I'm happy to say the new chapter is up! This one is extra long for you guys. Thank you so much for the support. Enjoy!
Warning: This chapter contains lots of descriptions of gory scenes. It also uses lots of adult language.
Disclaimer: I don't own snk.
Promises
Chapter Three: Red Roses
"So why'd you all join?" Eren asked calmly, staring at the floor, as the wobbling truck carrying them in their full military outfits was about to cross the border into the land of the titans. It had been two months since they had joined the corps and all they did up to this moment was study the upcoming strategy for battle. Eren was sixteen now, and he had already experienced a lifetime of pain. Now he was about to endure even more pain.
"You're words got to me. I'd like to think that I could see what is outside our nation." Historia replied solemnly.
"I want my folks to be proud of the fact that I fought for our nation." Connie said rather seriously, which was out of character for him. Maybe this upcoming battle was getting to them, Eren thought.
"I'd like to get better hunting grounds!" Sasha said perkily, hunger exuding from her eyes. Or maybe it wasn't.
"Our home village is out there." Reiner's deep voice was confident as ever. He spoke for Annie and Bertholt's sake too.
"Historia would die if I wasn't there to protect her." Ymir jokingly teased Historia, who replied with a death glare.
"I want to see the ocean, desert, and glaciers. I want to see foreign lands without looking over my shoulder." Armin said optimistically.
"You're words motivated all of us," Marco smiled at Eren, "you're ambition reminded us of our own. I want everlasting peace."
"You're so stereotypical Marco." Jean laughed at his friend sitting beside him. "I wanted to have my friends be happy. But don't get me wrong Yeager," Jean continued more seriously, "None of us want to die until our dreams are realized. You inspired us, so lead us now to complete our dreams. Don't let us down."
They all stared at Eren for an answer. The giant topless flatbed truck that carried them lumbered forward past the gates. They were wobbling around in their seats when Eren looked up at them and replied, "I can't protect your dreams. I'm not a hero. I'm a man. But I sure as hell won't let the titans restrict us any longer."
The group smiled. They seemed to like that answer.
"You hear that titans, we're comin' for your asses!" Reiner yelled out of the truck. Annie just looked at him in disgust while Bertholt punched him in the arm. Just then Eren looked outside of the truck and saw red roses sprouting. Maybe it won't be so bad, he thought.
1 day later
"Mom!" Thomas screamed chocking on his own blood. It was pouring out of his body like someone had turned on a faucet in his bullet riddled chest. Eren just stared at him in horror. He was inside a trench that was cut out of a field. The crimson blood mixed with the soggy dirt while Armin was sitting in the corner crying. He was cradling his weapon tight against his chest. Four corpses were next to him. Eren couldn't tell where the blood stopped and the mud started. Armin and Eren were all that was left of their six man squad. The plan was to distract the enemy in a frontal push in the trench riddled field with the new recruits while the veterans flanked the enemy from the forest on the right of the town they were supposed to capture. The recruits were about to be overrun by the enemy when Eren thought about Mikasa.
Everyone was dying around him, and Eren's mind went to Mikasa of all people. He thought about the tree they loved to sit under. Her lovely pale features were lying on Eren.
"Eren?" she asked lightly, almost in a whisper.
"What?" Eren replied groggily; he was very close to being asleep.
"Don't ever leave me," she continued with a sadness in her voice, "Everyone I've cared about have left me. You're the only person left in this world that I feel safe with."
"But Mikasa you're the strongest person I've ever met. You're stronger than me, so why are you scared?" Eren asked, now wide awake.
"Because living by myself without you would be worse than anything. Even death. So don't ever leave me." she said sadly but the last statement aggressively.
"I won't. Besides, most of the time you protect me. So don't leave me either." he said enthusiastically.
"Okay." she replied with a smile on her face as she fell asleep on him.
"MOM!" a scream pierced Eren's thoughts. He looked around at his friends dying, and thought of the day he left Mikasa. I promise.
Something inside Eren snapped. Eren picked up his submachine gun and stood up. He pulled out one of his grenades and pulled the pin. The grenade was chucked into the enemy trench. He jumped out of the trench, running at full speed across the green field.
