{1.} There will be humour in this story. You've likely already noticed some already. You will continue to see it, since I don't want this fic to turn into a dark, gloomy, angst-filled 'what is hope anymore' type of fanfic, where there's too much work and tragedy and absolutely no calm or fun moments, where we can and should remind ourselves that the characters are still human (well, so to speak, since Blake is technically a Faunus). Also, I've only just realised there's a more accurate word for what I don't want this fic to be: grimdark.

{2.} If anyone has any questions for me, preferably about this fic, I will write answers for them at the end of some chapters. Kind of like a Q&A. And, I will also put your questions in along with the answers. Unless you don't want your questions answered in a chapter, that is, and if that's the case, PM me. If you don't mind having your questions being shown and answered in the chapters, then just leave a regular review, and I'll get back to you.

{3.} By the way, I've been wondering what the Semblances would be for some of the characters namely Mikasa, Jean, and possibly Erwin. Though this won't come into effect until later, I may need some ideas for a Semblance that would fit with each character. However, this isn't a request, and I won't force you to submit your ideas. But, if you choose to help me in figuring out the character's Semblances, or if you simply give me some concept ideas for a character's Semblance, I would love to give you a shoutout as a kind of 'thank you', if you want one. And I say that because some people may have reasons why they don't want to be recognised for their help perhaps they don't want the attention. That said, whether you'd like a shout-out or not, please let me know if you have any ideas that you'd like to share with me.

{4.} Also, for anyone who wants to make fanart, I just want to make clear that in regards to Shaye's character design, I wrote the description of her back in chapter one with the idea of her appearance being some sort of cross between Christa/Historia and Naminé from Kingdom Hearts.


Blake Belladonna


Blake cast the ribbon around her left hand at the Titan before her, which stood a little over ten metres. The ribbon wrapped around its head, a resounding slap audible as the ribbon pulled taut, pressing into the skin of its nose, ears, and the back of its dull-brown head of hair. With a hard yank of the ribbon, gripping the elastic fabric in an iron-clad hold, she pulled the Titan's head forward and down, and exposed the back of its neck.

To anyone of the soldiers, staying low on the ground while fighting the Titans might be the equivalent of suicide, but Blake did not happen to be a soldier. Besides, her skills were somewhat more advanced than those of the soldiers, too, so she fancied her's and Squall's chances of survival better. That being said, it still happened to be raining, so they still needed to stay alert.

Squall pounced from the top of the highest tower of HQ, diving down before pushing into a spin. Again, a steel-blue streak followed Revolver's blade through the Titan's nape.

As the Titan's eyes rolled back into its head, Blake tugged her ribbon, watching it unwind from around the Titan's head. It drew back towards her, and she followed by unsheathing Gambol Shroud.

A Titan approached Blake from a little far behind. Its large, rough footfalls caused the ground to quake and tremble with each step. Sparing a glance behind her, Blake found the Titan to be around fourteen or fifteen metres in height, with a rather lanky form and shaggy, dark hair which almost reached its shoulders.

"Blake! Throw me at it!" Squall called, prompting Blake to whirl in his direction. He was standing atop the back of the dead Titan's head, the Titan starting to decay as it lay face-down on the pavement.

"Got it!" Blake's katana folded to form the chain-scythe. She tossed it at him, keeping a hold on the ribbon attached to the bottom of the hilt. As he wrapped his hand around the hilt, the ribbon pulled taut, and with a hard yank, she hauled him off the Titan corpse and into a wide rotation, like she usually did with Yang. Upon twirling to face the live fifteen-metre again, she yelled, "GO!" and swung Squall in its direction.

Squall released the hilt and launched forth toward the Titan. He raised Revolver in front of him, his gloved palm pressed against the blade.

"Renzokuken!"

Squall swung as he darted past the Titan, tearing off its left arm at the elbow, before darting back and slicing off its right arm. His foot barely grazed the ground when he shot forth again, taking off its right leg, then doubling back to claim its left. He skidded across the pavement, legs apart as he dragged his boots and gloved fingers along the ground, Revolver poised in his other hand, while the Titan began to bowl forward. He sprang upward, then, and tore off the Titan's head with a single slice and an accompanying blue streak. The now-decapitated head dropped and rolled across the pavement, while Squall doubled back, again, piercing the weak-spot using an upward, diagonal swing before he darted past the neck, an explosion erupting from the wound in his wake.

"Rough Divide," he called out as if it answered anything, his voice low and deep, but still somewhat loud.

The force of the blast smoothly propelled him forward, back towards Blake.

The headless Titan corpse careened face-first into the ground, crashing into and cracking the stone.

He skidded to a halt almost-coolly beside her and resumed to resting Revolver on his shoulder again. How his shoulder didn't ache, she had no idea.

"We should go up to the rooftops. That explosion's bound to draw some attention," he told her, raising his head. She followed the direction of his gaze, only to find he was staring at the shattered window of the tower.

Mina was poking her head out of the window, facing them both. "Guys! You should come up here! There are even more Titans on the way and both of you are soaked through thanks to this rain! You might want to come inside and dry off for a second instead of standing out there waiting for them to show up!"

"She does have a point. I've been so focused on fighting that I haven't even noticed my clothes are sticking to me," Blake pointed out, looking down at herself and the state of her clothes. Thanks to the rain, her shirt had become so soaked that it was fairly wrinkled and sticking to her skin. Her hair was matted to her forehead, while the rest of her hair was matted to her back. Water was also starting to seep through the fabric of her bow, so much so her cat ears were growing damp and water was starting to drip through, onto her ears.

She spared a glance at Squall beside her.

The fur collar of his cropped jacket looked darker and matted, raindrops dripping down his back. The leather of his jacket and pants seemed to protect him somewhat, though the material seemed to glint in a few places along the fair amount of wrinkles down his legs and arms. His hair, aside from being absolutely soaked, the end of each strand dripping water onto his fur collar and face, looked more droopy and shaggy, almost hanging over his left eye. His white shirt clung to his skin, the front of it wet enough to make it rather... see-through, really. Then again, she probably should've expected at least this much to happen, given Squall choice of fashion. Weiss would probably be battling the same issue right now, given her propensity for wearing white, for the most part.

"You might wanna consider a shirt that leaves a little more to the imagination," she mused, giving him a gentle nudge with her elbow. Then, as she headed on ahead of him, she gave her ribbon a quick tug and and drew her chain-scythe back to her, catching the hilt in her hand. Then, she cast the chain-scythe at the wall just a bit above the broken window, now empty of Mina's head. Once the blade found purchase in the wall, she sprang from a shadow, before scaling up the wall the rest of the way.

As she vaulted over the windowsill and into the room, she heard Squall racing up the wall after her, and quickly backed away from the window to let him in. Much like she'd done, he vaulted over the windowsill, his boots hitting the floor with a soft thud, Revolver still on his shoulder.

Squall offered an uncomfortable-looking grimace down at his clothes. In an instant Revolver was dispelled, disappearing in a few blue shards and sparkles of blue light and leaving Squall empty-handed. He stepped away from the window, the stretch and scratch and squeak of leather audible as he pulled his gloves off, followed by his jacket.

Mina moved to stand before Blake, holding a comfortable-looking pair of dry, warm, folded, white towels. Up close now, the horizontal scar now planted across Mina's nose, over the small slope connecting the bridge to the tip, and stretching almost to either cheekbone, looked all the more apparent. "Here. I already got some towels for you and Squall. They're already warmed up."

