Chapter 14
Rolf was not the kind of person to idly wait by for long. After having been woken from his well deserved rest after fighting Annie, he was quick to get up. Before he could do much else, Rolf was whisked away by his superiors who wanted to question and debrief him. They were...hard to swallow questions. Not only was he asked about the fight and given a standard debrief, he was asked what he knew of Annie, since they were on the same squad, graduated from the same class and well...the others had said the two were particularly close. This made things harder to answer, but he answered as honestly as he could...granted even though he explained things as clearly as possible, for some reason these nincompoops took longer to get everything than they should've.
After explaining that he hadn't gone to his superiors when Armin had confronted him because he didn't believe Armin, he had been let go. Most others might return to bed and food, but Rolf couldn't be wrapped up in his own mind anymore. He sought out his squad, and found them helping in the clean up, with the assistance of Mina claiming she didn't help before so she may as well help now.
But even though it was good to work and keep his mind off of things...this was just a lot. This was carnage he hadn't seen since the cleanup of Trost. The three-way battle through a crowded city did not leave a pretty or clean mess. Not only was there rubble, Rolf was more than happy to clear that out, but the bodies. Smashed, pulped, severed bodies. In Trost, the vast majority of those had been soldiers, the people who had sworn to defend with their lives while the people evacuated.
Here? It was almost the exact opposite. There had been no warning, no evacuations given. Most of the Military Police had been assigned elsewhere to guard Eren and the Survey Corps, while the few Survey Corp and Military Police who'd fought and died were concentrated where the brawl had started. Here? Fathers going to work to provide for their families. Mothers taking their children out to the market or to play in parks. People of the faith in their churches together. It was a peaceful, idyllic day. And here they were, smashed and crushed, snuffed out without a second thought. And every time Rolf had to pull one of their bodies out, the people he'd taken an oath to protect, he knew there was only one person to blame. The one he'd trained with, who he'd had been with, who supposedly few else knew more than, who was, as everyone else noticed, quite close to.
"I can't believe them." Rolf blinked out of his trance as he looked up from hearing the voice of his teammate, Hitch Dreyse. "The higher ups aren't even coming up with a convenient excuse...I bet if it weren't for the fact Rolf was on our team we'd never have been told a thing about this." She said in a disgusted tone. "All for the status quo I guess. Gotta keep that social order intact."
"Does it really surprise you. I bet they don't even have a plan ready now." Came his other teammate, Marlowe as he looked down at a severed limb he had picked up, thankful of the gloves and mask he wore, before setting the piece down. He looked up and saw all the devastation.
"Enough, why must you both gossip like hens on a nest?" Rolf finally said as he casually picked up a chunk of rubble so they could clean up the remains under it, carrying it to the side. "Regardless of the competence or lacking of the soft headed shells they possess, remember that wolf-in-sheeps-cuticle Annie-girl was the one who started all of this." He said, not noticing the crushed powder in his hands after setting it down.
"...I know I just...how? How could she have done this to us!" Hitch finally let out loud, before falling back a piece of rubble. "The selfish little...didn't even have the decency to let me never see a Titan." She bitterly mumbled.
"It's...hard to be reminded of that fact." Marlowe said as he looked up at Rolf standing by him. "Although...I feel you of all people know that."
"It's just so hard..." Came a quieter voice from away, that of Mina's. She looked away from them. "Annie is the one who did all of this...that she would have helped in Trost." She felt her hands gripping as she was staring down at a stuffed toy, one soaked in blood. "My whole squad...almost me...I was one of the few she'd occasionally let eat with her. I knew she was cold but...to be so cruel and heartless it just..."
She stopped as she felt a strong hand on her shoulder. Looking back, her eyes met Rolf's as he felt his breathing deepen.
"We were all fooled. Even when Rolf was brought the writing of her marks, Rolf failed to sense the wolf." He slowly said. "But...we stopped her. Now, she no longer has anywhere to flee to, and so Rolf promises the culling of the rewards will be swift and merciless, like the backhand of Rolf's great Nano!" He said with a determined look.
