WOW! This chapter took a while, I've been working really hard on it, so treat it well.
Responses:
A/N: BTW, it's good to hear you all again, my regular reviewers, and the rest of you all that are new.
Clayman, I'm keepin up with the keepin up, and I'm sure you'll enjoy this chapter.
NightFuryNinja: I haven't eaten your cookie yet, not till I've earned a good glass of milk, let's hope you'll give me that in here. :D
Maesde: Thank you for the excellent response on how I started this fanfic, and as for levi? Just read.
Noteriety:
Cold hearts, by purple ninja cat 278
"Breathless", and "Forever and Always", by August . Sapphire
The little things, by Paragon Flynn
Unexpected by x jasmin3 x
Chapter 2: One last message
Everywhere, around the darkened encampment. Every foot soldier burdened with the Templar symbol is falling to the ground with an empty thud. Shear blades strapped to the edges of fine, slender, cut sticks are spearing out their souls.
Mikasa, Eren's Asian counterpart, and the rest of their trapped birds of prey take the dilemma to their advantage and strike. All of the Assassins retrieve Templar's swords, because the soldiers won't be needing them anymore. The dead must never be disposed with wanted necessities.
Mikasa twists her neck to strike a glance towards the bearings of the green darkness. Somewhere deep in the shaded towers of trees, brushes, and thickets lie guardian angels. Eagle eyes seeking out prey, and coordinating to where they must foray their talons. Mikasa takes a moment to lay eyes on where these slippery snakes lie, but Annie breaks her out of this brief flash of shock.
"C'mon Mikasa! Snap to it!" Annie forces a small sword into Mikasa's grip. She doesn't glue her eyes on Mikasa for one more minute, not with frightened, Templars marked for death due.
Raining barrels of fire strike down to the earth. Wooden carriages unmade by the purification of fire, and small drapery strands of tents caught in the blaze incinerate all inside. Ashes to ashes, the cowards makes ready to flee, Kaney and Reiner sprint to their steeds. By the time those two spark their horses to gallop at full speed to shelter, the excitement of surprise is worn out on the board, the surviving Templars draw out their gleaming iron swords, and charge into the lush, elderly green blankets of foliage. They can't expect to win, all they're armed with are measly, cheap swords, and the desperation to see tomorrow. None will come back out, not even a messenger of the coming death.
All but one brave, corrupted soul still stands his ground, but though, Farlan Church is more impressed to what he's seeing than startled to what he's losing.
Eren Jaeger's kneeling on the blood worn soil by the forceful hands of Farlan's fists. To the excitement reveling around the two, Church loosens his sweaty grip wrapping around Eren. The masked Templar is off his guard, Eren snatches this moment away for an opportunity to escape. Eren swats away Farlan's hand wielding the sword, and reaches for Church's neck so he can smack his captor with an uppercut underneath his mask. Eren's hard, painful punch stuns Church for only a few measly seconds, but it's more than enough to have Eren break free.
Eren Jaeger halts his adrenaline by skidding his brown dirty boots on the gravel road. In front of him lies the lush beautiful abyss to where Templars sell themselves so easily to go into. No one's coming out, no Templar at least? Out from the bottomless green hole comes a ghost to Farlan; a short, green hooded man. Wielding the Wings of Freedom. The symbol of the most feared mercenary group in all of Yggdrasil. Pulling down his hood, Farlan Church bears witness to an old friend, and a very loathing enemy.
"Levi!" Church spits, slurring out his coming words while pulling out his knife for a secondary weapon, "So, y'come back to DIE!" Farlan barks out his remarks as if it's poison to him.
Levi treads slowly towards his betrayed mutual, and tosses Eren a spare ninjato blade. Eren ruffles around his head around to find his hat, turns his back to the Masked Templar with his friend, and readies for a duel. Side by side with Levi.
The first person to swing their blade is Farlan. With his surging lust for Levi's demise fueling Farlan's attack, he attempts a stab for Levi's heart. Sparks seethe out with the grinding of sharp metal interacting with each other. Levi can still manage to keep his emotionless glare through the small fire works. To him, keeping his cold, flat look is as easy as breathing natural air. Setting ablaze across their swords, Farlan and Levi back away with their blades to their sides in respect.
