𝐁𝐈𝐓𝐓𝐄𝐑𝐒𝐖𝐄𝐄𝐓.ᴀɴɴɪᴇ ʟᴇᴏɴʜᴀʀᴅᴛ, ᴍɪᴋᴀꜱᴀ ᴀᴄᴋᴇʀᴍᴀɴ

『𝟐𝟏』𝐀𝐁𝐍𝐎𝐑𝐌𝐀𝐋 𝐎𝐅 𝐀𝐁𝐍𝐎𝐑𝐌𝐀𝐋𝐒

𝐓𝐇𝐔𝐑𝐒𝐃𝐀𝐘, 𝐌𝐀𝐘 𝟗𝐓𝐇, 𝟖𝟓𝟎 𝐀𝐓 𝟏𝟏:𝟐𝟔

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  Your rubber soles touched to terracotta as (E/C) hues fell on Armin and Mikasa, the latter sitting on the ground and the former kneeling next to her while worriedly asking her questions, "Mikasa! Are you injured?!"

  With a small sigh and downcasten gaze, she nodded her head lightly, "...I'm fine." The girl then worked herself up with care, directing her leaden spheres at you before she took a small step to you with a newly-appeared Connie speaking -Mikasa now placing herself between both Armin and you, "Hey! We've got to get a move on! This doesn't look good, we've got two fifteen-metre class titans right there!" he shouted, rightfully placed fear coating his voice in an overwhelming amount as he stared at the titan that had inadvertently saved you. He then changed his focus momentarily as he turned his head to you from your free side, eyebrows pinched in urgency as he continued to speak, "(Y/N), you have gas to fight if you need to, right?"

  "Yeah," you spoke, giving a curt, trained nod to the short-haired male in a growing determination to not die, "You two do as well, right? How're we going to handle this?"

  You looked back over to the fighting beast as it stood up straight and hobbled over and closer to another titan, power under each intense footfall as small streams of smoke waterfalled off of it, 'He may have accidentally helped us before, but that doesn't mean that he isn't going to turn on us the first chance he gets. As much as I'd like to think so, such a thing just isn't possible.' Its body was strangely proportionate for a titan, not under or overweight and oddly muscular; based on what you knew about the titans, it was an anomaly in a sea of creatures that were anomalies themselves.

  "No..." Mikasa protested in a mutter, eyes still glued onto the brown-haired titan that had captivated your attention as well, "That one titan..."

  Before anyone could say anything, the abnormal had neared the other blonde one, pulling its fist back and aiming another punch directly at its malformed face.

  "Huh?" you heard someone utter in disbelief.

  It wasn't much longer that the head of the blonde titan had been sent barrelling towards the four of you, making Connie yell a quick, "DUCK!" as everyone dropped to their knees and pushed themselves close to the dark amber tiles of the building's rooftop. A feminine hand pressed into your back, forcing you down further as you managed to look above yourself just in time to see the ginormous, cephalic ball be launched only a metre or two above you at speeds faster than you had seen or gone before.

  Slam.

  You were able to spin your head around and see the blonde's head collide with whatever it had as a booming sound echoed out, followed by the sound of a distal, falling barrage of debris. By the time that you had turned around fully, you were able to catch glimpses of the tail end of its head falling from a bell tower, another smaller thud playing out as the severed appendage apparently fell to the stone pathway that was sure to be surrounding the structure out of your sight -steam soon spiralling upwards from where it had fallen.

  Even if you had any words to speak, you weren't given the opportunity -seeing as the titan, the one with its head still attached, then flashed its green orbs to the blonde's decapitated and struggling-to-get-up body before lifting its pale foot and slamming it down into the headless beast's nape, just as it had done before with the other titan.

  "He... He finished the job?! Then he knew the weak point?!" Armin shouted, figure tense and horror deep in his tone as he tried to grasp the fact that a titan -who seemed to have some form of intelligence- was in your presence.

  Connie was the first to break out of his torpor, despite having truly seen the titan at work for the first time just then, "We should probably move before he turns on us..."

