A Fool's Mission

Uma's POV

I ran as fast as I could towards the black signal flares, saving what little gas I had left for bigger fights. Yeah, I was an idiot, but I couldn't just leave those people to die. I wish I could, but that just wasn't the case. Sure we were ordered to retreat, but screw that. I knew I was making the right call on this one.

The desperate shrieks from the fleeing soldiers rang out in a frightful cacophony as I fought my way back though the ruins of the town. I couldn't help but wonder where Levi was in all of this and if he was going to make it back to the Wall. Fighting through this hell-scape, trying not to be crushed in the jaws of a Titan and knowing that the best possible outcome was surviving this defeat… this was the closest thing to a waking nightmare that I've encountered in a long time. All we could do was survive. Survive and keep as many people as we possibly could from succumbing to the Titans.

"So, what's your plan?" I hear from behind me.

Shit, I thought whipping my head around to see Oulo staring back at me with those droopy amber eyes and smug grin.

"Oulo, what are you doing here?" I asked, shocked to see him.

"Joining you, what does it look like?" He snorted, feeling no need to further elaborate.

"I appreciate it, but I can handle this. You should go back." I said, dismissively. It would have been much simpler if he had just gone straight to the gate.

"Shut up, Uma," he snapped, surprising me a bit. "You always think you have to do things by yourself. It makes you look like such a stuck-up bitch."

Shit. I guess I had my answer.

I cracked a smile then, trying to relieve some of the tension. "You know, you're one to talk about looking like a stuck-up bitch, Oulo."

He pursed his lips, eyes grown wide, but didn't reply. He knew I got the message. Truthfully, it would be easier to have him around. Oulo, despite his bullshit, was a good soldier with a lot of skill. I just didn't want his death on my hands.

"Well, I guess we should get moving."

Oulo nodded in agreement and we both took off once more, cutting through the streets and alleyways that were still open to us.

Exiting a long backstreet into a large boulevard, we shrunk back as an Abnormal suddenly bowled through a wall up on our right, and continued to rage on into the street. This poor bastard was tearing at both sides of his jaw, as if his insatiable hunger was too much to bear. Suddenly, as if possessed, he snapped his head over in our direction, fixing his gaze on us. His hands slowly slipped from his mouth when he saw an opportunity to finally fill it.

"Shit," Oulo cursed, speaking my thoughts aloud.

Just as the monster lunged towards us, I spotted someone fly up above it's head from behind. They looked like a mere black spot silhouetted against the sun. At first I thought it might be Levi, but then I heard their deep, gravelly, cry as they jammed their swords into the back of the Titan's neck. Damn it... I knew that voice. Both Oulo and I ran forwards as the creature fell face down into the street.

"Franc, what the hell are you doing?!" I berated him. There he was standing atop the dead Titan, tiredly wiping the sweat from his brow. He seemed fatigued, probably from having to catch up with us. It was times like these where his age didn't serve him well.

"Where's Petra?" I asked.

"Beyond the gate," he sighed. "Don't worry, Princess, she was pretty pissed at me but I made sure she went through."

"And you just turned around?!"

"Of course I turned around, idiot. If you're set on doing this, you're going to need both Oulo and me."

"Are you fucking crazy? Go back!" I told him, already knowing I couldn't change his mind.

Jumping off the Titan, he let out a hard laugh.

"Do you know how ridiculous that sounds coming from you?" He asked between heavy breaths.

"Fine, I get it. You're both staying." I conceded, practically throwing my blades back into their holsters. They hit the metal bottoms with a painful clang.

Not only had I taken one member of the team with me on this suicide mission but two. Levi was going to be pissed beyond measure. They could argue all they wanted that their lives were their own responsibility but that just wasn't true... not in this case.

"So, are we going or what?" Oulo demanded, tired of my pouting.

"Yeah… stay close in V formation. Yell if you see anyone. And if there are Titans, use your best judgment. We don't need to clear the area, only get through it."

Receiving nods from both of them, we were off again. We avoided as many Titans as we could, fighting only when it was absolutely necessary. It served to save us time and energy; two things we were sorely lacking at the moment.

Most of what we encountered were rampaging Titans. We had yet to see a single human cross our path. This mission was beginning to look doubtful. I began to wonder if maybe the group who sent up the distress signals had already passed us. Perhaps they weren't in as much trouble as I thought. Of course, that was just hopeful thinking. A moment later I hear the faint sounds of yelling up ahead.

