AN: Seid ihr das Essen? Nein, wir sind der Jäger! *swings in on 3D Maneuver Gear* Hello my fellow authors and loyal readers, yours truly, the Spartan Ninja, has returned! *bows his head as he slams his right fist over his heart and holds the left behind his back* *looks up* Now, for those of you who follow my Halo story, I have had a lot think on it in the past few months. *relaxes his stance* Now don't think I'm discontinuing it, because I'm not. However, it needs a lot of work. Right now though, as you can tell by my attire *gestures to scouting legion uniform and gear* I have another passion I must attend to. For those of you who are new to me, however, it's pretty obvious because you found this story for the story and not me. Shingeki no Kyojin is definitely one of the best anime/manga series' right now, and so I am accepting a writing challenge from HighQueen's tumblr, theotakulyfe; who you should totally check out because she's awesome and encouraged me to do this challenge because she lacks the time due to her own fics and real life. *shudders* Ugh, real life. Tumblr and the internet are so much better. By the way, shameless self-advertising here, my tumblr is the exact same name, except no space, so yeah, follow me and stuff. Anyway, the challenge is a divergence off of the eighth episode of the anime, where instead of just kneeling there as his Titan body collapses after killing the Titan that ate Thomas; Eren has the energy to escape outside the walls that humanity still control. Everyone would think he's dead, at least at first, and during that time he would learn how to use his powers more effectively. He would then start helping humanity, fighting the Titans as the Rogue Titan on occasion, before disappearing again so he can escape. Now for the shippers out there, it will eventually be MikEren or EreMika, however you want call the ship, fic . Other ships will come up passively, but the challenge only demanded the one ship. Anyone else taking this up doesn't have to follow that part, but personally, I ship them to Japan and back and find they will be canon if they survive. Also, this will be rated M because its Attack on Titan, itis blood and gore central. Also though, when I start giving attention to ships, I will have no limits to the possible interactions. There won't be chapter upon chapter of smut, but there will be intimacy. Fair warning/advertising, depending on how you view it. Now, I don't know how long I am going to write this; HighQueen said that I should start it as a threeshot, just to test the waters, and in my opinion, it might also encourage others to take up the challenge. But if I get a lot of support on this, I can see this going ten to twenty chapters, depending on how deep the manga goes during the writing process. Wow, I've already written a full page here, and I'm still in the Author's Note. Well, let's put an end to that then. As one bushy browed commander said, "ONWARD" with the story: I present to you, "The Rogue Titan"

Year 850, Day 0 after the Fall of Trost District

With one final cry of defiance, the Deviant Class Titan fell with an earth shattering crash. The steam coming off its body only further proved the obvious; the Titan than helped them survive had died.

"Looks like it burnt itself out," Jean said. He turned to begin the final break for the wall. "Whatever, let's get going! There's no way that monster's on our side. Titans are Titans." Glancing back, he noticed that not one of his comrades made to follow him. Instead, their focus was on the rapidly decaying Titan corpse. "What is it?" he queried as he returned next to Annie and Armin. Looking down, he noticed that there was an abnormal amount of steam coming from the nape of the Titans neck compared to the rest of the body.

And then there was a figure.

It wasn't large like a Titan, not even one of the 3 meter classes from inside the tower. No, it was definitely human sized, yet it was coming from inside the Titan's neck. It took a moment to gain its bearings before it looked around at the surrounding carnage. Jean couldn't tell what the figure was emerging from the steam, which probably went the same for the rest of the soldiers on the roof.

"Hey, you down there," Jean shouted, pointing one of his blades downward at the figure. It looked up, still shrouded by the steam, acknowledging Jean's shouts. "Are you Titan, or human?"

"Jean, what are you doing?" Armin asked, "Whoever that is just saved our lives. We shouldn't scare away a potential ally"

"Potential ally, are you kidding me? Whoever or whatever that is just emerged from a Titan, an extremely powerful one at that. For all we know, this could be a trick to get within the walls, and then who knows what kind of havoc it might cause."

"Well whoever or whatever it is, they're made a break for the Tower," Reiner commented calmly.

Jean and Armin turned in time to see the outline of the figure enter the building they had escaped only moments earlier.

