You wiped your brow, cleaning the cannons on a hot day really works up a sweat. You looked to your right to see Eren talking to people about them enlisting in the scouts. You weren't so easily swayed however.
Death is death.
Sasha wandered over to the group and revealed the meat she had stolen, it had been a while since you ate some, well at least from before last night.
You decided to pass, it wasn't worth being locked up for a sandwich. You turned back to continue working, the cloth doused in your sweat and the dirt of the cann-
*BOOM!*
Lightning had struck behind you as a giant shadow fell. You turned to the cause of the ruckus to see a titan of muscle and bone staring at you, not moving.
Steam threw you off the edge of Trost's wall, you heard a giant crash and looked towards the ground to see the wall had been breached.
You collected yourself and grappled onto a nearby tower, using your momentum to fling yourself far above the wall as you looked at what was happening:
Sasha had launched a wire into Samuel's foot and Eren was standing in front of the colossal titan, squatting as if he was about to jump at it.
He's not going to, right?
_______________________________________
You were proven wrong as Eren started sprinting, the colossal raised it's arm and swung at him, shredding the top of the wall as Eren barely managed to avoid it.
This dumbass is gonna get himself killed, I have to help him.
You grappled onto the titan's abnormally large chest and flew straight at it, you disengaged the hooks as you started gliding around the titan, Eren flanking the other side.
You and your classmate reached the nape at the same time and wound back to swing, what you hadn't expected was for large amounts of steam to appear and push back against you, throwing your hook-less self far back.
You regained your balance and grappled onto the wall, the titan had vanished again, just like 5 years ago.
Wait a minute, why do I remember seeing it? I wasn't there.
"Eren, Y/N! Is he gone or did you take him out?!" Yelled Thomas.
"He got away, just like half a decade ago!" Eren called up.
"Don't worry about it, nobody blames you, we were scared stiff!" Re-assured the blonde.
"Dumbasses! Worry about it later, if titans get in we're all screwed!" Connie brought them all back to the situation.
"Cadets!"
A member of the garrison landed on the walls and you all quickly saluted.
"The colossal titan response operation is in effect, if you saw the damn thing head to HQ, we need all the info on it we can!"
"We pray the advance team will be successful!" Connie yelled out.
_______________________________________
You slid your gas canisters back into position, the 104'th were being sent out to assist the garrison in specific squads, everybody was going crazy and you knew a certain Yeager who would be excited beyond comprehension.
You stumbled into a argument between the teen and Jean.
"We were trained for this, what do you think the last three years were about!? We survived, we stared at death's jaws and lived, not everyone can say that can they? Some couldn't take it and ran or got thrown out. Hell some people actually died, but not u-"
"Sorry to interrupt fuckers, Eren I'm gonna warn you right now. Don't get over excited and fucking get bitten in half within the first 5 minutes. If push comes to shove watch the titans and learn how they kill, then use the deaths of your comrades to prevent your own. Okay?"
Eren put down Jean as he turned to face you.
"But what abo-"
"SHUT UP AND LISTEN FOR ONCE IN YOUR DAMN LIFE!" Jean yelled out. "Y/N'S FAR BETTER THEN YOU AND EVEN HE'S NOT CHARGING IN WITHOUT A PLAN, PULL YOUR WEIGHT AND FUCKING THINK BEFORE YOU ACT!"
"R-right..." Eren mumbled, this was probably one of the few times you had to talk his ego down.
"Anyways I'm also pretty sure that you two are squad leaders if what I was told was accurate." You scratched your neck, you were confused on where you would be put.
"Y/N, Eren." You turned to the newcomer, it was Mikasa. "If things go south I want you two to come find me."
"We're in completely different squads!" Eren tried to protest.
"Things are gonna get ugly, and when it does I need you two to find me so I can protect you both."
The audacity, I beat her in almost everything. I should be the one protecting them...
"Who the hell do yo-" Eren was cut off.
"Stay safe Y/N." Mikasa had whispered in your ear before kissing you on the cheek, you spun to face her.
