My eyes darted to Eren's face, his eyes practically glued to the golden strike of lightening that illuminated the sky above us, the entrance to the tunnel.
Quickly, I lifted off of him, there was no time, we needed to run.
'Eren take my hand!', I yelled as I got off of him, pulling him up onto his feet, Mikasa grabbed Armin's arm and the four of us bolted through the dark escape route.
Her long, muscular titan arm entered the tunnel, it felt like life was in slow motion as she reached for us, I pushed Eren forwards to make sure she wouldn't take him.
Not again.
'F/N!', they screamed as Annie's fingers wrapped around my waist, snatching me away from my friends. My arm reached out, begging for someone to grab me as my ODM gear was caught in her fingers, however that same striking voice and a flash between our minds caused us to both quickly become stunned.
'YOU NEED TO BECOME THE BEST TO BECOME A WARRIOR!', it dispersed into our minds as she dropped me, startled by the sound.
'Go go go!', I slipped as I dropped to the hard floor , rushing forward and waving my three best friends on.
'Are you okay?!', Eren yelled back to me as we made sure we were out of her reach.
'I'm okay', I panted, the four of us now a relatively safe distance from her as we caught our breaths.
'That damn ring, she saw through me from the start, she even noticed the ambush we planned', Armin huffered, upset with himself.
'I knew something was going on when she refused to let me try the ring on', I mentioned.
'Well what should we do now?', Mikasa asked, looking to me for an answer, as I sort of spaced out, pondering about the repetition of that commanding voice, ordering me to become the best.
What is a warrior?
'For starters we'll regroup with the third squad, get above ground and move according to plan B, fight Annie, fight the female titan. Eren will transform like discussed and assist in the capture', Armin informed, 'Sounds good?'.
'It's the best we've got', Eren nodded, agreeing with the plan as I was still deep in my own thoughts.
'F/N, what's your input?', Armin's voice broke me out.
'Huh', I looked up to them.
'Why are you distracted?', Mikasa questioned, 'This isn't the time'.
'I'm not distracted, i'm thinking', I replied, 'I keep hearing these voices saying about becoming a warrior, and I think that's why Annie dropped me, because she heard it too. I'm only trying to think like one'.
'Because if you do that..', Armin began, as I joined.
'We can get into Annie's mind'.
'Her perspective', Mikasa added.
'Exactly', I nodded.
'That's the third squad up there!', I pointed, noticing people trying to rush us out.
'We're going to switch to plan B F/N', Armin told me, as I was now updated, I began to run along side them.
'What's the status of the primary capture?', A cadet up ahead shouted as we grew closer and closer to them.
'Unsuccessful, please switch to plan B!', Armin called out in reply, bringing his hand to his mouth to channel the sound.
'I've failed to become a warrior', I spoke, recalling Annie's words, and in that moment felt a sudden lightbult appear in my head.
She's going to try and crush us down here.
'MOVE!', I shouted, ordering the third squad up ahead to change their stance before they got crushed by her, but they were too late. I was too late.
'Shit!', I covered my eyes as dust flew back, her leg crushing the eroded rock above us to smithereens, but not only that, the third squad that once stood in front of us.
'Eren get back!', Mikasa commanded, as Eren ran forward to the rubble, picking through the pieces to try and save everyone, before Mikasa followed, and grabbed him back from the view of broad daylight.
'Is the female titan trying to show she doesn't need Eren alive?!', Mikasa questioned us as we avoided the light, somewhere where Annie could see us.
'It was her wager. She stomped through, wagering that Eren would survive. As reckless as it was, it makes things harder for us now', Armin answered.
'Where do we go now?', I wondered, looking for an escape.
'Over the rubble, be quick!', Armin gulped as we tried not to break our ankles running further down.
'It seems Annie is desparately trying to abduct Eren, that's why she grabbed you at the entrance', he directed to me.
