Chapter 10: An unexpected turn

Well, carrying a human, let alone my best friend, is a LOT harder than I originally thought. Then again, considering I am a heck of a lot lighter than normal people and built differently (lovely genetic science at work here, eh?) than normal people as well, it should be no surprise to me. But somehow, I end up still practically straining myself to even carry Armin. I probably will need to practice carrying people more often, I think. Strangely, I manage to stay close enough to see Connie and Mikasa, but not so close that I am bumping into them, like, every eight seconds.

Armin can clearly see that I'm struggling. "Are you alright?" He asks me.

"I'm okay," I gasp in a breath. "I told you I've never actually done this before. I guess this kinda proves my original statement, huh?"

Armin laughs nervously. "Yeah, you're right. Do you think you'll end up doing this again sometime?"

"I don't really know for sure right now, but I might. Right now, I want to focus on getting us out of here ALIVE."

"Oh, yeah, true."

"Hey, Yuki!" Connie shouts from about a few feet away. "Ready to head to HQ? Mikasa and I got rid of the Titans around Trost; now that Titan will have no choice but to head there himself!"

"Yeah, let's make sure we're all in one piece, okay?" I call back. "We don't need ourselves getting any more hurt than we are now."

"I agree," Mikasa adds. "Let's get going. Besides, that Titan is getting a head start for those Titans, it might give us a good clearing."

"Alrighty then, let's move," Connie says, and he, Mikasa, and I turn for the direction of HQ.

"Yuki, I have a question," Armin says, tugging at my sleeve to get my attention. "How do you even plan on getting into HQ? Not trying to insult you, but your wings are fairly large and might get in the way."

"Yeah, you're right," I agree, keeping my wings at a coasting position. "Honestly, I didn't think about it until now, but I could fold my wings in at the last second before I crash through a window. It's crazy, I know, but it could work if I do it a little bit early."

"Hmmm. You're right, it does sound crazy, but with you, it shouldn't be a problem," Armin says thoughtfully. "Just in case, I think you should do it at least 3 seconds before our little 'crash landing', for lack of a better term."

"Yeah, that's true, I don't want any more catastrophic issues than we've already had."

By this time, we're really close to HQ. I quietly mutter a short prayer and silently count down from ten. When I reach 3, as quickly as possible, I fold in my wings. "Armin, prepare yourself!" I shout, squeezing my eyes shut and ducking my head. I hear a crash in front of me and feel my feet make contact with hardwood flooring about a second later. Opening my eyes and looking around, I look upon a room totally destroyed. One side is completely open, likely from a Titan. Tables, chairs, books, anything not bolted in place is scattered everywhere, and shards of glass are also present. Armin slips out of my grasp (not like I was holding him tight any longer anyways,) and looks around himself.

"Whew, we made it," Connie gasps. "I was running on fumes there. That was a good call there." Turning to Armin, he says, "I can't believe it. It actually worked! Great job! From now on, I'm considering your word as law!" As he says this, he smacks Armin on the back, causing him to say "Ouch!" softly.

"I agree," I say, relieved. "Phew, that was real close back there."

"What the hell is going on?" Jean demands. "How are you still alive, Mikasa? And also, Yuki, What the hell is that?" he adds, pointing at my wings.

Connie points in a reply. "Look at this thing go!" He exclaims. "See that Titan over there? He attacks other Titans as though he has a bone to pick on them. And the best part, it cares nothing about us!"

"And yes, I have wings, Jean," I add. "It wasn't obvious to you because I hid them during our training."

Jean just gapes at us in shock. Finally, he protests, "That's impossible. All of this is just very impossible."

"Like it or not, we've got a Titan and a winged person on our side," Mikasa retorts. "That Titan's stronger than average. It can handle fighting a lot of Titans at once. And Armin and I have known Yuki for a long time; she can help us. She won't turn on us, and that's good enough for me. It's basically our best bet of survival."

This, of course, shuts Jean up. He has no argument left on his side.

"Come on, guys, our work's not done yet," Connie beckons. "We still have to deal with Titans inside HQ, after all."

"Wow, I never knew how strong that Titan really is," Connie remarks when we're further inside HQ. "It makes all the other Titans look like weaklings!"

"Yeah, you're right," I say, nodding. "For now, that's all we have to work with. I don't know how long that will last, or if he'll turn on us, but at least we have a little bit of time."

"Working on borrowed time from a Titan," Reiner says. "Well, at least we know how many Titans we're dealing with inside now. It helps to calm our nerves, at least. So, how much do you four know about that Titan anyway?"

