A couple of hours before the events of C2

"HANJI! WHAT HAVE YOU DONE?!"

"I'M SO SORRY MOBLIT!" was 'Hanji's' response to her fellow soldier as she practically snapped her neck whilst turning to look at the man in question, feeling a little bad about making her assistant panic once more, though she turned her head to keep her eyes on the path ahead of them before she could say much else, swinging her head violently to the side that she nearly slapped her assistant in the cheek with her long, dark brown hair.

"C-Captain Hanji!" exclaimed Moblit as soon as they continued on, ignoring how he nearly got slapped on the cheek by his Captain's ponytail all the while. The woman in question turned to stare at him, her expression rather calm, minus a handful of twitches, prompting the man to continue on with his horrified rambling. "W-Why did you have to do that?!"

Hanji's response was to give a sheepish smile as she turned away from Moblit to hopefully hide her embarrassment, not knowing how to answer her assistant's question. In truth, Hanji herself didn't know why she did something so idiotic either.

In an attempt to distract herself from that thought, Hanji turned her head around to see how far their pursuers were from them, only to widen her eyes behind her goggles/glasses and turn back around when she realized that they were less than forty metres away from their slowest running horses. Said pursuers were a handful of massive humanoids that ranged from three to fifteen metres in height.

Titans, that was the name that was given to these massive humanoids. They have existed for as long as humanity could remember, and they were, by all means, the natural predators of mankind. Though generally unremarkable in appearance, the Titans were deceptively faster than they appeared, and they were more than capable of chasing down an average human.

Despite having existed for as long as mankind, not much was known of these beasts, and several of the survivors within mankind took it upon themselves to resolve this issue. Hanji Zoe of the Survey Corps was among these handful of people, and arguably she was the most successful, with her name usually being the first thing to come to mind when speaking of Titan research, not that it was much of an achievement.

Hanji's drive to learn more about the Titans was, however, rather worrying. Though she could control herself rather well, she wasn't perfect, and as such, she tended to get a little out of hand from time to time. And now was one of those times, as Hanji was more or less the woman who had begun this whole chase to begin with!

Having spotted a rather sizable pack of Titans not too long ago, Hanji thought it would be nice to have a closer look at them, and with no small amount of convincing, she got permission to lead a small portion of their team to have a 'closer look'. Of course, it didn't really end well, as Hanji was spotted almost immediately, prompting the entire team to be chased by a pack of fifteen Titans.

That horrible decision, courtesy of Hanji, resulted in three members of their team being killed, though there wasn't any time to mourn or feel bad for them as the remaining members of the team fled the immediate area, though as a result they unwittingly brought the entire pack of Titans towards their main squadron.

And all that led to the present, with Hanji opening her mouth to offer a response to Moblit, though before she could do so, a new voice could be heard.

"Don't cause a ruckus, you two," said a calm, almost emotionless voice which made both Hanji and Moblit turn to face its owner. Moblit, who was closer to the newcomer, turned and looked down a little and looked a familiar short man in the eye, and in spite of their difference in height, the mere sight of the midget was enough to make him shudder a little.

"C-Captain Levi Ackerman," greeted Moblit shakily as the team captain eyed him down… or up. Rather unfortunately, Levi Ackerman was a short man. His height would've been impressive… if he were a child. For a grown man, however, it was… almost impressive, honestly, as he stood shorter than even most teens. If it weren't for his reputation as being among the best Titan-slayers of the Survey Corps, Hanji doubted that anyone would take him seriously.

"Focus on getting away for now. Leave the bickering for if we survive this," commanded Levi after he stopped staring at Moblit and shot Hanji a cold glare. In response, Hanji simply chuckled nervously and scratched her cheek, prompting Levi to roll his eyes and divert his attention back to the front. Quickly, he got his horse to pick up the pace, and within seconds, it brought him up to the front of the group, right next to group's commander, leaving Hanji and Moblit behind.

