TEN YEARS, The Kenny Ackerman Story BOOK TWO~ FUTURES, by Melly O'Hara

METAMORPHOSIS

CHAPTER 12 METAMORPHOSIS

And so for the next two years OUR lives continued, seemingly as they always had. I worked as the 'King's' equerry; managing the stables. Kenny headed the First Interior Squad.
There were no more attacks.
Paradise found a way to survive.
And within the year, the refugees camped inside Wall Rose were sent out to farm the abandoned land in Wall Maria; just as the 'King' had proclaimed. The Military imposed a new directive, dictating compulsory subscription; drafting any refugee over the age of twelve to train in their ranks. Those that survived would have their choice of division to join. Either the Survey Corp, the Garrison or to a select few; the safety of the Military Police, who rarely ventured outside the security of Mitras. Those who failed were sent out to farm the most dangerous areas inside Wall Maria; the front lines. Making their screams the warning bells to retreat, for other, more valuable workers, in the case of a titan attack; as Wall Maria was now Titan Territory.

Rod kept his bargain; anonymously feeding money into the Royal Government, bribing the nobles, whispering to his servants of his fear of a coming war; who then whispered to the servants of other house-holds the rumours of impending doom and civil unrest.
And Kenny, exaggerating the strength and dissatisfaction of those trapped inside Wall Rose, casually reminding the Government of its vulnerability and the growing dependence on the Survey Corp; smirked at their growing fear.
And two years after the attack on Paradise, by the Colossal and the Armoured Titans, Kenny was given the Captaincy of the Anti-Personal-Control-Squad, his own sub division of the First Interior Squad. His squad was drawn from members of the Military Police, just as the First Interior Squad had been, and numbered forty-eight. Instead of his flowing black trench coat, he now wore the long khaki coat of the Military Police, complete with its coat of arms on its back.
Kenny wore a uniform. Kenny had become respected, accepted. Kenny had joined society.

Or so it seemed.

For as Kenny stood, on that first day, in front of his hand picked squad. He explained his past, the irony of his position not being lost on him, as their former enemy and killer, now turned boss; when a young attractive, blonde woman told him that she didn't care. Orders were orders. And the fact that since the fall of Wall Maria, titans were no longer the threat, as long as humanity stayed inside the two remaining Walls. People were. Their greed and their inhumanity was the real issue. So no matter why this squad had been formed, to her it was pointless.
At this Kenny had grinned, his facade of respectability lifted as he'd found a kindred. Some one else who shared the same nihilistic view of the world that he had.

And this was where he came clean and announced that he had fought and schemed for this division so that it could help him achieve his own ambitions. His 'Grand Dream', he called it.
He then explained their real mission; to find the bespectacled man and retrieve from him the power of wisdom, the power of the Titan,that he'd stolen from Queen Frieda Reiss.
Their training would start immediately and be as comprehensive and as long as that of the Survey Corp; as they may encounter titans as well as people that would be their adversaries. And that it may very well be, that in the end, the Survey Corp would become their foe. Therefore all members of the Anti Personnel Control Squad, must be able to defeat them on their own terms.
And so it was, for the next three years they trained, they searched for the bespectacled man and they waited; readying themselves for battle.

And three years later their opportunity came; when Wall Rose was stormed by the Armoured Titan, and the Trost outpost, one of the four semi circled enclaves that lined Wall Rose was breached. Exactly as it had happened five years ago, with the Shinganshina outpost on Wall Maria. The same chaos, the same destruction, the same fear.

Except for the Titan.

The new Titan that had appeared AFTER the gate connecting the outpost of Trost to the land inside Wall Maria had been breached and the titans from Wall Maria were finding their way into a fresh area, inhabited by the humanity they longed to devour.
This new Titan that resembled a wolf in its features. Its hair long, shaggy and brown, its ears pointed like an elf's, its angular humanesque face encompassing a jaw filled with rows of white sharpened teeth and its eyes, green and glowing, like that of a hunter. It stood; fifteen meters tall, its male human body muscular and taut, its stance challenging, as it roared.