Eren follows their stature for his own respect, and attempts his own blow, overhead. Church catches Eren's wrist, tossing him to the hard ground. Though, his sudden thrust on throwing Eren gives Levi a chance to kick him in the belly. Sadly, Church blocks the kick with another of his own. He gives Levi a hard, straining punch in the face, knocking his gaze away from Church's position. Slamming him in the chest with a kick, Levi is now on the hard ground. Eren's already off the ground, making another lunge for Farlan. He spins around Eren's lunge, causing him to disorient himself of his stance. Farlan takes a step back, goes for another windy twirl, and back kicks him back into the ground again.
Church circles around Eren like a vulture, blade and knife in hand, "You are SO weak! Clarke was right, you really don't know what you're fighting for? So sad!"
While Farlan gloats around Eren, Levi sneaks up from behind and kicks him in the back. Farlan quickly regains his stance from that sudden sneak attack.
Eren is still struggling on the ground, so Farlan puts his focus back on Levi for the moment. Using both hands to still grip his weapons, Farlan attacks with full force to Levi, but he parries them all away from his posture. Polishing off the whole session off with a hard kick with his knee.
Circling around each other like two wolves clawing each other to the death, Levi ends his quick death stare with Farlan with a question, "Was it so easy to betray me Church?!" Levi says as calmly as he can, then goes back for another attack.
Eren does nothing, but watch the slaughter. He's too fraught with pain. Both in his muscles and now inside his mind. He's rocking away the pain in fetal position, realizing to his revelation. After five years of training with his own father. Underneath a black and red hood. Another year of training his two best friends, Mikasa and Armin. Add another four years of training with the Creed? It's all been for naught! Eren begins feeling tears swell up in his eyes, spilling down his cheek, and dripping onto the ground, "All my training wasted! All because I have no clue what I'm fighting for? Why the Hell am I even fighting at all? I'm just trash!"
"That's not true!" says a familiar, feminine voice.
Eren's eyes snap from this sudden surprise, the whole world around him and time itself steadily goes to a halt; Levi's fight with Farlan Church. Armin, Mikasa, and the rest of the group fighting their own battle of Templar soldiers. As well as the colors, all pigments diminish into a shade of gray. The only source of any color is a small light, and an approaching figure. Eren prepares himself as best he can, because he's realized, he's having another hallucination. Eren was hoping his last one would be when he first dueled Levi, but here he goes again.
This brief, new moment of insanity is no different to his last one. It's Mikasa's younger self again, back when Eren saved her when they were both fourteen years old. The gash on her head is still there, it's like a reminder of everything of that night, "It's not true, Eren," Mikasa's face couldn't be more sympathetic; dry tears across her cheeks, chattering teeth of fear, and eyes big enough to break anyone's heart, "You do have a reason to fight."
Eren halts any word to just look at her. He's feeling like shit right now, but Mikasa's presence is just slamming any bravery left in him. Eren knocks down his head to the floor, and starts releasing all of his dammed tears, "How could there be any reason to fight, I have nothing."
"THAT'S NOT TRUE!" Mikasa brightens her face with a moment of anger. It's not much, but enough to make him jump back up to her gaze, "You do have a reason to fight, did you really forget already?"
Eren's wonky eyebrow on his face makes it pretty obvious, he has no clue.
Mikasa rolls her eyes, and then lifts a finger towards Eren's forehead, "Lemme show you… Lemme show you what you've been fighting for this whole time."
A bright light showers an iridescence of images upon Eren. Images of him and Mikasa, together; holding hands, kissing, and living in peace. Some are scenarios of her and Eren in places they have already known, others that look to be out of Yggrdassil. Images of almost any picturesque world; images of them together in the future, images of them reincarnated in the farther futures, there's an oblivious amount of images of possibilities in every different universe. All flowing in his mind, and with so many possibilities, but they're going so fast, Eren can't tell what he's looking at. Image after Image, Eren can feel a nose bleed flow down, but when the light disintegrates from his very eyes, Eren feels no splatter of blood underneath his nostrils. Just like that, in a sudden blink, the light vanishes.
"Do you see now Eren?" Eren's hallucination of Mikasa explains herself, "You… have been fighting… for me... All this time… All along." Mikasa whimpers tears of happiness.
