Shingeki No Kyojin: Dissonance

Chapter 1: Taken

A profusion of crimson decorated the viridescent terrain, staining its ethereal beauty as torrid steam emitted from his adversary. Eren refused to let her regenerate, clenching his fist before bringing it heavily down upon the back of her head.

The force of the blow cost him dearly as remnants of his hand dispersed along the trees in a surge of shattered bones and fleshy carmine smears. The stump of his fragmented forearm - shredded flesh and exposed tendons - steamed in excess as his body labored to replace what was gone. The temporary loss was worth it though, for the Female Titan lay on the ground - her face devastated to the degree of undefinable physiognomy. As his hand began to restore, Eren glared down at the immobile Titan as she slowly began to rejuvenate - hot vapor rising in an adagio from her ruined face.

"If only at that time…" Eren thought to himself, remembering his comrades that met their merciless ends by the hands of this Titan. "...I had chosen to stay with them and fight together." His fists clenched tight - nails digging into the tough meat of his Titan-form's palm.

"No…even before that." His rage infused jades narrowed at the Female Titan whose head was medianly finished with its restoration. "If only I had chosen to fight the first time we made contact with her!"

His tightly wound muscles began to shake ferociously, the Titan-form's mahogany hair tousled by the cutting wind as green leaves and fronds danced around the core of ground zero.

"Corporal Rivaille was by my side at the time…I would have won there, I'm sure. We may have also succeeded in capturing her alive!"

The Female Titan's head was nearing completion.

"That…that was my choice and because of my decision, everyone was killed. Because of me…everyone is dead." Eren started towards the Female Titan - the battle-scarred terrain creaked disapprovingly as it gave way to shallow craters under his heavy footfalls - scintillating rage gradually besieging his discernibility of self control.

"But...the one really at fault here…" His sartorius muscle contracted as he lifted the weight of his leg back behind him - ready to put an end to this brawl. The Female Titan's silvery-blue eyes were fully formed now, centering on him wide in trepidation as she brought her hand forward, motioning for him to stop.

"Is you!"

The battle-cry Eren summoned from within his Titan-form was powerful - chilling - sounding throughout the forest as though it were the call to war of a nation bearing down on its final victory. A violent shockwave rattled their arena as his shin collided with the Female Titan's gut, sending her flying into a row of trees that disintegrated on impact in a brilliant shower of splintered wood chips and grainy soot.

"Eren?!"

"This roar…it's!-"

Upon hearing the barbaric howl, both Mikasa and Levi stopped mid-grapple. Though in two separate areas, they both had the same idea of heading towards where the sound had come from.

"Wha?! H-Hey! Where are you going?! Mikasa, come back!" Sasha yelled after her but was too late. Mikasa had already begun reeling her weight towards the origin of stentorian bellows.

"This way!" Levi said to himself, firing his grappling hooks into two trees at his peripheral before activating the gas mechanism of his 3D Maneuver gear, sending him flying past the two trees, retracting his hooks with ease as he continued to head in the opposite direction of the ordered rendezvous.

The Female Titan slowly lifted herself to her feet, stumbling from sudden shift in her center of gravity - gripping the newly inflicted wound. Eren suddenly appeared before her, smashing the barely standing Shifter through what remained of the tree and onto the detritus of shattered splinters on the ground below. His leaden weight settled firmly on top of her, pinning the Shifter's arms with both hands - his tumultuous roars resonating his feral anger through the Female Titan's ears.

Eren raised a fist, plunging it down hard at her face only for it to connect with the ground where her head once lay. In that split second, she had avoided what would have been a battle ending strike. The force of the impact sent a driving shock through his arm - muscles, skin, and bone were obliterated as his elbow turned into nothing but evaporating steam. He tried again, this time with his other hand. The Female Titan dodged once more - his remaining hand was disintegrated just like his other.

As his wounds began to heal, he raised his head and looked down upon his unparalleled enemy. Their eyes locked with each other - even though she barely managed to evade his punches, there was no sign of fear present in her eyes, nor did she appear to look intimidated. Her lips were parted slightly, and her head was tilted in interest as if she were a child, studying her opponent with glistening, eccentric eyes. Before he could react, her left hand gripped his shoulder. It didn't appear to be a sign of attack...more like a motion to stop him.

Her sudden action sent an irresistible compulsion through his nerves - sparking the savage beast inside to life for an infinitesimal second.

A moment later, her arm was ripped from its socket, dangling from Eren's teeth before he sent it flying into the trees behind them. He turned his enraged gaze back to her. It may have been the way he was looking down at her, or how he just so casually ripped her arm off, but it seemed to have sparked something in her. Her pupils were dilated, and her body tensed. She was definitely intimidated now.

