3 Years Ago
104th Cadet Corps Training Camp

It was a cold and rainy day at camp and you were all lined up outside in nothing but your sopping wet shoes, pants, and t-shirts as everyone's clothing was covered in mud as you were all breathless. You were all shivering from the cold wind that blew with the rain as you stood at the front of your classes, clenching your teeth behind your lips as you struggled to stay at attention. You were all gathered outside because of an incident involving a certain pair of cadets trying to sneak out some cuts of meat from the mess hall. Looking ahead of you about fifty yards away, there was a steep, tall mound that you guessed was around thirty to thirty-five meters tall. Muddy water slid down the steep slope and made the terrain incredibly difficult to traverse, but that's exactly what you and your comrades had to do as punishment. Gasping and taking in cold breaths, you turned your gaze to see Connie and Sasha stood at the front of everyone with guilty looks on their faces as they were forced to watch you all do harsh pushups on their account, and Shadis even shoved their mouths full of cooked, but cold meat and ordered them not to eat it or you would all suffer even worse, as he was trying to make them feel horrible for something like stealing meat. You all had just got done doing around one hundred push ups, and it didn't help that every time someone fell in the mud from slipping or exhaustion, you all would have to restart and make you do them again until you completed the exercise without failure, and you all had to restart about three times before finally finishing them. Mud covered your faces and you couldn't feel any of your limbs due to the sheer cold. Stepping in front of Sasha and Connie, Shadis ripped out the pieces of meat from their mouths and threw the pieces of cooked meat into the mud before sending the two of them back into formation.

"This is what happens if you do something to insult and tarnish the cadet corps! The culprits don't pay! IT'S THEIR COMRADES WHO PAY FOR THEM! ANYONE CAUGHT DOING ANY STUPID SHIT LIKE THIS AGAIN, YOU'RE GOING TO REMEMBER THIS DAY FOR THE REST OF YOUR LIFE AND IT BETTER STOP YOU FROM DOING DUMB SHIT EVER AGAIN!! AM I CLEAR?!?!" Shadis yelled at the top of his lungs in rage.

"YES, SIR!!" You all screamed out to him as he stepped to the side.

"THIS IS THE LAST PART OF YOUR PUNISHMENT! YOU HAVE TO CLIMB THAT MUDDY GOD-AWFUL HILL OF MUD IN FIVE MINUTES! IF THERE IS EVEN ONE PERSON NOT AT THE TOP BY THE TIME FIVE MINUTES IS UP, YOU START OVER!" Shadis yelled as he suddenly whipped out a watch and took account of time. "START!!" He yelled as you were all caught off guard by the sudden beginning.

"GO!!" You screamed out as you were the first to run off and your comrades all yelled at the top of their lungs to gather all their strength to finish this task.

Hitting your foot against the base of the muddy mound, mud splashed high into the air as you and your friends all tried your best to grab and climb the muddy slope, and slope of the mound was very steep making it difficult to get a good foothold. You dug your hands into the muddy slope and struggled to climb the mound, but every time you moved forward a foot, you slid back down two feet. The grunts and yells of you cadets filled the cold rainy air as Shadis looked to see a minute was already gone. Struggling with all your strength and will power, you made it up half way the mound and turned to glance back to see how your comrades were doing. So far everyone seemed to be moving at a good pace, but you noticed that Christa was the last person back, really struggling and she seemed stuck where she was. Looking to see that a lot of your comrades were beginning to cross the halfway point of the mound, you were about to slide back down to help Christa, but stopped when Reiner suddenly slid down by you and was heading towards Christa. 

"Christa!" Reiner called out as he used his hands like anchors in the mud and slid to a stop next to her as he held out his hand. "Grab onto me, hurry!" Reiner yelled as Christa weakly looked up at him.

"R-Right...!" Christa said weakly as she grabbed onto Reiner's arm.

Moving her hands to hold onto the belt of his pants, Reiner firmly dug his hands back into the mud and used every ounce of his strength to climb back up the mound while dragging Christa with him. You were amazed by how gallant Reiner was being, and seeing that most of your friends had managed to climb up pass the halfway point, you continued ahead to finish the climb. You were about to reach the top, but just as you were about to grab the edge of the top, the mud under your right foot suddenly collapsed and you gasped in shock as you were about to fall off the hill. Before you could go flying off however, an arm managed to reach out and grab onto yours as you were shocked when you saw Bertolt was the one to reach out and stop your fall. Though he was tall enough to reach you, Bertolt was struggling to pull you back up and a few moments later, his footing slipped and you were about to pull him down with you. The two of you yelled as everyone below you grew shocked faces when they saw you were about to fall. Before Bertolt could go over the edge however, pairs of arms wrapped around Bertolt and you saw Mikasa, Eren, Jean, and Annie all grabbed onto Bertolt and stopped you two from falling. 

