You all fired at Reiner simultaneously, the power of more than a dozen thunder spears being more than enough to blow his nape clean off. Just like when Eren first transformed, Reiner's body floppingly emerged from the neck, half the top of his head missing...
You stared at him with your mouth agape, not really able to process the possibility that he was actually gone.
"We did it!", Hange's squad members cheered in ecstasy. "We blew his head off!". They were all celebrating; hugging each other as they looked at his limp body with grinning faces. This was all you ever wished for... for 5 years.... Yet, you couldn't move an inch. You couldn't even smile. You didn't even feel the closure you thought you would feel.
'It's like it's too good to be true... After everything I've seen, not even a severed head is convincing enough. They always find a way to come back and haunt me....'
Jean laughed a in disbelief.
"We did it... You were such a pain in the ass for us. Serves you right, scumbag!"
You didn't even turn to look as you heard Sasha and Connie sniffle to your right, about to fully cry over Reiner's passing.
"What the hell are you guys crying for?!", judging by the sound of it, Jean had grabbed a hold of their clothing, yanking them up off the ground to face him.
"J-jean!", Marco was just about to see how you were doing when Jean's excessive shaking of the dynamic duo had him worried Jean would shake out all the braincells left in those heads of theirs. He hurried over to him, mind set on deescalating the situation.
"This isn't over yet! C'mon, get up! Don't cry! We're the ones who killed him!", Jean's voice got more and more choked up the longer he went on. It was clear that beneath his mask and role of leadership, he felt the same way as the two; trying hard not to show it.
"Hey, Jean... It's okay", Marco helped him release Sasha and Connie carefully, before wrapping an arm around Jean's shoulders, letting him find the comfort he needed to be able to carry on, in his best friend.
You're eyes had still not broken their gaze away from Reiner.
"It's not over! Ready your equipment for the next round!", Hange ordered. This authoritative command, however, were enough to force your body to move again, and you were just about to turn your gaze away when the titan's jaw moved.
"No wa-"
His titan roared with all his might, the scream having the same tone of desperation as he had when he almost lost to Eren after they revealed their identity.
"I fucking knew it was too good to be true", you muttered to yourself as your eyes narrowed. As his scream faded, his titan-vessel fell limp down to the ground. It seemed he were too weak to do anything himself, which would be a good thing, had he not just blown any chance you had at keeping his defeat under the radar for his friends on the other side of the wall.
"Nail him with the thunder spears! We'll just have to blow his body to bits!", Hange commanded, but your focus was elsewhere.
"Armin! Up there!", you pointed up at a tiny speckle in the sky, flying in from the direction of the Beast titan and his mysterious little helper with the crates on its back. He gasped. As expected, he had already thought along the same lines as you, remembering the similar cry for help Reiner made last time.
"Wait! We need to get away from Reiner! Up there! The Colossal Titan is coming!", he pointed in the same direction as you had. "We'll all get blown away!".
You turned at your heels immediately. Whilst almost strutting forwards with determined steps, you grabbed a hold of Sasha and Connie's shirt collars with one hand and Marco and Jean's in the other, yanking them up from their seated positions, giving them the extra push needed to get out of their shocked state. "Go! Now!", you yelled at them as you activated your gear, all of you hurrying away from Reiner as fast as you could.
You eyed the crate intently as you continued to move forward. Considering your current distance from him there was no way you'd ever make it if he chose to transform.
'Shit, shit, shit'
But to your surprise, the crate opened, and Berthold exited it without turning.
"Reiner!", he shouted as he fell down towards his titan form, landing on Reiner's shoulder.
"Stop here!", Hange declared, pointing at a couple of rooftops. "In any case, our mission objective came falling into our laps. You could even call this lucky...".
"Target approaching from ahead!", Moblit reported as he scouted. "It's Bertholdt!"
"Our plan is as follows: Levi Squad protects Eren under Armin's command! All others work together to take down the two targets!", Hange decided, her team advancing at once. "Y/N", she simply stated your name and motioned for you to follow. She hadn't forgotten her promise to let you kill Reiner should the opportunity arrive; and now it had. The rest looked at you confused for a second and Marco reached his hand out to grab at your arm as you took a step in Hange's direction. You turned to him with a smile.
"Don't worry guys. She's just helping me finally get some closure around this... issue... of mine. I'll be right back". You shot them a sincere, closed eyed smile, feeling a slight breeze flow through your hair. Marco didn't like the idea of being separated from you, in fact it made him nauseous. But as he watched your smile he couldn't let himself be the one to stop you from reaching your goal. It wasn't his decision to make.
