(3rd POV)
Jeans knees gave out beneath him as he watches his best friend get devoured by a Titan.
Blood is flying everywhere and a single leg falls from its mouth.
"It, can't be..." Jean stutters. He suddenly remembers his friends last words and it repeats over and over again. 'Go be a Hero.' He gets up and grabs the young girl that was next to him and runs.
Her eyes wide open in fear, staring at the severed leg that's lying on the ground. "I- I'm sorry... you're friend died because of me." She cry's, her hand over her mouth as Jean runs to find his horse.
"Don't blame yourself... you're only a child." Jean answers, holding back his tears. He made quite a strong bond with Ezlyn, same with Marco. A pang of guilt hit him, how was he supposed to tell Marco why she died. Ezlyn sacrificed her own life for his own.
Jeans horse was in view now and he raced towards it. He gets to his horse and sits the little girl on the front of the saddle and jumps on behind her. He grabs the reins and kicks the horse forward into a canter.
Jean and the small girl canter past many people who are grieving next to pieces of the wall that have blood and limbs sticking out from under them. "Poor people." Jean whispers under his breath.
Children of all ages crying for their parents and upset Mothers and Fathers looking for their children in the crowd of panicked people.
They race towards the outer gate and arrive moments later. "Right, head out of the gate and look for you're parents okay. You'll be safe out there." Jean says as he gets off his horse and lifts the girl down from the horse and onto her feet. The girl nods briefly and runs as fast as she can out the gate.
"Cadet!" An instructor runs up behind Jean and taps him on the shoulder. Jean spins around and salutes to his supreme officer. "All cadets have been summoned to HQ for orders from Captain Weilman. The rear guard will take over from here."
"Yes, Sir!" Jean reply's quickly, holding his salute in place. "I wish for the rear guards victory and success."
The instructor nods briefly. "Thanks, now go Cadet!" The instructor runs past him and Jean breaks his salute and uses his gear to get to HQ.
He attaches one of his lines to a house and runs atop of it in the direction of HQ as fast as he can.
He fights back his tears from reminding his self that he could've saved Ezlyn but he just stood and watched like he was a spineless coward. Now he has a heavy weight on his back, and can't shake it off.
He lands at the HQ gates and runs through them into the courtyard, were loads of Cadets and members of the Garrison stand in lines. Just as the Captain begins to speak Jean slips into the lines of terrified Soldiers.
"You all have grown to be fine soldiers, and I expect you all to fight you're hardest and overcome this problem! As you all know the Colossal Titan has appeared and breached the wall! We are now in a situation when the Armoured Titan can appear at any moment and break the other gate and we lose wall Rose." The captain yells with a stifling expression on his face. "Now split into you're respective squads as you did in training! Under the command of the Garrison, you will carry out supply support, intelligence communication, Titan clean up, and so forth!" He continues. Everyone around is close to crying or is very pale. "The Garrisons interception squad will take the vanguard section! The training corps under our commander will take responsibility for the middle guard section! The Garrisons elite squad will take the rearguard section! Note that, according to reports, the vanguard has already been wiped out!" Everyone's faces went an even paler colour at hearing this news. Jean began to break sweat.
"The outer gate has been breached and the titans are invading this town! We're currently intercepting at the vanguard section! This defence operation consists of a single objective: to defend wall Rose to the last until the evacuation of the residents is complete! Finally though I'm sure you're all aware, fleeing before the enemy is a capital crime! Steal your will and offer your lives! Dismissed!" Captain Weilman Finishes finally.
"Yes Sir!" Everyone shouts at once and the crowd disperses, running to their squads.
Jean stands in place and rubs his forehead. "Why did this have to happen today. I've lost Ezlyn and I was going to be in the safety of the interior tomorrow." He hisses under his breath.
Dazs' hand flys over his mouth and he fell to his knees. "Ezlyn, died already. She's top of our class. If she has died already we're all doomed." Dazs' hand falls to the ground and he starts emptying his breakfast onto the floor.
Marcos face goes pale and a blonde girl named Krista starts rubbing Dazs' back with her hand. "Are you Okay Daz?" She asks with her sweet voice. Daz looks up for a second but goes straight back to puking on the ground.
Marcos eyes begin to water and he starts shaking with grief. "Ezlyn, died." He mutters before full on crying and falling down to his knees.
Jean takes a look at his grieving friend and holds back his tears. He clicks his tongue and storms down the open corridor, full of rage.