'Stop here', Armin held out his hands, 'What should we do? Squad three is gone, if we try to use ODM we'll instantly become targets, that sai-', a deafening punch pummelled through the passageway, it was Annie trying to get in once again.
'Staying here isn't an option when we could be crushed at any moment', Armin huffed, tucking his blonde strands behind his ear.
'I'll figure something out, just like how I was able to block that cannon fire that time', Eren chimed in, pulling the four of us in together in a tight group hug.
'Stay close to me', he stressed, his hand edging closer to his mouth.
'Again, at a time like this! Damn it hurts!', he groaned, his attempt to turn himself not working.
'I'll heal it and you can try again', I crouched with him, Mikasa and Armin staying up.
'No, I don't want it', he jerked back to my surprise.
'If you don't have a clear objective, you can't transform right? Visualise and focus on it again', Armin informed.
'I know!', he retaliated, I fell back at his unkind gestures, raising his voice, it reminded me of someone so much.
As he kept biting into his fleshy hand, nothing worked. Each time he tried his sharp canines just dug deeper and deeper into his hand, reaching for his bones as the blood seeped out.
'Deep down', Mikasa spoke suddenly, but seriously.
'You're still hesitant to fight Annie, aren't you?'.
I looked towards Eren, his reaction telling us all.
'Eren', Armin mumbled.
'Don't tell me you're still thinking we're mistaking Annie as the female titan. Did you not see what happened earlier?', Mikasa gritted, her tone becoming scarier by the second as she bent down to Eren's face. 'That woman's the one who killed our comrades, right?'.
'Shut up. I'm trying', he deflected.
As my eyes viewed the interaction, my mind become subject to Eren's sudden hostility.
Why would he speak to us like that?, but then I could just conclude he's stressed and is taking it out on us...
'You noticed similarities in the female titan and Annie's fighting styles didn't you Eren? In that case shouldn't you be out there fighting? Or is there a particular emotion hindering you?', her questioning becoming intense, almost too much for Eren to handle.
He looked at me, semi-helpless on the floor, his eyes begging for help, but the words staying trapped behind his lips.
'I have a plan', Armin announced, drawing his sword, 'Mikasa and I will exit from that hole at the end of the tunnel and the entrance simultaneously. Doing so, will cause Annie to focus on the one of us. At that time, Eren should follow the one she ignored, and F/N follow the one she fell for to help whoever she picked'.
'Doesn't that mean one of you will die?!', Eren panicked.
'Just staying here will get all four of us killed. Get into positions', Armin justified.
Pulling my hood up, I adjusted Eren's cape which had fallen off, and placed his hood back onto his head. He seemed to be too busy trying to pull himself together to notice.
'I'll take the front', Mikasa confirmed, running off in an instant, as Eren shouted for her to come back.
'Mikasa!', he shouted, Armin now running off too as he faced the other way, 'Armin!',
'How can you still fight?!', he begged the question.
'What choice do we have?', Mikasa stopped her fluid motion, 'This world is a cruel place'.
She continued on, as did Armin, both of them reaching the outside light fast.
As I felt a heavy presence above the two of us situated in the middle of the passageway, a forceful push to my chest separated Eren and I. The sediment came raining down, Eren had pushed me.
To save me.
As I attempted to move, I quickly realised my leg had been caught, crushed underneath the rubble.
'F/N! Are you okay!', Armin yelled as he reached Eren, to which I replied I was okay, although my leg was currently crumbling to pieces under a large piece of stone.
'I'm fine, but i'm trapped under rubble! Ignore me and help Eren first!', I asked of him.
'Jean!', I spotted from a distance, 'When did you guys join?'.
'Not too long ago, I whipped off the wig only 30 seconds ago', he joked as he ran over to Armin and Eren.
'Jean help me lift this off of him!', Armin begged for aid, as I began to lift the stone off of my leg itself.
'Aaghhh', I squinted, groaning at the feeling of the release of pressure on my lower leg, 'it's crushed', I noticed staring at my flattened leg, before repairing it back to it's old state.
