Unwanted Power: An Armin Arlert Love Story

23. The Real Power

Lexie woke up and groaned at the light, pulling up her arm to cover her eyes. At her groan, Armin, Mikasa and Hannes, who sat next to her, turned to her.

"Lexie." Armin called in relief and got closer. She sat up and adjusted her eyes. She looked around to see Mikasa and Hannes were in the middle of eating, Armin probably was too since a forgotten ration was in the floor. She looked around, some of her comrades were fine, but most soldiers were still injured, Hange was unconscious.

"Did they..." she cleared her throat as the raspy voice she let out. "Did they take Eren?" She asked. Mikasa passed Armin a canteen with water and he offered it to Lexie, she gladly took a couple sips.

"Yes. Reiner took Eren and they took Ymir too." Armin said.

"Historia?" Lexie asked. Armin looked up, Historia was taking care of some of the soldiers.

"Following your steps." Armin said as Lexie followed his gaze too.

"How much time has it happened?"

"Almost 6 hours. Here, your grace." Hannes answered and gave her a ration. "I'm sorry I could only get field rations."

"That's perfect. Thank you." Lexie said with a kind smile, she then looked down at her body, she had a couple scrapes and burns, some ointment has already put on her arms. Historia then approached her.

"I'm glad you're awake. I used the ointment you had in your bag marked as 'Avoids infection'. I hope that was fine, I used on the other soldiers too." Historia said.

"That's good. Thank you, Historia." Lexie said with a smile. She smiled back, squeezed her shoulder affectionately and then moved to help the other soldiers. "What's the plan?" She then asked Armin.

"Lifts are on the way so we can pass the horses to the other side and search of Eren." He replied, Lexie nodded.

"They must have gone somewhere to rest and hide to catch their breath, they can't take on so many titans so they must be waiting for the dark." Lexie said and looked up at the sky. "We can still get to them."

Just then, Commander Erwin arrived on the walls with A LOT of reinforcements. Hange practically dragged herself to ask for a map and tell them where they must have gone, agreeing with what Lexie had said, Hange pointed to a big forest with giant trees. They passed the horses and Erwin explained the plan, the goal was to recover Eren and retreat, nothing more.

"I guess you'll both say no, but I have to ask for you two to stay back." Armin told Historia and Lexie.

"Not a chance. Nice try, though. But I have to save Ymir." Historia said.

"You should know me well enough to know I'm not staying behind." Lexie said.

"I had to try." Armin said. He didn't like the idea of them joining, but there's nothing he could do to stop them. He turned to Lexie. "Be careful." Lexie smiled at him.

"You too." She said back.

Soon everyone was riding, the expedition started with the same method of communicating with smoke signals. After about an hour, they reached the forest, some soldiers surrounded it, but the 104th cadets changed to their ODM gear. Lexie stuck mainly with Historia, feeling the need to keep her new family safe. They noticed the others had stopped and were talking to a titan who was on a tree.

"That's Ymir!" Historia yelled and rushed to the group, Lexie close behind. "Ymir! You're ok!"

But then Ymir jumped, opened her mouth and trapped Historia in it. The movement made Lexie crash against Ymir and fly away. Lexie hit a tree and Armin was the one who caught her against the tree and lowered them both to a branch.