Grim Reminder

There was a shower of blood that spread through the air as Carla Jaeger's body slid down the disgusting gullet of the 14-meter titan that loomed over them all. The titan then reached for him as he screamed for the loss of his mother. He was paralyzed with rage, and thus was easily picked up by the monstrous titan. Eren Jaeger, a boy of about 10, watched helplessly as his body was suspended over the opened maw of the titan, rows of extremely sharp teeth awaited his flesh as he fell. The mouth began to close around him when-

"Eren come on! Wake up!" a smaller boy with blonde hair yelled to his sleeping friend.

Eren bolted awake as a sheen of sweat covered his face, his face frantically looking around for any sign of titans. "Armin?" He asked once his eyes landed on the boy's.

"Yea Eren, it's me. Come on, you have to get ready! Don't you know what day it is?" Armin asked before heading out of the small room they and Mikasa shared.

'Of course I know what today is,' Eren thought excitedly, 'today is finally the day we are all old enough to enter the Military Academy!'

Eren quickly sprang up to his feet and began the task of getting ready. Once he was done, he met up with Armin and Mikasa, his best friends, and together they walked across town to the Military HQ. Hannes had shown them the HQ when they had first arrived, and they weren't allowed to sign up at that time, despite Eren's anger, because they were too young. Now that they were all 12, they were going to register for training at the Military Academy.

The inside of the HQ was quite plain, the decorations sparse. The entire area resembled something close to Spartan design, though the designers had no way of knowing that. Everything in the HQ was organized so that it was symmetrical, which caused the trio no small amount of disorganization as they made their way to the registration room.

When they finally arrived, an unpleasant looking lady peered at them from behind a desk that said "Registration."

"Surely you kids are not here to sign up for the Military Academy" The lady drolled on.

"Yes we are! My name is Eren Yaeger and this is Mikasa and Armin. We are here to enroll."

"Why are you so dead set on throwing your life away at such a young age?" The lady asked, uncomfortable with allowing these kids, who hadn't even reached puberty, military training to combat titans.

Armin recoiled as if struck, 'This women is serious, she really believes that we won't survive! I don't know if I will survive,' Armin thought frantically before looking at Eren and Mikasa's reaction, 'Wow, they're both so sure of themselves. Don't worry guys, I won't abandon you.'

Eren, oblivious to Armin's inner turmoil, replied without hesitation. "Don't you worry. I won't die until I've killed every last Titan there is! And I sure as hell won't let them kill my bestfriends either, just give us our registration forms, lady, and try to scare they next group of recruits, cause you're not gonna get to us!"

The lady, seeing that she was going to be unable to save these three from the horrors of war-training, gave them all three a form and told them to fill it out in the waiting room, then return them back to her. They did so without hesitation, each one determined in their own right. Eren, because he wanted revenge on every Titan for the death of his mother; Mikasa, because she would protect Eren at all costs; and Armin, because he didn't want to let his best friends down.

Before long, they were being directed to a large room after they submitted their forms back in. The room was filled with a small number of recruits of both sexes, everyone's face showing one of two emotions; fear or anger. Because this was a town very close to Eren's home city, most of the people here were refugees like him, and thus knew what Titans actually were like, causing them to be fearful. On the other hand, many of these people had lost family to the Titans, not unlike Eren, and so wanted revenge. Though no one wanted revenge on the scale that Eren radiated.

There was a sound at the front of the room, causing everyone to notice a man standing on a small platform. He was wearing a soldiers uniform and he looked like he had something important to say.

"Listen up, new recruits. My name is Captain Hans, and first off let me tell you all this. If you are physically weak, emotionally weak, or mentally weak, do us all a favour and leave this minute. Don't waste our time by training and then giving up midway. Though it is allowed, it is a pain in the ass to put up with your bitching and whining, so if you don't think you are tough enough, leave. If you hold no fear, and believe that you can become a hero to humanity, then by all means, join me at the carriages tomorrow at the crack of dawn for a journey deep inside wall Rose." Hans said before he left out through the double doors at the front.

All the recruits began chattering excitedly, some hysterically afraid, while others were revved up and undeterred.

Eren, Mikasa, and Armin all remained fearless throughout it all, and left through the double doors to make it back to their tiny house. Dinner was mostly uneventful, Hannes bringing over some boiled duck that they all ate quietly, the only topic talked about was the recruiting. Hannes was worried at first, he had already lost his childhood friend, Karula Jaeger, and he didn't want to lose the rest of her family, but eventually they had reassured him enough and he retired back to the Military HQ after wishing them luck.

None of them slept too well, but they were rested enough the next morning in order to travel. The trio arrived at the carriages just like requested and were shocked to see only roughly 35% of the original group remaining. The Captain wasn't deterred at all to see the decrease in numbers, after all, many of the original crowd had only gone to act like they had a spine. The rest, he knew, were either confident, or arrogant. 'The training outta sort that out real quick,' he thought.

