Welcome, to episode 21! Or chapter 21 if you're more into that.

I don't have an Intro, so yes.

So there it stood, the ASW-G-08 Barbatos. It was a little crouched, arms bent at the elbows a little over ninety degrees, it's massive 'Wrench' held firmly in it's left manipulator/hand.

(If you're wondering, it's the exact same pose the Barbatos had when it first fought the Graze Ritters on earth)

Motionless, the White Devil did not stir, simply staring at it's opponents for a few, long seconds. The Titans were mainly focused on the body of the Female Titan, but some were bored with it or something, as they turned to face the Gundam Frame or trying to climbing up the trees the Corps were on. And the climbing went as well as you'd expect.

Just as the Barbatos crouched down lower, it's free manipulator/hand in front of it and Mace holding one behind, Lura inched close to Hanji's ear and whispered, "You did say you want to see it in action, didn't ya?"

(and if you're wondering, the pose it's in right now is the stance the Barbatos was in during the start of the Mika vs Crank battle)

And Hanji only squealed in excitement, and right when it left her mouth, the Barbatos blasted forward to… greet it's opponents, with a smack to the face with a 20 metre Mace.

The first Titan who tried to beat the Barbatos was slammed right in the abdomen with the Wrench Mace, sending it flying into a 7 metre trying to climb a tree. A 15 metre attempted to jump on the Frame, only for the Barbatos to reach back and grab the longsword off it's back and slamming it right into the things neck, slicing cleanly through.

After the Gundam pulled the blade out, it went on to grind the Titans into minced meat which dissolved after a few seconds, with the Survey Corps looking on, eyes wide and (most) mouths agape.

Any other Tekkadan member would enjoy the attention they were given, but Mikazuki could give less of a crap, but he was a little annoyed at the amount of it he was given as he was not used to it.

Quickly sheathing the blade, Mika jerked the arm unit to the left and sent a 13 metre soaring across the sky before quickly aiming an Autocannon at a 3 metre. The shot went straight into it's mouth because it was greedy and came out of it's neck, and in turn the nape.

As it slaughtered the pack, and as Hanji watched with full attention, examining how it moved with every fiber of her being. Because it was in the morning/afternoon and not night, she could see how human like it's fighting style was. The limbs moved fluidly as though they were human limbs and the reaction speed was incredible, and, in some ways, even better than a human's reaction speed.

It probably had something to do with that 'Alaya Vijnana' system. In her two weeks of asking (bothering) Mika, she learnt that the thing would connect into the Barbatos via a connector in the cockpit. It allowed him to, in a way, connect with the Gundam and enhance his senses tenfold.

And it was rather apparent as, even when facing overwhelming odds or caught in a situation where he would be off guard, he was able to effectively dodge the enemy and counterattack within a fraction of a second, seeing as he was able to sidestep a Titan and slam its fist into the nape within the space of a second.

Anyways, while Mika slaughtered the enemies, and while Hanji watched with the enthusiasm of a psychopath watching his victim bleed out (cough cough), Levi launched himself towards Erwin, who was looking at the Gundam, thankful for it's arrival and upset at the mission's failure.

"We would have been had if he didn't come," stated Levi matter-of-factly.

"Our enemies…" muttered Erwin, ignoring Levi's crack. "Are willing to sacrifice everything. But I never anticipated it to destroy itself along with the evidence…"

As he said that, the Barbatos slammed a 13 metre down with the Wrench of his, shaking the ground like an earthquake. Or more realistically, a tremor.

But while the thing demolished the Titan horde, Erwin couldn't help but wonder about the Female Titan. Though it was eaten, he only saw it's Titan body be consumed, not the human inside. This made him think, was the Female Titan's human controller alive?

If it was… then may God have mercy on them all. And may God have mercy on the Female Titan, as the Barbatos could easily kill it.

"After all that talk in the Court Martial on Eren and Mikazuki…" complained Levi, snapping Erwin out of his slight thought.. "This is what happens… and we can only imagine what they'll do to either of them if we go back without any leads."

"We can think of that later, Ackerman," said Erwin. "Seeing as our target is gone," the Barbatos swung the Mace into a Titan, sending it into the air and home ran it, "Our top priority is to get our soldiers out of here with minimal casualties."

And he looked to the corpse of the Female Titan, where the steam was going up in the air, and it would very well limit visibility of the Flares. And also, there was the problem of the Female Titan still being alive. But still… there was always the Gundam.

And as if on cue, the ASW unit swung the Mace sideways, destroying five Titans and clearing the steam quickly.

'Right… nevermind,' thought Erwin, smiling a tiny bit. "I'll call my team," said Levi, turning to do that as the Gundam clamped down on a 15 Metre with the broken front of the Wrench.

