I walk through the streets of Shiganshina, looking for any injured scouts. There's only ten remaining survivors including me, but there's always the possibility of some more unable to alert us due to their injuries, that's why I'm walking along the streets.
We only have one seriously injured soldiers and that's Sasha. She got caught up in a Thunder Spear explosion and shrapnel got her quite badly, that's what Connie told me.
I was also told the reason Armin got so burnt and, it was because he fought the Colossal Titan in a battle of ammunition and Armin figured when Bertholdt uses the steam attack it consumes muscle. He ended up staying for too long and almost killed himself, just so Eren could plug up the inner gate. So, we've reclaimed Wall Maria in a summary, all we need to do is get rid of the Titan's and that's us cleared a path to look for the ocean.
I hear a flare go up behind me and I turn to look at it. A green one, from on top of the wall. Excitement bubbles up inside of me and I start sprinting towards the wall. One thought running through my head.
Armin's awake!
I launch an anchor into a nearby house and pull the lowest trigger on the controller in my hand and the gas activates, sending me flying up into the air. I pull back my hook and fire both of them onto the wall before me and activate my gas again.
I scale the wall at incredible speed and before I reach the top I release my anchors and I fly above the wall by a few meters. My friends that were on the wall already look at me in awe as I fall to the ground. I land with my knee's bent and I stand up, pushing my brown locks off my sticky forehead.
I notice a certain blue eyed blondy staring at me with surprise in his eyes. I smile broadly and walk up to him, hands behind my back. I secretly start creating a Forget-me-not, a commonly found flower in the forest back within Wall Rose.
"E-Ezlyn." Armin stutters as I kneel down and wrap my arm's round him. I keep him in a hug unil the Forget-me-not is ready to be picked.
"I'm glad your alright, Armin." I smile, pulling away from him. I pick the flower by the bottom of it's stem and hand it to my blonde friend. He takes it in his hand and stares at in with a sparkle in his eyes.
"Is this a Forget-me-not?" He grins, looking up at me. I nod curtly, a genuine smile plastered over my lips. He looks back down at the flower. "Thank you."
I chuckle lightly. "No problem." I stand back up and stand next to Connie and Jean. Sasha was still in terrible shape, lying in a sleeping bag next to Armin, sleeping peacefully. No. That's an understatement. She's sleeping tranquilly, in the warmth of a sleeping bag, free from the orders of Hanji Zoe, our new commander, and likely dreaming about food.
"Well, Eren," Levi starts. "Start telling him about everything that happened. I don't want you missing out a single detail." Eren's face falls into a frown and takes in a deep breath.
"So,"
---
A look of sheer terror floods Armin's eyes after Eren explained what happened. I frown and look away. A gust of wind makes my hair fly around my face, adding to the sentiment.
Levi leans over and looks down on Armin. "Well? Up to speed, Armin?" Armin blinks a few times before looking down at the water bottle in his hand.
"Are you telling me... the Survey Corps... is the ten of us here... and that's it?" He doesn''t seem to believe his ears.
"For the time being. The fighting ended four hours ago. We've been looking for survivors, but... none yet..." Jean adds. I pick up my water flask and take a long drink of it. Water hasn't tasted so good in ages. I sit down the flask and let out a sigh of relief.
"S-So, we managed to seal the walls of Shiganshina... But Reiner, the Beast Titan, and one other escaped.. .Bertholdt was captured... Then... there was a dispute... about using the injection on Commander Erwin or me... And I... turned into a Titan and ate B-Bertholdt." Armin's breathing becomes heavy and he suddenly looks as if he's gonna be sick but instead he starts coughing.
Jean gets up and crouches down next to Armin, handing him his flask. "Here." Armin takes it and gulps down the water in large amounts. He lets his hands fall back down onto his lap with the flask and he starts hyperventilating, his blue eyes wide like an owl's pair.
"Why did you pick me? No matter how you look at it, wasn't Commander Erwin the right one to bring back?" He looks up at Levi. "Captain, why did you give me the injection?!"
Levi makes his signature 'tch' and kicks Eren in the back. "I told you to tell him everything." He looks down at Armin as Eren rubs his back. "The thing is, it seems your two friends here didn't think that way. They stood up to me and Ezlyn... prepared to draw blood." He sits his hands on Mikasa and Eren's heads.
Armin frowns and looks at his guilty friends. "Huh?" He breathes.
"We'll take whatever punishment comes." Eren says apologeticly.
"You'll be disciplined for insubordination, but... Does taking the punishment allow you to do anything?" Hanji asks, weaving her fingers into a basket and resting her chin in it.
Eren gulps and looks away. "No..." Mikasa sighs and fidgets with her fingers.
"However... The final decision to choose you was mine. No... I chose this to be the place where Erwin dies." Levi corrects himself. Crossing his arms and looking at Armin out of the corner of his eye.
