"Alright you sorry sacks of shit! Get up and Get ready for your first day of hell!" Shadis shouted to all the boys in the barracks before he walked out and spotted me. "What are you still doing here?! I said get ready, your hell's about to start if 20 minutes!" He stated which made me flinch before running off to get a new pair of clothing.
___
"It's altitude test time, so listen up!" Shadis exclaimed with his hands behind his back as we stood back at where we were yesterday, but this time there where posts that had a crossbow like figure on top with the strings hanging below it. "There is no place for you here if you cannot perform. Fail, and be shipped to the fields."
I was hanged up between Connie and Sasha, with the former shaking as if he had something in his pants and the latter swinging like a little kid, but nothing too serious. Meanwhile I floated in the air as still as a rock, I leaned back a bit to look up and think about what I'm actually doing. I mean, I know what's going to happen before anyone knows, I know people are going to die, so why don't I just leave? I stand nothing to gain from this, so why am I here? I don't have to be here. So why?
"What is your major malfunction Yeager?! " I heard the commander shout which brought me out of my trance, looking over I saw hanging upside down with a terrified look on her face and Shadis kneeling beside her. "Straighten yourself up!" Poor kid, I leaned forward awaiting to be set down.
____
𝙏𝙞𝙢𝙚𝙨𝙠𝙞𝙥-𝙚𝙫𝙚𝙣𝙞𝙣𝙜
"Just remember the basics and you should be fine. No need to try any fancy maneuvers." Mikasa said to Elen as we were still at the training ground along with Armin, while I stood at the crank ready to lift her up. "Just focus on on your balance, then distribute the weight evenly between the belts on your waist and your legs, you've got this don't worry." I said remembering what happened at this moment. "Loosen up your stance a little bit, if I can do, I know you can." Armin said, being the supportive friend that she is.
"Okay, a loose stance but balanced. Let's give it a shot [Y\N]." Elen repeated back to me with a tensed look on her face, and being who I am, I gave her a thumbs up with a dumb look on my face. She giggled a little before focusing on the task, though she was less tense. I slowly turned it anticlockwise as she lifted up in the air. Immediately she she leaned forward and just before I could catch her, her head bashed against mine spraying blood from a cut in my head and hers.
____
We were all in the cafeteria, while I sat with my comrades, Pieck ate peacefully beside me with Reiner beside her, across from me sat Bertholdt and Annie, though it was obvious who was shaking and who was glaring at me. "Get rid of that bandage, it's pissing me off." She said while staring at me, completely ignoring her food. "Huh? I don't- oh you mean this thing on my head? What, people saw me get hurt, so I can't just take it off. I've got to wait until I'm 'healed'." I replied with make quotation marks with my two forefingers. "You don't have to pretend to anyone, besides, the cut probably wasn't that big when you got it." "Of course it was, it was like this big." I said while tracing my finger along Pieck's forehead while she looked confused with food in her mouth. Annie however was pretty pissed.
"What are you doing?" Pieck asked when I finished though there was still food in her mouth. "Eat your food before you speak with a full mouth." I said while trying to keep every fiber of my being from not eating the food. She swallowed her food and then asked again, to which I did the action again. "I was just showing Annie how big the scar on my forehead was." I then looked at Annie who stared at her food then at me, but what I didn't notice was that Pieck's cheeks were red.
"I'm taking that thing off." Annie got up from her seat stepped in front of me. "A-annie wait." Though Bertholdt's plead fell on deaf ears. "Woah, An-" I tried to intercept and grab her hand but dear kami had other plans, I successfully stopped her from taking the bandage off which made her lose her balance somehow until she fell on top of me, and me not having any balance since I was sitting caused us both to fall but I acted as a pillow for her. I opened eyes to that I had one leg of the bench and since it was elevated, causing my 'you know what' to rub against her leg but I hope she didn't notice.
Not that I have a problem with this, it's just I can't let my boy Bertholdt get hurt like this. "H-hey! A-annie!?" Bertholdt called out wanting to get her off of me but was too chicken shit to do anything.
