Thump
Thump
Thump
The vibrations travelled through the earth's crust and up the soles of Kota Fujiki's shoes, alerting the Scout to the position of multiple behemoths―most likely more giants like the one they'd had the pleasure of meeting about half an hour ago. The sole Old-Type of the travelling trio stopped in his tracks, quickly craning his neck to the direction of the tremors with a caution so unlike him that it prompted his comrades to stop and follow his gaze.
"Something's wrong."
Wolf stared at the group's reconnaissance expert. He and Alisa knew the scout had sensed something.
And most somethings were never good for them.
Down on one knee, Kota closed his eyes, breathed in deeply and placed his ear onto the hard soil, like a child eavesdropping on a conversation.
"...There's... there's a large group of those giants moving... somewhere east of here."
"Are they approaching us?" Wolf asked sharply.
"They're moving away from us, actually," Kota replied. He stood up and dusted himself off. "It's weird. I didn't think they were pack creatures."
"I don't think that's why they're congregating," Alisa interrupted, wrinkling her nose in disgust. "Can you smell that? The air around here reeks of blood. A fight between those beasts must have broken out."
"A fight, huh... Maybe those guys are eating each other. It wouldn't be a surprise, all things considered."
Wolf frowned, looking to the direction where Kota had sensed the monsters.
"I don't think that's it."
A small, almost unidentifiable part of him shook with adrenaline as a familiar scent made its way into his nose. Kota and Alisa must have not been familiar with it; it was a smell he had grown used to a long time ago, back when he was still spending the better part of his day in the slums of the ghettos.
His subordinates stared at him as he hefted his God Arc and kicked off, dashing towards the origin of the scent without another word. The redhead and silverette shouted at him to wait as they attempted to close the distance that had separated them and their leader, barely keeping up as Wolf sprinted with a grimace curling his lips and a furrow creasing his brow.
"Wolf, what's wrong?!"
"I can smell gunpowder!" he yelled, and with that pumped his legs faster, prompting the rest of his team to keep pace.
XxXxX
The ground was pockmarked with craters, that was the first detail any of them had at first come to realize... but it was the least disgusting they had taken note of.
That particular title went to the puddles of blood and assorted body parts that covered every inch of the area they ran into.
A cold rain fell from the skies and over the trio of God Eaters as Wolf carefully eyed the fifty-meter plus wall in front of him, not admiring its extensive height as much as he was trying to turn his eyes away from the hellish mosaic he had found himself in. Alisa and Kota, on the other hand, were looking slightly nauseous as they stared at the remains of a very much dead human―the lower half missing and leaving the unfortunate man's insides to spray out in a pool of his own blood. His face was frozen in unending horror and pain, eyes shot wide open as if he were still experiencing being bisected by a giant's incisors.
Sad as it was to admit, the only reason the three God Eaters weren't violently evicting the contents of their stomachs would be because they'd seen much worse in their careers.
'And a little girl gave me hell for it, once,' the blonde grimaced.
"You... you think..." Kota gulped as he averted his eyes, "you think there are any survivors?"
"The blood on the corpses looks fresh. The scuffle must have just finished a couple of hours ago," Wolf analyzed, kneeling down next to a woman who had lost a portion of her right chest cavity and closing her unseeing eyes.
Wolf was silently thankful for the rain―it was at least able to wash off the scent of blood from the slaughterhouse this place had become.
"Your orders?" Alisa asked, breaking the haze of silent mourning for people that were no longer here. People whose names they didn't know, and would never establish a memorial for because they had better things to do than bury every single body. Like trampled flowers left to die so new ones could grow in their place.
Wolf sighed and stood to full height. If he believed in a god he would've offered a short prayer to the carnage that lay before him... but no such luck for the divine. The only divines he had were the ones he had been given orders to annihilate, and if a god couldn't stay up long, then there was no point praying.
People stopped praying long, long ago.
Heaving his Koenigsburg onto his shoulder in a manner reminiscent of his predecessor, the First Unit Leader surveyed the situation.