'You alright?', Jean jogged over, lifting me up off of the ground bridal style.
'I'm okay, just a bit dizzy', I commented, after all this crushing and then healing, it wore me out.
'Here you are', Jean placed me down as I got my balance once again.
'Shouldn't Eren have transformed?', Jean asked as I sat down onto a rock, although I hastily jumped up after seeing the state that I was unaware Eren was in.
Limping slightly as it was only a quick repair, I scrambled to Eren's body which was trapped under countless stone sheets, blood leaked from every crevice of his body.
And that could've been me.
'Sit down F/N, we'll get it off of him', Jean comforted, although the adrenaline rushing through my body told me otherwise.
'Annie's titan is what's hindering him from transforming, he wasn't able to, so now we have to save him', Armin informed Jean.
'Wake up', I begged, my vision becoming blurry as my eyes began to tear, I slapped his face slightly in an attempt to get a reaction, 'Please'.
I took an attempt at removing the rubble myself, this is what my training was for, waking up all those early hours, just to make sure I could save the ones I loved, reach the ones I loved.
I've let my comrades slip through my fingers before, and I didn't plan on doing it again.
'He wasn't able to?', Jean replied shocked, aiding me in removing the rubble, 'Eren don't you screw with me! I said we'd be counting on you someday remember?! You of all people, are entrusted with mankind, and our lives, and this is what we get for that?!?'
'Marco.. you know, he didn't-', his sentence cut off by the collection of rubble being sent towards us, although I was unaware as I was still scrambling to see if he was alive.
Jean snatched me, using his left hand to pull me away, and his right to cover my head, his ways of protecting people contrasting his personality.
My head tucked into his chest as the mess narrowly missed us, I lifted my head up to observe the situation and Armin thankfully had managed to dodge it too.
'Thank you', I breathed out, looking at him as we lay in the piles of cement.
'No worries', he mumbled.
'Eren', Armin voice cracked.
My head turned slowly, awaiting the bad news as Armin's tone didn't set the right scene for me to hope I would turn around to.
His chest was struck all the way through with a metal pole, I gasped, my hand flying to my mouth as his body still laid there, helpless, hunched over.
'EREN!', my eyes widened in worry.
'We have to do something about Annie first!', Jean decided as Mikasa was in fact out there on her own, 'I'll go!', he announced as he left to fight.
Stumbling over, I reached Eren, as Armin did too, he began to speak to his fragile and injured body.
'There's something I said to Jean before. For people who are able to abandon anything, will fail to bring about any change. If it's required to overcome monsters, one must toss aside their humanity. I'm sure annie is capable of that. I don't know what she's doing it for, but regardless, those who can do so are victorious', his words of wisdom being all that he left before he too ran off to go and aid the others.
Jean, Armin and Mikasa continued to distract Annie as I pulled and pulled the stone off of his bruised and cut up body, they were able to lure her away from the two of us and led her to Hanji, which helped for the moment, thankfully.
'You can get up now', I pleaded, 'They're going to trap Annie Eren so it's time to get up', I tried to keep myself sane, although I could see crystal clear that he wasn't moving.
'RRRAAAAAGGGHHHH', Annie's blood-curdling scream pronounced through the streets, it seemed she had broken out of whatever trap they has placed upon her.
'No no no no', I picked up the pace, any stone that came in my way I launched in another direction.
My leg began to ache once again, and although time was sparse, I made the logical decision to heal it completely before continuing on.
'She's escaped the trap Eren', I told him, his body.
Looking back and forth, I knew I had to make the decision of whether to help Eren, or the rest of my comrades.
And it was difficult.
'I'm sorry Eren', I frowned, 'I'll come back for you'.
'I promise'.
Joining the fight against Annie, I ran away from Eren, trying not to think about what I did so harshly, but more the fact that i'd be back for him soon, as a part of me had trouble letting go and just leaving him there.