"Got you!" Eren yelled as the four of them managed to pull Bertolt back onto the edge.

"Y/N! Hurry!" Mikasa called out to you.

"ONE MINUTE!!" Shadis yelled from the bottom of the mound as you turned around to see there were still too many people not close enough to the top yet. 

"Shit! I don't wanna do this again!" Jean groaned as you came to a realization and looked at the arm of yours that Bertolt was holding, and an idea popped into your head as you turned to see Sasha behind you.

"Guys! Swing me!" You yelled as the five people in front of you were confused. "WE'LL MAKE A CHAIN!! NOW SWING ME TO SASHA!!!" You yelled as they caught onto your idea.

"This better work...!" Annie said as she planted her feet deep into the ground, mud went up to her ankles and the others dug themselves as deep as the could as well. "Alright, now!" Annie yelled as the four who were holding Bertolt swung him, and you were swung towards Sasha.

"Sasha!!!!" You yelled as you caught her attention and she looked to see you sliding on the mud towards her with your hand out. "Take my hand!" You yelled as she reached out her hand and you grabbed each other by the forearms. "We're gonna swing by everyone and make a chain! Pass the word along!" You said to her as she nodded and looked back to see Thomas behind her.

"Thomas!!" Sasha yelled as the chain you guys formed swing back towards him.

Sasha slid across the mud and grabbed onto Thomas as this added another person to your chain. One by one the chain grew longer and longer until finally the last person on the chain, Mina, slid across the mud towards Reiner and Christa. 

"Reiner! Grab on!" Mina called out to Reiner as the brawny cadet looked in surprise to see a chain of people sliding across the mud towards him.

"Right!" Reiner yelled as he reached his hand out and grabbed onto Mina's arm, completing the chain of all you cadets.

"THIRTY SECONDS!!!" Shadis yelled as everyone grew desperate looks on their faces.

"PULL US UP!!!!" You yelled as the five people at the top of the mound summoned up all the strength they had left.

Yelling at the top of their lungs, the five at the top of the hill reeled themselves back and the chain began to get pulled up the mountain as everyone else used their legs to push up and climb as fast as possible. One after another you all were pulled up over the edge and even after you made it to safety, you went back to the edge and helped pull the chain of your friends up to safety. Desperately clawing at the backs of your friends to pull them up the hill, you all reached out your hands to the last two people, Reiner and Christa, and with one final pull you all screamed at the top of your lungs as Christa and Reiner were practically flung upwards by you guys and you all fell into the mud in a huge pile and you were panting rapidly trying to grasp any air you could get. 

"Bertolt..." You called out while huffing out breath after breath.

"Y-Yeah...?" Bertolt asked as you reached out your hand and patted him on his chest.

"Thanks for...saving my ass..." You thanked him before the two of you fell silent once again.

"Y-Yeah..." Bertolt said as all you cadets were collapsed on the floor completely exhausted of all your strength, and just when you thought you could get a break, a voice called out.

"L/N! L/N! Where are you!?" Shadis's voice called out from the bottom of the hill as you groaned in pain before turning onto your stomach and weakly crawling over to peer over the edge of the hill down at the instructor. "You didn't make it." Shadis said as you were wide-eyed with despair and you felt a piece of your mind begin to break. "However..." The instructor suddenly continued as you weakly looked at him in wonder. "...Seeing that strategy you all came up with, I think you've learned a lesson from all this. Make sure this doesn't happen again. Is that understood?" He said.

"Y-Yes, sir..." You said weakly as rain poured down your muddy face as cold smokes of breath exited your mouth.

"That's all for today. Get everyone back to your barracks and get that mud off your faces. Dismissed." Shadis said before walking off.

"Right, sir..."You said weakly before collapsing into the mud, your facing burying itself into the soaking wet soil. "If it weren't for Reiner and Bertolt, I probably couldn't have come up with that idea..." You thought to yourself as the image of Reiner chained to Christa, and yourself being chained to Bertolt flashed into your mind. "Thank god...I can rely on...these guys..." You thought as your world slowly faded to black.

Present Time
With You

The only thing you could see was darkness and there was this distinct ringing in your ear as all your senses weren't responding to your body. While trying to wake up, a distorted voice could be heard through the ringing noise, and it was growing louder and louder. Soon, the sensation of touch began to return to you as there was a pressing feeling on your arm and chest as the voice slowly began to clear up. 

