AN: And here's the last part of Chapter Ten, everyone! Wohoo! Anyway, I realized that I still haven't properly thanked you all, so now I'm just going to take the chance and tell you that you are all awesome. Thank you for reading, reviewing, and hitting the favorite button. You don't know how encouraging it is to hear from you, so once again, thank you.
Disclaimer: I do not own Attack on Titan. I can draw, but I can't do manga, if you know what I mean.
Chapter Ten (3)
Darius Zackly shuffled the letters in his hands. He picked one out randomly and opened it, carefully sliding out the piece of paper from the envelope. Armin could see the words 'Annie Leonhardt' scribbled at the back of each one in his neat, cursive handwriting, and he thought back to the days when he used to write those things with so much enthusiasm.
Everyone watched as the Supreme Commander read. Armin looked away; he did not want to relive his and Annie's past right now, but he had no choice. Here was a better place than anywhere else. Besides, he could use his relationship with Annie as an advantage, if he could just pull the right strings. But how?
"Hmm," said Zackly, putting the letter down. "Interesting. Say, Arlert, what exactly is your affiliation with Annie Leonhardt?"
"We were from the same class, sir," he answered, and he was surprised to hear his voice sound so steady despite the loud banging of his heart. "We were friends. Close friends."
"I see," he said. "But according to Miss Hitch's statement and the contents of this letters, it seems like you two were more than just -- as you put it -- close friends."
Armin gulped. He looked at Annie's former room mate, who was smiling smugly, and now understood why Annie hated her so much. She often complained about Hitch in her letters, and back then Armin thought that she was just not used with being around new people, but now he knew that he was wrong -- Hitch was one cunning girl.
Now that he thought about it, it was pretty obvious how she got her hands on those letters. Hitch had complete access to Annie's drawers, and when she had been captured, she probably stole those and showed them to the Military Police.
"Well, soldier?" asked Nile Dok. "Do you deny having connections with the Female Titan?"
"No, I don't deny it," he answered.
Nile smiled. "Ahh. See? This boy has clearly confessed that he was in close cohorts with a Titan. How can we be certain that he won't try to break her free from her crystal and let her escape?"
"That's foolish," said Hange. "Armin would never do such a thing."
"But how can we be so sure?" asked a man from the spectators. "What if he was a Titan Shifter, too?"
"Not this again," muttered Mikasa. "These stupid, assuming bastards."
"We can assure you that Soldier Arlert is not a Titan Shifter." said Commander Erwin.
"But how could you know?" chirped a skeptical voice from the crowd. "The Female Titan managed to fool us for almost four years; who's to say that he's not just pretending to be human, now?"
Cries of assent rose up from the balconies. Armin was holding on to the railings too tightly that his knuckles turned white. His patience was running thin. The past few days were hell to him, and he did not know whether he could keep on his good soldier mask any longer. He was about to burst, and he could not let that happen. Annie's life was on the line -- he can't just abandon her. He had abandoned her once, in that fateful day at Stohess, and he was not about to repeat it.
Mikasa ran out of gas and fell. She flipped over in the air before hitting her back on a roof and rolling down into the streets below.
"Mikasa!" Armin yelled. He switched directions, so instead of heading towards the HQ, he was going straight for her.
"Jean, lead the others! I'm coming with Armin!" shouted Connie from behind him.
The two of them swung from house to house, looking for any signs of Mikasa. He did not see where she had landed, which made the search all the more difficult. He just wished he wasn't too late. She had a nasty fall, so he assumed that she had at least several broken bones, and that would make it hard for her to move properly if a Titan suddenly attacked her.
"Mikasa!" he called out.
No response. Armin was getting anxious as minutes passed by without them seeing any trace of ebony hair. He could hear Titan's screaming not too far from where they were, and he vaguely wondered if the reinforcements had arrived and where finally picking them off one by one.
A roar managed to break through the noises around them, echoing in the still, afternoon air. Armin felt the hairs on the back of his neck stand -- there was just something so familiar with that sound, something he can't quite put his finger to.
