Hey everyone! First of all I just want to really show my gratitude to everyone reading my story, and to the few who have left nice comments. Thank you guys so so much, I might sound a little repetitive but trust me when I say that it makes me extremely happy and grateful whenever I see your comments and I wish I could hug each and every one of you for doing so. Thank you!
Now this chapter. I've had this in my head for a really long time now. Even before I decided to write this story, there's this really intense scene that always played in my head while I slumped through work listening to the Shingeki OST on Spotify. I swear, the entire Hiroyuki Sawano album is one of the most amazing musical creations ever. I get most of my inspirations for the story by listening to the anime OST and I urge you to listen as well. For this chapter, the track [XL-TT] was the real kicker for me. If you are able, I compel you to listen to it to really get the mood of this chapter going. You can find it on spotify or on Youtube.
So enough of my blabbering and onto the story!
Connie walked forward to see what Ymir was hinting at when she suddenly stopped moving and saw that on the roof a few meters ahead of them, a few of their ranks were gathered together looking like they were doing nothing.
What the hell?
Connie jumped from the roof and headed to their general direction, a little annoyed at what he was seeing. What were they doing sitting around lollygagging? He, Krista, and Ymir had been flying around their post on the city fighting titans all day and seeing the others taking a break like that was seriously pissing him off.
He landed on the roof with a hard thud, alerting everyone of his squad's arrival but no one seemed to pay them any attention. Looking around, he could see that practically everyone sitting there were cadets, his classmates back at training camp. He spotted Jean a few seconds later sitting on one of the chimneys and approached him.
"What the hell is going on here Jean?" He started off rather accusingly, "What are you all doing just sitting around here for? In case you forgot, there are still titans everywhere! We still have our jobs to do!"
Jean, who seemed like he only noticed Connie arriving, just looked at him with a bemused face. "You really are as dumb as you look aren't you? Have you even bothered to check your gas tank lately?"
Connie was caught off guard. He never thought about it at all, actually. He took a glance now and saw that the little needle indicating his gas capacity was pointing on red. He was dangerously low.
"I thought so." Jean sighed, rubbing his temples. "The supply team should've been here hours ago to refill us. But seeing how the situation is right now, those fuckers probably left for the inner wall already or they're all dead themselves. Either way that just leaves us stranded out here, out of gas and defenseless."
What the hell? Connie couldn't believe that their comrades would just abandon them like this. He looked over to where the headquarters was, rising above all of Trost on the hill near the center of the city. What he saw finally made him understand what Jean was going on about, because even from where they were standing, he could clearly see the place was swarming with titans. If anyone was alive in there, they wouldn't make two seconds past that horde.
"T-there must be something we could do, right? I mean, we can't just sit here and wait for the titans to come at us!" Connie was starting to panic. This couldn't be happening.
"Look around you Con, everyone is on the edge right now. Even if we do manage to get to HQ by some miracle, the supply warehouse is probably just as packed with titans inside as it is out here. We'd have expended all our gas reaching the place and we wouldn't have any leftover to fight for the supplies." Jean looked away. No matter how straightforward he was relaying these things to Connie, it was still evident that he was just as scared as the rest of them. "You would think the titans actually had the brains to attack right after graduation. Just when most of the new forces are fresh out of training. Half of us are probably dead by now. I haven't seen a lot of the others since we got deployed this morning either," he said quietly.
That made Connie do a double take around him. No, it couldn't be. He stepped away from Jean and finally started taking in the people around them. He could see Hannah and Samuel talking with Krista at one corner. Sasha was with Armin, who decided to crawl into a despondent state again while the other tried to coax him into talking. Eren still wasn't here either, and so was Thomas. He was starting to feel the urgency, a lot of the other people sitting down and looking glum didn't have the face he was looking for. Heart pounding, he looked around some more and finally saw the person he needed.
"Bertholdt!" he called out, running towards the taller guy. He was standing next to Annie and Marco, who noticed him approaching as well.
"Oh, Connie. It's good to see you're okay." Bertholdt gave him a small smile, as if knowing why he called him for.
"I-is…" he suddenly lost his voice. He wanted and didn't want to ask at the same time because he was afraid of the answer. But he had to know. Swallowing hard, he took a deep breath to calm his pounding heart before continuing his question. "Have you seen Reiner?"
Without even a hint of emotion in his face, Bertholdt answered squarely. "No. He wasn't on my squad."
