Attack On Titan Fanfiction

The Road Through Mighty Walls

By Trudyann B.

Even if they never get there, the journey to the basement was perhaps all the three friends needed. (Begins as Eren blocks cannonfire by becoming a titan. Centers around Armin, with some shifts in POV.)

CHAPTER 7. In Which Our Heroes Are Separated

Mikasa had recently recovered from the hard blow dealt to her by an unknowing Eren. The girl had managed to right herself enough that the impact she sustained was not terribly detrimental. She had rolled quite a way on a rooftop; shingles had peeled up to meet her. She was bleeding from two lacerations, one on her cheek and the other along her forearm. She had countless bruises. Nothing new there. However one of them, on her shin, felt deep, perhaps muscular, making it difficult to walk. Beyond these physical injuries, there was one on her heart. Eren had just hurt her. Badly. She shook it off quickly. A seemingly supernatural force that no one really understood was blinding him. He might as well be possessed.

As she reattached the last piece of her maneuver gear to her back once again, Eren stumbled past her, pushing through an ever-growing mass of titans. Her eyes widened when she noticed three people struggling against each other on the back of his neck. She readied herself to intervene, flinching at the pain in her leg. A bolt of powerful lightning met the ground very near the house on which she stood. She was blown back by its energy. She allowed herself one deeply frustrated growl. Sure, she had landed harder on her tailbone before, but all this being thrown around was not Mikasa's style. Concentrate, she thought to herself. She took a deep breath to calm the unusual flare of emotions.

A fifteen-meter, skinless titan, seemingly female in shape, had just swiped the three people off of Eren's back and now she had Eren in a vice-like full-Nelson; both her arms were lacing under his armpits and backward round his head. She flinched as she witnessed Armin try to recover himself in the air only to hit wall and slump to the ground, at least unconscious. A precarious lump formed in her throat, and for the fifth time in her life, she was unable to suppress it.

Once when she had lost her parents, second for her adoptive mother. The third time was when she lost her brother, and the fourth when she got him back. Life is so fragile, and she had no idea if his had just shattered before her very eyes. A roar pulled her back to the moment, and to what she was able to control. He might be alive, she decided. He didn't hit the wall all that hard. The culprit for his life hanging in the balance: this new titan who was now threatening her brother. Mikasa's brow furrowed and her eyes became murderous.

Eren was roaring and struggling full force. He stomped the feet right off of the female titan, who responded to her lack of balance by widening her stance. Mikasa flew toward her and slashed at the back of the titan's neck precisely, but her blades broke on impact, sending reverberations straight up her forearms and humerus. She barely held onto the handles of her gear, but sped away with practiced grace. The titan had hardened its skin so that she could not kill it. Mikasa gritted her teeth. The bitch had miraculously outmatched her, and the dark-eyed girl was not having it.

It opened its mouth, as if it were about to bite the boy out of the male titan's neck. Without a thought, Mikasa whipped past the temple of the female titan and slashed both of its eyes with the broken ends of her blades, making sure to detach them so that each one stuck in its eyes like splinters. It roared in abrupt agony. Eren took advantage of the momentary weakness to struggle free and continue running, but he was pulled down into a mass of Titans. Mikasa screamed his name, but could think of little to do to save him. She pulled another set of blades. Oh well, she decided, she'd kill them off until they killed her.

As she killed the topmost titan of the swarm, and had just dodged the grasp of another, she noticed the roar of the eyeless titan had not stopped, but had shot up in both octave and decibel. Once she reached temporary safety, she instinctively plugged her ears to the sound. The female titan was running away screaming bloody murder, and the titan hoards were following it. One by one, Eren's predators clambered from the pile, as in a daze, and then hungrily followed the screaming titan. Others ran after her as well, some still had confused Survey Corps members grappled to their backs. Mikasa was more than a little shocked. She had no idea what was going one, but took full advantage of the situation to get Eren to safety. Now, to check on Armin. The lump in her throat had not once subsided in the chaos.