Blake blinked, before offering a smile, taking one of the towels offered. "Thanks. I think I have a spare set of clothes that I left in my bag in another room. I'll go and find it; it shouldn't be too far. If I don't find it, I'll just have to borrow any spare clothes that you guys keep in this building." Blake turned to Squall then. "I'll go place a call to Yang while I'm at it, since I still have my Scrolls."

Squall stopped trying to shake any excess water off his jacket, if only briefly, to look at Blake and shrug his shoulders. The short, black-bordered sleeves of his fairly-wet white shirt seemed to be dry, likely thanks to the protection of his jacket sleeves. "Sure. Make sure to ask her how the others are holding up, too."

"Already thought of it." And with that, Blake dashed out of the room.


Her slim, metallic backpack had been sitting in one of the rooms on the ground floor, near the supply room. Thankfully, stealth and agility happened to be two areas in which she'd consider herself pretty much an expert, so having to sneak past a few small Titans that'd wandered into the supply room below hadn't been too much of a problem. Now, thinking of a way to get rid of at least one of those Titans down there, without getting caught by any of the others, considering there wasn't a whole lot of space in which to take them all on at once, even with her level of acrobatics and agility, was an entirely different problem, and one she didn't know how to solve.

She'd need literally anyone else on her team to come up with a plan for that one.

Placing her small Scroll on the floor, on the other side of her silver, metallic backpack, which now sat against the wall next to an open, square-shaped hole where a set of double-doors should probably be. Her previous set of clothes, still soggy, lay thrown in a heap a few feet behind her, including the boots and her bow. She wore the white towel Mina had given her over her head, covering her cat ears from direct view, but it didn't do much when someone could still see the two lumps caused by her folded cat ears under the towel. Gambol Shroud, in its full, cleaver-like sword form, laid on the other side of the small Scroll, with her large Scroll laid atop the blade.

She had managed to find three black shirts – a slim-fitting T-shirt, a form-fitting long-sleeved shirt, and a dark, long-sleeved button-up shirt, though she wasn't really considering wearing any of them. Maybe the T-shirt, but... eh, she couldn't decide.

She grabbed another one of the package tubes in her backpack and opened it, tipping out the form-fitting black pants which bore two white stripes down the outsides of the pant legs, as well as the black back-skirt with a translucent lilac underskirt attached to its interior. The back-skirt hung from a black belt. Both articles belonged to her 'Intruder' getup. Then, a black ribbon fluttered out of the tube as well, along with a pair of all-black, thigh-high stockings, and the purple-soled, high-heel black boots, also from her Intruder getup. Two small but fairly thick straps with buckles wrapped around the leg of each boot, which would barely reach up to Blake's knees. Her other ribbons, which would wrap around her hands and forearms, were the last to fall out.

She placed the now-empty tube back inside the backpack and grabbed the ribbon for her bow. Then, sparing a cautious look around the room and neither seeing nor sensing anyone there, she pulled off the towel covering her now-dried and ruffled hair, and proceeded to wrap the ribbon around her ears and tie it into a bow. When she was finished, she let a relieved sigh slip from her nose.

She tapped open her small Scroll and took to her contacts, poking Yang's contact and then the call button. As the music for Yang's Scroll began to play, Blake pressed the button to place the call on speaker.

Yang soon answered: "Blake! Are you and Squall okay? We can see that HQ's just-about swarming with Titans, and there are a few more on the way."

"Squall and I are fine," Blake told her, as she grabbed the stockings and rose to her feet, pulling them on. "How are you, Ruby, and Weiss?"

"Well, Weiss is worried about you, but she's fine. I don't know what's going on with Ruby, 'cause I don't know where the hell she is, but I've been trying to keep track of Mikasa's Aura and it seems she's on her way here to where Weiss, me, and just-about the rest of the surviving Cadets have gathered, so maybe Mikasa can explain to me where the hell Ruby's gone and why the hell I can't sense Ruby with her"

"Yang, Yang, you're talking a bit fast, take a few breaths and try to stay calm." Blake spared a glance at Yang's caller ID, pulling the last black stocking up to her right mid-thigh. As she heard Yang pause and practice a few deep breaths, she adjusted her fitted, V-necked, sleeveless, white tank top, its elastic hem barely reaching her hips. Then, she picked up her fitted black pants. "Alright, that's better. Now, where are you guys all at?"

"...On top of a building, probably near the centre of the Middle Guard. The fact that we can all fit on one rooftop and still have plenty of space to fit a lot of the others that aren't here probably tells you just how badly this situation's devolved. Still, Athena's with us, so if you or Squall come over here, you should notice her. Wherever you find her, we should be nearby.

"Sure. If the rain plans on stopping anytime soon, you might find me coming over there. In fact, I might want to take your place. With all the Titans that have already surrounded this place and then the ones that are still trying to get to the tower, someone like you that's likely still got a lot of strength left would be a better person to take them on alongside Squall," Blake suggested, pulling her pants up over the stockings and form-fitting white shorts. She adjusted the elastic black rim of the pants before grabbing the black belt, with the back-skirt and subsequent under-skirt attached to the back of it. "Anyway, that Captain Woermann guy, from this morning. Do you remember him?"

"You mean, the guy with the sunken eyes, whose voice cracked when he said that the Titans were in?"

"Yeah, him. Eren... Eren told us that there were rumours about him being a coward. And they're true. He was going to ditch the supply team here." Blake managed to busy herself with fastening the belt so she wouldn't have to think any more about it like she'd done earlier. "The guy was scared out of his mind. And not just because of the situation – it looked like he was scared of me, and even Squall."

"To be fair, Squall can be pretty intimidating when he wants to be. Being socially distant and cold comes as naturally to him as it does to Byakuya, or even Ice Queen over here."

"Hey!" Weiss called out from the background.

"And I am more than sure that if the Cadets met him, and saw how badass he is in person, a good number of them would probably end up being scared of him."

"No, I don't mean it like that," Blake sighed with a quiet, brief, barely-noticeable chuckle under her breath. She shook her head, a small smile plastered on her face as she adjusted her back-skirt and its lilac underskirt. Then, picking up her boots, she slipped them on, over the fitted lower legs of her pants, before crouching down, on one knee at a time, barely sparing a glance at her Scroll as she fastened the boot straps. "More like Woermann was scared of us because we're outsiders. When I first encountered him hiding behind the lift that goes into the supply room, he jumped out and took a swing at me with one of those Titan-killing swords. He didn't hurt me or anything, but I was a bit pissed that he tried to catch me by surprise, and seemed to swing with the intention of probably killing me."

"...I'm sorry, that Captain did what to you?"

"Tried to attack me, probably thought he was gonna kill me, and didn't seem to have a problem with it." Blake patted the last strap, and moved to a kneeling position. She spared a glance at the black T-shirt and the black button-up near her, before shaking her head, thinking better of both choices, and instead rummaged through a second package tube. She pulled out a fitted, cropped, black jacket, with a silver zip and zipper teeth down the front, a jewel neckline, and a swan-neck collar, as well as slim, elbow-length sleeves ending in faded-lilac cuffs. The bottom of the jacket ended in a thick, elastic hem also made up of faded-lilac. Faded-black made up the interior of the jacket. Meanwhile, four white-lined pockets sat on the front of the jacket, two on either side of the zip. Silver, metallic pieces, stuck to the jacket's back, laid arranged in the shape of her belladonna emblem, with the arrangement acting as a magnet she could stick Gambol Shroud onto. "He also tried to accuse me, and you guys by extension, of bringing the Titans here. Which I tried to dispute, but I think he was too paranoid to actually listen to what I was saying."

"If he really believed that was the case, then he probably thought he was playing the good guy, trying to antagonise you like that."