  "No." Armin weakly argued, "He's ignoring us, even though he'd normally be attacking by now..."

  Mikasa also jumped in, mumbling under her breath just loud enough for the three of you to make out her words, "I also sensed that he knew how to fight well, but... What the hell is he?"

  You chose not to add anything in as you merely watched the titan move with unblinking, partially frightened hues -not trusting the supposed man-eating creature enough to take your eyes off of it, 'How is a titan that's not targeting us scarier than those that do...? What kind of sick joke is this?'

  "All we can say is that he's an abnormal!" the amber-eyed man shouted, Connie gesturing his one hand outwards as he tried to convince himself as well as everyone else that that titan in particular was nothing to worry about, "We know a lot less about them than we do anyways. But we gotta hurry over to HQ, that's where we can refuel and help fight back!"

  Before you could even think of it, let alone bring it up, Armin spoke of the problem Mikasa was facing that everyone was currently trying to avoid, "Wait!" he pleaded, "Mikasa's out of gas!"

  "What...?" Connie managed to get out through his shock as he apparently hadn't noticed her state earlier, your girlfriend pointing her head downwards in shame once more as she briefly lost herself in what seemed to be a shamed thought. To your surprise, the man quickly spoke up again, this time addressing you in particular, "(Y/N), how much gas do you have?"

  "I think I'll have just enough to make it over there, but I don't know that I'll have much more after that." you responded, having to clear your throat at having not spoken in a short while before adding onto your sentence, "I don't have enough to carry her over, if that's what you're asking. I tried to prevent her from falling down before, but I didn't have enough gas to -there wasn't enough pressure in my tank." Gently, as if to back up your words, you rasped your knuckles on the metal and allowed for an almost completely hollowed noise to be heard by everyone.

  "No, no, that's not what I mean." Connie argued smally, "Why don't you make it over to HQ, and Armin and I will figure out how to get Mikasa over there?"

  "What? No, that's stupid!" you countered, not being able to do anything but berate the plan of action in your mind, 'Why would he even suggest such a suicidal thing?! He's telling me to give up on them and basically head over to my own demise!'

  "No, listen!" he fought, "If you can get over there, you can bring gas in spare tanks back out to us! Armin and I should have enough gas to defend a titan or two in the meantime!"

  "It could work..." Armin then joined, his words slow and pronounced in an unintentional, auditory way of portraying just how much he was thinking over the plausibility of the plan, "But we don't know how hard it'll be for her to get in, what they're dealing with over there, or if she'll even make it."

  "Well wait," you stopped them, turning to Connie, "Why should I be the one to go? You're more skilled than I am, and Armin's clearly smart enough to come up with a plan that would allow him to get inside without many issues -on the spot, too."

  "Marco was talking about you before," Connie confessed meekly, "He had said that you were able to use your gear suspiciously well for someone that didn't make the top ten; to the point where it was kinda scary. If he wasn't lying, you'd be a good candidate to head over to HQ -you should be able to get over there in one piece."

  "He told you that?" you couldn't help but ask, dumbfounded and unsure if you were supposed to be offended or not -even if you had no intentions of letting it show- given how nice Marco was.

  "Well, no, but he did say that- look, that's not important right now! We need to focus on what's going on here!" he spoke, getting slightly flustered at having to admit he was eavesdropping, "Are you, or are you not going to go through with it?"

  'Do I trust my comrades and attempt to get gas, or do I stay here with them in hopes that all four of us will make it to HQ before a titan gets to us? We don't know the situation over there either, if it's just titans surrounding the place, I should be able to carry through with it. But if there're more problems going on inside, I'll be stuck in there as titan bait and unable to return to these three -I wouldn't have enough gas left...'

  "We don't know the situation over there, but... If you guys think you can defend yourselves, I'm fine with trying." you revealed, telling them that if they were ok with gambling that you wouldn't get back, you were fine with trying to force your way through and out of the building.

