A Choice with Regrets [Levi Ackerman]

2

Five Years Later...

Year 829
Wall Sina

Five years have passed, but no one knows where the child is being held except for a group of human traffickers. A rumor spreads like a disease, saying the child was born from a titan and was smuggled into the walls by the Survey Corps.

Humanity couldn't comprehend why the soldiers would bring back a titan's offspring. Fearing it would one day become a full-fledged titan, they chose not to kill it, but instead chained the child in an underground cell... supposedly for the sake of humanity. Over those five years, the child lived in darkness, growing older with no knowledge of the world above.

Since the titan's child is in the human traffickers' care, they plan on selling the child since it is a rare kind.

In the dark underground cell, footsteps from the entrance grew louder and louder until two figures stopped in front of the bars as their shadows overlapped the five-year-old's thin and fragile body. The child, being called a titan, was chained up from head to toe.

"So this is the one?" A mysterious middle-aged man in a black suit asked and the trafficker waved at him.

"Why of course, doctor," he reassured the man who appears well-put together for a doctor. "You can have a closer look at that... thing."

The doctor continues to observe through the bars and the child stares back with no expression. No meaning or purpose behind those little orbs. "Are you sure this is the child born from a titan?"

"Indeed! This is the child of the titans. And you know... other than you, doctor, there were other merchants who wanted to buy the child. Regardless of that, I had intended to let you have her all along."

"So this titan's child is a girl?" The doctor could not tell at first because of the long hair covering her face and as the bar door opened, he did not hesitate to step into the cell. At this very moment, he lock eyes with the unwary child.

"Doctor, don't approach her so casually!" the trafficker panicked, but the doctor did not show any signs of fear. Expect... he was smiling in front of the child and nobody had ever done that in front of her up until now. The expression of his is foreign to her, strange and unfamiliar.

"Well, she is chained up after all. I would like for her to be out in no time."

"So does that mean you'll buy her?"

"I need to make a quick observation first." The doctor then gets on one knee, still wearing that gentle smile. "What is your name?"

The girl never had the chance to speak in her life, or the strength to make even the slightest sound. But in this very moment, her hesitation wasn't out of fear. It was because her vocabulary was so limited. She barely knew any words at all.

So, she echoed softly, "N-Name?"

The doctor was surprised, but pushes forward to start a conversation with her.

"So you can speak? Even though you're a titan?" he was starting to enjoy this, but he needs to keep it easy with her. "So tell me, are you a titan?"

"Of course she is! Everyone in Wall Sina knows that!" the trafficker attempts to convince him. "She's the real deal!"

"What is..." the girl muttered, not knowing how to express her thoughts into words. "...titan?"

The poor girl didn't know what was happening. She knew that if she didn't know anything about this man, then it was dangerous for her to even speak. This doctor has been looking for her this whole time, or in other words... he was looking for the titan's child.

"Titans eat humans, don't they?" the doctor casually asked. "Have you ever tasted one?"

"She hasn't eaten a single human yet, but I guarantee you that she will once she becomes a full-grown titan."

The doctor then rubs his chin, thinking of the possibilities within this child. "Hm, I wonder if titans can be eaten as well. Perhaps she'll get stronger if she ate one?"

"Don't speak nonsense, doctor." the trafficker scolded. "So, are you up for it?"

"It's already been decided. I will bring this titan's child to my place shortly." the doctor warmly holds out a hand for the child after being released from the heavy chains.

"It's no good inside a cage," he tells the helpless girl. "From now on, I am your father, and you are my daughter."

Her entire life, the traffickers watched over the titan's child just to torment her, but this doctor by some miracle is taking her in. Her life has completely shifted in this very moment. She made it this far by living off of scraps and everything else that she could find in the cell. And now, she is finally being saved.

Saved from this hell. But what is life like outside of hell? Is it any better or worse?

For the first time in her life, she stepped out of the cell that had been her entire world, clutching the doctor's hand tightly who is now her father. She has no choice but to place her trust, and her life, in his.

He then gave her a name.

"Your name will be Sina."