"Huh. I hadn't thought of that until now." Blake spared a glance at the ceiling, but shook her head again as she stood up. As she pulled her jacket on and zipped it up, the zip reaching the top of her chest, she continued: "Anyway, I told you he tried to ditch the supply team, right?" she asked, adjusting the jacket's hem, which barely reached her midriff. The cuffs of her sleeves wrapped around the folds of her elbows. She gathered her hair and pulled it out of the back of the jacket.

"Yeah. You mentioned that already."

"Well, he was trying to excuse his own desertion by saying he had to go and do some convenient job that required him to go behind Wall Rose, which none of us were buying. They had no logical explanation for calling him back behind the wall. So, I called him out, and I told him that he was using the deaths of the Cadets as decoys while he saved himself. And then I told the supply team to let him go because he's dead weight that apparently doesn't care about them, and pretty much kicked his ass out."

"You don't sound too proud about it. I think you did the right thing."

"So does Squall. And so do I, but..." Blake picked up one of the black ribbons for her hands. "I'd still feel bad if some Titan got him and he died out there. Because his blood would be on my hands, then, wouldn't it?" She eyed her right hand as she wrapped the ribbon securely around her palm and backhand. She followed by winding the rest of the ribbon around the heel of her palm, and around her wrist, and down the length of her forearm. One done, the end of the ribbon tied onto another bit of the ribbon, around her arm and just below her elbow, she grabbed the other ribbon and proceeded to wrap it around her left palm and backhand.

"I mean, I think it would be more on the hands of the Titan that kills him. Besides, didn't you say that he wanted to leave and ditch you guys anyway? You gave him what he wanted. If he dies on the way to the gate, then yeah, it'd be terrible to lose a Captain, but I don't think any one of these guys would waste their time grieving for him, given how crap he's treated them. Yeah, sure, we can feel guilty about the fact that we feel bitter and angry at him, but it's how we feel. If anything, I think you feeling guilty about the very reasonable way you handled the crap he threw at you, says more about what a kind and understanding person you are, than what an asshole that Captain is."

"You need a moment, Yang?" Weiss called from the background again, her tone deadpan this time.

"Oh, quiet, you." Blake could hear the smile in Yang's voice. "Anyway, Blake, I don't think you need to worry about that guy. Besides, he's a Captain, and considering what he's done and how he's acted, his tactic is probably gonna be just to run from any Titan he encounters, so I have a feeling we'll be seeing him again. What we're probably better off worrying about is his mental state. I mean, what with all he's done and the crap he was accusing you of, are you sure that he's not got any deeper problems? Like... maybe some form of PTSD?"

Blake finished tying the end of the other ribbon around another bit of the ribbon that she'd wrapped around her left forearm, just under her elbow. "I'd understand his cowardice if that's the case, but I've never met anyone with those sort of problems who's able to live with knowing that they're abandoning people who're supposed to be their comrades. His mental state doesn't exactly give him a pass for acting like he has total disregard for everyone else's lives because he sees himself as the more important one to save."

"I know, but it could explain his paranoia and his outlandish accusation about us having any connection at all with the Titans. Then again, even if any of us developed similar problems related to what we're going through right now, I don't think there's a lot of us that would do that. Even these Cadets. They're scared, depressed, and damn-near hopeless, but it's obvious that they care too much about each other to disregard everyone's sacrifices. Even if some of them don't show it, like Mikasa. It's been obvious since we got to HQ this morning."

"That's pretty much what I was thinking. What's the situation with the Cadets, by the way?" She picked up Gambol Shroud, sticking it to the magnetic pieces attached to the centre of the back of her jacket.

"I don't know about Mikasa, but the rest of 'em are running low on gas. Armin's about as stuck in his own head as everyone else, and Weiss has been keeping an eye on him to make sure he doesn't have a breakdown just yet. Really, I'm not sure about leaving these guys. Not just yet, anyway."

Blake gathered the three black shirts into her arms and rolled them up, stuffing them inside the first, empty package tube. At least one of them might prove useful at some point, after all. Then, after shutting the second package tube, she clipped the metallic backpack shut, and turned a full 180 to face the still-somewhat-damp pile of clothes. "Would you reconsider if I promised to make my way over to where you guys are? And when I get there, you can head to HQ to meet up with Squall. After all, I'm sure Weiss and I can look after them." She threw a glance over her shoulder at her Scroll, before turning back as she grabbed her previous pair of dark-purple wristbands, as well as her previous three square-shaped, deep-violet pouches, which were lined in silver. On each pouch, her belladonna emblem was emblazoned, on the front of the body, in white. Both the pouches and the wristbands still felt damp, but she wasn't worried – she could just get Squall to use one of his spells to warm them up and dry them.

"I don't know... you're gonna come here first? And then, I can head over to the tower?"

"That's pretty much what I said, yeah."

"...Well, I guess I could do it. I don't wanna leave these guys, but I also don't wanna leave Squall on his own with people he doesn't even know. Especially since we're supposed to be his friends and are supposed to have his back in situations like this. You know?"

Blake nodded, only to remember that Yang couldn't see her. "I agree," she said instead. If there had to be at least one person who wholly understood how Squall had come to develop his social and trust issues, and who turned out to completely empathise with his trust issues and his seeming fear of being left behind and ending up alone, that person would be Yang. "Still, though, I wouldn't worry all that much. They may be strangers to him, but these Cadets are still pretty much strangers to us as well, and I have a feeling Squall knows that, because he knows we've only been here for a few hours, and the only reason it feels like we're close with any soldiers here is because we're in a battle of life and death and we've already seen a bit too much of the latter."

"She's right," Weiss piped up once again. "I can guarantee you, if we manage to get out of this situation and everything calms down for a while, we may stop being so close with them. At least two or three of us I can guarantee might go back to being a bit distant, both socially and emotionally. And that's including Squall."

"Squall's still as distant as he usually is, as far as I've seen so far," Blake decided to mention. She vividly remembered how he hadn't even said a word to Mina back when he'd been healing her and helping her patch up Thomas' legs. She'd attempted to chat with him a few times during the entire ordeal – mostly about how similar he happened to be in comparison to her friend Annie – but she'd given up when he'd stayed quiet and hadn't responded to anything she'd said. "That said, I have to agree with Weiss. For all we know, the only reason they've been so accepting of us is because they need our immediate help. But once they no longer need us to help after this situation hopefully gets resolved, they might start questioning us and our intentions and our presence here, and they may not remain kind to us like they've been so far. We can offer our skills and heroic services as much as we want, but we won't be able to predict how they'll treat us and how they'll want to treat us when we're out of this storm. We should keep our guard up."

"Don't say that like we're damned. Just because we're outsiders and we've had one or two bad encounters doesn't mean everyone's gonna be a dick to us. We're still people as much as they are, and I have a feeling that at least these Cadets know that."

"I don't think it's the Cadets that either of us are worried about," Weiss pointed out.

"It's the higher-ups and the powers that be that might not see us the same way the Cadets do."

A huff that sounded like it came from Yang reverberated through Blake's Scroll, followed by Yang saying, "Well, we'll cross that bridge if we ever get to it. For now, at least, how long do you plan on taking to get here?"

Blake glanced at the damp pouches and the wristbands on her left hand, each accessory hanging from each finger. "Well, I was thinking of having Squall dry a few of my things, and then, if the weather doesn't let up, I might have to find some sort of coat or cloak to keep me warm and dry. So, I might take a short while. Weiss will be able to sense me coming, anyway."

