So there I hang, wondering what exactly I can do. The two ships, the Titanic at my back and the enemy ship in front, are slowly drifting together. The top portions have already collided, but now the hull walls are pressing in. Already, my shoulders are too big to turn back to face either the fronts or the backs of the two warring ships.

That means, with my 3DMG pointing me straight at the other hull, the gas release won't help much. One of the cables is twisted back because it's still anchored to the Titanic behind and above me. The other cable could shoot out and hit the other hull, but all that would do is hasten my crushing.

So… I'm stuck. I could pull a Mikasa and drop into the water, but I wasn't exactly sure that would be much better. I wouldn't have a way back up and I might accidentally get ditched. Mikasa probably doesn't have to worry about it since she's so damn strong she could hold onto the rear rudder for hours

Also, there's sharks..

"Jean."

I look downwards to see Mikasa looking up at me with her usual look of scorn on her face.

"Kinda busy!"

"Get down here." She dives back under the surface.

"Well maybe I don't want to!" I yell down at the water.

The two ships jerk and slide closer together. I can feel the weight of both ships bearing down on me. The metal of my left blade holster is digging into both ships now.

Uhg. Fine. I release the hooks I had in the ship, knock the holster free, and come crashing down into the water.

"HOLY FU-" is as far as I get before I am dragged under by the weight of my gear and something around my ankle. The water is freezing! I thrash my left ankle around to try to shake it free, but to my horror I only go further under, unable to free myself. The world goes dark as one of the ships passes overhead.

I hold my breath as long as I can, but my lungs start to burn before long and I am forced to exhale, Bubbles drift off towards the surface, or at least the indent in the water where the hull of the enemy boat is. Everything starts to go dark…

Of course, I'm not going to die in the water. That would be remarkably lame. Before I swallow too much water, the light comes back and I get thrust above the surface. I take a deep breath and look around.

Mikasa's neutral face is the first thing that comes into focus. Well, neutral except for a hint of the annoyance she displayed earlier.

Still more emotion than usual, then. She must be pissed.

"Mi-Mikasa, was that you that dragged me under? I thought an octopus or something-"

"Yes."

I stare at her. She stares back. Is that it? No apology for almost drowning me?

I shake my head to clear off some of the water from my hair. It keeps dripping into my eyes and burning them. Saltwater isn't very eye-friendly. "So, why did you drag me under a boat?"

She points up the side of the boat to a patched hole about fifteen feet above the waterline. "Gunpowder storage."

"Well, maybe. I wouldn't know. Also, what am I supposed to do with this ship's gunpowder?"

She rummages in her pockets under the water and pulls out… I have no idea what it is. It looks like a block of clay, with two metal rods poking out. "Put this on a barrel."

Rrrrrright. Stick the damp block of clay on a barrel of gunpowder. Maybe the clay will turn into exploding birds or something. "Why am I doing it?" I complain, fully aware that I sound like a petulant child.

"Your 3DMG." She says calmly. "I need to get up there."

I look up at the patched hole. "Alright. You can have it."

She growls in the back of her throat and swims around behind me. Before I can react, she triggers the 3DMG's twin lines and sends the both of us rushing at the blocked section of hull.

I scream in anticipation of a gory end.

Mikasa pulls one of my blades out of its holster and cuts a roughly circular hole in the hull in the blink of an eye. The cut wood relents easily under our combined weight and I find myself upside down inside the enemy's ship.

In case you didn't know, 3DMG swords are really not designed for heavy duty. They're very, very sharp, can cut through iron, but they also snap about ten times faster than regular blades. Make's them less effective in prolonged combat, but excellent for a first strike. This is demonstrated quite nicely by the hole cut right through the wood, and the sword Mikasa is holding snaps under the pressure of her weight as she lands on top of it.

Mikasa recovers and hauls me to my feet, slapping the clay block into my hand and pointing to a barrel right beside me.

Okay… I walk to the barrel and place the block on top of it. Despite being wet, it holds its form. It also didn't stick like I was expecting it to, so it's just kinda sitting on top of the barrel.

I squint at the side of the barrel. It says gunpowder, like Mikasa said. Well, inferred. There's something wrong though.

I turn to Mikasa. "Why aren't there powder monkeys running gunpowder to the cannons? I mean, if this is the supply-"

The second real expression I've seen flits across her face. Surprise, and some realization that I don't get. In any case, the next thing I know, Mikasa has my hand and is hauling me up the stairs leading to the deck of the ship.

I guess I read too many stories, 'cause I thought hand holding was romantic. Not when being dragged through the lower decks of a ship. It seems.

At first, I worry about being spotted and attacked along the way, but that proves to be a non-issue. The entire ship is deserted below decks. I catch a brief glimpse of a cannon loading and firing itself as if invisible men were operating it before firing a large metal ball at our own Titanic.

