So this one doesn't have that many changes, I mistakenly started writing this one, not knowing how long it would get - I wanted to reach ch 50, but yeah not close. And I'm sorry if this isn't a one-shot, but it got too long for me to keep in one chapter, and I didn't want to wait until I finished writing the rest to publish it, so my bad for this oops.
*After the events of Castle Urgard*
"Eren - we need to talk" - Reiner says, Bertholt waiting at his side, a somewhat baffled expression on his face.
"5 years ago, we breached the Wall - we were the one that started it - I am the Armored Titan, and he-", he continues, pointing at Bertholt -" is the Colossus Titan. Our goal was to destroy humanity, but now we don't need to anymore...and you need to come with us".
Mikasa stops walking towards the group, instead listening to the conversation, a murderous gleam in her eyes. Eren, wearing a somewhat calm expression, only asks "Where should we go?"
Bertholt suddenly interrupts them, looking only at Reiner, shaking his injured arm - "What are we doing? I thought we were going to go home now!"
The muscular man ignores his question, answering Eren's previous one - "It's a bit difficult to explain, but think of it as out hometown - you'll like it", he finishes, a tired but gentle smile on his face.
Eren scoffs, dismissing everything the duo has said, waving his hands about - "Do you really expect me to go to whatever you live, without a warning, just because you said so? Also, if you really were the reason for the attack, why would you think that I'd just follow you? You must've hit your head, Reiner - rest up"
Bertholt butts in, stopping Reiner from responding - "You're right Eren! He's just tired from this night - a lot happened, and so he's had some sort of fantasy brewing, evidently!" - Reiner looks razzled, confused at what his tall friend is saying, and then laughing quite nervously with him - "You're right! It has been some night - I'm just so tired...this was just supposed to be a quick thing...I never would've signed up if I knew it would turn out like this" - Mikasa is getting closer to Eren, her hand grabbing her blades, still looking at the duo.
"I guess this all finally got to me...this pretending...pretending to be soldiers...enough with it!". Reiner calmly stands up, his hand going to tug at his pouch, freeing his arm - "Now it's time - for us to be warriors!"
His injured arm start healing emitting steam, and looking at Eren with the most serious expression he's ever seen the muscular man wear. Faster than anyone could see, Mikasa is in front of Eren, blades ready to strike down Reiner - all she sees are targets, not friends. With deadly precision, Mikasa strikes hard, her weapon slicing off part of Reiner's arm, him being able to stop her blade from connecting with his brain due to his strength-
"Gah! I keep forgetting how strong you actually are, Ackerman!"
Unfazed by this, Mikasa uses her gear to quickly twist around, reaching out her other arm towards Bertholt, who thanks to his stature, is able to lean back enough to get his neck only partially sliced into - still, Mikasa digs deep, trying to thrust her blade far enough, while shouting "RUN, EREN!"
Seeing both men still breathing, Mikasa goes for another round, when Reiner body slams into her, - Ugh! He's strong...-Mikasa is sent flying off the wall , Eren watching her like a hawk , reaching out his arm - "MIK!"-
"EREN! WATCH OUT!" Armin, along with everyone else, after noticing the commotion, starts running towards the group, weapons drawn, while Reiner and Bertholt give Eren one last regretful look.
Immediately after the place gets covered by a blinding light, the space previously occupied by Reiner and Bertholt getting filled by the Armored Titan and part of the Colossus Titan. Right afterwards Reiner grabs Eren in his giant hand, sliding down the interior of the wall.
Reiner...Bertholt... - Eren brings up his hand to his mouth, and bites down hard - "TRAITORS"
The hand of the Armored Titan, suddenly not big enough to hold Eren anymore, gives way, and both giants fall down. Mikasa, who was able to grab on the wall with her gear, watch as the two try to stand up again - If I managed to cut their heads off...this wouldn't be happening right now! I failed again...why? - in her head, flashes of both traitors' faces are visible, both showing pure fear - Mikasa, even if they didn't talk much, had grown attached to the comforting figures, always ready to lend a hand when needed, and wonders if, unconsciously, she too, like Eren was with Annie, didn't want this to be true and held back, even if just a little bit.
