Shingeki No Kyojin: Dissonance

Chapter 10: Renew

[yaW]850;11;13

"This is goodbye."

"An…nie."

An array of encroaching tremors disturbed the Shifter from his slumber, and, in an instant, he was thrust back into the real world without support, without direction, and without Annie to guide him on his journey to find the truth.

His eyes flickered rapidly whilst hearing the laborious footfalls of a few Titans dangerously close to his position. Seeing that he was still in the place where his body had fallen possibly hours ago, he made a conscious effort to move out of harms way and into a safer location where these creatures couldn't follow.

"I have to get out of here. I can't fight them like this."

Eren eased himself up only to fall back against the wall behind him.

"Shit." He cursed before trying again, this time with his hands pressed against the wall to support himself. Just as he managed to keep up straight, a 10-meter approached to his side, a whimsical expression failing to compliment its grotesque features.

"Why now?!" He dragged himself along the remains of the house towards an alley that appeared to be ages away, mostly due to Eren continuously dropping to the ground from fatigue, but the Titan pursuing him certainly made an impact on his perception of time.

Any remains of the house left were immediately obliterated as the 10-meter sent its hand through and nearly crushed Eren, who had just barely escaped into the alley.

"Too close!"

Forcing his legs not to give in, Eren stumbled down the narrow crevice as fast as he could make his feet go, feverishly trying to think of a way to get himself out of this mess. He reached the other end, only to be noticed by a few more 10-meters that blocked his path.

"Give me a fucking break!"

Eren spun around in the other direction hoping to find a detour, but to no avail. It was then he realized… he was trapped. He cursed for a few moments, even knowing that there was no way for the creatures to get to him due to how small the alley was.

He knew he couldn't just 'wait it out'. The Titans never gave up trying to catch their next meal; their hands were ever groping and reaching out for their prey until they held it between their fingers.

"Shifting right now would be a very, very bad idea…"

He pressed his back against one of the walls on either side of him and slid down along it, cupping his hands over his face and letting out a deep sigh. He was too weak to fight, too tired, and too damn sick of it all to care at this point.

He tried to drown out the endless moaning from what desired his flesh outside the alley, and instead brought about thoughts of his comrades back home; Mikasa, Armin, Hannes, but also his comrades he'd grown close to during his years in the 104th. Reiner, a man he looked up to during their time together in training, and in the Legion. He wondered if he was still alive.

More than likely, but what of his sister, what about his best friend? Would he ever get to sit around a dinner table watching Sasha fight Ymir over the potatoes again? Would he ever see Connie get in trouble for overcooking the stew for the hundredth time? Would he ever witness Jean stop being a jackass?

He chuckled to himself at the last one and closed his eyes. He wondered what they were doing right now, and if it had been the right choice to leave them behind without a goodbye to go with Annie, especially since now he had parted ways with her as well.

"What am I even doing now? Where am I supposed to go?"

He could try to go back to the wall, of course, and continue to rely on the Scouting Legion. He might even get away with claiming that Annie had kidnapped him and he had only eventually been able to get away; there was no need to mention that he actually made a choice to follow Annie. But, in his current condition, his chances to make it back to Wall Rose on his own looked rather dim.

Then what was left for him was either continuing on his own or trying to catch up with Annie, and, if he was honest, he had no clue where to go now if she wasn't leading the way. Besides, if he stuck with her, he had a better chance against the Titans, and there was the fact that she had promised him answers if he went with her.

He had made the choice to go look for those answers and try to make sense of everything that was going on, and, now that he had already come all the way to Shiganshina, he was giving up on that after everything he went through. It just didn't sit right with him.

"Damn!" He sent a fist into the ground beside him, feeling the impact resonate up his now burning arm, though he ignored the sensation and ruffled his hair. He hadn't felt it in a while. It was grimy and besmirched with dust, grass, and rubble, much like the rest of his body. A lack of comfort had settled on him for the past few days. Not just from the events that had transpired between him and Annie, but… he felt like shit - physically.

He eyed the duo of Titans to his right, knowing that the river was a few streets behind them. His plan was to get by them and clean himself up in the river, but he would have to find a new pair of clothes to change into beforehand. This would give him time to organize his thoughts.

It took a good five or six minutes, but eventually one of the Titans pushed the other one away and made a clear path out of this imprisoning crevice. Eren, of course, took this chance, and made an effort to escape this place sooner rather than later, and darted towards the exit. He moved past one of the giant's feet, who immediately smashed into one of the buildings and its supports, toppling what remained of it to the ground.