You reached out your hand and covered his pin with your palm, feeling his heartbeat. He took a deep breath, doing the same to you while plastering on a smile as wide as he could muster; but it wasn't bigger than a smirk as his worried expression overshadowed it.
Not wanting to keep Hange waiting any longer, you turned around after looking at your friends one more time, running over to her before activating your gear. The two of you didn't even manage to get more than ten metres away before Armin caught up with you.
"Wait!"
"Armin?"
"This is our final chance to negotiate!", his expression were serious. Hange seemed unsure, but you had witnessed Armin manipulate Bertholdt before. If there was anyone out here that could get into Bertholdt's head, it was Armin.
"Do what you must Armin. You can do it!", you encouraged and he nodded as he separated from you, heading in Bertholdt's direction.
"I don't know if talking will do any good in this situation...", Hange pondered.
"Who knows... I'm not too hopeful it'll solve anything either, but it'll at least buy us some more time?", you argued in Armin's favour.
"I guess you're right", she said after thinking about it.
It took a little while to get to Reiner, but you could finally spot him down the street from you.
"Hurry! The Armoured Titan is weak! Let's finish him off!", one of Hange's team members yelled from further ahead of you; but something you could not spot yet, was that Reiner's neck was no longer exposed. It hadn't healed, so he was still limp, but he had placed himself on his back, blocking off your previous clear view of his nape. There was little to no way of getting to him now.
"Wait! Bertholdt; He's going upwards!", Hange noticed his tiny figure up above.
"But I thought Reiner was right over there! He'll kill him too?!", Moblit exclaimed in confusion. Why would Bertholdt transform if Reiner were in his line of fire?
"Quick, get out of here!", Hange screamed out for all to hear before looking over at you with apologetic and helpless eyes as golden light illuminated everything surrounding you.
"Y/N, I'm sor-"
Burning hot air overtook your senses as the glowing light intensified.
*3rd person POV*
The whole city lit up as Bertholdt's transformation made a dome of golden, sizzling hot lighting in the middle of it.
*Boom*
An additional vast explosion sent powerful gusts of burning wind across town. The fire and intensity of the blow crushed all the houses in the dome's vicinity, everything crossing its path getting utterly destroyed; turning to dust.
Eren had to shield his friends as they held onto his titan form for dear life, trying not to get swept away by the warm gusts reaching them. They had never seen anything like it; never had Bertholdt's transformations triggered such intense explosions.
"You guys alive?!", Jean manage to cough out the second the eruption calmed.
"I don't know! Are you?!", Connie answered strained.
"I-I'm hanging in there", Sasha answered them, choking on some of the smoke.
Mikasa and Armin joining them had them let out a strained breath of relief. They though the two had been caught up in the explosion.
The only one who hadn't said anything were Marco, who hurriedly, with shaking limbs climbed up the nearest rooftop, desperately scouring the area of the eruption.
"Wait... Hange Squad", Jean started, stopping himself as he watched Armin and Mikasa's faces drop. "Y/N...", he managed to squeak out as the realisation hit him. Marco flinched at the name, his heart already feeling like it had sunk to the pit of his stomach. He could barely breathe as he spotted nothing ahead of him. Nothing but scorched houses and grounds.
"They where too close to Berthold...", Armin's voice was somber and shaking as bad as Marco's body, none of them knowing how to react as the realisation that their close friend were gone struggled to settle. It didn't feel real, yet they felt like they were on the verge of collapsing to the ground in a pool of their own tears, screaming out for you to come back to them.
Marco fell to his knees with a thud, not able to keep his trembling legs standing anymore. The rest looked up at him after hearing the sound of his knees hitting the rooftile, Jean finding enough strength to join him by his side; though not ready to talk to him as he himself didn't know if he could keep his own emotions at bay to provide Marco the proper support he needed.
As the thick, black smoke ascending from the centre of the burning circle got caught in the breeze, Bertholdt's Colossal form were finally visible, and what a sight it was. He arose from the burning buildings beneath him, getting up to his feet, leaving him peering 60 metres above the squad.
"You don't think... the only ones who survived... is us", Connie said weakly, barely even believing those kinds of words were coming out of his own mouth. Marco clenched the tiles beneath his fingers harder, refusing to believe it, half-choked sounds leaving his mouth as he struggled to keep himself together.
"No, not her", Sasha wept, leaning onto Connie as he joined in on the tears. Jean covered his ears, pressing his palms as hard as he could against them with a pained expression.
Berthold started moving, grasping a handful of burning houses, throwing them in different directions to spread the fire.
"Armin! What now?!", Jean demanded to know after forcing his hands off his ears as they helplessly watched Bertholdt move. "Wait for the burning houses to flatten us?!"