"There you go; if it was human it wouldn't have run away from us. Now come on, let's get over the wall before anymore Titans arrive," Jean exclaimed. Annie, Reiner, and Bertholdt nodded in agreement, then took off across the roofs. Mikasa and Armin however remained staring at the door the stranger had fled through. Jean could see it in the slight movements of their hands; they were planning on going after that thing that came out of the Titan. Reaching out, he grabbed both of them by the collars of their jackets and pulled them back. "Snap out of it you two, we have to go," he said, putting the emphasis on the "have". Finally getting their attention, Jean let go of their collars and met their disgruntled looks with a calmer voice. "Look, as much as I'd love to follow you two after- well, whatever that was- we have to face facts. We are still in enemy territory, despite what this was only a few hours ago. Last time the Walls were breached, it wasn't just a District Wall that fell, but the main one too. The Garrison is going to need every soldier available on the Walls to stop the Armored Titan if he makes an appearance. Instead of that though, you two want to go deeper into enemy territory after who knows what. Maybe it'll be an ally, maybe it won't, but it won't be worth it if you both die while Wall Rose falls."

Armin and Mikasa were not happy, but couldn't argue with Jeans's logic. If Rose fell, a lot more people were going to die than when Maria did.

"He's right Mikasa, we need to pull back now. If we report this to one of the ranking officers we might be able to send a search and rescue squad for whoever that was later." Jean nodded in agreement, though internally he doubted even the Survey Corps would be willing to risk attempting such a mission.

Mikasa looked between the two before coming to her decision. Firing her wires, she prepared to go after the figure.

"Mikasa," Jean shouted as he reached out to stop her. All he managed to do was grab a hold of her scarf, which came undone in his hand as she flew forwards. "Fuck!" Now Jean was conflicted; there was no way he wanted to become Titan food, but at the same time he did not want to leave Mikasa behind. "Dammit all," he hissed as he made to follow, only his wires to bounce off the creepiest smile he had seen today. He froze as a giant hand rose to smash him.

Before he could lose yet another comrade though, Armin tackled Jean out of the way of the descending palm. "Come on Jean, as you said, we need to make it to the Wall," Armin stated, picking himself up. Grabbing Jean's hand he helped him up before they began sprinting back towards the Wall.

As they made their escape, a long piece of red fabric found its way down to the street below, finding a place amongst the rubble and steaming corpses.

Inside the Tower, the figure everyone had observed earlier was hiding in one of the inner rooms, away, from prying eyes.

"I was… inside… a Titan? N-No, I was a... There's no way I was a… a Titan." Hidden under a desk within one of the Tower's inner rooms, Eren swallowed hard, unable to come to terms with the reality of his situation. "It was just a dream. Yeah, that's it, it-it was just a stupid dream," he chuckled for a moment before he slammed his fist onto the floor, ending his faux reverie. "What am I saying, the proof is right in front of me!"

Indeed it was, as both his left arm and leg were attached to his body, yet the cloth at the joints were torn, as if it was bitten through. He had not only stepped out of the corpse of one of the Titans that lumbered about outside, but he had regenerated his body just like them. He was a monster.

The sound of boots hitting stone pulled him from his introspection. "Hello, is anyone here?" It was Mikasa. "Don't hide, please, I'm friendly. Whoever you are, we could really use your help."

Help? How could he help? He was a monster, a Titan. They never help humans, only eat them.

Yet he felt no such desire. A flicker of doubt lit within himself against the thought of being the same as those murder machines outside. Even in that other body, as far as he could recall, all he felt was an intense desire to kill Titans.

What if he could help humanity? Maybe all was not lost for him. He almost laughed at the ridiculousness of the idea; a Titan fighting for humanity, yet that was exactly what it would be if he were to return behind the Walls.

Just as he was about to call out to Mikasa though, Jean's voice rang through his skull. 'Are you Titan, or human?' 'There you go; if it was human it wouldn't have run away from us.' There was loathing and hate dripping from his voice when he shouted earlier; undoubtedly if he were to reveal himself, humanity as a whole would meet him with equal, if not greater, amounts of both. His execution would be almost assured, even if Mikasa, even if all the cadets of the 104th, vouched for him.

Eren replaced himself back to his hiding place until he heard the sound of Mikasa moving away.

"Even if I'm not a monster, I look exactly like one. I can't go back, not if I want the chance to fight and make a difference." Sighing in resignation, Eren pulled himself to his feet. "I need supplies if I'm going to be moving outside the Walls. But I won't be able to do that if I get caught."

Eren hastily made his way through to the top of the Tower and waited for Mikasa to leave. After about 45 minutes he finally saw a figure flying a ways north towards the Main Wall.

