Summary: Being reborn into a world of modern civilization, a world where Titans have long been diminished and are only conversed about in tales like some sort of mythology, is the greatest gift that any former victim of their peril could ask for, if, and only if, they're cursed by the memory. Unfortunately for Eren Yeager, his time in this new and exciting world had been cut short, when a freak accident had occurred on his way to school one, chilly autumn morning. Unable to cross over into the human interpretation of an afterlife, something within the boy of budding adolescence tells him that he needs to search for a certain something, rather, a certain someone, in order to settle his spiraling array of thoughts. Surely he hasn't met this person before...right?

Feathers and Follies

Whoever said death was cold was living in a fool's paradise.

For me, death was anything but. It was hot, suffocating even. Maybe it was because of the blood that pooled from my wounds, blanketing me in its warmth. Or maybe it was because of the heat exhaust that puffed against my face, cascading across my nose and my cheeks, much like the gentle touch of a lover.

Somehow, it all felt familiar. Death, that is. This had happened before, right? I've died many times, in many different ways. I don't remember all of them, in fact, only one stands out the most. That's because he was there. He was with me that time, holding my hand and promising me things that I'm sure he didn't even believe himself.

I can still remember him saying that I was going to be okay, telling me that I was going to make it out of that mess alive. Who was he trying to convince? Himself? Probably, because he sure as Hell wasn't convincing me. I was a goner. From the moment that Titan had ferociously bit into my neck and had ruthlessly ripped me from my safe haven, my fate had been sealed.

It's funny, really. Back then, I had felt like such a hero, but in reality, my death had been nothing short of an anticlimax. It would have been quicker, too, if he hadn't interfered. He had always been a hero, a true hero. My hero.

Many of the feelings of this current death compared to that one. During both encounters with the gates of gold, I felt warm. I wasn't scared. Okay, well, maybe a little, but who isn't afraid of the unknown? Where would I be reborn this time? Norway? China? England? Would I be a boy or a girl, and would my gender match my sex? Would I be a sibling or an only child? Would my parents love me, or would I have no parents at all? Yeah. The unknown is pretty scary, and it was time that I had to come face-to-face with it once again.

November 1st, 2013

My alarm clock was obnoxious. It was high-pitched and ridiculously loud. I told myself, every weekday morning that it went off, that I would chuck it out the window and buy a new one. I didn't care what it looked like or whether it was analog or digital. I just wanted a better sounding one.

I never bought it.

As I crawled out of bed, clawing at the sheets that I must have kicked off in my sleep, I soon realized that it was a new month. Last night had been Halloween, which must have made today the first day of November. Nothing monumental, just an observation.

It was Friday, which meant that my first period class was Biology. I liked Biology, for the most part. My grades sucked, and I was borderline failing it, but my teacher liked me enough to let me sleep through his sermons. So, yeah. Biology.

The only good thing about my Godawful alarm clock was that it served the duel purpose of being both a clock and a radio. With the flip of a switch, the beeping had stopped and the oddly soothing voice of the weatherman filled the void. He said something about how it was going to be colder than normal for this time of the year, but I was only half paying attention. I was too busy slipping out of my pajamas and into clothes that more than likely disagreed with what the meteorologist was saying. Jeans and a t-shirt. Close enough.

I was going to make my bed, I really was, but in the last moment, I chose against it. Why? I'm not really sure. Maybe it was because I enjoyed the feeling of wrinkled bedsheets, as opposed to clean and crisp ones. Or maybe it was because I was lazy. Yeah, I was probably just lazy.

Pulling on a pair of mismatched socks, I reached over and turned off the radio, switching on the alarm feature by accident. "Geez," I sighed, getting so fed up with the darn thing that I left my bedroom without shutting it off.

"Eren," my mom said, calling to me as I descended the stairs, "is that your alarm clock I hear?" She must have been in the kitchen. The house smelled of burnt toast and eggs.

"Yeah, it is," I answered simply. I entered the kitchen and immediately walked over to the counter to inspect our toaster. The poor thing. It was so old that all it ever did was conk out on us. On the rare occasions when it did work, and oh, those occasions were very rare, brutally burned toast it was.

"Still having trouble getting it shut it off?" she laughed, scooping eggs onto a plate that I assumed was mine. When I grabbed for it, she didn't swat my hand away. "Maybe you should pick up a new one on your way home from school. You said you wanted one, right? I'll give you the money for it."