He spotted Mikasa the same time Connie did. She was sitting on a secluded alley near a dumpster, her broken blades still in hand, but she wasn't using them. In fact, she looked quite shocked. Armin swooped in and grabbed her, bringing her onto a rood with him.
"Everyone okay?" asked Connie, who landed next to them.
"Where fine," he replied.
"Good. Now let's go back to Headquarters."
But as he turned to shoot his hooks, a Titan went around the corner and walked to where they were. A second Titan, a fifteen-meter class, with long, unruly hair stepped out to meet it.
"Oh shit. Two Titans." said Connie. "We'll be trapped."
"No," Mikasa pointed at the fifteen meter. "That Titan is different. He doesn't care about us -- look."
They watched as the two Titans faced off. Suddenly, the smaller one lunged, but his adversary simply dodged his attack and followed it up by punching its head off its neck. The Titan's head spun across the air before lodging itself into an old bell tower. Armin shook his head. Was this real?
"Jeez," commented Connie. "Now we really need to get out of here. That's an Abnormal."
"Wait," said Armin. "I've got a plan."
"Okay," sighed Connie. "What is it?"
A few moments later, the three of them came bursting through the windows of Headquarters, their gas tanks barely empty. Connie whooped at their luck, patting Armin on the back while saying, "We made it! Your plan worked!"
"What?" said a very confused Jean.
"Guys, that Titan's an abnormal! It fights other Titans, and it ignores us! Armin made the plan to lure it in here, so it could take down all the other Titans within the vicinity." announced Connie proudly.
Armin felt the other cadets's eyes on him, and he scratched the back of his head nervously. He never thought that his plan would work, but now that it had, he didn't expect them to accept it so easily. After all, even he was weirded out by the strange Titan.
"You're delusional," replied Jean. "That can't be true. Rely on a Titan?"
"Its not delusional," said Mikasa. Everyone turned to her. "You saw it for yourself. Now I know it's a long shot, but we should forget about it now and focus on taking back the supply room."
They all agreed, and they went downstairs to create a plan. Someone laid out the blueprint of the building across the dusty floor, and they gathered around it, thinking of the best way to eliminate the Titans that had infiltrated the storeroom.
"We found these in the back," said Jean. Him and the others were all holding rifles.
"How on earth will that help us defeat the Titans?" someone asked.
Armin could hear the gears turning on his mind. He's right; rifles can't do anything against the Titans. They'd still have to use their dual blades, but now that they were out of gas, they can't really use their 3D maneuver gears to help them move. He looked at the blueprint carefully. Rafters…blades…rifles…
"That will do," he said loudly. "The rifles would be good enough."
"Armin," said Mikasa. "What do you have in mind?"
"Let's say there are about seven three to four meter Titans milling around the supply room," he began, "The rifles would be enough to blind all of them if we all shoot simultaneously. We will bring people down into the supply room using the lift, and they will attract the Titans long enough to shoot them. Are you following what I'm saying?"
The cadets nodded. "Okay. Go on." urged Reiner.
Armin nodded. "While we bilnd the Titans, seven people will jump out from these rafters and slice their napes, effectively killing them. However, be warned that we could only do this once. We need to do this right, or else we won't have another chance."
"Well, looks like this is the best option we have," said Marco.
"It's either we wait here or we do that and fail -- either way, we're dead. So let's just do it." added Annie.
"It's a great plan, Armin. Just have confidence in yourself," said Mikasa.
Armin gave them a grateful smile. "Okay. I want the seven most physically capable people here to do the job."
Armin slung the rifle on his shoulder as he loaded homes into the lift. Mikasa, Annie, Sasha, Reiner, Berthold, Connie and Jean were chosen to kill the Titans, and he couldn't think of anyone else suited for the task. As they slowly descended into the supply room, Armin could only hope that his plan would work.
The Titans noticed them. They dragged their feet to where Armin and the others hung in the air, guns at the ready. As the Titans came to a close distance, they opened fire.
The seven swooped down on them and slashed. Armin saw the Titans fall, all except for two, who tried to eat Sasha and Connie. Good thing Mikasa and Annie intervened, or else they were dead meat. As the Titan's bodies evaporated, the cadets cheered, and some even gave Armin pats on the back. He felt good; he finally did something useful.
