It had been five months since the Mid-East Alliance had declared war on Marley and invaded in the east. The people of Marley, especially those further away from the fighting didn't seem to express much of an interest in how the war was going.

Conscription for Marleyan citizens had been removed years ago, and while they could still volunteer and sign up for the Army or the Navy, conscription was a requirement for people of nations that Marley had conquered, add to that the Eldian Unit that worked with the Warrior Unit, and it led to a huge amount of people in the Army.

However, this in on itself was not enough to win a war, and the Mid-East Alliance had started as they meant to go on, by crushing Marley on land and at sea. In the time that it had taken for the Warrior Unit to actually get to the front lines, the Mid-East had already taken several coastal towns and cities, having been helped with the assistance of their much stronger Naval Fleet.

They had quite literally stormed their way through the eastern border, now occupying an additional seventy miles worth of land from east to west, and although the Warrior Unit had initially forced them back, they had already moved their forces northwards, where they had taken the entirety of the land right next to the Sturmza Canal, and while they didn't control the canal outright, they pushed for control of the coastal regions, meaning that there was no longer guaranteed safety for ships passing through, which severely impacted cities on the east coast like Odiha and Liberio, which would now require ships to sail all the way up north passed Acirfa to get there.

"It sounds to me like you aren't struggling that much." Lukas, who was sat in his uncle's office with General Calvi, leaning back on the chair with his feet kicked up on the desk. "You stopped their advance, just hold your ground, doesn't seem like you're that desperate to come to me just yet."

General Calvi, who looked quite tired, probably because of all the work he'd been doing recently. He also didn't look particularly pleased about the way Lukas was treating this. "Mr Tybur, you are the most arrogant, full of himself person I have ever met in my life."

"There's very good reason for that General." He shot back at him. "I have the power of the Founding Titan and War Hammer Titan. I am the most powerful Titan shifter on the planet at the moment, not to mention my status as a Tybur. This makes me one of the most powerful people on the planet."

"Yet another reason the State Secretary was a fool to allow you to remain in control of your choices." General Calvi looked at him in disgust. "Letting an Eldian have so much power seems absurd to me, especially when it isn't just because you possess a strong Titan power. I've never been a fan of the Tybur family, but I never saw reason to care that much, until you decided to help the military where and when you liked."

"If you have a problem with me General, take it up with the State Secretary." Lukas suggested rather bluntly. "He saw it fit that I was able to control my own life after giving my body to Marley to take the Founding Titan away from Paradis Island. I saved the world from the rumbling, yet nobody knows it was me who saved them. Why is that General? Why aren't the people allowed to know who it is that saved them all?"

"That's a question for the State Secretary to answer." Calvi grunted. "I command the Army, I don't run the country."

"You say that, yet you bring me this." He reached for the file that the General had brought with him, opening it up to reveal its contents. "This is an Act of Law setting out the budget expenditure for the war against the Mid-East Alliance this year, except there are some rather... strange inclusions."

"That's what you wanted, isn't it? Part of that bill restricts the actions Public Security and the Military can take on Eldians regarding physical punishments." Calvi informed him. "It'll pass through the Senate tomorrow, all I need is for you to agree to help the Military against the Mid-East Alliance."

"You're right General, this is what I wanted, only that was six months ago, that offer expired the moment you lost full control over the Sturmza Canal." Lukas smirked as the General's face became more and more frustrated. "You've obviously become a lot more desperate for my help considering you laughed at me the first time I proposed this."

"That is the only offer you will get, I suggest you take it before I leave here." General Calvi warned him.

"If you add a couple million to the budget for water, electricity and sewage systems in all the internment zones in Marley, I'll fight for your Army General." Lukas proposed his own idea. "I haven't been in an internment zone for a long time, Liberio was a shithole then, and it's most definitely a shithole now, that's not even mentioning the other internment zones."

"That is ridiculous." Calvi glared daggers at him. "The people of Marley won't accept Eldians being treated so well all of a sudden."

"Then start with one internment zone, the space will be used after us Eldians are finally erased from existence, right?" The question was sarcastic, and the General could sense that. "Tell them you're making a head start on that, they'll believe anything the Government feeds to them anyway."

"That will never happen." General Calvi stood firm on his stance. "This is the best offer you will get, take it or leave it."

"You drive a hard bargain General Calvi." Lukas finally lowered his feet from the desk to sit properly. "But unfortunately for you, I'm still feeling spent from all my time on Paradis. This just doesn't motivate me enough to make me want to fight again. I wish you good luck in pushing back the Mid-East Alliance though, for the motherland, right?"