"Cool, thanks," I said, shoving a forkful of the scrambled yolks into my mouth.

My mom was great. She always knew whenever something was bothering me. Even though my current annoyance was a stupid alarm clock, she's had her moments when she's helped me with deeper issues. Like that one time in the fifth grade when the kids in my class picked on me, because my eyebrows were too bushy. It was a stupid thing to get picked on for, but little, ten-year-old me had been greatly affected by it. She knew. On the afternoons when I would sluggishly walk home from school with my shoulders in a slump and my hair covering half of my face, she knew that something was amiss.

She wasn't a helicopter-of-a-mother, though. She never once called in to the teachers to file a complaint, nor did she have a meeting with the principal. Instead, she gave me advice, and honestly, I'm glad that she did. I keep her words close, whenever I can. They're what will help me progress smoothly through this lifetime.

My mom left for work before I left for school. She worked at a daycare for mentally impaired children. It was an admirable line of work, and now that I was older, I could finally understand the influence that she held on those children's lives.

I can still remember when she used to bring me to the daycare center with her. Most of the kids that she took care of were babies, so there wasn't much that I could do to help other than hand her diapers and help clean out the bottles.

Basically inhaling my last bite of eggs, I dropped my plate into the sink and ran the water. It was a habit I had acquired from my father. God knew what he was up to now. He had left my mom and I when I was in the seventh grade, so needless to say, the wounds were still fresh. It didn't really matter to me, though. So long as I had Mom, things would be fine.

I slung my backpack over my shoulder and shoved my feet into my sneakers. My toes tickled against the tips of each of them, causing me to groan. Shoes were bothersome. Just when you bought a pair, you'd find yourself already outgrowing them. I'd have to ask for some new ones for Christmas.

After locking the front door, I walked down the driveway and stepped onto the adjoining sidewalk. In some ways, it was kind of nice living so close to school, but in many others, it was a pain. Try telling your teachers any excuse for being late, and chances are they won't believe you.

I turned the corner, picking up speed when I noticed how late it was getting. Not only that, but it was pretty cold. I really should have paid more attention to the weatherman.

"Hey, Eren!"

My body whipped around at the sound of my name being called. It was Mina. She was a freshman, a year younger than me, but she was smart. We had the same Geometry class together. "Oh, hey," I said, slowing down to allow her to catch up.

"Did you finish the homework we had?" she asked, as she twirled one of her pigtails flirtatiously. I knew she had a crush on me, but I never acknowledged it, much the same way that she never acknowledged our past life. I doubted she remembered, and I would have looked like a fool for asking her such a thing. "It was pretty tough, right?"

"Yeah, it was," I nodded, "but no, I didn't finish it."

"Ooh!" she giggled accusingly. "You're going to get in trouble!"

I shrugged. "Eh, whatever." Really, I couldn't care less. Math had never been my strong suit, and all of these shapes and stuff were just playing with my head. Give me a two-plus-two equation over this garbage, please.

We continued to walk together in silence, lost in our thoughts. She was probably consumed with frilly thoughts or thoughts about me, while I was mostly trying to use my make-believe mind powers to keep her quiet.

"Say, Eren, do you like me?" My mind powers had failed me.

"Huh?" I asked, trying to sound shocked. "What are you talking about, Mina? Of course I like you. We're friends, right?"

"Well, yeah, but that's not what I meant." Her finger stilled, hooking against the elastic band that held a portion of her hair together. "I mean, do you like me. Like, like like."

"Oh," I said. I didn't know what else to say, so I said it again. "Oh."

"So...?" Man, she was persistent. I should have known better. She had been persistent, albeit under different circumstances, back then, too. Whatever the case, she was easing closer towards me and I wasn't totally okay with that.

What had I done to deserve this? It was Friday. I just wanted to go to school, go home, watch TV, and laze around for the rest of the day like any other kid my age. Was this because I didn't shut off my alarm clock? That stupid thing would be the death of me, really.

"I think," I began, instantly regretting my choice of words, "I think we should stay as just friends. It's nothing personal or anything, I just-"

"It's because I'm a freshman, isn't it?" she hissed, her mood doing a complete one-eighty that I had not been expecting.

