After the mid-eastern forces were driven out of their reinforced positions and thanks to Leo they've changed their goals to other targets, Marley managed to pacify the area completely.
"Congratulations men! You've fought bravely, you've shed your blood for our nation and your work has been rewarded! The revolutionaries and the mid-eastern forces have been pushed back out of our borders. Rejoice, raise your cups and cheer for we are victorious!" The generals were shouting as the soldiers were partying. Once the great bombard cannon was destroyed Zeke guided numerous units of titans into mid-eastern territory stopping the revolts and enforcing peace.
"Tell us again, tell us again. How was Leo yelling when the shell was heading your way?"
"I was frozen on the spot, I didn't knew what to do. For a second I thought about turning into the Cart titan, biting Leo off his seat and running as far away as I could. But he, but he..." Pieck stops from telling the story and burst laughing. "He was screaming in terror yet still aiming the cannon and firing at the shell in mid-air."
"What would you have done if your attack missed?"
"I would have haunted the dreams of whoever is laughing at me. Damnation, an earth shattering shell was heading straight for me. I'm not colossal or armoured titan to survive that, of course I started screaming like a little girl!"
"Are you starting to envy us then?" Zeke says closing in on the soldiers who were partying. It was a small group gathered around a bonfire near the edge of the camp. There was Leo, Pieck, Pieck's weapon crew and now Zeke.
"Yeah, I really miss the chance to turn into a monkey. Tell me, do you get the craving to eat a banana while in that form?"
"No, but I do get a weird craving to scratch my ass every time I transform. I'm not talking even about the titan, my human body inside the nape is all itchy and I can't scratch my ass without tearing my titan body to pieces."
"You should report that to the titan science division. Maybe your magical ass is what lets you control pure titans Yeager."
"General!"
"Relax, I'm not here to ruin your fun, quite the contrary. I'm here to make you celebrate even harder. You see, thanks to your actions in this war you've all been promoted. That comes with a raise in salary and a tax cut."
"Does it come with a birthday celebration too? We've fought for nearly a year!"
"Damn, a whole year? When did it all past by?"
"Of course you'd think it passed by fast. You were half of the time asleep or under sedatives."
"It doesn't matter... Changing subject. You're also receiving war medals for your actions and with those come a secondary, direct money prize. You can either receive it when you leave the camp or withdraw it at a bank. I'm saying that because, you're to be dismissed on leave. Not now, in a month once we're completely sure there are no more dangers in the area. One month from now you can chose to head back to Liberio or head out back home. You'll have at least two weeks free before being recalled to arms. So think wisely, what are you going to do with the money and where are you going to spend it. That doesn't apply to you warriors, one month from now we're going to restart out campaign to the west. We'll be leaving from Goryeo and head out south."
"Oh no, I'll miss you demons so much, especially you Zeke and your magical ass."
"We can't all be as useful as us Warriors are to Marley. Some tools after a while simply lose their lustre." Zeke says to provoke Leo.
"Luckily for us, some tools can be sharpened again after thirteen years and don't have to be discarded for a new pair." "One month. I have one month to find out where the Tyburs are and form a plan to steal the Warhammer titan."
After celebration most of the main bulk of the army left spreading back through Marley rather than staying concentrated in the south. It was very quite and also very fruitful. Under the guise of creating new titan weapons Leo could work in secret on his three dimensional manoeuvrer gear. Thanks to the memories he inherited from Hange and to modern technology available in Marley he could create a model fit for his necessities. Even after a year his right hand didn't healed. The most basic functions were incredibly hard for him and something as easy as grasping things was a struggle. The 3DM gear he created, instead of being activated by the press of two different buttons at the hilt of the swords was activated by a switch behind his back which Leo could move using his right hand. It was completely useless in combat so he had to redesign the harness and the gas fans around that. His model of 3DM gear had a harness behind with a mechanical piston that locked his right hand in place. Once the hand was locked it could spin a small gyroscope behind his back in order to aim the hooks and wires of the gear. Only his left hand could carry a blade so on the right side of his body he would carry spare blades while on the left side there will be the gas tank. He can't use the more modern design of the gear since the gas tank was on his back but there was no space because of his hand. Creating the gear wasn't especially hard and using it was a joke considering how he had the memories of most of the scouts in his head.
What Leo couldn't do however was to take himself seriously. How in the world was he going to fight the Warhammer titan with that getup? Could captain Levi fight the Warhammer without any thunder-spears and even then Leo would have to construct them from scratch. One day however he came up with an idea.
"Monkey boy, can your get hard?"
"Is this some form of sexual harassment?"
"Your titan, can it crystallise?"
"I can harden part of my bodies if I concentrate on it yes."
"Great, then we have a volunteer for some weapon testing. You see, while I was fighting alongside Pieck, while having my years, flesh and limbs torn away by explosions, I couldn't help but notice that the Cart titan isn't the sturdiest of titans. It needs armour and we need to compare titan hardening with what modern weapons can destroy. We'll blow up your limbs with increasingly strong explosives to see what calibre of shell and how much explosive is dangerous to titans."
