After about a minute or so, with a number of Titans being killed already in that short amount of time, Lynne returned to the cadets to bring them some bad news. "Titans are in the castle. Get below and improvise some sort of barricade. Be careful. Retreat back up here as a last resort. Now, go!"
"Got it!" The rookies all responded with, rushing past a pained Lukas and down the stairs.
"Seriously?" He asked as he moved his hand off the side of his head, now stained with blood. "It's like I'm not even here."
Reiner was the first one down the stairs, grabbing a torch and racing towards the first door. "I'll go see how far they've gotten in. You find something to board up the entrance, whatever isn't nailed down!"
"Reiner, wait." Krista protested.
"What the hell?" Connie added in.
"Hang on, we're coming! Wait up." Bertholdt called out, having pushed passed the others to get down quicker.
"Are you kidding me? Why's he always gotta be the first one to step up? Give us a break." Connie groaned in frustration.
"I know." Bertholdt agreed. "It's a habit of his."
Carefully, Reiner pushed open the first door, and he saw that it was empty, that no Titans had made it this far into the castle yet, so he went through and down the next set of stairs.
Meanwhile, Lukas was the last one down the stairs, and instead of following the others, he turned to open the door on this floor, and inside the room was an old cannon, and if the worst happened, they could push it down the stairs.
"Hey, you three." He spoke up to Krista, Connie and Ymir. "Come help me with this." He gestured them over, and as they were pushing it towards the stairs, they heard Reiner shout.
"They're in the tower!" They heard him yell. "Get down here and help me!"
"Push harder!" Lukas told them, getting a move on in getting the cannon in place at the door to the stairs.
"Guys, heads up!" Lukas shouted down below once the cannon was in position on the staircase.
"Where'd you find-" Reiner shook that question off. "Good work. Is there ammo?"
"Yeah right, I wish." He responded. "We've got another idea. Get out of the way!"
The four of them pushed the cannon forwards, and down the stairs it went, accelerating at a ridiculous speed, with Reiner and Bertholdt just managing to jump out of the way before the cannon smashed into the Titan that had broken the door, blocking the door and burying the Titan as well.
"May miracles never cease." Ymir spoke as she and the others cautiously came down the stairs.
"Lukas, you're bleeding." Krista had finally noticed, the others also taking note. "Are you alright."
"Yeah, it's just a cut." He reached up, feeling blood still coming out the wound, before wiping his hand on his pants, luckily they weren't white. "I'll be fine."
"Are you sure?" Krista continued to pry, reaching up to have a look. "It looks like you split your head open."
"Trust me, I'll be fine." He grabbed her arm and lowered it away from his head. "The bleeding will stop soon enough."
"What now?" Connie asked, pulling out a small knife he managed to procure. "A knife's the only thing we've got. Should I cut the nape or-"
"Don't risk it." Reiner stopped him. "Get ground, you'll get hurt."
"Then I think it's best we head upstairs for now." Krista advised. "We have no way of knowing if that's the only one that got in." She gasped when she saw another Titan get through the barricade, which was heading directly towards a totally oblivious Connie. "Connie!"
Reiner shoved Connie out of the way of the Titan, but the result was the Titan bit down on his forearm, digging its teeth into his flesh and breaking the bone in his arm.
"Reiner! No!"
They all watched as Reiner squatted down and lifted the small Titan onto his shoulders, a massive amount of effort being exerted as he slowly walked towards the window, knowing what needed to be done to save everyone else.
"Holy... what are you doing?" Connie asked. "Wait, are you... are you going to jump out the window with it?"
"We've got no other choice." He responded through gritted teeth, about to do exactly that.
"No, wait," Catching up quickly, Connie slammed his knife into the jaw of the Titan. "Give me a second. I think I can slice its jaw open." After a few seconds, he managed to cut the nerve that kept the jaw together. "There!"
Now free, Reiner stumbled back clutching his arm in pain, but it wasn't over as the Titan turned to face them once again, though that was put a stop to quickly by Ymir and Bertholdt who swiftly kicked the Titan out the window.
With that now over, they moved back up the stairs and through the door, barricading it with anything they could find to keep the Titans at bay for as long as possible.
