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It's a day off today for all the young cadets, and great timing too... because it's Reiner's birthday today. The birthday boy himself has just gotten out of bed and slips his causal day-to-day clothing on, he fixes his hair for a bit and makes his way out of the boy's bedrooms.
Once he was inside the Mess Hall for breakfast, the first thing he saw as he opened the door was a few of his comrades sitting around a table. These few are: Marco Bodt, Thomas Wagnar, Mina Carolina, Franz and Hannah. All of them are looking straight at Reiner the very minute he walks in, all seem really happy too. They wave at him from their seats.
"Happy birthday, Reiner!" They all said together.
Reiner just gives a soft smile, he walks over to the front of the table which has an empty seat for him. Once seated, he looks around the whole hall. There seemed to be nobody else here yet, which is odd because most mornings he arrives on the same time as everybody else. Reiner notices that Marco and the others don't have their usual meals in front of them; just empty plates and mugs. The cake in the center seems off too, where did they got the time to buy that?
"So... where is everybody else? Do they really wanna miss out on his guy's birthday?" Reiner attempts to playfully joke while he waits.
"Oh don't worry about them. They'll all be along in a bit." Mina gleefully assures him.
Reiner doesn't sound all convinced, but he rolls with it anyway. Marco then stands up right in his chair while giving his usual smile.
"So, while we wait, is there anything you would like to confess?"
"Who? Me?" Reiner asks.
"Of course you, Reiner. After all it's your birthday."
"Heh. Yeah, of course." He clears his throat before continuing. "First off, I'd like to say that I admire how far we've all come since our first day in the Cadet Corps. Every day we improved, and we all came out on top. Of course I have gotten a lot better as a soldier like the rest of you, which is why I'm happy to say that I look forward to fighting alongside all my loyal comrades for the sake of humanity."
"But you weren't very loyal to us, were you?" One of them speaks up.
"Huh? What?"
Suddenly, there's the sound of... thunder? coming from outside. Reiner turns around in shock, only to find that all the walls of the Mess Hall have vanished. He sees titans roaming everywhere, large and small, dark smoke has completely filled the sky and not a sight of any soldiers fighting back. Reiner panics to himself; how did this all happen in the blink of an eye?!
He turns back to the others in order to command them to help him, but he froze instead. Thomas' skin is shriveled and melted all over, chunks of his hair are gone too, like he's been nearly digested. Mina looks as if her whole face had been cut off, blood oozing out of the gaping hole. Franz and Hannah on the opposite side of the table appear fine, but one look and Reiner notices that Franz's legs aren't there - all is left are his intestines dripping out from under his top part.
The blonde boy felt like he threw up in his mouth. He's so frozen that he can't even speak. All he can do is stare straight ahead where Marco is sitting. Speaking of Marco: the freckled boy has an entire half of his face gone, his skin is a sickish green, blood is spilling out from where his right arm should be (it's gone too) and has cold, dead eyes staring right back at him.
"You left me to die out there alone." The rotting corpse grunts out.
"You let your friend break through the wall."
"YoU lEFt uS ALL To diE!
"wE THougHt Of yoU aS OUr frIEND!"
Reiner finally gets back conscious and freaks out, he runs away from the decapitating bodies around the table, but once he starts sprinting, things just get even worse.
His right arm starts growing to a huge size, gets covered up by armor and stops him in his tracks. The same happen with his other arm, then each of his legs, then an armoured shield covers his entire face. Reiner can feel his whole body expand, the ground beneath him gets further and further away, he keeps going until he finally stops. Reiner glances at himself, to find that he’s taking his titan form. He did it without even harming himself.
He panics inside; as he looks around to find all the titans are staring at him. Reiner has no other option but to just keep running. All of a sudden, he hears something whoosh right from behind him, he quickly turns his head and finds what appears to be a scout. Or he thinks it is - the cape is dark, he couldn't tell who's the identity, especially with the cold dead eyes underneath the hood.
More than appear, whooshing all around the armored from every angle. He tries his best to fend them off, but with no use, the scout figures keep going and going, quickly slicing off Reiner's limbs one by one, which leaves him in a state of panic that he can't think straight anymore. He looks straight on only to see one more figure fly straight up to his face, weapons ready in hand to blow his brains out - that's when Reiner sees him eye to eye.
"E-Eren?"
*SLASH!!*
___________________________________
“WAIT!!”
Reiner opens up his eyes in shock; they feel all watery at the eyelids. He finds himself staring at a ceiling, his hand is straight up in the air like he's reaching out for somebody. The grown man feels the springs of a mattress underneath him, a pillow under his head, and the rays from a light bulb beaming into his eyes. He sits up in his bed and looks around his childhood bedroom. Nothing is here except the fresh breeze and morning sun rays flowing through the window.
He's still breathing heavily in his chest from such a horrific nightmare; so he takes his time before he thinks about getting up. All he can do is get his head together, trying to close his eyes shut but is terribly afraid too. After a minute or two, he hears a call from downstairs who sounds like his mother or his aunt, presumably to get up and come down for a surprise they have for him.
The grown man gives his eyes a wipe to hide his breaking tears and makes his way out the room.
His birthday is once again going to be a difficult one.