Chapter 1: Part One: Titan
Chapter Text
Part One: “Titan”
It was quiet within the confines of Wall Maria.
A silence that hadn’t been present in the outermost Wall of the Eldian kingdom.
And then, one day, a loud humming and grinding noise echoed throughout one part of the Shiganshina District. A tall, black rectangular solid manifested from thin air on a street that had been untouched for six years. If any living soul was there to witness its arrival, it would have been perceived as magic or witchcraft; but it was science and technology from another world…another dimension.
From this giant, alien domino block emerged three individuals: Seana – a tall, beautiful Irish redhead in a green military jacket, skinny blue jeans, and brown hiking boots; Miya – a short, lovely Japanese-American blonde wearing a white suit jacket, matching pressed pants, a black buttoned-up shirt, and white Nike brand shoes; and Craig Williams – a 10-year-old African-American boy in a yellow long-sleeved shirt with a sleeveless gray hooded vest, blue jeans, and white sneakers.
The three travelers regarded their new destination with mixed feelings of dread and astonishment. “Looks like a huge fight happened here,” Craig said.
“It sure does,” Miya concurred with her young companion. “And look at the walls surrounding this place. They have to be at least 164 feet tall!”
“Sometin’ tah keep out, I reckon,” Seana presumed with her thick Irish accent.
“But what?” Craig wondered aloud.
They proceeded to wander throughout the district, taking notice of its ‘colonial’ motif – something straight from the 17th or 18th century. It was then that Craig spotted a wood-made hatch with iron hinges that had slightly rusted. It was pinned by piles of debris. “Where does this lead?” He sounded very excited to know.
“Only one way tah find out, lil’ brotha,” Seana was equally as excited.
With her mighty strength, she cleared the debris blocking the hatch and opened it. They descended a small flight of stairs that led to a locked basement door, which Seana used her sonic screwdriver to unlock.
The basement area looked to be nothing more than a normal doctor’s study.
“Weird,” Miya muttered. “What reason would such an average-looking room need to be locked up?”
“Does dere really need tah be a reason?” Seana questioned.
“Well…no,” Miya shrugged. “Not unless they’ve got something to hide.”
“Hey,” Craig called for them. “Look at this!” Seana and Miya joined him alongside the desk in the room. There, they saw what Craig brought to their attention: a small keyhole in the side of the desk.
“Ah! Anuddur lock dat needs some pickin’!” Seana marveled with swelling curiosity, once again using her sonic to bypass the lock.
The contents inside the secret drawer seemed nonexistent at first, until Miya indicated that there was a false bottom. Beneath it, they discovered three books, color-coded by green, brown, and red. Miya swiped one of them out from the drawer and opened it. On the first page, there was a family portrait – a photograph – fastened to it.
“The doctor’s family?” Miya presumed.
“Maybe,” Seana figured.
“There’s writing on the back,” directed Craig, who was short enough to see the text as Miya held the photo.
Turning it over, Miya read the writing aloud.
It was written by a man named Grisha Yeager who had come from a place beyond the walls where humanity lived in elegance and had not perished from a race of creatures known as ‘Titans’.
“Titans?” Seana uttered the term in question. “Could dose be de tings dat ravaged de whole village?”
“I think all the answers we’re lookin’ for are in these books,” Miya suggested.
Seana and Craig picked up the other two books and joined Miya in reading more of Grisha’s documents. Craig had hardly started on the first page when his two alien friends finished reading their books; he envied their ability as Time Lords to speed read in mere seconds.
Miya’s reading resulted in tears that flowed from her hazel-brown eyes. “Poor Fay,” she whimpered. “She didn’t deserve that.”
“Deserve what?” Craig asked. “And who’s Fay?”
Before Miya could go into the details, Seana overheard movement from beyond the basement door, which was left ajar. It was accompanied by a young voice that bellowed, “What the hell?! It’s been opened!”
“Shite!” Seana exclaimed in a hushed voice. “Somebody’s comin’! Hide!”
Miya and Craig did as she instructed, dropping the books and hiding in various spots within the basement – Miya between two bookshelves, Seana behind a medical curtain, and Craig underneath the desk.
From their hiding spots, Seana and Miya were able to see the new group of characters that waltzed into the basement – two men, a woman with Asian features, and one individual of an unidentified gender. One of the men was short-statured with short, straight black hair styled in an undercut and steel blue eyes that were narrow and intimidating with dark circles under them; he was youthful in appearance, but not as much as the other young man with him. The non-binary individual had an eye bandaged from a recent accident; it had to be recent from one of the lenses shattered on the glasses they wore.