That hit him hard, his words echoed inside Connie's head over and over again. Marco, seeing the stricken look on his friend's face, came forward and spoke up . "Last I heard he was in with some of the garrison members in charge of taking the vanguard," he said, giving Connie a reassuring smile. "If he's with them, I'm sure he's probably okay out there."
It was kind of Marco but Connie knew better. The titans wouldn't have been able to reach as far as the headquarters if the vanguard team survived to do their jobs. And even if some of them did, where would they go? They were deployed smack into the breach on the wall. They were probably as fuelless as the rest of them here were. Connie was suddenly trembling, the panic taking over. He couldn't breathe and his hands were shaking so bad and—
"Get a hold of yourself Connie." Annie put a hand on his shoulder, jolting him back to reality. "This isn't the time to be worrying about others." He could only stare back at her piercing blue eyes, unable to say anything. Just then, Mikasa suddenly arrived and went over to them in a hurry.
"Has anyone seen Eren?" she asked rather frantically, concern lacing her voice. Connie suddenly had the thought that he must've sounded exactly like her just a few seconds ago.
"N-no. Sorry Mikasa...but Armin got here a few minutes ago." Marco pointed over to where the blonde was sitting. "He's over there."
When Mikasa ran over to Armin, that's when Connie finally accepted the fact that Eren was most likely dead. That Armin's whole squad was dead. And so was everyone that wasn't here right now, including Reiner. He stepped away from Annie and walked to one of the edges of the roof and sat there. Just like that he became one of them, like the others around him. Glum, hopeless, and mostly afraid. All of them were probably going to die off anytime now but even so, dying was the furthest thing from his mind.
Thinking back on it now, he probably knew it deep down earlier that he was having his very last conversation with Reiner, if you could even call it a conversation. He couldn't stop the thoughts that came rushing in even if he tried. He was angry that the last image he has of him was his ever present scowl from when they bumped into each other. And even last night at dinner when he attempted to talk to him. He was sad that he never even got the chance to tell him, that they were never even able to reconcile. It pissed him off because no matter how much he told himself that he never cared anymore, no matter how much he's lied about not thinking of Reiner—he always did. And now he was gone.
"Mikasa are you out of your mind?! You can't take on the titans alone!" Connie heard Samuel yelling. He welcomed the distraction and looked over to where they were and saw Mikasa standing on the edge of the roof.
"I can and I will! I am strong, unlike all of you!" she said firmly, pointing her blades at everyone. "As far as I'm concerned, I'm surrounded by cowards. So you can go ahead and just sit here twiddling your thumbs but I'm going to fight."
"Mikasa stop it! You're going to die—"
"So what?! If I die, then I die. But if I win, I'll live. And the only way to win is to fight." With that, she jumped off the roof and launched herself forward, leaving everyone in the dust. But her words struck a chord in Connie. She was right, and so was Annie just a while ago. This wasn't the time to wallow and grieve. He couldn't let the deaths of his friends be meaningless by getting himself killed as well. He owed them that much.
As Connie stood up, he looked over at everyone and saw that he wasn't the only one who got a wake up call from Mikasa's little speech. Everyone's expressions changed, determination replacing the hopelessness from a while ago. They finally accepted that even against all odds, they had to keep fighting.
"Alright you bunch of cowards! We follow Mikasa and reclaim HQ! Let's Go!" Jean yelled, thoroughly igniting the flame of the crowd as they all launched themselves forward.
They flew off heading north, with Mikasa leading the way. No one really had a concrete plan here, just get to HQ alive with all your limbs intact. There were a few titans scattered along the way but Mikasa made quick work of them, slashing them off as if they were nothing to her. She was amazing, Connie only ever saw her a few times at training but seeing her fight now was really impressive. Following right behind her were Annie and Ymir, who also made killing titans look easy work.
"Damn, I can't believe the girls are actually better than us at this," Jean muttered, getting a smile from Connie. He was right, the three of them were making this whole thing look like child's play. He was starting to feel hopeful, maybe they did have a chance at fighting their way to HQ and—
"Connie look out!" Hannah screamed from behind him just as two 6-meter titans suddenly appeared in front of them, blocking their path and cutting them off from the others. He sliced through the hand of the one nearest him and veered to the left just as the second titan tried to make a grab for him.
"Hannah! Samuel! This way!" he called behind him. There was no other way but to avoid the giants, they couldn't afford to waste more gas trying to fight them.
