[f]
"Are you okay, Chi?" Eren asked as he ushered the frightened girl forward, towards the exit of the building. "It seems you're still in a bit of shock..."
"I—I—I don't know," the soldier answered, shaking her head as she self-consciously rubbed her arms. "Why did that Hanji lady call me and Levi a couple...?! I could never be in love with a man like him! "
"It's alright," Eren coaxed, urging her onwards. "She was just joking. Just relax your mind. Now... do you remember me?" The boy looked at her hopefully, his forest-colored eyes glittering with a flicker of faith in her memory.
"I—I'm sorry, I really am, but I don't. I can't think of where I first met you or if we were friends or if even we were a couple. Though something in my gut tells me I can trust you; just like I can Levi, but with him, it's—it's different." She wrung her hands together, shaking her head feebly. "I feel like I should remember something. Like it's something really, really important, and if I truly do forget, I'll regret it for the rest of my life. I think Levi asked me about some 'promise' when I woke up, but I don't know what this 'promise' is about."
"I'm sure you'll remember. It just takes time. Time can heal a lot of wounds, you know, big or small; losing your memory is like a big wound, which takes a lot more time to heal than smaller ones."
Turning her head to look up into Eren's eyes, Chi mustered a tight smile and asked, "And what about you, Eren? Has time healed any of your big wounds?" A look of hurt flashed across his face, unable to leave, and Chi regretted asking him that question instantly. "S —sorry. I didn't mean to pry."
Eren shook his head and looked at her with a pained smile. "N—no! It's not that, really. I mean, there are some things I can't say I don't regret doing, and of course, like every other human being, I have big wounds and small ones. Some haven't healed yet, no, but... I'm sure they'll get better soon." He released a small chuckle, his nose and ears tinted a light pink.
Chi's eyes lit up at the sight of his smile and she couldn't help but pull on a small grin herself, ruffling Eren's hair with one of her hands. "You know, Eren, you sound like my grandpa."
"Grandpa? Are you calling me old?" The two burst out into small laughter, the bliss filling the empty hole in Chi's chest. It constricted only moments later when the both of them realized something crucial.
"Wait," Eren breathed, his eyebrows furrowed. "Your grandpa? Did you get your memory back?!"
"No," she answered quietly, shaking her head diligently. Twisting her fingers into her hair, she slowed her breathing and reached out to latch onto the memory that whizzed past her mind, but to no avail. It slipped past, disappearing in the blink of an eye. "I—I don't know why I—I can't remember why—what?" Shaking her head, Chi waved it off and gave Eren a reassuring smile. "It's nothing. I guess I just blurted something random." Giving her a hesitant and reluctant nod, they continued forward, almost reaching a set of wooden doors that supposedly led to the outside.
'What was that?' Chi wondered to herself. 'Is this a person from my memory?'
She had many, many more questions to ask, but the doors the two were heading towards suddenly burst open, with three figures tackling through. Two large, buff men wearing matching coats suddenly picked up the two in their arms, rushing out through the doors in which a woman—one with purple eyes—stood by patiently, watching as the man on the right ripped Eren away from Chi. She screamed out in terror, but her mouth was quickly covered with a sweaty palm of the man holding her.
The large beast who'd taken away Eren threw the soldier onto the ground, eliciting a yelp of pain from his lips. The man whipped out a large knife from his pocket and sliced through Eren's leg, tearing out Eren's vocal chords with screams of agony. He raised the knife and drove it into both of Eren's dazzling eyes. Chi could do nothing as she struggled against the man that held her tightly, his beefy arms holding back her arms and waist. Tears spilled out of her wide eyes, dribbling down her cheeks. She screamed and wailed and cried and screeched into the man's palm, wriggling in his grip, trying with all of her little strength to run and save Eren as his attacker began to ruthlessly tossed his body with multiple kicks.
'Stop!' she tried to scream. 'Don't hurt him! Stop!'
What was going on? Why did they have to do this to him? What had he done to deserve this?!
Once the three were satisfied, the woman slowly walked towards the frantic Chi, her body giving out in despair.
"Go to sleep, darling," the woman cooed before her hand darted out and drilled deeply into Chi's stomach. Chi's flaxen eyes enlarged, a sharp cough shook her body, and blood spilled from her lips before she stopped moving altogether.
~~~~~
"Eren!" Chi screamed as she jerked with a start, the unrecognizable room around her spinning, her head pounding. Having had gotten up much, much too quickly, she flopped back down onto a fluffy pillow.
"Don't get up too quickly," a deep voice instructed sternly, alerting Chi with another start. Her eyes slid sideways to meet another pair of flaxen eyes—ones that looked extremely similars to hers.
"Wh—what?" she breathed, shaking her head. Inspecting his features thoroughly, she thought she might explode with questions.
His hair was a coffee color, and it was quite long, nearly dropping to his shoulders, his bangs were so long they covered one of his eyes.
The eyes—the golden eyes that peered at her with both curiosity and a sense of peculiarity at the same time.
The moment her eyes landed on his, something inside of her broke.
Something inside her mind snapped, like a rubber band let loose—like a glass wall being shattered with a single strike.
Gold eyes—gold eyes and shade S27 brown hair.
Hanji had said something about S27 brown hair... Hanji had said something about gold eyes.
Golden eyes with deep pupils that shifted into slits... but why?
Because of the injection of titan DNA... but why?
