Location: Trost District - The Wall
Steam. Massive, scalding clouds of steam rolled off the Wall where the Colossal Titan had stood just seconds ago. The gate was gone—kicked open just like five years ago.
Titans were already entering.
On the rooftops, the cadets of the 104th Training Corps stood paralyzed. This was their first real battle. The terror of the stories they grew up with was now standing in front of them, smiling.
"It's... it's happening again," Armin Arlert whispered, his knees shaking.
Eren Jaeger, however, grit his teeth. "No. Not this time."
He drew his blades. "I'm going to kill them! Every last one!"
Eren launched himself off the roof, screaming a battle cry.
"Eren, wait!" Mikasa shouted, chasing after him.
The squad—Thomas, Mina, Mylius, Nac—followed blindly into the slaughter.
The Intervention
Ren stood on a high clock tower overlooking the plaza. His coat whipped in the wind. Behind him, his strike team (Saeko, Maggie, Andrea, Amy) waited for orders.
"They're going to die," Andrea said, watching the cadets dive straight into a group of three 10-meter Titans.
"Eren is reckless," Ren noted calmly. "He always was."
Ren looked at the specific Abnormals entering the gate. One of them was the leaping Titan that, in the original timeline, bit off Thomas Wagner's head and started the chain reaction of death for Eren's squad.
"Saeko," Ren pointed. "That one. The jumper."
Saeko followed his gaze. Her Murasame blade was sheathed. "Consider it done."
"Maggie, Andrea," Ren pointed to a cluster of 3-meter Titans near the evacuation route. "Eyes only. Blind them. Let the Garrison finish them."
"On it," Maggie said, sighting her rifle.
"Go."
The Saving Grace
Eren was mid-air, grappling toward a Titan. He was fast, but he was tunneling. He didn't see the abnormal Titan crouching on a roof to his left, preparing to snatch Thomas out of the air.
"Thomas! Left!" Eren screamed too late.
The Titan lunged. Thomas stared death in the face.
SHING.
A blur of purple and black flashed across the Titan's neck.
It wasn't a standard ODM cut. It was a single, horizontal slash that emitted a high-frequency hum.
The Titan's head didn't just fall off; it slid off as if it were made of butter. The body collapsed mid-lunge, crashing into a building.
Thomas tumbled onto a roof, gasping for air. "I... I'm alive?"
Saeko landed gracefully on a chimney, flicking the Titan blood off her blade. She looked bored.
Eren landed next to Thomas, eyes wide. "Who..."
Before he could finish, gunfire erupted.
CRACK. CRACK. CRACK.
Three sharp, distinct shots rang out. Down the street, three Titans stumbled, clutching their ruined eyes.
"Guns?" Armin gasped, landing nearby. "Cannons are too slow... what kind of guns are those?"
Ren stepped off the clock tower.
He didn't use ODM gear. He used Telekinesis to cushion his fall, landing heavily in the center of the rooftop where Eren and his squad were gathered.
The cadets froze. They saw a tall man in a long dark coat, radiating an aura of absolute power.
Ren looked at Eren.
"You've grown, kid," Ren said. "But your situational awareness is still garbage."
Eren stared. The voice. The face. It had been five years, but he would never forget the man who lifted the boulder. The man who saved his mother.
"Ren?" Eren whispered, his voice cracking. "Is that... is that you?"
Mikasa landed beside Eren. Her stoic mask shattered instantly. Her eyes widened, shimmering with tears. "Ren..."
"I told you I'd come back," Ren smiled.
"You... where have you been?!" Eren shouted, a mix of anger and relief. "It's been five years!"
"I was gathering an army," Ren said, gesturing to Saeko on the chimney and his shooters on the tower. "And it looks like I arrived just in time."
A 15-meter Titan—an Abnormal—crashed through a building nearby, heading straight for them. It ignored the soldiers and focused on the dense cluster of humans.
"Ren, look out!" Armin screamed.
Ren didn't turn around. He held up his hand.
[Skill: Lightning Bolt]
A jagged spear of blue lightning shot from his palm without him even looking. It struck the Titan in the face, blowing its head apart in a shower of gore and steam.
The cadets went silent.
"Lightning..." Jean Kirstein, who had just arrived, stared in disbelief. "He shoots lightning?"
Ren turned to the group.
"Listen up!" Ren's voice boomed, enhanced by Tactical Leadership. "The vanguard is collapsing. The supply team is stuck in the HQ. If we don't clear a path, everyone dies."
He looked at Eren. "You want to kill Titans, Eren? Follow me."
He looked at Mikasa. "Protect his flank. Don't let him get eaten."
"Yes," Mikasa said immediately.
Ren drew his Warhammer (scaled down to mace form).
"Saeko! With me! We're cutting a path to the HQ!"
The Meat Grinder
The next twenty minutes were a lesson in warfare for the 104th Cadets.
They were used to fighting with fear. Ren fought with dominance.
Ren and Saeko led the charge down the main street. Saeko was a precision instrument, slicing napes with surgical efficiency. Ren was a wrecking ball. He smashed Titan knees with his mace, then crushed their skulls with telekinetic blasts.
From the rooftops, Maggie, Andrea, and Hirano (who had found a sniper perch) provided cover fire.