However, such proclamations were put on hold as they began hearing the bell ring. The whole squad looked up at the bell, before Rolf turned to look towards the gate.
"Oh great, now what is it?" Hitch grumbled as she stood up. However, the news they heard was something that caused all of their hearts to plummet. A horseman, one of the Survey Corp, swiftly galloped down the streets yelling at the top of his lungs.
"The Titans, they've breached Wall Rose!"
It hadn't been long before Rolf was quick to run towards where the Survey Corp had set up around Annie and Eren's Titan remains, cleaning up the mess as well as transporting Annie away. From the looks of the cloth on the walls, they were going to repair it as well, but that was unimportant.
What was important was that they had heard about the alarm. Rolf had dropped off his cleaning gear and had quickly grabbed his 3DM Gear from a bewildered quartermaster, causing his squad and Mina to do the same, albeit just as confused as he was.
"Rolf wait, what are you doing, we should be waiting for-" Boris Feulner started but was cut off as Rolf clearly wasn't listening to him.
"Rolf reporting, what is going on?" Rolf asked quickly at the officer in command here, some brown-haired woman wearing glasses who, if he remembered right was Hange Zoë.
"Huh? Well if it isn't the Human Titan himself." She said, picking up some notes and papers. "I have something to attend to, but it seems that somehow Titans have breached Wall Rose. I'm sure you all know the dire situation if these rumors are true, so the Survey Corp is fully mobilizing to work with the Garrison to find the breach, plug it, and destroy the Titans inside." She said as she looked up.
"Is that so? Then consider us first in the basket to aid!" Rolf quickly said, before Hitch looked over with wide eyes.
"What?!" She shouted, before Mina spoke up as well.
"I am with the Garrison, so it is my duty to assist as well." She quickly said, while Hitch stuttered with her words.
"Well I'm not your commanding officer, but I can't say we'll say no to the extra hands, especially a Titan's." She said with a grin before quickly wandering off.
Next to Rolf, the rest of his teammates were staring wide-eyed, and even Mina seemed to only now realize what she'd said.
"What was that?!" Hitch screamed as she got right in Rolf's face, glaring at him. "We had only just finished dealing with one Titan in the walls, and now you signed us up for more?! Are you really just desperate to get us killed or something?!"
It was then that Rolf reached down and grabbed the top of her head, tilting it so that she was forced to look back down the street that had been the day's battlefield.
"Rolf is sure lazy-as-a-bat Hitch sees the devastation caused, yes? Perhaps Hitch just doesn't care about seeing this inside, on a greater scale." He said in a...shockingly cold voice, one no one there had heard from the blue-haired son-of-a-shepherd.
"I..." She started, totally caught off guard, before pushing back and looking up at him. "I mean...we have our orders. Our COs will be wanting us to stay and-"
"So?" Came the voice from Marlowe, standing next to Rolf. "We already know how well they're handling the situation as is. And seriously, do you think they'll care that much? We've been in charge of ourselves practically ever since this unit was formed." He said. "I'm with Rolf. We can help prevent things before they get worse."
After hearing that, Boris nodded slowly and went to stand by the two, with Mina shortly after. One by one the rest of the squad moved to stand with them, leaving Hitch alone. She was seething as she realized how alone she was in this.
"...I hate this, and I hate all of you!" She snapped, before storming over to them.
The group had quickly been allowed to join the Survey Corp when meeting the right officers, and had been quick to help with packing supplies on the carts, something Rolf was instrumental to, even making up for the gawking at his casual strength.
Still, by the time everything had been set up and the Survey Corp and Rolf's squad had been given horses, the sun had set and it was well dark. They were given torches that were lit. The leader of the Survey Corp, Commander Erwin Smith, briefly gave their orders. Rolf looked to either side of him, seeing that Mina and Hitch were to one side, and Marlowe and Boris on the other, with the rest of the squad behind him. They were a rookie team for sure, but one made up of some of the best of the year's recruits, meticulously drilled over the last few months, and coming hot after helping defeated the Female Titan...and they were his squad. They would redeem themselves for the actions of the traitor among them, and Rolf was eager to sate the burning vengeance in his warrior chest.
