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“Take it out before it reaches the wall.”
With firm nods, the soldiers blasted off from the wall, manoeuvre gear whirring. Aberrant or not, the titan wasn’t getting past the Survey Corps.
“Commander, if you’d let me go out with the men, we could take it alive!” Hanji excitedly thumbed the trigger on her gear, “Just think! It’s all out in the open like this; we’ve got the advantage of the Wall. The first aberrant taken ali—“
A muffled yell drew their heads back out to the horizon in time to see one of the men thrown off his course for the titan’s neck, crashing into the ground as the aberrant left him in the wake of it’s rush.
“What?” Erwin frowned, looking around at the rest of the soldiers watching from the peak of Wall Rose. “You!” he barked at a recruit with binoculars, “What the hell’s going on out there?!”
“I-I don’t know, sir! The titan didn’t change course at all! Schreiber went for the weak spot and it’s like he was hit out of midair, but the titan didn’t do it!” The soldiers’ uneasy mutters grew increasingly urgent as the mysterious titan got closer to the wall. 300 metres. 200.
“Commander Erwin! Commander!” Eren pushed his way to the commanding officer’s side, “Let me stop it! I have to do something!”
Erwin frowned, keeping his attention on the titan, “Absolutely not, Jeager. Improved though your control may be, we don’t need a bloodbath out here. If the men already deployed cannot kill it, I’ll do it myself before it breaches the wall.”
Eren hissed through his teeth, practically vibrating with the force of holding himself back. Armin and Mikasa idled worriedly behind him, gazes shifting from Eren, the approaching titan, and the rest of their fellow recruits.
The footsteps were deafening as the titan ran, nearly to the wall now. It was large, though smaller than Eren, and clearly built for speed. A twelve or fourteen metre class. As another soldier propelled himself toward the back of the titan’s neck, there was a flash of steel in the sunlight before he too was sent sprawling across the dirt.
“Sir! I… I think there’s someone on that titan! They’re guarding its weak spot!”
Grabbing the binoculars from the hands of the bewildered trainee, Erwin took a closer look at their adversary. Though partially obscured by the titan’s black hair, there were indeed flashes of blades and a tan traveling hood perched next to the monster’s neck.
“Call the men back,” Erwin said, passing the binoculars off to Hanji, who plastered them to her face, “That’s no aberrant.”
A blue flare was thrown up for the soldiers to retreat and the titan slowed its pace, bringing itself to a stop several metres from the wall.
“Hey! Hello?!” A voice shouted from the ground, as a hooded figure walked around from behind the titan’s head to stand on its shoulder, “We mean no harm, we swear!”
It was a young man, judging by the voice. Erwin stepped to the edge of the wall, “I am Erwin Smith, 13th commander of the Survey Corps,” he called back “And I have yet to be the judge of your innocence.”
The titan made a choked sound, nearly a scoff, and the hooded man cuffed it lightly on the ear, “A pleasure, sir, but we have been travelling a long time and there are a lot of titans following us. We ran toward this wall trying to get away from them. Is there any chance we could continue this discussion once my partner and I are in a less vulnerable position?”
A murmur of disagreement rose from the men, wary of the stranger and the new titan shifter.
Hanji nudged his elbow, “Sir, there does seem to be a large group of titans approaching from the way these two came. If we leave them down there they’ll get eaten, and I’d hate to lose all the information I could gather from a new shifter.”
“You have manoeuvre gear?” He shouted to the man, who opened his beige cloak to show the equipment, “Good. You first. Once you are atop the wall and disarmed, your friend can climb up.”
The titan snarled, but the man muttered something quickly to it before nodding up to Erwin. His manoeuvre gear made an unfamiliar sort of hiss as he coasted up the wall; coming to a neat stop on the ledge and holding both hands up, letting the triggers fall to the floor. Two soldiers quickly divested him of his blades and stood by with their hands on their own weapons.
Letting his hood fall back, the stranger smiled weakly, “I’m sorry if we scared you; we weren’t really expecting to run into any other humans. The last wall we crossed was completely deserted.” His hair, white-blond and neatly cut, framed a face covered in small scars.
Erwin nodded, “Tell your friend he can come up here now, but to get out of that body as soon as he’s on the wall. Don’t try anything.”
Chuckling, the stranger glanced over the side, “Alright Cain, we’re clear!”
Taking a running start, the titan leapt, scaling over two thirds of the wall with his jump. Clawed hands and feet dug into the stone, propelling the huge creature the rest of the way up. It landed in a crouch atop the wall, head bowed to expose where the flesh of its neck was splitting open, another man slowly pulling himself free of the tissue that connected him to the titan’s body.
“Holy fuck,” the shifter groaned, cracking his neck and hissing, “Three days! Three whole fucking days I’ve been running like that; damn it’s good to get some air.”
The new man, black haired and shirtless, strode over to where his partner stood. The skin around his face was discoloured and ridged, steam blowing over his head as the damage slowly healed itself. He wore no manoeuvre gear, and the blonde shrugged off his cloak and tossed it to him.