"I'll tear you apart! Once my limbs regenerate, you'll be nothing but broken bones and pulverized meat! I'll make sure to savor your human form so you can feel the deaths of those you killed a million times over! Just you wait, you bitch!"

Eren's mind became free. He could no longer see her. All he could do was breathe in the stench of malodorous coils - connecting him on a primal level with his creation.

"I'll devour her...I'll fucking gut her!" A deranged grin twisted the features of his face while viscid saliva dribbled down his parched lips, much like a rabid dog. He wanted to see her blood spill, to see her beg for mercy as he utterly eradicates her. The more he thought about the various ways to break her, the tighter the coils around him became…

And he loved how it felt.

The mordant heat grew hotter and hotter within the enclosed bulk of neural tissue cocooning its 'master'. The Female Titan below him watched in alarm as his eyes rotated in their hollows to the back of his head - his hulking body convulsing violently. She knew what was happening, for she too had experienced it once before - the tendrils were indoctrinating him deeper into the belly of the beast. His Titan-form desired to consume him, so it could roam the earth free.

She wouldn't let that happen however. She clenched her fist, sending it harshly into his face. Eren's head was tossed to the side from the force - a couple bloody teeth flew from his mouth and impacted against a tree in the distance with a light thunk. She pushed her leg up, sending him over her and onto the ground, quickly getting up to assume a defensive stance as her dazed target recovered from the sudden attack.

Eren shook his head, now in control again, before turning to face her, their eyes locking once more. He let out another rage-induced cry, sending a volley of fists at her - all of which she effortlessly evaded. She could read his patterns of attack. Every move he made, she was two steps ahead of him. He wasn't thinking straight. All he could comprehend was the consuming need to kill her, and the pin and needle focus on raw power, accompanied by the grim lack of precision that would soon be his demise.

His next untamed swing gave her the chance she needed to land a hit. In an instant, her right arm had crystallized, the reflective cerulean armor impacting Eren's jaw with an elegant yet herculean prowess. Her eyes shot open, not anticipating that he would grind what remained of his broken teeth along the jagged surface, landing a devastating haymaker into her gut. The force of the blow was so powerful, that it sent her flying through the air and into a tree a good forty meters away.

The Female Titan was slumped against the tree, panting heavily. It was only when Eren was moments away from sending a fist into her face, that she saw the beaming pair of turquoise eyes through the curtain of steam emitting from her wounds.

She quickly rolled her body to the side as his fist made contact with the tree, exploding it into nothing but splintered wood and the parted flesh of his right hand. He was now disoriented - blinded by the haze of their combined steam. She took this chance and sprinted to his side, swinging her fist into his right eye, immediately rendering it useless.

The loss of both his eye and arm left him unable to react in time as she came up on his defenseless right side - kneeing him in the chin. His lower jaw caved in and the momentum of the blow sent him flying back onto the soil - a shroud of dust surrounded him as the earth beneath his sudden weight compressed and crumbled.

"Shit! I need to get up! C'mon!" Eren pressed his left hand onto the ground to use as support before beginning to lift himself up. He turned to see his enemy shifting into a stance that was too familiar for Eren's comfort. He knew this stance, this technique. He was taught this during his training, though due to time constraints, he was never able to fully perfect it.

"H-how does she know…" His voice trailed off and he let down his guard, all the while studying the movements and appearance of the Shifter in front of him. The pieces began to fall into place - her name was on the tip of his tongue, but he was too late as she brought her foot to the left side of his face, kicking in the remaining eye and forcing it out the other side.

Eren toppled over, what remained of his face collided into the ground. The Female Titan quickly straddled his lower back, pressing one hand against the back of his head to keep him pinned down. Irritation and anger replaced his bewilderment - the question of her identity became shadowed by the intense call to try to find an opening - to gain the upper hand.

"Shit! This is bad, really bad!" Eren was blind, trapped, and defenseless - unable to get out from under her as she opened her mouth wide - her powerful bite clamping down on the meat of Eren's bicep. "No! You won't get the better of me! I'll fucking kill you!"

Eren's words proved useless as she gripped his forearm tightly and heaved his only remaining means of defense from its socket.

"Fuck!" Eren cursed. His body being unable to regenerate in time had cost him this battle, the victor throwing his arm to the side before grabbing his shoulders with either hand. She bit her teeth into the tender skin of his nape just in time for Mikasa to arrive on their arena.

"Eren!" She screamed, watching in horror as the Female Titan pulled the flesh of the nape back to reveal Eren's human-self. He looked at Mikasa with half-lidded, dazed eyes as he was taken in by the prodigious jaws - the opposing Shifter's head tilting back moments later to allow Eren's still form to slide back into the cavern of her mouth.

The lower half of his legs fell to the ground below - bitten off when she closed her mouth. His captor quickly arose to her feet and sprinted off to avoid further confrontation.