"I don't understand..." Armin furrows his eyebrows. "There's no way it's okay to let Commander Erwin die... If the commander is gone, how... how will we go on?"
"I agree." Hanji adds. "I thought it should've been used on Erwin... if we're being brutally honest, that is. No... It's a shame we were put in that position in the first place. It made our strong Ezlyn here cry, which is very rare. Infact it made most of us cry. Anyways, Erwin entrusted Levi with the decision to use it. And Levi ended up choosing you. There's nothing more to say. Erwin's life and a Titan's power rest on your shoulders. No matter what anyone says, that's part of who you are now, Armin." Hanji finishes.
I sigh and fall onto my back, gazing at the blue sky above. Watching as the clouds pass by. I zone out, not listening to the conversation anymore. I'm too tired. Too tired to listen to things I've heard about already.
I bring my arm up over my eyes and close them. I let the tears slip from my eyes and roll down my cheeks. I lift my arm and stretch it out above my head. A familiar set of cognac eyes are hovering over me with a look of concern spread over them.
Jean wipes a tear from my cheek with his thumb and gazes into my eyes. "Has anyone told you how pretty your eyes are?" He asks, sounding mesmerised. I feel my ears go red.
"N-No. I don't think so." I stutter, sitting up and wiping my cheeks with my sleeve. But, he continues to look into my eyes.
"Well I'm shocked. They've got deep green on the outside, but as you get to the middle they turn a teal color. It's the definition of beautiful." He smiles. I feel myself go red in the face. I turn away and scoff.
"Please don't tell me your going to steal my eyes and sell them on the Black Market. And anyway's, since when were you so observant?" I look at him out of the corner of my eye.
He snorts. "Don't tell me you didn't know I love drawing." He deadpan's. My eyes widen. Out of all my years of being a soldier, I have never known my best friend likes drawing. I do remember Marco telling me about the drawings of a girl that creepily looks like Mikasa but that was it.
"I- Uh..." My mind raced to find a lie of some sort, but it's too hard to lie to a best friend. "I... never knew." I laugh sheepishly. His features soften.
"Well you know now." He smiles genuinely. Sasha, who was next to us, starts grunting and whining. Her face churning in her sleep.
"Shut up!" She hisses, sweat dripping off her brow. Did she say that to us or the others? I scan the faces of the others until my eyes land on Levi. He had a dark shadow cast upon his eyes. The others were staring at her in shock, meaning she said it to Levi.
I suddenly feel proud of her. I don't have the guts to say that to him. Suddenly Hanji starts laughing. A pure laugh.
"We're no match for Sasha." She sighs, but Levi looked as if he thought otherwise. "Well, being the successor of Erwin as commander of the Survey Corps, we're kinda in the same boat. From here on out, we'll have to grin and bear it."
Armin looks down at thhe ground. "Right..."
"Now then... If it's not a problem for Armin we should get going." Hanji stands up and turns around. "Levi, Ezlyn, Eren, Mikasa, and I will go investigate. You other four keep watch from atop Shiganshina's wall."
"Roger." Connie and Jean say in unison. Hanji turns to Eren.
"Eren, do you still have the key?" She asks. Eren lifts his hand to his chest and grips something under it.
"Yes. Right here." He has a glint in his eye. Confidence and determination swarms his teal orbs.
"Good. Let's go at once while we still have daylight." Hanji walks over to the edge of the wall and I get up. I lean over with my mouth next to Jean's ear.
"Look after Sash and Baldie for me, Jean-boy." I whisper. I stand back up and walk over to the four who were waiting for me. I stand next to Mikasa.
Eren jumps from the wall first and Mikasa follows soon after. Hanji leaps off the wall and Levi does the same. I turn round to my friends that were still on the wall and smile.
I let myself fall back off the wall and I do a 180 in the air until I was facing the others. I pull out my controllers from my hips and and fire an anchor onto a bellhouse. I pull the lowest trigger and my gas activates.
I fly through the air, my hair getting pushed back behind me as wind rushes by me. My cheeks getting cold and rosey as I launch another anchor. The others were not far ahead of me, but I don't mind.
It's probably just past 12 in the afternoon, judging by the sky. You could feel the lunch time vibes in the atmosphere.
Everyone stops and lands at the town center, where it was partially destroyed. Pieces of ash brown armour scattered everywhere and tiny blue fragments of crystal lying about. Some of the nearby houses were caved in and tiles on some roofs are missing.
I'm guessing this is where Eren and Reiner fought, by the looks of it.
"Eren, why did you stop here?" Levi asks, stepping forward. Eren turns round with a pained look.
"It's nearby." He states, his teal eyes glistening. He starts walking away so, Levi Hanji and I follow as Mikasa and Eren guide us.