When Armin regained consciousness, his head was pounding more than a little painfully. He furrowed his eyebrows and groaned, but then realized two very important things that made him settle back down and keep his eyes closed as if he had only stirred in his sleep. The first, he was on a horse, resting against a woman who had her arms around him and her hands on the reins. Second, his arms were tied quite painfully behind him at the wrists. This was a captive situation, and his only asset for escape would be surprise. Now if only he could think further past the pounding of his blood vessels. He breathed slowly and deeply until it was a bit more manageable.

Where was he? He remembered that his friends had been fighting for their lives in a titan attack. Eren had become a titan, which didn't bode well for their chances of escape. A titan had smacked him directly out of the air. Judging by its sudden appearance, it was probably a human like Eren and the Colossal and Armored titans. Had Mikasa been able to go along with the plan and get Eren to the safety of the tunnels? Would they be able to escape the tunnels if they had? He tried to estimate the likelihood of their escape, but there were too many unknown variables, mostly negative ones, and in the end, he could only hope that by some miracle, his friends had survived one more battle.

It didn't work. He despaired, certain that the plan had failed. Numbness filled his insides. The horse he was riding stumbled down off of a curb, the body encircling him adjusted, and Armin was reminded that he had more pressing issues to attend to before he could properly worry, or grieve. Mikasa must be rubbing off on me, he thought, half-amused. Oh please let her be all right. He didn't know what deity he was praying to, but it had better be listening.

Now what was he up against? He listened. There was a horse below him, several walked in front of him, and there were two on either side. Nothing seemed to be behind him. The arms around him were very muscular. He considered dropping off the horse by ducking under her arms and sliding off butt-first, but he doubted he would have enough time, nor was he sure he was that flexible. Not to mention he would bruise his gear, if not his tailbone in the landing.

Wait, his maneuver gear was still on? He felt it. Why would they leave maneuver gear on their captive? Perhaps they were in too much of a hurry. What it meant to him, though, was that he could outrun the horses, were he to escape. In fact, come to think of it, there was a particularly sharp edge on his maneuver gear that he might be able to reach with his bound wrists. He'd cut himself on it before several times in the past while cleaning it. Maybe that piece of crap edge will finally come in handy, he thought with a sense of dramatic irony.

But how to escape from the horse? It had been quite a while since he had learned how to ride a military horse. With his legs around each side, could he back the horse up, even rear it onto its hind legs? Yes! Though he risked landing on a very angry lady with strong arms who could definitely hold him captive. On the other hand, the wind would probably be knocked out of her. He'd have time to escape. He hoped it wouldn't hurt her too badly. He didn't want to hurt Survey Corps members, but he had to escape and get back. On the off chance that his friends were still alive in the tunnels, he needed to help them escape. Besides, hell if the Survey Corps would understand his reasons for his earlier insubordination.

He decided. Kicking as hard as his legs could, he managed the very thing he had planned. The horse reared, the woman behind him gasped, and slipped backward along with Armin. He landed on her. She was smart enough to protect her head from impact, but her lungs were not so lucky, and he took advantage of her incapacitation to roll off of her. His arms did achieve the flexibility needed to break his restraints. He reached for his handles, shot grapples toward the surrounding buildings. It was perfect. He'd escaped! He'd done it!

A hand scooped him up by the back of the jacket and deposited him back onto a horse. Armin dropped his gear handles and tried desperately to shrug out in time, but suddenly became very suspicious of how its tight-fitting design was literally captivating. Once placed on the horse, his captor swung a strong arm around his midriff. He was a tall, blonde, and mustachioed man who would not give in to the boy's juvenile struggling. The small dark-haired man who had nearly killed Eren pulled around next to the horse. With the time to think, Armin recognized him as Captain Levi, humanity's strongest soldier.