"I can still smell blood leading into the wall. The fighting must have gone on into it." Wolf walked towards the dark shelter of the eight meter-high hole in the building, "We'll assist in the operation, whether it be repelling the enemy or evacuating civvies."
A ringing sound echoed through the air. It felt... sorrowful, in a way. Wolf detected a hint of manic fear in the way they sounded, one after another.
"Church bells... those were sometimes used to signal invasion back in the medieval era, right?" Alisa asked.
Wolf nodded. "It's possible there are civilians within the premises, and that was used as a signal for an evacuation. Of course, it's also possible it's a signal to retreat," he trailed off. "Well, no matter. If the civilians are getting evacuated, we'll assist in the procedure as best we can."
"And if they can't be evacuated?" Kota asked, grimly.
And here I thought you were the guy that would never say die.
"Then we focus on assisting the town guards to repel any hostiles until none remain... but... if worse comes to worst we'll have to withdraw out of ground zero, civilians or not. Am I clear?"
"Understood," both of them answered back.
"Engagement protocol will be followed. If one is attacked by an unknown, you may return the gesture as much as you like. If it shows no sign of hostility, stand down."
"We'll set a course for the nearest evacuation center. If we encounter another one of those giants, you need to sever their necks to stop them from getting back up. I'll take point. Alisa, bring up the rear. Kota, stay between us. Aim somewhere around their jaw line. Do not stop for anything. We can't let them overwhelm us with numbers."
"Gotcha." Kota nodded briskly.
"Understood." Alisa hefted her Arc.
"Alright, then..." The other side of the wall didn't look much better than the outside, he noted absently.
"Commence operation."
XxXxX
Jean didn't like hopelessness.
Hopelessness was a little something that had crawled into his throat and ripped his heart right out of his chest. Hopelessness was a little something that shoved his blood aside and paraded through his veins. Hopelessness was a little demon that had collected all your ugly bits, stored them in a rucksack, and spilled it all over you when you realized it was already too late.
He didn't particularly like hopelessness.
Nearly out of gas and with hundreds of his allies dead, anyone who described the situation with "hopeless", "impossible", "futile" and all those other pessimistic synonyms wouldn't be too far off the mark. The chances of them coming out of this alive were a depressing slim to none. That didn't hurt so much as the knowledge that they knew they wouldn't survive yet couldn't do anything to keep someone alive – the awareness of uselessness, one could say. The feeling of complete resignation was quickly spreading through the ranks, and he doubted people wouldn't start committing suicide soon.
Jean watched as a Titan tried to grab him, the five-meter humanoid cannibal not even coming close considering his perch on a building twice as tall as it, though that still did not seem to stop it from trying to reach from him even when its ugly head impacted with the side of the building, sending shockwaves up from under his feet.
"...Jean."
The familiar voice of his friend snapped Jean out of his vapid stare into the chaos down below. Marco was frowning.
"You alright?"
Jean frowned. "Titans are invading and I'm in the middle of the shitstorm that came out of that equation. Do you seriously think I'm alright?"
The look on his face served to make Marco smile slightly.
"Right." The raven-haired soldier looked down, grimacing at the bloody streets and just as quickly turning away. "We should go. The Titans might be attracted to this place if we stay here for too long."
Without another word, Marco turned. Jean looked at his back, then at his own feet. He turned his gaze to the hell in the nameless road, catching sight of something in the corner of his eye and settling his gaze on a man.
"Tom..." Jean murmured, surprised he remembered the name of that particular recruit. They had been placed in the same training unit, but they had never truly had a real conversation. Jean only knew his name from the other time he'd been introduced as a friend of a friend, and hadn't pushed it to anything above camaraderie.
Tom didn't seem to be in a pleasant situation. Both of his three dimensional triggers were being squeezed repeatedly, yet the gas that escaped the ventilation strapped to his waist could barely topple a house of cards, much less propel a grown man into the air. The Titans quickly took notice of the man's whimpering futilities, and moved to capture their newfound meal.
