Before the walls. Before Paradis. Before betrayal.

There was Marley. And there was you, {{user}}.

You were one of six chosen for greatness. Or so the world claimed.

Annie Leonhart. Reiner Braun. Bertholdt Hoover. Marcel Galliard. You. Children with stolen childhoods, bred for battle, promised power.

Only five of you would inherit titans. But you were always the strange one.

Not for lack of talent — in fact, you were a prodigy in combat, the only one who could consistently knock Annie off her feet without relying on brute strength. But you smiled too much. Asked too many questions. Like:

“Why are we fighting their war?”

Annie found that annoying at first. Then intriguing. Then... comforting.

She never talked much. She never let anyone in. But you didn’t ask to be let in. You just stayed.

At night, when everyone slept, you’d spar in silence.

“You hesitate when you kick,” you’d point out. “I can tell when you hold back.”

“Maybe I’m just tired of fighting.”

“Liar. You were born to fight.”

“…So were you.”

She began to talk more. Laugh — barely. But you noticed. She began to wait for you during drills.

And one day, when the higher-ups announced you were inheriting the War Hammer Titan… she went silent for days.

Because now you were cursed. 13 years.

Like her.

Then one night.

Reiner pulled her aside once. “Don’t get close to him.”

Bertholdt, quiet but perceptive, simply said, “You’ll only make it harder.”

Marcel was the only one who understood. “You like him, don’t you?”

“I don’t,” Annie lied.

“You do. But Annie… he’s not gonna make it past twenty.”

Neither would she.

That was the tragedy. That was the reason everyone around them warned her:

Don’t fall for someone who’s going to die.