We kinda promised we'd always stay together.
'Mikasa!', I shouted, running over to her as she laid on the concrete floor, 'What happened to you?', I asked but no response.
Lifting her up, I checked her pulse. She's still alive.
'Come on Mikasa wake up', I held her face as she winced. Her body reacting to myself and the sound around us, the loud sound that erupted from where Eren was supposedly laying.
'Eren', I mumbled, eyes wide.
'AAAAGGGHHHHH', his titan emerged as I gasped, pulling Mikasa up and getting her to open her eyes.
'Come on Mikasa you're okay', I sat her up, 'We need to go'.
'My head', she groaned.
'Did Annie get you?', I questioned once she had regained consciousness.
'Yeah she did, many others too', she looked up to see the mess that had been made around us, smashed glass, buildings,
People.
'Shall I fix your head before we go?', I motioned towards her.
'We dont have time', she grabbed my hand, standing up, which in turn lifted me, 'Let's go'.
'Okay', I nodded in agreement, as we began to run after Annie and Eren.
'Eren transformed as is now chasing Annie', I informed as we ran together, 'We need to find the others'.
'There they are!', she called, pointing at Hanji, Armin and others on the roof of a house.
Quickly, we zipped up to them using our ODM gear, it revealed a better view of what the situation was like, and everyone was here.
'Armin', I hugged him, 'Thank god you're here', I expressed as I was glad to see him after he left to fight against Annie with Jean.
'Same here', Armin hugged back.
'You too Jean', I smiled, looking to him.
'I'm glad you're good now', he replied with a nod.
'What should we do about Eren?', Mikasa asked, 'Should we call for him?'.
'Eren!', Armin called out loud, as others joined in.
'Don't call for him', Hanji reminded, 'We don't know if he can recognise us now'.
'Hanji's right', I pulled Mikasa's shirt, 'We don't want a repeat of last time'.
Everyone stood silent on the roof as we watched Eren fight Annie, they were pummelling each other around Stohess, it was a disturbing yet magnificent sight to see.
I watched as he punched her in the face, beating her up and cornering her before jumping on top of her, a sight I didn't like for some reason.
Kicking him off, she launched his titan form into the air, and quickly picked herself up, only to start running in a certain direction...
'She's running to the wall!', I shouted, securing my gear and getting ready to move.
'GO!', Hanji shouted at us all, we began chasing her towards the wall, in hopes she wouldn't escape.
Soaring through the town, the broken rooms and the smashed glass, it all just reminded me of when we escaped Shiganshia.
And it hurt to remember.
'It seems Eren is catching up to her again!', Jean yelled as we grew closer to the two of them.
'She's climbing up!', Armin shouted.
We watched, trying to avoid the mess around around us as we ventured closer, the sight that was Annie Leonhart climbing up a wall, and Eren Jaeger's titan holding onto her legs.
Biting her, Eren's jaw locked onto Annie's leg in an attempt to restrict her ability to climb. However using her free leg, she was able to kick him off, although her leg came with him as he fell off of the wall.
His body seemed to fall in slow motion, I could feel his anger exuding like it was some kind of energy, i'm just thankful that it was his titan form that fell and not him on his own.
'She'll get away at this rate', Armin relayed, although we were getting closer to the wall by the second.
'No she wont', I replied, 'Mikasa, throw me!', I shouted with Mikasa and I pacing in our gear, she spun with me, pushing me forward at as faster speed than everyone else, allowing me to reach the wall.
As she followed behind me, we both raced to the top, ahead of Annie.
Climbing up the wall fast, past Eren, I landed on top of her. Her face almost fell into a state of shock as I plunged my swords into her freshly healed eyes, allowing for Mikasa to slice her fingers without her being seen.
Mikasa rid Annie of her attachement to the wall as I stood on her forehead, my attachement to her also being cut. This would be the first time that I had been so close to her without her swatting me away. All that time together that we trained, all those years we wasted. All because we ran into each other after losing our families it came to this.