"Now that everyone who is going to show up has, everyone gather into the carriages. If you don't like the person you sit beside, you can sit on the ground here instead if you prefer." Captain Hans stated, impatient to get these brats off his watch and hand them over to Keith, the overseer of the training regiments. Once all the carriages were filled with new recruits, they started off on their journey.

As soon as Eren got in his carriage, he looked around at some of the other recruits. Beside him was Mikasa and beside her was Armin. Across from them was a boy their age named Cale that seemed to have a ten foot pole wedged up his ass for the way he acted like he was better than them. Beside Cale was Yule, a nice girl if not a bit meek. And finally, beside Yule was Danze. Danze seemed the most talkative out of them, and the only who seemed to not understand the danger of the Titans. Cale believed hecould already take most of them on, but he at least recognized that they could do some serious damage. Danze just talked like Titans weren't even real, and they were training to protect the people from bandits and thugs. Eren already knew that Danze wouldn't make it through whatever training they were going to do. Cale would make it because his stupid arrogance would never let him quit, and Yule seemed like she was intelligent. Eren didn't have to worry about Mikasa and Armin. Mostly because Mikasa had always been the strongest, and Armin was extremely smart; smarter than most adults even.

Eren was actually mostly worried about his own abilities. He neither had the strength of Mikasa, nor the intelligence of Armin. He vowed that he would train harder than either of them in order to become the best. He didn't want to become the best for any sort of bragging reasons, not at all, he only wanted to make sure that he never had to watch another person he loved get killed while he could only stand by and watch. Over the two years that they had stayed at the village waiting until they could join the Training Corps, Eren had already begun working out every time he could, in secret. It wouldn't be worth it if Mikasa and Armin would just advance as much as him because he would be back in the place he was in the first place. At his current level, he figured that he was at least as strong as Mikasa, if not a bit stronger. He knew that Armin would always beat them in intelligence, so he figured that was a lost cause. Eren had also been working on something else, his speed. Many people never truly know how important speed can be. Not just physical running speed, but also reaction speed. He would practice by running through the woods near the town, which had several low hanging branches right at the height of his face. He would run through the trees and practice dodging the branches, thus gaining a large boost to his quick thinking and speed.

While Eren was reliving old memories of training, and comparing himself to everyone, the rest of the carriage was engaged in small talk. Mostly Armin, Yule, and Danze, as Cale was to bored to do anything except look at the window, and Mikasa never really talked to anyone except Eren and Armin.

Eventually, the carriages rolled to a stop, and they were all told to exit. It was night time, but in the darkness the recruits could see a large building lit up with torches, surrounded by smaller buildings.

"Alright new recruits, listen up. I am Keith Shadis, the training director here. From now on, all of you maggots will be under my direct control, and my word here is law! Any insubordination at all, and you will be punished severely, is that understood?" Keith Shadis yelled, a chorus of agreements met his challenge.

"Good. All of you are to go to your assigned barracks, and we will begin training tomorrow. Report to these soldiers here to get your assigned barrack number. Dismissed." Keith Shadis said before reentering the large building, followed by a few soldiers. Eren, Mikasa, and Armin were all pleased to know that they were in 104th Trainee Squad together, along with a girl named Sasha, a boy named Marco, another girl named Annie, a boy name Jean, another boy named Reiner, a girl named Krista, a guy named Connie, a guy named Bertolt, a guy named Tom, a guy named Thomas, and a few others. When they got to their barracks, they found them split into two sides, male and female. Mikasa went to the left after saying goodnight to both Eren and Armin, while the boys went to the right. Eren found himself groping around in total darkness with Armin, trying to find their beds. Armin accidentally grabbed a boy's scalp and jerked it back, hoping that the boy wouldn't wake up. Luckily, Armin's luck held out and the boy merely rolled over in his sleep. Eventually, the two managed to find their shared bunk and both flopped down on their respective beds, Eren got bottom while Armin was on top.

Over the course of the night, more and more recruits arrived and were directed to their barracks. Eren, however, was oblivious to all of it because of how deeply he slept.

The Titan opened his mouth, but this time 12-year old Eren was able to grab a footing on the Titan's jaw and jumped towards it's eyes. He swung his blade as hard as he could, and punctured deeply into the iris of the Titan. The Titan screamed in pain, but, in it's agony, it was able to grab Eren and this time, the pressure on Eren's small body was too much, and with a large snap-

The annoyingly loud sound of a trumpet blaring in the distance woke Eren up from his nightmare. He, along with the other boys in his barracks, groggily got out of bed and went about perparing for the day. Eren, and the guys walked out to meet the sight of semi-darkness. Eren was so surprised at the lack of sunlight, he actually bumped into someone. Upon looking, he realized that it was only Mikasa, and swiftly apologized.

"Eren, are you excited to begin training like you always talked about?" Mikasa asked.

If it were any later in the day, Eren would have replied without hesitation, as it was, all he could manage was a slight nod. He was still dead tired. Armin found them and stood next to them. They all stood at attention when Keith Shadis walked past them and stood behind a podium of sorts.