"Uhm, shouldn't we wait until we're safe from those Titans to be worrying about that?" Connie says. "I can understand if you want information, I just don't think now is the time."

"Heh...yeah, you're right, Connie, our safety comes first," I say wryly, smiling a little.

"Found em'!" Jean says suddenly, getting everyone's attention. "Military Police-grade guns….ugh, and covered in a layer of dust. Wonder if the MP didn't even bother coming back here at all…Anywho, let's each take a gun."

All of us, at least 3 at a time, take an MP-grade gun and load it up with bullets. It can fire bullets very fast, rapid-fire, so it might help.

"Not to be annoying," Jean starts up again, "But do you think that buckshot will even do anything against the Titans? Seriously, guns against Titans?"

"...Well, I think it will be better than nothing," Armin replies slowly. "Besides, even with this degree of firepower, it won't be impossible to incapacitate the seven 3-4 meter class Titans that are inside the supply room, and at all the same time, so we at least have something to work with."

Nods from everyone, having understood the situation we're facing already.

"Alright, then," Armin continues, looking back at the map laid out on the floor. "First, we'll have several people brought down to the Titan's eye level to get their attention, with the guns, of course. Assuming that all of these Titans are "normals", then we should grab their attention by a lot of people. Next, when the Titans are in close proximity, the people in the lift will fire at them simultaneously, blinding them and making sure they can't see anything, at least for a few moments." He pauses for a second, obviously hesitant. "Then….then the hard part comes in. Seven people that would be hiding near the ceiling will swoop down at the Titans all at once, and slice the weak point. It might be best to get a running start for that, too. The goal here is to strike all the Titans simultaneously, killing them all at once. We screw up, and we're dead for sure. We're going to need the seven most athletic and competent Cadets for the strike, so you'll end up in the ceiling. Sorry, I can't see any other way around it."

"Ahhh, it's not such a big deal," Reiner says.

"If you really get down to it, everyone's taking part in making sure we survive," Annie adds. "I don't see a problem."

"Look, I'll willingly back down with this idea," Armin says, a hint of worry in his voice. "I mean, to be honest, this is a pretty half-baked plan, so if anyone has better ideas, please speak up."

"I don't think we have any other ideas," Marco laughs nervously. "We've got to go with this one. If anything, it is still a plan. Besides, don't cut yourself so short, I'm sure you're pretty good at this. We're just gonna have to throw ourselves into this one with heart and soul."

Then Mikasa jumps in on this. "It'll be alright, Armin. You have the capability to lead others in the right direction. Actually, this ability has saved my life, and Eren's, too."

"What?" Armin is genuinely confused. "It has? When?"

"You might not be aware of it now, but I'll explain later. We've got to get going," Mikasa says, heading off with the other athletic Cadets already heading to the ceiling rafters.

"Do you have any idea what she means?" Armin asks me as we head onto the lift.

"Well, not in her shoes, no," I answer honestly. "But she has a point. You've helped us in more ways than I can count."

"When?" Armin repeats.

"Why else would I be here?" I smile. "If not your hospitality several years ago, I might either be dead or far away in a place that no one can reach, like for experimentation. Ugh, I can't bear to think of that. I would much rather be eaten alive by a Titan than to have to deal with it."

"Uh, okay then?" Armin says, even more confused. "We should talk about this later, though, we might get too distracted."

"Yeah, let's focus on the matter at hand."

The lift shudders and creaks before slowly making its creaky descent. Must have been not used for a long time for it to be this way, I think to myself. Either way, it smoothly descends to the correct position, where the Titan's eyes should be.

"Oh, good," I hear Armin whisper. "Still seven Titans. That's a good sign."

"Yep," I mutter under my breath.

The sound of guns being loaded to fire and aimed to fill the air as the people inside the lift point their guns out in all directions. Then, I hear it: The slow dull thud of the Titan's feet. They're heading towards the lift. I see one of the Titans appear into our vision, staring ahead at nothing for a moment. Then it suddenly swerves to meet our gazes, and one of the soldiers whimpers through his teeth.

"Calm down!" Another soldier, probably Marco, yells. "Let them get closer!"

Everything seems to slow down as the Titans creep even closer. 3…...2….1…..

"FIRE!" A third soldier yells.

We don't hesitate, and everyone at once fires directly at the Titan's' eyes. For a few seconds, all you can hear is the popping noises of bullets being fired. Then there's a bit of a silence as the guns' ammunition runs out. The Titans move back a half-step, moving their hands to their eyes, which are now blown to smithereens. All at once, the seven soldiers up in the rafters slice the Titan's neck with ease, and most of the Titans are dead. Two of them, with their eyes, fully regenerated, turn to face Connie and Sasha, clearly not having killed them.