Krista was attending to Reiner's injury first, while she told Lukas to sit down and wait for her to have a look at him, not taking no for an answer this time.
"What do we do if another one gets in?" Connie asked the question. "Not like we'll find another cannon lying around, right?"
"Probably." Bertholdt answered. "Lightning won't strike twice."
Opening the bottle of alcohol Gelgar had found, Krista poured it onto Reiner's open wound, eliciting a pained yell from the tall blonde. "Sorry. I know it stings. Plus the bone is most likely fractured."
"Of course." Reiner replied through clenched teeth. "That's just how my luck runs."
"We'll need a splint and a bandage, easy enough." Krista stood up and started ripping her skirt, that went down to her ankles but now she ripped it to just above her knees.
"The cloth's filthy." Krista told him as she kneeled next to him, tying the cloth around his arm and into a sling. "I haven't been able to clean it in forever. I'm sorry."
"No sweat. It does the job for me." Reiner responded, trying his hardest to keep his cool.
"Now for you Lukas." Krista turned her attention to the older male sat with him, the blood having become dried and sticky as opposed to a runny liquid now. "This will sting a little." She told him as she poured what was left of the alcohol onto the wound onto the right side of his head, just up and to the right of his ear.
He hissed in pain, but he didn't complain too much, she was just doing what she thought was best. "Although, I don't have anything else I can use to bandage your head." Krista sounded a little down. "Unless you'd let me cut one of your sleeves off."
"Yeah, sure." He wasn't going to complain about that, and with Connie giving her the knife for a brief moment, she sliced through the fabric of his right arm, cutting his sleeve off, and once it was, she sliced it right down the middle and handed Connie the knife back.
The piece of his shirt turned bandage was rather crudely wrapped around his head by Krista, and it was a bit tight around his skull, but it was stopping the blood pouring down his face. Besides, the shirt was already covered in blood, sweat and dust, it was probably ruined anyway.
"Anyway, sorry about all that, man. Seems like you're always having to save my ass. You and everyone else. Even Annie put herself on the line for me once. I owe you a lot." Connie thanked Reiner.
"It's fine." Reiner waved it off. "It's what soldiers do."
"I don't know." Connie didn't seem convinced. "I doubt I could ever be that courageous." He then turned to Bertholdt. "Has he always been like this? The self sacrificing type?"
"No, he's changed a bit." Bertholdt replied. "In the old days, Reiner was more of a warrior."
"A warrior?" Reiner asked, looking genuinely confused. "I'm not quite sure I understand."
"Anyway..." Ymir spoke up before Lukas could actually begin to process what Reiner just said. "Let's scrounge around for some stuff we can use. If I have to die, I'd rather not do it because we're being half-assed." She then peered out the window. "Oh wow."
Outside the window, most of the Titans were dead, only a few remained.
"Well, all right, then. Say what you will, the Scouts get shit done." Ymir said.
After a few moments, a faint whistle could be heard, nobody knew where it was coming from, and Ymir thought it was Connie to begin with, but after a boulder landed outside and crushed their horses, followed by another that struck the top of the tower, they all rushed up the stairs to see what had happened.
"They're dead." Gelgar said as he and Nanaba laid down the bodies of their comrades as the recruits burst through the door. "Died instantly."
"He did this." Connie growled. "The one who made a beeline for the wall." He rushed to the edge of the tower. "That son of a bitch is randomly-" He gasped as he saw another horde of Titans emerging from the forest, a lot more than before. "Heads up, guys. We've got twice as many as before!"
"You're kidding." Gelgar responded in an exasperated tone.
"It's like they're timing their attacks as some part of large strategy." Nanaba noted. "This isn't random at all, we're being toyed with."
The Beast Titan sat atop the wall let out a huge roar in their direction, and just as it did, the Titans began attacking the tower yet again, with only two Scouts left and little gas and blades, there was very little chance they'd survive this second wave of attacks.
As it happened, Nanaba and Gelgar didn't last fifteen minutes before they were being eaten by the Titans down below, the last line of defence now gone, there was no way they'd be able to survive this now.