"Mikasa," he whispered, afraid if he said her name any louder she would hear him and come back; either to drag him back or go with him, neither of which were viable options. He needed to go alone, so everyone would think he was dead and no one would be hurt because of him, especially Mikasa. Already she was a soldier because of him. He only hoped that after this experience she'd join the Military Police, or at least the Stationary Guard, rather than the Survey Corps like he had wished too. At least then she'd be safe.

Eren sighed. He was going to miss everyone from the trainee squad, but Mikasa was definitely going to be the one he'd miss most. He'd miss Armin dearly too, he was his best friend after all, oldest one too, and shared with him his vast trove of knowledge and forbidden books on the outside world. But surviving a traumatic childhood with just each other as he and Mikasa had created a closeness between them he doubted he would form elsewhere.

Pulling his gaze away from her retreating figure, his eyes caught something lying in the street amongst the rubble and Titan remains: a red scarf, his red scarf. Scanning quickly for any nearby Titans, Eren made a break down the flights of stairs, and, against all better judgment, retrieved it before making a hasty retreat back into the building.

"Mikasa left this behind? Why would she do that?" Unable to answer his own question, Eren returned the garment around his neck. Taking a deep breath, he noticed it smelled faintly like her. A sad smile graced his lips for a brief moment as he returned to the interior of the Tower.

"We stick with the plan," Reiner growled, slamming his fist into the wall he was standing in front of. In the rear of one of Trost's abandoned buildings with him were Bertholdt and Annie.

"But Reiner, what about that Titan Shifter back there? You saw what he did to all those Titans around the Tower," Bertholdt exclaimed, worried as to the implications this new variable could hold for them.

"It doesn't matter. We all saw him run off after he exited the Titan. He may have no love for other Titans, but it's more than safe to assume he's not with anyone behind the Walls." Reiner crossed his arms as he continued calmly. "Even if he is, it's unlikely he understands how to use his powers judging by how he was fighting. It was probably dumb luck he transformed, and more likely than not he'll be Titan chow in the next hour or so."

"Should we help him then? What if he's the coordinate, shouldn't we try to take him back to the village?" Bertholdt questioned, seeming to have calmed down as the topic shifted.

"No," Reiner replied tersely.

"But-"

"We can't risk the mission on a hunch. Breaking down the Walls is our first priority, we cannot get distracted." Reiner's voice began to increase in volume again.

"It wouldn't be a distraction though, just a slight detour," Bertholdt responded, trying to calm Reiner.

"Slight detour! He could be anywhere in Trost right now, including a Titan's stomach. We cannot go after him, right Annie?" Reiner turned to the quiet girl, who up until then had been content listening to the two go back and forth. Pushing off the wall, she turned to Bertholdt.

"Breaking through the Wall is our most pressing matter right now. Reiner needs to complete his part without distraction; otherwise things could go bad for him. However," she turned to Reiner now, "both Bertholdt and I are otherwise unoccupied."

"Are you saying we should stay behind to look for him?" Bertholdt uttered, a little bit of fear leaking through his voice.

"No, not us, just me," Annie stepped closer to him. "You go back to the Wall, tell them that Reiner's gear broke and that I needed guard him as he makes his way back. That should cover us for a while until Reiner shifts. We'll slip back in during the confusion. Hopefully I'll be able to find our friend before then. Any objections?"

Bertholdt shook his head. Reiner wasn't so accepting. Speaking up again, he asked, "How long will it take for you to find him?"

"Give me a little more than an hour once we leave here before you shift. Like I said, there will be confusion and chaos after the Wall falls. I'll have plenty of time after that to keep searching. And unlike you said Reiner, he won't be anywhere. More likely than not, he's still in the Tower, and if not there, somewhere nearby." She was now turned to face Reiner, eyebrow raised as she waited for an answer.

Reiner sighed in acceptance. "Okay, I'll go with this. Just don't take too long, okay, we still have to make it back alive and with our covers intact."

She nodded. "Wait half an hour before heading back Bertholdt, we don't want to have to deal with a rescue party actually finding us out."

Nodding, Bertholdt took a seat against the wall as Annie and Reiner made their way through the back exit. Heading up along the roofs from the back alley, they made their way westward in order to loop around to the breach and Tower while avoiding Armin, Jean, and Mikasa. The plan would continue.

On the top of the Wall, the surviving cadets were talking amongst themselves as they awaited orders from their superiors.

"Are you sure you weren't just seeing things back their Armin. You were pretty shell shocked when we found you after… well, you know." Connie's voice petered away as he recollected what happened to Armin's squad.