"Oh, my god, I'm sorry," Sasha whimpers. "I-I didn't mean to…."

"Oh, crap," Connie says. "I have awful luck. Crap!"

"Hey, guys! We need help!" Reiner says to those who have not put two and two together yet. "Connie and Sasha missed!"

"Crap, no!" I hiss in a breath. Before I can actually think about the risk I'm taking, I find myself on the ground and immediately rushing to Connie and Sasha. "Guys, RUN! Don't stop and stare at them, RUN!" I say, pulling them to their feet and getting them to run. Just in time, too, as the Titans make a lunge for us, missing us by a hair and landing with an incredibly loud thud.

"Yuki got them away to safety!" I hear someone call out as the sound of blades slicing through Titan flesh. Turning, I see Mikasa and Annie managed to kill the Titans.

"Wow, that was nerve-racking," Connie says shakily. "That was close."

"Ya think?" I say, rolling my eyes. "If it was just a second longer, we'd both be Titan cow right now. Mikasa, thanks for getting those Titans. How's Sasha?"

"She's all right, no injuries," Mikasa says, helping Sasha to her feet. "We did it. Thank God."

Before Mikasa can finish her sentence, the other soldiers are already at the floor, almost seeming way too excited, but still totally appropriate for this scene. Immediately Mikasa gets us out of the way, avoiding getting run over by the tens of hundreds of soldiers advancing to restock and get the heck outta here. After they finally disperse, Mikasa lets us go.

"Best not to get us flattened, right?" She says, winking at us. "Wouldn't do much good for the military, anyway." Here she laughs a little.

"You got that right," I admit, laughing and shaking my head. "Without the Cadets, there is no one to join any of the three Regiments, and without that, there are no Regiments. But, I digress; now we need to restock our blades, get more gas, and move out."

Mikasa nods in agreement, and we move farther into the HQ's supply room, first restocking on gas and then blades. I'm giving Mikasa a few blades, then taking a few for my own ODM gear, when Armin shows up.

"Hey there," he says, smiling. "That was quite the rescue you made back there, Yuki."

"Not to mention very careless, but yeah, it was very daring," I say sheepishly. "I should have been more careful about what I was doing, though, mainly because that could've ended very badly."

"It's good to see you concerned about your actions," Armin agrees, nodding. "I didn't think it was out of character, but at the same time, it did seem bold. Your mind was in the right place, though, trying to get the others away from those Titans."

Confused, I try rewording what the heck he just said. "So, you mean it was risky but somehow still well-meant?"

"Exactly. It feels right at the time, but afterward, you're wondering if you did the right thing."

"Yeah, I can see that," I say after a moment, staring off into space for a moment, lost in thought. The doors that lead out of HQ and outside are open, so it's safe to assume that most of the soldiers are gone already. It would certainly explain the sudden disappearance of the soldiers now. "Looks like everyone else is outside already."

"Come on, then, let's get going," Armin says, heading outside himself. I follow him out to see most of the soldiers heading to the wall - well, for a chance to evacuate, I'm sure. The only remaining soldiers are Marco, Jean, Reiner, Annie, Bertolt, Mikasa, Armin, Connie, and me. The others had already left. Mikasa is on the roof, looking over at something, but since the house obscures anything surrounding it, I can't see what it is. Everyone else is still grounded.

"What's she looking at?" Reiner finally asks out loud.

"I'm not sure," Bertolt replies, "but it doesn't seem good."

Without saying anything, Armin zip lines to the roof, and about a second later I follow him.

"Mikasa, what's wrong?" Armin asks, then looks ahead and gasps.

I decide to look as well, although I try not to gasp. I'll try to spare you the gruesome details, but for the most part what I'm seeing is Titans surrounding the Rogue Titan, and it appears that they are eating him. Oh, gross.

"What the heck?" Armin whispers hoarsely. "Cannibalism?"

"Looks like it," I whisper back. By now everyone else has come up onto the roof to witness the carnage. Probably lots of shocked or disgusted faces, but everyone's eyes stay firmly locked on the scene in front of us.

Reiner is the first to speak after a moment of stunned silence. "What the hell is going on?"

No one answers for a moment. Then, Connie says, "Shouldn't he be regenerating? Why isn't he?"

"I-I don't know," Mikasa replies. "Has he exhausted all of his strength so he can't heal?"

"Well, whatever the situation going on with him, we've got to get him outta there," Connie declares, taking out one of the new blades he replenished himself with.