It'd been a fair five years since I've walked along this route and I've forgotten about it completely. But, I do remember this was the place most of the stalls stood, selling food, drink, and loads of other things to go with.
We turn a corner and start walking down a slim alleyway, full of broken glass and some splatters of blood up the walls. Bones and pieces of fabric occupies the ground we are walking on and I try my best not to step on any of it out of my respect for the dead.
Finally, we reach the end of the stinking path and turn another corner to be greeted by a hill sloping upwards, houses on each side of the path. A small dirtied bear lay on the ground, a yellow one with a red bib round it's neck. The wind howls and the sound of chains rattling echoes around us.
I look up to find an old sign, crumbling at the corners. It said, 'Oliver's Shoe Shop', with Wall Marias crest on it. The door to the shop was bashed in and all the windows are shattered, glass scattered about on the floor below them.
We are very close to Eren's house as I recognise this specific path. Stalls also used to litter this area, selling fish and wines. Ladies and gentlemen talking about their day and buying supply's for their homes roaming the place... Just round this corner is the Jeager Household.
I walk round the corner in what seems in slow motion, and as soon as I pass the corner I can't believe my eyes.
The Jeager Household had been crushed beneath a massive piece of the wall. The roof seemed to have collapsed at impact and pressed the walls down to the ground.
Is this how Carla got trapped?
We walk up the steps and stop at the top of them, looking over at the crumbled house.
"Is this it?" Hanji asks patiently. Two doves that were nesting on top of the rock take off and fly away.
Eren and Mikasa don't answer but they walk up to the house and we follow them. Eren stops and stares at something on the ground with an intense aura.
=
I follow his gaze to find a shoe. A womans shoe. It had blood splatters all over it.
Is this... Carla's?
Hanji sighs and steps forward to look at the house. "Luckily, the fires didn't make it this far.
Eren walks over to a wooden door that was built in the ground. He and Mikasa bend down onto their knees and start wiping rubble off together, in perfect sync.
Eren turns round and faces us. "Right here. Under this are the stairs to the basement."
"Good. Now let's find a way to get this boulder off it first." Levi pointed out the boulder that was half the size of me. I start scanning the area, looking for something that could help us pry the rock off the door.
A couple of pillars catch my attention. The wood was rotting on them but I don't care, I'll do anything to find a reason why so many died today. I jog over to them and pull one out from the rubble with ease. It seems thick and sturdy enough to lift a massive rock.
I lift up one end of the pillar. "Levi!" I shout. He turns to me and I gesture to the wood I had in my hands. "Will this do?" He looks at it for a moment before nodding.
"Eren, Mikasa, help Hanji lift the other one. Ezlyn and I will get this one." He walks up to me and lifts the other end up. He props it up on his shoulder before nodding, telling me I can walk on.
I start walking towards the boulder, the weight of the pillar making my knee's buckle underneath me. If I wasn't so drained of energy, this would be like lifting a pebble. It seemed as if Levi was also having a hard time as the pillar would start shaking for a few seconds.
We reached the boulder and I let the pillar drop into place, hooking it under the rock. Levi pushes the wood with all his might to push the boulder onto of it. I let go of the wood and stand up, brushing my hands together.
Hanji, Mikasa and Eren wobble by, dropping the wood into position. Hanji pushes the pillar under the rock, ready to start pushing it up off the ground. I walk over to the one Hanji's holding up and push the back of it up.
Mikasa and Eren go help with the one Levi was holding. Once we were all in position we all looked at eachother.
"Right, on the count of three we start pushing." Hanji says, sliding her arms around the wood. We all nod in responce and I get into a comfortable position with my strong leg behind me and my not so strong one in the front supporting my weight.
"1," She starts buckling one of her shoulders. "2," I close my eyes ready to start. "3!"
We all start pushing with all our might and the boulder moved a couple of centimeters. I strain my jaw as my back leg pushes me up, the weight of the boulder pressuring my shoulder.
I push myself past my limits and heave the boulder up and it slides off the hatch in the ground.
I let out a sigh of relief and wipe sweat off my sticky forehead with my sleeve. Eren dives down onto the door and starts pushing off more rubble until a golden handle was uncovered. He pulls the handle and opens the hatch.
Concrete stairs that led down to the basement appear right before us. Hanji pulls out her lantern and shines it down the stairs.
"That's a relief. It's not flooded with water." She peers down into it. Levi goes down first and I follow behind.
Once we reached the bottom, a wooden door stood before us with a large bronze padlock hanging from a latch.
"Eren." Levi orders, signalling for his turn to do the work. Eren steps forward with the key in hand.
"Right." He starts pushing the key forward until it reached the padlock. He starts fiddling about, the noise of the key rattling against the bronze. However, this went on for too long and it should take two seconds to unlock something with the right key.
