A/N: Here it is folks. The main part of RtoS has come to an end. And the Arc itself is about to wrap up in about a chapter or two, leaving only one chapter for the 'memories' scene (This chapter is going to be some MAJOR spoilers for the manga, I suggest you skip if you want to avoid them). After that, its fucking go time.
Super Comrade: Yep, pretty much everyone in this episode either committed suicide or tried to commit suicide.
Music
1. Before Lights Out | Erwin's Charge Theme
2. 2Volt | Levi vs Beast Titan Theme
3. T-KT
Return to Shiganshima Part IV: Perfect Game
1. "Line up recruits!" Erwin stood on top of the box, "I will now announce our final mission! We will now mount a cavalry charge on the Beast Titan! Our goal: rush the three Marleyan Titans - The Beast, Female, and Cart! Of course, this will make us ideal targets. So we'll wait until the Beast Titan is ready to throw, then we'll fire our smoke signals together and spread out. Hopefully reducing his accuracy. While we act as decoy, Mina Karolina and Hauptmann Levi will flank the enemy warriors in the hopes of taking them out."
He was met with incredulous stares, and dead silence. Sandra, a recruit, threw up on the ground.
"Standing and waiting means we'll only be showered by more boulders, Prepare to move out!"
Floch then stepped forward, "Be honest…are we really…going to die?"
"Yes." Erwin replied, eliciting several gasps from the recruits.
"So you're saying…that if we're going to die anyway…it's better we die fighting?"
"I am." Erwin said to Floch.
"But wait, we can just disobey your orders, since we're all going to die anyway." He choked out, tears of fear welling in his eyes, "It wouldn't matter, would it?"
"Precisely." Erwin said to him, "Everything you thought had meaning, every hope, dream, and moment of happiness you ever celebrated. None of it will change what a speeding rock does to a body, none of it will change what a bullet is designed to do. We all die. Be it today, tomorrow, or thirty or fourty years from now, everyone dies." Erwin told them, "But does that mean our lives are meaningless? That there is no point in our ever being born? Would you say that to our fallen comrades? Were their lives meaningless?"
1- "The answer: They were not! Because it is us, the living who give them meaning! In remembrance, in honoring their name, in continuing to fight in their memory!"
"And as we ride to certain death-" He mounted a horse, and the other recruits did the same "-we trust the living to do the same for us!"
The Scouts rode out, screaming at the Titans in front of them, and firing their smoke guns as the bullets began to rain down from the Cart Titan and
"Because Eldians do not accept their fate! They do not accept the whims of a cruel world! Eldians rage! Eldians scream! Eldians Fight!" Erwin screamed, right as bullets ripped through his horse and a rock pierced the right side of his abdomen. 1x
"Alright, go wake up Alto and Ymir! Have them help you draw off Reiner! Give me those 4 thunder spears and I'll wake up Eren, then we will beat Bertholdt!" Armin looked at them, a glow shining in his blue eyes.
Jean smiled in relief, "I thought we were goners there…"
Mikasa smiled at Armin, "Right!"
Armin headed up to the Attack Titan, and stood over the part of the throat in front of the nape and inhaled.
"If I do this, I probably won't get to look at the sea." Armin noted, "But still, thinking about the outside world…despite the enemies that lurk beyond it…gives me strength!" He plunged his blade through the throat and into Eren's shoulder.
Surprisingly, the Attack Titan didn't thrash like Trost. And Armin continued, "Eren! I need you to listen closely…"
"...and that's the plan. And don't worry, I'll pull out once it gets too hot. I still want to see the sea after all!" Armin said
'Armin…' Eren didn't like the plan, but he understood that it was their best shot. And besides, if all went well…
"This battle…is ours for the taking!" Armin turned to glare at the oncoming Colossal Titan.
"Reiner." One of the Warhammer Titans came up to him, "You had to transfer your consciousness to your body. Are you alright?"
Reiner emerged from the nape, "I'm mostly fine, but I can't remember anything that happened since we parted ways with Bertholdt. What happened?"
"Hauptmann Alexander was right. The Eldian Kaiserreich has new hand-held Anti-Titan Weapons. Flying bombs of some kind. They used them to get the drop on both of us."
"I see, so what's the plan now?"
"The same. Capture the Eldian Titan Shifters." Evangelica looked towards the oncoming Scouts and Royal Guards.
Summoning a sling, she materialized several crystal balls of hardening, and - using it - threw a scatter shot of hardened ammunition.
She got a Royal Guard and a Scout, but the rest ducked into the houses, dodging the rest.
Suddenly, without warning, Ymir leapt up behind her, and slashed the first clone's nape. Not disabling it, but taking it by surprise.