"Are you crazy?!" Jean demands in agitation. "We can't rescue a Titan! That's a one-way ticket to your death!"

"Think about it, though," Annie says cooly, the only one with a stolid expression. "Having a Titan on our side could be a major advantage. In fact, rescuing this Titan means that there's an improvement for science, weaponry, the like. Seems like a pretty good deal to me."

Jean has no comeback for that argument. Before anyone moves, through, another sound, though dull at first, catches the attention of Armin. Immediately he spots the source of this sound and cries out, "Oh, no! It's the Titan that ate Thomas!"

This is enough to make everyone else look over. Judging from appearance alone, it appears to be an Abnormal, and at least a 10-meter one on top of that. It seems that the Rouge Titan recognizes it as well because he roars and lunges straight for it, shaking off several Titans in the process, as well as losing his arms. Before the Abnormal has any time to react, the Rouge Titan lunges at its neck with his jaws, chomping off the weak spot and killing it for good. Tossing the Abnormal to the side, the Titan roars again, not unlike a battle cry.

"Hey, what was that about sparing this Titan?" Jean says nervously, clearly afraid that the Titan might turn on us. As though it was finally done its job, the Titan collapses nearest the roof we stand on, completely still. Then there is silence for a minute or two.

"Well, not surprisingly," Connie sighs finally, "it looks like this Titan reached his limit."

"No doubts there," I agree. "He might have been running on fumes for a while, for all we know."

"Anyways, we've gotta get outta here," Connie says dismissively, and then he turns back to Mikasa, about to let her know, but stops short. Now Mikasa stares at the corpse of the Rouge Titan, obviously deep in shock. Looking down at her, I notice something...off about the Titan's corpse. Right at the weak spot, where most of the Titans are sliced at, it appears there is something moving inside of the neck, like something living. And then….something even stranger happens. The flesh breaks away to reveal Eren inside. Yes, you heard me right. Eren Yeager, all flesh-and-blood, not a single scratch on him, emerges from inside the Titan's neck. The very shocking scene here, ladies and gents. I thought he was eaten! What the heck!?

Lost in my clouded thoughts, I barely even register Mikasa moving off the roof and towards Eren as fast as her ODM gear allows her to. Within a matter of seconds, she is on the ground and hugging Eren like he is her lifeline. I jump off the roof and watch from a safe distance in case she suddenly lashes out. But instead of yelling at us, she starts to cry, which is the most surprising thing I have seen. Yes, it isn't Eren emerging from the Titan, or Armin telling us that his squadmates were killed in battle, it's the fact that Mikasa is crying that surprises me the most out of today's events.

Now, of course, would be a good time to run up and help her. Sprinting towards her, I can see that it's no elaborate prank pulled on us, it really is Eren that we're seeing here. Speechless, I look back up at Mikasa, whose dark gray eyes lock onto my icy blue ones. "Mikasa," I whisper to her softly, "We need to get you and Eren to safety. Think you can handle that for now?"

Mikasa stares at me blankly for a moment, then nods slowly, tears still streaming down her face.

"Okay, then. I'm going to try and pull Eren free from here, but first things first. We need to free him so we can get him out of here. Can you find a way to cut his limbs free?"

Mikasa nods again, and carefully cuts off the Titan flesh that binds Eren to the corpse. Then, she finally speaks. "He's free," She says quietly. "You can get him up onto the roof now, and I'll follow you."

I don't question this, knowing how much emotions must be crashing over her again and again. Straining a bit, I pull Eren out of the remains of the Titan and bring him up onto the roof, the only place of safety at the moment. Oddly enough, with all the soldiers surrounding Eren like this, I feel almost as though I was the Grim Reaper or something. Mikasa follows shortly after, and resumes her earlier position, holding Eren close to her.

Any emotions that did not show themselves before suddenly hit me harder than anything before, realizing the weight of the situation at hand. Dropping next to Mikasa, I try to comfort her, rubbing her back and staring at Eren's face for the first time in what seems like ages. Armin only watches for a while, probably lost in thought and amazement how Eren could possibly be here. Then, he finally drops down alongside Mikasa and I, taking Eren's hand and whispered quietly, "Eren, what the hell happened to you?"

No answer comes forth, seeing that Eren is unconscious, and rightfully so if he was really the Titan that just fought off the rest. The last thought that only persists is this: What on earth has happened to him in the time that I haven't seen him?

Author's Note: Whew, that took longer than expected! I hope that it will never be as long as that again. I've been considering starting a FaceBook blog for Yuki, so if you guys are interested, I should be posting before long. The next chapter should move along more smoothly than the last, and so be sure to tune in soon for the next chapter! ^^