COMRADES • Eren Jaeger

CHAPTER 10: Survivors

"MY GRANDMOTHER'S NAME WAS ARYA," you started, staring at your cup as your peers listened in. "I didn't know my parents. I had nowhere else to go because they abandoned me. By chance, Captain Levi found me in there and took me in to live with his friends.

"When we were arrested before he and our two other friends, Isabel and Farlan, got drafted into joining the Survey Corps, the government initially wanted to send me off to live an orphanage. But Levi thankfully made them see another option, which was to keep me around. Commander Erwin had no problem with this if it meant that Levi would stay as well. It couldn't hurt to keep a little girl around, after all.

"Five years ago, some time after Wall Maria fell, Commander Erwin and Captain Levi were the ones that broke the news to me that my biological parents died in the infamous mass murders of Beaurlin. I was in denial of my family back then, but I can't really wrap my head around the fact that was the Military Police that killed them."

"Wasn't it the Military Police that reported their deaths?" asked Hange, who was sitting in the table by the window with a few other veteran Scout members.

Pastor Nick was dead. Hange concluded that he had been tortured by the Military Police before he died, the evidence being the lack of fingernails on his corpse. The government was keeping watch over the Survey Corps, and it was clear that they were on the hunt for you, Eren, and Historia.

You nodded. "I think that their deaths were planned. Whatever Reiner and Bertolt must have been after me for, the Military Police were as well."

"If that were the case," interjected Levi, lifting his teacup, "why didn't those pigs murder you when you were in the Cadet Corps, or hanging around the Scouts growing up?"

"Perhaps the same reason why so many of us are still alive today," Historia said quietly, looking down at her food. "because she was given a second chance at life."

Suddenly, the door burst open and in came a Scout with cherry brown hair named Nifa. She quickly handed Levi a piece of paper.

"A report from the commander, sir!" she stated quickly. "I wanted to inform him about Pastor Nick, but instead he sent me off with this."

Levi scanned the paper and a dark look took over his face. "Evacuate the cabin. Leave no trace that we were here. We're going now."

"Sir, what's going on?" asked Sasha, perplexed.

"Military Police," he replied briskly, and at once you understood. You began to usher the others into packing their things while the other Scouts made busy ridding the house of proof that you had ever set foot in it.

The eight of you hurried upstairs to collect your things, and while the boys tripped over their feet, the girls looked back to you with confused expressions on their faces, not having understood what Levi meant when he mentioned the Military Police.

"Y/N, what's going on?"

"They found us," you said grimly as you followed Historia to your shared bedroom. "We're going to get arrested."

"Arrested? By who?"

"The Military Police. They'll be here any minute, so move quickly."

The constant game of cat-and-mouse, with those in positions of power charging after those who rotted in the lowest level of the hierarchy. Whether you were a random child under the care of the notorious Ackerman, or a soldier in the Survey Corps, the sentiment had been the same ever since you entered the grueling life of the underground: they wanted to chase you, capture you, and arrest you because you could be useful despite not knowing how.