'What the-?!' Evangelica wondered, 'She's supposed to be out cold!' The clone slammed its back into a house, but Ymir jumped off before then, and went for her chest, drawing a series X-shaped claw marks on her chest and causing it to stagger back.
Alto then proceeded to ambush Reiner with a hardened punch to the jaw, cracking the armor there. Reiner, in response, launched a sweeping kick, hoping to send Alto off balance, but Alto then proceeded to unleash a gust of flame and temporarily blind Reiner.
The second clone jumped behind Alto, and grabbed his neck in a chokehold, but Alto quickly clawed at its arms, using the hardening to break through the Warhammer's Armor and leave a deep gash on both arms.
"Petra! Isabel!" Alto shouted, and they suddenly appeared below the Warhammer Titan, and fired their Thunder Spears at their heel where the cable was connected, and blew it up, causing both to collapse.
'How?!' Evangelica wondered, 'They figured out I wasn't in the nape?!'
Suddenly, Ambros landed on the remains of the cable, and ran along it, following into a small den formed in the rubble.
Sure enough, as he approached it, spikes attempted to impale him, but he quickly dodged them all.
'Evangelica…are you in there?' He wondered, he landed on top of the rubble, and drove his ODM blade through, and he heard a metallic clang. "Hardening." He muttered to himself, of course it wouldn't be that easy. He pulled out a signal flare and fired right as he dodged another spike.
Alto slashed at Reiner, leaving a long scratch on his chest armor.
"Damn it….I need to watch out for Ymir, Alto, and flying bombs?" He tch'ed. Going in for a kick at Altos' side, instead, his leg was grabbed and Alto tossed him into a house.
Roaring, he quickly got up, but Ymir pounced on his face, and slashed one of his eyes.
"Get 'im!" She roared, and immediately, the Scouts descended on him.
A Thunder Spear from Jean impacted the left of his Jaw, while Sasha fired one that was aimed for his right.
Suddenly, Reiner raised his hand and batted the spear aside, allowing it to explode harmlessly to the side.
"What?!" Sasha gasped,
"Oh, we're not done yet!" Someone suddenly came up from behind her, and fired a thunder spear dead on the right Jaw. It detonated and Reiner's mouth hinged open.
Mikasa slid on his tongue, "This is the end, Reiner." She whispered.
She clicked a trigger, and the light of a Thunder Spear descended down his throat.
"Generalleutenant!" Floch shouted as he watched Erwin roll off his horse.
"Don't look back! Keep charging!" Marlowe shouted at him.
The Scouts, now leaderless, continued charging.
"It's coming!" Marlowe shouted "Fire!" He raised his signal flare and fired.
Time seemed to slow… "Everything you thought had meaning, every hope, dream, and moment of happiness you ever celebrated. None of it will change what a speeding rock does to a body, none of it will change what a bullet is designed to do. We all die." Erwin's words played in a gruesome loop in his head.
'Oh..' He watched as the Beast Titan wound up for another pitch, the light of bullets whizzed by him.
'Hey…I wonder…what's Hitch doing?'
That was his last thought as his horse pitched over, and everything went dark.
"Keep firing!" Alexander ordered, rapidly turning and swerving his machine gun, aiming at the seemingly endless wave of Eldians.
'What the hell?! They're charging us?!' Alex couldn't have predicted this, he'd heard tales of Hizurian 'banzai' charges from veterans of the many island skirmishes between Marley's Far Western colonies and the Hizurian Shogunate.
Now he knew what it was like to be on the wrong end of such a charge.
Alexander panted, he could barely think, and his hands seemed to move on their own as they continued to fire the machine gun that mowed down line after line of Eldian cavalry.
"How sad…" Zeke noted as he picked up and crushed another boulder "King Reiss deprived them of their pasts, and as such, are only doomed to make the same foolish mistakes."
'What is Zeke talking about?' Alexander wondered, and Zeke continued, seemingly monologuing to himself.
"This is the ultimate fate of the walls. Young and old, pouring out in a suicide charge, because if they are going to die, they might as well do so proudly…" Zeke's tone darkened with…was it anger? Alexander had never heard the Warchief genuinely angry before. "What bullshit!" He crushed the rocks in his hand to dust, eliciting a gasp from Alexander.
"Oops." Zeke said sheepishly, "I got too worked up, Pieck, mind passing me another rock?" Pieck nodded, nudging a rock to him before returning to position.
"Thank you." Zeke said, grinding it up, he wound up, and threw once again.
Dust, blood, and signal smoke seemed to mix in a greenish-red hazy mix, as the rocks landed and bullets flew. Shredding even more of the Eldian Scouts.
"Now that's a shutout!" Zeke cheered, "A Perfect Game!"