Eren was lucky to have used that chance when he did, otherwise he would've been spending another day trying to get out of that rubble in his weakened state. He was on the right track now, and, through perseverance, was able to make his way down the streets and as far away as possible from the remaining Titans in the vicinity.

"Now then, to find a change of clothes."

"Farewell, you suicidal fool…"

She left him defenseless, she told herself, but immediately reassured herself that he could hold his own, especially with his newfound ability. She had every reason to go back and convince him to follow her lead once again. She could do so very easily, in fact, though his new form brought forth a feeling that travelled along her spine - a feeling that she had rarely experienced since her birth.

That's right, a feeling so intense that it kept her from completing the mission she was assigned to do - the mission that she had been waiting to carry out for five years.

She was afraid.

Afraid of him.

Afraid of his power, his blinded hatred towards something he refused to understand - the Titans, and their far superior Shifter counterparts. The fact that he had her crystal ability multiplied this rare sense of dread by what seemed like a thousandfold.

"Grisha, just what are you planning to do with your son? Why go through all this trouble of letting him grow attached to the people in those walls, only for me to take him away from them? Why give him an ability that only I should have?"

The idea of Grisha allowing his son to get close to people who aren't of his kind had confused Annie. It was something she pondered about the entire time this mission was given to her, but there was nothing she could do about it. It was her mission after all.

The other Shifters were given separate objectives pertaining to operations within the Scouting Legion, in order to halt their advance outside the walls. Annie wondered the condition of the Legion, the condition of her 'friends'.

She had grown used to losing people; Mina, Thomas, Hannah, Franz, and others who were lesser known. She only knew these people during training until their inevitable demise in Trost. Their deaths were something she had to carry on her shoulders every day since she called forth the Titans that took away their lives.

However, the weight on her shoulders had lessened to that of a feather since she had joined the military police. Those she had grown mildly attached to were long gone, and Eren despised her.

She couldn't blame him. How could she? After all, she had caused the death of his mother, left his village in ruins, and took the lives of the people he'd grown close with during training. She couldn't blame him for not seeing the bigger picture, for not wanting to see her side - the side of the enemy. His enemy.

She'd been resting against a boulder for a while - a long while, in fact. There was no reason to count how many hours had passed since her departure, she was too exhausted to care, too weak to continue on. There was no safe house in sight on the map, and she quickly realized that Eren wouldn't be able to find his way back to Wall Rose.

He would end up wandering into the Forest of Giant Trees, and, without proper guidance, would be dead within a day. Annie spent months memorizing the landmarks in that forest, and finding shortcuts to avoid the Titans prior to joining the Trainee Corps.

That was, of course, without the Three-Dimensional Maneuver Gear. Eren didn't have that experience. Unless he had some kind of magical ability to scale trees half the size of the Colossal Titan, then he wasn't getting out of there alive.

"I fucked up."

Annie took a moment to realize the admittance of her failure, her failure of the mission.

Five years…

That number. That word. Both intermixed, flying around in her head as if to constantly badger her. Five years of preparation for this mission, and she fucked it up due to her emotional confliction.

Afraid? There was no time to be afraid. Eren had to come with her. She wasn't about to come home empty-handed. Perhaps she needed this time to think about the whole thing? It didn't matter. She needed to rest up and prepare to head back, or else this would've been a waste.

The lone Shifter focused on a ring recently pulled out of her pocket, and studied its engravings. It was Eren's mother's ring. He dropped it upon shifting to face the Titan that made him snap, and she had picked it up after obtaining one of the bags near his house, certain that he would've forgotten about it.

"I will avenge her!"

"Avenge her, huh." Avenge, revenge, payback, vengeance; all of these were words familiar to her, some used around her community more than others.

"Yes… we need to avenge those who've died without reason. That is why we need you, Eren Jaeger."

[yaW]850;11;11

It was only a few days before the court session, and Levi had decided it would be the perfect opportunity to pull out a bottle of his favorite alcohol and begin preparation for a grand hangover in the morning.

He made an attempt to ignore anyone in the Legion today, and was mostly successful, since the majority of them had been doing the exact same thing: drinking their problems away. After all, they were still unnerved by the events that had transpired just recently. Losing a close comrade, a friend, especially when most of them are devoured before your very eyes, is no easy feat to overcome.

