It wasn't long before they reached the castle. Reiner and Jean followed the rest of the group whilst Armin walked silently besides Eren. Neither of them spoke.

I'm so angry… all the time. Where did all this rage come from? Could it be…? No, it can't be. I won't let it, this is our only hope, our only chance of winning, of taking back what's ours.

Eren stared at his hands, they were still shaking, although his breathing was back to normal. He clenched his fists, hoping it would stop, but nothing happened. He looked up at the huge grey castle in front of him as they drew nearer. They gathered by the large wooden door with rusted hinges concealed with cobwebs.

"Okay, its open. Looks like no one's been in here a while," one of the soldiers, Lynne, announced as she opened the door wider, leading everyone in. It was eerily quiet, with no light source apart from the torches they carried. Their footsteps echoed around the empty space.

"I can't see titans coming at this time of night, but just to be safe we can take turns keeping watch. We'll split up into two groups and swap after four hours. You guys can sleep first," Gelgar, one of the members put in charge of the south group by Mike, said to Eren and the rest, much to Jean's dismay.

"I'm not staying with that bastard, he'd probably try killing me again," Jean said coldly.

Eren didn't bother replying, looking down to avoid Jean's glare. He still didn't know what took over him and if it did happen again he wasn't sure how far he'd go.

"Jean..." Armin spoke quietly, staring fixedly at a small crack he found on the bottom half of the wall in front of him. "He didn't mean it, he's just tired and-"

"Armin, stop defending him. We're all tired but no one else has tried to strangle someone to death!" Jean snapped, he was glaring at the back of Eren's head who was still stood quietly. "It pains me that this brat is the only hope we have, a suicidal bastard that can't even control his emotions. If Mikasa wasn't so attached to him I would of-"

Mikasa. I still don't know where she is, and I doubt Jean will tell me where he saw her now… damn it!

"Jean, that's enough" Reiner said firmly, silencing him. No one spoke for a long few seconds. Gelgar and his group had already left and went up to the top of the tower to keep a look out.

"Besides, if anything happened to Eren could you imagine what Mikasa would do to you," Ymir mused, breaking the silence.

"Yeah…she'd probably kill you in your sleep," Connie added, sounding horrified by his own words.

"Nah...that's not her style: she'd torture you first," Ymir sneered, watching Jean who was looking slightly uncomfortable. "And then she'd feed you…to Sasha!"

"Ymir, that's enough," Krista spoke up, elbowing Ymir lightly - who was laughing at Connie's reaction, who was looking at an oblivious Sasha. She could tell that Jean wasn't finding any of this funny, and although it wasn't as awkward between everyone now, it was getting pretty late and they needed some rest.

Ymir, Krista, and Sasha went to one corner of the large room, putting their torches near them so they could see and use it as a heat source, and laid out their Survey Corps cloaks on the ground and tried to sleep, ignoring how uncomfortable and cold it was.

Jean, Connie, Bertolt, and Reiner sat adjacent to them, doing the same. Armin made his way towards Eren who was sat opposite everyone, on his own.

Eren's been so quiet, I almost forgot he was here.

Armin dropped his cloak next to Eren and sat down next to him, not quite sure what to say. He didn't know what kind of mood he was in, and he certainly didn't want to make it worse, so he decided to just sit there.

"I…I don't know what came over me."

Armin looked up at him, alarmed by the sound of his voice. Eren spoke quietly with no eye contact. He wasn't sure if he was talking to him or just to himself so he remained silent.

"Could this really be affecting me?" he said as he looked at Armin, waiting for some sort of reply.

Even though he wasn't fully making sense, Armin still understood his question.

"I don't want to believe it myself but…it is possible".

"I was hoping you would tell me something different," Eren said as he frowned.

A couple hours had passed and the group had finally drifted off into an uncomfortable sleep. With just the crackling of the torches and the slight rattling the large door made every time it was greeted with a strong wind, nothing else could be heard…but Sasha knew different. She awoke and looked around hazily, reminding herself why she was here and how she had ended up further away from the rest of the girls than she originally was a few hours ago. She noticed Ymir had taken her place next to Krista, so she was now sleeping in the middle instead of Krista. Sasha couldn't help but feel slightly annoyed that Ymir now had the comfort of sleeping on two cloaks, whilst she just had the company of the cold, stone floor. No wonder she woke up. She put her head back on the concrete floor, too tired to do anything else, and then…she heard it.

Is that? It can't be, there's no sun light, but… there's no mistaking it, they're coming!

The ground shook ever so slightly, and she could hear that horrid thumping sound of giant footsteps gradually making their way over.

Wait, are they getting faster? They're running in darkness? Can they really sense us in here?

Sasha jumped up, her heartbeat matching their rapid footsteps as they grew louder and louder.