Shaking his head in a sort of disgust that the offer had actually been rejected, General Calvi stood up from the chair and left the room, though Lukas had refrained from making a joke about the next battle they would lose trying to retake the Sturmza Canal.

After about five minutes, Lukas exited the office and went downstairs, but much to his surprise, Willy was in the lobby directly some heavy set men on where to put some large boxes, and just out the door that was open, he could see a bed frame was turned on its side.

"Is that my bed?" He pointed and asked his uncle. "What was wrong with my bed?"

"Ah, Lukas." Willy greeted his nephew with a smile as he descended the staircase. "I take it your meeting went well."

"Swimmingly." He rolled his eyes before turning his attention back to his bed. "So are you going to tell me why my bed is outside and not in my room?"

"That is because you're getting a newer and bigger one." Willy informed him. "Your bed sat unused in your room for six years, I think you've grown out of it by now. A man needs space for more than himself after all."

"Okay?" He didn't really want to know where his uncle was going with this, he hadn't had anyone over, well, there was that one time, but he was really careful about that. "Is there anything else that's going to be taken away from me today?"

"That reminds me." Willy lit up as he remembered. "I need you to collect Fine from school today. You don't need to worry about the teachers, they know the car she should be getting into. Take Williams to drive you there and back."

Ah yes, his favourite guard driving him around yet again, especially after the incident in Odiha, where he was covered in sewage and he made him get a shower before he got anywhere near that car. This was going to be fantastic!

Waiting outside of the school for Fine with Williams was a lot more boring than he thought it would be. Usually he was rather talkative, but he was probably still annoyed about Odiha, but Lukas didn't mind, it just gave him more peace when he usually wouldn't have it.

Though his peace was interrupted when he spotted Fine and a group of her friends, being harassed, well not really harassed, there was a couple of boys around her age who thought they were being funny by making fun of the girls their age. Sighing, he got out of the car and approached the group.

"Hey! You little bastards!" That got their attention, and he could see Fine's face going from rather uncomfortable to upbeat now that he was here, not to mention the group of boys, who looked a lot more concerned now that someone bigger than them had come along. "Now beat it, before I beat you."

The group of boys dispersed rather quickly, all except for one, who was ever so slightly taller than the rest of them, but still small in comparison to Lukas. "Are you deaf?" He asked the boy. "Fu- go away." He remembered to be mindful of the language he used around Fine.

"No, you can't do anything to me. I'm just a child." The high pitched voice almost made him squirm. Not only was this kid annoying, he was being annoyingly stupid.

"I don't care if you're just a kid." His voice went to a deadpan as he stared the kid down. "I will beat you if you try anything. Now piss off."

Now, while he didn't doubt the sheer stupidity some children can possess, and teenagers, both Sasha and Connie came to mind for that. He didn't expect the boy to be so stupid as to think he was untouchable just because he was like twelve years old or something like that. So much so that, to try and stupidly prove his point, he actually started shoving some of the girls Fine was with, including Fine herself, luckily she didn't fall and hurt herself, or he really would've beat the shit out of him.

"Listen here you little shit." Lukas hissed as he grabbed the little bastard by the collar and hoisted him off the ground and up to his eye level, where he could now see the boy had true fear in his eyes. "You should count yourself lucky that you didn't actually hurt Fine, because I would've beat you to a pulp if you had."

"I-I'm sorry!" The high pitched squeal came from the boy, now realising that he had made a huge mistake.

"I don't give a shit if you're sorry or not." He growled back at the boy, venom laced through his voice. "If I so much as think that Fine, or any of her friends for that matter, are being bothered by you or any of your shitty little friends, I will rip your teeth out one by one until you have to eat through a straw for the rest of your pathetic life. Do you fucking understand me?"

Nodding hysterically, the boy agreed to stop bothering them, and when he did, he dropped him on his ass and left him on the floor, turning back to Fine.

"You didn't have to do that." Fine told her big cousin when he was back with her. "He wasn't bothering us that much."

"He might not have been, but how long before he started pushing or even hitting you?" He responded by patting the top of her head, something he knew she liked. "Without some sort of deterrent, he could've kept it up, same with those little shits he called friends."

Fine, seeing that some of her friends were giggling at the fact she was being given a head pat, quickly removed his hand from the top of her head, a red tint on her face from the embarrassment she was now feeling. Lukas however, only found her to be even more adorable than she usually was, even he couldn't resist the urge to embarrass her even further by squeezing her in a hug.