Bertholt, using his transformed size as an advantage, swoops down his fist, almost breaking down piece of the wall with ease - "GET AWAY, EVERYONE!" - heeding the warning, no soldier gets seriously injured by the flying debris or gets hit by the hand - Krista is still sitting close to Ymir's unconscious body, not wanting to run away and leave her friend, when she gets grabbed and hauled away , just before the Titan covers the area with his hand, not crushing it - "Wait! Ymir is still there! Let me go-" the hand raises, in its grip the stretcher with Ymir, his other hand grabbing another soldier, and flings them both in its gigantic mouth, closing immediately afterwards. "He ate Ymir! We have to do something!"
Hange takes command, ordering her squad to attack- "Everyone! Fly high! Take it down! NOW"
All soldiers shoot their hooks at the Colossus, swinging with a large curve, avoiding the arms and fists moving - It's slow, its only advantage is the size - compared to others, this one is easy!
The squad, now flying above the neck, aim their gears at the nape of the neck, winding up and coordinating with everyone else, for consecutive slices of the neck - "TAKE IT DOWN!"
The Titan appears to scoff at the shout, seeming to hunch over in preparation, when it forcefully raises its head, streams of extremely hot air coming off the body, burning everyone in the vicinity.
"Is it trying to disappear again? Why? We're going to have an easier time!" - Armin thinks for a second, and replies with a defeated sigh - "No...if he were to disappear, it would have stopped already - this one is still going, and while that is happening -" he stops, firing off a hook towards it, seeing it get immediately bounced back by the strength of the jets of hot air - "We can't fight".
Hange looks at the blonde, thinking for a second . "We can't fight, but he's stuck here as well - wait him out, then strike. And Armin?", she stops, staring the shorter kid - "don't hesitate - slice to kill. We're not interested in taking them prisoners - got it?" Without waiting for confirmation, just watching the clearly hesitant feeling on Armin's face, Hange swoops down, ordering her squad to come down and face the Armored Titan.
Mikasa is still flying around it, trying to make at least a small slice, all her attacks not making a single nick - His armor is strong , my blades aren't working, and Eren is down for now...what can we do!?
Eren is getting back up, rage fueling his body, his only intention right now to crush the other Titan's head to a pulp - How?! How can anyone do what you did - dooming humanity to this hell - HOW?!
All of Eren's punches don't seem to faze Reiner much, his armor absorbing most of the damage
I can't let you live...I can't allow you to keep breathing...
Eren screams, wanting to fill up on adrenaline, hoping to get more results with his attacks, slightly rotating his fist to push more with his shoulder, while Mikasa uses the ensuing punch as a distraction, hoping to slice the neck of Reiner, twisting more in in air, both attacks not having the desired result - I can't believe that I was looking up to you!
Eren runs towards him, only finding the fist of the Armored connecting with his face, which sends him flying backwards, body laying down.
"EREN!" Mikasa is about to fly towards him, when she gets stopped by Armin - "Wait! Wait here, he'll get back up! We have to trust him to get up!" - Mikasa looks at her friend, allowing herself to calm down and believe in her family.
The brunette is trying to get his head right, after the previous hit - and he starts to think back to their training time...
Annie hits Eren square in the jaw with a plank of wood, making him stable backwards and fall down on his back.
"God Annie, you don't need to hit that hard - this is just training to get physically stronger, we won't need to fight other people you know"
"Then this whole exercise is useless - and I do need to hit that hard - you're bigger than me, you would just overpower me if I held back"
Eren just scoffs at her, getting back on his feet, wiping dust off of his uniform - "You're actually insinuating that I'm stronger than you? You just threw me aside with ease!" - Annie just wears her deadpan expression, looking at him as if he just said the stupidest thing she's ever heard, before answering - "That's because I don't fight like you - I'm not using my strength, I'm using yours against you - the harder you come at me, the easier it is for me to win. For example-" her righ leg swoops past Eren's, kicking with her heel his knee, making him buckle down, when she wraps her hand around his neck, pushing both on the ground, leveraging against his knee to add pressure on the neck - "with this way I could choke you", she explains, all of a sudden almost enjoying her move, a small smile coming to her.
Eren begins to tap his hand, signalling her to stop, but she just increases the hold on him -"In a fight no-one is going to allow you to tap out, you need to learn to fight", she continues, eyeing Mikasa, who is busy fighting Reiner, -" and how to talk to girls"
Eren is trying to release himself from the hold, when a shadow is thrown over them, cast from the flying body of Reiner. The brunette manages to free himself, and sees Mikasa standing over them, looking at Annie with an unreadable expression on her face. "Annie...I'd like to learn that move as well"
Annie stands up, challenging Mikasa with a stare of her own, responding in a disbelieving tone "You want to learn that? I don't know...it was made for humans after all - but I am curios if it'll work on beasts"
The 2 girls stand in front of each other, with everyone else present circling around them, eyeing with interest the fight.