"No, I know for sure what I saw. Someone stepped out of the neck of that Deviant Class Titan, right where we normally cut them," Armin described for the 5th time since he and Jean made it back to the Wall. "You saw it happen Jean. Tell them."

Up until then Jean had just been sitting to the side, ignoring the conversations going on for the most part. He too was a bit shaken up, not so much by the death of his best friend, but rather by the sheer number of comrades that he watched die under his leadership. It weighed heavy on his mind. Even Marco was giving him some distance. "Huh, you say something?"

"Did you see a person emerge from the back of that Titan's neck," Connie repeated for Armin.

Jean countenance visibly soured. "Tch, yeah, I saw someone exit the Titan's neck, just like Armin said, as did Mikasa, Reiner, Bertholdt, and Annie, though I doubt you can call whatever came out of that thing a person. I still can't believe we left Mikasa behind to go after it." He spat those last few words out.

"Speaking of those three, where are they? I haven't seen them on the Wall since we've arrived," Armin asked.

"They haven't shown up as far as we've seen. Maybe they just went up along a different part of the Wall," Marco offered as an explanation.

Just as he finished, the whizzing sound of metal wires could be heard from over the side of the Wall. Heads turned to the source, the cadets witnessed Bertholdt make his way over the edge and onto the top of the Wall. As he landed, panting on one knee, the other cadets circled around Bertholdt, anxious to know what happened to him.

"Bertholdt, what happened to you? Where are Annie and Reiner?" Connie exclaimed.

Taking several gulps of air, he responded. "Titans… *gasp* Titans got Reiner," he exhaled.

A resounding what came from the cadets.

"Is he…" Sasha's unfinished question hung heavy in the air.

Bertholdt shook his head. "No, Annie saved him. However, his gear was damaged. Annie opted to stay behind and guard him while he makes his way back."

"And you aren't with them, why?" Jean growled as he stormed from his seat into Bertholdt's face. Forgetting what he said earlier to Mikasa and Armin, he internally cursed the giant cadet in front of him. How dare this chicken abandon his comrades to the Titans.

"T-they said I should g-go ahead, that if the Armored T-Titan appeared, th-they'd need all the soldiers th-they can get." Bertholdt stuttered this out, intimidated by Jean's reaction. This caused him to back off, as the implications hit home not only for Jean, but everyone present.

"If that were to happen, and it broke through Wall Rose…" Connie began.

"The Titans would flow through the breach, just like they did five years ago," Marco finished.

"No, it would be much worse," Armin concluded darkly. Everyone's head turned to face him. "Last time the Walls were breached, we lost over a third of our territory and sent a fifth of our population to their deaths so everyone else wouldn't starve. If Rose falls, we would lose more than half this time. That added to the fact that we are just barely getting by food wise, more than half of the population will have to die this time for humanity to live."

For a moment, you could hear the sounds of the Titans stomping below as everyone became deathly quiet. Each cadet played the possible situations out in their heads, varying between refugees being left for dead outside Wall Sina to civil war amongst the survivors and military divisions. None of it ended well, especially with the prospects of these Deviant Titans reappearing again to break down Sina in the future.

While everyone else was pondering this, a ghost of a grin graced Bertholdt's face for a moment, until the sound of whizzing wires could be heard again. Mikasa's returned to see her fellow cadets with solemn expressions gracing their visages.

The lack of a second figure and shake of head conveyed the results of her search to Armin. Jean noticed this too and huffed in approval, thinking the figure was a monster for sure if it wouldn't allow itself to be found.

Before anything could be said, a large explosion could be heard originating from the Breach. In the distance, emerging from a huge cloud of dust was a discolored, skinless, 15-meter class Titan.

The Armored Titan had made its appearance.

Eren spent the last half an hour running through the halls of the Tower, gathering everything he'd need in order to live outside the Walls. This included several sets of uniforms found within the castle-like structure, including one to replace his torn outfit, two sets of 3D Maneuver Gear sans belts with gas tanks and blades, four extra gas tanks, a bedroll, a fire starter, three canteens of water, and as many ration bars as he could find, all stuffed into an oversized hiking bag similar to the ones used during training.

After equipping a third set of 3D Maneuver Gear, Eren slid the pack straps over his shoulders and almost lost his balance. Even with three years of intense muscle training for in order to use the gear, the weight of the pack was great enough to throw of his center of balance. "Take care Eren, screwing up with this pack is going to be much worse than normal."

He hiked up to the top of the Tower to get an idea of where the clearest exit to the Outer Wall was. As he scanned, he noticed a figure flying along the roof tops a ways to the South, near the breach.