He watched as the trench exploded in front of him. Bullets hit near his feet; he looked up at the soldiers shooting at him. Eren pulled up his gun and returned fire. He watched as the three men shooting at him all had blood explode out of their bodies in different places.
His boots hit the mud in the enemy trench hard. Charred limbs were spread around the crater that his grenade had made. Eren looked ahead at the titans starring at him in disbelief that he had just done that. He opened up on the titans. Soon there were a pile of bodies in front of him. He jumped over the trail of corpses, running through their trench, firing at any titans he came across. He was blinded by pure rage.
The muzzle of his gun smoked as the black clip that carried his bullets fell to the ground. Eren promptly put in a new clip, filled with rounds, into his piece. His left arm was bleeding from a bullet grazing it. Eren was pinned down behind a mound of dirt in the enemy trench. He had already killed two dozen titans in close range. It was almost like he was a monster. Both his and enemy blood stained his face and clothes.
Eren turned and fired at the people trying desperately to take his life. His bullets hit every one of the titans firing at him. Add five more to that list of kills. Eren was lucky they were bad at hitting things, or maybe he was just good at killing people. Eren turned around and saw a titan aiming his gun straight at Eren. Pop, pop.
Blood splattered on Eren's already stained uniform. Emerald eyes met ocean blue eyes above the trench. Armin had shot the titan before Eren was just another corpse on the battlefield.
"Thanks," Eren said breathing heavily and a little taken aback by his own killing rampage. He didn't think he was capable of killing so many people.
"You guys alright?" Jean asked as what was left of the new recruits showed up on the other side of the trench.
"Yeah. Did you guys clear out the rest of the trench?" Eren asked in response to Jean.
"Yes. Now we move to phase two. Reinforce our troops in town." Jean said while his breathing evened out. Everyone seemed to stare at Eren.
"You want me to lead you?" Eren asked weary of his fellow soldiers.
"You did last time, so why not now?" Marco replied to him.
My reckless action led them? Eren thought to himself. "Armin, I need your help." Eren said to his friend standing next to him. "What's the best option for entry?"
"Hmm.." blue eyes scrambled for an answer to this dilemma, "well the other group flanked from the right, so our best guess would be to enter the lower right of the town. It should be fairly deserted by now. We can then reinforce the veterans and launch a full scale assault."
"Sounds good. Let's move!" Eren yelled at was left of the recruits. I'm not a leader, Eren thought, I'm reckless. Let Jean or Armin lead you, and let me kill the bastards that took my mother.
As the recruits entered the city, they met some senior officers. Their new orders were to help the rest of the group by killing anyone left alive in the center of the town. The fight was almost over. Corpses and rubble paved the recruit's road to catching up with the rest of the Survey Corps.
Eren suddenly heard the whirring of propellers. Two to be exact. "Oh shit," he mumbled. He recognized the sound immediately as light bombers.
"GET DOWN!" Eren yelled frantically. Rookies ran to take cover in buildings like ants to a hill. Franz was hit by a bomb, and the lower half of his body was gone. His organs were strewn across the pavement as Hannah screamed and ran to him. She was then shot through her head. Her brain matter splattered against the stone and mixed with the dust.
Armin was next to Eren inside a building when Armin started to throw up. These were the same people that they laughed with, trained with, and ate with. Watching them die in front of each other was excruciating.
"Hurry up!" yelled Jean to people still outside. He was standing in a doorway and waving his arm towards his teammates. Marco started running in his direction as the bombers made another pass. He had almost reached the door when the bomb hit him. Half of his body was incinerated while his blood sprayed across Jean.
"No.." Jean whispered in a state of shock. His eyes were wide open staring at the bloody heap that was once his friend. "NOOO!" My dream is everlasting peace. Marco was a victim of everlasting peace's battlefield.
Reiner held Jean back, so he wouldn't run out into the street. "Shit.." Annie whispered to herself. She was also in shock at how gruesome his death was.
They all were intimidated by the reality of war. Their scars would never heal.
3 hours later..
Eren sat in a fox hole at the edge of the forest in front of the town. He was sitting next to Armin and drinking from his canteen. They were on lookout for any lingering enemy troops or reinforcements. The town had been taken and the garrison was coming to take control of the town. They were in charge of security for every new piece of land taken. The guard would set up a military presence in the town and the survey corps would rest in their base inside the district walls. The corps would then go on to take more land.