“Let’s get some things cleared up then,” Erwin started, eyeing the strange insignia on the blonde’s dark jacket, “Your names, and where you come from. What business do you have here?”
“My name is Abel,” the blonde spoke, “And this is Cain. We’ve come here from Sleipnir, on the shore of the ocean. We’re one of several groups that set out months ago in hopes of killing titans and finding other human colonies.”
Cain scoffed, “More like the brass just wanted to thin out the mouths to feed. We left three months ago and I have no fucking idea how they expected us to find our way back even if we did find people.”
“Groups that set out?” Hanji leaned forward excitedly, “There are more of you? How many? Are there any other shifters?”
“Well yeah,” Abel tilted his head, “Each group had one titan shifter. There’s no way we would’ve survived otherwise.”
“Damn right.”
“Hush, Cain. And I know of at least twelve other groups who left at the same time we did.” Abel frowned, looking at the soldiers gathered around them, “What about you? How do you fight titans here if your shifters aren’t helping?”
Hanji tittered astonishments under her breath, looking ready to faint from the information. Erwin spoke “In all our recorded history there have been only two titan shifters. One of them is not currently an asset.”
“What the fuck?” Cain laughed, “No fucking wonder you built these huge ass walls if you don’t have a Shifter and Walker Corps. I’m surprised you’re even still alive.”
“Shifter and Walker Corps?” Eren came forward. Irwin sighed. The boy was going to give himself away as the other shifter if he kept showing that much interest.
“Well yeah,” Cain jabbed a thumb at himself, “I’m a shifter, obviously. Abel here’s my walker. We’ve been trained for this shit since we were old enough to enlist.”
“Walkers help keep the shifters grounded, in case they lose control or need to get out of their titan bodies quick,” Abel added, narrowing his eyes, “Or to keep them from getting killed.”
“And you have my apologies for that,” Erwin nodded, “Now if—“
“But how does the walker keep the titan in control? How don’t you try to kill him?” Eren pressed, determination seared across his face.
Cain grinned, wicked and sharp, “If you were trying to be subtle kid, that wasn’t it. You’ve gotta be what, fifteen, sixteen? You’re telling me you don’t have a handle on it yet? What are you, some six-metre class brute?”
Eren stammered, face turning red with indignation, “No! It’s only been a few months since I first became a titan! And who the hell do you think you are?!”
“Late bloomer, for sure,” Cain whistled, raising Eren’s hackles even further.
“Shut up, Cain,” Abel smacked the man on the shoulder, “Most shifters in Sleipnir start training when they turn ten. The Corps recruits non-shifters to be trained as walkers around the same age, and pairs are assigned upon graduation. If a walker can’t keep his shifter in control, they usually don’t last long.”
“Your entire military is based off of units of humans and titan shifters?” Hanji was practically drooling, “That’s… amazing! Hey, would you let me run some tests on you, please?” she stepped towards Cain, who recoiled.
“What the hell, lady?”
“I just want to take some samples, test the differences between your regeneration rate and Eren’s. Oh, would you let me cut off a finger or two?!”
“That’s gonna be a solid no.” Cain sneered, “Who gives a shit about my regeneration rate? As long as I don’t bleed to death it’s working just fine.”
“Commander, if I may,” Abel stepped forward, “I’d very much like to talk to you about your military hierarchy and your methods of dealing with titan attacks. You’re the first humans we’ve met since leaving Sleipnir, and maybe we could offer each other some advice?”
Erwin nodded, the severe line of his brow softening, “You are the first outsiders to reach the Walls, it would be stupid not to learn from each other. If you are telling the truth, and there are other human civilizations out there, that changes everything we’ve thought for the past hundred years.” Straightening his back, the commander faced his soldiers, “Attention! These two are guests of the Survey Corps! As of this point, they are not to be judged a threat until proven otherwise!”
The soldiers saluted, fists pressed to their hearts, “Yes, sir!”
“Well finally,” Cain sighed, breaking from Abel’s side, “Hey kid, so if you’re not some stunted freak, why don’t you and me have a little fun? I’m sure even a runt like you could learn something,” he glanced at Abel over his shoulder, “Besides, with all these soldiers waving their blades around, I doubt we have to worry about tearing too much shit up.”
Eren grit his teeth, temper getting the better of him, “I don’t need some asshole like you to teach me! I’ll kick your ass!”
Laughing, Cain brought his wrist up to his mouth, “You can try,” he dared as he leapt over the edge of Wall Rose. Eren roared, following close behind, his cry turning sonorous as the two transformed, the thirteen and sixteen metre titans screaming challenge at each other.
Abel groaned, bringing a hand up to his scarred mouth, “I am so sorry.”
Hanji crashed to her knees, gripping the ledge and leaning over the wall, “No, no no no. Don’t apologize. This is amazing.”