"I'll keep my eyes open and my senses sharp," Weiss chirped almost... cheerily. Maybe she was in a better mood since meeting up with Yang? The team had scattered themselves across Trost, working with different squads, so it wouldn't be out of the question for at least one of the girls to miss her teammates – both the presence of the other girls, and working with them on the battlefield. It'd felt so long since they'd done the latter, that Blake herself had actually been quite surprised when Squall had told her they'd only been gone from Remnant a few hours at most (as far as Shaye had told him). And given that fact, they'd only been fighting almost as long as they'd been missing from Remnant – two or three hours, at most.

"Alright, with that said, I should go and get ready. You'll see me soon." She moved her empty hand, forefinger hovering over the 'END CALL' button.

"Sure! See you soon."

"Oh! Don't forget to make sure Squall knows that Yang's going to meet up with him."

"Don't worry, I'll tell him. See you guys soon." And with that, Blake ended the call and closed her small Scroll.


"Oh, thank the Gods, it's stopped raining," Blake sighed, leaning with her back against the wall beneath the sill of the shattered window. In her lap, she held a musket she'd been inspecting while she waited for Squall, who sat a few feet to her right, to dry and warm some of their clothes using a bit of Ifrit's fiery magic powers.

Blake's gaze flicked towards him.

He'd forgone his leather jacket and gloves, and had replaced his white shirt with a black tank-top. The tank-top bore the same V-shaped plunge design as part of the collar, though this design had been embroidered on in white, where it had been black on the white shirt. White lining also ran down the sides of the black shirt, as well as the fairly wide, round neckline that the V-shaped plunge extended from. A fitted, silver, metallic ring sat attached to each sleeveless armhole and wrapped around each shoulder and underarm. However, attached to the ring on his left shoulder, laid a slim, fitted, silver, metallic armour piece, curved to cover his left shoulder down to the start of his arm. His silver Griever necklace laid steadfast around his neck. Meanwhile, a pair of black, fingerless gauntlet gloves partially covered his hands, as a small, brown strap sat fastened securely around each wrist, atop the fitted black leather which reached halfway up his forearms. He'd also re-adorned the slim black cape he wore around the back and the outside of his right leg, the cape hanging from the three brown belts wrapped around his hips. It barely reached his knees, and was topped with white fur, which extended around the back of his hips, stopping at the side of either hip. He'd also kept his usual black pants and boots, and the three brown straps he wore wrapped securely around his right thigh.

Judging from Squall's expression and from what she could feel resonating through his icy, steel-blue Aura, she figured Ifrit had to be pretty irritated at Squall using his fire-based powers for such a mundane task. Squall blinked and narrowed his eyes, gaze laid on his stretched-out bare hands, which he held low in front of his crossed legs, the heels of his palms pressed together as a warm-orange glow lit up his palms. Small, translucent waves of perhaps the same colour, poured over, through, and into all the clothes and accessories laid out on the floor before him. Even though he seemed to be glaring at his hands, she could tell he had to be more-so in his head again rather than in the same room, and that he had to be having an internal conversation with the more fiery one of the two magic creatures he could summon.

Ahead of Blake, in line with where she sat, Mina and Thomas appeared to be resting. Thomas still sat in the seat Blake had left him in when they'd first made it to the tower, what remained of his legs hanging off the front of the seat, and his head lulled to one side and his eyes closed, his otherwise peaceful expression scrunching up every so often. Mina sat on the floor, on Thomas' left-hand side, in-between Thomas and one of the desks turned on its side, as it acted as one of the side walls of the supply team's barricade. Mina's head also laid lulled to one side, her temple resting against Thomas' left hip, her face also twitching occasionally as her breath hitched every so often and got caught in her throat.

At least Blake hadn't expected them to sleep peacefully. Still, she averted her eyes, unable to bring herself to continue witnessing how they couldn't even find peace in their sleep, both Cadets ever-so-evidently tormented by the horrors they'd seen and experienced, back when the sky had still been as deceptively clear and bright as the futures of which plenty of the Cadets thought they could've had. And now, just as many of their lives had been stripped away, along with what sounded like almost all of the older, likely more experienced Garrison soldiers – she knew for certain the whole of the Advance Team had been wiped out, but after herself, Weiss, and the rest of what'd been Squad 34, had seen and heard about the fates of at least a few Vanguard squads, and the fact that the Cadets seemed to be the only ones still left standing (despite the fact that the number of Cadets still alive had to be merely a fraction of how many Cadets there had been at the start), it appeared only logical to assume the Vanguard had more or less been annihilated in its entirety.

And so, it could only fall to the rookies to save themselves.

Large, stomping, borderline-crashing footfalls prompted Blake's hidden cat ears to briefly perk up in alarm. Sparing a glance at the cowering supply team behind the barricade, she hoped none of them noticed how her bow appeared to spike when she realised the footfalls were approaching their side of the tower. From behind the window-lined wall, past her left-hand side.

Squall lifted his head then, blinking at Blake, before his gaze trailed outside the window. Then, his eyes briefly caught the musket resting on her lap. He met her eyes again. "Has the barrel been cleaned out?" He quietly asked, his deep voice hushed, almost a whisper.

Blake nodded. She gingerly grabbed the musket in both hands, adjusting her hold so it lined up straight ahead. She kept the muzzle low, however, given that Thomas and Mina sat in line with her position.

She peered over her shoulder, angling her head left to see over the windowsill. A tanned fifteen-metre Titan, so skinny it looked damn-near emaciated, sauntered into view, its wide, dull-brown eyes sliding across the gloomy, outside atmosphere, before meeting Blake's. She figured it stood tall enough for its face to reach the tower's windows. She looked back down at the musket in her hands.

Ruby tended to be more of an expert on the subject of weapons both old and new, and it'd been Ruby that'd helped her on a weird homework quiz once where Blake had been asked to offer an example of a weapon that, in the present day, would be either defunct or absolutely useless. Muskets had been Ruby's top choice, with one of her other answers being an old-timey cannon like the ones the girls had seen atop the wall – basically anything that relied on a little too much gunpowder alongside ball-shaped projectiles that couldn't travel more than ten feet at best before the shot would lose momentum, and any impact at all would result in little to no damage. Well, unless the shot would be made at close range. As in, with a target probably a foot or less away from the muzzle. Or, for optimum impact, with the target pressed against the muzzle itself, their eyes staring straight down the barrel.

Which meant, if she timed her shot right, she'd be able to blast at least one eye of that Titan to kingdom come.

The Titan's steady, quaking footfalls closed in on the window. Each step grew louder than the last as the distance between Blake and the Titan shortened.

Using both hands, Blake gingerly hoisted the musket over her head, holding it upside-down with one finger resting on the trigger, ready to squeeze. The barrel ran in-between and behind the two loops of her bow, which were hiding her cat ears.

Across from her, Mina and Thomas started to stir. After another rippling stomp from the Titan outside, their eyes snapped open, and they jerked away from each other as the sounds of the Titan automatically flung them into high alert, as if they hadn't just been sleeping only seconds prior. Thomas grabbed the sides of his seat, while Mina clutched her hands close to her chest. Softly offering light to their area of the room, a long, rectangular, dull light, coming from the window somewhat above and behind Blake, was suddenly blocked by a large head, which cast a shadow over Blake, Mina, and Thomas.

Blake only offered a side-glance over her shoulder, watching the Titan draw its face closer to the muzzle. Once its right eye was nearly touching the muzzle, she fired, the burst of force shattering the fair few pieces of glass still stuck to the window frame, while the recoil caused the musket's handle to swing, butting her between the eyes. Blake grimaced and pulled the musket back down to her lap.

The Titan groaned, loudly, in agony. It stumbled backward, its quaking footfalls unsteady, as it moved away from the tower.

