[i]Rain battered Sven’s back, drenching his skimpy Military Uniform jacket and soaking his shirt where the coat cutoff. Underfoot, his boots kicked up slings of muddy water where it had gathered in sinks in the dirt ground.
 
Since joining the Military Trainee Squad, Sven had barely seen his mother. It had been a little over four years since he had signed up. A little over four years of barely speaking to her, or watching little Axel and Diane, his half siblings, growing up. 

Behind him he heard an irritated hiss and the unmistakable sound of his sister flinging out her best string of curses. That was typical Beatrix at her best. A foul mouth and a tough cookie. 

Had she deserved first rank in the 108th Trainee Squad? Maybe. Sven could have easily named a few others who would have done better with the title than his spiteful twin. But her combination of skills had landed her the position and just like any good first ranker, she would be joining the Military Police Brigade. Sven liked to think of his sister as an opportunist; and an opportunist is always on the lookout for themselves.

“Do we really need to be doing this?” She spat from behind him, water projecting from her lips in small, clear, drops as she spoke. 

“Don’t you want to see mom before you go off to live in the lap of the king?”

He couldn’t see her face, but he could almost feel her sneer burning a hole into the back of his head, teasing him because in her mind Sven was childish, clingy. He held onto the memory of a mother he barely saw and would continue to barely see in the future. 

“I’ll be the best lapdog possible, in that case.” She proclaimed, “Besides, I don’t think Albert will be thrilled to see us, do you?”

Sven didn’t answer, the veins on his forehead bulging dangerously. If Beatrix took any notice, she didn’t say anything.

And so the two twins plodded along in silence, each enveloped in their own world as they anticipated the next day, the day of their graduation. The day they would go from Trainees to Titan bait.[/i]

---
[i]The door opened slowly, and Erika pressed herself closer to her brother’s warm shoulder, the small fight from earlier out of each twin’s mind as they anticipated greeting the family on the other side of the door. The woman behind the old wood door was small and aging; her hair was still brown, but her face was gaunt from years of stress and hard living.

Her eyes seemed to glow upon seeing Sven and Erika. 

“Sven,” she whispered, hand reaching up to grasp for messy black hair and instead finding the sleek sheen of Sven’s cropped head. Nonetheless, she snatched his dome, pulling his head down to kiss his forehead. 

Then she turned to Erika and said, “Beatrix,” and rushed to embrace the girl. Only her mother and twin called her that name anymore. Everyone else knew her as Erika. She liked it better that way. 

Erika responded back in the most heartfelt way she could. Military training and her father’s death had made her stoic and aloof, but she put practice into trying to look genial for her mother. 

“Come in, come in,” Charlotte said, waving her hand in great gestures towards the corridor. The twins flashed a look at one another before Sven silently volunteered himself to be their spokesperson.

“We can’t. We have to be back to the ground by morning. We don’t have time to say…sorry.”

Erika could see her mother’s eyes fall. Hopefully Axel and Diane would not choose the same path as Sven and Erika had. It would only break their mother’s heart more.

The minutes after that were filled with rushed conversation about Sven’s haircut and the twins ranking and what small amount of friends they’d managed to make in the past four years. Neither children nor mother dared to speak of graduation; Charlotte had two children that had chosen two very different paths, one for the best, the other…

Not long thereafter the twins set back to the Trainee grounds, hearts filled with anticipation, longing, and maybe a tad of sadness.[/i]

---
Smoke curled in Sven’s nose. He coughed and spat, his saliva blackened with the ash that had floated into his mouth through his nose. All around him soldiers rushed to and fro, frenzied and panicked. Sven himself was hiding in a crippling building; at any moment it was liable to fall and crush him, but he needed to rest for a moment. Thus far he had taken out a total of [i]zero[/i] Titans, but he had come face to face with at least three, and had nearly lost his arm to one particularly clever one. 

His chest was heaving, adrenaline pumping through his body like a fitness enhancing drug. He was excited, he found, much to his curiosity. Excited to die? No. But excitement still buzzed in him finding energy he didn’t think he still had. 

Today he was supposed to become a member of the Survey Corps. Today was the day he was going to dedicate himself to a cause. Today had been the day he and his sister would be separated, maybe for life…

“Vogel,” a rough voice barked, “Snap out of it.”

Looking above him, Sven found a commanding officer hanging from the splintered rafts where the houses roof had once been. The officer was a tall burly man with a head of tight curly hair, and though his face looked familiar, a name escaped Sven’s grasp. There was panic in this man’s eyes, and while he waited for Sven to find his bearing, he directed other young men and women to their death.

“Vogel,” he repeated, his face going blank for a moment, maybe as he comprehended his role in the death of these young people, “Stop hiding…Find as many as possible. You, your sister…Anyone skilled enough and take them to the hole in the Wall. That’s where the rest of ‘em Trainees are going. Might as well send you top tenners to your death, too.”

Sven didn’t respond. He just took off, swinging from rooftop to rooftop, flying by the dead bodies of comrades and fellow classmates. There was no time for response. He didn’t want to be stuck thinking about his possible incoming death. He hadn’t been able to find his sister since the fighting had started. But screw her. Gathering a team was more important…Who from the top tenners could he see?

[i]Dash, Xavier, Jemma,[/i] those were the first that came to mind. And then there were other people to. Ones he had gotten to know, or had stood out among the crowd. Strangely enough, his thoughts went to Adreana, the cooky girl, who was prone to forgetting things…and then there was Aurora, small and sweet and probably tasty to some Titan…

Shaking his head, Sven took off at a faster pace eyes frantic, and hoping he would find someone…