"Ah look, the asswipe's awake," he said with little care. It was as if Armin's escape was a trivial matter. In fact, it probably was. Armin indulged in some self-deprecation. They weren't even trying that hard to hold on to him. "Good job, Mike." Levi then turned to Armin's previous captor, an auburn-haired woman who was just getting up and laughing uncontrollably. "I thought you said you could handle him, Hanji."

Hanji's laughter died down and she took a deep breath. "He's weak as all get out, but the kid's got some wits about him." She took another deep breath, "Woooh that fall did a number on me."

"I'm very sorry, ma'am," Armin said, figuring he might as well. He obviously wasn't going anywhere. She only laughed back, and waved away his apology, remounting her horse.

"Wits, huh? Obviously something you lack for being lax in restraining him, shitty goggles."

"Aww, Levi, I'm fine. But thanks for asking." She then addressed Armin and Mike while jabbing a thumb over her shoulder toward Levi, "Always looking out for me, the big lug."

"Tch. We need to move. Keep a stronger hold on your pets next time." Without another word, the three horses sprinted forward and back toward the rest of their squad. Armin knew a bit of the Survey Corps' long-range strategy. While it was not required training, he caught himself studying it only because he found it incredibly interesting. He wondered where he was within the formation. Even accounting for its tighter proximity due to the buildings around them, he figured center-rear. After all, humanity's strongest soldier would not be sitting on the outskirts. He was much too valuable. Though they had some distance to go, they were gaining on wall Rose. Armin felt despondency on two counts. First, he realized how lovely a commodity horses were. They were moving so quickly. Second, they were moving so quickly in the wrong direction. Hanji pulled up next to his and Mike's horse.

"So, kid, what's your name?" she asked, in a chatty tone.

"Armin Arlert, sir," he replied.

"Yeesh, where'd you get that name?" came the reply.

"You should talk, Hanji," Mike replied, "Get to what you wanted to ask him."

Hanji chuckled. Armin realized she was the kind of person who would die before she gave up a chance to laugh. "Touché, Mike, touché." She turned back to the smaller blonde. "Do you know why you're being held?" She asked.

"I'm going to the military court due to insubordination, Sir."

"Ah yes, the technicality that allowed me to keep you," She grinned, and for a moment the light caught her glasses and he was unable to see her eyes behind them, just the reflection of his own features, confusion writ across them.

"Sir, please, if you don't care whether justice is brought to me, I implore you to let me go back and I will never bother you again," he begged. They were moving so fast. Way too fast. In the wrong direction. His stomach was turning.

"If you're being held for insubordination, why on earth do you keep saying 'Sir'? Anyway, I just need to satisfy some curiosity, and you're my only source of information. I don't know why you want to be titan chow so badly, but if you answer my questions, I'll let you go. Live and let live, I always say…" She put a finger to her chin before saying in the most morbid tone possible, "Unless the one living is withholding valuable information from you, then circumstances change."

Who was this woman? "I'll answer your questions, sir—uhm. Yeah. But you won't believe the answers. What do you want to know?"

"Isn't it obvious?" She shot back. Armin thought. Probably something like: 'Why were titans fighting each other?,' He remained silent.

"Why were titans fighting each other?! It couldn't just be two abnormals. One appeared out of nowhere, like the Colossal or Armored titans. Both of the two aberrants were being ruthlessly chomped by hoards of other titans, and fighting each other." Armin's already hurting head spun from this information. Yes, he had assumed that another human turned titan to get them off of Eren. Hanji said it attacked Eren, but that it was not the Colossal or Armored titan. They had another accomplice? Or was it a completely different person with different goals? Was this who was following them? How did he get out of the walls and survive without any help or making his presence more ostentatiously known?

"And then the one female aberrant screamed and ran away, and every single titan followed her! We haven't seen one since! Not to mention, we went to check out the titan you were trying to protect and it was dead, rotting away, with a huge hole in its neck. You can explain this. I know you can!"