"Erwin," greeted Levi, glancing over at his blonde superior as Erwin Smith kept his attention on the path ahead of him, though upon hearing his subordinate's voice, the commander in question turned and faced the shorter man. It wasn't really easy to make out, but Erwin could tell that Levi was not as calm as his expression would lead one to believe, as evident by the subtle twitch in his eyebrows and the somewhat more intense frown which was plastered on his face, though he didn't voice either observation out as he simply listened. "What's the plan?"

That question nearly made Erwin give a dry chuckle, one that was caused more by built up fear than any sort of humor. He didn't really want to admit it, but he had no proper plan at the moment. It wasn't exactly his fault, however, as it was rather hard to think of a plan when their lives were at stake. Still, he kept his expression neutral, even if Levi could tell that he was panicking a tad as well, and replied.

"Our best option is to either outrun them…" started Erwin, and his tone suggested that the option was pretty much crossed off the list as the Titans were closing the gap between them and his group with every passing second. "...or hope for someone to spot the flare and assist us from behind. Either that or we can stand our ground… and slowly be overwhelmed and consumed."

"I'm willing to put some hope on the second option," said Levi, and while it would have sounded sarcastic when said by someone else, it somehow seemed entirely serious when it came out of Levi's mouth. "Let's just focus on stretching out option one for now."

"Agreed," replied Erwin as they pressed on as quickly as their horses could carry them, hoping beyond hope that they would be able to get out of this situation with minimal casualties. But hope and the legs of their horses could only get them so far, and it didn't take long for the first Survey Corp to yell out in fear as he was scooped up into the air by a Titan. Whirling around but not stopping for even a second, a handful of the remaining soldiers gasped in horror as they saw one of their comrades, a man with brown hair tied into a short ponytail, got scooped up into the air by an eleven metre classed Titan.

"Sys!" exclaimed one of the soldiers, a Junior Survey Corp, before he slowed his horse down with every intention of turning back to try and save his Senior out of instinct. Before he could get too far, however, another Senior soldier managed to hold him back and shove him back on course. "Let me go! We can't just-"

"Shut it, rookie!" proclaimed the Senior who held him back, but despite his voice sounding just as hard as iron, there were hints of regret in his tone as he pushed the junior back on track. Diverting his gaze upwards, the Junior forced himself to look his Senior in the eye as he opened his mouth to retort, only to pause when he saw that the soldier was visibly holding back tears as he did his best to block out the horrified screams of his comrade. "Sys… Luke Sys is as good as dead! We can't save him, not with the odds stacked so heavily against us…"

Despite the heavy amount of guilt he felt at leaving Luke Sysbehind for dead, the Junior soldier reluctantly agreed to those terms. Even so, he still couldn't help but give one last saddened glance behind him, one final look at Sys as a Titan grabbed off the ground and raised him up to eye level. The junior shed a few tears, but he tried to keep them to a minimum. There would be enough time to mourn for the dead after the Expedition, and to die now would make Sys' unwilling sacrifice be for nothing.

However, while the junior was busy keeping his emotions in check, Hanji felt her ears unconsciously perked up just a bit, and before long, the woman began hearing something… something foreign to her… prompting her to close her eyes and tilted her head upwards, doing her best to try and listen to it more clearly. She's been on enough expeditions outside the Walls to remember most of the common sounds, and as such, this new noise was distinct enough to catch her attention, so much so that, beside her, Moblit took notice.

"Captain...?" he muttered, turning to Hanji, who opened her eyes and looked straight back at him with a curious gaze.

"Do you… hear that?" asked Hanji, her voice hushed as her ears perked up. Moblit tried to ignore the Titans behind him which were most likely tearing Sys apart as he tried to listen in to what Hanji was talking about. And what he heard was subtle at first, but extremely noticeable after less then a second. Opening his mouth, the man was about to ask what Hanji thought it was before a loud boom could be heard behind their formation.