"Wait, Levi…" said Erwin as the Gundam swung the Titan which was caught in the Mace at a smaller 3 metre, crushing it with the trapped larger one. "Refill your gas and replace your blades."

"There's no time," replied Levi. "And besides, I have enough. Even if I don't, I could always use the Pilot's. Why?"

"That's an order," said Erwin sternly, ignoring the shorter man's question. "Follow it."

OOOOOH. THAT BURN.

"Roger, Erwin," said Levi as the Gundam tore apart the last Titan and stomped on what was left. "I'll trust your judgement."

Erwin nodded subtly at that, before turning to the ASW-G-08. As if sensing someone watching it, the unit turned to face Erwin, green eyes bright, yet lifeless. But Smith could tell that the boy inside was waiting for a kind of order.

"We are retreating, Augus," informed Erwin as Levi aimed his flare gun into the air and fired a blue flare, alerting the juniors and S.O.S of the retreat Erwin ordered. "But I have a different order for you, Mikazuki Augus."

Raising an eyebrow, Levi looked to Erwin. "What is it?"

"Stay here and wait for Levi's team to fire their flare. When they do, rendezvous with them," ordered Erwin, before a small amount of steam was pushed out of the mouth vents.

"Ah," replied Mika, not asking much more questions.

"Good," said Erwin, before pointing his blade towards the west. "Let's move!"

"We're retreating," said an unnamed Corp. "Everyone, fall back. Head back to your horses."

"Right!" came his reply from Krista.

"The operation's over?" muttered Nac.

"It seems like it," said Mylius, sounding rather relieved. "Come on!"

But Nac really didn't like it. If his hypothesis was correct, the Titan, which Armin, when he crossed paths with him recently, told him was apparently called the 'Female Titan' was a Shifter type.

From what little he's seen, a Shifter was smarter and stronger than default Titans. And it wouldn't take such little time (30-45 minutes) to take down a Shifter, especially one who took nearly took out the flank and killed nearly a quarter of the formation.

But still, this was a direct order from the middle of the formation, IE where Erwin was, and he had no real place to deny it. But still, that didn't stop him from looking into the distance for a few seconds until Mylius tapped his head.

"Nac?" muttered Mylius, snapping the boy back to the real world.

"Huh?" groaned Nac, an eyebrow raised.

"You blanked out for a sec there, Tius," replied Mylius, unsheathing a blade from it's canister to replace a broken one. "We're falling back."

"I know, let's move," said Nac, making Mylius nod and blast forward. Shaking his head a little, Nac followed suit, hoping what he thought of was wrong.

Back with the seniors

"I never expected the Female Titan to turn to such a method…"

"Neither did I, Hanji," came Glass's reply from Lura, a character who Mr Stryker made as a one off person, but decided to keep around because he likes side characters.

Currently, Erwin, Hanji, Coral and Lura, alongside several other Corps were heading in reverse, with Levi somewhere in the trees, zipping after them, out of the forests on horseback. Several kilometres behind them stood the Barbatos, who was rather hard to see due to the trees obstructing their vision.

"Erwin…" came Hanji's voice. "Why did you get Mika to rendezvous with Levi's team, or for Levi to resupply? There isn't time to waste"

"The Female Titan was eaten," came her reply. "But did you see the person inside get eaten? I didn't."

"You don't mean…" muttered Hanji, widening her eyes a tiny bit.

"Yes…" if your original hypothesis was correct," stated Erwin. "If the one's controlling the Titan body can still move to a certain degree when they are no longer inside it… and if they've had Maneuver Gear equipped in advance…

"The person who controls the Titan is wearing our uniform right now," finished Erwin.

Elsewhere

"If they are still out there, they will most likely try to eliminate Eren. and seeing that Levi's squad is separated from us, they will most likely take full advantage of that."

Zipping by the trees of the 'Titan Forests', the S.O.S made their way to their horses after Gunther relayed the Blue Flare.

The group did end up arguing about being scared, mostly because Eld teased Olou and Petra about nearly pissing their pants on their first mission, which made Petra mad and scream for once at least until a green Flare in the northern (I assume) corner of the forests.

"That must be Captain Levi's signal…" said Gunther. "Come! We'll rendezvous with Captain Levi! Cut the chatter until then!"

Swinging onto a branch, Gunther aimed his Flare gun into the air and relayed a green flare.

A couple minutes later

Making their way through the forests, the S.O.S, plus Eren, kept an eye out for Titans or whatever. As they did, Gunther noticed a hooded SC going by them.

"Captain Levi?" said Gunther to the person, responded by silence. And there was something off with that, as Levi would never respond without words unless drinking tea.

"No… it's not!" he exclaimed, eyes widening. "Who are you?!"