"Wh-wha", Armin stuttered in bewilderment. Mikasa placed a firm hand on his shoulder.
"Armin. You're in command. We follow your orders".
"W-we retreat... Rally at the commander for new orders", he managed to press out of his empty head. "We'll engage the Colossal Titan in a battle of attrition as originally planned". He didn't seem confident in his orders at all, his face petrified.
"Hold up, Armin... It'll be a disaster if we let Bertholdt near the wall and the others. If the houses in the inner gate catch on fire, they'll be sandwiched between the fire and the titans...", Jean enlightened him worried.
"Th-that means... We have no choice but to defeat Bertholdt on our own? Right here?", the realisation dawned on Armin hard, as it did with the rest of them. Sasha and Connie's previous teary faces were replaced with awestricken ones. How could the seven of them ever have a chance at something that size?
"Damn it, those houses will drop on us. You think one of those houses.. is Eren's? Eren's house... is eavesdropping!", Connie roared, which turned into ugly laughing. Jean sighed.
"Sasha, can you hit Connie for me?". Sasha did as told without any hesitation, smacking him in the head with her thunder spear, making Connie reach for his head in agony.
The moment was interrupted however, by falling debris almost hitting them.
"A-Armin! The fire! Your orders?!", Connie pleaded, desperate for some directions.
"Hurry it up!", Sasha stressed directly after.
"I... I-", Armin couldn't get a single word out. Who was he to take the reins on something that would affect the lives of his comrades? How could he possibly figure out the correct way to go from here? "W-what about Marco? He's smart too! He led his own squad during his first ever encounter with titans! He'll know what to do!", Armin frantically argued, trying to disclaim his given responsibility. The group all looked over at Marco again, who was now crouched down while pressing one hand against his forehead with wide eyes, while the other clasped at some bronze pin he had fastened by his heart. He whimpered quietly beneath his heavy breaths. They had never seen him in such despair.
"I think we have to count Marco out for the time being Armin...", Jean said with a lump in his throat, his best friend's breakdown being a grim reminder of what just happened to you. The weight on their shoulders and the sorrow in their hearts knowing you had been burned to mere dust just like that, were overwhealming. But they simply couldn't stand around and mourn just yet. Now wasn't the time to lose their cool.
"Y-yeah...", Armin regretted bringing Marco into it. "Jean... Can you take my place then?", he asked, his voice reaching a new level of insecurity. "I just have no idea what to do... I was wrong reading Bertholdt, and look where it got us", he guiltily looked over at Marco, feeling he was the one to blame for your passing. "Jean! You're better suited for this!". Armin's voice were desperate.
Jean seemed to fight an internal battle, eventually managing to spit out an idea.
"The river! Move to the river! Everyone aboard Eren! Conserve our gas!", he ordered them while motioning towards Eren. The others were quick to do so, relieved to get some sort of directions. Before Jean joined the rest he looked down at Marco, showing no signs of getting up from the ground. He walked over to face his front before crouching down, grabbing a hold of each of his upper arms. Marco finally looked up at him with wide eyes, like he had just realised there were other people around him.
"Marco. I know nothing I can say will bring her back. But we still need you. Right here, right now, you are needed. Not only by your friends, but by humanity and the civilians; women and children,- inside these walls. She would want you to keep fighting. For the sake of the children. For the sake of them not having to go through the same hell as her". Jean could barely mention you without his voice breaking, but held it together the best he could. Marco's face didn't change much, only flashes of pain crossing his eyes whenever Jean talked about you specifically. However, he was actually listening, processing the words in his own pace. With a deep breath, his face fell from a despaired one into a tired one. Jean was right; He knew what he had to do.
"Yeah", he croaked out, Jean helping him up to his feet, patting him on the back supportively as they walked over to climb aboard Eren. As he made way towards the river in a hurry, Marco stared back towards the last place he had seen you alive; the image of your angelic smile accompanied by the gentle breeze flowing through your hair like ingrained to his memory. In his head, your voice softly saying your last words 'I'll be right back', repeated itself over and over. It was unbearable, and he already felt haunted by your memory; -and god what a painfully beautiful memory you were.
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A/N:
Man, I just had to sit through Marco's death scene that I forgot was in that episode, and I swear it gets more painful for each time you watch it; especially if you've read the manga and learned to care a lot for the warriors too</3
I wish I could write the joke Connie makes about Eren's house in Japanese or something, because then it actually makes sense in addition to being so much funnier and quite a hilarious pun incorporating Eren's name lol.
This chapter was short and sweet in comparison to previous ones, but it felt natural to end it where I did. So stay tuned for the next chapter!
Thank you so much for reading!<3
~Jen