It got to the point where Ymir had a go at Krista for trying to kill herself using the guise of going down as a hero as some way to make her death remembered more. Ymir knew that Krista was trying to become a martyr, for whatever reason, but when Ymir called her out for it, it actually made a lot of sense to those that knew her better.
"Hey come on Ymir, this isn't the time for you to have a go at people." Lukas spoke up. "We're not exactly in a comfortable position here."
"Damn it all." Ymir sighed. "Connie, where's that knife you had?"
"Huh? Why?"
"Just give it here." Ymir told him to hand it over.
"Fine, whatever." He sighed and handed it over without much of a fuss.
"You're very sweet, thanks." She patted him on the head.
"What are you gonna do with that?" Lukas asked, just a tad concerned that she'd try and stab him, she didn't seem like it was beneath her to do so.
"Not much." She replied, a little smile growing on her face. "Just gonna give them a little hell."
"Okay, you got a plan for that?" He asked.
"If I do, we'll learn what it is together." That didn't inspire confidence in anybody.
"Krista..." Ymir approached the small blonde. "Listen to me, I realise you've probably forgotten... but, since were facing the end, try to think back." She pleaded. "Remember that oath that we made on the snowy mountain. I have no business telling you how to live your life, it's not my place." She said, the sun starting to rise in the distance. "So when you break it down, this is really just more of a hope."
"Krista... live a life you can be proud of." Ymir checked the knife was still sharp. "Never forget the promise we made." Ymir then broke into a sprint, running and jumping off the tower.
"YMIR!" Krista screamed as she disappeared from sight.
A bright light appeared from below them, and they all rushed over to look, and what was below them was shocking. Ymir had transformed into a Titan, and was clawing, biting and killing some of the Titans below.
"Talk to me..." Connie pleaded. "Please tell me this is all a dream."
"It... it was her that day." Reiner's eyes were wide in horror, remembering very vividly what had happened the last time they saw that Titan.
"Is she...?"Lukas asked, directed at Reiner and Bertholdt, he wanted to be sure.
"She's the one..." Bertholdt whispered, equally as mortified.
So that settled it, she was the Jaws Titan, but the more he looked, he wasn't convinced she even remotely knew how to use the power, there was no claws and no jaw that could bite through anything.
He moved forward next to Krista, who was leaning over the edge of the tower watching Ymir in action, but as she dodged a Titan, it went straight into the tower and shook the whole building.
The impact from the Titan sent Krista over the edge, and she would've fallen to what would have been her death if he hadn't been so close and caught her by the ankle, but when he reached over to pull her back over, his hand brushed against her leg, memories flashed through his mind and he froze in place, keeping Krista dangling over the edge.
He saw a flash of a girl, with black hair and a straw hat on, she was smiling, but as soon as she appeared she was gone. The next flash was of a blonde woman, reading a book while sitting at a tree, and whoever he was looking through jumped on her, but was thrown away like a piece of trash. The last flash was in the dead of night, there was a man, overweight and wearing a jacket, and when he saw his face... it was Rod Reiss, he remembered that face from the cavern.
"Hey man! You alright?" Connie asked, trying to help Krista up while Lukas still had a hold of her. "Are you gonna help her up or not?"
"Y-Yeah... sorry." He snapped out of it, helping pull her back up to the roof of the tower. "I don't know what happened, sorry." He apologised.
"It's okay." Krista assured him.
Reiner was quick to ask Krista if she had known about Ymir and her secret, saying that how couldn't she have known since they were so close. Krista denied knowing anything about it, that Ymir had never talked to her about it.
"Well... it's possible she didn't know." Connie offered up. "Eren was caught off guard. He had no clue until he transformed." He reminded them. "Then again, Ymir did seem to have a plan."
"Wait a minute." Krista stopped Connie there. "Are you saying Ymir's a threat?"
"Maybe." Connie replied. "It's a hell of a power to hide. How she'll use it is anyone's guess."
"For all we know she could've been on their side all along." Bertholt spoke up.
"Let's not jump to conclusions just yet." Lukas tried to mediate the conversation. "She hasn't tried to run yet, she's still killing the Titans down there."
Then, Ymir's legs were grabbed by a Titan, she tried to bite it to get away, but only for a short while as another Titan grabbed her legs, while Ymir clung onto the tower for dear life. She held on so hard that the stones began to pull out, until she let go before they came out altogether.