But this wasn't the time for regret.
No regrets.
'Annie. Fall'.
Mikasa and I stood tall on top of Annie as she slipped down the wall, I held onto Mikasa's waist as we detactched, the view allowing us to see her horrified face as she reached out for us, a cry, a call for help.
But I couldn't answer the phone. Not this time.
She hit the ground, loud and hard, and Eren was waiting for her impatiently to finish what had been started.
Absolutely destroying her face, breaking her bones to dust, Eren threw punch after punch, Mikasa and I waited on the wall, hoisting ourselves up on the side.
'He's going to eat her!', I noticed after he had quite practically killed her, his titan self lifting her up towards his large jaws.
At this point, Mikasa and I had dropped, making our way to the bottom to prevent anything further, as Hanji and Jean joined in.
'Eren stop!', they shouted.
A pause emerged.
'Why's he stopping?', Mikasa wondered as with both placed our feet on the floor.
'She's crystallising herself', I noticed, or perhaps, I knew, a bright blue light exiting from her nape.
That blue light lit up the surrounding area, completely eliminating the natural light, as Levi swooped into Eren, slicing his nape and retrieving him before he went any further.
We ran towards Eren, pulling him out and leaving Annie to the others, holding him up he barely opened his eyes to ask a question.
'How is Annie?', he whispered.
I looked up to Mikasa, then looked to my left, in my view was Jean trying to pry at this large crystal, breaking his sword in the process.
'Eren... She crystallised herself', I told him, 'It seems she's not budging'.
I held him up with both of my arms as Jean's voice alerted the three of us.
'We get this far for nothing, Annie!!! Get out of there and own up to your actions! It's no fair', Jean continued to kick, hit, stab her crystal, but there was no effect.
'It's pointless', Levi entered the conversation as we watched Jean lower his head.
'Come on Eren, let's get down', I lifted him onto my back and brought him down off of his corpse, Mikasa following.
'Make a net out if wires, you'll tie her up and carry the crystal underground!', Hanji ordered to the people around us.
'Yes sir!', everyone replied as Mikasa and I stood there, in front of us Armin and Jean, with Levi to our left.
'What do we do now. She's crystallised', I wondered, looking around.
'I don't know', Armin replied blankly.
Looking down at the ground, I figured silence would be good for the next few minutes, however something I spotted in my peripheral led me to speak once more.
Erwin Smith, in handcuffs.
'Erwin's being arrested?', My head and eyes constantly flicking back between him and Levi, hoping for a reply.
'For treason', Jean walked over to us in reply, I stood there shocked, as Eren's head which he once held up, fell onto my neck for some reason. I turned my head close to his to grasp the situation.
'He's unconscious', Armin looked widely.
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Our journey back was relatively quiet. I kept the unconscious Eren Jaeger on my back whilst we walked to the carriage, then once we were in there no one really spoke a word the whole journey back.
I guess we were too confused, wondering why and how that Annie was actually gone from our lives.
Not before long we arrived back to our base, I brought Eren to a room where I could lay him down and help him. Using my powers in addition to a few bandages, I was able to lay him down into a bed where he fell asleep calmly and safely. Mikasa sat next to me as we watched him sleep sound, Jean standing tall behind me, leaning against the wall. Armin stood to the right of me, that same worried look bestowed upon both of our faces, wondering when he was going to speak to us.
'You're awake', I spoke softly, brushing his hair out of his face as he opened his eyes.
'How do you feel?', Mikasa asked him.
'Okay enough to feel sick, Annie's still sealed away I hear', he replied, sitting up and rubbing his eyes.
We nodded.
'We pull off such a large scale operation and gain nothing?', Jean groaned from behind, I turned my head to face the man speaking.
'She went that far the withhold information', Armin breathed out.
'Yeah she gave us the slip', Jean folded his arms.