The gate began to raise, and soon the horses and carts stormed out, Rolf urging his onwards, kicking his heels. They all stormed out, the number of soldiers' torches keeping things bright in the dark, overcast night.
As they rode out along the empty rode, it was surprisingly quiet. There was still the large number of horses and carts thundering on the ground, so it wasn't quiet at all, but there was no talking, no murmuring about what they were riding towards. Looking around, Rolf could see these were people who had also been in this situation before, riding together towards doom. He could respect that passion.
As they rode out further, they kept at a decent pace but were no longer going at full speed. There was a town up ahead that they were going to stop at, try to hear the situation there as well as formulate a plan of attack.
"Well...guess we're really doing this. I worked hard back in training to keep myself from ever having to do this." Hitch said next to Rolf, shaking her head. Looking up she saw him. "You know as we were packing, I heard from some people about the unique situation about her. Apparently any sort of cut or damage would be enough to turn her into...that." She said, causing Mina and Rolf to look back.
"So wait...how do you contain her then? If any little cut could essentially free her then..." Marlowe pondered.
"You'd have to fully restrain her." Boris said, shaking his head. "Fully bound and gagged. Held tight to minimize movements...but at the same time not so tight that rubbing against the restraints could cut her. And just to be safe, you'd have to have her be under constant surveillance, plus-"
"Rolf has heard enough." Rolf snapped quickly, causing Boris to stop.
"...Right yeah. Sorry I just...this all seems a bit too easy huh? First she comes out of hiding and attacks us all, then Titans breach Wall Rose? And like we said before about the chances of there being more like her then what if they know we have her imprisoned?"
"Not only that, none of us would've expected her." Marlowe said, his eyes narrowing. "If there's more of them, and just one could fool us like this-"
"Enough!" Rolf snapped again, before taking a deep breath. "Rolf sees the lights of the town forward in front."
They soon arrived in Ehrmich District, dismounting as Rolf walked in. They could see the mass amount of refugees pouring into the district as well, people from the wall and the countryside. Farmers, hunters, the many people who were driven out by fear of the Titans. It was yet another reminder of why they had to do this.
"...Well...I guess I won't be too annoyed now to see a bunch of dead Titans." Hitch softly said as she looked at them. A few people glanced towards the soldiers as they made their way to the resupply area, but most simply looked down at the ground, safe but having lost everything.
He group were getting set up, laying out supplies and resting a little between working. They were going to be leaving the carts and most of the supplies here, so they were preparing to go into combat. However, as Rolf turned around to pull off several baskets of potatoes, he turned and felt someone crash into him, stumbling the young man.
"Hello? Who disturbs Rolf while Rolf is on a...fruit-of-the-Earth-girl?" Rolf said, tilting his head as he looked down and saw that the person laid out before him was indeed Sasha Blouse. He hadn't seen her since the night they had separated ways to their various units. It'd been a while, so he hadn't expected to see his fellow carnivorous connoisseur there.
"Oh my-Rolf?" She said with a surprise. "What're you doing here, I thought this was a Survey Corp mission." She asked surprised, a rolled up paper in her hand.
"As they say, a wink may as well be a nod to a blind sow." Rolf said, causing Sasha to blink a few times.
"...Right, never mind, no gift horses and their mouths, and if anyone is here I am glad to see you here to help." She said. "Oh right, I need to see Hange right now! I have an urgent message!" She said.
"Why would a horse's gift be in their mouth?" Rolf asked, before pointing over to the building behind him. "Hange and Eren-boy have been in there for a while with some important who-do's of society." He said.
"Thanks!" She said, dashing off by him.
In all of this chaos, it was nice that someone familiar like Sasha had managed to make it and some more familiar faces would be with him on this mission.