When we get to right below the deck, Mikasa lets go of me and grabs two of the thin blades from my holster. "On three." She holds them in her bare hands, yet I have no doubt she'll be able to hold them with no trouble.

I nod, and equip two of the blades myself. It's a miracle I still have one left in the right and two in the left holster. If more of them fell out in the water, I wouldn't have enough to equip myself. As it is, I will only have one set of blades the entire fight, with a spare one for the right blade. Then my brain catches up to the current situation.

"Wait, we're going up there?" I ask in a stage whisper.

Her response is typical; ignore the imbecile and charge ahead.

…I just called myself an imbecile. I guess that would explain why I'm currently charging after her.

The deck of the… What is the ship's name? I don't remember seeing it painted on the side, and Bradley never had one special ship like pirates, since he was legitimate. Emphasis on "was." Anyway, the deck is a mess. Fire, presumably from Sasha and Connie, had burnt the top layer off of everything up here. Black is the predominant color, with still glowing embers still scattering in the wind. The enemy troops, most of them mostly human, seemed to not really care about the fire on the ship.

It's almost as if they didn't care if the ship caught fire and sank.

Two ugly half human half goat things turn to Mikasa and me, but she jumps right over them without problem, leaving me to deal with them. I put both of my blades up in front of me, forming a defense against the two… Satyrs? That sounds right.

The one on the right pulls a sword out of its scabbard and slashes horizontally at me. I block it the way they always tell you not to in training – straight on the blade. It nicks the blade up and makes it harder to cut things. Of course, had I blocked in the traditional manner, catching the enemy blade on the side, the sword would've snapped, and then I would be screwed.

The second Satyr swings a club at me and I sidestep without releasing the clash I have with the first one's sword.

The one with the club bleats at me like a goat, despite having a human face. I swing the sword in my left hand in his direction, but with my attention split, I miss.

The one with the sword pulls back suddenly, throwing me off balance. I have half a second to contemplate the wooden club swinging upwards before it hits my stomach. The air leaves my lungs, and I collapse on the ground at the feet of the goats. A club is poked into my face, but I can't do much about it.

One of them steps on my left blade, snapping it in half. It starts bleating in a rhythmic fashion, and I realize it is laughing after a few seconds. It raises its arms and a glint of sunlight reflects into my eyes.

Then something very fast, slightly damp and trailing a red scarf smashes into my attacker, taking both quickly out of sight. I take a deep, painful breath and swing my remaining sword at the foot of the club wielder. He bellows in goatish rage as he loses his balance without one of his feet.

I climb up to my feet to see that the battle is looking more and more over. In fact, it's a one sided slaughter. There's still thirty or so creatures on the deck, but there's twice that many corpses lying around, and not a human among them. Nor any of my comrades, as far as I can tell. I can't see several of them, but I assume that the tall, black… thing that Sash and Connie are attacking with rather than against is one of our crew. The deck runs red and purple with the blood of so many creatures, some of the more exotic ones bleeding a disturbing blue that mixes with the omnipresent red.

As I watch, Mikasa tears the head off of the Satyr that almost killed me and throws the body after the head, sending both over the side of the ship. The enemy's number fall with each second.

"This is messed up." I mutter.

Levi calls from the other ship. I don't hear what he says, but I when I turn around, he is gesturing for everyone to get back on the Titanic.

I can gladly follow that order. I make a short hop and launch my grapples at the Titanic's masts-

Only to have a massive hand intercept one of the cables before it can reach its destination. I careen off course, and only an emergency retracting of the other cable prevents me from going for a second swim. As it is, I still collide with the railing of the enemy's ship. The others jump over the side, easily making it to the Titanic, which is slowly drifting away. I look over at the hand that had so rudely blocked my line.

It is, as noted before, quite a large hand. It's attached to a large wrist, arm, and…

"The minotaur is back!" I hear Connie yell.

I scramble backwards, the swaying of the ship not allowing me to stand up. The minotaur pulls itself over the side of the ship and glares at me.

I am so glad right now I didn't meet him underwater while we were down there.

I glance left and right, but suddenly I'm aware that every other person still alive had done the sensible thing and gotten to the Titanic. And it's still drifting away. A few seconds more and It'll be too far away.

Just awesome.

As the large beast lumbers towards me, blood spattering in all directs with each footfall. It snorts out a thick cloud that makes me gag. It smells of rotten meat.

Standing up is a chore with all the blood around. I cannot get off my knees without falling flat on my face. I stab my blade into the ground to pull myself up, and get halfway before the minotaur kicks out the blade snapping it in half. Out of habit, I eject the shattered end, only to realize that it was at least still a weapon, if not full length, and I had just tossed it away.