"Hold on what the fu-"
"Ackerman, L/N. You're with me, you've been assigned to the rear guard on special orders, let's go." A member of the garrison interrupted you.
"B-but sir we're cade-" You nudged her.
"Don't fucking ruin this, and we're going to talk about this later." You muttered to her.
"You're not being asked for self evaluation, we need as many elite soldiers as possible."
"But sir, with all due respect-"
"HEY!" Eren headbutted Mikasa. "You've been giv-"
"AY THAT AIN'T OKAY!" You shoved Eren against a pillar, looking back at Mikasa as she held her head. "He's not wrong though, this was a direct order and we have to follow it, but..." You turned back to Eren. "THAT GIVES YOU NO FUCKING RIGHT TO ASSUALT HER YOU SHIT STAIN. IF WE'RE GOING TO BE SAVING CIVILLIANS THEN WE ARE GONNA HAVE TO BE AT FULL CAPACITY, NOT INJURED WITH A CONCUSSION BECAUSE SOME LITTLE TOEBAG DECIDED IT WOULD BE A GOOD IDEA TO BEAT SOMEONE WHO WAS ASKING A QUESTION!!!" You yelled at him, Eren stepped back a bit, quite frightened from your little outburst.
You walked away from him, pulling Mikasa along with you.
_______________________________________
You unhooked yourself from the tower as you flew between it and a nape. You held your blades above your head as you were launched horizontally past it, carving a clean slash in it as it fell dead.
You landed as the rest of the squad came up to you.
"Not bad L/N, you could definitely put some of the members of the Garrison to shame." Clapped the squad leader.
"Thank you sir, can't do any less then perfect when lives are on the line." You responded, straightening from your crouch.
"You sure you didn't get burned by the blood?" Mikasa started gushing over you, making sure you were okay.
"I'm fine Mikasa, the blood actually gets rid of sweat and grease when it evaporates." You mentioned, the blood across half your face now boiling into gas.
"Anyways, the evacuation is taking a while, we should probably go che-" The squad leader was cut off as a large gust of wind and flesh ran by him. "AFTER IT NOW!" He suddenly yelled out.
You were on it instantly, hooking onto two towers you started to swing around, building up momentum, catching up to it until-
You unhooked, pressing the gas triggers on your ODM as you flew directly into the nape, you angled yourself head-first and fired a hook into the ground to cause you to spin.
You burrowed into the titans nape, making a giant circle in it's neck as you cut through the throat and appearing on the other side. You quickly landed as the titan fell on you, letting you stand in the clean circle you had carved.
You crawled onto the head of the titan as you looked forwards.
The escape route was blocked by a giant wagon and a few men pushing it while several civilians were protesting.
"Perfect timing! You there, order these fools to start pushing and help the evacuation, you'll definitely be rewarded!"
You jumped off the titans head and started walking towards the man.
"My friends and allies are laying their lives down, mostly because the evacuation is taking too long, now that may be our job, but that doesn't mean it's acceptable to exploit that to get fucking grain to safety. And even then, I would still accept it. If it wasn't wasting time, so why in god's name do you not pull the cart out and split the load in two?"
"Hey! What are you doing?!?" The man yelled.
"Splitting it in two." You smirked, you grappled onto a tower before turning around and spinning right through the cart, shredding the bag and letting the contents spill everywhere.
"All right everyone, don't waste anymore time because we don't have it! get through the gates and we're even, got it?!" You called out to the crowd. They all started cheering and running through as you made your way back to the squad.
"That wasn't a smart way to handle it but it was effective L/N..." explained the leader.
"Well I had to let people through and punish him for wasting lives."
Your squad leader nodded before you all headed off again.
_______________________________________
Mikasa sliced a nape as the leader called out.
"That's our job done, we should scale the wall now, we played our part."
You looked at Mikasa, you could tell what she was about to do.
"I'm going to help the vanguard withdraw sir."
You sighed as she ran off and started grappling away.
"I'll make sure she doesn't get herself killed." You mentioned as you also swung off after her.
_______________________________________
You landed on a tower with Mikasa as she looked around.
