Less than 24 hours after the capture of Annie, Elysian is travelling solo towards Wall Rose, carrying extra blades and gas for the veterans that are stationed there. Thomas had returned and warned Erwin of a titan invasion from a possible breach in Wall Rose, and since Elysian was capable and currently not involved in any affairs, she was sent to deliver extra canisters. It was unlikely that she would arrive as soon as was needed, but their supplies should be fine until then. It was oddly peaceful to be travelling alone and she enjoyed the wind in her face and the only sound being that of her horses hooves on the grass. When Thomas had arrived and reported it it had been twelve hours since the first sightings, and so Elysian was chasing time; she needed to get there quickly.
As night fell over Utgard Castle, the members of the 104th in the south and west teams were resting. Elysian had arrived as they were inspecting supplies written in a foreign language, bringing a few extra blades and gas canisters to the veterans. She also had ODM gear with her, so it would be extra supplies for her too if needs be. The cadets were exhausted but restless - it must have been roughly the early hours of the morning, but the anxiety of what was to come was keeping them awake. A shout from above demanded that the cadets barricade the doors, and they did so as Elysian ran up the stairs onto the roof.
"Titans spotted." Lynne said. The veterans were staring incredulously down at the titans moving towards the castle.
"That should be impossible. Titans don't move at night." Henning replied. Crashing from inside the castle indicated that the cadets had barricaded the door, at least for now.
"We have to get rid of them. Elysian, you too." She nodded and the five of them leapt off the side of the castle, a mess of wires and swords as they fought.
Inside the castle, Reiner was clutching his injured arm and Connie had adrenaline rushing through his veins. They had had to get rid of smaller titans that had infiltrated the castle, and Reiner had gotten injured saving Connie. They could hear the sounds of gas and swords outside and could see titans falling. It had dawned on them all that they were essentially defenceless, and all of their lives were in the hands of five people. For safety, they all headed to the roof of the castle, where the titans couldn't get to but stopped just inside the top of the staircase as Lynne and Henning arrived to check on them. They barely got through the first sentence before a series of massive boulders smashed into the castle, knocking both soldiers off their feet. Their limp bodies lay a few metres from where they originally stood with blood dribbling down the back of their heads into a puddle. Several of the cadets gasped and rushed forwards, only to realise that they were both dead, killed on impact.
Two hours later, Nanaba, Gelgar and Elysian returned to the top of the castle, drenched in sweat and out of gas and blades. Everyone notices too late that Gelgar has a head injury, and he stumbles backwards and over the wall, into the awaiting hands of a titan. Moving without thinking, Nanaba jumps off after him.
"Nanaba wait, you need-" Elysian was cut off by Nanaba's screams and pleas. Looking down, she saw her being pulled in three directions by titans, and heard a chilling rip as she was ripped limb from limb. "Gas. You need more gas." Elysian stood in horrified shock for a moment before stepping back, not wanting to see the bloody remains and the titans clawing at the wall. She is the only one left with gear, and behind her was a group of helpless soldiers. For a moment everything was quiet, and then Ymir appeared beside her, surrounded by the other cadets.
"Oi, Elysian. Give us a hand here, would you?" Elysian looked at her with a puzzled expression. Ymir jumped off the castle, and a moment later a crack of lightning burst from where she was. Ymir in her titan form jumped into the hordes of titans below, ripping their napes out and killing them faster than most soldiers. Elysian grinned and quickly shoved new gas and swords into her canister and scabbard before following Ymir off the castle's edge.
As the two were slowly taking down the titans, reinforcements arrived. Squad Hanji perched atop the crumbling castle and only took a moment to analyse the situation. Mikasa and several other soldiers jumped in to help Ymir and Elysian while Hanji checked over all the cadets and listened in on what was going on. The castle behind them was quickly crumbling, and Ymir managed to get all of the cadets still atop off just moments before it fell.
Elysian only got to see a flash of red and green too close to the castle before it fell. Her heart instantly dropped. She landed and ran over to the fallen building, coughing at all the dust and shoving away massive chunks of rock and building. Titans were quickly closing in on her once more and she could faintly hear people screaming at her to get away, but she didn't. Instead, she kept pushing away the rocks until she saw a sliver of black hair. And then a broken arm, a red scarf, and two terrified eyes.
"Mikasa, stay still. I'm gonna try and get you out." Elysian said, shoving hard at a massive chunk of brick. Mikasa's legs and abdomen were trapped under heavy lumps of brick and Elysian was desperately trying to push them away.