After returning to his work, he saw that everyone in the building was coming out, with the squad leader reading the note. Rolf noticed this and walked over, as she came out of her trance a bit.
"I finally got these background reports for Annie Leonhardt." She said, causing a sharp sting within Rolf's chest. "In these reports, I have the names of the two other cadets who came from her region." She said, before looking up at them. "Reiner Braun and Bertholdt Hoover."
Seeing everyone's expression change and Sasha audibly gasp at that, Rolf took a second to realize what it meant. Annie had already been lying about it, and he'd figured there were more of these Titans like her and Eren...and only Reiner and Bertholdt supposedly came from the same region? He could feel his knees shake a bit as he suddenly found it difficult to stand. However it only got worse from there.
Hange continued to explain that due to the chaos back then, their information on the two was unreliable, however during the Survey Corp mission several days back, they'd been misinformed on the position of Eren in their formation during the expedition. A fact that Armin was swift to point out that the area they had been told he was in was the first to be attacked by Annie.
It didn't take much to put those facts together, and this only made the simple son-of-a-shepherd grip his hands, and he could see that Eren was waking this even worse than he was.
"Where are you going with this Armin? You can't just accuse-!" Eren started, getting right into Armin's face, before he was interrupted.
"I totally agree." Hange said, surprising Rolf. "Coincidence doesn't mean there's a relationship. However, I am curious how the two interacted with Annie. So tell me."
After Armin and Eren both mentioned that they were never friendly, Rolf spoke up.
"Rolf agrees...there was no comradeship between them, and when Rolf asked about days of bygone times, Annie never spoke of the two." He said, now desperately hoping that this was a terrible coincidence. He knew people who were "closer" to her then than those two. Yet at the same time...he recognized that desperate feeling in his gut. He wasn't alone, as Eren spoke up.
"Guys, what are we saying?" Eren desperately said, trying to dismiss this all. Rolf wanted to believe him. Of them all, Rolf saw the most in him. Strong, tough, clearly a most honorable type. He was always one of the most eager to listen to Rolf's stories and the thought that he was just like...just like...Annie…
That's when Armin seemed to be coming around, mentioning a story during the ill-fated venture where he'd almost been killed by her. However saying that triggered something it seemed, as he started talking about how right after that had happened, Annie had changed course and went straight for Eren.
"So...did he seem unusually interested in Eren's location?" Hange asked, thinking on this, and Armin's facial expression told Rolf the answer to that, feeling his heart plummet.
Armin had only even mentioned the location after Reiner had asked for it...before he'd supposedly been almost killed. Now deep into this, Armin began mentioning how the Female Titan had stared at her palm, as if something had been carved there like a message. There was a moment's hesitation before Eren spoke up again.
"What's wrong with all of you? The man's been with us since the beginning!" He started, before Rolf interrupted him.
"What about Annie-girl, yes? Rolf had never found someone more trustworthy like his Nana always said, yet we all saw how she was." Rolf said, sick in the back of his mind that he was now thinking this way.
"That's dif-" Eren started, before Hange interrupted the two.
"Enough!" She said firmly, before looking at everyone. "If any of you cross paths with the pair, don't give any indication of what we discussed." She ordered. "And under no circumstances are you to broach the subject of Annie Leonhardt in their company. Before we can ascertain if they're co-conspirators, we must find, lure, and contain them underground." She said. "Is that clear."
"Yes, ma'am." Everyone present said, before she dismissed them.
Rolf wandered back slowly to the others, where he saw Mina.
"Rolf? Where were you and...hey what happened?" She asked, looking up and seeing the worry in his eyes, as Rolf shook it off.
"Rolf...Rolf cannot say, but Rolf is worried Mina." He said, causing Mina to feel some as well.
"Are...are you okay?"
"No...but Rolf knows we must prepare now. Rolf heard we are moving soon, so back at it." He said, walking over to where his horse was tied up.
"So what's the plan then?" Marlowe asked as he saddled on his horse, as Rolf rode over.