"You're so adorable Fine." He told her as she wanted to just disappear while her friends continued to giggle at her. "You want to go get some ice cream? My treat."

"N-No! Let me go!" She demanded now that she had realised her friends were giggling at her, pouting at him, but that only made her even more adorable to him, so much so that he picked her up off the ground in a side hug and mashed their cheeks together.

"You're so adorable!" He told her. "Lets go get some ice cream now." He carried her off while she struggled against his hold, the chorus of laughter coming from her friends in the background. She was like a little sister to him, she really was adorable, and he wound definitely break the spine of anyone who so much as breathed at her in a disrespectful manner.

(Four days later)

It was a moonless night, the only time of the month they'd be able to pull this off relatively successfully. The Arabian Peninsula, land that was owned by Marley, but currently occupied by the Mid-East Alliance. Their control over territory was about a stones throw from the continental mainland of Marley, and their Navy was anchored close enough to deter any ships from passing through the Red Sea into the Sturmza Canal.

This was unacceptable in Marley's eyes, trade from port cities like Odiha to Acirfa was crucial, they couldn't allow the Mid-East to control the waters so close to home. Something needed to be done about it. Their Navy was only anchored so close in the Arabian Gulf because of the huge amount of land the Mid-East had taken in such a short amount of time.

It didn't help that many of the people living in the Arabian Peninsula were subjugated by Marley, meaning that they were far more likely to side with the Mid-East were the tensions to rise any longer in the region. The people would be forced to pick a side, and as long as the Mid-East remained in the region, there was a huge risk they'd see a large jump in their numbers.

The Army had come up with an operation to take back the region, starting with the north east of the Peninsula, where the destroyers were currently anchored just off the coast. They called it 'Operation Hellfire.' Using the power of the Cart Titan, and a watertight metal container, they would get the Armoured and Female Titans onto the cliff face overlooking the bay, they'd then climb up and drive the Mid-East forces away from the cliff.

While that was happening, several airships, containing about seven hundred paratroopers would fly from the mainland to the Arabian Peninsula, land and take control over the artillery in the area, using it to fire on the destroyers until they retreated or were sunk.

The following days would be used to land more troops from the sea and possibly the air to push the Mid-East further south and all the way back until the forces in the region surrendered. It was a simple plan in theory, all it hinged on was Pieck keeping her mouth closed while underwater to keep both Reiner and Annie, who were crammed into a small metal crate, alive and safe from drowning.

The crate was indeed tiny, and it helped that Annie was as small as she was, because nobody else aside from Pieck would've been able to fit in here with him. His foot was jabbing into her thigh, and no matter how much she tried to adjust her position, she couldn't move much more than a very small shuffle.

"Stop fidgeting." Annie hissed at the huge blonde warrior. "You're jabbing at my thigh again."

"Sorry." Reiner apologised as he tried to wiggle his foot free, only to annoy Annie even more. "I bet you're happy you're so small now. We barely fit in here as is. I count myself lucky it wasn't Porco crammed in here with me."

At the mention of her short stature, Annie gave him a glare that he could barely see in the darkness, but he could tell she was making that face she made when she was angry, and even now it still made him sweat. "Sorry." He raised a hand in an apologetic manner. "I shouldn't have said that."

"Quit apologising. That's all you do nowadays." Annie ignored him in favour of getting him to shut up. "Ever since we returned, you've apologised just about every time you see me. I'm sick of it. We made it home. It sucks that Marcel and Bertholdt died, but you need to get over it. Stop grovelling over what's done. You're a warrior, aren't you? Focus on your mission."

"Heh, I think that's the most I've ever heard you talk." Reiner chuckled a little after that. "You're right though. I've been dwelling on it constantly, I just need to focus on one thing at a time. I'll start with this mission, then I'll see where it goes from there."

"Shut up. You're wasting our air." Annie cut the conversation to a close, the both of them breathing slowly for the rest of the wait time in order to conserve oxygen to make sure neither of them passed out.

After about twenty minutes, they felt the crate shift, and water began leaking into the container, so much for it being watertight. Though when Reiner tried to push the lid open, it wouldn't budge at all.

"The pressure in here is different from outside." Annie informed him. "We'll need to wait until we're fully submerged before it will open."

"Right." Reiner nodded. "When I open it, swim away, count to ten and transform. We need our Titans to get up the cliff face. The destroyers will hopefully be caught off guard or not willing to fire so close to their own troops."

"Got it." Annie prepared the ring on her finger, while Reiner had a knife with him. As the crate slowly filled with water, they took one last breath and Reined could finally push the lid open, allowing them to swim out and away from each other.