Blake dropped the musket, its muzzle still smoking, before springing from her position on the floor. She swivelled, then, staring out of the window, as her gaze locked onto the Titan ahead. Raising both hands out in front of her, she gathered her Aura into her hands, using it to form a long, translucent, all-lilac blade, akin in shape to a regular katana. She grabbed the blade by its blank, nondescript grip with one hand, aiming the blade toward the Titan.

"Style of the Self, Personal Art: Versatile Hundred-Blade—" With a mighty overhead swing, Blake cast the all-lilac blade forth—"Barrage!"

The blade briefly shone a brighter violet before its shine burst into countless more identical-looking blades, sparkles falling between them, while they continued flying towards the Titan, following the trajectory of the original blade. Every blade pierced the Titan, the barrage managing to puncture every part of its body. They pinned every limb and extremity to the building standing behind the Titan and nailed its head and neck to the rooftop, its head bent back against the tiles and the back of its neck pressing against the eaves of the rooftop. The Titan barely twitched, nor moved beyond small jerks of its fingers and feet, seemingly not putting up any fight, at all, against the impromptu restraints.

Blake placed her hands on the windowsill. Throwing a look over her shoulder, her eyes darted from Thomas and Mina, to the supply team, and finally, to Squall.

He stared at her, his features set in a deadpan expression. From the unimpressed look in his stormy-blue irises and the brief, slight narrowing of his eyes, Blake could imagine his inner monologue was probably running along the lines of "Why did she have to say her spell name out loud?"; or "Way to show 'em what we're capable of, since it's not like they could turn on us at any moment once we're out of this situation," and Blake wholeheartedly believed that would've carried a sarcastic tone to it.

Good Gods, Squall, you're more jaded than I thought. I can hear your bitterness and you haven't even spoken out loud. "Calling out the spell helps with focus," Blake told him, somewhat quiet in volume, offering a shrug. It was all she could say, since she really couldn't disagree with the latter comment she thought she caught from him.

Squall blinked, his eyes briefly widening as he averted his gaze, in a way that looked like he'd barely stopped himself from rolling them. He didn't answer verbally, and instead settled with a subtle shake of his head. His gaze trailed toward the window to his left. "Do you think your swords will be able to keep it down?"

Blake followed his gaze toward the pinned Titan, which still didn't appear to be putting up that much of a fight. "I hope so. It doesn't look like it's in the mood to break free, at least, so we have that going for us. Unfortunately, because of how the swords are pinning it down, we don't really have a good shot at killing it... unless you're in the mood to completely obliterate it and the building it's stuck to."

Again, Squall shook his head, sharper this time, while his mouth twisted into a grimace. "It's bad enough that the Titans keep crashing into the buildings. The least we can do is not add to that destruction, if we can avoid it. It'd create too much damage, it'd cost too much for us to rebuild, and it'd get us into too much trouble."

"Glad we're on the same page. So, we're just gonna leave it then?"

"...Until it breaks free, but... yeah. We're just gonna leave it."

"Alright then," Blake chirped. She folded her arms under her chest, leaning on her left leg as she twisted to face Squall. "Are you done drying our things?"

Squall nodded. A final, small wave of heat dispersed outward while he dispelled the glow from his palms. He pulling his hands away from one another, and shook them briefly, before grabbing Blake's two wristbands in one hand, and pushing her three pouches toward her with his other hand. He held her wristbands out to her.

Blake took the wristbands. She pulled them on, over the ribbons around her arms, setting the wristbands around her wrists, the thick, dark-purple fabric now far more warm and soft. "Once I'm done, I'll go out and find where the other Cadets are gathered, since Yang and Weiss are with them. Yang should be here soon to help out."

Squall blinked, his expression nonchalant. He shrugged. "Whatever. Just be careful, alright? I doubt these guys make artificial limbs here, so at least try to stay in one piece until we get back to Vale."

Blake cringed. Her eyes twitched as her lips pulled into a wry smile. From her peripheral, she caught Thomas' gaze falling to his legs, his eyes narrow and his posture stiff. Just had to say that out loud and rub salt in his wounds. She met Squall's gaze again, letting her face return to her once-normal nonchalant expression. "I'll keep that in mind. For now, just let me get myself equipped."


Yang Xiao Long


Yang sighed and tilted her head backward, leaning against the outside wall of the attic, which rose through one of the shorter ends of the building on which her, Weiss, and the Cadets had been staying. Soft, fiery, translucent amber waves and flames hugged her form, heat and warm colours flowing out around her, from the centre of her being, while her own arms hugged her midriff. From her standing position, her still-lilac eyes trailed to find those around her that she at least knew the names of.

Her gaze landed on Weiss first. She was sitting to the right of Yang, her back leaning against the wall while her knees were pulled up to her chest. Her arms were also pulled inward, hands wrapped around a Burn Dust crystal cut into the shape of a hexagonal diamond. The crystal glowed, heat flowing outward in steady, translucent waves of warm-orange that wrapped around Weiss and comforted, warmed, and dried her form. Meanwhile, embers would occasionally spit out from the edges along the body of the crystal, in equally steady puffs that followed the waves of warmth. Her fringe blew softly outward as each wave's heat filtered through her snow-white strands.

Armin sat at Weiss' right, in a kneeling position. The striking blue she'd seen of his wide doe eyes had looked dulled and empty for a while now, to the point where Yang was starting to think he'd gone catatonic. Then again, he'd been like that ever since they'd had to accept that Eren would most likely be dead, now that the Titan that'd eaten him had apparently been killed and had decayed, ending up as little more than a giant skeleton, with every oversized bone looking absolutely scorched. It would only be reasonable that, as someone who grew up with Eren, Armin would be one of the few taking it the hardest. Mikasa would too, once she'd find out.

Yang, Blake, and Weiss would likely act the same if it'd been Ruby who'd suffered Eren's fate.

A few feet to Yang's right, Spring sat curled in on herself, back pulled slightly away from the wall. Her knees were also pulled up to her chest, but her arms also hung wrapped around her legs, as the lower part of her face laid in the dip between her knees. Her chocolate-brown tresses hung over her eyes and nose, casting a shadow over her eyes. Even so, Yang could still see each few tears that occasionally rolled down her flushed cheeks, as her shoulders racked, barely noticeable, following each silent sob. Yang noted the tension in Spring's form, and she knew Spring was trying to keep her grief and emotions from spilling out, and failing each time a few silent sobs escaped her.

Christa was kneeling beside Spring's left, her gaze, soft and sombre, laid on Spring. She ran her hand gently over Spring's head and down the back, stopping near the ends of her brown hair, before going back up to start another gentle, comforting stroke of Spring's hair. Christa repeated this process a few times, only pausing each time Spring's shoulders briefly and abruptly shook with the force of each few silent sobs that would escape her. Christa's expression only crumpled each moment she watched it happen. Behind Christa, Ymir stood with her arms crossed, back leaning against the wall, and the sole of one foot pressed flat against the dull, faded bricks of the attic. Ymir spared a glance at the two smaller girls every now and then, but she otherwise appeared to be trying to keep her gaze literally anywhere else except on either girl, as if it hurt her to watch them go on the way they were currently doing.

Yang's gaze travelled back over to her right, over to the four standing near the edge of the rooftop's longer side. She recognised three of them, those being Bertholdt, Reiner, and Annie. She didn't know the name of the fourth person, but she could see the guy bore freckles on both of his cheeks, and that he wore his short black hair parted through the middle. All four of them were looking out towards the rest of Trost – perhaps they were keeping watch?

Well, it would make sense. After all, Titans were still invading Trost, and the Cadets, despite how many had been lost, had still managed to form a rather substantial gathering on this rooftop. Substantial enough that she'd be surprised if any Titans didn't seem to smell them all at some point and decide to come scrambling towards the group—

Oh. She'd dried and warmed herself up now.