"Stay away!" Even with the rumble of dozens of Titans moving in, the terrified scream of the man pierced through the din and reached Jean's ears without any trouble, the fear and the horror seemingly magnifying the decibels of his voice so that everyone could hear.
So that everyone could watch him die pathetically.
For all the good it did Tom, he may as well as have been talking to several stampeding brick walls, all ready to eat him up.
The first Titan, a seven-meter class, snatched Tom's torso with both hands, pinning his arms underneath huge, barely-squeezing fingers. Tom screamed, tears flowing endlessly down his cheeks as a rapidly growing stain appeared in his pant legs.
Jean didn't need to see his death to know that the cadet writhing in the Titan's grasp was already dead. Somewhere in his already twisted line of thought, he had already declared the man dead the moment he had laid eyes on him, out of gas and nothing but a grounded bird.
Grounded birds were only lunch, after all.
Someone behind him screamed―Jean was too focused on the morbid scene unfolding in front of him to properly discern just what was said―as two smoky streaks of white flew past him, along with two soldiers that moved to save their comrade.
It was a waste of effort as a Titan suddenly reached out and grabbed one of them, halting the man's course so abruptly that he dropped his blades, the weapons hanging limply from the Titan's fist as the could-have-been savior then started to scream alongside his friend. The other soldier, a woman turned to try and get her companion out of the mess, was unprepared when another giant backhanded her into a wall. It then picked up her limp body.
"Shit!" Jean swore, moving to help.
Only he didn't.
It wasn't because anyone had stopped him. Hell, no one even looked at him, too focused with their own senses of morbid curiosity. The reason he had stopped was not because someone had tried to stop his heroics, not because he had been restrained, but because just as he moved to leap to the rescue, one of the Titans turned to look at him. Hungering, mindless eyes stared into him, and just like that, he was rooted to the spot, in fear of what would happen if he managed to even toe the unspoken line.
"―No, no, no, no! Please, no!"
Those eyes were filled with nothing more than hunger, hunger and more hunger. There was no remorse, no happiness, no anger, nor any other emotions. It was as if Jean was staring into the very concept of starvation, brought to life as a giant man-eating beast. That stare alone was enough to freeze the air in his lungs and force his heart to crawl into his throat.
"GAAAAAAAAH! HELP ME! SOMEBODY SAVE ME!"
"I don't wanna die... I DON'T WANNA DIE!
The screams went unheard as Jean's ears were overcome with the deafening force, as if drums were beating beside him. His heart raced as he watched the Titan that held Tom bring the man up to eye level. His hands trembled in terror, anger and (though he himself was sickened at the thought) happiness, that the man down there was not himself.
For a moment, the world was silent. For a moment, no one could hear the screams of the humans caught in a predator's grip.
The moment was broken as a sickening crunch echoed throughout the ranks of the remnants of the Trost defense, accompanied by the agonized scream of one of their comrades.
Tom didn't die immediately. No, there were many ways to attain a quick death, but being eaten by a Titan was not among them. The cadet writhed and struggled, even at the loss of part of his chest. The giant gnawed into his flesh and bone like a dog would chew a piece of leftover meat. Blood spurted out of his body―a rain of crimson, painting the ground below a beautiful shade of lifeblood.
The humans watched on, unable to do anything.
No,Jean corrected himself; we just don't want to waste our gas... so we're leaving them to die.
Jean didn't know how long he stood there, unable to tear his gaze away as his fellow soldier's body began to weaken, and his screams dampen. He just knew he only stopped and averted his gaze when the Titan opened its mouth one last time and bit the man's head off in a final explosion of gore. He swallowed down the bile that rose to his throat, and held a hand to cover his mouth and nose from the god-awful smell, cursing his luck for the poor direction of wind.
It wasn't over yet though.
The two others that had watched their comrade be eaten weren't any farther from that fate themselves, and as the realization dawned unto them, their lungs let loose screams that pierced the silence like a lance through a heart.
Jean closed his eyes, unwilling to see another one in such detail.