And before he could even raise his arms, the person whirled around and swung their blades at him, and the last thing he saw, besides the blades and the hood, was a lock of blonde hair.

It was a quick and efficient slice, going right through his neck and chest. And if he wasn't dead, he probably would have been after his head was slammed into a tree.

Gasping, Jaeger stopped swinging around and went straight to Gunther's corpse. "G-Gunther!"

And trust me when I say that he was horrified when he saw what happened to Gunther. He just hung there like an upside down marionette left to rot, his eyes losing their colour and staring at nothing.

As he stared bewilderedly at Gunther's corpse, his killer kept moving, looking out for a way to eliminate the one who they are wanting to kill.

"GUNTHER!" exclaimed Eren, horrified at what he was seeing, but Olou quickly came up behind him and pushed him forward.

"Keep going, Jaeger!" exclaimed the man. "Don't stop!"

"But… Gunther!" began Eren, but was caught off when he spotted someone. "W-who's there?!"

"Damn it!" exclaimed Olou. "What do we do?! Eld, any ideas?! There isn't any time to reach the horse or alert the others!"

"Keep pushing forward!" exclaimed Eld. "Get to HQ!"

As they pushed on, Olou turned back. "Is that the Female Titan, or is there more than one?!"

But unfortunately for the girl, Petra was rather pissed at the death of Gunther. "Darn you… how dare you?!"

Whirling around, she yelled at their pursuer, her eyes burning with rage.

"Come at me!" she challenged, her voice sounding almost as pissed as Mika when he was mad. Almost. "I'll defeat you, even if it KILLS me!"

Hearing her, the one pursuing them suddenly stopped pursuing, instead halting his or her swinging and falling back behind a tree.

A couple minutes (about 15) prior

Zipping through the forests, the Mikazuki gracefully weaved the Barbatos around the massive trees, which was easier than usual thanks to the Alaya Vijnana. As he went on, he noticed a blue flare being shot into the air. Deducing who shot it quickly, Mika veered the Barbatos towards it, until another Flare was shot up. This one was green, meaning 'change of directions'. And within a second, the flare was relayed.

Now, Mika wasn't a formation kinda kid, but he was smart enough to know that no dumbass would fire a flare behind everyone. Huffing, Mika quickly made out that this was a trap set for the S.O.S and went towards where it was fired, boosters at top speed.

Back with the S.O.S

"Just as I thought!" exclaimed Eld, widening his eyes as the one who made the lightning emerged from the dust it created. "The Female Titan!"

And this time, it sprinted with every fiber of it's being, like a gosh darn sprinter who was running for his or her life, with a Xenomorph coming behind em.

"Damn you…" muttered Eren, glancing back at it. "This time I'll finish you!"

And at that, he got ready to bite his finger, but Eld turned to him. "Eren, no!"

Turning to him, Eren looked at the man in shock, but his expression stayed hard. "We will kill, or at least slow down, the Female Titan! Get away from here and to HQ!"

But Eren, being Eren, wasn't willing to leave. "But I can fight too! I don't need to-"

"Jaeger!" exclaimed Eld. "This isn't about pride anymore! It's about survival! So suck it up, or you'll die!"

"Besides, you're doubting us now?!" demanded Olou, his pride clearly showing.

"Do you… Eren?" asked Petra. "Do you find it that hard to trust us?"

Hearing this, Eren blank in shock at the question given to him. He trusted team Levi, probably more than he should've.

Grunting, Eren lowered his arm and whirled around. "I'll go!"

Seeing the boy go forward made Olou grin a little before the trio turned back to face this threat.

Giving a battle cry, Eld went towards it, both arms up. The Female Titan swung an arm at him, but at the last minute, Eld launched a wire to the side, avoiding the hand.

On cue, both Olou and Petra swung right by Eld and latched their wires right below it's eyes. The Female Titan's eyes widened as the duo came right at it and slashed both eyes, blinding it.

'We took it's sight, so for at least a minute, it should be seeing total darkness!' thought Eld. Gritting his teeth, the man swung towards it. And both Petra and Olou seemed to read his mind.

They were all done with trying to capture it.

They were gonna kill it, right here, right now.

As if it knew about their plan, the Titan stepped back to a tree, it's back against it and both arms on its nape. Huffing, Eld turned to his comrades and signaled for them to strike it's arms.

The two nodded subtly before launching themselves fancily into the air, before blasting down and creating two massive gashes in it's arms.

'We'll shear off so much of your muscles on your shoulders, you won't even be able to keep them up!' thought Eld.

And at that, many more slashes were made. After the thirtieth was made, the arms finally went down.

"They're down!" exclaimed Olou.

"Now!" exclaimed Eld. "The neck! Shear the muscles of the neck off!"

"Then it will all be over!" exclaimed Petra.