After about ten seconds give or take, the Armoured and Female Titans appeared at the bottom of the cliff, the flash of bright and blinding light making it glaringly obvious to the destroyers in the bay that the Titans had appeared. Both Reiner and Annie hardened their fingers and ran forwards, digging into the twenty five metre cliff and began climbing.

They hadn't been fired at by the destroyers in the bay yet, so that allowed the two of them to climb to the top and over the edge, where they were faced with a whole division of Mid-East Alliance troops, most of whom were retreating, while the others were rushing to the artillery and Anti-Titan weaponry that they had on hand.

"It's the Armoured!" One of the soldiers yelled as Reiner was the first over the top, shortly followed by Annie as well. "The Female as well! Shoot them!"

The artillery that was currently manned was fired at the two Titans, with Reiner's armour being able to take the hit with a few cracks, though Annie was able to move fast enough to get out of the way and make a beeline for the vehicles in the camp. Avoiding another barrage of artillery, stepping on more than a few soldiers and tents in the camp on her way there. There was a group of trucks and jeeps in the centre of the camp on the cliffside, but there was a wooden tower overlooking the open terrain, and the soldier had one of those new Anti-Titan rifles.

Annie caught the barrel lighting up from the corner of her eye, the bullet tearing straight through the right shoulder of her Titan form. With her attention now on the soldier with the rifle, she moved to kick the tower out of existence, but the distraction allowed the soldiers manning the artillery to fire at the back of her legs, the impacts and explosion destroying the joints on her standing leg, causing her to collapse to the floor, about twenty yards from the tower, where the soldier had reloaded the rifle and was about to fire at her again.

"Shit!" Annie cursed as she raised her one good arm up, hardening her palm to block the soldier from getting a clear shot at any part of her face or neck. Though luckily for her, she needn't have bothered, because Reiner had came to her rescue, smashing the wooden tower to pieces with one swing of his armoured fist, protecting his comrade at all costs.

Reiner then turned and used his body to shield Annie from another round of artillery shells, bringing his forearms up to protect his own face, the armour on his arms cracked, but didn't shatter, they might be able to take another blow, but he wasn't going to just wait around. He jumped to his feet and ran at the artillery crew, who all tried to scatter, but it was to no avail as Reiner dived onto them, crushing the soldiers and the artillery weapons alike.

Seeing Reiner take out the artillery nearest them, Annie stood up once more, the back of her leg and her shoulder now fully healed. She turned to the group of vehicles and rushed over, swiping at any enemy soldiers that were in her path. Reaching the vehicles, she picked up the first jeep and crushed it in her hand, debris and fuel leaking through her giant fist, which gave her an idea.

She scattered the jeep across the camp, shredding multiple tents and sending it crashing into one of the stone buildings, before she picked up what she believed to be the fuel tanks, poking a hole in it with a crystallised finger, she pulled it apart and began spreading and throwing the fuel everywhere, in every direction until there wasn't a drop left.

The next two objects she picked up were another two jeeps, crushing them in her hands, she threw the metal carcass towards the main puddle of fuel, the sparks coming from the collision of the two vehicles sparking the flames into life, and soon enough, the majority of the camp was on fire, spreading to tents, buildings and whatever flora was in the area.

The flames rose higher and higher, spreading to the other vehicles, burning away and setting the fuel alight inside, causing them all to explode one after one. The destruction these two teenagers could cause was immense, if they wanted to bring a nation to its knees, they were more than capable of doing it.

The Mid-East Soldiers that were fleeing looked back to see the two Titans, the flames creating a veil of fire between the fleeing soldiers and the Titans. The fire lighting up the two Titans in such a way that it made them look as if the Devil himself had just stepped out of hell right in front of them. It was a truly terrifying experience for the Mid-East soldiers, and things didn't seem to get better when the Female Titan opened her mouth and let out an ear piercing scream that lasted about ten seconds, the ears of some starting to bleed from the noise that was intended to signal the legion of paratroopers waiting in the skies above.

However, in response to the scream, a flare was fired from a little further inland, but this one wasn't to signal, it was to light up the area below it, exactly where the Armoured and Female Titans were standing. This flare did a lot more to light up the area than the fire did, it was so bright, and produced so much light, it must have been a brand new technology.

Then, out in the bay, several more of those flares went up, one from each of the three destroyers, lighting up the surface of the water and giving them a much better view of their surroundings from any potential Titan attack coming from under the water. However, what the two Titan shifters saw coming from the east was not something they could be positive about at all.