"Eren.." Armin almost silently said as he stared at the ground, thinking, "do you...are you okay with losing your humanity? I never expected to lose mine." he said on the verge of tears, his voice laced with pain. Eren looked at him with a shocked expression. And then Eren did something unexpected. He laughed.
"Fuck humanity. I gave up my humanity as soon as I saw my mother dead in a pile of rubble. After the shit I've seen and done I could care less about my humanity. The line in between sanity and insanity doesn't exist. I'm insane and sane at the same time. I'm a survivor." Eren replied not even looking at his friend. Armin was shocked to hear this from his best friend.
"Armin, do you know why I'm a survivor?" Eren asked his surprised friend. Armin slowly shook his head. This time Eren turned and looked his friend straight in his eyes as he spoke.
"I'm a survivor because Mikasa isn't with me. I have to live with the pain of not having her next to me everyday. Because of that, I have to survive. I gave up my humanity because I knew the payoff was greater. Greater than sanity, humanity, and death itself. My payoff is Mikasa. I would walk through a hail storm of bullets for a thousand miles just to hold her one more time. So screw my humanity. Now ask yourself: is my dream worth my humanity?" Armin looked even more shocked at his friend's sudden words.
"It doesn't matter. You've already lost your humanity, so why don't you just follow your dream?" Eren said after a period of silence.
"Okay." Armin replied, still in disbelief at how cruel the world was.
1 year later
The truck carrying them into Trost was wobbling the injured soldiers inside. They were back from their fourth tour outside the walls. Eren had bandages on his cheek and on one of his shoulders. His choppy brown hair was longer than normal. Armin sat next to him; he was also bandaged. He and Eren were unkept and their uniforms were tattered. The Wings of Freedom stained in dried blood. Everyone in the truck was bandaged and looked like hell. Everyone that was left. Things had gotten even worse throughout the year. Annie and Ymir were taken into an enemy POW camp on their second tour. Four of the best fighters, Levi's squad, among them were killed by a bombing in the third expedition. Commander Erwin lost his arm in the third as well. Mike was killed in this last expedition by enemy tanks. This along with countless other soldiers.
Everyone in that truck was looking at the ground with melancholic faces. There was a thick silence around them. They had done things to others that was so inhuman that their memories would be forever laced with the guilt. They did what they were paid to do, but there wasn't enough money in the world that could justify their actions. No, it was for their ambitions that they did this. Eren overheard some people talking about Mikasa Ackerman. He just smiled to himself.
She had become a household name nowadays. She was the fearless leader of the Resistance. They fought, slept, and lived outside the districts. They destroyed the titans without fear. It sounded all too familiar. The truck stopped suddenly, throwing them forward and bringing Eren out of his reverie.
"What the hell was that about?" Connie groaned.
"No idea." Bertholt answered stoically.
"The titans are hear!" was yelled by a bystander in the crowd. People rushed frantically to get to the inner gate.
"Did you hear that guys?! What are our orders Sargeant?" Sasha asked Eren hurriedly. Everyone stared at Eren and Armin. Armin and Eren were both appointed Sergeants after their third tour. Eren had Connie, Sasha, and Historia in his squad. Armin had Reiner, Jean, and Bertholt in his squad. On the battlefield it was Armin who determined the strategy and Eren who carried it out. They were like one huge squad.
"Fall back to Erwin's position for further orders." Armin said as they all jumped from the truck. They all thought the same thing. This was going to be hell. Everyone from the Survey Corps was beaten down and worn out. They would soon be running on pure adrenaline.
"The titans have entered the front gate. Currently, the Stationary Guard is fighting them alongside the resistance." Erwin's words hit Eren like a bag of bricks. Mikasa? Am I that close to you? The blond man continued his hasty speech, "Squads 5, 17, 22, 16, 11, and 8 will reinforce the front gate units. As for the rest of you, you will be in the town's center. Levi's squad will protect the people's escape at the inner gate. Offer up your hearts and go without fear." the man finished and, with that, the squads saluted and went into their assigned positions. Squad 8 was Erens' and squad 11 was Armins'.