"Wake...Y/N..." Those words echoed as the ringing noise in your ears began to fade out as your vision was beginning to return and you saw a silhouette hovering above you with a blue background. "Wake up Y/N...! Y/N!!!!" Suddenly all your senses came crashing back as you gasped a huge breath of air in and shot up fully awake.

"What happened?!" You said in confusion of everything before turning to your left to see Mikasa knelt down next to you with a worried expression. "Mikasa?" You muttered in confusion.

"Are you okay? Are you hurt anywhere?" Mikasa asked as you looked down to see your clothing was a bit dirtied and singed in a few spots.

"No...I'm fine...what happen--!" You cut yourself off when you remembered trying to kill Reiner and Bertolt, but it was too late and they had transformed and grabbed Eren. "Where's Eren!?" You asked before another explosion of light came from the lower side of the wall.

You and Mikasa peaked over to see Eren had transformed and broken free of Reiner's grasp as he punched him into the wall as the two of them fell all the way to the bottom, crashing down hard and creating a huge dust cloud below. You and Mikasa both got to your feet and leaped off the wall as you anchored yourselves to it and zipped down to try and see if Eren was okay. Hearing a few thuds through the smoke, you saw two silhouettes shift around in the dust before one of them moved out of the dust quickly, revealing to be Eren. You let out a breath of relief seeing that he seemed to be okay, but your sights turned back when you heard loud slow thudding movements move out of the smoke and the Armored Titan emerged. You glared at Reiner as he moved into a position to square off with Eren for a titanic fist fight. Seeming to make the first move, Reiner began to slowly walk towards Eren with no guard raised, and not wanting be on the defensive, Eren charged ahead to attack first. Running with his left fist reeled back, Eren sent a punch towards Reiner face, but it was at this moment you began to realize it was called the 'Armored Titan' for a reason. The moment Eren's fleshy hand collied against Reiner's armored face plate, the flesh completely exploded and destroyed Eren's left hand. You were shocked when you saw how hard and durable Reiner's armor was, but Eren was not deterred by this obstacle and tried once more with his right hand, connecting his fist against Reiner's face plate. Reiner however barely moved his head as Eren's fist scratched and grazed against his armor. Using the momentum of being nudged back, Reiner bawled his right hand into a fist and shot it straight towards Eren's face, mutilating his flesh and sending him flying back an incredible distance as he slid across the ground and was immobilized.

"Eren!" Mikasa yelled with worry as she took after to engage Reiner.

"Dammit! You fucking asshole!" You yelled in rage as you drew your blades and flew off together with Mikasa as the two of you headed towards Reiner while Eren was still in thinking in rage of what was happening right now.

"You shit...You big piece of shit. And here you wouldn't shut up about a soldier's duty...During close combat training, were you always holding back on me?" Eren remembered how he would sometimes dominate Reiner in training even though he was of smaller stature, strength, and skill. "You're so strong, it's ridiculous. I can't even move an inch of my body." Eren tried to move his Titan and get up, but barely managed to twitch as he was still in a rageful daze and memories of the past with Reiner and Bertolt filled his head. "I always thought you were a stand-up guy. Someone who remained calm, regardless of the situation...A guy who put your comrades ahead of yourself. And I..." The sound of Reiner's footsteps were beginning to grow closer as Eren still couldn't move due to how seriousness of his injury. "To think at one time I wish...to be as strong as you someday." Eren was in a loss for what to think of Reiner as you and Mikasa closed in on your target.

Using the surrounding trees to gain some height in the air, you and Mikasa flung upwards into the air as you reached your hand out to her and she grabbed on tight. Pressing on the gas triggers of your gear, you spun around circles rapidly before letting Mikasa go and threw her right at Reiner's back towards his nape. Using her gear to anchor to Reiner and reel herself in closer, Mikasa gained incredible speed and sent her blades towards his nape, but the sound of shattering metal filled the air as her blades broke from contact against his armored skin.

"That did nothing! Eren's attack didn't...And my blades don't work either!?" Mikasa thought as she equipped another set of blades and watched as you flew towards Reiner's back legs.

"HYYAAAA!" You grunted as you tried to cut his calves, but your blades just bounced off like it was nothing and broke off your hilts. "Damn it! Are all parts of his skin this tough!? This is worse than Annie...His whole damn body is covered in armor!" You yelled in frustration as you flew up next to Mikasa and both of you saw how close he was getting to Eren, who was still down.

"Eren!!!" You and Mikasa yelled in unison as your cries seemingly managed to reach his ears as he seemed to gain his bearings and glanced to see Reiner was nearly on top of him.