"EVERYONE WAKE UP! TO THE TOWER NOW!" Gelgar bellowed, running down the stairs. Within seconds everyone was up, grabbing their cloaks and dashing up the solid grey steps to the top of the tower.

"Look" Lynne pointed down below them, their eyes following her trembling finger and making their way towards the edge. "Titans!"

Everyone took a huge step back to avoid falling into an early and gruesome death.

"How is there so many of them?!" Krista asked, stunned.

They watched as a titan, bigger than the rest of them, tried to scale up the tower wall. Before anyone could stop him, Gelgar attached his hook to the wall just above it and hacked off the titans fingers, watching him fall, landing on top of the other titans.

"Hey look at that, he took out the smaller ones with him too," Connie stated, observing the scene below him.

"Don't worry, we'll take care of the rest," Nanaba, another one of the soldiers from Mike's team assured the rest as she took out her blades and followed Gelgar, jumping down onto a titans nape, taking it out.

It wasn't long before the rest of the south group that was part of Mike's had joined the battle with the titans. All Eren and the rest could do was look on and hope this would all be over soon, for they had no equipment with them. Just as things were looking up and the majority of the titans were nothing but a steaming pile of mess, a 15 meter class appeared out of nowhere grabbing Lynne.

"Look out!" Gelgar shot his hook at the titans' chest, Nanaba did the same and they both aimed for the titans eyes. Before they could reach it a sudden force pulled them back towards the wall, crushing them unexpectedly.

"GELGAR!"

"NANABA!"

"Was that a horse?!"

Jean and the rest of the group watched, horrified at what was happening right in front of their eyes. A titan, unlike the rest of them in both appearance and strength stood just a few feet away from the tower. Covered in hair all over its body apart from his face, hands, feet and torso, it towered above the rest at seventeen meters high. Its arms were slim and elongated, and its gait was human-like.

"W-what the hell is that thing!?" Eren managed to speak.

"Did it just…aim the horse at them?"

Armin looked at the ape-like titan in front of him, perplexed. He had never seen or heard of anything like it. He flinched at the sound of soldiers dying below him, battling to save everyone's lives. He wanted to help them, but he couldn't move. His feet were glued to the floor beneath him and his heart was pounding.

How can we help them? We have no gear and no blades and it looks like there's a herd of them coming towards us again.

Just then, Armin saw something move next to him, he looked over at Eren and his eyes grew wide, realising what he was about to do.

"Eren! No!" he shouted at him desperately. "There's too many of them, you can't take them on by yourself!" he pleaded, watching his friend stood with his mouth open, his hand raised.

"I can't just stand here and do nothing! I can take them out! Besides, it's better than waiting here to be devoured by those monsters!" Eren shouted back.

He furrowed his brows, witnessing the bloodbath of innocent, brave lives being taken mercilessly.

I'm gonna kill every last of one them, and protect us all!

Leaping off the edge and taking a bite of his hand, a brilliant flash of green emerged with a thunderous bang.

"What the hell is he thinking?!"

Jean watched as a giant fifteen meter class was produced out of thin air, letting out an almighty roar. The rogue titan trampled on the smaller titans before smashing his way through the rest. Kicking, punching, biting, and grappling, he managed to clear the area by the tower. Connie and Sasha cheered Eren on, watching him in awe along with the rest.

"Look! Up ahead!"

Following Jeans gaze, they saw a vast number of titans, some walking, some running, and a few smaller ones crawling. They were coming right towards Eren.

"Eren, get out of there!" Armin shouted, realising that his right arm and left hand still hadn't regenerated along with his leg.

But Eren wasn't moving. He was sat up against the tower wall, unresponsive.

"EREN!"

Why isn't he moving? Is he planning on taking them all on at once? That's insane! But what if…

"What if- he can't come out of his titan form?!" Sasha asked, confirming Armin's thoughts.

"Damn it! We don't even have our blades!" Reiner shouted, feeling frustrated and helpless.

"Wait! Did you see that?" Connie yelled out in surprise. The titans were seemingly dropping one by one in the distance.

"Are they finally wearing out from the lack of sunlight?" Krista questioned.

"But that makes no sense; it's getting light out here now."

"Hey! Look, behind them!"

Flashes of green with the survey corps emblem were whizzing around the titans necks, as they dropped like flies from both sides, closing in. And just behind the titans, lines of horses were charging towards them, some overtaking them, heading right for the castle, and a few staying just within reach as soldiers hovered over the napes of giants, slaying them and effectively dodging them.

"The rest of the groups must of saw them heading this way and followed!" Sasha cheered, feeling grateful they weren't going to be left stranded on a tower that was on the verge of collapsing, defenceless, surrounded by titans.

It wasn't long before Armin could confirm that the green blur, continuously zooming from one titan to the next was Captain Levi. However, it was the colour red that caught his eye.

"Mikasa! Watch out!"