Hanji and Mike were the only ones he'd encountered that weren't too keen on degrading their liver. They'd been trying to rally the troops together for a party, something to get their mind off things, but to no avail. Hanji, though remarkably ecstatic about the whole thing, didn't seem right with herself.

It was her somber eyes that told the tale. They didn't match well with her seemingly forced, up-curved lips. As for Mike, he was truly a remarkable man. He lost the woman he respected and cherished more than anything in this world, yet he was still up and about, trying to cheer up the poor souls spread out along tables and floors, after their cheeks had reddened from both dried tears and alcohol.

Their marriage had been kept secret. Irvin made sure that it was only known to the other squad leaders. It was forbidden to have relationships within the Scouting Legion, but Irvin knew those two needed each other more than anything. Their undying devotion to one another was what kept them in the field, kept them going. They knew the cost, and were willing to accept each other's deaths as fate and move on.

Mike remembered this acceptance, even after his tears had soaked what was left of Nanaba's corpse. This allowed him to keep it together, knowing that Nanaba wouldn't have let everything go after coming this far for humanity.

Mike was last seen playing a game of cards with Kessler, who, for the first time in a long while, publicly displayed himself without a pair of goggles over his eyes.

Levi poured himself a glass and took a long sip. It tasted quite bitter - just the way he liked it. A good half hour had passed, and his vision was already blurry. The bad aftertaste lingered along his tongue as he leaned back in the chair and closed his eyes… and then.

Knock! Knock! Knock!

"Levi, are you in there?"

Knock! Knock!

No response.

As expected, she pushed open the door, surveying the room as if it was her first time seeing it. Honestly, it could be just that. The fireplace illuminated a room filled with scattered documents - court documents.

"I can see you've been busy at work here." Hanji entered the deceased commander's quarters before closing the door behind herself.

"That I have… care to join me?"

"As you drink yourself to death? No thanks. I haven't had a drink in years. It hinders my ability to conduct my experiments properly, and we both know that's important~."

"Mmm, but there are no experiments to conduct anymore."

"Eh?"

"The way I see it… there's no way the Legion can stay together after this. We've lost all support."

"You don't know that yet, we still ha-"

"Those lesser factions?" Levi took the contents of a full glass into his mouth and swallowed it down in one gulp. "They mean nothing when the government officials that speak for them don't believe in us anymore."

Hanji sunk her head low before whispering, "Why did he have to-"

Smash!

"Eep! W-what the hell?!" Hanji questioned frantically. It was only when she saw the blood flowing out of Levi's hand that she froze up.

"There's no point in questioning his death now. We need to move on."

"You're obviously not moving on when you break a damned glass over the mere mention of him!" Hanji shrieked, almost comically, in fact.

Levi was used to this typical frustration from her, especially when he went against her plan of action, or the way to present a report, though that would typically end up with her whining about it until she got her way.

"Tell me, Hanji, how should I cope with this endeavor?" Levi sprang up and leaned over the desk.

"Should I go down there with all the other soldiers that are pissing ale as we speak?" He proceeded to step up onto the desk with the bottle of alcohol in hand before continuing.

"Should I stand up on a table and beckon them to dance with me as I dress up in a maid's outfit and sing songs of merriment and reassurance?" He took a long chug before realizing his lack of presence on the desk and sudden appearance in Hanji's arms.

"Oi! Levi?!" He sluggishly used her shoulder to support himself up, barely able to stand from intoxication after falling off the desk.

"How long have you been drinking?" Hanji kept her grip on him firm to avoid his seemingly inevitable fall to the ground.

"Around a half-hour…"

"You can't hold a drink for your life, now sit down." She commanded. Levi didn't respond, but did follow her order and take a seat along the edge of the desk.

"Good boy." Hanji took Levi's hand and began effortlessly plucking out the various shards of glass whilst commenting on his previous suggestions.

"Well… that outfit would suit you, and I've always wanted to see someone of your height dance."

"Tch. How very honest of you." Levi narrowed his eyes as he watched her pull out the last few pieces. He was too numb to feel any of the pain rising from his cuts.

"I can't imagine you singing though. It would probably sound like a goat being castrated by someone with a burning rope."

"That's… that's a pretty intense image you got there, Hanji… is this from experience?"

"Now that you mention it… I do remember one of the Titans I experimented on. Ooooh~! That's right~! Dobbie! I tried using untamed fire techniques as a faster way to burn through the flesh and into the nerve cluster, but he had this scream - it was kind of cute in a way, as if he was singing!"