"Listen up, maggots. Today, you will begin the long arduous task of training for military. You all will be trained for three years, that is, only the people who live through it. I'm not gonna lie, nor will I sugarcoat it. Some of you will die because of this training. The 3DMG we work with allows up to move through the air at great speeds, but any mistake will cost you dearly. You may follow me to the Mess Hall, where you will have 30 minutes to eat, and after that, the training begins." With that, Keith left, forcing the trainees to follow him. As Eren looked around, he noticed that there was roughly just under 100 trainees that joined.

At the Mess Hall, the 104th trainee squad chose to sit together. Most of the other recruits had no idea hat a Titan even looked like, an when asked, Armin would tell them a softer version of the horrors a Titan possessed. Jean then asked a question that was everyone's mind, "Well then, if they're so tough, how the hell are we going to be able to defeat them? It's not really gonna bother me, since I'm going to the Military Police, but I'd still wanna know."

"Only the top ten from the graduating class will be allowed the privilege of joining the Military Class and protecting the King behind Wall Sina." A guy named Marco said.

"No you worry. I'll be number 1!" Jean arrogantly declared. Eren already decided that he wouldn't like Jean.

"Yea, why fight Titans when you can hide away inside the deepest wall? Why risk your life fighting back against those monsters?" Marco piped up again.

"I'll tell you why," Eren joined the conversation, "it's because no matter how deep inside the walls you hide, the Titans will come for you. The Colossal Titan was as tall as the 50 meter wall, and torn a hole through the wall with a single kick! What makes you think that it won't just do the same to Wall Rosa, then Wall Sina?" Eren demanded by slamming his hands on the table.

"Why you-" Jean was cut off as Annie proposed a question to Eren.

"Then what are you going to do?" Annie asked, sounding bored but genuinely curious. All the other cadet's heads swiveled back to Eren, eager to ascertain what he would say.

"I'm going to kill every single last one of them! I will wipe Titans off the face of the Earth!" Eren declared boldly, as if daring anyone to challenge his claim, though none did.

The rest of the meal was eaten in silence, the only noises being the scraping of spoons on a plate as the kids eat their vitamin-rich porridge. It tasted disgusting, but it would help their body's become stronger.

Keith Shadis sauntered back inside the room and called for them to follow him to the training grounds, this was where the fun would begin.

"Alright listen up maggots, before we begin I want you all to hold your military salute until I say drop it." Shadis yelled before he began walking through the neatly organized throng of cadets. Shadis ended up in front of a meek looking girl, staring deep into her eyes.

"Name and reason for being here, Cadet!" Shadis yelled in her face.

"Krista Lenz, sir! I am here to protect mankind from future disasters like the breach of Wall Maria!" Krista yelled.

"I don't think you have what it takes, Krista! Let's see if you can survive the first day of training before you go on thinking you'll be a hero for mankind!" Shadis brutally declared before walking off to another student.

Shadis did this to many students before he stared, flabbergasted at what he saw. A row to the left, and one back, there she was. A cadet with reddish/brown hair, busily eating a potato.

Shadis marched right in front of her, and calmly uttered a question at an extremely low volume.

"Cadet? What is that in your right hand?" Shadis slowly asked, though his voice seemed to carry a wave of power that shook every cadet there, not her though.

"Um, this is a potato, sir." The girl replied.

"And why are you eating it?"

"Because I was hungry, sir. And it was going to get cold soon so I-"

"What is your name cadet?" Shadis asked, shaking with anger.

"Sasha Blouse, sir!"

"Blouse, is it? Why do you think it is acceptable to eat in front of me?" Shadis demanded.

Sasha was dumbstruck, 'so that's what he's upset about, sheesh he could have just asked.' Sasha then ripped the potatoes into two pieces, one larger than the other. She then handed the smaller piece to him and told him he could have half.

All the other cadets could only watch in fear as Sasha was yelled at and forced to run until she collapsed. The rest of the cadets began their long arduous task of physical training. They did push ups until they could do no more, and they did sit ups, crunches, all sorts of fancy workouts that toned their bodies.

When they were finally done, many of them were forced to limp and crawl back to the barracks for the rest of the evening. Everyone was aching all over, but somehow, through all the pain, the 104th Trainee Corps builded bonds with each other, at least most of them did. Annie was still the cold-hearted bitch she's always been, though she did seem to pay more attention whenever Eren talked.

Eventually, they all went to bed, exhausted, but excited for the next day. The training regime had them exercising their bodies every other day, while the days in between was focused on their minds. Lectures, formations, strategies, weak spots, you name it. Also, tomorrow was the day for the 3DMG evaluation exam. Those who couldn't even stay upright would be forced to drop out. It was a tough system, but it saved many lives by weeding out the weak before the Titans did it for them.

Just as Eren's head hit the pillow, his mind collapsed and the welcomed the darkness that his mind receded into as his body healed. This would be a tough three years, but it would be well worth it if he was able to get revenge on those Titans that took his mother from him.