Eren and Historia grab onto me for dear life as the massive gusts of steam come towards us with immense force.
"You two! Fall back! You'll be safe, as long as humanity has Eren it won't be much of a loss if you lose me! Let him eat me!" I scream at them.
"Hell no! I need to apologise!" Historia yells back at me.
"Then apologise now while you have the chance!" I wail.
"No! I want you to continue to live! I can't apologise when it's your last moments! It'll end up being for nothing!" She unlocks my ankle restraints and I jolt backwards. Historia and Eren get propelled back at an incredible speed.
"Historia! Eren!" I scream. But just before they crashed into the wall Mikasa came out of nowhere and caught them in both of her arms. I heard the sounds of ODM gear and the rest of my squad land behind me.
"Give me the keys!" Levi shouts to Historia.
"Captain? Everyone..." Jean runs up to me and wraps an arm round mine, unwraping the bandage that held my fingers together. Levi runs up to my other arm and starts unlocking the cuffs. He finishes and I feel and arm wrap round my waist.
"Connie, hurry!" Levi shouts passing the keys down to Connie that had his arm wrapped round me.
"Forget about me! Levi! Get them out of here!" I yell at him.
"Shut up already, you half-naked wuss! We can't focus on the Titan. People are coming after us with guns!" Jean shouts at me. Connie unlocks the chain that was restraining my waist and passes the keys to Jean. He fumbles for the right key and starts unlocking the last restraint.
The massive Titan in front of us began to stand up but it's back hit the ceiling, making it crack and shatter. A bit started falling towards us.
"Look out!" Mikasa yells. Jean unlocks the last restraint and they pull me back to were the wall is. The bit I was just at moments ago gets crushed beneath a piece of the ceiling.
I stood up against the wall, staring death in the eyes.
"Shit, we're completely trapped!" Jean shouts.
I look up at the ceiling that was crumbling still. Should I transform? I could use my powers to make a massive tree to shelter us from the rocks. No, even the tree will be to weak to hold all this up.
Eren starts crying and falls to the ground. "I'm sorry, everyone... I've been completely useless. We were wrong, I was never humanity's way forward. Ezlyn is!"
I look at my feet out of pity and see a bottle. I rolled it over with my toe and it had letters engraved onto it. It read 'ARMOUR'. Armour?
It had purplish liquid in it. I gasp. Is this maybe the thing that lets Titan-shifters obtain the hardening technique? I grasp my Mamas necklace that hung from my neck. I grabbed the bottle and took off the necklace. I secretly slipped it into Jeans pocket and took off.
"Ezlyn! Wait!" A hand grabs my wrist and I turn round to face them. It was Jean. He was holding my necklace in his hand. "What are you doing?!" He wails.
I smile softly. "Look after it for me while I'm gone." I say. I rip my arm from his hand and run towards the Titan.
"Ezlyn!" A voice shouts after me but I take no time to look back and see who it was. I sit the bottle in my mouth and bite into it. The glass shattered in my mouth cutting open my tongue but the luke-warm liquid slips down my throat.
There is a sudden heat and immense strength flowing through me. I land on the ground with a thump and my hands start to emit blue instead of yellow. A crystal-like structure forms around my Titan, the same material as the cavern. But there was a pattern over it, like small, floral patterns.
"Get under Ezlyn and Eren!" I hear Captain Levi shout. Eren? I look to my side and see Erens Titan producing the same material as me. Did he find a bottle like the one I found and followed me?
I the cave ceiling started to buckle under the pressure and burst open. The structure Eren and I made had a ceiling so all the rocks fell ontop of that. Everyone was beneath us safe and sound and unscathed. My vision began to get hazy and my body couldn't do anything else.
_------_
"Ezlyn! Look at what I found!" Eren smiles running up to me two halves of a rock in both hands. Mikasa was trailing behind him.
He showed the rock to me. It had small purple crystals bunched up together on each half. "Wow! This is amazing! Let me just see what this is called." I grab my crystal book and started flipping the pages, looking for one that matched the one Eren had in his hands.
I finally found the one I was looking for. I flip the book round so Eren could see it. I point to the letters. "It's called an 'Amethyst', a semiprecious stone that is often used in jewelry and is the traditional brithstone for february!" I cheer.
_------_
"Ezlyn!" A voice shouts. "Ezlyn!" It shouts again. Light blinds me as fall out of the nape of my Titan. Someone catches me and I'm lifted up into an embrace.
"You stupid brat. You had me worried." Levi hisses in my ear. He lets me go and looks me in the eyes with a glare. "Don't do that ever again." He growls in a low tone.
"Yes, Levi." I say, my eyelids droopy. He pokes my cheek.
"Say awake. Someone else wants to lecture you." He points behind him with his thumb. I slowly lean to the side to look at who he was pointing to. Jean stood there with his arms crossed over his chest and a angry expression spread over his face. Levi gets up. "I'll go wait over there while he lectures you. Don't do anything cringey Horse-face."
"Yes, sir." Jean walks over and sits down in front of me. A scowl on his face. He lifts something out of his pocket and holds it out in front of me. Mama's necklace. "Why did you give me this and run off?" He seeths.