Levi made a grab for the bottle. "...Right then. I'm going to continu-"

"Oh no you aren't!" Hanji slapped his hand away and pushed the last piece of glass in his hand to the side, earning a wince from the man as he finally felt the shard twist around under his skin.

"Who's going to report to the hospital tomorrow if we're all hung over, let alone a squad leader fumbling around with a giant gash in his hand?!" Hanji pressed her hands against the desk and leaned forward with furrowed brows.

"I'll have to go there and let my head explode during our visit."

"I think they've had enough blood on them for now, yes?"

Levi took a moment to process this - a long moment. Hanji looked toward the fireplace; both of them felt that they said the wrong thing at the wrong time. Levi started thinking of his commander, and there was no avoiding it. He was drunk now, and far more prone to letting things out he'd rather not.

"It shouldn't have happened."

"Huh?" Hanji turned to face him again.

"I should've been able to kill that Titan and get you out of there, then Irvin wouldn't have had to die trying to save us."

"You can't blame yourself for that. We all did our part in that mission." Levi took a deep sigh at her attempt to reassure him, and began thinking of Irvin before his demise.

"The last thing he says to me is all about that book and-" Levi's eyes looked as if they were about to pop out of his skull, much to Hanji's worriment as she watched him pull out the last shard on his own.

"Levi…?" Hanji tilted her head slightly, obviously perplexed by his sudden change in expression.

"Red book. Golden spine. Bottom of left shelf." Levi had immediately tied his cravat around his hand to stop the bleeding and bent down to retrieve the book Irvin had told him about the day of his death.

"What're you looking for?" Hanji questioned, bending over to read the contents of the book, but all she got was a large, silver key hidden in the pages that Levi quickly went over to Irvin's desk with. It was as if he wasn't drunk anymore. He had obtained everything he wanted in the span of a minute without tumbling over.

"Third drawer on the right." And just like that, Levi pulled open the drawer upon unlocking it, and picked up a packet full of documents with no labels on them, which was highly unusual.

"Are those documents?" Hanji questioned.

"They're all unlabeled, let's see what's in them." It only took the first entry on the first page to get Levi to nearly drop the documents on the floor and chug down the entire bottle of alcohol.

"Hanji…"

"Hm?" She ran around to his side of the desk and proceeded to read the entry that was being pointed to. Hanji said nothing, and both of them just stood there, staring at the document in disbelief. Levi dropped into his chair and let Hanji take hold of all the documents, and she began to analyze all of them without pause.

The more she read, the more disbelief painted her expression. It was a rare time where new information on the Titans was something she could not be excited about, something that was prohibited due to the first entry in the document. It was too much information that left more questions than answers, and this made her take a look at the bottle which Levi now was holding loosely in his hand.

If there was a time for her to start drinking, it'd be now.

"Levi… I'm gonna need that bottle."

[yaW]850;11;13

The river was pellucid and glistening in the sun; no different from the day when the Colossal Titan broke through the wall and changed his life forever. This was the place where he, Armin, and Mikasa would always gather, every afternoon, to just sit around and watch merchants guide their rafts and boats along the river to get to their destinations.

It was better than hanging about his house the whole day, where his mother would be stuck limping around and tending to daily chores, while his father continued his research in the basement. Though, in all honesty, he regretted his negligence when it came to the opportunities of spending time with them.

His mother had a wooden leg and hadn't been able to walk well. Years before Eren's birth, she had suffered an injury which resulted in Grisha having to saw off his future wife's lower leg to prevent the infection of the wound she had sustained from spreading.

Ironically enough, this was how they met. He'd spend countless days by her side, even after doing all he could tending to her stump. Grisha eventually brought her out on walks and fetch-quests for groceries, materials, and new liquids he wanted to experiment with.

"I constantly made sure that your mother was fine with walking to the outskirts of town each day," Grisha began as his nine year old son sat on his lap. "she didn't mind at all; in fact, your mother rather enjoyed my company. It was tough for her at first, since she was still getting used to her leg replacement, but, eventually, she was able to travel with no trouble."

Eren's father used to always tell stories about his mother before and after their marriage, though he kept most details of their relationship secret. As his son grew older, however, Grisha eventually focused most of his days in the basement, sometimes without seeing his family for days on end. He said it was classified documents that would help with medical breakthroughs for the town. Who knew that those 'medical breakthroughs' would involve turning his son into a Shifter?

Eren rested the back of his head onto the first step that lead out of the riverbank, and observed the clouds roaming freely along the orange-hued sky. He'd stripped himself of his tattered clothing and discarded it, before cleansing a near-weeks worth of dirt from his bare body.