"Elysian, behind you." Elysian turned around and saw a massive titan with a grin reaching down towards her. She dodged it and rolled away, but it ignored her and went for Mikasa. Her heart was pounding as she drew her sword and flew up towards the titan, but it batted her away with its other hand. She could hear it moving rocks away and then heard a gargled scream as it picked Mikasa up. The rubble had crushed her abdomen inwards, ribs poking out everywhere and blood pouring out. Her legs were broken and splaying out in every direction. The titan put Mikasa's legs in its mouth and bit down hard, blood spurting out everywhere. Elysian sunk her anchors into the titan and soared up, cutting Mikasa out of its grip and running, only to stop when she saw two more titans in front of her. Everyone else was watching in dumbfounded fear as Mikasa was plucked from Elysians arms and each girl was picked up by a different titan. Mikasa was weakly struggling and on the brink of death from internal and external blood loss, and Elysian was fighting against her own titan in a desperate attempt to save the both of them. Elysian sliced the fingers of the titan holding her and dropped to the floor, running at full speed towards Mikasa and using the last of her gas to fly up and stab the eyes of the titan holding Mikasa, forcing it to let her go. Once it had, she grabbed her now almost lifeless body and ran for her life, the titans just a few steps behind her, but she didn't look back.
"Come on Mikasa, keep your eyes open. You don't get to die here. What will Eren do without you, huh?" Mikasa smiled weakly in her arms.
"Look after them for me." Mikasa was slowly drifting off and Elysian could hear her breaths getting shallower.
"Oi, don't talk like that, idiot. You're gonna make it." Mikasa was heavy in her arms and her legs faltered just as she reached the group. A few of Squad Hanji's soldiers had set off to defeat the titans following them. Elysian laid Mikasa down next to the unconscious Ymir and laid her head on her chest, only to hear no intake of breath. No heartbeat. "Mikasa? Hey, this isn't funny." She said, aggressively slapping her face to get her to wake up. She didn't. Her eyes stayed closed and she didn't even twitch. "Come on Mikasa. Get up." Reiner pulled Elysian away from the body, enduring the violent kicking and loud shouting pleas. Everyone was looking at the ground or crying quietly, and Elysian was kept far away until both Ymir and Mikasa were loaded into a wagon and they set off to Wall Rose. They hadn't been able to find Mikasa's legs after they were bitten off, and she was sent back without them.
Atop Wall Rose, the south and west groups rendezvoused with the Stohess mission participants. Nobody could look Eren in the eye and nobody mentioned Mikasa; thankfully, he didn't ask. Everyone else was discussing the findings and events of the past night, but Elysian sat on the edge of the wall, dangling her legs over the edge and staring into the horizon. Ymir was sent to Trost alongside Mikasa's remains and some other soldiers while everyone else remained on the wall. Elysian noticed Reiner and Bertholdt talking to Eren, and saw that Eren's face switched from shock to anger throughout the conversation. Elysian slowly stood up and walked up to Reiner and Bertholdt, motioning to Eren to not alert them of her presence.
"I'm the armoured titan and he's the colossal. Our goal is to wipe out the entire population within these walls, but if you come with us that won't be necessary, Eren. We need your founding titan."
"What? No, no way." Eren said, and a flush of anger ran through the both of them. Elysian ripped a sword from her scabbard and lunged at Bertholdt, but was seconds too late. Reiner and Bertholdt both transformed into their titans, knocking Elysian and Eren off their feet. The colossal titan reached down and grabbed Ymir and her escort soldier in his hand. Reiner reached out and grabbed Eren, who quickly transformed into his own titan. Elysian leapt onto Erens shoulder as the remaining soldiers in Squad Hanji began to fight the colossal titan, dodging its fists and burst of boiling steam. Elysian helped Eren out where she could, and strategized with Hanji and extra soldiers when they arrived. Eren successfully ripped off one of the armoured titans arms, and as soon as he shed the armour under his knees, Elysian sliced the muscle there, completely immobilising him. Eren hammered at the armour on his nape until Reiner let out a cry and the colossal titan fell off of the wall and on top of the pair, emitting massive amounts of steam that forced the scouts backwards. None of them were able to get close to the mass of titans and were forced to wait until Reiner emerged from the mess, Bertholdt clutched to him and carried both Eren (whom he had extracted from his titan) and Ymir and ran away.
"Don't follow." Hanji commanded. Elysian whipped around with her teeth grit and a deep frown etched into her brow, but Hanji put a hand on her shoulder in reassurance. "We will go after them, just not now." They turned away from Elysian and instructed a soldier to head back to Trost and inform Commander Erwin of recent events. Elysian was boiling over with anger and frustration as she slumped against a tree away from everyone else. It would be several hours before Erwin and reinforcements would arrive, so she forced herself to get a few hours of sleep.
The air was stale as everyone waited for instructions from Erwin. Hanji sat atop the wall with her squad, staring into the distance. So much had happened in only a few hours, and it would change everything. Their attention was momentarily diverted to Elysian, who was slumped over and asleep, but with tears running down her cheeks. Mikasa's passing was only now beginning to affect them all, and several soldiers were sat sniffing or fully crying, but Hanji and Elysian knew how big of an effect this would have on future missions. How was Eren going to cope? He'd lost his sister and his biggest motivator. Armin had lost his childhood friend and humanity had lost one of their strongest soldiers. Never again would they see that red scarf or the adoring look in her eyes.
Hanji let out one heavy sigh and returned to staring out into the hills.
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One Ackerman down, two to go.
The clock is ticking for someone else, too.
Poor Mikasa.