“We’re not alone here,” the one-eyed stranger said in an eerily suspicious voice.
The short-statured man drew a sword out from one of the boxes hitched to his thighs. “Hange’s right,” he said, his voice in a cautious monotone. “Eren and Mikasa, guard the exit in case whoever’s here makes a run for it.”
The woman (Mikasa) nodded. “Yes, Captain Levi.”
The other young man (Eren) balled his fists in hostile anger. “If they even touched anything in this room…”
“Control yourself, Eren,” Levi ordered. “We don’t want you going Titan while we’re holed up in an enclosed space. You could very well kill us along with our mysterious trespasser.”
Seana and Miya shared a stunned glance from each other’s line of sight, both questionably mouthing the same term: ‘Titan’.
Gripping his sword, Captain Levi slowly scoped the area.
Underneath the desk, Craig became very scared. He could see Miya between the bookshelves, encouraging him to keep quiet and calm. Unfortunately, Craig panicked when he saw Captain Levi’s legs, clad by the white slacks of his militaristic uniform, standing near him. Craig recoiled, which resulted in him bumping his head against the underbelly of the desk.
Levi’s ears flared when he heard the noise.
With reflexes that were faster than lightning, Levi overturned the desk with a fierce kick, exposing Craig. The short-statured captain pointed his sword at the 10-year-old’s face, not caring whatsoever that he was threatening a child. “Where did you come from?!”
Eren, Mikasa, and Hange all looked on Craig with curiosity and confusion.
“Is that…a child?!” Hange exclaimed.
“Never seen a child like that before!” Eren gasped.
Craig cowered from the tip of Levi’s blade. “P-Please…don’t hurt me.”
“LEAVE ‘IM ALONE, YA FECKER!!!” Seana immediately removed herself from behind the medical curtain, ready to charge directly at Levi. She only stopped when the diminutive captain drew a second blade and aimed it at her face.
“Two of you, huh?” Levi remained unperturbed.
“Uh…three actually,” Miya spoke up, casually removing herself from between the bookshelves. She even waved to the realm’s residents and said, “Hi there.” She then asked Captain Levi, “I don’t suppose you have a third sword, do ya?”
“If’n he does, I reckon it wouldn’t be big ‘nuff,” Seana snickered whilst gazing down towards Levi’s crotch.
Needless to say, Levi was not amused with her insult on his manhood. “You got quite a tongue. I’ll be more than happy to remove it from your mouth!”
“Hey, hey! Let’s just relax here!” Miya urged. Approaching the cowering Craig, she carefully pulled him away from the tip of Levi’s other blade. “No one’s gonna do any cutting, alright? We don’t mean any harm.” Looking over Captain Levi’s group, she noticed Mikasa in particular regarding her with esteemed interest, as if there was something about the Tinkerer’s outward appearance that intrigued the young half-oriental woman.
Eren, by contrast, was furious over their interloping. “Who are you people? What’re you doing in my family’s basement?!”
“You’re Dr. Yeager’s son, aren’t you?” Miya surmised. “Eren, right?”
“Tch!” Eren grunted. “How do you know that?!”
“Isn’t it obvious, Eren?” Hange gathered. “They’re here to gather intel. These people are spies!”
“Not just any spies, Hange,” Levi said. “They’re spies from beyond the wall.” His presumption sparked a reaction of surprise from Eren, Mikasa, and Hange.
“How are you so sure about that?” Hange inquired.
“Erwin said something before he died…something that stuck with me: ‘How can we know for sure that there are no more humans outside the walls?’” Levi recapped. “I didn’t think anything of it at first…just words from a dying man. But after we found these three…” He indicated Seana, Miya, and Craig with a few subtle glares. “…it’s got me thinking – what exactly did Erwin know?”
“I may have an idea,” Miya said.
“Pop-Pop,” Seana advised with a cautious glance.
“It’s alright,” Miya told her. “It’s the least we can do, after we overstepped our welcome here.” Slowly, she reached into her right pants pocket, retrieving the photo from Grisha’s book. “We found this,” she said, handing the item over to Hange.
“What is this?” Hange curiously examined it.
“Is it a portrait?” Eren queried.
“It’s far too detailed to be drawn by a person,” Hange contradicted.
Their reaction to the photograph baffled Miya. “You mean…you all have never seen a photograph before?” The term itself was foreign to Eren, Mikasa, Hange, and Levi, reacting to it with perplexity and, in Eren’s case, vitriol.
“Captain Levi’s right – you people are from beyond the wall! You really are spies!” He thundered.