  "No one has any opposition, right?" the man asked, looking to both Armin and Mikasa and letting a pause make itself known. The two others there turned their sights away, either looking to the side or to the ground as they refused to speak. "Good, then it's settled." breathed Connie, nodding smally to seemingly convince himself that the decision he was making was a good one, "Just... try to hurry."

  "I will." you reassured, then lately realising that through the all ruckus Mikasa was still there; something you had somehow glossed over when you had been talking to Connie. Frowning smally at how she seemed to be saddened by the conversation at hand, you pushed it to the back of your mind the best you could, 'She probably wants to say something, but doesn't want me to get upset with her again.' Putting a gentle hand on her shoulder to make sure that not only you had her attention, but that she was also aware that your following words were directed at her, you gave her a slight smile that she would never see -the same one you soon supplied Armin and Connie with, "I'll be back as soon as I can then, with enough gas in spare tanks for all of you."

  Just barely, she leaned into your touch right as you pulled away -something you tried to pay no mind to as you then started to head off towards the building that was cluttered with gigantic, disfigured humanoids.

  There was a bittered aspect to her action; to you, it no longer tasted as sweet as it should've.

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  'Shit!' you thought as you veered yourself sharply to the side, slicing at a titan's left hand as you zoomed past it and retracted your wires just in time to avoid tangling them with the beast, 'The Walls, that was way too close for comfort!'

  You didn't have much time to marvel over the move you had somehow managed to pull off however, seeing as your entryway to the HQ building was right before you in the form of a window; you had hoped to be able to make your way in through an already destroyed one, but the last titan you had just faced robbed you of that choice. Bracing your feet in front of you and covering your face with your clothed forearms and blades, you slammed into the fenêtre and tumbled inside, hearing glass shatter and splinter beneath your boots as you tried to land on your feet but ultimately failed. A slight pain ran up your dominant hand's outer forearm when you tumbled, causing you to wince as you then rammed into one of the many desks that were in the room in your tumble.

  To your surprise, more shattering sounded from behind you once you stopped, making you instinctively cover your face and head with your arms as glass fell upon the room's floor as if it were rain, 'Is that a titan breaking through the walls, or did more people make it in? And if so, where did they come from?'

  Fortunately, more cadets tumbled into the HQ building -many of them doing as you had and falling to the floor in a roll as they broke their way in. Slowly, every one of them regained themselves as they stood up -yourself included- each person seeming to look back at where they had come from, and some of them even casting suspicious looks back at you for reasons you couldn't fathom, 'Are they upset that I'm here...? Or is it because I'm here and Mikasa isn't...? No wait, did they hear what Connie said Marco said about me? Gah, I don't know!' Despite them, you removed your focus and placed it on more important matters; namely the cut that was slightly stinging and keeping you aware of its presence.

  Carefully, you touched to the area that you had felt stung before -knowing that if you had gotten hurt, it wasn't life-threatening in the slightest; when your fingers entered your view once more -after they had felt skin, which meant that glass had at least torn through your assigned jacket- you took note of the thin traces of a triggering crimson that fell into your sight. Turning your forearm slightly, you pulled at the newly formed hole in the middle of your tan sleeve and tried to see it -the cut present wasn't that deep at all, making you sigh in relief at knowing that you didn't need stitches and making it apparent to you that your clothing had served its job well, taking the brunt of the damage done to your person, 'It might scar, but I think that's the extent of my injury; I'll have to check it for any smaller bits of glass later.'

  You were pulled out of your self-check when an immortal, sickening crunch met to your ears, causing for you to turn around with enlarged hues, "Stop it Jean!" Marco suddenly cried.

  The boy grabbed onto the barley-haired male desperately, clenching his teeth in his strain as he held back his best friend from further attacking who looked to be another shaken-up soldier on the floor, "It's their fault!" Jean cried, still lunging himself forwards in hopes that he could get another hit on them, "They left us out there, defenceless! More people died than necessary because of you cowardly bastards!"

  "The titans invaded the supply point!" defended another soldier, who seemed to be from the same group as the one who had gotten punched. They knelt on the floor and cradled the fallen soldier's head in their lap, "There was nothing we could do about it!"

