"We made it. I can't believe it was so easy." Eren remarks quietly, as him, Mikasa, Armin, and I follow Annie down the quiet and empty street.
After finally getting Annie to help us out, the three of us went to go get Eren. Mikasa insisted on coming with us, just in case something serious happens.
"Hush..." Mikasa orders quietly.
Eren clicks his tongue. "The Military Police are at work...I'm surprised they bothered to show up at all."
"Let's just keep moving." Mikasa suggests.
"Hopefully, they haven't noticed my stand-in yet either." Eren continues, pushing Mikasa's comment aside. "It's not going to hold up." He looks a little angry, as his face screws up a little. "After all, Jean and I look nothing alike."
I look over at him. "It's close enough. Not to make you more mad, but you both have that same angry scowl all the time."
"And the same boulder-sized chip on your shoulder." Armin adds.
He looks at both of us with wide eyes. "Well, yeah, but I don't have his horse face."
I raise an eyebrow, confused. "Horse face? Jean doesn't have a horse face."
"Yes he does." Eren confirms. "But, I guess you don't see it, since you only seem to see the good in pe-"
"Hey." Annie says, interrupting Eren. "If I had refused to help you guys out, then what was your plan B for getting out of the wall?"
"We would've used our ODM gear and marched right through the checkpoint." Armin answers.
"That's stupid." Annie replies. "Why didn't you just avoid all this trouble in the first place? You could've escaped before reaching Stohess, right? I mean, why wait until now?"
"Well..." I start. "We figured this town's complex layout would've been able to squeeze a bit more time out of our body double ploy."
"Of course...a head-on assault is not advised." Armin continues. "So, as long as the convoy acts like it's following orders, then everyone keeps they're defenses down."
Annie nods just the slightest. "I see...it's a very good plan."
I look straight ahead and actually see the place we need to go. "Ah...there it is." I jog over to it, leaving the others behind me.
It's a lot of stairs that lead down to an underground tunnel system that we'll use to escape the wall.
"Here?" Annie questions, once reaching the four of us.
"Yes." Armin confirms. "We'll pass through here."
I start to walk down the stairs. "These stairs lead to an underground city's remains that was going to be built a long time ago."
"If we're right, it should also lead us to the vicinity of the outer gate." Armin adds, following me down with the others behind him.
"Nice work, you two...that's amazing." Eren compliments.
I look back at him. "Thank y-" I notice that Annie is still at the top and stop. "Annie?"
"What's the matter?" Eren asks, also looking up at her. "You're not afraid of dark, cramped spaces or anything...are you?"
She stares at us for a few seconds. "So what? What if I am? I wouldn't think a suicidal maniac, like you, to understand. You don't know what it is to be an ordinary girl, crippled with fear."
This doesn't seem expected of her...I mean, this is Annie we're talking about. I never expected her to be afraid of the dark. Then again, it might be because it's small and cramped...who knows.
Eren scoffs, turning around. "A girl, who can flip a full-grown man upside down, has nothing to fear from the dark." He continues walking down. "Cut the crap. Let's move!" Mikasa, Armin, and I follow him down.
"No. I refuse." Annie replies, making us stop. "I'm too afraid. Above ground, I'll help, otherwise, the deal is off."
"Quit being stubborn, damn it!" Eren yells, in a rage. "Just get the hell down here! Move! We're running out of time, alright?!"
"Stop shouting." Mikasa orders him. "Someone will hear you."
"I'm sure it's fine, Mikasa..." Annie starts. "It seems, that for whatever reason, this place...has been completely deserted. That hurts me. It really does. The way you're looking at me now, if I didn't know better, I'd say you didn't trust me...eh, Armin? Or even you, Y/n?"
Armin, whom is holding the flare gun, stiffens. "Annie, tell us-"
I glare up at her. "What the hell were you doing with Marco's ODM gear that day we were having our gear inspected?"
She only looks to the side.
"We know it was Marco's, because it had all the same dents and scrapes." Armin continues.
"We know this, because we always helped him with maintenance." I add. "And we know you used it. So, answer us, damn it!" To say the least, I'm extremely pissed.
"Yes. I found it." She answers quietly. "I found it and took it."
Armin gasps softly. "Then...the two Titans we had in custody...it was you that killed them!"
"No one knows..." She replies. "But if you both suspected all of this a month ago, why did you wait this long to say anything?"