"Watashitachi o bakkuappu shimasu, Kota."
"Hai, Rida!"
The words were utter gibberish to him, but as Jean wondered what the hell those words meant― if they were some secret code or another language altogether―his curiosity forced him to open his eyes, barely catching a glimpse as a trio of blurs leaped off the edge he himself had perched on, passing him by without a glance to the side.
What's more was that he didn't even see any gear on them.
No gas canisters, no vent, no steel wires. The only things they had were the strange clothes on their backs and weapons that looked too large for any of them to be able to properly wield. Hell, he half-expected that one of them would get crushed under the weight of such bulky-looking things.
Jean didn't know if they were stupid, insane, or both, yet even as he raised a hand to stop them from jumping to their deaths―they were five floors up, and if the fall didn't kill them, then the Titans definitely would―two of them, a blond boy and a snowy-haired girl, used the edge to propel themselves towards the horde of Titans that had converged on their prey, moving too fast for him to stop. The last one, a red-haired male that seemed just as young as the other two, instead opted to leap over the group of cannibalistic giants.
And what a leap it was.
Jean had seen people who could clear six to eight feet with a running start, the foremost of them being Mikasa Ackerman, but when this kid jumped, it wouldn't be an exaggeration to say he made the ace of their graduating class look like a toddler barely able to walk in comparison.
The redhead easily jumped more than a dozen feet into the air, easily shifting his body to turn and face the ground, aiming down the scope of his cannon and blasting a fireball-shaped hole through a Titan's body. The bullet impacted with the top of its head and buried itself in the ground below. The Titan's body exploded into little charred bits of muscle and sinew, the fireball accurately portraying the phrase "going in as a needle and coming out as a cannonball."
The blond and the platinum-headed duo had twisted themselves midair as they flew at their target: a slow-moving nine-meter class that held the woman. Both of the strangers hadn't even talked when they mirrored the other's movements, shifting their muscles and striking swiftly with their blades. Their bodies twisted in a full circle as their blades unbelievingly cleaved Titan flesh in two like the tough hide was instead made out of hot melted butter. Both of them landed on the ground, knees bent yet otherwise looking completely unharmed by the more than thirteen-meter fall at breakneck speeds. The redhead fell beside them, his cannon still trained at the giants.
The freed female soldier fell in between the trio's protective formation, crying as the Titan's fully beheaded corpse – dear god that was a lot of blood– dropped to its knees and fell with a mighty crash unto its side.
"Sorera subete o korosu,"Jean heard the blonde mutter to his companions.
And Jean watched as a new carnage unfolded.
XxXxX
"Kill them all."
As soon as Wolf had given the order, Alisa and he broke away to begin the first of many bloodbaths they would find themselves in.
Kota's Oracle Levels dropped rapidly as he shot bullet after bullet after bullet at the Titans in the immediate vicinity. Both of his comrades kicked off, dashing from opposite directions, yet towards the same enemies. Wolf had counted the ones still alive; eight were still kicking.
Easy enough to fix that.
The blond swung his God Arc wide, decapitating a four-meter class after it had lunged at him too predictably and passing its corpse without a second glance. Another Titan, one which seemed to be granted with a slightly quicker wit than the rest of its idiot brethren, tried to stomp him into paste. Wolf threw himself to the side as the ground cratered under the force of the blow, yet he didn't spare a glance at the medium sized hole, choosing to dash next to a building and jump, using an overhead signpost as a springboard.
The nine-meter class swung blindly at the approaching New-Type, yet Wolf had rocketed through the air far too fast for it. The First Unit Leader had already placed a foot on the Titan's shoulder, pivoting on his heel and digging his soles into the giant's flesh before his God Arc lashed out and cleanly severed the abomination's neck.