Eren gasps. "What's wrong?" Hanji inquires from next to me.
"Eren." Mikasa utters.
"Hurry it up." Levi pushes, his tone annoyed.
"This..." Eren stutters. "This key... It doesn't go to this door..."
"What?" Hanji mutters.
"You're kidding." I groan, flinging my head back and running my hands through my hair.
"I'm certain that's the ke Dr. Jeager had." Mikasa steps back. Levi walks forward and pushes Eren aside.
"Step aside. I'll open it." He lifts up his foot.
"Huh? Wait-" Levi kicks right through the door, knocking off the padlock. He pulls open the door and we walk inside.
It's pitch black in here so I can't see a thing. Someone lights a candle somewhere and the whole room lights up.
A desk and bookshelves fill the room. The shelves filled to the maximum capacity with books. The desk had papers and an ink jar sitting about.
"It almost feels like a laboratory down here." Hanji says, looking around.
"My dad was a doctor, so he was always cooped up down here mixing medicine." Eren adds. I look to my left to find shelves full of jars that had liquid in them. They all seem to be labeled correctly.
"That makes sense. In fact, if this medicine is all labeled correctl, it's stuff that's widely available." Hanji lifts up a jar to inspect it. "And since all the books here relate to medicine, at first glance, it's just a doctor's study." She sits the jar down and looks around. "'There's nothing suspicious here.' It's like that's what he wants people to think."
"Yeah. If you're hiding stuff from the Interior Police, you wouldn't want it out in the open." Levi sits down two jars and turns round to face us. "Hey, quit standing around, brats. Erwin's hunches are rarely wrong."
"Right." Mikasa, Eren and I reply in unison. Mikasa and I walk over to the desk. I open up one of the drawers. Nothing but papers and envelopes filled it but. I squint my eyes and lift out the papers and envelopes and sit them on the desk.
I run my fingers along the seams of the bottom of the drawer but it doesn't come up. I lean down and look further into the drawer until I see the back of it. Still, nothing.
I place the stuff back in it neatly, the way it was before I touched it and closed the drawer. I turn round to face the concrete wall behind me and run my finger along it.
Dust particles came off it. I managed to inhale them on accident an I got the sudden urge to sneeze.
"Ah, ah, ah! Achoo!" I sneeze loudly, but it was a dry one. The back of my throat hurt. "Bless me." I continue to inspect the wall, without running my hand along it this time.
"Eren..." Mikasa mutters. I turn round and look to where Mikasa was. She was bent down, looking at the side of the desk nearest the wall. "There's a keyhole right here."
My breath catches in my throat and I walk over to where Mikasa leant over. The other three come over as well, Levi shone the light over it while Hanji and I watch as Eren pushes the key into the keyhole. He turns it and a clicking noise sounds through the room.
"It opened." Eren gasps. He pulls out the drawer and nothing is there. "It's empty?!"
I sigh and step forward. "Look closer." I run my fingers along the seams until I feel a hollow bit. "It's a false bottom." I push down the bottom and it comes up. I pull it out and sit it on the desk. Three books sat in the bottom. Red, green and black.
Inbetween the books sat a white cloth that had something in it. Hanji picks it up and sniffs it.
"It smells like peppermint oil and charcoal. Were there treated to keep moisture and bugs away?" She asks.
"Most likely. I once found some in my Papa's study. In the drawers around his paperwork." I reply, picking up the other one and sniffing it. It strongly smelt of peppermint oil and charcoal, making me cough and put it back in the drawer.
"We were looking for something... and these must be it." Levi gestures to the three books now laid out on the table. Eren puts his hand on the cover of the green book, ready to open it.
"I wonder what it was my dad wanted to show me." He looks over at me. I nod for him to open it. Mikasa rests her hand over Erens that was on the book. And they both open it together.
---
We stood upon Wall Rose, looking down on everyone. They were cheering. Cheering for the Survey Corps.
Dawn had broke minutes ago and everyone was awake, cheering for us. Little children waving about flags with the Wings of Freedom upon them.
But I wish, I never saw what was in those books.
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(A/N): Hello everyone. I've created the book cover for the sequel for this story ;D
I'm calling it 'The Wither Titan' because it's the opposite of bloom.
Like Paradis island is learning about the world outside of it so it's basically 'blooming'.
But, once they find out about the outside world it all goes downhill like death's of many important people so they're 'withering'.
I thought it was a good idea, tbh. I'm not really happy with the cover but I am too lazy to redraw it.
Anyways, I'm really hyped for writing the sequel!!! Idk what to do after I finish it though. I might write x reader fanfics, because I can ;0 *cough cough*.
I hope you liked this chapter and I wish to see you in the next, 'Outside the Walls'.
Sayonara