"A fortress, a Castle Utgard, has a tower nearby to do a cow-hide scan of the mortar and pastel." Rolf said, as the troops began to form up again, leaving the carts behind. Once in a slightly looser formation than before, they all began to ride out at breakneck speeds. The sun was starting to rise, and their advantage against the Titans being more sluggish at night would vanish soon.
However, as they rode out, Rolf could see the destination in the distance. And it looked very odd, with many towers that he'd never seen on any of the castles in the Old Country during his youth...and it seemed a lot was in ruin on the ground. That's when he realized the truth, just as those "towers" began to move.
"Titans!" Rolf shouted back at the rest of the group, who kept riding.
"The fact that they've stayed there means there's probably survivors!" Hange shouted. "Full forward, those to the front are to engage first! Mikasa, Rolf, that goes double for you!" She shouted, and looked back at them.
Mikasa swiftly nodded and leaped off her horse, flashing away at swift speeds. Rolf looked back to Mina, Marlowe, and the rest of the squad.
"Let us squeeze an orange rind in the eyes of these lumbering beasts!" Rolf shouted to his squad before leaping off and firing his hooks.
Rolf could feel the rush of air and wind beat against his face as he flew ahead. Mikasa was always the fastest of them, and here she had come quickly as well, cleaving through a titan that threatened one of the people who...looked oddly familiar, but he was too busy with what was ahead to focus on that. Behind him, many others were zooming ahead.
Zipping behind him, Rolf saw Mina come close. Grinning, he reached out and grabbed her arm before tossing her up higher as he approached one of them. Taking it in stride, she angled herself as Rolf flew towards it and slammed his fists into it's head. As it tumbled forward, Mina was already zipping down with her blades drawn, cleaving into it's nape.
Rolf was quick to kick off it's back and launch himself at another one. Barreling head first into its chest, he stunned it and knocked it back, allowing Mina to land on its head with no trouble and plunge her swords into its eyes. Rolf was quick to swing around, and buried the blades into the weak spot, sending them all down. Rolf grinned at Mina, who was panting but looked accomplished as well. Looking back, the rest of the titans stood no chance, swiftly falling by the swift, skilled, and many attacks by the Survey Corp. It was barely a couple minutes before they were all done.
Looking over to the familiar person, Rolf saw even more running towards him. Connie...and Reiner and Bertholdt. Rolf forced his smile to stay on as he waved at them, trying to focus on the surely innocent Connie, who was looking relieved to see them. They had rushed over to Eren who had landed on his bottom in the rubble.
The cleanup had gone smoothly, with Eren falling down being the worst injury they had. Sadly, the same could not be said of the survivors. The rookies, Connie, Krista, Ymir, Reiner, and Bertholdt had all survived...but their escorts had been slaughtered to the last. However, that news paled in comparison to the next bit. The only reason they'd survived this long, had to do with the fact that Ymir was laying there unconscious, missing part of her arm, part of her leg, a chunk in her abdomen...yet was fully going to live.
"So...let Rolf get this through his noodle head. Ymir-girl, is...a Titan?" He asked, eyes wide as the group was looking over to see Krista huddling by her with Hange there.
"Yeah, as hard to believe as it is. She wasn't near as big as Eren or the Female Titan but she was vicious and...she saved us." Connie said.
"Well...what now?" Reiner said, stepping forward as he looked down at them, something hard to read in his eyes as he stared at Ymir.
"...Rolf is not sure." Rolf said as he looked up at Reiner, now fully lost on what to do. His already complicated life just took an ugly, complicated turn.
Author's Note:
Soooooooo...yeah almost another year without an update...I'll say getting two different jobs tends to do that, plus I ran into the whole slippery slope I always do, where finishing one chapter gives me the impression I can wait some time before the next update. But hey, I'd say that at least I had a rather appropriate placement for that little hiatus.
Anyways, we start off now the Clash of the Titans arc, one that I am very excited for. A lot of my inspiration for later events, ones that totally changed the direction of the fic after I started the first few chapters come in this arc, and I am excited to show them off.