'Eren helped her with that. Isn't that right Eren? If not for that one moment', Armin looked to him for an answer.
Eren agreed, 'Armin's right, I failed at the end, when I saw Annie crying in her nape I couldn't move anymore'.
So that's why he stopped.
Everyone looked to the ground, not knowing what to say, I placed my hand upon his just to let him know I was there, subtly.
'Armin Arlert. Jean Kirstein. I'm here to question you', a voice appeared from the door as we all turned our heads, it belonged to a soldier who was here for questioning.
The two of them left, Mikasa and I continued to sit with Eren who stared into the ceiling deep in thought. I wanted to comfort him badly, seeing him upset made me upset, but for now I thought it was best that I lay low, fearing an outburst like one in the tunnel.
'Back then I thought it felt great', he finally spoke, 'Being ripped apart. It was as if I felt refreshed. Enough for me to think I might as well die then'.
'Eren', Mikasa saddened, I lifted his hand up in protest to his words.
'I'm not thinking that anymore', he stated.
'I'm glad you came back', Mikasa announced.
'Me too', I smiled in agreement.
'Have some food Eren', Mikasa offered, bringing a tray to his bed.
The tray lay in front of me as I continuously lifted the spoon into his mouth, filling it with soup each time.
Suddenly, he took the spoon off of me, shovelling it into his mouth faster and faster.
'Slow down', I laughed, 'You'll get sick', however, I just continued to let him eat. As long as he was okay, I would be too.
Resting my head on Mikasa's shoulder as she lay hers on mine, I observed how he loathed for the food, and the serenity of the room.
It was calm for once.
'How I miss the calm', I whispered.
'Me too', Mikasa agreed, squeezing my hand slightly.
'I'll take his food tray back, i'm sure they're washing up now', Mikasa offered as I lifted my head and picked up the tray for her.
'There you go', I passed it on with a smile.
'Thank you', she replied, 'Eren, F/N', she spoke grabbing our attention.
'Your summons to the capital along with the survey corps have been put on hold. Annie's being kept underground, deep, deep under our control', she announced by the door.
'That's a lot to take in', Eren huffed.
'We uncovered so much but now know so little. It means that there are going to be many more sacrifices along the way', I spoke, looking at the both of them.
Mikasa nodded in solidarity before walking out of the room, as Eren fell right back onto the bed.
'Are you really okay?', I asked, now that we were alone.
'What makes you think otherwise?', he looked into my eyes.
'Well considering what everyone just went through, but in general Eren', I replied, 'I care for you'.
'I could ask the same to you', he folded his arms.
'So why don't you?', I questioned.
'Okay then, how are you? Really', he focused on me.
'I'm not sure', I replied, 'I'm confused if that's an answer'.
'Why?', he wondered.
'About myself'.
'What part?', he asked, he seemed to be listening intently.
'You know, why I have these abilities, why I had that dream this morning and who that little boy is. I just feel like I could be treated a little better by whoever is in control', I sighed, 'It seems that every so often i'm questioning myself', I placed my arms on the bed, resting my head on it too.
'It's okay to feel like that', Eren spoke.
'Same goes', I lifted my head to look into his eyes, 'I don't like this feeling, so please let me know if you are ever experiencing it. It's kinda hard to do alone'.
'Of course', he responded with a reassuring smile.
'We have lots ahead if us in the next few months, we have to stick by each other's sides no matter what. Especially after Annie we don't necessarily know who we can trust'.
'We'll continue to do it like we always have and will', he let me know.
'Like we say. Together'.
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A/N : once again, a reminder, you may notice dialogue from the anime/manga but its only so that I can keep in line with the actual story, I am inserting my own parts to make it my own!!
So, after 35 chapters we have finally finished season 1 of the anime/manga. As I will be continuing this story into season 4, so times by 4, I assume there will be around 140 chapters total ... who knows... we'll have to wait and see....
Season 2 of AOT begins next chapter!!