Reiner, sitting down next to Eren, participates in the bets going on, asking him "so, who do you think it's going to win?"
Why...why am thinking of that right now?
The Armored Titan smashes a fist into Eren's face, making him fall down, a loud crack resonating throughout the terrain
Who ended up winning that... - Reiner gets closer, ready to deliver the finishing blow. Mikasa and Armin can only witness the scene, both powerless to affect the fight in any way
"Eren! You can't fight him head on! You need to think this through! Come to the wall!" Armin shouts from the wall, hoping that his voice can reach Eren.
Seeing Eren not moving towards them, both Hange and Armin cried out in frustration, unable to help him out - "Did he lose control again? We made so much progress!", Hange is wondering, frustrated with the event happening.
With one last bout of energy, Eren manages to avoid the incoming punch from Reiner, connecting his arms behind the Titan's neck, underneath the arms, and surprising even himself, lifts Reiner and slams him down towards the ground, the terrain shifting and breaking from the impact. "He managed to slam him?" Hange's baffled tone bleeding through her voice, completely amazed at this new skill from Eren - meanwhile, both Mikasa and Armin are both frozen, both of them having the same mental image of Mikasa using the same move on Annie, time ago, in the training camp.
Armin turns towards Mikasa, a smile on his face, "That's your move! In your fight against Annie!", and Mikasa can only nod, astonished that he was apparently paying that close attention to her even before their talk, months ago - Eren...
I have no idea why you did this, you bastards, but you made more than one mistake - one of them was pushing me to get better!
Eren, from his position on the ground, over Reiner, manages to lock his legs, crushing Reiner's head between his thighs, and begins pulling on the right arm, forcing the Armored Titan to try and free himself from the hold, the aim of defeating Eren now gone, replaced by pure survival instincts.
Armin and Mikasa fly onto a nearby tree, hoping to get their voices heard from the friendly giant, who is still trying to detach the locked arm.
Have...to...get free... - Reiner manages to lock his free hand onto one of Eren's legs, his intent to lift him up with the locked arm and slam him on the ground - Time for payback, Eren!
By now the brunette has notice the Armore Titan moves, and begins twisting his hips, in anticipation, shortly going along with the lift, and suddenly twisting the other direction, putting strength into pushing down with his legs, forcing Reiner to crash down on his neck, arm completely stretched under Eren - I'm going to make sure that you will regret having done this!
With one last stretch, Eren manages to break off the arm, which comes off with a sickening crunch, liquid spewing everywhere, and celebrates with a loud roar. "He did it! He subdued him!" Hange exclaims, happy that all her training with Eren wasn't proven to be fruitless.
Armin and Mikasa finally grab hold of Eren's attention, calling out to him - "Eren! Go to the wall!"
"But getting away from Reiner isn't going to be easy - he's still not showing any signs of slowing down!" Mikasa notices, worry etched in her face - And I'm out of blades...great- "Mikasa! Here, use my blades". Armin, noticing his friend's expression and the empty scabbards, hands her his remaining blades - "After all, you'll be able to do more damage than me"
"Eren! You have to fight using strategy! Ok? Do whatever you can to put him again in some sort of submission hold!"
To her surprise, Eren only nods at her, and motions to go on the wall - things are going to get messy now...
As soon as Eren finishes his thought, Reiner sprints towards him, slamming against him and shoving him against the wall, still pushing, hoping to beat the body enough so it loses enough material to break - So fast! - Eren manages to avoid a punch, ducking his head, only to meet a knee a few meters from his face coming at him
"EREN!" The soldiers can only scream at him to move, horrified by how quickly this battle is changing sides - aided by his quick reflexes, Eren avoids the knee, dropping on his back and grabbing his legs, pushing his own behind Reiner.
"Great! Now he needs to keep that hold up for-"
Reiner, due to his strength, is able to shove Eren off with a kick, making him hit the wall behind him hard - Eren only has a moment respite, watching as Reiner is about to follow up with another tackle.
Hange and the squad follow the fight, wondering how in the hell Reiner got so fast and grabbed the upper hand so quickly - "Is there nothing we can do?"
"I already tried cutting his neck, but his whole body is just rock hard" Mikasa intervenes "It's impossible to cut it!"