"Connie stay close!" He heard Marco calling, but it was too late. Two more titans arrived at the junction and he had to keep going left to avoid them, effectively splitting off from the main group.
"You guys go ahead Marco! We'll take the western route from here!" Samuel yelled back, following Connie. "We'll meet you guys at HQ!"
Shit. This wasn't good. As they dashed through the roofs, Connie could already see a few titans in the area. They had to find a way to join the others again before they get overwhelmed.
A titan suddenly popped up and tried to grab Connie again, but he managed react in time to do a backflip and narrowly avoided its grasp—which led him in front of a taller one that reached its hand out directly in front of him. Acting on instinct, he was about to collide with the giant hand when he suddenly went for a nosedive, latched his hooks on the titans arms, and swung himself to the other direction. He suddenly had an idea. This was just like the forest back at training camp, the branches and trunks were titans and all he had to do was keep them from touching him.
"Guys! Follow my lead!" Connie called out and zoomed past another titan to his right, passing under its arms when it tried to swat them, then did a quick front flip with his blades outstretched to cut the fingers off another and giving Hannah and Samuel a clear path behind him. They had a few seconds of clear road when another one went for them, this time the titan lunged head first with its mouth wide open.
"Connie!—"
"Gas on the left and lean right, NOW!" Connie directed and all three of them swerved right sharply, avoiding the titan's jaw who fell head first behind them. That was a close one.
"Good call Con! I can't believe we actually did that!" Samuel cheered, grinning widely. His smile was infectious despite the situation and Hannah even chuckled with relief. They could actually get through this, all they had to do was glide through the titans like they did back in the forest. "At this rate, we'll be up and over HQ in no ti—"
The fast hand of an abnormal titan came out of nowhere and swatted Samuel like a fly, knocking his entire body out of the air and into the ground with a deafening crunch at the pavement.
"Samuel!" Hannah made the biggest mistake of her life by looking back, not noticing the approaching titan to her left until it grabbed her by the waist. "AAAH!"
"NO! Hannah!" Connie flipped over and faced back, launching his hooks on the titans shoulders and pulled himself forward with his blades raised. He only managed a small incision on the hand holding Hannah when his ODM gear gave, sputtering out the last wisp of his gas supply and causing him to lose control of his trajectory. He fell hard and tumbled down the pavement, making impact on the cement with his right shoulder and dislocating it in the process. Connie howled in pain, but it was nothing compared to Hannah's screams of terror.
"AAAHHH! NO! NO! CONNIE HELP ME! HEL—"
"HANNAH!" Connie yelled but it was too late. The titan had already bitten her head off. He couldn't see because he landed behind the titan and it had its back to him, but the blood flowing down was unmistakable. Connie was staring in horror when a voice called out from behind.
"CONNIE!" Surprised, he turned around and saw Samuel a few meters behind him, bloody and crawling on the ground. The sight confused him at first because it looked like his friend was missing an arm, until he realized that is wasn't just his arm that was missing.
"Run...RU—" It was the last thing he said before the titan brought its foot down on him, crushing him like a bug before picking him up again to swallow him.
Connie stood up and ran. He ran towards the nearest alley and kept on running without looking back. His shoulder was on fire and he was cradling his right arm as he ran for his life. He tried triggering his gear but it was no use. He was completely out. He didn't know where to go, the streets confused him, but he still ran. Turning a right on one corner then a left on the next, running as hard as he could without any clue.
That's when he started noticing the bodies. They were everywhere, each and every one of them wearing the scrappy remains of their soldier uniforms. Flying up over the roofs earlier he couldn't really notice any of it, but down on the ground it was a graveyard of limbs. A severed arm still holding onto a blade, the bisected torso of a body with a missing leg, and the occasional head—or at least, what looked like a head. He saw it all as he ran, with only the tears in his eyes and the searing pain on his shoulder to remind him that he was still alive.
Connie was about to make another turn when an earsplitting crash knocked him off his feet. It took him a while to get up but lying there on the ground, he could feel the earth shaking. A heavy rhythmic thud that he felt right down to his core. Something big was coming and whatever it was, Connie didn't want to stay around to find out. He doubled back and ran again, hesitating for a second when he saw a titan walking towards his location in the distance. It was still a few meters away so he made a break for the nearest alley and exited on another street full of bodies, where a 5-meter titan was lazily walking around looking for someone new to eat. Shit.