"Cause even now it's difficult!" Armin answers. "We just didn't want...we didn't want to believe that we we're right. Believe us, we talked about it multiple times in private, but we stayed quiet."
"On the field the other day..." I start. "The fact that you didn't kill Armin and I both times when you had the chance...those were the moments that have lead us to our current situation."
After much discussion between Armin and I, evidence, and even a late night meeting with the Commander and a few others two nights ago, we've identified Annie...as the Female Titan. Not to mention that the Titan looks like her too.
"Yes..." She answers, after a long silence. "We're here, because I let both of you live. Of course...I never dreamed that either of you would end up cornering me like this. Why...why didn't I do anything then?"
"Annie, please!" Eren exclaims, walking up a few steps toward her. "You've taken this joke far enough! Just tell us this is some kind of horrible prank! It's not too late! Come on! We'll understand! Come down! Let's talk!"
He walks up a few more steps. "You can prove to us that we're mistaken by walking down these stairs! Prove that we're wrong to accuse you!"
She looks down and to the side. "We both know I can't. Like I told you, I don't have the constitution for it."
"Annie! Stop!" Eren shakes his head. "We're talking about a matter of life and death!"
"Work with us, Annie!" Armin joins. "We can reason this out like human beings!"
I stay quiet. I know that we spent three years of our life with her, training, but...with Marco's ODM gear, I...I think she might've been part of why he died...I will never forgive her, if she was.
"Enough!" Mikasa places a solid foot down and throws her rain gear to the side. "I'm not listening to another word of this!" Then, she brings out a blade. "There's no point."
"Mikasa, wa-" I start.
"I'm going to carve you up again!" Mikasa interrupts. "Do you understand me, Titan?!"
After a short silence, Annie starts laughing maniacally, which slowly dies out. "You know, Armin and Y/n...it's nice that I could be a good person for both of you. For now, at least, it looks like you've both won your bet, but..."
She looks down at us with a crazy look in her eyes. "I'm going to gamble too and here's my wager!" She brings a finger to her mouth.
I gasp as Armin hurriedly shoots the flare gun, making Annie pause, as many townspeople tackle her to the ground.
Eren starts to run up to her, but Mikasa puts an arm out in front of him, stopping him.
Annie throws a hand out and does something to her ring to make something sharp point out.
Noticing this, I grab Armin's hand and start running down the stairs, as Mikasa grabs the back of Eren's cloak and practically carries him down.
"What are you-" The boys both start.
"It's too late!" Mikasa and I reply.
Suddenly, a bright yellow light appears behind us, as lightning struck, which means Annie just transformed into a Titan, killing all the surrounding townspeople. I thank them for helping us. Their deaths won't be in vain.
We turn into a corridor, once getting to the bottom of the stairs. Once doing so, we stop and look behind us to see blood-stained walls and even a few townspeople that have been smashed.
"Oh..." I swallow harshly.
"My God!" Armin practically gasps, as Annie punches down the rocks and reaches her arm down to try and grab us, but we start running down the corridor.
"Damn it!" Armin curses. "That ring!"
I shake my head. "She must've known that we we're lying to her from the start! She knew that we were going to lead her into a trap!"
"We should've taken a different approach!" Armin remarks.
"Yeah! I know!" I glance over my shoulder to still see her arm. How is she still reaching? Her arm isn't even that long, is it?!
"Save the should'ves for after we're out of this!" Mikasa orders. "The question now is what do we next?"
I look straight ahead of me, thinking of something. It's a little hard to do when running from a Titan arm, but I didn't say it's impossible. I open my mouth to explain, but Armin beat me to it.
"We rendezvous with Squad 3, since they're the closest to us, as of right now." He explains.
"Then what?" Eren asks.
I look over at him. "We get the hell above ground, of course! We've got to fight her out in the open!"
"Which means we're switching to plan B." Armin adds. "She's all yours, Eren! Got it?!"
"Yeah!" Eren replies, sounding slightly hesitant.
"Hey! We're over here!" A distant voice yells.
I squint to see who it is. "Look! It's Squad 3!"
"What happened?! Was plan A a no-go?!" The man asks.
Armin sighs. "I'm afraid so! As of now, we're going with a backup option!"
We stop in our running, as Annie's foot comes through the ceiling, smashing the two men from Squad 3. She then pulls her foot out.
