Zuri: Attack On Titan

Hanji And Titan

      I rub my arm nervously for the thousandth time, the skin red and irritated. "Zuri." Hanji says sternly. "Stand up straight and stop being so nervous." *If only..* I think, lightly nodding my head. I look at my hands and realize I must be dreadfully pale. I sigh, letting go of my worry and walking thoughtlessly next to Hanji to the open field.

       We reach our destination of a barely-tended open field. I take a short look around. a small wooden shed lay to my right, and almost directly in front of me was a circular, short stone structure that I guess to be a well. Hanji stops, alerting I and the rest of the group behind us to do so as well. I stand silently, staring at the well. "Well, Zuri." Hanji begins. "We need you to climb down into that well."

    I look at Hanji questioningly, and she answers my unspoken question. "Last time, and might I remind you the only time you have ever shifted, your Titan was 14 to 15 meters in height. If that is correct, you are the same height as Eren in Titan form. So if you are to get.. Let's say.. out of power of your Titan." She eyes Eren, who is in the second row of soldiers. "We can easily trap you inside of this well until you recover." She finishes, smiling.

     Eren averts his eyes, looking down at the ground. I smile, and I see Mikasa jolt her head to the side. *Hmph.* I think, chuckling. Hanji smiles. "Im glad you like the idea." She says. "Now, get in that hole!" She shouts, eyes shining. She points at the well.

    "But wait-." I begin, but Armin appears behind me and pushes me from behind. He puts his chin on my shoulder. His blonde hair brushes against my neck. "You can do it." He says, his eyes focusing on the well. "I know you can." I look down at my shoulder, and he looks at me with those beautiful blue eyes. I pat his cheek with my hand. "But, if my Titan is 15 meters, won't the size of the well crush her?" I ask him. He shakes his head. "Titans of that size seem to have endurance." He says. "I think your Titan can just fly out of the well anyway."

    I shudder, remembering when I shifted during the Colossal Titan attack and been a winged giant. "I don't know, Armin." I say. "Like I said," he comforts, purposefully shoving his chin into my shoulder. "You can do it." I laugh, pushing his face off of my shoulder. I look back up to see everyone staring at us. I feel my face heat as Armin backs back into position.

     I put a hand on the cold cobblestone of the well cautiously, patting it. I sit on it, and swing my legs into the seemingly-bottomless hole. I look closer and see the bone-dry bottom. I dig my fingers into the cracks between the stone and jump, clinging to the side of the well. I drop down, landing on my hands and one knee. I stand, looking up into the circular opening to see the stern, bored face of Levi and the ecstatic, extremely-happy smile of Hanji. I smile up at them both. 

       "So what do I do?" I shout up, my hands cupped around my mouth. Hanji lets the sentence register for a moment. "Well, according to Eren, you need to have a REASON to turn into a Titan. So think about something you HAVE to do, then somehow draw blood!" She finishes, placing her elbows on the well wall. I start to search my mind for something that I must do, something that has to happen.

An image burns suddenly into my mind.

      I see Armin, running from a 10 meter Titan in Trost. I start to sweat, watching him run. I see the Titan lunge, grabbing Armin in its hand. Armin lets out a scream, slamming his fists into the large of the Titan. Armin approaches the Titan mouth, and the Titan opens its mouth, in which is filled with a bunch of gigantic teeth. I don't see the end of the image.

Because I bite my hand as hard as I can with my teeth, and blood bursts from the wound.

Afterwards, I don't see or hear anything. Other than a loud crackle and a bright yellow-and-green light, of course.

    I feel an extreme sense of heat, then a weight, a heaviness of air all around me. I keep my eyes closed, keeping my insanity to myself. The feeling begins to cease, though the heat continues to burn into my skin until I don't feel it anymore, growing numb. I strain to open my eyes, and then succeed in doing so.

I find myself stuck in a hole in the ground.

The earth around me is ripped to brown dirt, and I begin to slowly get out of it. "Stay where you are!" I hear a voice call. I perk my ear, and look down. I see a tiny waving Hanji, and a same size wide-eyed Levi. Everyone else, around the same size, has drawn their swords.

     This is when I realize that the experiment worked.

    I look down at myself. I have normally colored skin, with slices of color, varying from a light lavender to a deep royal purple. I claw at a piece of green open ground, and put a bit of weight on it. I feel as if I'm slowly slinking deep into the earth, so I do this to regain my balance. 

      Hanji runs in a circle screaming with happiness while she straps on a 3D Maneuvering Device. She shoots up into my shoulder, and my head turns slower than she moves. She stands on my shoulder until I fully turn my head, my long brown hair flipping over the opposite, empty shoulder. I feel the hair hit something, another part of me I couldn't see, and I ignore it. "Well, you really are something." She says, running her eyes down and up and down again. "You have the build of a female, like that Female Titan." She rubs her head. "You can get out of the ground now."

     I blink, and give her the slightest nod. I fidget, grabbing the ground with both hands, the teeny-tiny blades of grass tickling my huge palms. I try to lift from the hole, and slip back down, digging deeper in the earth. Hanji stumbles on my shoulder, shooting her grapple hooks into my skin. "Zuri!" She yells over the loud boom of my fall. I keep my eyes on the soldiers, running my eyes over the group where my friends were. I see Armin, staring up, Mikasa, giving me a death stare, and Eren, his hand hovering over his torso.

     I try to get up again, falling, and feel a gust of wind that knocks Hanji from my shoulder, even with the use of her grappling hooks. I grab her, and hold her in my hand gently. Levi flinches, and I see him put his fingers on his device, ready to shoot off and kill me. I bend my arm backwards, and it lets out a viciously loud crack as I set Hanji back on my shoulder. The fingers let go as my arm falls limply down to my side, covering in dirt. There is another crunch as it sets back into place. "So you have healing too." She says, nodding thoughtfully. She turns back to my head. "Fly out of this, don't destroy anymore ground than you have to!"

     I stare at her, then bend my neck to look behind me.

Sure as Hell, there is a set of wings, fading from white at the top to black on the bottom, set on my back.