BANG. A Titan reaching for Jean lost its hand to a high-caliber round from Hirano.
"Who are these people?!" Jean yelled, grappling away. "They're monsters!"
"They're on our side!" Marco shouted back. "Just keep moving!"
They reached the Trost HQ. It was swarmed by small Titans—the 3 and 4-meter class that had breached the supply room.
"The gas is in there," Armin said, looking at the windows. "But it's full of them."
"Problem?" Ren asked.
Ren walked to the front doors.
"Saya, keep the perimeter clear," Ren ordered into his comms.
"Copy that, boss," Saya's voice came through. "Don't take too long."
Ren kicked the doors open.
Inside, the supply depot was dark and crowded with small Titans feasting on supply crates.
Ren put away his mace. He held out both hands.
[Skill: Telekinesis (Crush)]
The air pressure in the room multiplied by ten. The wooden support beams groaned.
The Titans inside suddenly flattened. Their bones snapped audibly. It was like an invisible hydraulic press had slammed down on them.
Ren clenched his fists. SPLAT.
Ten Titans were reduced to paste on the floor.
"Gas up," Ren told the cadets behind him. "We leave in five."
Jean stared at the flattened room. "He... he just crushed them. With his mind."
Reiner and Bertholdt, standing in the back, exchanged terrified glances. This wasn't in their intel. Who was this "Ren"? Was he a Marleyan warrior? Another faction?
[System Notification]
[Quest Update: Prevent Breach (Ongoing).]
[Bonus Objective: Save Thomas & Mina (Complete).]
[Impact on Timeline: Eren Jaeger has NOT been eaten. Therefore, Eren has NOT discovered his Titan Shifting ability yet.]
Ren frowned. Right. If Eren doesn't get eaten, he doesn't transform. And if he doesn't transform, we can't seal the gate with the boulder.
"I need to trigger him," Ren realized.
The Trigger
As the cadets refilled their gas, Ren pulled Eren aside.
"Eren," Ren said. "Your mother. She's in Trost, isn't she?"
Eren froze. "Yes. She's at the shelter near the inner gate."
"The inner gate is failing," Ren lied smoothly. "The Garrison is overwhelmed. A Titan is heading straight for the shelter."
Eren's eyes dilated. "No... NO!"
"You're too weak to stop it as you are," Ren pressed, his voice hard. "You're just a boy with a box cutter."
Rage. Pure, hot rage flooded Eren's system. The memory of his mother almost dying five years ago mixed with the fear of losing her now.
"I have to go!" Eren screamed.
He didn't wait for gas. He ran out the back door, grappling toward the inner gate.
"Eren!" Mikasa shouted, chasing him.
Ren watched them go.
"Good," Ren whispered. "Go get angry, boy."
He turned to his team. "Saeko, Maggie. We hold here. I'm going to make sure our little protagonist finds his destiny."
Ren followed Eren from the rooftops.
He watched as Eren charged a group of Titans near the gate. In his blind rage, Eren missed a grapple. He crashed onto a roof, his leg twisted.
A bearded Titan reached for him.
Ren stood on a nearby tower. He could save him. But he needed the Attack Titan to emerge.
"Sorry, kid," Ren whispered. "Pain is the catalyst."
The Titan grabbed Eren. It lifted him up.
"REN!" Eren screamed, looking at Ren on the tower. "HELP ME!"
Ren stood still, his face unreadable.
The Titan opened its mouth.
CHOMP.
It bit Eren's arm off, swallowing him whole.
"EREN!" Mikasa screamed, landing on the roof too late. She looked at Ren with betrayal in her eyes. "Why... why didn't you..."
Ren jumped down. He grabbed Mikasa before she could suicidally charge the Titan.
"Wait," Ren commanded, holding her back with one arm. "Watch."
"He's dead!" Mikasa sobbed, struggling. "You let him die!"
"He's not dead," Ren said. "He's waking up."
Inside the Titan's stomach, Eren Jaeger was surrounded by dissolving bodies. The despair hit him. But then, the rage returned. The promise he made. I will kill them all.
Ren felt the static in the air.
BOOM.
A massive, muscular hand burst from the bearded Titan's mouth. Then another from its neck.
The bearded Titan exploded from the inside out.
The Attack Titan—fifteen meters of rage, with emerald green eyes and elf ears—rose from the steam. It roared, a sound of pure fury.
Mikasa stopped struggling. She stared, wide-eyed.
Ren smiled.
"Welcome to the food chain, Eren."
Ren stepped forward. He looked at the Attack Titan.
"Now," Ren said to himself. "Let's see if he recognizes the Alpha."
Ren bit his own hand.
KRA-KOOM!
Yellow lightning struck the street right next to the Attack Titan.
The Sovereign Titan rose. Armored in white crystal, wielding a Warhammer, with glowing blue eyes.
Two Titans stood in the burning district of Trost.
The soldiers watching from the Wall gasped.
"Two of them?" Pixis muttered, dropping his flask. "Humanity's anger... and Humanity's god."
Ren (Sovereign Titan) looked at Eren (Attack Titan).
He pointed his Warhammer at the swarm of Titans entering the city.
Kill them, the gesture said.
The Attack Titan roared in agreement.
They charged together.