Disclaimer: I do not own anything you recognize from the manga and/or anime called Shingeki no Kyojin or Attack on Titan. Anything you don't recognize is mine.

..

It really was hard to believe that everything had started from one little dog. A dog which had wandered up to his mother and begged to be feed that one time when he and his sister had been at school. And the same dog that Karla Jaeger had invited inside one night with the promise of much more delicious dog food.

The doors of Eren and Mikasa Jaeger had remained closed that night, Mikasa's because of her studying and Eren's because of his secretive video game playing while he should have been studying. But in the morning, the doors opened and the two teenagers descended into the kitchen, their mother's domain. And to their surprise, a dog was inhabiting the domain of the mother.

He had his face stuffed into a silver bowl, gobbling down food so fast it sounded like he was choking. He didn't even lift his head when the two tramping down the stairs. Or when they pulled to a quick, harsh stop.

Their mother turned to them with a pan full of eggs and plate of bacon already sitting on the table. "Good morning kids," she said with the same cheerful smile she had on every morning. Mikasa's eyes darting back and forth from that smile to the dog, her face as impassive as ever, while Eren stared in obvious shock, his green-blue eyes wide and his mouth open.

"Um," Eren said unsurely, "um, Mom, is that a dog?"

Karla Jaeger looked at her son for a second before pulling out two plates and sliding the eggs down onto them. "Of course it is Eren." She looked back down at the dog still wolfing down the food. "Some sort of mix it looked like. He came up to me two days, begging for food. I gave him some, and he came back and scratched at the door yesterday night. I let him in and gave him a bath and some food. I was going to put him back outside, but I just didn't have the heart for it."

"Are we keeping him?" Mikasa asked, sitting at the table and pulling her plate of eggs closer to her. Eren shifted his surprised gaze from his mother to his sister before firmly shutting his jaw, sighing and sitting.

"So what's his name?"

Karla shrugged. As she opened her mouth to properly reply, the her cell phone started ringing loudly. She pulled it out of her pocket and held it up close to her ear, before speaking again, "haven't decided yet," she said. "Now, quickly, eat your breakfast. You don't want to be late."

"Hello?" she said into her phone. "Yes, this is Karla Jaeger. What can I do for you?"

The sound of dog eating stopped suddenly and, when Eren looked up, he saw the dog looking up at his mother, ears pricked and blue eyes wide. The dog started at Karla for several minutes longer before his ears dropped and he walked away, his long claws clicking loudly on the wooden floors of their house.

Eren stared after the dog for a moment, wondering why he had left when there was still even the littlest bit of food left in that silver bowl, which there was. Not much, but some. But there the dog went, his tail bobbing off into the living room.

But Eren just shrugged, putting the dog's weird behavior aside. After all, how was he supposed to know why a dog did what it did?

..

The room was large, dark, but light even to read, write, and see clearly. There was a neat desk in front of large windows with drawn curtains and a door on the left wall across from the desk. Otherwise, the room was empty, the long and tall walls bare.

The harsh ringing of a simple phone on the desk echoed around the plain room. Nothing in the room moved for a moment as the ringing continued, but then something rustled, scraping against the cold, grey tiled floor. The massive head of a tiger popped out from under the desk, it's eyes resting on the ringing phone for a moment before it slid out from under that desk.

Just after it's long tail escaped from underneath the desk, it reared up onto it's power hind legs and changed. It's huge front paws turned into hands, claws into fingers. The tail shrunk into nothing, and it's fur turned to the pale, naked skin of a tall, human man. The head was human too now, but the eyes were still just as they were in the form of a tiger.

He reached over the desk with a long, thin but well muscled arm, and curled his pale fingers around the phone, answering it with a cold, "hello."

"Sir!" The voice was panicked and loud, but grainy. "Sir, it's Brandt."

The tall human man's lips tighten ever so slightly. "Brandt," he said coldly, "of course. It has been a long time hasn't it. Brandt," he said, "why are you calling me, after all this time."

"Sir, I understand you're not happy with me-"

"Not happy is quite an understatement, Brandt," the tall man said. "Speak quickly now."

"I found them, sir," Brandt blurted out. "I found them. I found her."

The tall man went completely still, not even blinking, just breathing quietly into the phone where Brandt trembled sliently on the side of his pay phone. "Tell me everything, Brandt. Tell me everything and I'll forget everything you have done. Tell me where to find them. Now."

..

There was a click as the phone was once again rested on it's base. The man who had placed it back on it's holder was fairly short and a little chubby. He leaned back in his rather plush chair and looked up at a muscling man. He nodded at this man from behind this desk, thanking him before turning in his chair and looking out a wide open window.

The room this man sat in was far more lavish than the other was. There were far more windows, and pictures adorned painted walls. A fancy chandelier hung from the ceiling. Everything in it was light, but formal and proud. Very proud.

"Well," this man said, his voice and tone just as proud and formal at the room looked. "I think it's obvious what we have to do now."

The muscled man nodded. "We will leave at once Mr. Reiss."

..

Brandt could smell them coming from his spot not far off from the Jaeger's house. They were coming through the woods behind the house, which did not surprise him at all. Their kind didn't appreciate cars too much. Something wild in them called to them, called them back to the forests and to the woodlands.