It saw him and ran his way, so he squeezed back into the alley where it was too narrow for the titan to enter and was about to go back to the other end when the first titan he saw earlier was suddenly there. Thinking quickly, he jumped into the nearest window and broke inside. Glass flying everywhere as he landed on a roll and finding himself inside a house. Connie barely had enough time to get up from all the shattered glass when the wall behind him caved in with a hand poking through, trying to reach for him. He bounded for the door and ran outside again, heading for another house to exit its back door towards another. He figured he could probably escape by jumping from one building to another so the titans won't see him.
Connie was coming out of his fifth house and was about to enter the next one when a titan suddenly slammed its hand in front of him, blocking his path. He skidded right and made a break for it in the open once again, turning on all the corners he saw thinking he could maybe confuse his assailants. But even as he did this, he was starting to see the whole lot of them. They were everywhere and it was only a matter of time before they caught him in this maze. But he kept running, he had to keep running, he refused to die.
He turned a final corner and found himself facing a high wall—a dead end. He was about to double back when the ground shook again, that same rhythmic thudding from earlier but this time it felt closer. There wasn't time, and he was tired. Too tired. He didn't know how long he'd been running and he suddenly realized that he couldn't anymore.
This is it Connie, you have to fight! He held up his remaining blade in front of him with a determined face, remembering Mikasa's words from earlier, The only way to live is to fight!
But then Hannah's scream suddenly pierced through his head and he faltered. The final shriek of a human being before meeting death was forever embedded in his mind. Then came the image of Samuel crawling towards him, his voice telling him to run but his bloodied face asking him for help right before seeing him explode in a barrage of blood and entrails. Connie dropped his blade. His entire body was shaking so bad he could barely keep himself standing. His friends were dead and they died right in front of him. And he was going to be next.
'Look at you, all wide-eyed and excited from stories about titans.' Reiner's scowling face flashed in his mind then, reminding him of the first time the blonde talked to him all those years ago. Reiner. The one person in his life he regretted ever giving up on. His only wish right now was to be able to tell him how he really felt about him. But that was never coming true. In these final moments, it finally dawned on him what real stupidity was.
I'm sorry Hannah. I'm sorry Samuel. I can't fight anymore…
A heavily muscled leg appeared on the corner and Connie soon found himself staring at one of the most terrifying things he's ever seen in his life. A white-haired titan with a menacing face and the body of a killer. It was so much bigger than all the ones he's encountered today, and it looked different. All the other titans he saw were still vaguely human, but this was a monster. Instead of skin, it seemed to be covered in…
Armor. "T-the armored titan…" Connie whispered to himself as he fell back on his bottom, unable to keep standing. He couldn't hold back the tears anymore and sobbed, letting it flow freely down his face. The armored titan was coming closer, staring at him intently before stopping right in front of him. This was the end. He was going to be eaten. Connie closed his eyes and put his head down, waiting for it to make the move.
I'm sorry...Reiner. I lo—
A deep groaning wail emanated from the titan in front of him, making him cover his ears. What was happening? Connie still had his eyes closed when the ground suddenly shook so hard that he actually got lifted off the ground by the tremor. He fell back and curled into a ball, afraid to see what was going on. The ground was shaking so hard but it was weakening with every shake. Was he already dead? It couldn't be because how come his shoulder still hurt? He lifted his head after a while, only to see that he was all alone in the alley. There was no sign of the armored titan except for the huge crater of a footprint on the pavement in front of him. What the hell?
He got up and took a tentative step forward, afraid that it might pop out of nowhere and surprise him. But nothing happened. He walked forward and took a peek on the corner. Still nothing. The armored titan was nowhere to be found. And even weirder, he couldn't see any other titans either. He was sure that about five of them were chasing him earlier. Where did they all go?
He wiped his face and took a deep breath to calm himself, leaning against one of the building walls. Connie was so shaken up but he had no time to think about it right now. He had to take advantage of this moment so he started running again. After a few steps though, Connie stopped, right in front of a corpse of another soldier. But it wasn't the corpse that got his attention, even though the upper half of its body was missing. Connie stared at the remaining half and saw that the ODM gear was still in tact so he kneeled down and checked the gas gauge.
The meter said half full. He couldn't believe it. He was going to get out of there alive.
I hope my writing brought the same scenes in my head onto yours. Please let me know what you think! Oh and a little shameless plug: I finished my 2nd Reicon Fanart! If you want to take a peak you can find it on my tumblr [eightleggedfox. tumblr. com] A little warning though, it is NSFW! I'll be working on a third one so stay tuned!