  "Doing SOMETHING about it is your damn job!"

  Despair washed over you as you realised that you wouldn't be able to return to Armin, Connie, and Mikasa as soon as you would've liked, 'I really am stuck here then... aren't I? Even if I can get spare gas somehow, I'll still be leaving them out there longer than I'm comfortable with.' Stepping past Marco and Jean, who was slowly calming down at the help of the other boy, you turned your back to them and glanced over the remaining and damaged architecture of the HQ building, 'I don't have a choice though, I'll just have to suck it up, and find a way to get back out there to them. I prob-'

  "Take cover!" Reiner's voice pierced out through the air; not even seconds later, some blurred body part belonging to a titan flashed by the end of the building and tore it open, causing for screams to ring out as cadets started to panic -them trying to find a way out despite not having any gas to do so safely, "Where did Mikasa go?!" "Go right!" The room was engulfed in a brighter lighting than it had been before, courtesy of the gaping hole in the wall that was soon being filled in by the faces of two of those horrid beasts -their stare so terrifying that you could only watch with a partially dropped jaw as they scanned their enormous hues over the faces of all the cadets, smiles widening as more and more chaos ensued around you in the forms of moving bodies and shouts, "Stop! We can't all get out at once!" "No guys, Mikasa ran out of gas and got eaten on the way here!"

  That last shout caused for you to wince and break your sights with the monsters, the words reminding you that you didn't have time to simply sit around and hope that the titans would clear out eventually, 'I need to find a way to get down there, with or without titans, to where the supplies are kept -now not only for their sake, but for mine as well!' you reasoned to yourself, lids peeled back as if you were searching for a plan to lay itself right in front of you, 'I should go find Reiner, since Annie and Bertholdt are bound to be with him! Marco's preoccupied with Jean, so I'll have to bring Annie and them over to him! We need to regroup and work together!'

  Pushing your way past soldiers who were trying to get away from the hole that left them in danger, you stepped closer to where you thought the voice had sounded from. It was to your great relief that Annie's blonde bob of hair soon came into sight, you reaching out your one hand and grabbing onto her shoulder while calling out her name once you were close enough -causing for that almost typical remorse as well as a sense of déjà vu to wash over you, the latter from when you remembered that Mikasa had done a similar thing maybe an hour or so ago at most, "Annie!" At the sudden touch and call of her name, the light-haired teen turned around and looked at you with her baby blues -they were the same as they had been the last time you had seen her, although now there was a faint spark of something you couldn't name deep within them as they met to yours, "The five of us need to regroup and find a way to get gas! Marco's over here dealing wi-!"

  Crash.

  Your question was cut off as another giant collision was made at the end of the room, making everyone present flash their vision over to the source with easily frightful hues; this time, instead of a detached titan limb breaking the building apart, a fast-moving arm broke through and forced the two titans who had once been there to go flying to the side. Not long after, the body of the fifteen-metre titan with brown hair -that you had seen before- came into view, not paying you any attention as it continued to work its way forwards and combat the titans it had just seemingly knocked over.

  Shatter.

  More windows then broke and fell to the floor in many pieces, irreparable and jigsaw-like as three more soldiers broke their way into the HQ building -the familiar faces causing for your eyes to bulge considerably, 'Wait, is that Mikasa, Armin, and Connie? How did they get back here?! I mean, it's probably a good thing that they did, but still!'

  "Wait, we should regroup with them too! In order to make a plan and refuel!" you spoke, your plans immediately changing upon their arrival and moving closer to the trio that had just entered with a hazed, distracted gesture of your hands for the trio to accompany you, 'Marco won't move, he should be fine. But with Armin's intelligence, maybe we can all come up with something to refuel!' You entirely missed the way that Annie lowered her instinctive, protective arm from out in front of you from the previous collision, also failing to pick up on the way that she and Reiner subtly and challengingly glared at each other when the male caught onto the action. It wasn't much longer that they trailed after you with a tenseness you never perceived -looking as if they agreed with your words and thought in a similar fashion to you.