Turning around at their torsos, the small group of soldiers barely caught a glimpse of silver land behind their formation, flattening a Titan in the process, before they were greeted by a powerful shockwave of dust and dirt which was strong enough to send both them and their horses flying into the air.

While a majority of their horses landed relatively safely, the Survey Corps landed a little more harshly, either rolling on the ground to reduce the impact, landing on their asses or just falling on their backs. A handful of them were able to land on their two feet, however, and despite none of them suffering any fatal injuries from the fall, it still shook the Survey Corps up quite a lot, leaving them disoriented. Even Levi and Erwin were ruffled up by that sudden impact. The one who seemed the least affected was Hanji, surprisingly enough, who quickly recovered from the fall with a shake of her head and turned it upwards to get a good look at what 'saved' them.

It took awhile for it to be visible thanks to the amount of dust and dirt that it had kicked up upon impact with the pack of Titans, but once it had cleared, Hanji, along with several other Survey Corps who had their eyes on the thing, widened them when they saw what it was.

It was nearly twenty metres tall, sticking out of the Titan it had crashed into like an oversized gravestone. In the darkness, she could vaguely make out what it looked like, a type of mace or bulky lance of sorts. The 'snout' of the weapon, the segment buried in the dissolving Titan's corpse, seemed to be damaged, revealing a sort of bladed weapon inside. There were three handles on the massive mace-like weapon, though no one present could even begin to comprehend anything using such a massive weapon. Hanji, however, was quite literally drooling at the thought of even seeing whatever could use it.

Thankfully for Zoe, however, her prayers were answered rather quickly and abruptly when that strange sound she heard became audible once more, this time much louder, coming at them from their right. Turning her head in that direction, Hanji, along with a few others who weren't too focused on the 'weapon', widened her eyes when she saw what was approaching.

While hard to make out in the darkness, Hanji could tell very clearly that it was some form of Titan, one which seemed to be hovering towards them with what seemed to be blue flames coming from the sides of it's shins and two black objects on it's hips. Even in the dark of night, Hanji could make out that it was well over 15 metres in height, standing at almost 20 metres or so, which was unheard of in Titan history. But those other features seemed almost trivial when compared to one major difference between this… thing and the Titans, and that was it's physical appearance.

For one, unlike every other Titan documented by the Military Brigade, this one appeared to be almost entirely mechanical in appearance, at least from what most of the group could see. It's chassis was predominantly white, accented with red, grey and a touch of gold. If they squinted, they could also make out a handful of dark blue accents on the unit, though Hanji, upon further observation, noticed that there was also something that resembled a sword in the 'Titan's' hand.

As for everyone else, however, the mere sight of this new… thing was more than enough to make them panic. If anything, only Hanji appeared unphased by its approach, as she gave a smile so bright it could've created an entirely new star if given the chance. Hell, even Levi and Erwin were both stunned into silence upon seeing this thing, and Moblit wasn't even trying to pull Hanji away at this point.

And right as this new 'Titan' was about to reach them, time itself appeared to slow down, and Hanji took in as much of it as possible. The massive frame of the Titan, the pink symbols on its knees and chest, the blue flames that were emitted from its shins and hip boosters that resembled their Omni Directional Maneuver Gear… there was just so much to take in!

So much so that Hanji didn't even realize that the 'Titan' had completely ignored them as it hovered straight over their heads. If anything, Hanji had only realized that it passed them when she, alongside several other Survey Corps, were hit by the aftershock created by the 'Titan's' boosters when it hovered straight past their heads.

Hanji, alongside several others who were resilient enough, was able to keep herself on her feet while most of her fellow teammates were blown straight off the ground, reflexively closing her eyes as the dirt came flying towards them. Coughing a little thanks to the dust, Hanji opened her eyes and wiped some dirt off the lense of her glasses/goggles just in time to hear something mechanical slam into something fleshy.

And as soon as she cleared the dirt off her lenses, Hanji saw that the new 'Titan' had just rammed straight into the Eleven metre Titan holding onto Luke Sys with its shoulder.