"I don't know why you decided to follow me but you better not fall behind."
"You better not run out of gas and get yourself killed." You responded, she continued to wonder about the situation.
"They must have heard the return signal, so why aren't they scaling the wal-" You cut her off.
"HQ is overrun, they probably ran low on gas and are deciding what to do with what they have."
She nodded, jumping off again as you followed her.
_______________________________________
You landed on the roof as you heard people wondering about your sudden appearance.
"Annie! Do you know where Eren is?"
"I'm not sure if Eren's squad made it back, but Armin's over there." Reiner answered for her, pointing to Armin who was sitting against a wall, clearly dazed.
You and Mikasa ran over to check on him.
"Hey Armin, you good man?" You knelt down and put your hand on his shoulder, he visibly flinched and tried to turn away from you, only to be met by Mikasa.
"You aren't hurt are you?" Mikasa checked in on her friend. "I know you were in Eren's squad, where are they?"
"Armin..." You nearly whispered. His head shot up to reveal tears in his eyes.
"HE'S DEAD OKAY!?! EREN YEAGAR IS DEAD, AND SO IS HIS BROTHER MOST LIKELY. THEY HAVE BOTH HELPED ME IN LIFE AND NOW THEY'RE BOTH GONE, THE YEAGAR FAMILY HAS BEEN WIPED CLEAN MIKASA, AND SO WILL WE. I CAN'T-" He broke down into sobs, you stood up and turned away, crossing your arms as you did so.
"I fucking warned him, I told him to not do anything stupid but here we are. I don't know what I expected, but there was probably some pessimistic side of me that knew this would happen."
Mikasa stood and turned to Marco.
"Marco, if we somehow get past the titans at HQ we can refill our gas and scale the wall right?"
"I mean yeah, but we probably don't even have the supplies to get there, let alone get through the titans."
"That's not a issue." You stated, everyone turned to you.
You knocked on your gas canisters as you explained your idea.
"I still have about half my gas left, I've always been able to use it better then you lot, so I can afford to split it, but not all of you. Even I have my limits, but if we're going to do this then I'll only share with what remains of the top 10, we go to HQ, wipe the titans and bring gas to all of you. Half a tank each for you lot will be enough to get over the wall, alright?"
You pulled your canisters out as Sasha walked towards you, offering her canisters. You split your gas with hers as the rest of the 10 came up to you.
_______________________________________
"Don't turn tail now you lot!" You called out, jumping off the building as you grappled towards HQ, Mikasa slightly ahead of you and others behind.
"Everybody follow Y/N and Mikasa!" You held Jean yell. You smirked as you saw Mikasa take down a couple of titans, you kept decent pace with her.
Wait, I know I can afford to go this fast because of my technique, but Mikasa can't. She's going too fast and will run out of gas in a matter of-
You were pulled out of your thoughts as Mikasa started falling, you cursed yourself for not telling her to be careful and pulled off from the others.
"JEAN!" You yelled. "LEAD THE OTHERS TO HQ, I'LL MAKE SURE MIKASA'S OK AND BRING HER THERE MYSELF!"
"ARE YOU INSANE!?!" He yelled back.
"MAYBE!" That was the last thing you said as you flew off to check on Mikasa.
_______________________________________
"Mikasa!" You called out, you prepared yourself to land.
But your ODM wasn't working.
Shit, could it be?
You started flailing around as you started plummeting, you thought fast and grabbed onto your wire that was still connected to the building.
You smashed into it with your feet, it hurt but not as much as it would've if you just fell. You quickly rappelled your way down to her.
"Shit, we're both out of gas, no way off the floor and completely alone..." You contemplated what you were going to do. You noticed the ring on your finger, thinking back to what Frieda had said.
"If you ever find yourself in a life or death situation, with no way out. Rest your thumb on the landing and focus on escaping. You'll probably need this while being a soldier."
You decided against it, you weren't facing imminent death just yet, there was still a chance someone could come and save yo-
You were brought out of your thoughts as you heard footsteps.
Oh god please no.
