Attack on Future Chapter 1

"Eren, someday I'll come back and save you from this."

Those were the last and most perplexing words the bearded man, the Beast Titan, said before he rode off on the quadropedic titan to make a quick escape. What did that mean? Save him, from what? And why? Why did that man's face put him so uneasy with how familiar it seemed?

He didn't have time to contemplate the situation more, Levi all but crashing infront of him with titan-blood evaporating all over his body. "Captain!" Eren called with some alarmed.

For a moemnt, he dreaded that some of that blood was human, Levi's own. But Humanity's strongest turned sharply, his determined eyes wracked with some kind of mania and desperation. "I just used the last of my gas. Quick! Give me your gear so I can chase him!" Levi ordered quickly.

"Right!" Eren acknowledged, moving to undo his gas canisters.

"Hurry!" Levi insisted urgently.

Eren redoubled his efforts. He got revenge for Armin, along with everyone else that died over the years, by taking down the Colossal Titan. He'd be damn his slow ass was the reason Levi was unable to avenge everyone that died out there. He thought he heard something, but chose to ignored it as he passed the canisters to Levi.

As Levi loaded them, he paused. It was for a split second, but it was noticable. "Captain?"  Eren asked in surprise.

Levi grunted before pushing something into Eren's chest. "Keep this safe," he ordered firmly before taking off after the fleeing duo.

Eren blinked, looking down at the black box and realized what it was. The serrum, to turn someone into a titan. To take a powers from their enemies and turn into their own. But why had- no, that was stupid question. Captain Levi was in combat still and he clearly saw that Eren had an enemy shifter captured. Leaving it with him, for the moemnt, was just a precautionary thing to ensure the syringe wasn't destroyed.

But his eyes went wide as a thought....no, an image ran through his head. One that brought a cruel hope to his heart

An image of the Colossal titan. But it was different, maybe even a bit bigger and bulkier. and from the nape......

He shook his head firmly, gritting his teeth and clenching shut his eyes. No, Armin was dead. There was no way this could work on a deadman- or at least, it was stupid to risk finding out with only one syringe avaliable. He had to be smart about this, he didn't have his best friend anymore to do it for hi-

He stiffened, hearing a sound. A raspy, soft sound that he could only detect in his total silence. Looking slowly over his shoulder, he peer at the corpse of his first friend.

Or, what he assumed had been a corpse. The burns all over his body, the fall from the height of the walls. It just didn't seem possible for a normal human to survive something like that, in this state no less. And yet....

"Armin?!" Eren whispered hopefully, rushing over to the charred body, leaning down to make a hundred percent sure that he was right, that he hadn't just deluded him into he-

He heard the air wheezing in and out of Armin's lips. It was torturous, incredibly weak, but it was indeed there.

"You're alive...?!" he exclaimed, some part overjoyed, some part horrified that his friend was in this....horrid condition. One of suffering with no hope of recov-

He froze, the vision blarring in his head again of a Colossal titan controlled by a young blonde. He could save Armin. Sure he'd have to turn him into a Titan Shifter, but he'd be alive.

As a soldier, he probably shouldn't be taking this matter into his own hands, but consequences be damn, he wasn't gonig to just let Armin lay here and die! Captain Levi could kick him as hard as he wanted and they could lock him up again, he didn't care. His friend was dying here, he had the serrum, and he had an enemy shifter.

He pulled out the black box from his pocket and took a few deep breaths to steady his nerves. His father had been a doctor, he knew he had to be steady and careful with an injection or he'd fuck the whole thing up. He didn't know how this stuff worked exactly. Screwing this up meant he'l lhave wasted their only shot at this.

Eren's hand rested on the cover, ready to pull it out, but something stopped him in a start. Another image, another vision.

It was another Colossal, more muscular and with a grim frown. From the nape was...the commander?

He had the feeling the commander had fallen against the Beast titan, by Levi's behavior. But he had no way of knowing if Erwin or anyone else was alive, injured or not. And he couldn't get there safe as he had no gas and couldn't risk the serrum with a transformation. So, he couldn't just let this chance slip away on the possibility that Commander Erwin migh-

"Eren!"

He rounded in surprise to see a scout. One of the newer members.....Floch, Floch was his name. He was climbing on the rooftop and his back was....

"The Commander?" Eren realized numbly, hard to believe the state the Commander was in. Was he even alive?

"Eren! Do you know where Captain Levi is?! I have the commander!" Floch asked pleadingly, glancing to the man he had attached to his back with makeshift straps. "His stomach is gouged, insides all torn up, and the bleeding won't stop."

Eren was only faintly aware of Floch's words. He was too preoccupied with marveling at how cruel the world could really be. To let his friend survive everything, be a hair breath from being saved from death, and now this? This!? It wasn't fair. It wasn't right. He was willing to give his own life for humanity, any day, but trading Armin? For the Commander? It'd be like trading Mikasa for Levi. He couldn't do it. Fuck everything, he couldn't do that!

Floch blinked, noticing the box Eren was clutching hard, knuckles turn white. "Wait is that.....!?" Floch realized in surprise, releif, and confusion. "Why do you....nevermind! It can work on the commander, right!?"

Eren gritted his teeth, pressing the box to his forhead, angry tears falling from his eyes.