"Hey, Reiner..." Regaining his bearings and remembering the situation he was in, Eren's hand suddenly healed and regenerated back to its normal shape as Eren gritted his teeth with rage inside his Titan. "I don't know what kind of face you're making right now, but...You guys..." Eren then remembered what happened back in Shiganshina and how they destroyed the walls and killed his mother. "You really are the worst pieces of shit. I bet in the history of mankind, nobody's done anything as terrible as you..." Eren remembered how a Titan they let in snapped his mother like a twig and devoured her before his very eyes as he began to slowly rise up from the ground.

"Maybe if we can peel the armor off...! AHHHHH!" You grunted as you and Mikasa were mounted on Reiner's left shoulder as you tried lifting the armor off his muscles while Mikasa tried stabbing her blade into it. "Gah! Fuck! I think I pulled something!" You groaned in pain when you felt a muscle in your back stretch a bit too much as you crouched down and held your lower back in pain. 

"Y/N! Look!" Mikasa called out as you two looked ahead and saw Eren rising from the ground like someone being resurrected from the dead. 

"I've gotta erase you. You shouldn't be allowed to exist anymore..." Eren's thoughts trailed off as he remembered how righteous Reiner looked whenever he would do the standard salute. "What the hell are you thinking. I've never felt so revolted before. Just remembering you and your self-righteous face is making me sick." Eren was absolutely sicked when he remembered Reiner's face as you and Mikasa were jaw-dropped by how Eren slowly stood back up without using his hands and faced Reiner with a furious roar as steam flowed from his healing face. "It makes me want to vomit. You...big damn pest!" Eren's roar gave you and Mikasa a hint that it was time to get off Reiner as you two leaped off the Armored Titan and Eren reeled his right fist back. "It's time to exterminate you!" Eren was finally set to kill Reiner then and there as he sent his fist flying towards Reiner's face.

"Kick his ass Eren!!" You yelled with encouragement, but the moment Eren's fist crashed against Reiner's face, the Armored Titan just did the same thing again and power punched Eren in the face, sending him higher in the air than before. "...Are you kidding me!? That's unfair! Damn it!" You yelled in frustration as Eren soared through the air for a few moments before crashing back down to the earth below while you and Mikasa landed away from their fighting.

You watched nervously as Eren slowly turned over and forced himself back to his feet as steam poured out from the wounds across his battered face. Reiner kept walking at the same slow pace towards Eren as you were stuck wondering just how you could possibly combat the Armored Titan and his hardened shell. Eren stood frozen as he watched Reiner get closer to him with every step, but before you could process how to try and stop Reiner, Eren suddenly began to roar in a seemingly frenzied rage as you grew extremely nervous.

"Eren!!!" Mikasa yelled in fear of what Eren's current state of mind was.

"Did he lose his mind again!?" You thought as you drew your last blades and ran out from the tree line into the open plains the two Titans were in. "Hang on, Eren! I'm coming!!" You yelled as you sprinted towards them.

You ran as fast as you could while watching Eren and Reiner both send a right punch towards each other's faces. You could feel your heart about to burst out of your chest as you couldn't stand to watch Eren lose to another punch, but what came next stopped you in your tracks. Right before Reiner's punch made contact, out of no where, Eren ducked and slipped under the punch and towards the right side of Reiner. You and the other scouts that were watching this intense battle were in awe when Eren wrapped his right arm up across Reiner chest, around his neck and lock him into triangle chokehold by his left arm locked onto his right wrist. In that instant, your eyes didn't see Eren and Reiner, but you remembered Annie and her grappling techniques as Eren used the same throw she would perform on her attackers, and watched as Eren threw Reiner across the ground. You lost your footing due to the heavy shaking of the ground from the two of them crashing into the earth, but you couldn't take your eyes off of the immaculate hold Eren had on Reiner as the Armored Titan now seemed to have a struggled look on its face. 

"Hey...You're kidding..." You muttered as you got onto one knee while watching Eren mount on top of Reiner while holding his arms down. "When did you learn to fight like her...Eren?" You asked as Eren kept Reiner pinned.

"I don't know what the hell you guys are trying to accomplish by doing all this, but..." Eren reeled his right fist back as Reiner realized his attack was coming soon. "Now that I think of it, your plan has been full of flaws from the start!" Reiner launched his right hand up and pushed on the right side of Eren's torso as he flipped them over to be on the dominant mount. "Your biggest mistake was this!" Eren used his punch as bait and managed to armbar Reiner's right arm as his legs wrapped around the Armored Titan's head into a tightening lock. "You should've thought twice about teaching me how to fight!" Eren thought as he leaned back to put heavy pressure on Reiner's elbow joint and squeezing Reiner's head to his own shoulder, to the point that his armor cracked against each other.

