Shards In Your Heart || AOT x Male Reader

To You, 2000 Years From Now

Levi and Miche were the ones who picked you up, helping your exhausted form up the staircase and into the infirmary. You suffered minimal injuries but the mental and physical strain had really done a number on your wellbeing. Your legs were sore from the horse riding, and your head was blasting. Everything hurt. You were tired, hungry and in pain. With that level of exhaustion, ideally you should've fallen asleep, but your mind was filled with worry; the nagging suspicion in the back of your head: will Erwin survive?
As a result you spent the night gazing at the room opposite, groggy, in half consciousness, wondering whether he would make it out alive.

"You should be asleep"

The voice startled you, instantly rising up into a sitting position.

"I can't Miche. Not until I'm absolutely sure he's okay."

"It was a brave thing you did. Risking your life to save another. Most of the new cadets get killed, much less kill a Titan. I'm impressed..." he paused, looking down "and I want to thank you"

You were at a loss for words. Erwin was important to a lot of people, and although you weren't as close to him as the others were, you certainly felt a strange connection to him.

The next few days were agonising. Erwin wasn't dead, no. He was not alive either. Barely clutching onto the thin thread of life. It was on the 5th day after the expedition though, that he finally regained the strength to wake up. There were a few scars on his abdomen, stitched together to shut the wound from where the Titan had held him in his jaw. The cut on his head was now stitched up and healing.

Thankfully the Doctors had been able to stabilise his condition and prevent him from losing any more blood. By day 7, he had enough energy to push himself into a sitting position. The wounds would heal, slowly, but they would heal.
Once word of his consciousness spread through the troops, the story of his saviour followed suit. Every odd soldier congratulated (Y/N), some thanked him and praised his bravery. Another story spread: Levi's massive kill count in his first expedition earned him the respect of all his seniors, and the respect of all the soldiers.

For now, it was time to pay Erwin a visit.

(Y/N), Levi and Miche entered the room. It was huge, with tall windows from which light from the evening sun was filtering in. In the centre of the room Erwin sat up on the bed, drinking a cup of tea, his right hand lying limp on the sheets.
He noticed your presence and raised the cup in a sign of greeting, smiling.
"Miche told me everything. I owe you my life, I must thank you."
"It was my duty."
"To risk your life like that? No certainly not. But I appreciate it all the same.
And Levi! I knew that you would prove to be valuable to the Survey Corps; Hange told me all about your exploits, they told me you took down around 12 Titans?
Marvellous, marvellous".
He chuckled into his cup, immediately coughing after.

"Now onto more pressing matters, it's good that the both of you are here together." He stopped, taking in a few breaths and then continued "As you may have realised, we lost over a quarter of our number, and suffered a great loss in terms of manpower. Many of our squad leaders, particularly those who were riding out onto the northern part of the formation, lost their lives, tragically. Usually we would replace the squad leaders with senior officers; however; and I have discussed this prospect with Section Commanders Miche and Hange, I feel that the two of you are more than capable enough of leading a squad each. I wish to make you both Section Commanders, and I will assign a few members to your squad. That is, if you both accept."

Levi answered almost immediately with a curt nod. (Y/N) took some time to deliberate. You could feel Miche's and Erwin's eyes on you. As much as you wanted the post you weren't sure that you could shoulder such responsibility. But you couldn't let them down.

"Yes sir, it is an honour"

"Thank you"
You made to leave with the other two but was stopped by Erwin,
"I want to talk to you"
The room was empty now, except for the two of you, and you sat down on the chair next to his bed.

"I want to know exactly what happened."

And so you did. (Y/N) relayed the whole incident, every detail.
By the time you had finished it was well into the night. Erwin had dozed off after a while, and you remained on the chair, too tired to get up and leave. The next morning you woke up, still on the chair in Erwin's room, however his hand was in yours, gripping it, still asleep. Trying to be as silent as you could, you gently placed his hand on his chest, and crept out of the room.

It took a whole month for Erwin to reach his fighting weight, however the next expedition was not for more than months after.

The survey corps rode out again. This time better prepared; the Long Range Scouting Formation was improved upon, better suited for a group as large as the survey corps. Levi was in charge of a squad, consisting of Eld, Gunther, Oluo and (unfortunately for him) Petra. (Y/N) got his own squad, highly capable soldiers; Joan, Vivian and Light. Both their squads were placed in the front of the formation, tasked with alerting the group of Titans as well as removing the threat.
Like every Mission, this was also a failure.

No one anticipated the Titans' presence and a large number of scouts were killed.

About halfway through their retreat outside the walls, Levi and (Y/N) stood at the TOP of the hill, having annihilated a large number of Titans, now scouring the land for survivors.

Maybe it was a trick of the light, or it was the exhaustion setting in but (Y/N) noticed three people walking outside the walls. From the distance he could only make out that they were kids. He did a double take and they were gone.
"What're you looking at?" Levi dragged, evidently exhausted.

"There's people outside the walls."

He looked at you as if you were mad.
"The entire Survey Corps is outside the walls (Y/N), of course there's people"

"No. No...they were kids. Or at least I think they were. Plus they weren't wearing ODM... somewhere around there" (Y/N) pointed to where he last saw them.
He made to look into the distance, and not finding anyone, he started
"I think you need to rest. There isn't anyone there. It must've been a trick of the light"
Not wholly convinced you muttered "yeah, probably".

Still it got you thinking. You were a hundred percent sure that there were people there. Does that mean humanity existed outside the walls? There was no way to know for sure, and the retreat signal had just been fired, (Y/N) had no choice but turned his horse around and followed it.

Although (Y/N) and Levi wiped out large numbers of Titans, barely any of the other soldiers survived.

The bells of the garrison rang, announcing the arrival of the scouts. Wagons of the dead or the dying followed suit. Erwin rode out front, followed by Levi and (Y/N) on either side. The crowd was already gathering around. Each expedition bought nothing but hate and frustration at the Survey Corps. Angry voices spread throughout, things like "we shouldn't be wasting our taxes on this" or the occasional "they're nothing but Titan fodder, fattening the brutes up" filled the air.
Out of the din a young boy's voice rang out,

"Look Mikasa, our heroes!"

(Y/N) looked up and saw a young brunette with green eyes, sparkling with hope, pointing at the scouts.
Unfortunately you did not feel like heroes. In every expedition, hundreds of lives were lost, and not one of them had been successful. You clenched your fist in frustration and looked away.
A woman stumbled out of the crowd, yelling hysterically "My son, my son Moses where is he?"
A hand was brought out, the only remaining part of Moses.
"At least, you achieved something, tell me! My son's death must not have been in vain?"
It was heartbreaking.

"We achieved nothing"

The Scouts rode on, towards their Headquarters in Shiganshina, wounded and broken. Nothing eventful had happened, as they all rested themselves and tended to their injuries. A heavy silence hung through the air, no one was willing to speak. Bruised and battered, all everyone could do was mourn.

Suddenly tremors ran through the ground, Earthquake! Was (Y/N)'s first thought, but earthquakes were not common.
And there they saw it.
A huge puff of steam.
A giant hand on top of the Walls.

A/N: oh look, finally the Colossal bitch Attacks! And you met Eren. Sort of.