'Why don't they try to run?!' Alexander asked himself. What was the point? What was possibly greater than their own lives? Their pride? Their nation? Was this what the devils of Paradis were? Barbarians who threw thousands of their own away for their national pride?
"I can't see! The smoke is getting too thick" One Panzer Unit soldier said,
"Just keep firing!" Alexander ordered, he shook his head, he was wandering from the task at hand. He placed his eye down the sight and continued firing, at first, it seemed like it had died down.
Then, screaming, a few remaining Eldians on horseback continued charging. They were scattered, and their movements and smoke signals weren't as coordinated as before. But they kept screaming, and they kept firing.
And they kept moving forward.
"What…the hell?!" Zeke roared in frustration, "What do they expect to accomplish with those toy guns?!" He picked up another rock and began to grind it. "And that incessant screaming…what good could any of it possibly do?!" He threw the rock in a scattershot fashion, and the Cart Titan's gunners took care of the remaining cavalry who were foolish enough to keep coming.
"And…so it ends." Zeke bowed his head as the screaming finally died down, and the smoke began to clear.
2. Suddenly, he heard the sound of a wire being shot out, hooking onto something, a faint gurgle, and finally the sound of a body being dragged out and the wire being reeled in.
"What the…?" He stood, and turned around. "What happened?"
"I dunno Captain!" One of the soldiers responded,
"I'm alright here!"
Alex realized one voice was missing.
"Lionel?" He asked, "Lionel!" He shouted,
Suddenly, something zipped behind him. 'What the…?!'
"We're under attack!" Pieck came too, rapidly searching for the enemy, but the smoke obscured their vision.
"My Titans…have fallen?" Zeke asked in confusion, he seemed to be slow to realize what was happening.
He was quickly roused out of his daze by the sound of two shotguns being fired, and the metallic whistle of something being fired.
"Guys!" And suddenly, Alexander was flung as something exploded behind his bunker.
"They destroyed two of my bunkers!" Pieck cried out,
Zeke roared as he moved to counter another opponent that had begun an assault on him. Slashing at the enigmatic enemy with his claws, the smoke seemed to clear, and Alexander became horribly aware of the situation.
The cavalry charge, the smoke signals, the screaming, none of it was pointless. They'd turned their own psychology against them, by making as much noise and doing as much as possible, they'd forced them to focus on them solely, as their Titan escorts we're slaughtered one by one!
"What's wrong?" A girl said standing on top of the bunker. "Bad angle?"
Alexander began to sweat, "Who are you…?" Her voice reminded Alexander of a wolf, circling cornered prey.
"You should've asked that question when you came to this Island." He heard the sound of a jet being fired, and suddenly, things turned to a blur.
Pieck was cut rapidly and randomly, and all Alexander could do was watch helplessly as the relentless assault continued.
'Pieck!' Was his final thought as something rocketed behind him and sent him flying outwards.
Mina fired a third thunder spear into one of the two remaining bunkers on the Cart Titan's back.
"This is for all the people you killed!" Mina continued her rapid assault, slashing and cutting anything possible, the straps that held her armor together, her flesh.
The Cart Titan roared as it's armor shedded off in damaged pieces around it. Ducking under the Cart Titan itself, Mina continued her rapid assault, taking out it's feet and hands in quick succession, causing it to fall. It was vulnerable!
Mina rapidly switched with Levi, taking a chunk out of the Beast Titan's knee pit and causing it to fall as well before flinging back around with Thunder Spears in hand.
2- "Sieg Eldia!" She howled as she fired the two directly at the disabled Cart Titan's nape. She rapidly pulled out her final one and fired it again for good measure.
Out of the steaming ruins, a girl with black hair similar to hers dragged herself out, clearly injured.
Mina wasted no time in subduing her. Cutting her arms off quickly, she held the blade to her throat.
Mina couldn't help herself, with an ear-to-ear wolfish grin of victory, she gleefully said to the Warrior-
"I got you…Cart Titan!" 2x
Reiner was flung out of the nape of the Armored Titan in a steaming heap, landing on the ground some meters away, Scouts and Royal Guards proceeded to quickly subdue him.
"Hanji…you're alive?" Ambros asked,
"Every battle needs a miracle." Hanji said dismissively, "Moblit just happened to be mine. He pushed me into a well, but not before…" She touched her ruined right eye.
"Alto can heal you most likely." Jean noted, "I wish I could say the same about the others we lost…" He looked towards Eren and Armin.
"All we can do now…is rely on them."
"Remember, I got to call it quits when things get rough. After all, I'm no hero." Armin scoffed,
'No…Armin, that's where you're wrong…' Eren wanted to tell him, but Armin stood up, and continued.