Blasting towards it, Eld held both swords firmly and was about to strike the nape, ready to end the Titan.

Until the eye suddenly shot open.

"ELD!" exclaimed Petra, before the man flew right into the Female Titan's mouth. And with a chomp, Eld was split in two. The bottom half fell onto the floor, and the top was spat out of the mouth.

Looking on in horror, Petra nearly dropped but activated her gear, which pushed her up a little, long enough to fire a wire in front of her. "H-HOW?! It can't possibly see! It hasn't even been thirty seconds!"

But she then noticed a blue orb in the right eye. "Only one eye?! Prioritizing only one eye to accelerate its healing…"

"Petra, quit doddling and run!" exclaimed Olou, before the Female Titan came after her.

Looking in shock, Petra was overcome with fear, unable to move a single muscle as the Titan picked up the pace, closing the gap in between the two. When it was close, it leapt into the air, it's foot about to come down at Petra.

"Petra!" exclaimed Olou, looking at the woman in horror.

However, by some unknown miracle, the foot landed mere inches away from Petra. Despite her extremely lucky outcome, however, the shockwave of the slam caused Ral to fly out of control and roll extremely painfully onto the floor. The fall earned her several deep cuts, scars and knocked her unconscious, but for the most part, she was alive.

For the most part, anyways. Olou and Eren, on the other hand, thought she was dead. Eren only screamed in terror, while Olou widened his eyes, before he gritted his teeth, almost to the point where he turned them into dust.

Firing a wire right at the nape, Olou reeled himself in.

"Oi…" he said softly. "Die!"

And with a quick slash, Olou sliced the nape, only to find both blades broken. Looking back, he saw that the nape was behind some sort of crystal.

"How…" muttered Olou, pretty much half shocked at this point. "My blades didn't pierce it…"

And those were his last words, before he was slammed aside by the leg of the FT.

And there is was, standing over the bodies of two dead S.O.S members and one severely wounded one. The last one up was an easy target. Turning, the FT saw Eren, his eyes widened and radiating with pure terror.

And suddenly, the terror was replaced by true anger.

"I'LL KILL YOU!" exclaimed Jaeger, before he bit his hand.

And almost instantly, lightning came flying down, engulfing Jaeger and blinding the FT a little.

So loud that the Corps up front could hear. Particularly Mikasa, as she whirled her head around.

"Eren!" she muttered, despite the exclamation mark. Without thinking too much, Ackerman turned and went for where the roar came from, leaving her partner, Sasha, and those around her shocked.

"W-wait, what?! Mikasa?!" exclaimed Sasha, but it was pretty much too late, as Ackerman was already gone.

"That roar…" muttered Levi, looking to where the lightning struck. Huffing, the man immediately took a U turn and swung to where it came from.

And from within the lightning emerged the 'Rogue' Titan from Trost, eyes burning with anger as he landed a good way in front of our Female one, roaring EXTREMELY loudly. But despite this new threat, the Female Titan did not waver, instead flashing it's creepy smirk.

Finally, a fair fight!

Probably not my best work, but heeeeey. It's pretty hard to write a story with IBO and SNK. I mean, it would have been easier if I used that dumbass called Eren and his two friends.

Also, before you ask, I do not like Eren. Dude's waaaaaay to focused on avenging his mama. And honestly, it's his fault for the death of Thomas, Nac, Mylius and Mina, so I think I have the right to hate him since he killed three of my personal favorite characters.

Yes. My favorite characters barely have screen time and were killed very quickly. Fite me.

Also, trust me when I said that I had to rewrite this multiple times, so I'm sure it won't make too much sense. Probably gonna rewrite it sometime soon. No promises because I'm piss poor at keeping them.

On some other updates, I'll probably edit a few chapters, most likely C15 and 16, and probably an entire rewrite of C1. It's gonna be a long year of writing.

And yes Petra is surviving, because… reasons.

On a side note, I am thinking, thinking, of a harem for Mika. I'd like your input though. I'm thinking Mina, Annie, maaaaybe Petra and the classic pair of Atra and Kudelia, because Atra DESERVES Mika. I mean, at first it was an afterthought, but after ep 50 of IBO, I really think that Augus fucking DESERVES a harem.

Hanji can go cuddle with Levi if she wants. According to my friend, Petra and Levi ain't too popular. But Eren and Levi… oh man.

Also, and this was updated in on 3/5/2017 btw, I'm not dead! You can stop the celebration now. Anyways, I'd like to say that if you are expecting the Barbatos Lupus Rex in this… tough luck.

But anyways, I'll see you guys next chapter, or in that other story I'm working on.

I wonder how Mika would react to 2B…

My God. I'm tired… I'm gonna go lay down and play Just Cause 2 because I don't have Just Cause 3.