I open my mouth to say something but nothing comes out. Instead of getting angry he grabs my shoulders and pulls me into a hug. Why do people hug me as if I'm a teddy-bear? It's annoying! He holds me in his arms for a while, almost as if time had stopped. I cleared my throat and he quickly let go of me. "Oh, sorry. I was lost in thought."
I raised an eyebrow. "About what?" I query. He freezes and looks up at the ceiling with a hand over his mouth.
"Ezlyn... I've been meaning to tell you something." He says looking down at me.
"Then tell me." I place my chin in my hand. He shudders and looks into my eyes.
"Ezlyn. I've always-"
"Time to go." Levi suddenly sweeps me up off the ground and over his shoulder. I scoff.
"Levi! He was just about to tell me something. And it seemed important." I whine. Levi turns round to face Jean.
"It probably isn't important. Isn't it horse-face." Levi says flatly. Jean jumps up and quickly salutes.
"Y-Yes sir! It wasn't important..." He says the last words sounding a bit hurt.
"See. Now we need to go. We have a giant, feather-less chicken to chase up and take to the slaughter house." Levi turns round and uses his gear to take me up to a hole in the ceiling. Mikasa stood at the top with Eren beside her.
She offers a hand. "Here, Ezlyn." I smirk and take it. She hoists me up out of the hole. The captain and Jean follow shortly behind. Mikasa looks at me. "Eren told me about how your related to him..." She says, trailing off.
I gasp and put my hands up to my mouth. "That means we're sisters?" I muse. She gasps and blushes.
"I guess so..." I wrap my arms round her suddenly out of excitement. She was tense. "E-Ezlyn?" I let go of her and look into her eyes.
"I've always wanted a younger sibling. Especially a sister!" I smile. I felt a hand on my bare shoulder, it was cold. I jump at the freezingness of it and turn to see who it was.
"You and Eren have loads of explaining to do, but we'll do that later when we have time. We need to catch Rod Reiss." Levi says, lifting his hand off my shoulder.
"Yes, sir." I sigh and stand up. "Is there any spare uniform? I'm getting uncomfortable standing out in the open with just shorts and tank-top that are to small for me." I whine. No answer. "Did you-"
I notice what everyone was looking at. There was a massive hole in the gound where the cavern was and just beyond that was a big cloud of steam. Titan steam.
"What the... That's Rod Reiss..." I utter. Levi turns to us.
"Eren and Ezlyn, there should be some spare clothes in the cart. Luckily Sasha brought them just incase." As soon as the words were out of his mouth I was running towards the cart full speed. Eren suddenly was right next to me, running the same pace but more exhausted.
"Last one there is Titan fodder!" I smile playfully. Eren suddenly gets determined and trys to keep the same pace as me. Keyword: trys.
He falls back behind me as I reach the cart. I fling my arms up in the air out of victory. "Your Titan food!" I say as Eren hunches over out of breath, panting for air like a dog.
"Aren't we both Titan fodder? We are in the Scouts, bound to get eaten by a Titan one day." Eren says seriously. My smile falls into an emotionless expression. He wasn't wrong. One day- like Rod Reiss said -these powers will need to be handed down. But I have no clue when.
I jumped into the cart and spotted a woven bag. I rummaged through the contents and found some clothes. I picked out a normal T-shirt and some jeans. I slip the t-shirt over the tank-top and then the jeans went over the shorts.
I chucked the bag over to Eren who looked at me confused and gave me a what-do-I-do-with-this look. I rolled my eyes. "Open it dummy. There are clothes in it." I deadpan. His lips form an 'O' and he opens the bag.
I turn round after hearing foot-steps. Moblit had Hanji's arm slung round his shoulder. She was badly injured, a massive gash could be seen under her collar bone.
"Hanji!" I wail, jumping off the cart to help.
"Ezlyn! Thank god they got you back!" Moblit smiles weakly as I slither an arm under Hanji's. We walk over to the cart again and everyone is just getting ready to leave. Moblit and I hoist Hanji onto the cart and lie her down gently.
Moblit tends to her wounds as Eren, Historia and I settle on the back of the cart, Armin in the coachman spot. Levi, Jean, Connie, Sasha and Mikasa on horses surrounding the cart, protecting us. We were atleast two miles away from he massive Titan but it was so big you felt as if it was close enough to touch it.
I look off into the distance and see a white horse running towards us wih a rider, a tall, blonde rider. Commander Erwin rode up to us.
"Erwin." Levi utters.
"Is everyone all right?" Erwin asks as Armin stops the cart.
"Hanji is our only casualty." Levi explains riding up next to Erwin. Hanji lifts up a hand that was covering the wound, it was covered in crimson liquid.
"It doesn't look life-threatening. Well done, everyone." Erwin says plainly, but he does look worried.
"I've got one hell of a report to give you, but first..." Levi trails off.
"What's that Titan?" Erwin querys, turning to look at the massive Titan, that was crawling towards Wall Sheena.
"It's Rod Reiss." Erwin gasps and snaps round to face Levi. "We're awaiting your orders on this one, Commander." Erwin looks at Eren, Historia and I and were looking at him, waiting for a responce. His face relaxes and turns back to the giant Titan.