The water was cool and refreshing, and though the houses on the other side of the riverbank were deserted, they weren't as badly damaged as the ones behind him. It was as if the inhabitants were still living there, a delusion which brought a sense of comfort to the boy as he let out a weak sigh.

Any Titans left in the town were now roaming around the inner gate that led towards Wall Rose. There was no reason for him to be alarmed, yet he still kept up a sense of guard for any sudden movements around him.

He dunked his head into the water and held it there for a few seconds before coming back up to sift through his hair. He made sure that there were no signs of dust or rubble and dunked again to be thorough.

During this moment of relaxation, it felt as though time had stopped, as if there were no signs of life in this world except him, and, despite not being outside of the final wall to his eventual freedom from this century-old prison; the river alone made him feel like a singular being alone in the universe.

Not only that, but he'd obtained a new ability of unimaginable prowess. The damage this power inflicted upon Annie, and the translucent emerald crystal that accompanied it, was all the lone Shifter could think about.

He couldn't wait to use it upon his enemies.

A few moments later, and Eren had ascended the steps from the river. He dried himself with a towel he'd found alongside his new clothes and put those on shortly after.

His change of clothes consisted of a brown long-sleeved shirt accompanied by a hood, a pair of water-resistant knee-high boots, Shiganshina's famous thick wool socks, and grey trousers that fit into his footwear to avoid tracking dirt along the edges.

He'd also kept Annie's lack of new clothing in mind, and got her a thick, deep-green sweatshirt to replace her tattered one. In addition, he acquired the same clothing for her, but with different color variations.

Eren put Annie's clothes into a pack he found while making his way towards the river before taking one last look at what remained of his jacket on the ground. The Scouting Legion insignia on either shoulder was covered in dust and ripped on nearly all edges. This stood for what he fought for: freedom beyond the walls.

He let out a chuckle before leaving it to collect dust for the next century as he travelled down a ways to the remnants of his home once again. Once the Shifter arrived, he noticed one of the packs still left on the ground, and checked through its contents.

Of course Annie had taken the pack full of hunting equipment, but at least this one had plenty of food to spare. Eren hoisted it over his shoulder along with the pack full of clothing and began his walk towards the gate leading to the outside world.

"I'm coming, Annie."

A/N: Hah! You thought I was dead, did you? No matter, for you have just now read a chapter after what... 6 or so months? I'm not gonna bother to check the last time this story was updated, if only to keep my own sanity. Instead, I brought you the tenth chapter to a story that has tons of new ideas planned~! Now, before I go on, I would like to apologize for my inexcusable absence, and sorry... this might be a bit long _''.

I will admit most of my time was spent on video games, but there was school to deal with as well. But enough of that, on to the more important aspects of this A/N, namely the things happening with Dissonance.

There are going to be some changes in order to keep my writing consistent. This includes the way italics are used with or without quotation marks, words being spaced after an ellipses, and the new date system I've just recently implemented that most, if not all of you, are confused with. All of these will be put into all of the previous chapters in due time, but I am going to keep my main focus on bringing forth new chapters when possible.

Now I do want to talk about the date system for a bit. I will not explain how to read it, or what the letters stand for. It's part of the story. As you've noticed, the numbers change and such. I have no doubt that you'll get used to it soon, and it won't appear all the time, just in places where time has jumped forward or backwards a lot more than usual.

It really is easy to read once you get the hang of it, I believe, and hopefully you will too.

Now, one more thing is that Drakengard 3, my most anticipated game of 2014 since I'm a long time Drakengard/NieR fan, will be releasing in four days. That being said, I'm gonna be playing that fucker for hours on end, so don't expect an update within the following month, though that doesn't mean I won't be working on the chapter, alright?

If you want more updates on the story's progress in the following weeks, feel free to follow me on Tumblr (link is on my profile and you may have to copy and paste it because fanfiction can be an ass like that) where I will host google hangout sessions, skype sessions, and post random shit that I like from other fandoms. Feel free to PM me as well.

And uhm... er... can you ladies and gents please review this chapter? I miss the feeling of reviews and I'll only ask for them this one time because I really don't like badgering for reviews, but I want to know if you're enjoying the story or not at this point ;D!

Have a fucking magnificent day, or night, my fellow Legionnaires, depending on where your very essence resides in the world~!

-Prima.

[Also would like to thank Ponderess for her excellent revisions and advice for this chapter ^^!]