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  As it had turned out, Armin, Mikasa and Connie had been able to come up with a last-minute plan that would allow for not only them to get to the HQ without much danger, but also potentially save everyone already at the building. Armin had advised that Mikasa take the lead and direct the fifteen-metre abnormal to HQ to fight the titans there -since she had been the top of the class- with Armin's remaining fuel, and that Connie carried Armin over himself behind the talented femme in hopes that all three would be able to make it back to the refuel station unscathed.

  It had been a complete and utter miracle that their wishes had come to life.

  After they had briefly explained themselves, you realised that you coming over to the structure alone had been unnecessary and pointless -a backup plan if anything, even if hadn't started out that way. Regardless, you found yourself more grateful than anything that no one had gotten hurt and that the four of you had reached the building in the end; the next step taken had been making a plan for everyone to get fuel -which led you to where you were as of current, standing in a wooden pulley in the HQ building and waiting for the few others -who remained to get on it- to carry out yet another plan devised by Armin.

  The plan was for seven of those who had scored within the top ten -Mikasa, Reiner, Bertholdt, Annie, Jean, Sasha and Connie, given as they had high skill that was practically ensured- to go up in the support beams of the basement -where extra gas and blades housed themselves. From there, those who were in the pulley system that lowered into the basement were to have shotguns with them; they were supposed to fire the guns at the eyes of the seven titans and fire upon Marco's command -the only one who scored in the top ten present who wasn't going up in the rafters, seeing as he seemed best fit for the role of temporary leader and had steeled enough nerves to make everyone wait until the time was right.

  'Seven titans, fourteen eyes. We've got this, we just need to all be in sync.'

  Optimism and anxiety spread throughout you as cool metal chilled your hands, your one index finger placed right beside the trigger to your shotgun as you waited for the few remaining stragglers to get aboard the pulley. Armin had stood himself right beside you at your left, his hands retaining a small shake to them as he gripped onto his own weapon in the same way you did -and you were sure that if you looked down in your own hold, you would see a similar shutter that gave away your internal doubts and concerns.

  "Alright, that's everyone." sounded a quieted voice from a cadet you couldn't place a name to, said person planning on staying behind to work on the cables that manoeuvred the lift you were on, "Ready when you are."

  "Yeah," spoke Marco, the freckled male hiding his own fears with a strong smile once more at your right side, "We're ready."

  Creak.

  The descent began all too quickly for your liking, watching the walls around you slowly move upwards as you lowered further and further into what could potentially turn into a bloodbath should things get messy. Your breath caught in your throat, you swallowing the growing spit in your mouth as someone tried to muffle a whimper that just managed to escape them -no one dared to move in fear of the floorboards creaking, the light from above fading with every centimetre further you traversed.

  You could already imagine it, the smaller, man-eating beasts grinning in absolute glee at the thought of a new meal practically being served to them on a silver platter, their grubby hands then reaching outwards in hopes to break the bones of their victims and render them helpless as they then tore them into pieces with their ever-sharp canines -thanks to their regenerative abilities; or perhaps they would prefer to keep their prey alive and capable as they brought them closer and closer to their demise, only to line the head of their food with their row of teeth to let out a vulgar crunch, 'I don't even know which one I would prefer, both of them sound so horrible...'

  The images playing throughout your head were stopped when the dim candlelight of the few remaining fires entered your vision, signalling to you that -whether you liked it or not- you had entered the basement.

  You were now in a cage-like space, trapped with humanity's number-one predator.

  Fear coursed through you entirely, icing you over and causing for you to grip onto your gun a little tighter in a pitiful attempt at either comfort or protection, 'What happened to the earlier me...?' you couldn't help but think with what you could only describe as disappointment and dismay, 'Wasn't I killing titans all over the place? Wasn't I fearless as I mowed down Heidi's killer? When I was trying to distract the titan that was going after Mikasa?'

  Creak.