The Titanic launches something at this ship, stumbling the minotaur for a second. I take my chance and slide under its legs, the blood acting as a layer of lubricant to allow such an action. The minotaur bellows at me again and tries to spin around to face me, but the gory battlefield once again is in my favor. The minotaur sprawls out, having lost his balance.

I collide with the railing and quickly haul myself to standing position, unstable though it be. The great beast in front of me snaps off the charred mast and uses it to steady himself.

Oh, right, I still have a blade in my left holster. I reach across and latch my final blade into its grip.

The minotaur bellows a deep, guttural roar and swings the massive pole around like it weighs no more than a stick. I duck and once again lose my balance.

Last winter, I was encouraged to take ice skating lessons. I took two before I quit, since I didn't like the feeling, and I kept falling on my ass. This bloody deck feels a lot like the ice, so slippery that any "fancy" movements are essentially out of the question.

"Stay down!" Calls a female voice.

Not like I could stand up even if I wanted too-

Mikasa comes flying over me and kicks the minotaur in the face.

…Didn't she do that exact thing against the goats? Maybe she's part Harpy. Flying, has good legs-

Whatever. I use the railing to pick myself up once again and this time find a miraculously clean section as a good foothold. Mikasa is sliding around the beast, using the rocking of the ship to her advantage and baiting the creature around in a circle.

I look back at the Titanic-

Why is it leaving? Why is our ride leaving?

"Mikasa! We need to go!" I shout.

"I-" She grabs a fallen sword. "-know-" The blade comes up and collides with the minotaur's arm, but it fails to damage it the arm, and instead the sword breaks. "-that!"

She jabs the snapped blade at the beast's face before sliding up to the railing next to me. The minotaur roars and lowers its horns at us.

"Get us back to the Titanic, now!" Mikasa commands.

I launch my right anchor at the main mast of the Titanic planting my right foot on the railing. I launch off before the anchor digs in, and for a fraction of a second we're both in freefall.

Then the anchor catches, and we swing inwards and down, slamming into the side of the friendly ship.

I took most of the blow on my legs, but Mikasa had a rather strange grip on me and got her left arm messed up.

"You okay?" I ask.

"Just pull us up." She snarls.

I'll take that as a yes. "I would, but that impact kind of damaged the reeling mechanism. If I disengage it, we're both going for another swim."

She just glares at me like it was my fault.

Connie and Annie grab the cable and haul us up onto deck. Christa immediately starts attending to Mikasa's wounds, along with… A second Christa.

Rather, they look quite similar, but when they're next to each other…

The slightly rougher looking one smiles at me. "Glad to see all my work wasn't a waste. Seasickness potions are hard to make, you know?"

It's definitely a he. Odd. They look so similar, yet…

"Er… Thanks." I pause for a second, then ask. "Are you Hanji?"

He gives me a weird look. "No, I'm Armin. Hanji has reddish brown hair and goggles."

"Oh." I blink a few times. Well, that's embarrassing, and explains a whole lot. I look back over at the next ship to see the minotaur pacing back and forth, bellowing at us.

"Now, time for an experiment!" Armin exclaims.

Christa looks up from Mikasa's wounds. "You aren't allowed to experiment on her."

"No, no. See, I had her place these devices I found in a crate in the ship. I couldn't tell what they were for, so I did some research. They're communication devices, I think. They're called Semaphore. Now we can track where that boat is wherever it goes!"

I think everyone on deck was staring at him. Levi sums up what most of us are probably thinking.

"Why the fuck would we do that?"

Armin deflates. "Well, it's a good proof of concept, and, well… There's a small chance I screwed up the translation."

"And what would that mean?" Asks Eren.

Armin pulls a small metal device out of his pocket. "Let's find out!"

The button is pressed, and nothing happens. Frowning, Armin presses the button again.

Nothing. Silence except for the bellows across the water.

And then comes an ear shattering explosion. Even at the hundred foot distance, I can feel the intense heat as the powder stores go up and send wooden splinters through the air. Something large and heavy lands on top of me, shielding me from the hail of wood shards.

The needle sharp debris continues to fall down from the sky for a while. When I finally can hear again, I raise my head to find Armin leaning against the railing.

"I guess C-4 isn't shorthand for Semaphore." He muses aloud. "Unless that equipment had a catastrophic failure." He pauses. "This warrants further research."

"Let's not research it on this ship." Comments Christa.

"I second that." I say. My hand is still stuck under that weight, so it doesn't move when I tell it to. "But for now, can I get some help getting this off me-"

Something red drips down onto my nose. I slowly look up to find a shard of wood sticking out of Mikasa's hand in both directions, having pierced all the way through it. Armin and Crista's eyes widen as they notice Mikasa, and they grab her and pull her off of me.

She's covered in wooden shards.

"Holy shit." Says Armin quietly. "We're gonna need to fix her up right now."