"No, I-"

"Then there's gotta be someone else, right? Someone else that you like?"

"No, it's not that, either. Mina, I-"

"Whatever, Eren," she interrupted. "Just, whatever." She flipped one of her pigtails over her shoulder and turned her nose up a me. "I'll see you in Geometry." And with that, she quickened her stride and crossed the street before I even had the chance to process what had just happened. Seriously, what had just happened?

Mom always said that with my attitude, I would be bad at understanding how girls felt. Still, I couldn't help but think that Mina was the one who was wrong in this situation, not me. I had done nothing wrong; she was the one who overreacted. With a heavy sigh, I put one foot forward and began to cross the street.

This was about to become one of those scenarios where you've done something so many times in your life that it's almost become automatic. A reflex, if you will. In my high school years, as well as all of my elementary and middle school years prior, I had crossed this very same street what had felt like a million times before. Some days I looked, some days I didn't. Today was one of those days that I probably should have looked.

It had all happened so suddenly that I couldn't even understand it if I tried. One second I was on my feet, crossing the street just like any other day, and the next, there was a roaring screech, a skid, and I was on the ground, my left arm bent backward out of its socket, beneath the belly of a car.

Everything was spinning out of control, like a merry-go-round that had been kicked into overdrive. My body must have been strapped on pretty tightly to that fake horse, because no matter how hard I willed it to move, nothing would budge.

"Oh my God, oh my God, oh my God," I could hear the driver panic, over and over to a higher power who was much to busy to hear his prayer. "H-hey! It'll be alright, okay? I'm calling an ambulance right now!"

It'll be alright, huh? That's funny. I've heard those words before. Back then, things were the furthest that they could have possibly been from "alright". Did this person honestly believe in what he was telling me? Of course not. The moment he had lost control of his vehicle on that slippery patch of black ice, he knew I was dead.

Black ice. Oh, that must have been what the weatherman was talking about, when he had stated that it was going to be colder than usual. There was some mention of rain in the early hours of the morning, wasn't there? I don't know. I can't remember. I should have paid more attention.

I couldn't see him, but I could tell that the driver was looking beneath his car, trying to get a glimpse of my condition. At first, I heard the muffled sound of him gasping, but then, I heard him gag. How rude is that? He's the one who did this to me. To be fair, it was an accident, a horrible one at that, but still, it was his fault for not paying more attention to his surroundings. Or maybe it was my fault for not paying attention to the weather. Who knows. All I knew was that whoever said death was cold had never experienced it himself.

As I laid there in my immobility, my vision started to give out. The exhaust from the car was damaging my eyes in ways that made me want to close them and never open them again. It was a shame, really. Mom always said that I had such beautiful eyes. She envied their vibrant green color over her own, dull and common brown ones. I don't see why, though. Her eyes are so kind.

In my drunken state of being on the verge of a bodily shut down, I had a brief flashback of my previous life, the one that had been directly before this one. I had been a little girl named Ellen. Up until this point, for the life of me, I couldn't remember how I had died. It was with a wave of nausea that it had all came back for just an instant. I guess it was what you would call "someone's life flashing before their eyes".

I was five, when I had died of a terrible heart disease. I'm sure my parents of that lifetime had mourned my passing for years. It made me feel a bit guilty that I had forgotten all about it until just now.

I should have been able to hear the sirens in the distance, but all of my senses, along with my consciousness, had begun to fade. The only thing that kept me hanging on were those words, those very words that were oh, so familiar.

"You're going to be okay! Damnit, Eren! You're going to make it out of this mess alive, do you hear me?!"

Yeah, I hear you. Loud and clear, actually. I hate to break the news to you, I really do, but it's already too late, much too late, over a thousand years too late.

Another lifetime, another anticlimactic death. I should have listened to the weatherman. I should have made my bed. I should have spent those extra two, tedious seconds trying to shut off my alarm clock.

Hi there! Chappy here! :D

Isn't this exciting? A brand new chapter-fic! I'm seriously super pumped to write this one, so please bear with me. (:

This is my first chapter-fic for Attack on Titan, so I'm a little bit nervous. This is a huge fandom with lots of mega popular fanfics, so I really do hope that you'll enjoy what I have in store for my own.

Thank you very much for taking the time to read! (:

- Chappy