"Woah! What is she doing?" Connie asked, as shocked as everyone else. "Oh come on, you're kidding right? She's worried about the tower falling down?"
"Exactly." Krista confirmed. "She didn't have to stay, she could've chosen to escape. Nothing's keeping her here, and still, she's fighting. It's us!" She realised as she watched Ymir struggle against all the Titans. "She's risking her life for us!"
Krista whispered to herself before she climbed into the battlements, standing on the edge of the tower. "Don't you die on me!" She yelled down to her. "Not in a hobbel like this, damn you!"
"Don't stand there." Lukas had to grab onto her to make sure she didn't fall. "You're gonna fall standing there like that."
"You wanna be the hero all of a sudden?!" Krista ignored his warnings, yelling at Ymir who was trying to fight multiple Titans at once. "Hoping to go out in a blaze of glory?! Don't make me laugh! Too late to think about heaven now! You're a selfish bitch and you know it!"
"You'll die protecting this stupid tower!" She shouted. "Tear it to pieces! Just be yourself!"
Was this girl insane? She was going to get them all killed at this rate.
It seemed Ymir liked the idea, because she started tearing the tower to pieces, ripping out pieces of stone all around the tower and throwing them at the Titans, circling the tower until it began to give way.
"Yeah! Atta' girl!" Krista threw her arms into the air in celebration.
As the tower was toppling over, Ymir appeared at the top, staring at them all through her Titan. "Wanna lift?" She asked. "Grab on tight."
The six of them couldn't get to Ymir quick enough, each of them grabbing a fistful of her hair while she rode the tower down on top of the Titans with everyone hanging on for their lives.
Right before the tower hit the floor, Ymir jumped off to the side and landed near one of the outer walls, letting them all down onto the ground.
"Does anyone else have a headache? Or is that just me?" Lukas asked, clutching at the makeshift bandage on his head.
The rubble didn't keep the Titans down for long, and there was still a lot of them left, so Ymir scampered off to deal with them, but after the first one, she was grabbed by a taller Titan and her head smashed against a piece of the broken tower, and once she was out, all the Titans in the area surrounded her and began trying to eat their way through her Titan.
Krista was the first to move, sliding down a nearby stone and taking off, running in the direction of Ymir.
"Krista wait!" Connie shouted at her to stop.
"What the fuck is wrong with your cadet class?" Lukas asked aloud, the first one down the rock and after her, he realised she was special now, and he needed her alive. "My class was weird, but they didn't run at Titans every opportunity they got."
"Ymir! Don't do this to me!" She yelled, almost tripping as she ran but quickly recovered. "Damnit! We had a deal, remember?! Hold on! I still haven't told you my name! I promised you!"
As she moved forward, a hand reached around the stone in front of her, and a Titan poked its head around the corner, a three metre one, but with its eyes set on Krista.
It reached for her and time seemed to slow down, Reiner, Connie and Bertholdt were some way away, the only one near enough her was Lukas, who was really beginning to regret the decision to be the first after her instead of pushing someone else forward. His hand reacher her shoulder as he caught up, pulling her back and to the side of him as he stepped where she had been.
Luckily for him, the Titan was now dead, having just been killed by someone with ODM Gear, perched atop the stone in front of them.
"All of you get back." It was Mikasa who had arrived, hopefully with backup. "Let us handle this." And right on cue, the Scouts were swarming the area, slicing the Titans that were still standing.
Suddenly, another sharp pain shot through his head, this time on the left, so it definitely wasn't the head wound he was deliberately keeping open doing this to him.
"Someone please tell me that I'm going pale from blood loss." He pleaded with the other three who had arrived. "I've got this killer headache, I think I need to lie down for a bit."
"Uh... you do look a little pale." Connie told him. "But I don't think you'd want to lie down here and now, the Titans aren't even dead yet."
"Minuscule details in the grand scheme of things." He waved off Connie's advice. "We've got backup here now, they'll mop up."
He felt the headache once again, this time it was all over his head, it was a searing pain this time, far worse than anything he'd endured in his life.
"I'm definitely going to need to lie down-" The last thing he remembered before everything went black was that he fell forward and Connie had just about caught him before he hit the floor.