The Titan's disembodied head fell to the ground, its skull cracking open from the fall and spilling blood and grey matter onto the cobblestone streets. Wolf leaped from the already deceased giant's shoulder at his last target. The Titan looked up as Wolf somersaulted, descending down on it with his blade's edge leading the way. The God Arc bit into flesh with a wet thuck! through skin, flesh, bone and innards―muscles, organs and everything else. The bloodied blade came out of the monster's hide, the Titan's body crashing to its knees and falling face first onto the ground into two neatly-severed halves.
Fire soared over Alisa's head as she tucked herself close to the ground, sprinting past a Titan just as one of Kota's bullets blasted a hole through its throat. The ten-meter Titan fell back from the force of the blow, raising a dust cloud that obscured the approaching New-Type from view.
Alisa flew out of the smoke, leaping out of the cloud with enough strength to reach the shoulder of a seven-meter just as it moved to devour the man it held in its grasp, the blade cutting through flesh and bone before it could take a bite out of its dinner. Not stopping to glance at the whimpering soldier that ran away screaming, the girl dashed to the nearest Titan. With another swing, the nine-meter class suddenly found itself lacking a knee and began to sway dangerously, unresponsive to the pain yet not smart enough to capitalize on its numbness. It crashed to the ground, where Alisa finished it off by stabbing her blade into the nape of its neck, the red God Arc exploding out of the abomination's jugular in a spray of blood.
Cruelly ripping out her sword, the silver-haired Gods Eater was already moving, pivoting on her heel and smashing the flat of her blade into a five-meter's chin. The force of the blow knocked it into the air where one of Kota's bullets shredded its jaw and left nothing more than a headless body.
Not giving another time for reprieve, Alisa dashed past the fallen giant and approached the sole surviving Titan―a fifteen-meter class that made her look like an ant to a hill in comparison. The giant threw a colossal fist down onto her and Alisa leaped, avoiding the punch by inches before dashing up its arm and driving her blade through the beast.
Staring at the evaporating husks of barely discernible flesh left behind, Kota grimaced at the less than completely clean fight. The redhead turned away from the carnage of the battlefield and instead turned a cheery smile towards the two people they had saved. They looked like hell, but hey, they were alive and that was all that mattered until the next problem reared its ugly head. Smiling lightheartedly at the two as they stared at him with a mixture of shock, horror and other emotions that were too chaotic to discern, the redhead raised a hand in greeting.
"Yo, you guys alright?"
XxXxX
"Yo, minna daijobu?"
There it was again, that strange language. Jean didn't know what he was feeling when he had watched the trio decimate a group of Titans without the use of three dimensional maneuver gear, but it had twisted his already lead stomach in knots. His body was frozen, this time not out of fear but out of confusion on what to do next. The training camp had briefed them on many things and just as many situations, but what the hell did you do if your entire squad watched a trio of teenagers come barreling out of nowhere, dropping Titans left and right, and then casually walk up and start a conversation in a foreign tongue?
"Anata wa shiki-kandesu ka?"
Turning to the almost inaudible voice who spoke, Jean's gaze settled on what he thought was the leader of the trio―the blond teenager. He looked strange, Jean thought, because he gave a general air of being unceremoniously having been catapulted out of bed. Though by the... boy'sstandards (which Jean, of course, did not know yet), this was completely normal. And even though the teenager looked as if his daily thought process was exerted on finding the best place to take a nap, he lugged the overgrown slab of metal he called a weapon around like it was a twig.
"Anata wa daijobu?"the stranger raised an eyebrow as if he were asking a question.
"Sorry," Jean slowly drawled, not knowing how to communicate with the blond. "I don't understand..."
The stranger blinked once at him then tilted his head, before opening his mouth to speak again.
"If you guys only speak English, you could have just asked me to switch," the blonde replied in fluid English.
This time, Jean was the one who raised an eyebrow. "Only English? What else would we speak?"
The blonde shrugged. "Dunno, but I suppose it's not really important right now. Are you the commanding officer?"
He turned to the group. No one spoke up, as if they were letting him test the bridge between them. Jean nearly scoffed. So much for comrades in arms.