  The pulley came to a complete stop, leaving you and the others lined up beside and behind you waiting with hitched breaths for the titans to start to show themselves.

  "Haaaaaaaaa..."

  It sounded just as you remembered, the deep chuckle of the giant unforgiving as it provoked past memories of the other titans you had fought previously, the same ones who supplied your memory with alike sounds. Your finger hovered over the trigger, frozen right before it as the titan entered your view; it turned its head to you with an overly welcoming grin, and you swore its eyes locked directly onto yours as it made the move to get closer to everyone in its sight.

  "Calm down," whispered Marco, a faint crack in his tone as he pushed himself to halt others from prematurely firing their shotguns, "Let them get closer."

  Thud. Overwhelming joy swam in its pools, pupils unmoving as it pinned down its prey in a childish manner -and never once in your life had you felt more like an ant under a magnifying glass.

  "Wait..."

  Thud. Your life seemed to flash before your eyes as you tried your best to focus, your head growing faint as the stress accumulated and would have made your vision blurry, if not for the sheer will to live that powered through your wavering eyes.

  "Wait..."

  Thud. The creature stopped its advance as it came well within reaching distance, taking a short moment to observe its options as it contemplated briefly, and soon after landing its eyes in your general direction -whether or not it had its sights on you, you weren't sure.

  "Wait..." he continued, a small click reaching to your sensitive and alert ears as Marco placed his finger on the trigger, "Ready..."

  Its hand reached out, ready to accept its prize in an attempt to rectify its insatiable hunger.

  "FIRE!"

  The room lit up in bright colours of orange and yellow, the flashes of gunpowder clashing with the near pitch-black background of the basement as you could suddenly hear wires of 3DMG being shot out. Your fire ceased as you could hear and feel trembles from the monsters slowly falling to the floor one by one, your eyes blinded by the sudden light and leaving you unable to truly see who had been able to hit their targets and if anyone had missed.

  It was to your utter relief that nothing indicating that someone had missed played out, a call from below then confirming your thoughts and hopes, "It's safe!"

𝐓𝐇𝐔𝐑𝐒𝐃𝐀𝐘, 𝐌𝐀𝐘 𝟗𝐓𝐇, 𝟖𝟓𝟎 𝐀𝐓 𝟏𝟐:𝟎𝟒

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  Puff, puff.

  You pressed on the triggers to your handles, making sure that everything was still connected properly and that you had been able to successfully refuel your gas tanks; to your satisfaction, the gear let out a submissive puff, indicating to you that you were fuelled, 'Now all I need to do is get a spare pair of blades or two, I didn't use all of them before after all.'

  Putting the refuel tank's nozzle back where it belonged, you slightly spun on your heel and headed to where Armin and Mikasa were currently restocking their blades for their venture back up Wall Rose, the two of them having already managed to fuel up on gas before you.

  Wordlessly, you discarded your pair of dulled blades -that were still attached to your handles- and cast them aside where they would be out of the way, only garnering the attention of the two at your side as you reached past them slightly with your dominant hand for a new pair, "Sorry." you mumbled out, apologising for reaching and simultaneously announcing your presence.

  "You're fine," offered Armin meekly, his tone soft and almost as if he were in a partial thought before he continued, "What happened to your arm, are you ok?"

  At the mention of you being injured, Mikasa stiffened slightly -tilting her head ever so smally in a way so that she could get a better look at your arm that the blonde had mentioned, "Oh, that? Yeah, it's just a scratch." you spoke, pushing the one set of blades you had previously grabbed in the supply slot of your gear before moving your forearm around and using your other hand to pull back the hole of your leather jacket, "My uniform took most of the damage from when I entered HQ, all I received was this tiny cut." Running your finger along the edge of your laceration, you felt the already-formed scab and its bumps under your fingertip, all while donning a placating smile to both the ravenette and Armin in the hopes to show them that it left you unaffected overall, "I'll just need a new jacket."