The impact didn't just make it release Sys, however. No, the shoulder tackle had completely caved in the torso of the Eleven metre Titan, something that made Hanji, alongside several others, give out an audible gasp as they watched the Titan soar backwards. As for Sys, he was flung up rather high into the air and landed with an uncomfortable thud. The soldier was still alive, though he was definitely injured. Despite their worry for him, however, none of his allies dared to approach him thanks to how close he was to the action.

As for the new 'Titan', it paid no attention to either Sys or his comrades. Instead, it focused primarily on the other Titans that were before it, with it stepping back a little, with one of its feet inching closer to Sys than he would've liked, as it fell into an apparent offensive stance.

Not long after Sys hit the ground, he struggled to get back onto his feet. Just as he was about to do so, however, the injured soldier widened his eyes and leapt backwards just in time to avoid getting crushed by the heel of the 'Titan' that had just saved him. With his mouth agape, the soldier hobbled up to his feet and limped away from the action, and once he was far enough away, a pair of soldiers rushed over to assist him.

"You alright, Sys?" inquired one of the two as they got him back into their group. Sys wasn't exactly fine, but he'd live. Unfortunately he didn't have the strength to clarify that at the moment, so he just gave a nod. "Great, now-"

And before he could even finish his sentence, he was interrupted by a loud strike. Widening their eyes, the trio reflexively turned back towards the pack of Titans, and their eyes only widened further when they saw the new mechanical thing holding a Fifteen metre Titan up to eye level.

The Fifteen metre Titan was held up in the mechanical Titan's left hand, with the digits of the 'Titan's' hand wrapped around the Titan's neck rather loosely. Despite this, it wasn't able to break free from its grip despite struggling furiously, though Hanji did notice how the Titan was grabbing at the mechanical 'Titan's' chest more so than anywhere else as it struggled.

For a brief moment, the 'Titan' simply stared its smaller and fleshy counterpart in its hand, with the awestruck soldiers staring at it in complete awe. Not long after, however, the soldiers noticed another Titan charging at its mechanical counterpart from the side. At first, they thought the 'Titan' wouldn't notice, but right at the last second, it turned its head towards the approaching Ten Metre so quickly that the soldiers thought that they were seeing things.

Before they could even blink, however, the mechanical Titan shifted its arm to the side and, with a quick swing of its arm, threw the Fifteen metre towards the encroaching Ten metre, and on impact, the two Titans exploded in a messy heap of gore before flying back. Before they could even hit the ground, however, the 'Titan' turned towards an approaching Nine metre and, with its right arm, swung its massive sword towards the Nine metre in a downwards motion, cleaving it from shoulder to hip in a single swing.

'Such power…' was the only thing that ran through Hanji's mind as the 'Titan' retracted its sword wielding arm and shifted its grip on the weapon, now holding its sword with its blade underslung its arm, and struck an incoming Fourteen metre in the jaw with the pommel of its weapon. On impact, the Fourteen metre's entire jaw promptly caved in on itself, and the Titan was sent flying up into the air. As it landed, the mechanical Titan readjusted its grip on its Longsword, now holding it properly, and held it with both its hands before stabbing it straight through the mouth of a charging Eleven metre.

Levi and Erwin were both rather puzzled by the current turn of events, though their fear of the new 'Titan' was enough to keep them at bay, and when the mechanical Titan had forced its Longsword down, in turn cleaving the Eleven metre in half from throat to crotch, the latter noticeably winced while the former twitched a little. On the other hand, however, Hanji had no such concerns as she was the one who was closest to the newcomer, her eyes wide with wonder as she watched it wipe the floor with the remaining Titans.

Every strike from this 'Titan' was precise and each blow was delivered with so much strength that nearly nothing remained after it was struck by it. The way the 'Titan' held its sword was also noteworthy, as it swung that oversized weapon in its hand almost as though it weighed nothing. The fact that it was even carrying a weapon was enough to confuse Hanji, however, as traditional Titans did not do as such. They were content with ripping humans apart with their bare hands.