Lukas shot up from his sleeping position, the last thing he remembered was Connie catching him before he fell, but why couldn't he remembered what had happened after that. He felt like he should, but his mind was blank, like nothing had ever happened while he was out cold.
Reaching up to rub his head, he took note that he had actually bandages wrapped around his head now, having replaced the piece of his shirt that was ripped off.
"How long was I out for?" He thought, now taking in his surroundings, he was on top of the wall, and it seemed to be the late morning or early afternoon now. Though when he looked left, his eyes widened erratically.
Lined up on the wall were the bruised and burned bodies of a number of Scouts who were also out cold, though they were still moving somewhat.
Turning to his right, he saw Krista attending to somebody else's injuries about twenty metres down the wall. Standing up from his sitting position, he made his way over to her.
"Hey Krista, what happened here?" He asked the girl, who had just finished up. "How long was I out for."
"About six hours or so." Krista told him, his eyes widening at that revelation. "The Armoured and Colossal Titans appeared again." She sounded a lot more depressed than earlier, had Ymir died? "They kidnapped Eren and Ymir and made a run for it, that was about five hours ago." She told him.
"Oh god..." He rubbed his head. "Did anyone go after them?"
"No." She shook her head. "All the horses are on the wrong side of the wall. Some Garrison forces showed up not long ago, now we're just waiting for Commander Erwin and the rest of the Scouts to arrive."
"...Shit..." He swore. "That is really bad... are you alright?"
"No, Ymir's been kidnapped." Krista responded with. "I'm going to get her back from them." Her resolve wasn't to be questioned when it mattered, that was for certain. "And my name isn't Krista anymore, it's Historia."
"Right, well then." He held his hand out for her to shake. "It's nice to meet you Historia."
She wasn't expecting that from him, and she was very reluctant to touch him after what had happened between them in the tower, she too had seen flashes, what seemed to be someone else's memories if she was right. The day just kept on getting weirder.
"Thank you." She eventually did shake his hand, half expecting it to happen again, but nothing did. "That... it means a lot."
"No problem." He smiled sincerely. "How many people did we lose?" He turned the subject to something far more grim. "How's everyone else that was with us? Are they alright?" He was asking the right questions to not seem suspicious.
"Connie's fine I think, physically at least." She turned away, a defeated posture coming upon her as she spoke the next part. "They... they said that Reiner and Bertholdt were the Armoured and Colossal Titans."
"Oh..." He put on a shocked face. "All this time..."
"They took Ymir with them." Krista, no, Historia uttered again. "When Commander Erwin arrives, I'm going to get her back. Whatever it takes."
"You have a lot more guts that I did at your age." He told her, spotting what looked to be horses riding on top of the wall in the distance. "Just be sure that they don't end up all over the ground out there."
A weak groan came out from behind them, where Moblit, one of the Scouts had managed to struggle to his feet. "Commander Erwin, and... wait, those are MP's."
Armin, who had been nearby then spoke up. "Never thought they ride on top of the Wall."
"Probably the quickest route here." Historia figured.
"For the record, I know you won't, but I'd much rather prefer it if you stayed behind." Armin said to her.
"No." She gave him the expected answer. "Not happening. Nice try, though. As long as Ymir's in danger, nothing will keep me here. Sorry, but that's just how it is."
"If you run into trouble out there, just scream, I'm sure someone will come running quick enough... what?" It seemed the two blondes didn't like his attempt at a joke.
"Whatever the case may be, we're in this together." Connie spoke. "You're not special. Every one of us has a reason for going. Still trying to process mine to be honest. I have to know why Bertholdt and Reiner did what they did. I wanna ask while I look them dead in the eye."
Once Erwin dismounted, Moblit was there to greet him immediately. "It's good to see you Commander. I'm glad you're here."
"Is the situation still the same?" Erwin asked.
"Yes Sir."
"Good." Erwin then turned and shouted. "Deploy the lifts!"
Suddenly, a hand grabbed onto Moblit's leg. He nearly jumped out his skin, but he became exasperated when he saw who it was. "Hange!"
"Don't just stand there." She said weakly. "Get me a map."