  "That's good." replied Mikasa quietly, tone barely able to be detected as tender and beaten as it gently reached out to you. The loss of her brother was clearly starting to show its effects on the Asian teen -she no longer had that blank look to her face, and neither was she seeming to act as irrationally as she had when she had spent all of her gas earlier before- and while she tried her best to keep the façade up and send you a relieved grin, its cracks were beginning to surface. Selfishly, you couldn't help but flip the coin on its head, 'Would she have even been concerned about me if Eren was here though? Would she have brushed it off like she always had? I... No, stop (Y/N). You need to calm down, Eren is gone. You're being disrespectful.'

  No one spoke anything more as an amiable silence formed, seeing as Mikasa didn't look as if she were in the mood to speak, and Armin and you both could tell that the girl wanted to bask in her thoughts.

  Placing new blades into your handles, you soon sheathed them as the two next to you started to finish up; it wasn't much longer after you had been satisfied with your gear's supply that the three of you then started to head out while many of the other soon-to-graduate cadets did the same, leaving out of nearby windows and holes in the wall. Mikasa was the first one of the three of you out, her pacing suddenly sped up and rushed as she flew herself quickly out of a window with Armin quick to follow behind her, calling out her name in concern, "Mikasa!"

  It was only when you were after them and halfway out of your semi-protective space that you remembered the fifteen-metre titan that had been fighting other titans, your mind having been filled with consuming thoughts from before, 'Shit, how is he holding up anyways? He hasn't turned on us, has he?'

  With a practised manipulation of your gear, you found yourself accompanying them sooner rather than later.

  "Cannibalism...?" you could hear Armin mutter petitely in surprise, he and Mikasa on the further end of the roof to you as you stared at the monster in a form of awe and took small steps to place yourself at Armin's right side. You allowed for your eyes to rake over the sight fully as well, noting that the being who was once more than capable of tearing down and defeating countless titans was now outnumbered and pinned against a four-storey building as the others tore it apart with their teeth. The entire scene was enveloped in a screen of wispy smoke, the steam rising from the numerous punctures in the titan's flesh as it tried to heal itself from all and any wounds with a bellow, "Arghhhhh!"

  It moved smally in its restraints to try and get out, but overall it remained ensnared regardless.

  "I thought..." Mikasa started, looking at the beast in a mixture of disappointment and pity as she spoke loud enough for everyone to hear her, "That if we could figure out that titan... We could use him as a chance to get out of this helpless situation."

  "I agree!" came the out-of-nowhere shout of Reiner as he soon used his gear to fully stand on the same footing as the three of you -Annie, Jean and Bertholdt not too far behind him, "If he gets eaten, the whole thing will be over without us understanding a damn thing! Let's eliminate the ones that are sticking to that titan for now, to try and keep it alive longer!"

  The four of them situated themselves as all of you then looked to the scene before you, Jean's voice then crying out not too far from you as he looked up to the taller blonde, "Reiner, are you insane?!" he yelled exasperatedly, "We are finally able to escape this hellhole!"

  Some part of you wanted to agree with him -after all, he did have a fair point, 'We don't know if we can trust this titan, while he hasn't done anything that tells us he plans on killing us, we can't be too sure. He's an abnormal! Although, I can't deny that my gut instinct is telling me that...' Your thoughts trailed off as you frowned, not sure how to feel about the odd feeling that was starting to swirl within you, 'No, I don't know what my instincts are telling me, I just... I just feel like I've seen him before -somehow, somewhere...'

  "But what about the possibility that this titan could become an ally...?" broke out Annie's sweet-sounding voice, tone calm and persuasive as she jumped in to defend Reiner's stance, "Don't you think it would be a weapon more powerful than any cannon?"

  "H-Huh?!" Jean stuttered in disbelief, "A damn ally?! You know he's a titan, right?!"