"Oulo, Franc! Up to the right!" I cried, pointing in the direction I heard the noise. They nodded, changing course with me.

The shouting got louder as we progressed through the town. It had to be the group who fired the signal flairs. Once I felt we were close enough to the skirmish, I shot through an open window of a residence and waited for Fran and Oulo to follow me inside. I really had to try hard to ignore the aching in my bones. It was beginning to really get to me.

Once they landed, their feet planted firmly on the wide floorboards, I motioned them forwards. We quietly crept like hunters through the room down the hall and to the front of the building. Reaching a set of windows that looked out into the next street, we finally found what we were looking for. There were five soldiers in the street below frantically trying to take out a group of four Titans.

"Looks like we found them," Oulo sighed, reaching for the latch on the window. He looked to me, surprisingly asking for permission, and opened it after my approving nod. There was no reason to wait any longer.

Flicking the hook up we followed single file out the window and jetted into the fray.

A Titan had caught hold of one of the soldiers, his grip tight on her leg as he dangled her over his mouth.

"Jazi!" I heard another soldier scream from the doorway of a shop. It appeared that her gear had been crushed and all she could do was watch. "Somebody get her!... Please…" She helplessly begged, hugging close to the cracked doorframe. Her childish face was red and tear-smattered. She could be older than 16.

Oulo was the first to swoop in and tackle the monster before it had a chance to devour the captured soldier. Seeing he was cutting across the nape of it's neck, I jetted in and grabbed the woman up as she fell from the Titan's loosening hold.

"Are you injured?" I asked, before setting her down.

"No, I'm fine." The woman breathed, shakily running her fingers through the front of her sweaty hair.

Hearing her affirmation, I leapt back into the fight. Oulo had made quick work of the first Titan, now we only had three to go. It seemed that the squad leader and two of the other soldiers were focusing their energy on taking down the largest Titan.

"Franc, we need to kill the two smaller ones," I told him, watching as they were beginning to converge on the large Titan. They wanted to get to the soldiers.

"Yeah, I know. These people are armatures," he grumbled as we flew into the fight.

Franc didn't have much patience for inexperienced soldiers. It seemed that perhaps this group was full of them and whoever their leader was wasn't very bright.

Coming in low, we swooped between the legs of the two smaller Titans causing them to bend over to grab us. I could feel the rush of air on my back from their hands slapping together. Luckily, they had come up empty. Using a burst of gas, we flipped up and around the Titans in an arch, the flight trajectory ending right at the napes on their necks. In perfect unison, both Franc and I hit our marks, cutting the neck of each of our Titans clean open. With a cross spray of blood the two smaller Titans fell to the ground, leaving us only the large one to contend with.

"Alright, I guess this bastard's next," Franc sighed, frustrated by the chore of us having to kill all the Titans ourselves.

Shaking my head, I leapt into action once more. Sick or not, it seemed I was more useful than these other fools. Watching the Titan's face get larger and lager as I sped closer to it, I just hoped those dark eyes wouldn't lock onto mine. If they did, I knew I was in deep shit.

"Watch out!" I heard from the left. I glanced over just in time to see one of the soldiers from the group (a young man) hurdling my way. It looked like he was out of control. I couldn't even get a thought in, he was coming in so fast. Before I knew it, I felt myself latch onto the Titan's chest, narrowly avoiding getting rammed into.

"Asshole!" I yelled, kicking him out of my way as he flew by. Franc was right these idiots were fucking amateurs. The soldier spun off, landing on the nearby rooftop, leaving me to deal with the Titan he'd just alerted my presence to. Now the fucking thing was looking right at me.

"Shit," I felt myself breath, knowing that now I was going to have to fight for my life.

I couldn't think, I just had to keep moving. The wind from the Titan's swipes kept pushing me off course as I rushed up its chest. There was no time to think about how disgusting it was, or how frightening. All I could do was scramble to keep myself alive. That hand, those greedy fingers came so close to me as I reached its shoulder. Then, finally finding purchase, I leapt into the air, rocketing above the Titan and its snatching hands. It felt as if I were suspended in the air for a moment at I watched Franc speed in, cutting off the Titan's fingers as Oulo raced across the back of its neck, splitting it open. However, it was a move made in haste, and the cut wasn't deep enough. Falling back down to Earth, I unsheathed my swords. Flipping them into a reverse grip, blades pointed down, I let gravity pull me straight down onto my target. My blades hit their mark, plunging into the back of the Titan's neck, razing straight through its spinal chord. The Titan's head snapped back, its eyes bulging, before the light left them and it collapsed to the ground.

