Daniel Cross had come to a depressing conclusion.
The universe hated him.
Not in the ordinary way, either. He wasn't talking about bad luck, unpaid bills, or stepping on something unpleasant while walking barefoot.
No. The universe had apparently developed a personal interest in making his life miserable.
He had died in one world, awakened in another, discovered that he could turn into a giant man-eating monster, and then nearly been killed by a creature that looked as though a butcher had assembled a human being from the wrong instructions.
Now he was apparently the second incarnation of himself.
And somewhere beneath his feet, something was laughing.
"Daniel?"
He blinked.
Arlen was crouching in front of him, looking concerned.
"Can you hear me?"
"Unfortunately."
"Do you know where you are?"
"On the ground. Against my will."
Arlen exhaled sharply.
"He's alive."
"Your disappointment is touching," Daniel muttered.
"I wasn't disappointed!"
"Then you need to work on your facial expressions."
Arlen ignored him and helped him sit against the courtyard wall.
Eren stood a few paces away, watching the iron hatch.
The metal had stopped moving.
That was somehow worse than when it had been moving.
Daniel rubbed his face with both hands.
"Right. Let's establish a few things."
He held up one finger.
"First, I am not going back into that tunnel."
A second finger.
"Second, whatever is underneath that hatch can remain underneath that hatch."
A third.
"Third, if either of you suggests investigating the mysterious underground laboratory filled with nightmare fuel, I will personally introduce you to the concept of walking away."
Eren glanced at him.
"You were the one who wanted to know what was behind the door."
Daniel lowered his hand.
"That was before I knew the door contained a creature with the dental arrangements of a broken bear trap."
"It had teeth?"
"Did you not see it?"
"I saw its mouth."
"That was the teeth department, Eren."
Arlen made a small noise.
Daniel looked at him.
"Are you laughing?"
"No."
"You are."
"I'm not!"
"Good. I'm glad we're finding humor in our impending deaths."
For a brief moment, the three of them simply stared at one another.
Then Eren snorted.
It was brief, almost involuntary, but it was enough to loosen the tension hanging over the courtyard.
Daniel found himself smiling despite the pain.
There.
That was something.
Not safety. Not answers.
Just three frightened boys laughing at something stupid while a monster waited beneath their feet.
It was a start.
Then the system interrupted him.
\[HOST STATUS: CRITICAL.\]
\[RECOMMENDED ACTION: SEEK MEDICAL ATTENTION.\]
Daniel stared at the notification.
"Finally. An intelligent suggestion."
Arlen frowned.
"What?"
"Nothing. We need a doctor."
Eren looked toward the archway.
"There might be one nearby."
Daniel followed his gaze.
Beyond the courtyard, a narrow road wound between abandoned buildings. Farther away, he could hear carts rolling over cobblestones and the distant chatter of people going about their day.
Ordinary sounds.
Beautiful sounds.
Sounds that suggested there were people nearby who had never seen a faceless creature crawl through a wall.
Daniel desperately wanted to join them.
Unfortunately, the large QUARANTINE sign hanging over the courtyard entrance complicated matters.
He pointed at it.
"Before we leave, can either of you explain why this place exists?"
Neither boy answered.
Daniel sighed.
"Of course not."
He pushed himself upright.
Pain tore through his right leg.
He immediately sat back down.
"All right. New plan. We wait for a medical professional to materialize out of thin air."
"That's not a plan," Eren said.
"It's the only one my leg has approved."
Arlen examined the injury.
"The bleeding has slowed, but we can't leave it like this."
"Thank you, Doctor Arlen."
"I'm serious."
"So am I. You have a bright future in medicine, provided you stop treating patients like badly behaved furniture."
Arlen rolled his eyes.
Then he looked toward the street.
"I'll find someone. Stay here."
Daniel grabbed his sleeve.
"Wait."
Arlen stopped.
Daniel lowered his voice.
"We need to agree on what we're going to tell people."
Eren turned from the hatch.
"Why?"
Daniel looked at him.
"Because telling strangers that we escaped an underground laboratory containing an unidentified creature that calls me the Devourer is probably going to create some difficulties."
Arlen nodded slowly.
"He's right."
"Thank you."
"We should tell them we got lost."
Daniel stared at him.
"We got lost?"
"Yes."
"In a restricted underground facility?"
Arlen hesitated.
"Perhaps we got lost somewhere else."
"Your talent for deception is extraordinary."
Eren folded his arms.
"Then what do you suggest?"
Daniel considered the question.
He needed medical attention. They needed to get away from the courtyard. And he needed to figure out why Eren had appeared in a place that shouldn't exist.
Most importantly, he needed to keep his Titan abilities a secret.