"No!" Mikasa screamed, firing her grappling hooks towards the retreating enemy.

"Get back here!" Mikasa reeled herself in after her hooks took hold of the fleeing Shifter. She drew her blades back, ready to cut as deep as she could into it.

"Give him back!" Mikasa yelled, her blades slicing through the cheek of the Shifter and moving to the front. She then reeled herself back in and made a clean cut along the Female Titan's bicep before cutting across her quadriceps.

"Give Eren back!" The beast made one final cut, slashing across the back of the Female Titan's knee - cutting deep into the vulnerable skin and fibrous ligaments and causing her to fall over to the ground, quickly bringing a hand over her nape to defend against Mikasa's sudden attempt at ending her once and for all. Her blades clashed against the crystal, the amount of force exerted causing both blades to fragment. She fired her hooks to the nearest tree and reeled herself away before the Female Titan could counter.

"Just let me through already!" Mikasa screamed, unable to hold back the tears that had been welling in her eyes. The Female Titan looked up at her attacker in surprise.

"I know that Eren's alive!" Mikasa hoped that Eren was still in her mouth and went to equip a pair of blades, steam emanating from her body where the Female Titan's blood had splattered.

"No matter where she goes; I'll find her, eviscerate her, and release you from that vile place! So just wait a little longer Eren, okay?" Mikasa quickly swung away as the Female Titan brought her arm over and smashed it into the tree, the top half falling over to the ground.

"Wait for me, Eren!" Mikasa yelled, eyes sparking with rage as she went to try and cut through the nape again.

Just a few moments before..

Levi passed by Gunter Shulz hanging by his wires, blood seeping from the nape of his neck into a crimson pool below. He advanced forward - passing by the top half of Erd Gin's body, his insides sprawled out across the gore stained grass.

He turned away only to see Auruo Bossard on the ground, his body crushed. Levi's expression remained blank as his hooks grappled into another set of trees in front of him - right beside the last member of his squad.

He looked down below at Petra Ral's broken body lying against the tree, blood seeping from her nose and mouth, and the angle of her head allowing the dark liquid to soak through her light brown locks - her once life-filled eyes staring dead into the canopy.

The Corporal propelled himself away and never looked back. It had been a reunion without words, for there was no time or need for them. He pressed on without a second thought.

After following the tell-tale path of destruction through the trees, he arrived to see Mikasa going for the Female Titans' nape. He quickly shot his hooks out to a tree near her and reeled himself in, grabbing her by the waist in the process.

"We need to fall back for now." He said sternly, Mikasa glaring at the Titan as it slowly got up and started to run away. "We'll follow her while keeping our distance for the moment."

Levi looked at Mikasa and then at the Titan. "Looks like she's exhausted, her speed dropped significantly."

Levi looked at the Titan-form Eren was using, its nape devoured. "The whole nape area of Eren's Titan is bitten out, is he dead?" He looked toward Mikasa for a response.

"Eren is alive, sir." She began as they both used their 3D Maneuver gear to follow the Titan.

"The target seems to have intelligence, and her objective is to kidnap Eren. If she wanted to kill him, she could have simply crushed him. Instead, the target intentionally contained him in her mouth and is currently trying to escape with him."

"Then, maybe she was trying to devour Eren all along…in that case, he's in her stomach right now, which pretty much means he's dead."

"He is alive." Mikasa responded, glaring at the corporal.

"I sure hope so." He responded coldly.

"In the first place, had you performed your duty to protect Eren properly, this wouldn't have happened." She said sternly, causing Levi's eyes to widen a bit.

"You're Eren's childhood friend who was present at the trial, right? I see." This was Levi's first time meeting the boy's adopted sister. He understood her anger, but there was no time for her feelings to get in the way of the mission. He looked away from her and thought out a plan as they closed in on the Titan. "First, we need to give up on taking this female type down."

"But…she's killed a lot of scouts." Mikasa mentioned.

"As long as she has that ability to harden her skin, slaying her is impossible. Take my assessment on this. We'll bet everything on the possibility that Eren is still alive, and rescue him before she has a chance to get out of the forest. I'll cut her up, and you'll draw her attention."

Mikasa nodded, propelling herself forward to get in front of the Female Titan before making direct eye contact. The Female Titan jogged at a steady pace, appearing to be unaware of Levi's presence while staring down at Mikasa.

Levi readied his blades and glared at his newest prey, waiting for the perfect time to strike.

The Female Titan suddenly planted her foot into the ground, using her momentum to twist her body to launch an onerous fist at the Corporal. The next few moments happened so fast. Before the Female Titan could even blink, Levi had torn through the length of her arm as if he were a devastating cyclone. It was only when she could focus her eyes on him, that his bent blades punctured through her pupils, generating vortexed wisps of scarlet haze.

