COMRADES • Eren Jaeger

CHAPTER 26: Noble Soldiers

This chapter mostly focuses on your character, and a bit of your relationship with Levi.

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YOU RECOGNIZED the desperate voices calling out for you to wake up, but you couldn't see anything in the murky black of the world around you. You were running, and something horrid was burning all over. You had a terrifying moment where you realized that the thing on fire was you.

No sight, no sound, no feeling except for the horrible scent of burning flesh. The flames erupted, and the light came to your eyes. You were laying on your back, eyes half-liddedly open as you gazed upwards at the walls of Shiganshina District. Covered in black soot and grey ash, laying in the middle of the small crater that had formed on the ground after you detonated your thunderspears.

You tried moving your body, but you couldn't. To your horror, you realized that you were lacking limbs and a few fingers. The fires were slowly burning away at your flesh, at your hair. The clouds of ash were settling on your open wounds. Blood seeped out of your mouth and ears. And there was no one there to help you.

One particularly large stipe of fire ran its sharp rake over the sides of your body, and you found yourself struggling to breathe through the pain and smoke. You wanted to hack and cough it all out from your lungs and your teary eyes, but there was no use in trying to cling to life. You were alive, but as good as dead.

Somebody was calling for you from the top of Wall Maria. Your vision cleared, and you could make out the faces of your subordinates. The very first squad whom you had the pleasure of leading during your first official expedition as a promoted soldier. There they were—Linus with his energetic smile, Hilda with her kind face, Nick with his fiery red hair that matched his sister's locks. They were peering down at you from the edge of the wall.

You wanted to cry out to them, apologize for what you had done to them and for having failed to save them, but opening your mouth only invited more smoke to enter your body. So instead, you stared. As if it would show them how sorry you were. And you kept on gazing at them, certain that the faces of your dead subordinates was a sure sign that they were extending their arms to you so you could follow their souls to the afterlife soon.

Is this a dream? you wondered. Or is this real?

Somehow, this seemed a little too concise for your liking.

You tried to remember what had happened. You had run across the land, dragging a heavy rope of thunderspears around while a bunch of Titans stood around Shiganshina District. It was the most exhausting thing you had ever done in your entire life. If the flames weren't going to kill you, the physical strain definitely would.

I was a good soldier, you thought, slipping from consciousness and allowing yourself to let go. It was a good life.

Then the second round of thunderspears went off and blew up the rest of your body to bits.

-

WHEN YOUR EYES SHOT OPEN and you sprung up on your bed, the repulsive taste of vomit was lingering in your mouth. You nearly panicked when you realized that you were surrounded by darkness again, but eventually you felt the soft mattress under your body and the cold droplets of sweat that were rolling down your back and realized that your senses were present.

Your numb hands blindly reached for your bare legs, and thankfully, they were still there.

It was just a dream, you told yourself.

You tried to fall back asleep, but both sides of your pillow were terribly warm. Like you really had been on fire. The thought made you uncomfortable as you tossed and turned around in frustration and fear. If your mind wasn't playing tricks on you, you swore you could smell smoke. You couldn't breathe properly.