Lowering her head and momentarily closing her eyes, she dispelled her Aura outpour, drawing the energy back into her reserve. The waves of warmth and fiery amber flames receded back into the golden glow surrounding her form, the glow soon fading afterwards. Lifting her head level, her eyes flicked towards Weiss. She found her still holding onto the Burn crystal, the Burn Dust still activated. Weiss' eyes had taken on a thousand-yard stare. Her gaze laid in the direction of the crystal, but Weiss wasn't looking at it – wasn't seeing it. If anything, she was staring through it.

Did Weiss even know it was activated? If she wasn't focused, she could easily lose control of the stable, harmless broadcasting of heat, and if that happened, it would turn harmful and burn her Aura, and Weiss' Aura happened to be a fair bit sensitive to fire damage.

Yang reached out and planted her hand atop Weiss' head. "Weiss," she placed a soft pat on Weiss' head, "are you alright? Not a good idea to space out with Burn Dust in your hands," she quietly pointed out, her voice a little hushed.

Weiss blinked, her eyes coming back into focus. Sky-blue irises flicked from the Burn crystal, and then to Yang's hand, before meeting Yang's gaze. "Oh," she said, her voice soft, and she looked back to the Burn crystal in her hands, before continuing: "right... yeah. Don't worry. I'm... as good as I can be, given the circumstances." A soft shadow hung over her eyes then. The crystal let out one last, small wave of heat, before its warm, scarlet shine darkened to a dull crimson. It likely only had a bit more than half of its original energy left in it, given the crimson didn't really look dark as much as it looked dull. "I hope that if we meet any other Captains, they're at least going to be better than the guy that ditched us out here to die."

Yang pulled her hand back. "I hope so, too," she muttered through a sigh, folding her arms under her chest. "I'm pretty sure some of the other Captains were working the Rear Guard along with a few handpicked elite soldiers, like Mikasa. Now that the gate's finally shut, I doubt we'll be seeing them for a while – at least, not until we kick our asses into high gear and take back HQ from the Titans swarming the place."

Weiss nodded almost absentmindedly as she pulled the Burn crystal further toward her. Wrapping her hands entirely around the crystal, she placed her clasped hands in her lap, in the space between her chest and her knees. "I think I understand now what Ruby was talking about back then."

"Okay, that's way too vague," Yang said before she could think twice about it. She lowered herself into a squat, elbows resting on her bent knees while her arms hung between her legs. "Back when? What do you mean?" She raised a blonde brow at Weiss.

"During the Beacon Initiation, when Ruby and I still didn't get along—"

"—Bit of an understatement, but go on."

"...Ruby told me that I wasn't taking life on the battlefield seriously. That I was just prancing around, spending more effort showing off my flashy fighting style and my creativity, instead of making sure I took down our Grimm foes effectively and efficiently, like how "any Huntress worth her salt would do without hesitation". According to her, having a few showing-off tendencies in your fighting style were things you only did if you knew you were good, because you were confident in both your victory and even more so in your skills, and because "you enjoy the thrill of battle more when you're one of the best at it". You don't do it for the sake of grace, or for looking that little bit more fancy, like she accused me of doing." Weiss' lips curled into a small, sad smile. "At first, I felt insulted. I mean, here's this kid that thinks she knows what taking life on the battlefield seriously looks like, who couldn't even coordinate her attacks with mine, who didn't even have a problem using whatever dirty tricks and underhanded tactics she'd think to use to her advantage in order to win and survive, and she thinks she can lecture me on what it means to fight properly, and be confident doing it?

"I told her she was an idiot—a moron—a child whose only gifts were her scythe skills and her sadistic streak against the monsters that she put to shame when it came to brutality and cruelty. I told her that she was part of the reason why self-obsessed people with too much dignity and pride always went on tirades about how being a Huntsman or Huntress was barbaric. I didn't tell her that it was the reason my own Father used to mock me for having dreams of being a Huntress when I was little."

Ah. If they were riling each other up so personally like that during the initiation, then that explained why Yang and some of the others had sensed their Auras flaring before hearing the sounds of an actual fight occurring between the two of them. Their anger at each other would've also explained how they ended up encountering a giant Nevermore and why Miss Goodwitch, Amara, and Ruciana had been giving Weiss and Ruby some pretty stern looks when after they made it back up to the cliff.

And so, Yang threw it out there, knowing she'd land a perfect hit: "And that's what prompted your little skirmish."

Like she expected, Weiss nodded. "Ruciana and Amara ended up jumping in to break us up before we could really damage each other with one of those final attacks." Weiss glanced at Yang then. "You know, like when you power yourselves up and take off towards the other person, thinking that this is going to be the last attack that both of you will make in order to end the battle, and you just hope that your attack is stronger than their Guard?"

Yang nodded. "Yeah, I get what you mean." She'd done the same thing with Star a few times during their sparring sessions, and Ruby had even showed her some sort of fight she'd had someone record on her Scroll. It'd showed two Soul Reapers – one she'd recognised as Captain Byakuya Kuchiki – battling and occasionally talking a bunch of shit to each other. The other dude, a tall, lithe thing with wild orange hair, had come out on top. Byakuya had declared the other boy the winner, after kicking each other's asses around and severely wounding each other with a final showdown charge, swords poised as their final attacks clashed and looked like some beautiful poetic match-up, the other boy's flowing jet-black energy and Byakuya's angelic-white energy seemingly at equal power as they blasted each other and cancelled each other out, a perfect equilibrium.

So yeah, she knew what Weiss was talking about.

That being said, it still came off as one hell of a shock that Ruby and Weiss had somehow managed to get into an actual, physical fight, and Shaye and Celaena, who, to this day, could barely stand one another, had somehow not.

Weiss continued on: "It wasn't until later on, after we were put into teams, that I started noticing that she was getting along with Pyrrha, and Squall, and even Shaye, because they all understood her fighting spirit, and how she acted in battles. Pyrrha sometimes disavowed Ruby using cheap and unfair tricks that let her get an edge over someone in a fight, but they still seemed like kindred spirits when it came to their attitudes towards being on the battlefield and being a Huntress. And even with Squall, I don't think even Star or Cloud or you understand how he prefers to live and act on the battlefield – not as much as Ruby and Pyrrha understand it."

Yang shrugged at that, looking out towards HQ.

She understood Squall's issues. His abandonment and seemingly subsequent self-esteem issues, because there were certain times in which she could empathise. And she understood why his default attitude towards people involved a cold and often brusque demeanour: he used it to protect himself, out of fear of getting close to any other person only to end up abandoned by them, leaving him all alone. She understood that all too well.

Their understanding of one another happened to be only on a more outside-the-fray type of personal ground. The same could probably, maybe, be said for Squall and Star's "friendship", or even Squall and Cloud's almost-brotherly civility. But when it came to the battlefield, and how Squall likes and prefers to fight? Best to see Ruby or Pyrrha about that. Or Shaye, if she considers it safe to talk about any of her friends and their habits.

"Where are you going with this?" Yang asked, eyes flicking toward Weiss. "Are... you trying to say that Ruby was right? About your fighting style?"

Weiss' eyes narrowed, her expression crumpling. "I'm starting to think so." She spared a few seconds to breathe in, before breathing out. Her shoulders slanted, while she shrank further into herself. Then, quietly, her voice barely above a whisper, she spoke again: "I missed the opportunity to kill the Titan that ended up eating Eren. I could've killed it before it got him, but instead of going straight for the kill, I spent those vital seconds striking some fancy pose while my attack merely destroyed its arm. And then, as if that wasn't bad enough, I didn't even do anything to stop it from attacking Eren and Armin, let alone go to kill it at any point before or after it ate Eren. I don't believe that Ruby would've made that same mistake. She'd have got the job done, just like that."