People are sat along the corridor, head in their hands and crying to themselves. Worrying if they're going to survive or not.
"No, no, no, no no." Mutters a girl, cradling herself, rocking back and forth.
Jean suddenly bumps into Eren and hurts his forehead. He grimaced at him before saying: "Outa my way." Jean try's barging past Eren but Eren stops him.
"What's wrong Jean?" He asks Jean. Jean turns to face him and gives him a disgusted look.
"'What's wrong?' Don't give me you're reckless bullshit, you damn lunatic!" Jean yells at him. "You want to enlist in the survey corps, so you're prepared to become Titan food whenever. But I was gonna be within the inner walls by tomorrow, you know! And I just lost my Best friend so don't ask me what's wrong!"
"Calm down!" Eren shouts at him.
"Are you telling me to calm down and go get killed!"
"No!"
Eren puts on an agitated look and grabs Jeans collar and pushes him up against a pillar. "Think back!" Eren growled at Jean. "About the three years we put our blood and sweat into!" He starts. Jeans face contorts into a surprised look from Eren's outburst. "About all the countless brushes we've had with death. There are even some who have actually died! Those who have ran or been driven out too. But we made it through alive! Didn't we!?" Eren continues, his eyes full of passion and anger. "We're sure to make it through this time, as well."
Everyone that was sat in the corridor lifted their heads up to look at this person that was spouting inspirational words from their heart.
"You're gonna survive today and be within the inner walls tomorrow, right?" Eren says to Jean. He releases Jeans collar and relaxes himself. Jean has a shocked look painted on his face. Eren sighs. "Have you seen Ezlyn anywhere, we need her for the emergency squad."
Jeans face goes blank. He mutters something under his breath and nobody heard him. "Huh? What was that?" Eren asks, cupping his hand around his ear.
Jeans eyes fill with pain as he prepares to tell one of Ezlyns childhood friends that she's died. "A Titan managed to get a hold of her." Jean blurts, and Erens face suddenly goes blank.
Jean breaks down again and slides down the pillar to the floor. He couldn't hold back his tears anymore, he had to let them out.
"Tch, this is no time to grieve for our fallen comrades... we need to avenge them instead, so get up Jean and stop crying!" Eren yells, choking back his own tears and hurt. Eren grabs Jeans arm and lifts him to his feet. Jean looks into his eyes and they are full of pain he was holding back.
Eren clicks his tongue again and walks over to a vulnerable Mikasa and his hand sits on her shoulder comfortingly. "Hey, don't be upset. I don't think Ezlyn has really died yet. If you think about it, I bet she's still alive." Eren says to Mikasa soothingly, although he's also doubting the fact that Ezlyn is alive.
Mikasa wipes the tears away from her cold blue eyes and looks up at Eren. "Eren, promise me. When the fighting becomes chaotic come find me." She places her hand atop of Erens.
Eren looks at her full of confusion. "Huh, but we're in different squads." He takes his hand off her shoulder and back down to his side.
She leans forward. "Depending on the situation, things might not go according to procedure. I will protect you."
Eren gets a bit angry at her. "What the hell are you—"
"Cadet Ackerman." The squad leader of the elite squad walks up behind Eren. "You've been specially assigned to the rearguard. Come with me."
Mikasa steps forward. "W-With my skills I'll only be a burden!" Eren turns to look at her with shock on his face.
"I'm not asking for your opinion. Right now, with the evacuation lagging, we need as many elites near the residents as we can get." He turns and begins to walk away.
"B-But—"
She was cut off by Eren head butting her forehead. "Hey!" Eren yells in her face.
She winces and her hand hovers over her forehead.
"That's enough Mikasa. We can't afford you getting panicked! This is a crisis with mankind's fate on the line! How can you be prioritising what you want?!" Eren thundered, his voice enraged.
Mikasa looks up at him with realisation and then looks down at the ground in guilt.
"Sorry, I wasn't thinking clearly." She mutters. Eren goes to walk away but Mikasa takes his arm in her hand. "But I have one request." She asks. Her face darkened and she stared at the ground. Eren turns to face her.
"Don't die." She says in a low tone.
Eren rips his arm out of her grasp and walks away towards his squad.
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A/N; Ohayo/Obankawa I'm glad you have made it this far... and I've noticed my story has been getting a couple views which I'm surprised that people are actually interested in this story. Anyways, Cya in the next Chapter(hopefully.) Sayonara.