As the lifts were being deployed, bringing horses up and down the Wall onto the outer side of Wall Rose, Hange was telling everyone else her plan to chase after the Armoured Titan.
"It's a gamble, but the trees in this forest are massive." Hange pointed to them on the map. "I say we ride straight for it. See, even if they had a way to cover up the Armored Titan's footprints, this is almost definitely where would find them."
"Why's that?" Erwin asked.
"They need to recoup, they have the power to assume Titan form, but the other Titans on thar side of the wall still pose a threat." Hange explained. "Especially after putting up such a fight, yes, Eren was the worst for it, but they've got to be spent." Hange sounded confident in her words.
"Remember when Annie went out cold?" She asked. "Let's suppose they're headed somewhere beyond Wall Maria, that's not a simple hike. They'll need all the rest the can get before covering that kind of distance, they're in no shape to make it in a single push." She told them. "And if so, they'll want to catch their breath somewhere where other Titans can't get to them. Odds are they'll hold out till it gets dark."
"We have until sundown." Hange told them. "If we can reach the forest by then, we might just have a chance to save them!"
With that all said and out of the way, Lukas went to look for a spare set of ODM Gear, and luckily enough, there was a pile of it that had been stripped off the officers that had been laying down injured. While everything was getting ready to go, he rushed to put the gear on, having to do the straps up quicker than he ever had before.
"Hey, Lukas right?" A Scout spoke to him while he was putting the actual gear on and not the straps. "Heard about what happened at the castle, you holding up alright with that injury?"
"I know you, aren't you a part of Levi's squad?" Lukas asked, remembering the man from the forest during the expedition.
"Yeah, Eld Jinn." He introduced yourself.
"Where's the rest of your squad?" He asked. "Aren't you all supposed to be with Captain Levi?"
"The Captain couldn't be here." Eld told him. "He put me in charge of the squad though."
"Why isn't he here?"
"He twisted his ankle fighting the Female Titan in Stohess." Eld told him. "We had a plan to capture, but it all went pear shaped, half the city is in ruins and our best soldier is sidelined."
"Right, so what was it you wanted again?" He pressed him for an answer.
"You know Petra's worried about you, like super worried, especially when she found out what happened here when we were in Trost."
"I know. I'm fine." He tried to assure him. "It was just a cut, we need all the soldiers we can get to rescue Eren."
"No, you don't get it, she's trying to get Erwin to remove you from combat on medical grounds." The man he knew as Eld told him. "When we were in Trost, she asked Sasha if she'd seen you, and she nearly started tearing her hair out when she said you'd passed out after hitting your head."
"She's doing what?" He asked as he attached the last piece of gear, trying to walk past Eld.
Eld held out an arm to stop him from moving passed him. "Look, I know it's not my place to say, but there's a very big possibility one or neither of you will come back from this alive, so you need to talk to her."
"You're right." He pushed his arm away. "It's not your place to say."
Sure enough, as Eld said, Petra was talking to Erwin, and it looked like she was doing her very best to convince him.
"Commander, I'm begging you, he is not fit to go out there in his condition." Petra pleaded with him. "He collapsed and was out for five hours at least. His condition will only get worse out there, he will become a liability and get someone else killed."
"Commander Erwin." Lukas saluted the man, paying no attention to Petra. "I feel fine now Sir, it was the mix of tiredness and head pain that caused me to collapse."
Erwin turned to face Lukas, staring him down, assessing him from head to toe. "Are you prepared to sacrifice your own life if required to rescue Eren?"
"Yes Sir." Lukas replied, and as far as Erwin could see, his determination and resolve were absolute.
"Very well then, grab a raincoat and saddle up." Erwin ordered him. "We leave in two minutes."
"Yes Sir."
"Lukas." Petra grabbed his hand once the Commander had left. "Please, don't do this."
"See, now you know how I felt all these years." He pulled his hand away from her, grabbing one of the spare Scout raincoats and putting it on, but before they left, he turned to speak to her one last time. "When we get back, we're going to have a serious conversation about all this worrying you've been doing lately, I'm not a baby, it's not cool."
That was the last thing he said to her before they set off, Scouts, Garrison and MP's all riding together into Titan territory for the first time.