Thanks to his half truth, Leo by day would try destroying Zeke's crystal with explosives and by night he would design weapons capable of replicating the same outcome. What he created barely looked like a bomb though. Through his experiments Leo discovered that simple explosives were not enough to damage a titan's crystal. Of course one could use a whole room worth of explosives to destroy a titan's body but he needed something smaller and more effective. Thus he resorting to a highly volatile compound called PETN. Using such explosives is a ridiculously dangerous task. Although they are harder to ignite than regular TNT, the PETN is up to eighty times more dangerous than the former. It is impossible to find a safe way to launch a PETN filled shell with a cannon since it could explode while being fired destroying the whole weapon as well as everyone around it. Thus, the only thing he could create were sticky bombs.
That was the most reasonable strategy he could come up with, use the 3DM gear in combination with packs of PETN explosive coated in glue to destroy the Warhammer's body then finally devour the user once exhausted.
After one long month of gruelling work and training Leo finally had the weapons, the plan and the gear necessary to hopefully take down the Warhammer titan, all he needed now was a target.
While he was busy doing all that his allies infiltrated numerous large cities uncovering weaknesses in Marley's defense but not where the Tybur family was located. However, it was not through the hard work of expert spies that they've discovered where the Tyburs lived but thanks to coincidence. It so happened that one day while travelling through the Marleyan countryside a group of mid-eastern spies disguised as nomads happened upon two travellers who's carriage was broken down. They helped the unfortunate souls out and while working on replacing the wheel of the cart they've discovered the two worked as servants at the Tybur's family mansion. Unsurprisingly the Tybur family lives near the capital. The location is quite near the centre of Marley where the weather is warm and only mountains are covered in snow during the winter. They don't live exactly inside the capital but near the edge, behind a small mountain range. The capital ends at the base of the mountain and at the top there is a small village which borders on the edge of the Tybur's forest. Now, what spies learnt from actually doing their jobs however was a lot more troublesome. The village is completely ignorant about who the Tyburs are or what is their place in the world. For everyone inside the village they are simply a rich family living there. The forest however, that's a scary place. There are guards living inside the forest, more animal than human. Every single member of the Tybur's guard is a veteran soldier who fought in the most difficult wars. Each individual is at least one head taller than the average man, is an expert in hand to hand combat, ranged combat, survival, trapping, scouting. To put it simply, each individual soldier is a one man army and there's an army of them.
"Well, that would be all I can do here!" Leo says finishing the last touches to Pieck's new titan armour. "Next time get yourself a titan that is actually good at something besides carrying things around."
"Right, next time I'll get the Colossal titan and the Armoured titan together. I'll have captain Zeke throw me in the air then I'll fall on top of the enemy like a meteorite!"
"No, that's actually a genius strategy. I could fill barrels with pure titan shifters then have them fall from the sky on top of our enemies."
"And you wonder why every thinks Eldians have no soul. Throwing their brethren at the enemy as pure titans... They'll have to make two special places in hell for you. One for thinking something like this up and a second for witchcraft."
"So, where are you going now that you're on leave?"
"I'm heading for the capital. I want to see the place where Helos took down the devil of all earths and enjoy two weeks without any Eldians around me about to turn into titans and eat me for dinner."
"Oh. Remember to get me a souvenir from your trip." Zeke says mockingly.
"A roll of toilet paper for your magical ass. I'll mail it to you on the western continent so you can use it to wipe your ass while freezing up north!"
"Enjoy your leave!" Pieck says cheering him on.
"Enjoy not blowing to pieces! You're all going to die without me!" Leo salutes them and gets on the train which will drop him in the capital. He puts his luggage on the upper shelves and sinks in his seat. He has a grim, joyful expression on his face.
"All Eldians shall be freed, I'll save even you monsters." His expression quickly turns sour. "I've become like you haven't I? Tell me, Rainer, Bertolt, Annie... did you ever felt kinship with the scouts or was it all a rouse?" "What am I becoming? I'm starting to see them as my comrades." Leo says wiping his face with his left arm. A man sits in front of him on the opposite seat.
"Peace be with you brother." The man shows him his palm and there was a tear pattern tattooed inside.
"Right... I cannot start doubting myself now. Is the plan in motion? Are we able to do it?"
"It is. We've received your messages, our men are gathering as we speak around the capital and the Tybur's mansion. We are ready to capture the Warhammer titan." The two men silently whisper inside the empty wagon afraid someone would somehow find out about their secrets. Back in the south however, news are brought to the generals just about to head west.
"General! We've just received news, Hizuru invaded the islands between Goryeo and the mainland."
"Are they declaring war on us? We've had those islands in our sight for a very long time now."
"Quite the opposite sir. They are... willing to trade them with us. What they want in return is a peace agreement between Marley and Hizuru."
"Peace? We aren't even at war! Hm, crafty as ever, they seek to direct our gaze elsewhere by jumping in front of us. Well, I guess that saves us one long trip to Goryeo and back."
"Peace negotiations will be discussed between statesmen soon enough. Damn and I just ruined the Warriors' occasion to return home for once."
The next day Leo was already in the capital plotting how to take down the Warhammer titan. The mid-eastern soldiers were arming themselves to fight off against the guards inside the forest while Leo was getting ready for the two most crucial operations in his lifetime: He had to either infiltrate inside the house, take everyone down before their discovered him or to fight the Warhammer titan one on one.