If people discovered that he could transform into a Titan, he had no idea what would happen.
He remembered the world he had entered.
Titans were humanity's greatest enemy.
A person who could become one wouldn't automatically be welcomed as a hero.
He might be viewed as a weapon.
An abomination.
A threat that needed to be eliminated before it became uncontrollable.
Daniel had no intention of finding out which interpretation would win.
"We tell the truth," he said.
Arlen stared at him.
Eren raised an eyebrow.
Daniel continued.
"We were exploring a disused passage. Something collapsed. We got injured. We escaped through a maintenance hatch."
"That's not the whole truth," Arlen pointed out.
"No. It's the truth that won't get us locked in a cage."
Eren considered this.
"Fine."
He looked at the hatch.
"But we're coming back."
Daniel slowly turned toward him.
"I'm sorry. What?"
"We need to know what's down there."
"Absolutely not."
"It knows my name."
"And that is precisely why we should leave it alone!"
Eren's jaw tightened.
"What if it follows us?"
Daniel opened his mouth.
Nothing came out.
For once, the boy had made a reasonable point.
The creature had called him the Devourer.
It had also recognized Eren.
Whatever lay beneath the courtyard was connected to both of them, and walking away wouldn't necessarily make that connection disappear.
Daniel hated when reality forced him to acknowledge inconvenient facts.
"We'll discuss it later," he said.
Eren looked dissatisfied but didn't argue.
That worried Daniel more than an argument would have.
They left the courtyard through the archway.
The road beyond it led into a district Daniel didn't recognize.
Old buildings crowded the narrow streets, their upper floors leaning over the road as though they were sharing secrets. Laundry hung between windows. Shopkeepers shouted prices at passing customers, while children chased a wooden hoop through the mud.
The smell of fresh bread drifted from a bakery.
A man cursed at a stubborn horse.
Somewhere, a woman laughed.
Daniel stopped walking.
For several seconds, he simply watched.
This was the world he had wanted to see when he first arrived.
Not the underground passages. Not the monsters. Not the endless mysteries.
People.
Ordinary people living ordinary lives beneath the walls.
The sight reminded him that the world wasn't merely a setting for some grand supernatural conspiracy.
It was home to millions of people who had no idea what was coming.
And unlike Daniel, they didn't have the luxury of knowing that Titans were real.
He swallowed.
He couldn't save everyone.
He knew that.
But perhaps he could save some.
The thought frightened him more than he expected.
Because once he started trying, he wasn't sure he would know when to stop.
"Daniel."
He turned.
Eren was watching him.
"What?"
"You're limping."
"Excellent observation. Have you considered joining the military police?"
Eren frowned.
"Why do you keep making jokes when things are bad?"
The question caught Daniel off guard.
He looked away.
"Because if I stop, I might start screaming."
Eren didn't laugh.
Neither did Arlen.
For once, Daniel wished he hadn't answered honestly.
He cleared his throat.
"Come on. Let's find that doctor."
They hadn't walked fifty meters before a man stepped into their path.
He was broad-shouldered, perhaps in his forties, with a neatly trimmed beard and a dark coat that looked too expensive for the neighborhood.
Two younger men stood behind him.
Both wore plain brown uniforms.
The older man examined Daniel's bloodstained clothes, then glanced at Eren and Arlen.
His gaze lingered on the dirt covering their boots.
"Where did you boys come from?"
Daniel smiled politely.
"An unfortunate afternoon."
The man didn't smile back.
"I asked where you came from."
"An unfortunate afternoon in a rather unpleasant location."
Arlen closed his eyes.
Eren muttered something that sounded suspiciously like a curse.
The man's expression hardened.
"Names."
Daniel's stomach tightened.
He had been expecting questions.
He hadn't expected them this quickly.
"Daniel Cross."
"Arlen."
"Eren Jaeger."
The older man's face changed.
It was subtle.
A tightening around the eyes.
A slight shift in his posture.
But Daniel noticed.
So did Eren.
"You said your name was Eren Jaeger?" the man asked.
Eren lifted his chin.
"Yes."
The man stared at him for another moment.
Then he turned to one of his companions.
"Fetch the registrar."
The younger man hurried away.
Daniel's heart began to pound.
"Excuse me," he said. "We're actually looking for a doctor."
"You'll receive medical attention."
"Wonderful. Can we receive it somewhere that doesn't resemble an interrogation?"
The man ignored him.
He looked at Eren.
"How old are you?"
"Fifteen."
"Where were you born?"
"Shiganshina."
The man's expression darkened.
"Impossible."
Eren took a step forward.
"What did you say?"
"I said it's impossible."