From the east, three more destroyers were approaching, followed closely by the largest battleship either of them had either seen, and then another two battleships close behind.

"Shit." Reiner cursed. "That amount of ships will tear straight through me and Annie." His gaze then went to the six airships that were approaching from the west, they had been nearly invisible to the eye before, but all the light from the flares meant they were far more visible now, the light reflecting off the airships even from a fair distance away. "That battleship as well. 'The Beast' I think they call it, it's bigger than I thought it would be. It's huge, has to be almost twice the size of their other battleships."

Reiner and Annie both shared a look with each other as they watched the ships approach. "Surely they wouldn't fire on us with all their soldiers behind us?" He turned his head to look at the retreating soldiers through the flames, but there wasn't a single one in sight. "What the... where did they all go?" Then, another flare, a normal red one this time was fired into the sky, from what looked to be like trenches that were dug into the ground, this far up? Had they been expecting them this soon?

Suddenly, the fleet of ships in the bay started firing at the two Titan shifters, the cannons letting rip on the two very large targets that were standing out in the open. Reiner braced himself for the hit, while Annie hid behind him, he could withstand the barrage, while she wouldn't have been able to. The barrage of artillery hit Reiner head on, shattering the armour on his forearms, chest, face and legs, with the only reason he didn't fall over from the force being because Annie was behind him holding him up.

"Shit, I can't take another hit like that." Reiner looked to see what remained of his armour, shattered into little pieces, falling off his body, leaving nothing but the flesh on his front. Though his gaze was diverted to the airships that had changed course and were heading straight for the fleet, knowing they wouldn't survive a land invasion anymore, they probably hoped their best bet was to board the ships and take control.

"Wait, they're flying too low!" Reiner realised that having changed course, the airships had unintentionally lowered their altitude, giving the ships a direct line of fire onto them. The two of them watched in horror as the artillery guns on the ships rotated towards the airships, and another huge volley of shells went flying through the air, punching straight through the material that kept the hydrogen inside, but every airship burst into a ball of flames once the artillery hit.

"Reiner!" His gaze was torn away from the airships going up in a fiery inferno. Annie had emerged from her Titan to speak to him. "We need to run! This is fucked! It's over here!"

As much as he wanted to continue this mission, ultimately Annie was right, the fleet would tear through them both and quite possibly kill them if they stayed and fought. They needed to leave now.

(The Bridge of "The Beast")

"Fleet Admiral, the Armoured and Female Titans are making a run for the west." Salim, the main spotter on the bridge of the ship reported to his superior, both men wearing the dark blue uniform of the Mid-East Alliance Navy and speaking in a thick Mid-Eastern accent. "Should we pursue them? We can cut them off if they try to swim across the Red Sea."

"Don't bother." The Fleet Admiral on deck waved away Salim's suggestions. "The fact the Devils have turned tail and run is humiliation enough for Marley. Their two prized military assets couldn't even take a landing zone for their soldiers. Not to mention we just obliterated a fleet of their airships, this is the turning point of the war Salim."

"Yes Fleet Admiral." Salim nodded. "Where to now Sir?"

"We set sail for the Isles of Brittanica tomorrow morning." The Fleet Admiral informed him. "The uprising is about to start there, and we'll be on hand to drive away what remains of their Navy on the Island."

(Two days later)

Lukas Tybur was waiting, the news about the absolute failure of an operation to retake the Arabian Peninsula had spread all across the world, who all knew that the might of the Power of the Titans had been thoroughly defeated by the the Mid-East Alliance's Navy. It was only a matter of time before he was...

There it was, the telephone was ringing, reaching over to pick it up, he listened to what the man on the other end had to say.

"Hello Mr Secretary." Lukas responded to him with. "Yes, I'm doing well, just got out of bed actually. I'm really enjoying my time resting so much." He listened some more. "I think we can come to an agreement Mr Secretary. Mhm, yes, that sounds just about right." He took in what he was saying. "Well that all depends Mr Secretary, how far are you willing to go to win this war?"

A/N - Since the AoT world is an upside down and mirrored map of Earth, it's pretty easy to visualise where areas of land are, so whenever I bring up new areas, I'll give a list at the end of the chapter as to where they are in the real world for reference.

Reiner and Annie landed on the coast of what would be Eastern Yemen

The Red Sea - The Red Sea

The Arabian Peninsula - Area of land consisting of Yemen, Oman, UAE, Saudi Arabia, Israel, Jordan, Iraq and Syria.

Sturmza Canal - Suez Canal

Arabian Gulf - Gulf of Aden

Isles of Brittanica - British Isles