A Promise (An Attack on Titan Fanfic: Erwin Smith)

New Regime

It felt like it was the end of the world. That or, Isanna somehow winded up in hell.

"Shit—" She barely dodged the next batch of falling debris, and some of the scrap scratched her cheek. Billows of dust and dirt swirled around the room, and Isanna knew that she'd turn into squashed kebab in the next five minutes if she stayed there any longer.

With the magnitude of the earthquake only getting higher, she angled her hook and shot it up the broken portion of the ceiling. Isanna sent one last look at the machinery room, feeling a tinge of regret that she couldn't salvage them in time, before she flew up and exited the underground room.

When she reached the surface, Isanna stared at the new scenery in front of her, lips parting.

A vast chunk of the ground got destroyed. From where she was standing, she could see the light illuminating from the crystal chamber, pillars intermittently standing from each other but no longer supporting anything, and Isanna assumed the perpetrator for the drastic change of the landscape was that gigantic motherfucking featherless turkey.

Since when did titans start to look like that?

It began crawling away, dragging its entire body through the grassland and leaving behind a blazing trail. Kind of like a snail. Except this one was a thousand times larger, and it had the capacity to annihilate an entire outer wall district if left behind unattended for too long.

Before Isanna could begin looking for Levi and the others, the ground she was standing on suddenly caved in. "Fuc—" she leaped to the side and managed to dig her fingers on the edge of the ground that was still intact. With a grunt, she hoisted herself and caught her breath.

Hearing a cough, Isanna leaped to her feet and brandished her spare blade behind her, only to freeze when he saw what she assumed was an Interior MP curled like a ball on the ground.

"Who are you?" she demanded, tightening her grip as she gauged the soldier. He didn't seem to be much of a threat—almost his entire body got burned, and to top it off, he was old.

To her surprise, the old man just smirked.

"Just an old man who's about to bite the dust," he coughed, voice parched and laced with a thick accent. Isanna surmised he was not going to live the next day. He shifted so that he faced the sky, arms stretched at either of his side on the ground. "You a pal of Levi's?"

Isanna squinted in suspicion. "What about him?"

The man hacked a few times. "Nothin'. Just curious." He side-eyed her, although Isanna wasn't sure if he could see her through the burns in his face.

Either way, this man was going to be dead in the next few hours. Isanna decided to let him have his short peace before death and turned away without a word, looking to regroup with Levi and the others.

She made sure to be wary of her footing. The ground could cave in without warning again. Cursing under her breath, she pressed a hand to her temple when she felt dizzy. Now that the immediate danger was temporarily on hold, her hunger reminded her again.

When she finally saw the Levi and the rest, she made her way, waving to get their attention.

Jean was the first one to notice her, and he quickly informed Levi.

When Levi turned to Isanna, she could see the frown on his face. He walked over to meet her halfway. "Do you ever learn how to sit your ass down?"

"Careful captain," she said, "your forehead wrinkles are showing again."

Levi ignored her comment and asked where she'd been. When Isanna relayed her short escapade, his frown deepened.

"You almost got crushed to death. Can't you stop putting yourself in unnecessarily dangerous situations alone?"