"Alright Eren! Leap on him!" Armin shouted, Eren stood up, and roared but suddenly, a loose peace of the wall gave out below him.
"Eren!" Armin said in panic, the Attack Titan desperately tried to claw for a grip, but only slid down and landed head first in the rubble left behind by the boulder Zeke threw into the inner gate.
"As I expected." Bertholdt noted sadly, "Eren is still too weak to do anything. And now he's probably concussed," He raised a hand, "Enough, let's end this!"
The Colossal slammed his hand into the part of the Wall where Armin was seconds earlier, only for him to dodge at the last second.
Armin then proceeded to latch on to his teeth with his ODM hooks, unbeknownst to Bertholdt.
3. "Armin…" Bertholdt looked on his old friend sadly, "You were brave…until the very end." He bowed his head, as the Colossal glowed orange as it emitted large amounts of almost fiery heat and steam.
"What?" He wondered, "Why hasn't he blown away yet? The muscle should've melted enough by now…"
Armin covered his face with his hands. 'I knew it! The bones aren't being consumed.
'Armin…is this it? All your knowledge, all your wisdom, and your last resort…is to get scorched to death like this?' Bertholdt thought to himself, 'If only you were one of us…'
'Crap…I can't breathe…I need…to let go!' He opened one eye slightly, already cracked with burns, and saw Bertholdt still had more muscle to burn through, 'I can't though…not yet!'
'What is he trying to accomplish…a diversion? But Eren is still beat to a pulp over there! Mikasa and the rest can't get here in time to help, so…is there nothing else to it? Is this just one last suicide charge?!' Bertholdt closed his eyes 'If so…I'll make it quick then.' He drastically increased the steam, but still, Armin refused to let go.
3- 'I can't…I won't! Eren…I…entrust it all to you! My hopes, my dreams! Live! Live the life we always wanted! Be free! I'm sure of it…you…will reach the sea!' With that, Armin's hand finally caught fire, and he was forced to let go. His body seemingly nothing more than a charred corpse.
"It's over…" Bertholdt sighed, "Next is Eren and the horse-" He looked down and gasped, and realized Armin's plan all too late.
'He hardened as soon as he hit the ground? That means!' He barely had time to register it before Eren appeared in front of him,
"You bastard!" He screamed, he fired the first thunder spear into his teeth, creating an opening, and the second was sent flying down his throat, and destroyed the nape from the inside out.
The remaining Scouts looked up as the Colossal Titan collapsed, and began to steam.
Eldia…had won.
Excerpt from "The Second Great Titan War - The Origin"
The Battle of Shiganshina, more commonly referred to as the Return to Shiganshina, was the bloodiest battle of the First Paradis Operation. Out of the nearly 2,000 combined Scouts and Royal Guards only seventeen would make it back.
Nonetheless, this marked the beginning of the end for the one-hundred year reign of the Marleyan Empire. With this battle, Marley's Warrior Unit was not only forced to leave Paradis Island, as their Titan resources had been virtually wiped out over the past two months, but they lost one of their most valuable assets - the Colossal Titan - to the Eldian Kaiserreich.
They would also lose one of their greatest heroes, Hauptmann Alexander Le'Chaun, a Francian Officer serving in the Marleyan Army as the commander of the Panzer Unit, also dubbed the Baron of Steel, would be listed as MIA during the battle.
The Battle of Shiganshina
Combatants:
Combatants; The Eldian Kaiserreich
Scout Regiment
1,900 Scouts
- Attack Titan
Eldian Royal Guards
100 Guardsmen
Titan Shifters
- Jaw Titan
- Flare Titan
Combatants; The Principality of Marley
Warrior Unit
60 Titans
- Warhammer Titan
- Beast Titan
- Colossal Titan
- Cart Titan (full armored complement)
- Female Titan
- Armored Titan
Leaders:
Leaders; The Eldian Kaiserreich
Scout Regiment
Generalleutnant Erwin Smith
- Oberst Hanji Zoe
- Oberst Ambros Lange
Eldian Royal Guard
Generalfeldmarschall Alto Burke
Leaders; Principality of Marley
Warrior Unit
Warchief Zeke Jaeger (Beast Titan)
Vice-Warchief Evangelica Tybur (Warhammer Titan)
Casualties:
Casualties; Eldian Kaiserreich
Scout Regiment
1,887 Scout Regiment killed
15 injured
Eldian Royal Guard
95 Royal Guardsmen killed
5 injured
Casualties; The Principality of Marley
Warrior Unit
60 Titans slain
- Armored Titan (Injured)
- Beast Titan (Injured)
- Cart Titan (Injured)
- Colossal Titan (Captured, later executed via Titan inheritance following the battle)
Official Wiki Link
the-official-flare-titan .fandom. com