"Why?"
The man looked at Daniel.
Then at Arlen.
Then back at Eren.
"Because Eren Jaeger is already registered."
Silence.
Daniel felt something cold settle in his stomach.
Arlen shook his head.
"That doesn't make sense."
The man reached into his coat and produced a small notebook.
He opened it.
A name was written across the page.
EREN JAEGER.
Below it was a date of birth.
The date was different from the one Eren gave.
Daniel leaned forward.
"Where did you get that?"
"Official registry."
"Then your registry is wrong."
The man closed the notebook.
"Or you're lying."
Eren's hands curled into fists.
"I'm not lying!"
"Then explain how two boys can have the same name, the same place of birth, and the same parents."
Daniel went still.
The man's words echoed through his head.
The same parents.
He looked at Eren.
Eren looked genuinely stunned.
"I have one mother and one father," he said.
The man studied him.
"So does the other Eren Jaeger."
For a moment, nobody spoke.
Then Daniel felt the familiar blue flicker in his vision.
\[ANOMALOUS RECORD DETECTED.\]
\[IDENTITY CONFLICT: EREN JAEGER.\]
\[RECORD A: ACTIVE.\]
\[RECORD B: ACTIVE.\]
\[WARNING: BOTH RECORDS ARE VALID.\]
Daniel's blood ran cold.
Both records were valid.
Not one genuine and one forged.
Not one correct and one mistaken.
Both.
The system had just confirmed that the world recognized two versions of the same person.
Daniel swallowed.
"Sir," he said carefully, "where is the other Eren Jaeger?"
The man studied him for several seconds.
Then he answered.
"Shiganshina."
Eren went pale.
Daniel's thoughts raced.
If another Eren was living in Shiganshina, then who was the boy standing beside him?
A clone?
An alternate version?
Someone from another timeline?
Or had Daniel's arrival somehow created a second Eren Jaeger?
None of the possibilities made sense.
And Daniel was beginning to suspect that making sense was no longer a requirement for reality.
The man gestured toward the two uniformed guards.
"Take them to the registry office."
Daniel raised both hands.
"Now, hold on. We're injured. We need medical attention."
"You'll receive it after your identities have been verified."
"That sounds suspiciously like imprisonment with extra paperwork."
One of the guards grabbed his arm.
Daniel nearly collapsed.
"Careful!" Arlen shouted. "He's injured!"
The guard loosened his grip.
For a brief moment, Daniel considered transforming.
He could probably escape.
Possibly.
But he couldn't control the transformation reliably, and the system had already warned him that his current physiology was unstable.
If he transformed here, surrounded by ordinary people, he could crush half the street.
He forced himself to remain still.
The guard helped him upright.
Eren stepped forward.
"Don't touch him."
The second guard reached for his weapon.
"Stand back."
Eren didn't move.
Daniel caught his sleeve.
"Eren."
"They're treating us like criminals."
"Yes. And I would prefer not to become a criminal with a broken leg."
Eren glared at the guard.
Then, reluctantly, he stepped back.
The older man watched the exchange with growing suspicion.
"Interesting," he murmured.
Daniel didn't like the way he said that.
Not one bit.
The registry office occupied a stone building near the district's central square.
It smelled of ink, damp paper, and old furniture.
Daniel was given a chair and a cup of water. A local physician examined his leg, wrapped his ribs, and declared that he needed proper rest.
Daniel considered kissing the man's hand.
Instead, he settled for thanking him.
The physician left.
The guards remained.
Eren sat opposite Daniel, his arms folded across his chest.
Arlen stood beside the window, watching the street.
Nobody spoke for several minutes.
Finally, Daniel broke the silence.
"So."
Eren looked at him.
"So?"
"Any chance you have an identical twin you forgot to mention?"
"No."
"A cousin who looks exactly like you?"
"No."
"A secret underground cloning facility?"
Eren stared.
Daniel sighed.
"Had to ask."
Arlen turned from the window.
"What if it's connected to the tags?"
Daniel reached into his pocket and placed both metal tags on the desk.
The guards immediately straightened.
The older man, who had introduced himself as Inspector Vale, approached the table.
He examined the tags without touching them.
"Where did you get these?"
Daniel hesitated.
"One was found underground. The other was already in Eren's possession."
Vale's eyes narrowed.
"Underground where?"
"An abandoned passage."
"Which passage?"
Daniel smiled weakly.
"The one with the monster."
Vale didn't react.
That was somehow worse than if he had laughed.
He picked up a sheet of paper and wrote something down.
Then he left the room.
Arlen waited until the door closed.
"Do you think he believes us?"
"No," Daniel answered.
"Then why did he leave?"