He quickly drew back his hilts, leaving what remained of the blades embedded in her eyes and pushing himself off from her nose. In the span of seconds, he had already equipped a new pair of blades and spun down her shoulder blade and to the small of her back, before making his way around to her thighs and eventually both achilles tendons.

She immediately focused on regenerating the achilles tendons as Levi spun across her nape, only to be thwarted by the sudden crystal protecting it. His shattered blades bounced off the large tree his target fell against, unable to keep herself up for the time being. Immediately, he equipped another pair of blades and went to work on her arms. Mikasa took this chance to try and aid Levi in his one-man battle against the Female Titan.

"Now that she's distracted, I can kill her!" She shot one of her hooks out into the shoulder opposite of Levi and propelled herself forward to go for the nape. The Female Titan raised her hand beside the wire in an attempt to stop Mikasa from getting to her destination. Mikasa let out a yell as she sliced through the fingers and went on her way. Unknowingly, the Female Titan's hand was still active, and she brought it across Mikasa's body, throwing her to the ground hard.

"You fool!" Levi yelled. "If only you had waited until I took care of the tendons in her arms!"

Levi shot out his hooks to the tree right behind her nape and propelled himself forward, using the unfortunate distraction of Mikasa's bad timing as a perfect chance to dispose of the Female Titan once and for all, instead of just grabbing Eren. He wouldn't be able to carry both of them back, so he had to take this option instead.

He brought his blades across the nape, which was still layered with weakened crystal, making it less prone for his blades to break as they tore through the thick flesh. The Female Titan let out a strident roar of pain before twisting her neck to the side, throwing Levi off balance and causing him to take his blades out too soon. He flew off of her only to get one of his wires grabbed by her hand - used as a sudden last ditch effort to take him down. He quickly severed the wire with his blade to avoid being pulled down and used his remaining hook to begin descending down towards Mikasa.

Levi cocked his head back and watched his enemy get up as quickly as possible, her achilles tendons now healed, and ran off with a hand against her neck in pain. She seemed very nauseous. He must've cut her human form deep. He landed a few feet away from Mikasa, stepping over the remnants to one of her blade-holders; the wires were bent and barely attached to the hand-grips, and the triggers destroyed with one bent lever - another missing along with a leaking gas cylinder off to the side.

He knelt down beside Mikasa. Blood poured out of her stomach as she reached a hand out towards the fleeing Titan. "Mikasa, just hold still." Levi ordered, kneeling beside her to begin applying pressure to her wound.

"E-Eren…" She said.

"Mikasa, we have to worry about you right now, just keep breathing and don't close your eyes."

Mikasa could barely hear what Levi was saying - his words muffled and her vision blurry. All she could focus on was the Titan that took Eren away from her. She witnessed the Titan's form disappearing as more and more trees got in the way. She kept her hand reached out even after the Titan was long gone.

"Eren…please come back…Eren...please…" Levi pushed her hand down.

"Mikasa, lie still." Levi said sternly.

"But…Eren…" Hot tears began to freely flow down her obsidian eyes, blood escaping from her parted lips. She jumped up, screaming his name. "Eren! Eren! Please! Come bac-" Mikasa suddenly coughed violently, blood spilling all over her legs.

"Mikasa! Stop it!" Levi ordered, raising his voice while easing her back onto the ground.

"Eren…don't leave me."

Redux: This chapter has been HEAVILY revised, with many new scenes implemented. Detail has also been given a much needed overhaul, and you can all thank Arkevil for doing many of those revisions. For the readers who have already read this chapter; I hope you all enjoy this new, redux version. I also hope that all you newcomers have enjoyed the first chapter to Dissonance.

THIS IS ALSO REALLY IMPORTANT PLEASE READ!: The next two chapters have NOT been revised, so expect a significant drop in quality. Chapter 4 and beyond are revised and keep the same amount of quality as presented here. I will be doing revisions for chapters 2 and 3 when the time comes, so please be patient.

Original A/N:

After thinking long and hard about how this story is going to play out, I finally decided to write it. The reason I held this back for a while is because I originally thought Annie and Eren didn't work together as a couple, hence the title "Dissonance" which literally means "A tension or clash resulting from the combination of two disharmonious or unsuitable elements."

Though now that I've begun writing the story and having read the manga again, Annie and Eren have become my favorite pairing in SnK and I have so many things planned! That being said, It's going to be interesting to write the many different situations and character interactions these two can have together throughout the story. For those of you about to read this, I thank you for being a reader of my first Shingeki No Kyojin fanfiction and hope you will continue to stay with it until its completion.

Have a great day/night fellow Legionnaires, and until next time!

-Prima.