They refilled their gas tanks, their victory contributing to their will to live. As Armin adjusted his ODM gear, Annie approached him, smiling slightly.
"That was pretty smart," she said flatly.
"I just did what I had to do," he replied, shrugging.
"Stop being all modest about it. If it hadn't been for you, everyone would still be up there, just waiting to get devoured. You should just take credit for what you did, Arlert."
"What's this?" he said in mock surprise. "One of Annie Leonhardt's infamous words of wisdom?"
She punched him lightly on the arm. "Yes. And I won't even charge you for it."
"You know you're not the joking type, right?"
"Whatever."
They walked out the building, ready to head off into the inner walls, when he saw Mikasa standing on top of a roof, staring at something. He went to her and watched the scene before them. The black haired Titan that had helped them was now being eaten by his fellow giants, and his arms can't seem to regenerate quickly enough to fight them off. Still, he managed to bite one on the nape and send him flying towards the others.
The Titan, exhausted, fell face first onto the ground, smoking. Its nape opened, and slowly, they all saw Eren emerge from the creature, alive and whole. Armin could not believe it. His best friend was back. Eren was alive. Mikasa ran up to him, wrappings him in a fierce embrace. Armin, so reliever at seeing his friend again despite the confusion, took hold of his hand and cried silently.
He had saved him, had been eaten by a Titan before his very eyes, and yet Eren was here with them, apparently unscathed. Armin promised to way that he wouldn't abandon him again, not when he finally came back.
As accusations flew around the courtroom, each more ludicrous than the last, Armin can't help but to be overwhelmed. If he learned anything in the Battle for Trost, it was that his mind was his greatest weapon, and that he just had to believe in himself like Mikasa had told him to.
Coming to a decision, Armin stepped forward and raised his voice. "I admit to being acquainted with Annie Leonhardt. She and I were lovers back in our training days, and yes, I sent her letters during our time apart, but never in my wildest dreams did I imagine her as a Titan."
"Hah! So you so confess on being her ally!" said Pastor Nick.
"Ally?" he repeated. "If I was her ally, would I have told Commander Erwin her true identity? Yes, I was the one who figured out who she was, and I reported it to the Survery Corps even though she was my girlfriend at that time."
"Irrelevant," Nile said. "So what if you told them her true identity? It would not change the fact that you were romantically involved with the Female Titan, whose fate is being decided by this court right at this very minute! There is no way to prove you are trustworthy enough, and I will not let you blind people take custody over a Titan like her."
"Annie!" shouted Armin, his patience all but ran out.
"What?"
"Her name is Annie. Not Titan Shifter, not Female giant, just Annie." he said through clenched teeth. His friends were all staring at him, shocked at his sudden outburst. "And about my trustworthiness, haven't I proven that already? I was the one who devised the plan to capture her, I was the one who lured her into Stohess, I was the one who betrayed her in order to save mankind! Isn't that proof enough, or are we just gonna ignore that fact, as well?"
Armin addressed the whole courtroom: "And as for the issue of her escaping, I doubt that she would be able to transform in an underground cell, and if she did, Eren would be there to stop her. Also, if Annie ever gets out of that crystal, who better to face her but the Survey Corps, who has a better fighting chance against her? Also, if you're still worried about my relationship with her, you could always use me, you know -- use me as hostage when she threatens to transform."
"And if it doesn't work?"
"Well, then I'd be dead either way. She wouldn't exactly be sentimental after I had just betrayed her, but there is no harm in trying. And if I do get killed, isn't that one less suspicious person to you?"
The whole hall went silent. Armin kept his head up, not wanting to bow down in case the others took notice of it and consider it an act of hesitation on his part. He had to look confident -- in court, there is no room for doubt.
"Well," said Zackly finally. "I think we have reached a decision here. Do you have any objections?" he turned to the preachers and the Military Police.
Command Nile Dok said bitterly, "No."
"Good," said the judge. "I hereby rule that the Survey Corps gain custody over Annie Leonhardt."