To create a tool for humanity that would fight against the titans—and win.
And who was injected with this DNA?
Nine hundred and ninety-eight people, before her.
She was the nine hundred and ninety-ninth. Who was she?
She was Chisaki Matsumoto.
"I..." she whispered as it all began to flood back into her mind.
Levi had asked her to join the Elite Squadron.
Miraculously, he had carved a path out of her loneliness.
Chi had survived outside of the walls.
She had been the one who'd killed her own parents—no, not her real parents. Her real parents were Wallists inside of Sina. Her "parents," the ones who she thought, for her entire life, had drowned because of her.
Malorie, the little girl who called a machine like her a princess, and a soldier like Levi a prince.
Annie, who'd frozen herself in time to protect her secrets—the person Chi had vowed to kill to avenge—but who was it? Petra, Oluo, Eld, and Gunther.
The vow she'd made to herself to hear Levi's laughter.
Wall Rose, being breached, separating Levi and Chi—kept together by the rings on their fingers.
Chi, running to save Eren, and sacrificing her limbs to kill just one, one more titan.
Then... it was the fateful day where she returned to Levi's side and learned the truth—the truth that she was half-titan.
And after that... what happened?
Wasn't there a promise she was supposed to remember... a promise she'd made and intended to keep?
Chi's mind was foggy as the memories piled into her head and she was overwhelmed, turning her back to the stranger to curl into fetal position.
"Hey, are you alright?" the golden-eyed boy asked, setting a hand onto her visibly shaking shoulder. "Is there something wrong?"
"N—no," Chi stuttered as she stiffened. Even though finally, finally, she'd regained her memory, she could not let it throw her out of reality. "I am fine." Straightening, she sat up and blinked away the moisture in her eyes before swinging her legs over the edge of the bed. She faced the man and asked him, "Who're you?"
"Me?" the man clarified, pointing at himself. When Chi nodded, he replied, "My name is Alabaster Galen. Nice to meet you." He held out a palm, and Chi took it firmly with a stiff shake before retracting her hand.
"Alabaster. Are you the one who saved me? Where am I?"
"Saved you? You mean, from that bitch named Violet? That wasn't me, but you could say I helped make that happen. You're at our hideout right now."
"'Our?'"
"Oh." Alabaster stood and flashed her a sweet smile, the corners of his eyes crinkling as he beckoned for her to follow, already starting toward the door in the corner of the room. "I think it's better to show you than to tell you."
Reluctantly, with cautious and calculating stares, she stood and followed him briskly. Together, they quietly exited and filed through a dark and dank hallway; it was quite long and seemed very old, with dust piling in the crannies where the wooden walls and floor met. Cobwebs littered the joints were the ceiling and walls connected, long abandoned by spiders.
'If Levi were here, he'd go insane,' Chi wondered, smiling at the thought.
When the two came upon a set of double doors, Alabaster opened them both in a very dramatic fashion, his smile growing even larger as light spilled into the hallway. Chi blocked the blinding brilliance with her forearm and took a few hesitant steps forward, slowly adjusting to the brightness. Inside the large room, she could hear lots of indistinct chatter, but it quieted and died away as she entered with tiny steps.
Once her eyes had gotten used to the sudden brightness, she lowered her arms and was shocked to find what she'd stumbled upon.
People—still, unmoving, with their eyes trained on her—broken into many expressions. Many had smiling faces, and many others wore shocked expressions. There were of various ages—the youngest around Chi's age, some a bit older, the oldest wrinkly and puckered, but their eyes glimmered brilliantly with immense knowledge.
They were people, sitting at half-eaten meals, at old, creaky tables, but they weren't just any strangers—they all shared different shades of golden eyes, their hair matching the exact shade of S27 brown.
Some of them had eyes that were more tawny, some more mustard, less yellow, more yolky, less blonde, more like daffodil—all the different shades of gold and bronze and yellow. But whatever the shade of their eyes, they were just like Chi.
"Oh—oh my—" she choked as loud cheering erupted from the crowd of people, an audience so large, and yet she knew the number already—nine hundred and ninety-eight. Nine hundred and ninety-eight people here clapped and hollered and cheered for her and her alone. Tears began to brim her eyes and cascaded down in large numbers, but she did nothing to prevent them as they fell silently, a dumbfounded grin finding its way onto her lips.
"You've probably already guessed it," Alabaster, chuckled, turning to face her. "We're the nine hundred and ninety-eight test subjects that came before you, the 'failures'—though it turned out that we really aren't 'failures,' and only late bloomers. We were all thrown out only days after we were first given the DNA of titans, but it was extremely fortunate we had the oldies to take care of us and hone our abilities, lest we wouldn't be here now." He pointed at a large, buff man with spikey hair, his sides shaved. "That's Ruff—the one who saved you. And we're lucky we did— we'll talk more about that later—though I think it's best for you to get accustomed, first. I know it must be overwhelming... but we have been waiting for you, Chi. We've been waiting to complete the circle."
Chi stepped forward and continued to gaze at the roaring crowd, her hands gripping the hem of her shirt tightly. For all of her life, she had always believed that she was alone. She had always believed that she was the outsider, the peculiar, strange one—and still yet, here was nearly a thousand people just like her.
"Meaning," Alabaster paused as he waved a hand towards the other golden-eyed people like a ringmaster, "that you could call us... your family."