"First things first. This isn't the place to plan. Return to Wall Sheena." Erwin orders, jerking his horses reins so it's facing the Titan.
"You're going to let that titanic turd crawl right up to the wall?" The Captain remarks. Erwin glances over his shoulder.
"All the way to Orvud District. That's most likely where it's headed." He turns back round and kicks his horse on. "All soldiers! Retreat back to Wall Sheena!" He yells.
All the soldiers that followed him reply with a 'Yes, sir!' and take off after him. Armin whips the horses that were driving and they take off into a canter.
We rode by the massive Titan that seems to move like a catapillar. It's long arms reaching forward, the ground crumbling beneath its hands as the nearby trees set fire almost immediately.
"So if I have all this right..." Hanji says catching my attention. "Rod Reiss was trying to recover the Founding Titan's power from within Eren and Ezlyn. And that power can't be fully utilized by anybody outside the Reiss bloodline. But when a Reiss is in possession of the Foundin Titan's power, the will of the first king prevents them from liberating humanity from the Titans. Well, now. I wonder why that is. This is the first king's idea of true peace? He must have had a strange way of looking at it." I look at her in awe.
How'd she find out so much already? Was there maybe a book about it?
"What this means is that we still have a choice... If we let that Titan eat me or Ezlyn, Rod Reiss will return to being human. It's still possible to use the true power of the Founding Titan." Eren blurts. I scowl at him.
"What did I say in the cavern. You really are a suicidal bastard." I growl, sitting my chin in my hand.
"You can't..." Mikasa mutters a panicked expression over her features.
"Seems that way." I turn round to look at Levi, a look of disbelief on my face. "We could capture Rod Reiss once he becomes a human and undo the first kings brainwashing. If we could do that, we might find a way to save humanity." I scunch up my face and turn back round, my arms crossed over my chest.
"So, Eren, are you saying you're prepared to take that course of action?" Levi says. He was pointing it at Eren and not me?
"I am." Eren reply's quickly after.
"Eren, no..." Mikasa utters, her protective side kicking in.
"But that's hardly our only option." Historia announces, capturing my intrest. "First of all, there's no way of knowing if it can really work. For example, we don't have any proof it's possible to undo the brainwashing. And even if you can restrain him, once he alters humanity's memories, it's over." Walls, I forgot she was this smart because of Armin and Erwin.
"If you ask me, there are too many things about the Founding Titan that we don't understand yet." Historia finishes.
"Yeah..." Armin mutters. I turn to face him. "Right now, we can't even be sure Rod Reiss will return to normal after he eats Eren or Ezlyn."
"Yeah. Now that the Founding Titan is finally out of the hands of those cowardly pacifists who have had it all this time, humanity finally has a real shot at freedom. Basically, your father and Ezlyn's mother was tryig to save all of humanity from the first king. They stole the Founding Titan's power from my sister and killed all of the other Reiss children because that was the only way forward." Historia adds. I look up at the sky.
"Mama, you've helped us... Thank you." I smile softly.
"Dad..." Eren mutters.
"That's right! We knew Dr. Jeager. He wouldn't do something like that for no reason." Armin says confidently.
Levi hums. "I'm not quite sure about Ezlyn's mother though. First time I met her she quickly assumed Ezlyn had done something bad and hurt her in front of me." My smile falls into a frown remembering that time.
"You met her mother?" Jean asks.
"Yes I did. But, theres no time to explain why."
"Still, Dr. Jeager was there, she must've changed at least. But Armins correct, the four of us knew Dr. Jeager. There must be a way to save humanity without the Reiss bloodline. That's why he left Eren the key to the basement." Mikasa supports.
"What basement?" Sasha asks. She then looks as if she's remembered something. "O-Oh, I remember now! So that was important, was it?" Her voice was quaky and unsure.
"Uh, yeah..." Connie mutters.
"We've finally got a way to plug up the wall. As far as I'm concerned, that's our plan." Jean adds.
"I'm starting to think the same thing." Levi says.
"I agree that it's the best course of action. But are you alright with it, Historia? We can't allow a Titan to roam freely inside the walls. And it's too big to restrain. So," Hanji lifts up her hand and points to the massive Titan. "We'll be left with no option but to kill your father."
There was no response as Historia fixes her gaze on the Titan that was once her father. The sound of hooves filling my ears as the eerie silence grew.
"Eren... Ezlyn. I'm sorry." Historia looks over at us. "When we were under the chapel, I seriously considered becoming a Titan and kill both of you. And I wasn't even going to save humanity. It was because I wanted to believe my father. I didn't want to make him angry at me."
I suddenly feel sympathy for her as I know how that feels. "But it's time for us to say goodbye." She says. I smile at her feelings of revenge. Well, it seemed like revenge to me. After all, that man put her through so much as a kid.
I let a sigh escape my lips as I look up at the sky. Dawn was breaking on the horizon and the birds were waking up.
The amount of change that's happened lately has my mind running a mile a minute. Not even four months ago I was a cadet, clueless about the history of this world, and clueless about my abilities.
This tiny world is going to change immensely... but is it for the better or not?