"She...she just kicked through the ceiling..." I note, wide-eyed.
"We've got to pull them out of there!" Eren runs to pull them out, but Mikasa stops him.
"Stop!" Mikasa yells, grabbing him by his cloak. "Get back!"
"No!" Eren exclaims. "Wait! What are you-?!"
"What was that?" Mikasa asks no one in particular. "Did she not care if she killed you too?"
Thinking about what she said, I take a slight step toward the two. "It's like she said earlier, she was going to gamble. So, she took this risky chance."
"She's backed us up into a corner." Armin adds and runs off in the direction we came, making us follow him. "Which only makes her all the more dangerous."
We run down the corridor for a little, until we stop to rest. We ran toward the exit, but we stopped, so we'd have a little time to think things through, before Annie finds us again.
I huff, since I'm frustrated. "Damn it...she's cut us off..."
"And if we leave to the surface and try to get airborne with the ODM gear, she'll swat us like flies!" Armin adds. "And if we-"
He's cut off by Annie kicking through the ceiling not too far down the corridor.
I cough softly and swat the dust away from my eyes. "And if we stay here, we'll be crushed in no time, especially since she's already found us."
Eren stands up. "I know what I have to do! I'll change. I'll shield you guys just like that time from the cannon fire! So, stand up and get in close!"
The three of us stand up and gather extremely close to him, like he wanted us to.
"Alright! Brace yourselves!" He instructs and starts breathing heavily, as he brings his hand to his mouth and bites it, but nothing's happening. So, he bites harder.
I start to get a little concerned. "Eren...please."
He stops biting his hand and looks at it. "Not again...why now?!" He steps back a little and crouches down. "We don't have time for this! Just work, damn it!" He continues biting his hand.
"Don't try to force it." Armin remarks.
"Yeah." I crouch down in front of him. "You have to have a goal in mind, like Hange said, remember? You can do this. We believe in you."
He brings his hand down a little and looks at me. "Believe me! I'm trying!" He bites his hand really hard, almost to the point where I thought he was literally going to tear his flesh off.
Mikasa crouches down beside me. "Really? Are you sure you're not having second thoughts? Doubts about Annie?" Eren looks away from her.
"Eren..." Armin mumbles.
"You saw her transform, Eren." I recall. "You can't possibly be having any doubts."
"No matter how much you don't want to believe it, that won't stop it from being true." Mikasa adds. "What did we just see back there? She's a murderer. This isn't complicated."
He leans back. "Get off my back, damn it! I'm not stalling for time!" He bites down hard on his hand again.
"Eren!" I grab him by the shoulders. "Stop being so stubborn!" He brings his hand down from his mouth. "The Female Titan is Annie, whether we like it or not! Now it's up to you to fight her!"
He just stares at me.
"Unless..." Mikasa starts. "Unless, there's something deeper keeping you from it."
Eren blinks a few times, before looking at Mikasa. "What?"
Suddenly, Armin pulls out two blades. "I know what we have to do."
We all look at him.
He continues. "Mikasa will head for that opening-" He points at the recently kicked in area. "-at the same time, Y/n and I will make a run for the exit. Annie will go for one of the three of us, and when she does, run in the opposite direction for all you're worth."
It sounds like our best plan right now. So, I stand up and pull my hood over my head and join Armin's side.
"Are you out of your mind?!" Eren asks, yelling. "What the hell good is it going to do if any of you get killed?!"
I look at him over shoulder. "If we stay here, all four of us will."
"Mikasa, are you ready?" Armin asks.
"Yeah." She answers. "Good luck to both of you."
"You too!" I reply and we split apart from Eren to leave the corridors.
"Mikasa! Y/n! Armin!" Eren yells, sounding like it's at the top of his lungs. "Don't do this! I'm not worth it! Do you hear me?! You don't have to go!"
I close my eyes and shake my head. We wouldn't even have to be doing this if Armin and I only approached Annie differently. I'm sorry, Eren...this is partially our faults...
A/N: Heys, Scouts! I made sure to make this one longer than my last few chapters. Speaking of chapters, I think I've only got one or two more left to write, until I start the S2 book. I plan on having Armin and Y/n split up, which should be interesting.
Anyways, I hope you all enjoyed and have a wonderful rest of your day/evening/night. Bye, Scouts!