Those very words jam a fake blade in Eren's heart, but instead of the taste of death, the cold taste of salvation run through his very veins. The cool sensation eventually turns into a warm comfort of arms that wrap around his very soul. Eren feels a good sense of tranquility running through himself, inside his blessed heart.
"You were born to do great things Eren. And I? I am always on your side; I know there's a world or a time where you and I don't know each other, or have never met, but I am certain on one thing. We will always find each other in every world. You, and your red string, are the other side to me, and my own red string, and it will never break."
The hallucination of the fourteen year old Mikasa then starts to fade lightly, not before one final word, "But if you and I are to ever be together? You need to fight. So I'll say again, GET UP, and FIGHT BACK! For me."
Everything goes back to color, and motion. He almost forgot about his fight with Farlan Church, and now Levi is back on the ground, and now Farlan is on his way to Eren. Grabbing him by the neck, Farlan squeezes the life out of Eren.
"If only you had a reason to fight." Church says glaring underneath his mask, Eren can't see it, but he can feel the menacing look.
Still drenched in dirt of the ground, Farlan chokes Eren down on the floor. Funny, for Eren this moment reminds him of when he was saved by Mikasa all those years ago.
Not for long though.
At the corner of both Eren, and Farlan's eyes, someone tackles him away from Eren. It's Mikasa! All decked out in her green leather garments, as she's always worn. Mikasa is just pounding the shit out of Church's mask. Her knuckles are bleeding with all the pain in her hands from punching Church's hard, metallic mask. She's jamming her fists into him so hard, she breaks through an eye socket, revealing Farlan's gleaming hazel nut colored eyes. She stutters in the moment of looking at him, which gives Farlan the moment. He hoists up a kick up into her face. Knocking her two feet away, and that's when Eren snaps, like a twig. His life flashes back to when he first laid eyes on her; Sad, and cold. From behind his back, Eren can feel his fingers stubble the tip of a blade. Eren grabs the tool of death, gripping the sword or the hilt, he can't tell right now. Rushing up on his feet, pure adrenaline drives his legs to not stop. Not until Farlan Church is dead. Charging at full speed, Eren jerks a kick into Farlan's ribs, stabilizing his senses for a quick attack. Before Eren attempts a stab, he starts out with a swarm of punches in the belly, and then a jab into his head for a good polishing finish. Farlan's hands then stick out in front of Eren. He takes the advantage and wraps his arms around Farlan, so he can flip this Templar over his shoulders. Eren knocks the wind out of Farlan's stomach when he shakes the ground on his back.
Eren walks over to Church, kicking away his sword and dagger. Eren nulls the tip of his ninjato blade underneath his exposed eye.
"I now know exactly what I'm fighting for. Thanks for showing me." Eren growls underneath Farlan's panting, but soon releases his grip, "But I won't be the one to kill you."
Eren leaves Church's space to check on Mikasa. Coming from behind him, Levi approaches, armed with a loaded flintlock pistol. He snatches Farlan's neck and jerks him forward until they're at eye level. Pain is blazing inside Levi's cold, dead eyes. Cocking his pistol, ready to fire, Levi aims the barrel down in Farlan's exposed eye ball.
"This… Is for Isabel Magnolia." Levi swears.
Eren doesn't look back, not even after the gun fires a bang into Church's head. Either way, Farlan Church, the Masked Templar is dead.
"Mikasa!" Eren runs to her in fear of any critical injuries.
Eren picks her up, and cradles her head in his arms. She's unconscious, but Eren puts a couple of fingers on her neck to see if she's still beating her heart. She's still alive, Eren then breathes in a sigh of relief.
"…Mmm…" Mikasa mumbles to her dreaming, it gives Eren a smile, knowing that she's still alive. Eren removes a few locks of her hair away from her eyes, just to take a look at her sleep.
"Eren c'mon get your girlfriend. We gotta go!" Levi commands, coordinating the rest of the Assassins, and his mercenaries to follow.
Eren follows Eren's orders and hoists Mikasa onto his back, following Levi's orders.
Again, I worked hard on this chapter, let's hope the time is worth it. So anyway how was the chapter? The Aruani pirate spinoff is more than likely going to happen, and I may have a way to start it. But first! I need to go look up REAL sailor talk, not just swearing, but those too.
As always, Review, PM, and Suggest.
Have a nice day!