dad. His grandpa has been taking care of him; he has made a new friend, Eren and his adopted brother, Mikasa. They’ve been so kind to him, they’ve let him play together, would listen to his stories and sometimes they’d read his illegal books together. When they’re not playing around, Eren was always boasting around about joining Hitler’s army. Mikasa, naturally just went by this. Armin, of course, is still stuck with his ideals about becoming a doctor.

One day, Armin, Eren and Mikasa decided to play hide-and-seek near the lake. It was when Armin closed his eyes to do the countdown, a bomb has struck his village. The trio rushed to their homes, only to find rubble, dust, and the unmistakable splatter of blood.

Poor 10-year-old orphaned Armin, whose parents left him for the war and granddad crushed by what was once a home, was left alone with nothing but some of his burnt medical books and his two friends. Armin, Mikasa and Eren were forced to live in an orphanage far away from their burnt out village and spent their miserable days trying not to get into fights and kissing the head lady’s arse in the hopes of getting an extra meal. In the orphanage, he was relentlessly picked on. It was miserable. He was always relying on Eren and Mikasa to help him up and fight the bullies away. Deep down, Armin wished that he didn’t have to get constant help from Eren and Mikasa, but he couldn’t simply because he was too weak to face the bullies alone. He was thankful though, the two are his only family now.

It was when Armin was 13 when the army men came to the orphanage seeking for boys aged 12 and above to be trained to become a soldier. The orphanage didn’t even tried to put on a fight, it was like they were hoping to dispose of the older children. Armin and his two friends were put once again in a vehicle full of miserable looking children, except for Eren, who has the smallest of smiles etched on his face. He knew that this was Eren's dream to become a soldier. His bully, Jean Kirstein, who was the same age as him, though his body is way bigger, also had a smile, though it was rather smug compared to Eren's. 

Armin, despite his wishes to become a doctor, was forced into becoming a murder machine. He had received his first riffle when he was just 13 years old, had gotten a hang of it when he was 14 and by the time he was 15 he’d killed somebody with it. He felt sad, he felt angry, he felt upset but he, at the same time, was glad that it wasn’t him who was at the end of the barrel. It was October 3rd, one month before his birthday, just exactly one month, when he had died. Poor Armin, shot by an unknown bullet through the heart. Had him quick and clean. He had known this from the start; he would never survive in the battlefield. Perhaps he could postpone his death by a couple of days, weeks if he were lucky due to his high intelligence and strategic way of thinking, but deep down he knew that he’d die. After all, he was one of the physically weakest of his squadron. He lied there in the dirt, riffle in hand, eyes open, blood seeping through his soaked uniform. He looked as if he was sleeping, except his eyes were open and his breath has stopped completely. The last thing he saw before he’d died was the semi-dark blue sky with a tint of grey hue hinting that little droplets of water are going to fall. 

Tbc.. Thanks for reading, I promise I'll update soon. Mikasa is a boy here by the way, that's why I described Mikasa as Him not Her. I'd really appreciate it if you'd comment, this is my first story here so I'm so sorry if it's that bad. Bai !