"Oh, I see. So you feel guilty because you didn't spend every moment of that situation at least doing something to help." Yang looked away. "I think you'd probably be better off not telling Mikasa about your guilt, or how badly you screwed up. I doubt she'd be able to take the fact that Eren died, let alone the fact that it was almost preventable. Besides, I'd rather not entertain the idea of another soldier possibly antagonising another one of us – not when that same soldier happens to be someone that we've already become fairly acquainted with."

Yang vividly remembered how she'd caught sight of Mikasa standing behind a pillar, back in the grounds of HQ, watching Eren in a rather creepy-looking manner while he'd been talking to Mina, giving her what'd looked like an encouraging pep-talk. Mikasa had looked at least overprotective in that moment, but after spending a short while talking to her, Yang had realised that she'd just been waiting for Eren to finish his conversation; mostly so that she could tell him to find her once the plan went out the window, since then she'd be able to protect him. Plus, she'd soon attempted to try and convince one of her superior officers to let her stay with what should've been a squad in the Middle Guard, so that she'd have a better chance of staying behind to make sure Eren would still be alive.

Yang would be flat-out fucking lying if she said she wouldn't have done anything similar in the hopes of being there to protect Ruby, at the very least.

"Yeah, sure," Weiss offered, her tone noncommittal, light, and hollow.

That... didn't sound like a satisfying response. Yang's chest felt somewhat tighter. That must not have been the right thing to say. She looks disappointed – probably because I made it sound like I was more worried about Mikasa's reaction than her feelings. I should say something else, at least to lift her spirits. I mean, it's not like I can say that she's wrong with feeling guilty for not being able to do more for Eren, then I'd just be lying, but the least I can do is let her know that she's not alone.

Yang moved, taking a seat on the tiles, settling a bit closer to Weiss. She slipped her arm around Weiss' shoulders. Her hand gently held Weiss' right upper arm, and, trying to make her care clear and obvious, she pulled Weiss closer to her.

"Listen. You're not the only one here who feels that way. Armin must be feeling just as guilty – I mean, just look at him. He's been clocked out of reality since we got here. And I'm sure that Spring's wishing she could've been there to prevent it from happening. Hell, I feel that same way," Yang started, her voice quiet and gentle as she rubbed Weiss' arm. "What I'm trying to say is, you don't have to keep it in. You don't have to hide your feelings from everyone else. You're not alone. We're here. For you. We can, and we will, empathise." She rested her cheek atop Weiss' head. "There's no judgement here. Just understanding."

At that, a soft hiccup slipped from Weiss; then, a sob, followed by a few more. In seconds, Weiss was trembling, her tears dripping onto Yang's chest and clothes. She dug her face into the crook of Yang's neck as she cried, quietly, body racking with each sob.

Yang placed her other hand on Weiss' back, offering slow, comforting strokes down Weiss' back, copying the movements she's seen Christa doing earlier. "That's it. Let it out. Also, Star once told me it was only healthy to cry when you needed to. Something about your brain signalling the tear ducts when an emotion skyrockets, as in you're feeling too much of one emotion. In order for your brain to maintain equilibrium of your emotions, so that you can function, the brain signals the tear ducts and packages that particular emotion into your tears, and crying releases that overwhelming emotion, why is why you tend to feel much better after crying. Apparently it's the reason why Tidus is more open to crying around her more than anyone else," she rattled off, her words quiet and a little quick in their flow.

Yang looked down and tilted her head. Weiss' lips curled into a wobbly, small smile, but it didn't last long before Weiss scrunched her eyes shut, new streams of tears rolling down her cheeks. "So you mean," she hiccupped, "this is supposed to be healthy?"

"I mean, I think so. I didn't think Star was really the science-y type, but hey, whatever you feel you've gotta do to help a friend, y'know?"

That'd been something Star had told her a while ago, back when Blake had undergone her spell of sleepless nights, a couple of days before the dance. That "whatever you feel you've gotta do to help a friend" philosophy had helped Yang when it came to finding some way of helping Blake – that way being Yang facing her own past to find something she could use from any of her experiences in order to show she could empathise, or at least sympathise, with Blake.

Confessing that Summer had been M.I.A for nearly ten years at this point, presumed dead not even one week into that amount of time, and that her own mother had ditched her in the cradle, had only been something she'd done once before – with Amara. Now, Ruby, on the other hand...

Well, Yang didn't know of anyone Ruby would've admitted their baggage to, outside of Uncle Qrow, and Yang herself; and even then, she rarely spoke of Summer. The subject of her mother's fate seemed all too taboo for Ruby to talk about. Plus, ever since they'd both enrolled at Beacon, Yang had also come to learn that, well, trying to talk to Ruby about her nightmares would just be a no-go, with Ruby either deflecting, minimising her problems, or changing the subject.

I wonder how you're doing, now that Eren's gone. Do you know what happened to him yet? Or are you still fighting, blissfully unaware of how everyone else is coping with the horrific shit they've had to witness? Has anyone even told you anything about their situations? Do you even know that Squall's here, or that Shaye's planning to come here soon?

"Oh," Weiss piped up, voice sounding a bit clearer and lighter, as if she'd stopped crying. "I can sense Blake. She's almost here."


Zidane Tribal


He tilted his head back, aiming an odd look over his shoulder at Star, who walked behind him, at his left. "So, Shaye flattered him into going along with her idea?"

The corners of Star's lips twitched, but she tried to keep her tone as neutral as possible: "It certainly looked like it. Tidus told me that he couldn't tell if either of them caught on, though." And yet, the humour could still be found laced into her tone.

A few feet before them, the curved pathway which formed a circle outline around Beacon Tower, split into three directions – one path led left, straight towards Beacon Tower, the other led right, straight towards the Dining Hall, and the third path continued on directly ahead of him and Star.

"You think they've got something going? Squall and Shaye?"

Star's lips pulled into a wry smile. "Nah. Can't see it. I might not know Shaye very well, but I really doubt she's the kind of person to get herself romantically involved with someone," she said, voice growing quieter and tone more sheepish as she spoke, as if she was becoming increasingly nervous about the subject. Then again, she often turned out to have some of the most curious reactions when it came to love and romance.

For most people, if you brought up such concepts, Star tended to treat it with an almost unnerving nonchalance. But, if you managed to grow closer to her, you'd find her nonchalance happened to be an attempt at hiding her shyness about it. Getting shy and sheepish about things she had no idea how to handle, and didn't have any experience regarding, happened to be an odd (but debatably endearing) habit of hers – a habit that not only extended to wielding weapons she wasn't experienced in using, but also extended to interacting with people she'd never met before, and who bore personality types or attitudes she bore little to no experience in working well with.

In essence, her attempts at some sort of soft nonchalance stemmed from a seeming need to try and hide any inexperience she had in regards to just about anything.

Zidane paused at the crossroad. "What about Squall, then?" he asked anyway, because despite Star's inexperience with both love and people, he still knew there were things only she would've noticed, or would be able to tell him. He suspected she'd got her powers of observation from either Tidus, years of people-watching, or both.

Star crossed her arms, shrugging her shoulders. "I don't think he's interested," she offered, all too unsure, as she stopped next to him. "Actually, ever since we came here, I feel like he's been trying to keep his distance from the girls here."