Her eyes shot open as she immediately retracted and sat on my lap which again, wasn't a problem. She slowly inched her hand to her lips as a blush arose on her cheeks. I knew what was about to happen so I tried to stop beforehand but she already ran out the door, after an awkward silence I let out a long sigh continued to lay on the floor. "Women."
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◍3rd 𝙥𝙚𝙧𝙨𝙤𝙣 𝙥𝙤𝙫◍
▥𝙉𝙖𝙧𝙧𝙖𝙩𝙞𝙫𝙚▤
"What's the trick to posture control? Hard to say, guess I got the gift. You just gotta feel it, you know? Though I just trying to figure out you're trick, you've screwed up every way imaginable." Ymir said mockingly towards Elen and Armin. Though that seemed to stress Elen out even more. "Please Ymir, you gotta help me. I'm begging you." Elen pleaded as she got closer to her. "That's funny, wasn't it yesterday when you said 'If you can't handle the pressure, you got to go'?" She sounded unsure of her own question. "Sorry, it's just Mina talks a lot and word spreads fast here."
Elen didn't hear the last part and started shaking with her breathing getting ragged. "No was it 'if you're a complete idiot, you got to leave'? Maybe something like that." Ymir finished off before walking back to her side of the room.
____
"Oh come on! I heard from everyone you're really good at it!" Elen exclaimed towards Annie who sat against the wall with her face in her lap. "Cmon Annie." "Sorry kid, but there isn't any special trick to just hanging there. Not to be harsh, but if it's advice you want, but I'm not really the person you should be talking to." Annie slowly said back while making brief eye contact with them.
"Alright alright." Elen exhaled but she hid her anger away. "Let's just hope it comes to you tomorrow." Armin somewhat comforted and got up. "Hold on, aren't the two of you originally from Shiganshina?" Annie questioned which made them sit back down. "Yeah, that's right." Armin answered. "Then you should know first hand how terrifying they are, why on earth would you want to be soldiers?"
Both Armin and Elen shared a look before Armin spoke up. "I didn't see the things Elen did, she saw their bloodlust before anyone realized how bad it was. And I, I knew I couldn't stand idly by as the Royal government forced the citizenry into the field. Territorial retrieval operation." "I see." Annie replied after processing the information.
"Well where are you from?" Armin asked wondering it for a while. "Oh I'm from a mountain village just southeast of Wall Maria." Annie answered though before they could reply she continued. "Which means unlike the more prosperous river towns, our village didn't receive word right away, the Titans were on us before we even knew what washappening. It happened at dawn, all the livestock were so restless and there were these rumblings that just became louder and louder. Eventually, I realized those rumblings were the sounds of death getting closer." "But wait, we saw you on the ship back when Wall Maria was breached and [Y\N] seemed to have known you since he called out to you. Are you two from the same village?" Armin questioned when she remembered back to what happened. Annie's widen a little when she heard [Y\N]'s name though she quickly composed herself.
"O-oh that, that's something you should rather ask him about, but basically what I've been trying to say is, the three of us aren't like the rest of-of them." Annie stated which confused them even more, one of the reasons was because she stuttered. "Them?" "The others, the ones who have never been witnessed to the Titan's horror."
____
The three females slowly walked along the path towards a place Annie talked about. "Most of them are just for show, do just what society expects. In a world where you're a coward if you choose field work by the time you're twelve. Propriety demands our service, with that said, I'm really no different from the others. I joined the ranks hoping to be assigned to the Military police tucked away in the interior. If that doesn't work out I'll just find a way back home. I don't really concern myself with anything else." Annie finished her little speech as she shined the light on the pathway.
"There's no shame in caring about your life Annie, we all do." Armin said as the group went through a wired fence. "Do we? I'm going to keep a promise I made, that's... all that matters to me." Annie replied, unsure of her own statement. "I'm going to do what ever it takes no matter what." Elen's mind seemed to trail off a bit before Annie glanced at her. "What about you? Why did you sign up?"
She looked unsure about it until a distant memory popped up in her head. "Why'd I join? I decided I have to kill them. I won't stop until every Titan is dead and rotting. Dead, every last one." She answered though the more she spoke the more she got angry. Annie stared at her for a bit before continuing their journey.
