In the chaos of attempting to retake Trost, Jean joined up with some of his comrades to draw the Titans. Connie was drawing a Titan to himself but the rods on his 3DMG failed and the Titan's hand was coming closer and closer to grasping Connie when Jean came up behind and shot his rod out at the Titan's hand, cutting it and diverting it's attention from Connie. The Titan turned it's body towards Jean.
"Jean!" Connie yelled in concern.
"Get outta there!" Was all Jean could yell back before he had to run away from the Titan that was now chasing him.
"I'm sick of having people die because of me!" Jean thought to himself as he tried to keep his balance from the heavy footsteps that were following behind him.
Crash! Jean looked behind him to see a large hole the ground with the Titan's hand in it. Only a few moments ago where Jean was. Satisfied with how well he drew the Titan to the wall, Jean flashed the Titan in it's stupidity a grin and pulled the trigger on his blade. Click. Click. Click. The triggers aren't working.
"Damn... Of all times for a malfunction!" Jean screamed internally. He continued pulling on the trigger only to hear the same thing. Click. Click. Click. Jean was so concentrated on getting the trigger to work again, he was oblivious to hearing the Titan walking up behind him. Jean turned his back to only see a giant hand reaching for him. He quickly dodged the hand that was crashing down on him and began to flee.
Jean's heart was racing, his leg throbbing in pain. It wouldn't be much longer before it would give out. Jean had to get to the wall fast. The air rushing through is face made it cool from hitting the sweat that was covering it.
"I can do this!" Jean yelled. The distance between the Titan pursuing Jean was large enough for Jean to run past a corner and hide inside a house in a desperate attempt to get away. Jean rested against the wall, struggling to catch his breath. Everything hurt. His lungs, his leg. He was frustrated.
"Dammit... I can't be the one holding everyone back!" Jean leaned towards the window to see the Titan that was chasing him earlier was walking near the house. He turned his attention to the front of the house to see a corpse of a comrade crushed by a boulder. But the 3DMG still intact and untouched by the boulder.
"Isn't there any way?..." Jean thought to himself. And then he thought of a plan to get him out of the house and on the wall. Jean watched the Titan, walking closer and closer to the house. He ducked when it walked right near the window, afraid it would notice him but it kept on walking forward. Making the same sound every Titan makes. Thump. Thump. Thump. When the Titan walked far enough away from the house, Jean removed his own 3DMG and quietly and quickly dashed out of the house to the fallen comrade and hassled to get their 3DMG off of them.
"I can't wait till they're gone! No way!" Jean tugged at the belt but it wouldn't budge. Jean was starting to panic. A Titan could come at any moment to eat him. He didn't have time to dally around.
"Crap..." Jean screamed inside his head. His hands were getting shaky, his heart was pounding. He pulled and tugged on the belt but it wouldn't undo itself.
"What's wrong with it? Dammit... Not now!" He yelled to himself. He started to feel the familiar footsteps of death creeping up behind him again.
"Jean, Calm down!" Jean turned around to see Marco fly in front of the Titan's face and divert it's attention as Jean did with Connie earlier.
"Marco? What are you doing?" Jean questioned Marco's risky action. Marco landed gracefully on the ground and began running away, bringing the Titan away from Jean. Jean would thank Marco later. Right now he had to get back to taking this damn belt off. He fiddled and tugged at it more and more, trying to undo the all of the buckles and straps. He finally undid the last buckle and pulled the 3DMG off of his comrade swiftly and hurriedly strapped it onto himself.
With another Titan walking towards Jean, he quickly adjusted the last strap and ran towards the Titan and pulled the trigger. Only it felt impossible to even pull. Jean snaked through the Titan's fingers and fell to the ground.
"Damn, why is the trigger so hard to pull?" He asked himself as he inspected it. Jean looked behind him to see the Titan getting closer and closer, only a few feet away from him. Jean scurried to get up from the floor but the Titan's hand was closing in.
"Jean!" He heard a voice call from his side before he saw Connie fly into the face of the Titan. And unlike Marco, Connie didn't evade the Titan's head, but instead slammed his body into it before flinging himself to the top of a building.
"What are you doing?!" Jean yelled confusingly.
"Look who's talking? Hurry and get out of here!" Connie yelled before he moved to swiftly dodge the Titan's hand that smashed the roof he was standing on. The Titan turned it's attention back to Jean and he quickly made a dash away from it. He pulled the trigger on his blades as hard he could and the rods shot out. He swung himself forward in time to escape the Titan that lunged it's body at him, nearly crushing him.
Jean surged through the city at full speed. He had reached his limit. He moved at great speeds and soared through the air when he finally latched his rods onto the safety of the wall. He landed more gracefully this time surprisingly by doing a roll and avoiding putting weight on his bad leg. Annie, Marco, and Connie landed shortly after him. Jean stared at Connie in confusion and anger. He didn't understand why his comrades were going to such great lengths to save him and it angered him that people were risking their lives for him.
"You're insane!" He yelled at Connie.
"You're the crazy one! I can't believe I survived that..." Connie retorted back. They all took a moment to take a breath.
"Look at that." Annie blurted out. They all turned their gaze towards the city to see a Titan carrying a giant boulder. It was Eren.