"No... I just got stuck with the leading role somehow." Jean was talking quite placidly to the unknown individual who had taken part in a one-sided Titan-slaughter. Then again, after a day of swinging around and watching your comrades die at the hands of giant man-eaters, you could get plenty desensitized to strange situations. "And you are?"
"Assault Lieutenant Wolf Arashi, First Unit Leader of the Gods Eater Forces of the Far-East Fenrir Arcology: the Den." The teen raised a hand to shake Jean's, still with that blank look.
"We're here to help."
XxXxX
soldier against the numbers: GERMAN. I THINK THEY COULD SPEAK GERMAN. MIKASA'S THE ONLY JAPANESE IN THERE. EVERYONE'S NAME IS GERMAN... sounding. Ha. Just a thought. —
Strife: A well found thought, I assure you. But though yes, it would make probably make more sense if they spoke German instead of English, where on Earth am I gonna find a big enough hole to shove a bullshit theory about how the group knows how to speak German? Besides, plenty of anime have people transferred into another dimension or even planet where the natural tongue is Japanese or whatever language it was dubbed into.
No humor in this one, but that's mostly because we needed to make this one a serious chapter. Don't be mistaken about it though, We will be mapping comic relief out – one of which involves Sasha, instant ramen and an irritated Soma. By now, I've learned that the best stories need to have an emotional outlet.
Forgive me for not updating for months, but this was a seriously hard scene to write. Explanation as to why? Yes? No? Do I care because I'm still gonna do it whether or not you answer in a positive or negative fashion?
You see, when I went over the manga, I noticed that there were plenty of situations that would have been a time for the GE unit to make its presence known.
The first one I thought of had been when the Colossal Titan punted a hole into the Trost district. But if I had done that, the swarming Titans would be too much for even a trio of God Eaters to handle, at least, not without using certain abilities I specifically saved up for the next chapter. In the end, I decided to scrap that one.
The second one was when Eren's unit was attacked, but that would make it nearly impossible for Eren to discover his ability to you-know-what. NO SPOILERS! So option number two was plane crash number dos.
The third one was when everyone was being a pussy and wimping out, bitching about how they were gonna die. But if I had them enter then, Mikasa wouldn't have run off and wouldn't have found what she found.
So I settled for this one. The part where Jean and the others watched as their comrades were devoured, and had Wolf, Alisa and Kota pull off a (god)damn genocide.
Strife: I'm satisfied with it, but I don't think it's the best I've written...
soldier against the numbers: Yep. Gonna need more good stuff here.
Strife: *slumps into a corner* I'm trying my best...
Anyway, I was actually kinda shocked when I pulled up this story and found it had ten reviews and more than a dozen faves into it. I was gone for a long time, but wow! Just...wow! I wanna thank you all so much! Keep telling me what you think, yeah? PM, reviews, etcetera. I like feedback just as much as everyone else.
Also, to soldier against the numbers – PLEASE FORGIVE ME! I didn't think you were a girl, and had mistakenly jumped to conclusions. My deepest apologies!
On a side note, I have now appointed her (soldier against the numbers) as a co-author. I expect granting of digital pizzas to her! So if you would just click those six little letters near the bottom of your screen and write your feedback it would be greatly appreciated...hehe...
Seriously though...review.
Accessing database...
Database files acknowledged...
Glossary of terms –
The Three Dimensional Maneuver Gear – is a set of gear developed by humans that allows great mobility when facing the Titans. The gear itself takes the form of a body harness that encompasses much of the body below the neck. Though using it will allow a skilled user great mobility, it carries a large risk of overtaxing the user's muscles, thus special physical conditioning is required to use this gear.
English Classes – Many branches often find themselves lacking appropriate numbers for certain events that may transpire in their quadrant alone, and eventually are forced to request assistance from other branches. To minimize the troubles of a language barrier, all those under Fenrir's employ is required to learn basic knowledge of English, the most widely used language of Fenrir. There are classes and a full curriculum implemented into the Gods Eater training program, as Gods Eaters are the smallest of all Special Forces and are more likely to be transferred than any other.