At that point, I didn't give a shit about any Titan. All I wanted was to punch the asshole who had almost gotten me killed.

"Who the hell is in charge here?" I panted, failing to keep my anger from seeping into my tone.

"I am."

It was the idiotic man who had nearly crashed into me earlier. The one I wanted to punch. Great. He rubbed his chest lightly at the memory of my kicking him. Judging by his tone, he wasn't too pleased to be talking to me either. If he wanted to get into it that was more than fine with me. However, after a moment of looking at him, I could tell he was going to back down.

"Is this everyone in your group?" I asked. The ragged survivors made their way towards us, forming a small circle. I only counted four in total out of the original five.

"We had one more but the Titans killed him," their leader confirmed. "Who are you?"

"Besides the guys who saved your ass?" Franc snorted. Oulo didn't even speak to that, his face said it all.

"We're members of Squad Levi. We saw your distress signals," I explained. "I'm Uma, that's Franc, and He's Oulo."

"I'm Darren, captain of this squad. This is Jazi Lynd, Tomas Mayer, and Jun Jossen. The man we lost was Merrick Hauser."

Darren looked over in the direction of his fallen comrade with a nervous expression. Merrick's body lay mangled among the Titan carcasses, making for a regrettable resting place. I could sense a strange foreboding in all the members of this group as they too stared at the body. This Merrick person clearly meant more to them than just another comrade. It left me wondering what his death meant for us when moving forwards with this group. I was quickly learning that mission was going to be more of a pain in my ass than I first thought.

"You said you were with Captain Levi? Where's Levi himself?" The youngest piped up. I believe she was called Jun. The one with the broken maneuvering gear.

"Not here." I said, before addressing the group. "If we're going to make it out of here, we're going to have to move to the Wall as quickly as possible. I doubt they will keep the gate open for much longer."

"Gather everything you need and lets get going." Oslo said, arms crossed over his chest as he surveyed the group. I couldn't blame him for looking down on them this time. Our survivors seemed pretty pathetic.

"Jun, you need to take Merrick's gear." I told her, moving her in the direction of the body. Jazi followed us like a protective mother bird. It somewhat reminded me of the way I'd follow Jodi. Perhaps not every one of these soldiers were hopeless, though I'd reserve my judgement for later.

"But..." Jun began in a tiny, frightened voice as she shrunk back from me.

"He's not using it anymore." Franc explained, trying his best not to be too gruff. The girl just stared at him with wide doe-like eyes.

"Jun, it's what Merrick would want." Jazi reasoned, placing a comforting hand on her shoulder.

"O-okay..." She nodded, edging closer to the body, tears falling from her eyes and streaking down her cheeks. It was clear she didn't believe her friend, but she started to remove Merrick's gear. Probably from fear of what might happen if she didn't have it. After all, she couldn't come with us if she didn't.

Some people just weren't meant to be soldiers, I thought. Regardless of someone's dedication or beliefs, those traits didn't mean they had what it takes to cut it in the army. There were some dispositions that cannot be taught in a person. They have to be born with them… the capability to hate, to be vicious, to kill. This poor girl didn't belong here. I'm not sure any of them did, really.

Once she had strapped the gear onto her belts, we were off. The whole group moved together as one in a tight V formation, clearing street after street. Thankfully, Darren had not argued his position in command and let me take the reigns instead. I suppose being a member of Squad Levi held quite a bit of clout, even among the other captains.

With every turn and narrow escape, we were making our way closer to the gate. If we could just hold out a little longer, with any luck, we'd make it. However, it was too much to hope for.

AN: FAVOR FOLLOW REVIEW! Thank you everyone for being patient with me. Battle Cry is a labor of love and as more and more chapters of the manga arise, I want to make sure this story is headed in the right direction. Also if there are any silly typos, I got acrylic nails (bane of my existence) and they're not fun or easy to type with. So forgive me for any mistakes. In the next chapter we really see Uma step up to her role as leader of the group and maybe (just maybe) she'll come to understand the job of someone in a position of command. Unfortunately she's saddled with a group of novices. So next chapter we find out if she can hack it as a leader, and see who survives the journey to the Wall.