"The armor's weaking!" You were beyond shocked by the success Eren was achieving with this new fighting style he was portraying.

"It's working! I've got him now! I still have a chance!" Eren thought as Reiner used his free hand to loosen the hold around his head and slowly forced himself to his feet as he struggled to keep balance. "Think again!" Eren suddenly twisted and changed the position of his legs to wrap under his left arm and around his head again as he twisted to face the ground, making Reiner fall face first into the dirt.

"Eren!!" Mikasa called out to Eren as you saw her running towards him and chased after her. 

"Wait, Mikasa! Don't get too close!" You yelled as the two of you were moving into the danger zone of where Eren might throw Reiner next.

"You're not getting away from this!" Eren was sat on top of Reiner's arm and leaned back as far as he could while Reiner struggled to break free, and having too much pressure applied on his arm joints, Eren screamed as he ripped Reiner's right arm off from the elbow.

"YES!!!" You screamed in joy as you grabbed onto Mikasa to stop her from getting closer, where a few meters ahead of you, Reiner's dismembered arm landed in front of you two. "GOOD WORK, EREN!! YOU DID IT!!" You screamed with a huge smile on your face as you heard someone land behind you and turned to see Armin. "Did you see that, Armin?! He kicked Reiner's ass!" You laughed with a sense of pride and joy towards Eren as you watched his Titan step away from Reiner and the Armored Titan was stuck in a knelt position.

"Eren, can you hear me!?" Eren turned when he heard a voice to his right and saw you, Armin and Mikasa run up to him. "Run away! Get closer to the wall!" Armin said as you were confuse by this suggestion.

"Huh? Why? We've got that asshole by the ropes! Eren can beat him!" You retaliated against the order.

"That's too dangerous of a risk and we still don't full know the extent of Reiner's capabilities!" Armin said as he put your argument down and it made sense to you as he turned back to Eren. "Their goal is to kidnap and take you away! We've gotta escape and prevent that from happening!" Armin said as Mikasa chimed in.

"But, Armin, Reiner isn't going to let us do as we please!" Mikasa said as you all turned to see Reiner stand back up once again with a more threatening look on his face as he opened his mouth armor to show his gritted teeth.

"Hey!" You turned to see another scout come down next to you guys. "It's dangerous here! Get back, you three!" The scout ordered as you all turned around to retreat.

"Yes, sir!" You said as you three flew off to head back towards the wall as Eren remained where he was on guard.

After a few moments passed, Reiner let out a lol bellow from his Titan as he began to move again, and Eren also began to make his move. While flying back towards the wall, a shadow had suddenly cast over you and when you turned around, there was Eren following behind you all as he regrouped with you and the rest of the scouts at the wall. You were anchored up next to Hange and other scouts she had join her and Eren was stood just below you all with his arm on the wall, increasing the distance between him and Reiner.

"Nice, Eren! Good call!" One of the officers praised Eren for his decision.

"He's back in control again." Mikasa said with relief.

"No, he was just pissed and took out some steam on Reiner. Nice work, Eren!" You pumped your fist in the air.

"However, it's like you said, Mikasa. It'll almost be impossible to escape from Reiner." Armin said as you all looked ahead to see Reiner walking towards you all.

"Well, it'll be hard but I think our chances just doubled with Eren's new moves." You said as you turned to see Bertolt's Colossal Titan was still stuck up above the wall. "Reiner's all alone without Bertolt to help. In a one-on-one, the playing ground is much more even for Eren. All we gotta do is figure out how to get away..." You said as Hange flew pass you all and landed on top of 

"Listen up, Eren. If you're gonna escape, we've got to find a way to halt Reiner and buy you some time!" Hange said as she pointed back to Reiner's legs. "Can you break his leg with another one of those joint locks? Our blades don't seem to work on him, so use your head and figure out the best course of action!" She finished as Eren looked back at Hange and nodded, making the section commander blush in awe. "Haaahhhhhh..." Hange's breath hitched when she realized she was actually communicating with a Titan as you had a deadpan look on your face.

"Um, Section Commander...I think there's a time and place for being starstruck..." You said to her, but your words fell on deaf ears as you just let her be and stared back cockily at Reiner. "Whatever, now that you've exposed yourselves, there's nothing left for you guys to do. We've won. Eren will escape, and we'll sort out a new plan to destroy you guys and make one step further to reclaiming our land. We've won, Reiner. You've lost!" You grinned as you could already see the end of this battle coming near, and you and the scouts were plotting your last move to disable Reiner and make your escape back to safety.