"You saw what those monsters are capable of and you still want to take them on?" "Damn right. It's just, after screwing up the training I don't know if I'm cut out to be a soldier." Elen said as Annie remained quiet as the glimmer of the moon broke through the the clouds and covered the surface.
"We'll take it from step one: belt adjustment, by tomorrow you'll be an expert." Her body continued to face the water as she looked at Elen. "I've got a feeling that you've got what it takes, now, you better not fail after all the trouble I've had to go through." "No, I won't fail. Thank you Annie, thank you."
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◇1st 𝙥𝙚𝙧𝙨𝙤𝙣 𝙥𝙤𝙫◇
❃𝙍𝙚𝙖𝙙𝙚𝙧 𝙥𝙤𝙫❃
"*Yawn* Why are we here again?" I asked as I stretched my body and ruffle my hair. Sasha looked at me like I was crazy and Connie had the exact same expression as me. "Yeah what he said. Well asked." She then let out a frustrated groan and facepalmed. "I can't believe you're not taking this seriously! I'm still not allowed to eat!" "Quiet you bunch of idiots, the commander's about to assess that crazy girl." Jean butted in while he quieted each one of us. "You walk like you've got a stick up your ass." "What was that?" Jean turned to me but couldn't really intimidate me seeing as he's probably a few centimeters taller than me. "I said why the long face." "What do you mean? I'm not somber." Idiot. While he kept his dumbfounded look, I slipped past him and stood between Mikasa and Armin. "So, did you tell her about the belt being rigged?" "Wait, it's rigged?" "....Just forget I said anything." I reacted while thinking of how to change the subject. "Elen Yeager, are you ready?" Shadis questioned in his usually intimidating voice. "Yes sir!" Elen replied while she still didn't convince herself that she was ready. "Proceed." And like clockwork Thomas turned the crank.
It all seemed like clockwork, everything began slowing down real fast until it all stopped. A few members of the crowd waited in anticipation, while the others were ready to leave when given the go ahead. A voice rang out from... somewhere? I turned around frantically when the voice shouted. "What the–" "Ɏðµ £ðrgê† whɏ ɏðµ'rê hêrê, ðr Ðð ɏðµ ñð† µñÐêr§†åñÐ hðw †ð Ðð ï†?"
"Who's that?" "Wðrrɏ ñð† £ðr whð Ì'm å mêåñ† †ð ßê, ßµ† £ðr mɏ rêå§ðñ. Ɏðµ Ððñ'† qµï†ê µñÐêr§†åñÐ hðw ɏðµ'vê êñÐêÐ µþ hêrê." I didn't understand what they was referring to,the whole reincarnation thing or the Warhammer thing. "Ɏðµ £ðrgê† †hå† ɏðµ'rê rêå§ðñ ð£ wåñ†ïñg †ð ßê hêrê wå§ †ð gµïÐê êvêrɏðñê †ð å §å£êr þå†h." The voice referred to my thoughts at the beginning of this, but I just kept thinking about how I'm to protect everyone, there's so much that's going to happen and I'm just one person. "T-that's impossible, no one can save everyone. So why would I be exception?"
"Ɏðµ †hïñk §måll mïñÐêÐ åñÐ ñð† rêål阮ï¢ållɏ, åñɏðñê ¢ðµlÐ'vê §†ðþþêÐ †hê ßïg ßåñg ï£ †hêɏ §†êþþêÐ ðñ †hê £ïr§† §þårk." I thought about it a little before looking for the voice. "You might be right about that but I won't believe anything until I know who you are." "You don't have to believe it, just trust it." I turned around after hearing the voice and stood face-to-face with them.
"WAIT! YOU'RE—"
_________________________________________
I sometimes enjoy cliffhangers, sorry for the two -nearly three- month delay. Surgery can be a real asshole sometimes. Part of the wait was because I'm working on multiple stories at once considering the amount of ideas I have for each of them. There's also going to be a little thing going from one story to another so let me know when you see it. :)
~Charcoalgoat