“Eren,” Mikasa said in a soothing tone, an attempt to calm him.
Meanwhile, Hange consulted with Levi. “What’re we going to do with them?”
“The hell if I know,” remarked Levi, who still had his blade pointed at the face of Seana. “But I got my mind set on killing the big one with the funny accent.”
Hange let out a frustrated groan. “This would’ve been easier, if Erwin were…”
“What’s done is done, Hange!” Levi snapped. “If you need someone to make a call, fine…I’ll be the one to make it. We’ll bring the women and the kid back to base, along with what they found in this room.”
As Levi and Hange were consulting with each other, Seana kept both her hands behind her back and out of sight. Surreptitiously, she removed her sonic from out of her left rear pocket and pressed a hidden button on the device. In a matter of seconds, the hums and grinds of her Type-Z TARDIS rang throughout the basement, confusing Levi and his group. “Where’s that noise coming from?!”
Before they knew it, the Type-Z itself materialized in the middle of the area.
“What the hell is that?!” Eren looked on the monolith in terror.
With this distraction, Seana gave herself, Craig, and Miya the advantage of escaping, jumping into the TARDIS and dematerializing away from the basement and the chance of being held captive by Levi, Hange, Mikasa, and Eren.
Seana and Miya both worked frantically at the controls.
“Where’s our heading?” Miya asked.
“Anywhere be ‘ere!” Seana bellowed.
Craig held onto the console platform railing as the ship rocked from its rushed takeoff. The turbulence intensified when Seana and Miya landed it, presumably in a different place and time. “Where are we now?” Craig asked.
Miya gazed on the console monitor. “Same dimension…four years in the future.”
The three travelers ventured out of the TARDIS, emerging onto the site of another battlefield – this one right in the heat of its conflict. Explosions rang all around, soldiers running left and right (one of them carrying a smaller soldier – a child – on his back), and an armored train rolling on by.
“BACK TO DE SHIP!!!” Seana shrieked.
They were on their way, until their path was blocked by a giant foot belonging to a sixteen-foot-tall creature that resembled a deformed human with an enlarged head and masculine body shape, although it lacked reproductive organs. It lacked any sort of clothing, standing stark naked. Its mouth was exceptionally wide with an enormous number of small, square teeth that formed a Cheshire Cat grin.
Unbeknownst to the three travelers, this was their first up-close encounter with the creature they read about in Grisha’s notes.
A Titan.
Chapter 2: Part Two: Boundary
Chapter Text
Part Two: “Boundary”
Miya and Seana had the same parental instinct, the moment that the Titan cornered them; and that was to protect Craig. They stood between him and the grotesque behemoth without so much as a plan for how they would fend it off. In all their travels throughout the Infinite DC, they had faced monsters of every form; but this Titan was unimaginable.
The three travelers braced themselves as it pounced on them, closing their eyes and embracing each other tightly.
They figured it would be the end…until nothing happened.
Reopening their eyes, they discovered that the Titan had frozen mid-pounce. It hung there in the air, suspended in time. “What de hell…?” Seana muttered at the unusual spectacle. She and her companions then realized how the entire battlefield fell into sudden silence. Surveying the area, they saw every soldier had frozen mid-action, just as the Titan had.
“What’s going on?” asked Craig, who was still in Miya’s embrace.
“Time’s just…stopped?” Miya gathered from the phenomenon.
“That is precisely what has happened, Aznavorian,” said someone outside their party. The dignified voice belonged to a middle-aged man; it was followed by a subtle slurp. Turning their heads toward the nearby direction from which it came, they spotted a man dressed in a black suit and a matching derby. He sat along one of the trenches, sipping from a teacup in one hand while holding the saucer in the other.
Seana frowned on the man, who was the only other one still capable of momentum. “And who de feck are you?”
After a long sip from his cup, the man answered, “The one who saved your lives.”
“You did this?” Miya gestured towards the petrified battlefield. “What sort of being is capable of such a power?”
“Our species doesn’t believe in labels,” the man responded pragmatically.
“He’s an Imago,” Craig suddenly said.
Miya and Seana looked on their little companion curiously. “A what?” the former queried, seeing the amused smile on his face. “Sweetie, what made you think of that name for our ‘friend’ here?”
“I met a guy like him before,” Craig explained. “He could do cool things like freeze time, too.”
Miya smirked with interest. “And where did you meet this other ‘Imago’?”
“Spoilers” was all Craig could tell her, piquing her curiosity even more.