It started to rain as they ran to the front gate. Water droplets hit Eren's helmet increasingly, wetting the ace of diamonds that was placed in the band of his helmet. Hanji led all of the first group into battle. She was a fearless leader, always ready to gain intel on the enemy, and a little insane. Insanity was required in the Survey Corps. That, or the will to accomplish a goal.
She gave the orders to take up position in the almost empty left side of the trench. Only a few rag-tag resistance soldiers remained in the left trench. Eren jumped into the trench as enemy fire landed inches away from his feet. Eren sat in the trench and took account for his troops. Being a leader was a pain in the ass.
Eren then pulled the gum from his mouth and placed it on his bayonet. He then placed a mirror on that and held it above the trench. An enemy machine gun nest was already in place. Sorry Mikasa but your forces must really suck if they already have machine gun nests set up, he thought. The nest was then promptly blown to bits leaving only blood mist and ash behind. Or not.
Eren then turned and began to fire at enemy heads. They were 40 yards away, but Eren kept hitting them, watching as blood exploded out of their wounds. He had gone into a state of killing, like a monster. More and more titans flooded the gate. No matter how good he was at killing, he couldn't defeat large amounts at once. They were ordered to retreat to the next checkpoint.
"Sasha, you're in charge of the squad while I cover your escape! Follow Armin's squad!" Eren told her as they started out of the trench.
"Roger! Good luck!" Sasha replied quickly while Eren found a pile of rubble to take cover behind outside the trench. Eren stayed for five minutes before he was sure they were far enough away. He got up to run, but a titan managed to reach his position. The titan pointed his gun at him, and in a flash the man's head exploded spraying blood on Eren. Eren turned around and saw someone in the building behind him. His emerald eyes widened in shock. The crimson fabric waved in the wind. Accompanied by short ebony hair.
Mikasa. The light had returned to the dark.
She looked down and saw him. "Hey why aren't you-" her words were cut short when she saw his face. "Eren?" she asked almost silently. Before he could respond the building was hit by an bomb. The building collapsed with her in it.
"NO!" Eren yelled in shock and anger. As he ran to the rubble that was once the building, the garrison's light bombers hit the trenches behind him, effectively killing most of the titans inside of it. Eren dug through the rubble, not noticing how the bullets from enemy guns quit firing at him. All he could think about was a certain Asian girl.
"Shit. Shit. Shit. I didn't come this far to have you just die on me!" Eren was scrambling to find her. He finally found her unconscious and alive when he lifted a large piece of what was once a wall. She didn't look to have any open wounds. That's good, he thought. His mind was racing; it was full of things he felt and wanted to say. He picked her up bridal style and began to walk to the next checkpoint. It wouldn't be long before more titans made their way through the gate.
"Ere-, Eren?" she said softly as she started to come to. Her vision was blurry at first, but came into focus. She was being carried by him. She gripped his shirt when she saw his shoulder and face. His wounds had opened up and was leaking blood.
"Are you okay?" he asked worried for her well-being.
"Yes, I'm fine but what about you?" she asked.
"I'll live. I kept my promise after all." he said with a smirk and slight laugh. He was elated to see her again. So much of his life was filled with emptiness and anger that it felt good to laugh with an old friend.
"You're such an idiot. Always rushing into things you can't handle." she slapped him slightly and chuckled, but her eyes betrayed her. Gray eyes started flooding over with tears.
"Is my hair too long? My barber wasn't around these past few weeks. Armin said it looks fine, but you know me, I'm a little self conscious" he said light-heartily, as if they weren't surrounded by a war zone. Mikasa began to cry into Eren's shirt. Eren frowned, "C'mon, it's that bad? I'll get it cut."
"I've missed you so much. Don't ever leave me again." she sobbed, ignoring his last remarks. Then, something peculiar happened. Eren's tears hit Mikasa's face. They were mixed with the blood from his open wound. She was completely caught off guard.
"I love you, Mikasa. More than you can ever know." he managed to get out of his chocking voice. He couldn't hold the tears back any longer.
"I love you too, Eren." Mikasa replied.
And with that the two strongest people on the planet started to cry. They only showed their weakness to each other. Love is an odd emotion, Eren thought. He then eyed a single rose blooming in the rubble of the street. Damn, flowers grow in odd places.
Hope you enjoyed! New chapter will be up soon. Love the reviews you guys give me.
Yours truly, ianlazy.