"Probably to arrange a more comfortable prison cell."
Eren leaned forward.
"We should escape."
Daniel stared at him.
"That's your solution to everything, isn't it?"
"If they won't let us leave, yes."
"And what happens when we escape and the entire district starts hunting us?"
"We don't get caught."
"Brilliant. Why didn't I think of that?"
Eren's expression hardened.
"You always have something to say."
Daniel stopped smiling.
"And you always want to run straight at the problem."
"At least I do something!"
The words struck the room like a slap.
Arlen looked between them.
Daniel slowly stood.
His injured leg protested, but he ignored it.
"You think I don't want to do something?" he asked quietly.
Eren didn't answer.
"You think I'm enjoying this? I woke up in a world where I know people are going to die. I've seen things that shouldn't exist. I've discovered that the history I remember might be a lie, and now I'm apparently a failed experiment with a previous version of myself somewhere out there."
He took a breath.
"And I can't even walk properly."
The room fell silent.
Daniel looked away.
"Believe me, Eren. I want to do something. I just don't want to make things worse because I'm too angry to think."
For a moment, Eren seemed ready to argue.
Then his shoulders dropped slightly.
"I hate being trapped," he said.
Daniel looked at him.
"I know."
"No, you don't."
The words came out quietly.
Too quietly.
Eren stared at his hands.
"Everyone keeps telling me what I can't do. Where I can go. What I'm supposed to be. And now there's another me somewhere, living my life."
He looked up.
"What if he's the one who's real?"
Daniel had no immediate answer.
Because that was the first time Eren had sounded less angry than afraid.
Daniel sat back down.
"I don't know."
He paused.
"But I know you're sitting here. You're thinking. You're scared. You're angry. You're making terrible decisions and arguing with people who are trying to help you."
Eren frowned.
"What's that supposed to mean?"
"It means you're real enough to be annoying."
Arlen snorted.
Eren stared at Daniel for a moment.
Then he laughed.
Not much.
Just once.
But it was enough.
Before Daniel could say anything else, the door opened.
Inspector Vale returned carrying a thin folder.
He placed it on the desk.
"I've spoken with the central registry."
Daniel looked at the folder.
"And?"
Vale opened it.
Inside were several official documents, each bearing Eren Jaeger's name.
Birth records.
Family registration.
A medical certificate.
Even a school attendance record.
Daniel recognized the dates.
They were consistent with the life Eren was supposed to have lived.
Then Vale removed another document.
The paper was older.
Its edges were yellowed, and a red stamp marked it as restricted.
He placed it beside the others.
"This record was recovered from a sealed archive several years ago," he said. "It was never entered into the public registry."
Eren leaned forward.
"What does it say?"
Vale hesitated.
Then he read aloud.
"Subject designation: Eren Jaeger. Status: transferred. Parentage: Grisha Jaeger and Carla Jaeger. Date of birth: identical to the existing record."
Daniel felt his skin crawl.
Vale continued.
"Final notation: subject removed from the program following the disappearance of the first Devourer."
Nobody moved.
Daniel stared at the document.
The first Devourer.
His supposed previous incarnation.
The same person he had seen in the corrupted memory.
The older version of himself who had smiled and welcomed him back.
Daniel swallowed.
"Inspector," he said slowly, "where was this archive found?"
Vale looked at him.
"Below the old quarantine district."
The room seemed to shrink.
Outside, a bell rang in the square.
A cart rattled over the cobblestones.
Someone shouted at a passing dog.
Ordinary life continued, utterly indifferent to the fact that Daniel's understanding of reality was collapsing.
Vale closed the folder.
"I don't know what you boys found down there," he said. "But whatever it was, the authorities have been trying to bury it for years."
He paused.
"And now it appears to have found you."
Daniel looked at Eren.
Eren looked back.
Neither of them spoke.
Then the system activated.
\[ARCHIVAL CONNECTION ESTABLISHED.\]
\[NEW OBJECTIVE GENERATED.\]
\[OBJECTIVE: LOCATE THE FIRST DEVOURER.\]
\[PRIMARY CONDITION: DETERMINE THE STATUS OF THE PREVIOUS INSTANCE.\]
\[SECONDARY CONDITION: PRESERVE THE HOST'S IDENTITY.\]
\[FAILURE CONSEQUENCE: HOST IDENTITY MAY BE REPLACED.\]
Daniel stared at the final line.
May be replaced.
He read it again.
Then he looked at the two Eren Jaeger records on the desk.
For the first time, he understood that the greatest danger might not be dying in this world.
It might be discovering that he had never truly belonged to it.
And that somewhere in the dark, something was preparing to take his place.
End of Chapter 10.