  "ARGHHHH!" Before anyone could provide any more input to the small debate at hand, the fifteen-metre behemoth seemed to go berserk as a new titan moved to join the three or four that were already consuming its flesh. "That's the titan that killed Thomas..." you could faintly hear Armin mutter, his blue eyes surely just as wide as yours when the abnormal titan forced itself away from the others, ripping its arms off in the process and causing for blood to be spilt upon the floor in gargantuan amounts. With a three to four-metre titan still on its left shin, the monster lunged itself at the newcomer -its teeth clenching into the nape of the other titan until it was able to support it and lift it off of the air. You swore you heard its teeth crack under the mammoth pressure as the being then slammed the captured titan into two of the others that had been eating it, knocking them over and managing to hit them into a nearby building -thankfully not the one that you were standing on- with so much power that the two titans somehow didn't get up or make any moves to again before steaming.

  "Hey..." Jean muttered, his tone low in his shock as he tried to process what had just transpired before him, "What was that about helping him...?"

  With one last forceful kick of its leg, it sent the small titan latched onto its jambe flying over a few buildings; it was so far to the point that the abnormal would have a moment or two to regain itself if it so wished, in the odd chance that the smaller one was still alive.

  It seemed as if the fifteen-metre was at its wits end too however, as its muscular knees soon buckled and caused for it to kneel on the floor -not long after slamming its entire body into the ground as it ran out of energy, losing the strength to keep itself up anymore as giant plumes of steam seemed to surround it once more.

  "Not surprisingly, it looks like he's burned himself out." Jean continued, being the only one who was still able to speak through the crippling shock, "So, now have you seen enough? Let's get out of here, there's no way that fucker's on our side!"

  When no one answered to him still, he spoke a small bit more in the hopes that he could rally others to leave the beast behind -not confident or feeling safe enough to do so on his own, "Titans are titans..."

  Hiss.

  Smoke pooled around the titan's nape in an odd, rectangular shape as a hiss sounded out, your heart nearly stopping in your chest as you soon saw the shape mould into a human form, 'Someone's... inside the titan...?' At first you were contemplating if the beast did end up having a palate for human blood and had gotten someone stuck in its throat, but that notion was soon denied when the person shifted about -sitting up and leaning back in a completely worn out manner, showing that the human was just as worn out as the titan had portrayed itself as.

  As the steam cleared more and more, you could soon see the face that belonged to the person.

  It was none other than Eren Jaeger.

  Mikasa let out a gasp as she took an almost hesitant step forwards, hand reaching out before she then knocked herself out of her stupor and quickly reached for her blades, then speeding towards her brother to see if he was still alive like it had seemed like he was.

  She climbed onto the steaming flesh with widened eyes, putting her ear to his chest where his heart lay beneath the skin and seeming to relax her tense body once she heard a heartbeat; then she clung onto him for dear life, crying aloud in relief as Armin soon rushed forwards to see if Eren was ok like Mikasa's actions suggested.

  Your mind couldn't keep up with it all as everything you once knew seemed to come crashing down upon you, your knees growing weak but your mind not allowing for you to sit down or fall over as you could only stare in disbelief at what had just happened, 'Does that mean that... No, that's not possible, but...'

  Thankfully, it seemed that similar thoughts were racing through the heads of those around you, given that Jean soon mumbled out words similar to those that your mind couldn't put together, "Then Eren... He did all of this...?"

───── ❝𝐀𝐮𝐭𝐡𝐨𝐫'𝐬 𝐍𝐨𝐭𝐞❞ ─────

Ok!  Few things.

1.  Sorry Trost still isn't over yet.  The Battle for Trost will be finished next Sunday.

2.  Double update next week -one on 21 July, 2021 and the other on 24 July, 2021- because the original Chapter 22 is actually over 10,000 words long lmao 💀  One chapter should be about 6,000 words, and the other should be about 4,000.

3. ((Followers ignore this-)) I uploaded a decoding challenge on my account, where more details are listed there.

That's all, thank you so much for reading!

─Cαɾɾιҽ Gαɾα 💜

───── ❝𝐈𝐧𝐟𝐨𝐫𝐦𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧❞ ─────

Words: 6.686

Words Total: 97.135

Written: 1 July, 2021

Posted: 18 July, 2021

Edited Last: 17 July, 2021