“Imago,” the man scoffed at the title. “Well, I suppose I have no other choice but to give myself a proper name.” He stood upright whilst still holding his teacup and saucer in hand, not spilling a single drop. “You may address me as ‘Boundary’.”
Seana cringed. “Boundary? Seriously?”
“You call that a ‘proper’ name?” Miya criticized. “Craig came up with a better one than that!”
Boundary shook his head in annoyance. “Mortals,” he grumbled. “I didn’t come here for this frivolous exchange on my name. I’m here because this world you’ve come to is in danger of an evil far greater those within itself.”
“And what would that danger be, Mr. Boundary?” Miya inquired, doing her best to stifle her giggle as she spoke the Imago’s self-given name.
“It’s not in my place to say,” Boundary negated. He then regarded — with disgust — the petrified Titan that was still floating in place near them. “May we continue this discussion somewhere more palpable…like your TARDIS?” He motioned to the time ship that was behind the Titan, now reachable.
Accommodating to his request, the travelers brought Boundary aboard.
Once inside, he continued, “The exploits of the Tinkerer and Gladiator of Gallifrey have spread far and wide across the multiverse. You both have built a reputation that has made higher beings, such as myself, very nervous…and very impressed.”
This bit of information made Miya smile. “Well, that sounds pretty cool.”
“Yes,” Boundary said in a dismissive tone. “And now, those same deities have sent me to ask for your help to keep it in balance.”
“We never needed no gods tellin’ us where ta go ta save worlds,” Seana said. “We’ve done just fine by ourselves.”
“Well, you’ve missed a spot, here and there,” Boundary refuted.
“I really don’t like your tone, Mr. B,” Miya ridiculed with hands on her hips. “But I do care about protecting the worlds of the Infinite DC from inter-dimensional threats. What is it we have to do?”
Boundary took another sip from his teacup, which seemed to have refilled on its own after every consumption. “There’s a special young man who may be key to assisting you — Eren Yeager.”
“Eren?” Craig echoed. “We met a guy named Eren earlier.”
“Yes, that would be the same ‘guy’,” Boundary sneered.
“An’ how’s Eren s’posed ta help us, then?” Seana asked.
“The boy possesses a great power — the ability to transform into a Titan,” Boundary divulged.
Miya profoundly considered this information. “I read something about that in Grisha Yeager’s notes…something about the ‘Subjects of Ymir,’ people descended from Ymir Fritz and her three daughters. Eldians, I think they’re called.”
“You are correct, Aznavorian,” Boundary acknowledged in admiration.
“It was all rather disturbing to read about,” Miya added.
“This world’s disturbing history will save it from the threat that imposes upon it.”
Despite some of the vagueness in this mission objective, Seana came to a final decision: “Alright so, we’ll help. But how’re we s’posed ta, after Eren an’ a few o’ de lads from his world’ve seen our faces?”
“That problem will take care of itself once we’ve gone to a point long before that moment — specifically before Eren discovered his ability,” Boundary settled. He then gingerly nodded his head and, out of nowhere, a neatly-folded pile of clothes materialized in the hands of Seana and Miya.
The two Time Lords examined the provided threads: a light brown, hip-length jacket with an emblem of distinctive wings on both shoulders, the front left pocket, and the center of the back — paired with a light-colored shirt, dark brown sash, white pants, and dark brown knee-high leather boots.
“I assume these are our disguises?” Miya said.
“Yes,” Boundary confirmed. “You will go as members of the Scout Regiment, a branch of the Eldian military. You two will be undercover as Eldians yourselves.”
“Where’s mine?” Craig asked.
“You are not going!” Boundary addressed him with a cold ferocity that betrayed the man’s dignified demeanor. “You are not even supposed to be out of your world, child! You’re just another liable anomaly!”
“HEY!” Suddenly, he found himself at the mercy of an infuriated Miya, who gripped him by the lapels of his suit jacket and glared into his eyes. He could see the fire within the boundaries of her alluring brown irises. “I don’t care what sort of godlike being you think you are! If you ever speak to my little friend like that again, you’re gonna find my size-seven Nikes so far up your ass, you’ll be flossin’ your teeth with the laces! Ya feel me?!”
Boundary was not the least bit fazed by her threat.
On the contrary, he was entertained.
“And there’s the fire we desire from the protectors of the Infinite DC.”
Agneska on Chapter 1 Sat 14 Sep 2024 05:42AM UTC
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Ulterion on Chapter 1 Sat 14 Sep 2024 06:30PM UTC
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Agneska on Chapter 2 Fri 08 Aug 2025 08:04PM UTC
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