And yet, here this 'Titan' was, wielding a Longsword and presumably a damaged mace. And it seemed all the better for it, as evident by how it struck down a pair of Fourteen and Five metre Titans with a pair of swings. The Fourteen metre was sliced from shoulder to hip with a single slash, and the Five metre attempted to get the jump on the taller 'Titan', only to be snatched out of the air and pinned against the ground. It struggled a little under the 'Titan's' grip, only to stop when the taller unit stabbed its Longsword through its skull with enough force to send some of the Titan's blood flying out of the wound and smearing it against its blank face.

"Amazing…" was all Hanji could cough out as she watched with a hand over her mouth and stars in her eyes, not acknowledging how the foot of this new 'Titan' had come very close to stomping her into the ground. Hell, her smile only widened further when the 'Titan's' foot came within several inches away from where she stood, and it was safe to say that she was so engrossed in looking at the thing that she didn't acknowledge how Moblit was approaching her until a severed Titan arm flew past Hanji and caused him to scream out in terror. "Oh! Moblit?"

"C-Captain, we have to-" began Moblit, only to pause mid sentence when they were hit with a massive amount of dust, causing them to shift their arms briefly to shield themselves from the dust before they lowered them and saw that the 'Titan' had retrieved its other weapon, the damaged Mace/Lance, before it swung the weapon towards a trio of Titans, swiftly reducing the three Titans into nothing more than a dark red mist, causing Hanji to squeal a little as she saw the shear strength of the mechanical Titan.

"Isn't it amazing, Moblit?!" proclaimed Hanji, spreading her arms in front of her as she witnessed the carnage that was created by the 'Titan'. Behind her, Hanji's colleagues stared at her as though she was crazy, which probably wasn't completely baseless, but the bespectacled woman paid them no mind as she watched the 'Titan' hammer down a Five metre with its mace. "This… Titan, is the first confirmed one that attacks other Titans! One that is completely mechanical in appearance as well! This is a serious piece of information, Moblit! We need to document it!"

"C-Captain!" continued Moblit, doing his best to cut his superior off and ignore the 'Titan' in the background as it ripped the arm off a Fifteen metre and began smacking it with the severed limb, in turn causing it to drop onto its back, before it brought its foot down onto its head, inadvertently killing it as the soldiers winced just a little. "We have to retreat, now!"

"And miss the chance to document more about this previously unseen Titan?!" challenged Hanji as she turned her back towards the 'Titan' in question and held Moblit by the shoulders. While she shook the young man in an effort to get her point across to him, she failed to notice the Thirteen metre Titan that lunged at her. Moblit let out a scream as soon as he saw it.

And suddenly, its lunge was interrupted when the 'Titan' clamped the jaws of its damaged weapon onto the foot of the Thirteen metre and pulled it back towards it and inadvertently saving the two in the process. Hanji was blissfully oblivious to the entire ordeal, however, as she continued babbling at Moblit, who was still recovering from the shock as he struggled to keep himself together.

"WE CAN'T MISS THIS CHANCE TO DOCUMENT A NEW SUBSPECIES OF TITAN, MOBLIT! WE CA-"

A sharp smack on the head was enough to snap her out of it, and Hanji rubbed her sore head as she inadvertently releasing Moblit's shoulders before she turned towards her aggressor, with said aggressor being unsurprisingly Levi, who was wiping the back of his hand with his ascot as he glared at her and spoke.

"Hanji, shut up, we're leaving," commanded Levi, short and simple with his tone sharp and his gaze much sharper. Hanji was reluctant to agree, but in the end, she gave a sigh, knowing that if she didn't comply, she'd be knocked out cold by the shorter man and dragged all the way back to Shiganshina. And when she woke up, she'd start to question if she had imagined the entire 'Titan' thing out of stress! And she couldn't have that!