'Wait, that's not flying,' Eren thought as he saw the figure deftly dodge the lunges of several Titans, two of which fell in its wake, steam emerging from the back of their necks. 'That's 3D Maneuver Gear. A soldier in 3D Maneuver Gear is heading for the breach?' The questions emerging today just kept increasing. Soon the figure descended below the roof line, but Eren could still keep track of them for a while based on the direction of the lumbering Titans in the soldier's general direction.

Putting yet another peculiarity behind him, he turned south-east with his guards in hand; ready to begin his trek out of the city.

"Going somewhere Eren?"

Eren's blood froze cold. He'd been caught. Turning around, he saw a short female figure equipped in 3D Maneuver Gear leaning against the opposite wall, staring at him. She was missing the military standard jacket but had a white hoodie beneath the belts. Her hood was up, covering her eyes, and a mask covered the lower half of her face.

"How do you know my name?" he asked the figure. She felt familiar, yet he couldn't quite put his finger on her identity.

"Is that really your first question? Not, 'who are you' or 'how'd you find me'?" Eren shook his head. "Fine, let's just say that I'm part of a group that has witnessed your unique ability. We're quite interested in bringing in another individual like us."

"Like… us?" Eren was taken aback. There were others like him?

"Yes Eren, there are others like you who can shift into Titans, and we want you to join us. We can take you back to our village and teach you how to control your power."

Eren was stunned to say the least. So there weren't just a few individuals like him, but an entire village. There could very well be some with decades of experience, and they were willing to teach him how to use his power. He wondered how the Scouting Legion hadn't found this place yet, but put that thought aside when remembering how big the world was according to Armin's book. If he could learn to control his power, he could help destroy the other Titans and free humanity. He would be able to see the world with Armin, just like he promised so many years ago. And of course knowing Mikasa, she would come along too. The prospect was almost too good to be true.

"We just need to finish the other part of our mission first," she finished.

"Wait, wh-" an explosion could be heard coming from the south. The following tremor almost knocked him off his feet. Righting himself, he saw, emerging from the falling dust and wreckage, the Armored Titan.

Stuck in shock, Eren almost didn't hear the figure rushing towards him.

Almost.

He turned with his arms up, just in time to block the figure from striking him over the head with the sword guard. Thank Annie for the sparring practice.

With the strike block, he pushed the figure back off balance, if only for a moment. In that brief period of respite, Eren dropped the hiking bag and pulled out the blades from his gear, pointing one at the figure.

"You're with them; with the Titans?" Eren spat.

The figure didn't respond at first, instead putting herself into a fighting stance, both blades dawns as well. "I am required to take you alive Eren; whether it's willing as one, or unwilling in pieces." With that she charged him, slashing down at both his arms.

Eren raised his blades to block, and soon the two of them were engaged in combat. Fists, kicks, and blades flew between the, but nothing connected that cut the skin or debilitated either of their movements.

As they continued to clash, Eren's gaze drifted back to observe the Armored Titan. It was lining itself up for a straight shot at the gate. It was going to breach the Walls again.

'No, that can't happen again. I have to stop him!' he thought.

Blocking another strike meant to take off an arm, Eren slipped past the figure and jumped, firing his wires at the nearest building.

"Damn it," the figure muttered as she made to follow him.

Maneuvering between buildings and along rooftops, Eren watched as the Armored Titan began its charge. Adjusting his course, he set himself on a path where he would transform and hit it mid charge, preventing any possibility of it dodging.

Said Titan was unaware of the rapidly approaching figure as it began its charge. Only when Eren flew above the final set of buildings did it notice him, but just ignored the solitary soldier, confident its plating would hold up against the blades.

Bad move.

Eren replaced his blades and bit down on his hand. The taste of warm iron filled his mouth, and then everything went white with a bang.

A.N.: Wow, that was a lot of writing, almost five thousand words. Apologies if anything is off, I did try my best to keep true to the anime and manga. Depending on how well this is received will decide how quickly and how many updates there are. I know where I want this to go and stuff, just how rapidly it goes depends on your responses. Just so you all know though, I am in college now, so even if I am feeling really good about writing this story, that stuff has to take precedence over writing. I will still do my best to keep you all entertained though. After finishing this chapter I am definitely feeling more than three chapters, at least six, and again, the more support I get from my readers, the more I will want to do. Now I must take my leave. There is a world to reclaim for humanity and Titans that are waiting to be killed. Please remember to read and review. YAAAAAAA *fires wires and flies off into the distance*