Ok fine! You're going to come at me either way- Eren broaden his stance, arms poised to grab the attacking Titan - then you're coming down with me!
Hutchinson forward, at the last possible second he takes hold of Reiner's chest, shoving the head under his arm, and then, using the inertia from the run, slams himself backwards , still struggling to hold still, since Reiner has started to push against him with his legs.
"Wait! If his whole body was really rock solid, he wouldn't be able to move - maybe at the joints his armors is less thick, or even not there at all to allow more freedom of movement!".
Mikasa starts flying towards the two giants right away, sending herself towards the sides, and then, after grappling on a tree on the opposite side, swoops down on Reiner's legs, rotating fast with the blades out, slicing the tendons behind the knees, causing him to lose grip on the floor.
MIK! THANKS!
Thanks to that, Eren is now able to completely put Reiner is a submission, stopping his movements altogether - "Come one Eren! Finish him!"
"Whip that Traitor out of there so we can end this!"
"Break him in half!"
"EREN! YOU CAN DO IT!"
Mikasa screams the last encouragement to Eren, that fills him with adrenaline, and puts even more pressure on the hold
THIS IS IT!
Armin looks at the fight, noticing that Reiner is weakening his struggle - Is is giving up...we are directly at the wall now...under...
Looking up, he sees the body of the Colossus Titan, still giving off steam, preventing anyone from approaching.
Reiner, stopping his struggle, lets out a raw shout, as loud as it can get, and everyone freezes, not sure of what's going on. Hange is the first one tk recover, remembering what Annie did - "Check the perimeter! He called for more Titans!"
"There are no Titans approaching! He's just yelling in frustration, commander!"
Armin wants to believe them, but his gut is telling him to stay on guard for anything - when suddenly a shadow gets bigger and bigger on the ground, followed closely by a shout
"WATCH OUT"
As soon as everyone looks up, all they see is the Colossus Titan falling down on Eren and Reiner
Mikasa wakes up with a gasp, looking around her, seeing bodies laid in a line, being attended by field medics.
"Mikasa! You're up!" Armin comes near her, kneeling down to her level, when she grabs him forcefully and asks - "Where is Eren!?" -
"Calm down! You need to rest, you still don't know the extent of your injuries!"
"Where is he!"
Armin just sighs, defeated at her attitude, and tries to explain in a calm manner, having an idea of her reaction - "When Bertholt fell, there was an explosion - all of us near the wall got blasted up, fainting. Apparently Bertholt was still realising steam, so no-one could get near them - I regained consciousness right after, and I saw...- he gulps, -"I saw Reiner defeat Eren. He was the only one who could stand the heat...after Bertholt finished, or could keep it up anymore, the steam cleared, and I saw him get out of the body, with Ymir - he got up to Reiner's shoulder and started walking away"
"When did this happen?! For how long was I down?"
Armin brings his arms up to his shoulders, trying to soften the blow - "5 hours ago - we didn't move earlier because we couldn't...our horses are all on the other side - we're waiting for the lifts for them"
Mikasa stares at the blonde, and then grabs her head, wincing - damn...these migraines again...
She got up, and noticing her scarf on the ground, picks it up and covers herself with it. "After we talked, we promised each other that we wouldn't be separated, that we would look out for each other", she says, voice on the verge of tears -"I was so happy when that happened...we're closer than we've ever been..."
She crouches down, Armin following her and sitting down next to her, one arm rubbing her back soothingly, neither speaking.
"I know Mik...but I also know that as long as Eren is still able to fight, he won't back down and allow them to snatch him away from us - I'm sure of it!"
"Kids! There you are! Mikasa, you ok? Don't you need to rest more?"
Both turn towards the voice, seeing Mr Hannes sitting down next to them, handing out field rations to the two teens.
"So he left you behind again, uh? I swear that kid...uncanny ability to cause problems..."
He looks up, a wishful look on his face -"I remember when he would rush in head first in whatever he wanted, until you or I would get him out of trouble - I unironically liked those days...everything was simpler..."
He grabs the kid's attention, expression turning serious -" Now it's time for us to do it again - help him out one last time...and I don't know about you, but I'm more than ready this time!" He finishes, eyes burning with adrenaline, which get reciprocated by both Armin and Mikasa.
With the morale high again, everyone digs in in their rations quickly consuming them, waiting for the lifts to get set up to start the chase.
We're coming, Eren.