Female aberrant. All the titans gone. Eren extracted from his titan form. Light came back into Armin's blue eyes. Mikasa had retrieved Eren! The titans were gone! How was this possible? He needed to get back to them.

"IKnowYouWon'tBelieveMeButThoseSentientTitansHavePeopleControllingThemFromTheBackOfTheirNeckAndOneOfThemIsMyBestFriend,Eren,WhoSavedABunchOfSoldiersInTheRecentBattleForTrostByKillingNearlyAllTheTitansSwarmingTheSupplyTower,AndWeWereAboutToBeKilledForTreasonBecuaseTheyThoughtHeWasOnTheTitan'sSide,SoWeEscapedToGetProofOfHisInnocenceAndCanIPLEASEGoNow?" He sputtered, and once again tried to struggle away. It was a pathetic try. A moment passed. Armin wrestled with the motionless, muscular arm around his waist, Hanji stared at the boy, wordless and wide-eyed, and Mike inhaled sharply through his nose.

"Okay," the brunette woman said after quite a bit of thinking. She cupped fingers around her mouth in thought. "Hm. You can't make this shit up…" She murmured. She looked back to Armin, who was gazing back with desperate eyes. She was his only way out of this predicament.

"Armin, was it?" He nodded. "Let's go off the assumption that the ridiculous notion you just proposed is true. The next questions we must ask ourselves are, how did they achieve this power, what do these human titans want, and, even more applicably, what will knowing that information mean for our understanding of titans as a species?"

The boy's face crinkled into a sad smile. This woman may be detaining him. She may be completely off her rocker, but then again, perhaps he was too, because, "I've been asking myself the exact same question!"

Eren's first sight since seeing Mikasa eaten whole by a titan was a dark alley street, with soft black hair and a red scarf bordering his periphery.

"Mikasa, you're alive!" He tried to sound how he felt: the most relieved and excited he had been since he had miraculously survived being eaten himself. Instead, the sentence came out scratchy, and slightly exhausted. He was on Mikasa's back. He tried to struggle off, but found he had a hard time moving. It pissed him off. His little struggle earned him a tighter hold from Mikasa and a warning glance.

"Yeah, I was unconscious myself, but apparently you saved me as a titan," she replied. Eren thought back. He had drowned his absolute turmoil with blood-red rage at the thought of Mikasa dying just like his mom had. He had a clear goal in mind as he bit through the skin of his hand: Revenge. Had he actually been able to save Mikasa in the process?

"I thought me turning into a titan would be the end of us. What gives, Armin?" He expected his lighthearted tease to be met with a calm and carefully considered answer, along with some chiding, from behind him. He was met with silence. Not even footsteps, he realized. He swung his head around to survey the alley behind him, and the rest of his spasming body followed. He fell off of his sister and painfully onto his elbows. Where was his best friend? His insides melted and his throat became immediately blocked with a bubble of rage and anguish.

"Armin was captured by the Survey Corps. We're following them to get him," Mikasa said quickly. Eren took a moment to recover his emotions.

"Oh. The Survey Corps. Wait, they were here? Why? And why did they take him?" He squeaked.

"I don't know, but it seemed he was trying to protect you from them. They're probably returning from their mission early because Trost's gate was broken. I couldn't get you out and retrieve Armin in time. They have horses and he was unconscious." She had hidden from them, knowing they would probably be taken into custody should they be found too. How much did the Survey Corps know? Were they told to keep an eye out for three teenaged deviants? She watched as he was proclaimed alive, tied up, loaded on horseback, and taken away. They wouldn't be able to catch up if they didn't have gear, so she had to spend some time searching for where Eren had dropped his equipment and put it back on him. Thankfully and a bit eerily, there were no titans nearby. "Hopefully they'll have set up camp soon and we can bust him out there. Of course it would help our speed if you could move. We could fly there."

Eren scowled. He tested out his muscles by pulling his fingers into fists. Painfully prickling life came back in to them.

"I'm working on it." He said through gritted teeth.