Lydia did not want to entertain the possibility that she had- that she had killed Mira in this explosion of a transformation (one that had even devastated the forest!), but...
But, after a solid five minutes of desperate searching around her own giant feet, she thought that that had to be what had happened.
Lydia slowly pushed up from the forest floor again, rising once more. She turned away from the fallen, giant tree, gazing toward the ruins of New Shiganshina.
She froze.
Oh.
Dozens of soldiers, vehicles and readied weapons awaited her across the field, spaced apart and scattered in some kind of formation.
They were all there, all facing her. All aiming at her.
Lydia didn't need to see a logo to know they were Marleyian military.
But it wasn't just one little patrol unit, like the one that had found her and her mother a year ago: it was several. A dozen? More?
It was practically a miniature army! Amassed and waiting.
For Lydia.
Movement caught her eye to her left, and she glanced down to see a lone figure racing toward the trees, far out afield from the Marley forces.
They weren't dressed like a Marley soldier, and if they were heading away from them, they had to be an Eldian? Like Lydia.
A fellow survivor.
Lydia took a single step forward, drew in a single breath-
And everything around her started exploding.
Booming noises, the ground shaking, bright lights flaring in front of her from all those vehicles - and Lydia was falling backwards, yelling out and raising her arms to cover her face!
She careened backwards, hitting and rolling, as massive rounds pummeled her body, tearing through titan flesh!
"STOP SHOOTING, DICKHEADS!" she screamed. A line of cutting bullets drilled through her upper back, slicing upwards toward her neck's base-
The nape!
Lydia clapped her hands over that spot and twisted on the ground, knocking over another few dozen trees in the process. Crunching wood beneath her.
A loud roaring noise came from overhead, and she glanced up to see a dark shape soaring through the sky, leaving a trail. Angular, and deadly!
A Marley jet fighter?!
Lydia had not even known they still had those here since the bombings! Hadn't they withdrawn all of them from Paradise decades ago, to be used in wars elsewhere?
The jet banked at an angle, clearly heading toward Lydia...
And then it unleashed twin rockets from under its wings.
The missiles flew down toward Lydia in seconds, and then the world was literally exploding now.
She rolled away from the jet, still clutching her nape for dear life. One missile struck her in the shoulder, and blew a massive hole in it that made her scream. The other hit her right between her newfound breasts. Her flesh was blown open, smoking and burning, and her ribs were exposed. Pieces of giant, charred bone fragments flew off into the forest.
I can't do this, I can't- I don't know what to do, I don't- p-please- somebody, anybody-
Lydia just drew in her legs and shut her eyes tight. Why had she ever thought she could do anything, why had she ever thought she could stand up to Marley, fight them, even with this power?! She was ten, she was a kid, she just wanted to-
I can't, I can't, please, I don't know what to do, I don't know how...!
I do.
Huh?
Had Lydia just heard...?
Lydia opened her eyes, staring at the tiny human figure that stood right in front of her face in the field.
The figure of Eren Yeager.
"Stand, Lydia." His voice was quiet, but so clear - and somehow able to be heard, even amidst rockets and gunfire and trembling earth. "Get up. If you want to save our people, you have to be able to stand between them and our enemies."
"I- I c-can't, I'm just getting pulverized!" Lydia cried out, shaking her head.
"Let's change that, then."
Eren turned around, and began to walk toward the vehicles. Slow, powerful, and absolute.
Suddenly, a muscular extension of fleshy rope shot out from Lydia's body, snaking across the grass until it reached Eren Yeager. The rope of flesh rose up and connected with the back of Eren's neck - lightning sparked on contact - and then there was a blinding explosion of light.
From the end of the fleshy tendril, flesh and muscle and bone all began to form, coalescing and taking shape...forming life.
Lydia raised her head, blinking away at the sight.
She hardly noticed that the Marley soldiers had also stopped firing in her direction.
A titan was standing where Eren had once been; it was maybe fifteen meters tall. Strong, muscular, with long dark hair hanging ragged and wild. It had curved, long ears, a sharp face, a mouth of teeth that stretched almost from ear to ear...and eyes that burned green.
The Attack Titan.
Eren Yeager's Attack Titan.
The Attack Titan threw back its head and let out a roar that rocked the world, and then it bent its leg, and charged straight ahead without hesitation.
It was fast, taking off like the fittest, fastest of athletes! Sprinting like hell, covering so much ground in an unbelievably short time!
Lydia pushed herself up, watching Eren on his charge.
The Marley soldiers opened fire once more - except that every single bullet and rocket was focused on the Attack Titan.
Eren raised his arms and blue crystal burst out from his limbs, forming a large, tall shield before himself. The bullets splattered against it, cracking and piercing it steadily. Just as it was about to shatter, Eren tore his arms apart and ripped the shield in two. He ducked and twirled as a missile soared at him, avoiding it, and he used that momentum to spin around and hurl a piece of the shield at a truck. It struck it, crushing in the front of it. He hurled the second piece of crystal with both hands, sending it spinning like a frisbee to get stuck in the front of a jeep, destroying its engine and lifting it off its front wheels.
He roared and stamped a foot, and huge crystal spires burst from the ground, piercing several vehicles and lifting them into the air.
Crystal swords appeared in both his titan hands, refined and sharp, and he leaped forward and came down slashing through a truck. He turned and kicked a jeep, sending it rolling over and crushing two soldiers who couldn't get out of the way in time.
Eren swung his blade before himself, cutting four soldiers in half.
Small arms fire struck his backside, traveling up toward his nape.
Eren's backside was instantly covered over with thick crystal armor. He whipped around and growled, and one of his swords became a crossbow. He fired a piercing crystal arrow at a group of four soldiers. It struck the ground at the soldiers' feet, and then it burst outward, crawling over them in an instant to turn them into crystal statues.
Lydia couldn't believe it. He was fighting them, he was...winning.
She rose to her feet at last, taking her arms off her neck, determined. She clenched her fists at her sides and moved forward.
And then several more missiles suddenly struck Lydia, sending her back on her ass.
Eren turned to look at her across the distance. He glanced up at the jet.
Light flared around Lydia, bright and yellow, as dozens of titans suddenly formed out of thin air.
They were huge, long, and...winged.
The titans beat their wings and took off into the sky, swooping upward with high screeches, their eyes set on the jet fighter.
Lydia raced toward Eren now, toward the Marleyians, reaching them in several large bounds!
She did the only thing she could think of and kicked a foot, punting a jeep hundreds of feet through the air. It landed somewhere in the ruins of Shiganshina, with a great crashing noise.
Gunfire struck Lydia's face, and she saw a trail of smoke and a fast moving object coming up at her. She raised her hands and suddenly they were coated in thick crystal; the missile struck them, and blew the crystal apart - along with several fingers!
Lydia raised a foot with sudden anger, and she stomped down on two jeeps and a truck - and several soldiers around them. The ones who had shot at her!
Shot her, like they had shot everyone in her settlement, her home! Like they had shot at her before, back then, and her mother!
She wouldn't let them keep thinking they could get away with it!