They were close now, and there was blood in the air. Fresh blood. They had made a kill on their way, something that was common practice. The scent and taste of blood riled up the starving creatures and made them even more vicious. It most likely wasn't anything too big, but enough to get the taste of blood on their lips.

And there they were. Kenny Ackerman led the way out of the closed trees, his massive Siberian tiger form blending in frighteningly well with the trees surrounding them. Behind him fanned a small group of his fighters: two wolves, a mountain lion and yes, that was a hyena. Fantastic. Brandt despised the hyenas that Kenny seemed so fond of. They were brutal even among the fighters in the ring, and powerful too, despite their relatively smaller size. Because of their worth, Kenny favored those creatures, and he treated them quite well for his standards.

Brandt shook off old envious feelings as Kenny approached him even closer. His tiger form reared upward, and he transformed back into him human form. Brandt almost always forgot how thin Kenny's body really was, especially compared to his huge tiger form, though both were well built.

But Brandt had to focus now. Kenny was waiting for him to change as well, waiting for him to lead them to the family. To the Jaegers. And so Brandt rose up and did what Kenny expected him to, just this one final time.

"They're in a house," Brandt said as soon as he finished transforming. He would not greet Kenny submissively like he once had. Not anymore. "It's not far from here at all. It's the wife, the child and the girl."

Kenny did not make a single sound. He just stared at Brandt with that cold, dead gaze of his that reeked of danger. He was waiting for something and it wasn't hard for Brandt to figure out what it was. Though it made his skin crawl and his hair lift up in the back of his neck to do so, he kept his gaze steady, but he did what Kenny was waiting for. "Sir," Brandt muttered.

"Good," Kenny said finally. "We will attack immediately."

And he shifted back into his tiger form, pushing past Brandt and towards the house. The fighters he had brought with him followed and Brandt could sense their bloodlust. He felt bad for the family inside, for they would surely be ripped apart by these powerful creatures. Well, he almost felt bad. After all, better this family than him.

It really was simple getting into the house. Kenny reared upward and smashed his way through the front door, his tiger form's incredible strength more than enough to knock it off it's hinges.

Kenny disappeared into the house with the hyena right behind him, salivating for flesh and blood.

And that was when all hell broke loose.

A leopard harried out of the undergrowth and leaped upward, it's claws tearing deep into the haunches of one of the wolves. It cried out in pain and tried to shake the big cat off… but Brandt knew from experience that a cats' claws were not so easily removed. But the team Kenny brought had it's own big cat.

The mountain lion snarled and sunk its teeth into one of the leopards paws, ripping it out of the wolf's flesh. The wolf screamed in pain, but the mountain lion did not stop its attack. This was not unusual behavior whatsoever. In battle, the fighters of the ring followed two simple rules: one, the instinct of survival of course, and two, the orders of Kenny Ackerman or Rod Reiss. For if the orders were not followed, it meant that survival would not be achieved.

But this was it. The rivalry between the two leaders of the ring was still just as strong and bloody as before, Brandt could see. The leopard was being beaten into the ground by the wolves and the cougar, it's blood splattering over the undergrowth.

Another bulky fighter from Rod Reiss's side crashed through the forest. This one was a dog, an Akita, and it growled deeply, pulling his lips back in a snarl. Brandt knew about these dogs. They were bigger and stronger than his canine form by design and Brandt was out of practice compared to that fighter. With a tiny whimper that he tried his best to hide, Brandt turned tail and darted into the Jaeger's house.

It was a complete mess on the inside. Wooden splinters lined the ground and several lodged themselves in the bottom of his feet. They stung when he moved but Brandt had had far worse in the ring. He cautiously kept moving forward for the smell of blood was so heavy in the air that Brandt could not tell where Kenny or the hyena he had with him, and it would have been horrible for him to get in the way of either one.

That was when Karla Jaeger shrieked. A shriek of pain. They had found her and now they were torturing her.

The footsteps that echoed through the still house surprised Brandt. They were fast paced and only one pair. She was running and they weren't chasing her. Why? Why weren't they following? Kenny and all of his rabid animals loved a chase.

Before he could even begin running through reasons why, Karla Jaeger barreled down the stairs. Her hair was tangled and sticking to her cheeks because of the tears and sweat pouring down her face. Her feet were scratched up and her blood poured from her thigh. Adrenaline was obviously aiding her because she would have never made it that far without it.

She froze when she saw him at the bottom of the stairs, looking at him with haunted and hopeless eyes. Brandt knew then she recognized him as the dog she had taken in and fed. And for the first time, Brandt realize that this, what he had done to Karla Jaeger and her family was wrong.

But it was far too late to do anything about it. He could not even try to help her without hurting himself, and that was something he would never do.

Karla Jaeger opened her mouth but before she could utter a word, the hyena was there. It tore into the back of her neck, it's teeth locking over her spine, and Brandt could hear the crack it made as the hyena crushed it between her jaw, it's face stained with her blood. Karla Jaeger's uneven breathing stuttered to a stop and she went limp in the hyena's jaws.