"Fine," whined Hanji in defeat as she ran off to mount her horse, with Moblit having to ride alongside her thanks to the fact that his stallion suffered quite a hard landing. Still, she did spare the 'Titan' one final glance before they departed, and she was able to see the 'Titan' deliver one final blow to the last of the Fifteen Titans that remained with its Mace weapon before slamming the weapon down into the ground, snout first, and causing a minor earthquake all the while.

And Hanji, alongside several others who kept their gaze on the 'Titan' as they retreated felt a shiver go up their spines when it turned its head to stare back at them. Its bright green eyes were cold enough to make even Levi wince, though before long, they found themselves tearing their gazes off the 'Titan' as they refocused on retreating back to Shiganshina.

'That was certainly… something,' was the first thought that ran through Mika's mind as he glanced over at the retreating soldiers via Barbatos' optics.

How strange, to be seeing soldiers on horseback. Mika wasn't too educated on human history, though he had a feeling that they didn't exactly use horses much anymore. The thought of Orga atop a horse made the boy grin ever so slightly, though before long, he found himself getting just a bit confused.

At first, he found his confusion to be directed towards the soldiers on horseback. They were dressed so differently when compared to the people he fought against in the past, and those strange things on their hips raised more questions as well. Before long, however, yet another question popped up in his mind as he frowned just a little deeper.

Why… why did he help those people? That was a question that ran through the boy's mind as he stared at the retreating soldiers, some of whom were still glancing back at Barbatos with fear incredibly apparent in their eyes, apparently assuming that it would follow them, and for a brief second, Mika did consider it...

It was most likely a byproduct of desperation. Seeing a group of living humans in this otherwise barren wasteland, infested by massive things that could only be very charitably called humans, was a relief. If anything, Mika suspected that if they had not fled before he killed the last giant human, or 'Titan', as he had overheard one of the soldiers call them, he would have rather willingly revealed himself without hesitation.

That thought alone made Mika give a bitter chuckle as he shook his head. It was a terrible plan, and he knew it, but he was desperate. If the soldiers could lead him to some form of civilization which would let him contact Tekkadan, as unlikely as that was considering how their primary form of transportation appeared to be horses of all things, Mika would have gladly revealed himself to gain their trust and have a chance at rejoining his team.

But perhaps… he didn't need to gain their trust if he wished to be led towards civilization. If he remembered correctly, he thought that one of the soldiers had mentioned a place known as Shiganshina. The name sounded strange, which made Mika assume that it was a human settlement or a village, as villages tended to have odd names. Chryse was a good example of this.

Perhaps, Mika could follow those humans back to this Shiganshina structure… it was a longshot, of course, seeing as how Mika was never one for stealth, nor was his Mobile Suit designed to be stealthy, as evident by the power symbols and white armour it had, but he reckoned that it would be better than nothing.

'Well, it's worth a shot, I guess.'

Don't call it a comeback.

So yes, I have returned from God knows where.

Alright, on a more serious topic, I've been gone because of one reason, four words, Digimon Story; Cyber Sleuth. Ever since I got that game, it has taken over my life. Probably my nostalgia for Digimon, honestly. Even so, I've been updating this for a long time too. I mean, I uploaded the wrong chapter last time, so I had to make up for that somehow.

(If you're wondering, I did take inspiration from the Transformers; ROTF Forest Battle for one of the battle paragraphs in this chapter)

Also, I should probably say that Hanji is gonna be a she in this fic, cos reasons.

And as an unimportant note, I watched Justice League a couple a' days ago. It was enjoyable.

Onto the replies before my fever comes back.

xXgohanXx21: thanks :

Bloodege2001: well, here's more

Ulydace: I kinda responded to him via a private message, but I still gotta say that I do agree on that. And also I'm a little happy about finally getting criticism.

So yes, that's all I gotta say. See ya later, and go to my pal, Fortresshunter's, profile. He's a good chap.

Edited on: 26/11/2020 with help from proofreader; Renn