You were thrown against Mikasa and launched back as a giant hand smacked you. Your ring had been knocked off by this as well.
So this really is where it ends huh?
You thought about your privileged life and the friends you had made. To hell with it, even if you died you wouldn't let your friends be hurt.
You grabbed your last remaining blade and waited for the titan to be in range...
You dashed, kicking off the wall as you landed on the titans hand, grabbing onto it's arm as you circled around the limb, slicing it up as you went up to the shoulder.
You jumped off, firing your hook into it's crotch area. You swung backwards and sliced a knee joint as you came close to it, you unhooked and dashed back, watching as the titan began to fall until-
A giant fist collided with the titans face.
You looked up to see another titan, standing there like it had purposely aimed for it.
Then you remembered.
A titan, punching another titan, it feels familiar but wher-
Shiganshina, I was there, with Mikasa, Eren, Armin and Hannes, that's why they were so familiar. I had forgotten about them and I was saved by a titan with purple eyes, and then I was with Frieda. I was the child of Carla, Eren's brother and Mikasa's adoptive sibling. I'm not Y/N Reiss. I'm Y/N Yeager!
You were brought out of your thoughts yet again by the titan screaming and running towards the titan and stomping on it's nape.
This is the second time I owe my life to a abnormal...
You thought this as you ran over to your ring, slipping it on again as you checked the blade within it wasn't damaged.
Before you knew it you were on a roof with Armin, Connie and Mikasa.
"Mikasa's out of gas!" Armin explained.
"M-me too..." You muttered sheepishly, scratching your head as you did so.
"Well then there's nothing we can do! HQ can't be cleared without you two!"
"There is one thing..." Armin started. "It may not be much but Y/N can use this gas well, it's one of the many things I trust him on." Armin started sliding out his canisters. "And Mikasa, please be careful when using this. Just leave me a single blade, that's all I-"
"No, you're not dying here, I'll carry you if I have to." You picked Armin up by his armpits and threw him onto your back. "We don't have much time, we should go while we still can."
"Wait wait wait! I have a plan!" He called out, you slowed down and let him explain as he mentioned his plan that I'm too lazy to write out.
_______________________________________
You crashed through the window, quickly getting up and pulling the others further in.
You got ready to carry out Armin's other plan as the lift started descending, you had been given another blade by someone who had a spare and were ready to slice and dice.
You watched as the lift came down, Marco insisting everybody wait, you squatted, ready to jump at a moments notice.
"FIRE!!!" The yell was loud and clear, gunshots filled your ears as flashes went across your eyes, you jumped from your spot to the head of a titan, you started spinning as you used gravity to your advantage. Your blades cleaved through the titan's otherwise impervious skin as you continued to descend.
You landed in a squat as the entire spinal column of the titan fell behind you, the titan slumped dead as you watched the others take down their titans.
(there's no failures here due to the fact sasha and connie aren't top 7 so are not selected to kill the titans)
"ALRIGHT PEOPLE, LOAD UP!!!" You yelled, everybody started cheering as they ran towards the gas and blades.
_______________________________________
"Hey Mikasa, I got something to tell you." You said while walking side by side with her, you were going to watch the "berserker titan" for a bit before scaling the wall.
"What is it?" She responded, her interest clearly piqued at what could be so important right now.
"Well you see, I may or may not have-" You were cut off for the like 15'th time that day by the titan screaming and biting off the nape of another.
"Holy shit..." You muttered, that was hardcore as all hell.
The titan fell over, presumably dead, as steam started rising from the nape.
"Look, a titan's a titan." Jean tried to explain.
"Shut up and look." You pointed to the steaming nape, there was a silhouette of someone in there, You quickly zipped over to it with Mikasa next to you.
Eren was there, alive but unconscious, in a titan's nape.
"OF ALL THE STUPID, SHARK JUMPING BULLSHIT!!!" You started, just to be cut off again by Mikasa crying and holding Eren's unconscious form, you quickly calmed yourself and sighed, your brother was alive, but given the new circumstances, that may not be for long.
"We should get him to safety..."
<==To be continued...===============