Fear
Hate
Power
Destruction
Humans are weak
We are all weak
Freak
Monster
Friend

And off we go, slaying Titans one after another with ease. Blades slash into flesh, gas burns into the air and makes me nautious. Blood slpatters my clothes, evaporating away in small wisps of steam.
"Four-Meter Class, Two o'clock!" Annie and I cast eachother sparing glasses before I slide down from the roof I had been running across and she wires up onto a chimney nearby.
Sliding under the Titan's legs, I hear sparks as the back of my propeller hits the cobble street below me before I release my wire and fly upward. Hitting the wire again and pressing the gass, I shift my gear and spin around, angling my blades as I slice the Titan's achille's tendon.
Its foever smiling face falls to the ground and I stare it down. Its eerie expression is fixated on me and only me until Annie spirals down, her blades smacking into the Titan's nape before the smoking tendon's could regenarate. We whizz back up to our group, who had stopped on a nearby roof.
I make a face as Connie pulls someone up to a staggery standing position. My eyes widen.
"A-Armin." He looks up at me as I rush over, my hands dancing across his skin in search of any wounds. I turn his head. "Are you alright? What happened?!" His eyes shimmer and he looks away from me. I make a face and release his head.
He felt slimy... I absentmindedly wipe the stick onto my pants. Suddenly his eyes widen and he starts screaming. The rest of us jolt and my heart pounds.
"Armin!" Connie yells, grabbing him by the shoulders and jerking him roughly. "Get a hold of yourself!" Several more Trainee's swing down and surround us, to defend us while we calm down our friend. I notice Ymir among them.
"Armin, whats wrong!" I gasp. "Keep it together!"
He pulls at his hair. "I'm dead weight! I should just die!"
My breathing becomes frantic, coming to me in gasps. "Dont say things like that, please calm down!"
Tears pour from Armin's eyes as he jerks his head roughly from side to side. "Damn it all!"
"Armin where are the others?!" Connie demands. His screaming stops with a whine.

"Let it go Connie. They're all dead, minus this guy." All eyes turn to Ymir. "Minus this guy."
Connie clenches his fists. "How would you know, he hasn't said anything!"
She shoots a glare at him over her shoulder. One that could kill. "Isn't it obvious just from looking around? We dont have any more time to waste on him."
Let me get something straight. Ymir was a great friend, loyal in every way. Sure, she had her dark moments, like blackmailing. But this made my blood boil.
"Dont you DARE say that!" I growl. "Armin is working hard to fight just like the rest of us, its not... Leave him alone!" I turn to my shaking friend and rub his back as Annie, Reiner and Connie regroup with the other Trainee's.
I rub small circles and bend over slightly, trying to look into his eyes. "Armin, its alright." I murmur. "Everything's fine."
His body shakes as he lets out a sob. "I'm sorry... I'm so sorry, Tomone..." I make a face.
He's really shaken up... Armin...
I feel eyes on my back for a moment and turn around, only for everyone's heads to snap back towards Ymir. I make a face.
They've got something they dont want to tell me. I read Ymir's lips as thr group disperses: 'Let him tell them himself'.

Suddenly Armin walks towards the edge of the building and pulls out his blades. "I'm sorry for being a burden."
My eyes widen. "Armin, wait!" He jumps off and swings away before I can beg him to do otherwise. I fight back the tears threatening to spill over. "Just talk to me..."
But we regroup into our squads, and recieve orders to advance. And so, with Armin and his words plaguing my mind, I follow my team back into hell.
No... This world has always been hell.
Titan after Titan fell at the hand of my blades. Blood sprayed the earth and ran into the rivers concealed by rock and crystal. The blood tainted it, and the water was no longer fit to drink. It had become forbidden.
I had become tainted.
I was the water.

Slowly I noticed my fear ebbing away, and a stonce cold glare had formed on my face. When it rained, I did not accept the cloaks handed out by Squad Leaders as we passed. I did not flinch when a Titan's hand appeared from seemingly thin air, or an Abberant lept for us.
Because in the next second I knew we would kill it.
And it would die a slow death, evaporating into the hidden streams. And further taint my being.
Only when retreat bells did not sound, and my blades were beginning to dull, did I begin to assess the situation. It was rather grim.
At this rate, either we were not to pull back, and this battle would last for longer with more death around every corner... Or HQ was gone.
As I whisk over chimneys and rooftops, my harsh green gaze flickers over to HQ, where my suspicions are confirmed.
"Damn it all..." Ahead, a small legion of Trainee's sits and waits for orders, or for someone to take command.
We stop there, and I sheath my blades, looking around for Eren, Mikasa, Ria and Armin.
I'm almost out of gas, blood is evaporating of of my jacket, my friends are missing and HQ has been overrun. Great! What else could happen that could possibly ruin my day?
I spot Ria nearby and head over, asking her about the others and what they've managed to learn.
"Well, at this point, HQ is gone, the Support Teams arent coming to support us, most of us dont have the gas to get over the wall and half of us are in a traumatic shock." Her crystal blue eyes sadden. "Just look at Armin..." She points to my blonde friend, who sits huddled against a wall nearby.

I nod. "I know..." I murmur.
I make my way over slowly, through the crowd, Ria on my tail. She stops a few feet back and I continue forward, stopping a few feet away from Armin. In the background, Connie screams at Jean about why we should be moving, and Sasha tries to rally us together.
"Armin?" Immediatly he tenses, his body seizing up, before he culs further into himself, as if hopinghe would just spontaniously combust. Nearby, Mikasa flies down onto the roof, asks around before she spots us and speeds over. She calls his name and his head snapps up, away from his knees. He seems more scared than ever. I make a face as Mikasa pulls up beside me.
She kneels in front of him and he hangs his head, avoiding her gaze.
"Armin, are you alright?" She asks quietly. "Are you hurt? Feeling okay?" He gives her a curt nod and she stands, looking around. "Where's Eren? He was in your squad, right?"

I stop.
My eyes widen and fear suddenly floods my body. I realise the things I've done, the things that could happen. The things that did happen.
I remember that the Scouting Legion isnt here to save my ass again.
I infer what happened to Eren.
My blood runs cold and I stare at Mikasa's back, her jacket emblazoned with the Trainee Squad's emblem.
A tear trickles down Armin's cheek and his lip quivers. Mikasa makes a face, persisting. "Armin?"
He looks up at her, teary eyed and covered in that... Stickyness.
He reeked of Titan. Mikasa jolts as if she finally realised. Ria walks over slowly.
"D-Dont tell me that what I think happened..." Her voice wavers.
Armin looks down, his hands clanched over his knees. "Our unit... The 34th Cadet unit..."
Nearby, people halt their moping, self mourning and arguing to listen in.

Armin lets out a small sob as the tears fall faster.
"Thomas Wagner. Nic Tius. Mylius Zeramuski. Mina Carolina. Eren Jaeger." He chokes on each name as he spits them from his mouth. "All five of them have fullfilled their duty and died heroic deaths in battle!"
I turn to stone.
My knees quake and I collapse, staring ahead.
They're gone... Everyone is gone...
"Y-You cant be serious?" Ria mutters. The tears I willed not to spill flood forward and cascade down my cheeks. I do not sob, I do not shake.
No, I stare.
Eren was our driving force and we all knew it. He never gave up, he trained hard, he was determined. And he wouldnt die even if he was killed here.
But he did die.
And now he's gone.

What's the point? Of living... Of fighting? What's the point of all of this?