And Star wasn't the only one who thought as much. He'd overheard Tidus telling Bartz, Cloud, and Terra about his same observation, which had been shortly after he, Squall, Star, and Noctis had returned from their Mountain Glenn mission, and subsequent Grimm invasion fiasco, alongside teams RWBY and SCAR. Apparently, Squall had also made the attempt to be quieter than usual during that whole mission, only for Ruby to eventually manage to get him talking a few times, while they'd busied themselves fighting the Grimm infesting the place. And at that point, it'd only been a matter of time for Tidus, with his penchant for wanting to know just about pretty much everyone's business, to try to pry into why Squall had been acting so distant, only for Squall to give him that old 'I'm too busy fighting actual monsters, can you come back later' get-out-of-jail-free card.

And when Tidus did attempt to come back, Squall had made it a conscious effort to avoid him. For a week straight. Hell, Zidane had been there when Star had to just break the news to Tidus that Squall clearly wasn't gonna tell him jack shit, because if there was one thing Squall and Tidus matched each other in (aside from the fact that their fighting styles were mostly speed-based), then it had to be their stubbornness.

"Now that you mentioned it, that would explain quite a bit," Zidane's forefinger tapped his chin. Also, speaking of Team Squall-Noctis-Tidus-Star, aka SNTS: "Oh, I just remembered! Since Ruby is also missing, how long do you give Noctis before he actually realises the gravity of the situation?" He glanced at Star, only to turn toward the path to their right, and begin making his way toward the Dining Hall. "I mean, I'm pretty sure she's the little sister he never had. Of course he'll wanna go and use those devices to try and find her to make sure she's okay, right?"

Star effortlessly caught up with him, walking at his left side. "I'd give Noctis at least until midday. Since it's Sunday, he's gonna wanna sleep in a bit more, so I'm sure it'll hit him once he fully wakes up. Calling it now, though, we'll find him trying to use those devices before today ends."

"No, no, that's too hopeful. Your timeframe's far too open. I give it an hour, at best, after he fully wakes up and the facts of the situation finally hit him." Zidane faced forward as he and Star approached the ten-feet-tall, deep-grey, somewhat nondescript double doors. Thanks to his height disadvantage, he decided to slam his entire bodyweight into the left door in an effort to push it open, his palms pressed flat on the door's surface.

The door began to budge, a dull clap and click reverberating as it separated from the other one. He pushed the door quite a bit ajar, creating a steadily-increasing gap between the double doors.

Star grabbed the back of his round collar and tugged him aside; and, with one swift, effortless shove of her right hand, the door swung open.

She released the back of his emerald-green T-shirt, which, again because of his size, looked rather long on him. Folding her arms again, she stepped around him, into the Dining Hall. "Since we're gonna be heading to the Training Hall after this, you should probably consider using that Aura of yours to try lifting some weights."

Bit rude, given the amused lilt to her tone, but it still classed as constructive criticism, so he may as well take it. Besides, if he could bench-press at least five or ten of himself, maybe he'd have better chances with the girls around here – honestly, they treated him something akin to how Terra treated Onion Knight. Kind and as gentle as possible, but still seen as and treated like a child (which was justified when it came to Onion Knight, given he's an actual child, unlike Zidane himself).

It didn't help he'd occasionally get mistaken for a younger relative of Tidus' nearly every time they and the other warriors hung out together outside of this academy. Somehow, in spite of his tail, which would usually get him mistaken for a Faunus, someone would come along, see him and Tidus, and make a kind comment to Tidus about what a good older brother he was.

So, yeah, maybe buffing himself up a little would be a good idea.

Crossing his arms behind his head, he followed Star into the Dining Hall.


Zidane eyed Star from across the long, sleek, black dining table, as he drank from a hand-sized carton of orange juice, from the straw. He'd only got himself his juice and a plate of five pancakes, arranged in a tower and topped with syrup. But Star? A plate of seven pancakes, topped with syrup and arranged in a tower, at least five chocolate cupcakes decorated with icing, three hand-sized, square flapjacks, and finally two cartons of orange juice.

Tidus had warned everyone in the group about Star's large diet, back when they'd first joined Beacon; and man, Zidane had really been remiss to underestimate just how much the 'large' in "large diet" meant.

Star cut into her tower of pancakes, stabbing a few pieces with her fork, before dipping them in the syrup and shovelling them into her mouth. She chased them down with a few more pieces. After eating her mouthful, she pointed her fork at Zidane. "Oh, by the way, Squall also took some of our cleaning equipment with him."

Zidane set his carton down on the table and aimed a raised brow at her. He'd found out last semester about Squall's tendency to go about cleaning and organising the dorm room the group shared, especially if any of the group had been absent for most of any day of the week. Yang had told him and Bartz about it after they'd come back from spending most of the day in Vale's town, because they'd lost Onion Knight in a clothes store at some point and Terra and Vaan wouldn't let them leave until they'd found him, and somehow no-one had thought to tell Squall about the entire ordeal, which had apparently gone and sent Squall into a panic, to which he'd tried to cope by keeping himself busy with cleaning.

In all honesty, the fact that Squall had straight-up panicked because of their longer-than-intended absence had seemed incredibly sad. Tidus, Noctis, Terra, Bartz, and Vaan had all thought the same as Zidane at the time, too, and they'd all tried to make it up to Squall by smothering him in a group hug.

So, the fact that he'd taken some of their cleaning supplies probably meant he wanted to give himself something to do while he had to be apart from them. Still, while he figured he already knew the answer, he decided to ask anyway: "He give any reason why?"

Star shook her head. "He didn't tell us anything." She carved down the middle of the remaining part of her pancake tower. "Can't say I was expecting him to, though."

"Would I be right in guessing that this is about Squall using the same artefacts I've been meaning to get back?"

Zidane and Star's heads snapped up, their wide-eyed gazes locking. His and Star's eyes then trailed to Zidane's left, then upward.

Stood beside their table, Professor Ozpin offered them both a neutral look. His eyebrows looked ever-so-slightly raised as he blinked at Star, then at Zidane, probably awaiting a response. He held his usual coffee mug in his hands. As he took a sip of his coffee, he continued to keep his eyes focused on them.

After a solid few seconds of them staring at one another, Star eventually piped up: "How... did you know...?"

Ozpin soon lowered his coffee mug. "There are cameras – security cameras – located around the warehouses where Shaye and Team RWBY decided to take on Roman Torchwick and his cohorts. Glynda, James, and myself, have been using the cameras around the city in order to track their movements throughout the past few days. We'd been using them to gather intelligence on the White Fang, in hopes of getting an understanding of the group's routine, and thus making a plan of action. I wish I could say it was a surprise to see those five engaging in an attempt to ambush Torchwick and his henchmen. Still, I'm sure we all know, at this point, that Team RWBY seems to have a particular talent for ending up in the right place at the right time, regardless of whether they should really be in such places."

In Zidane's experience with the team, that "talent" only really applied to Ruby and Blake. But still: "Did you use this school's security cameras to see Shaye and Squall using those devices, too?" he asked, before stabbing his fork into the pancake at the top of his pancake tower. He shoved the entire pancake into his mouth.

"No. We only used our security systems in order to find her, since we knew she was currently in possession of the container. After we located her at the statue around the front of the school, Glynda and I went to see her, only to get to the front of the Ceremony Hall and realise she was actually meeting Squall. We watched him go on to use those devices, and then Shaye cleaned up after him once he disappeared. Since neither of you were there at the time, I have to believe this is new information to you."

"Oh, so it did work!" Star gasped, her wide-eyed gaze meeting Zidane's own.

Zidane could only nod in reply, still eating, his cheeks puffed out and full with his pancake. He finished his pancake, chasing it down with a sip of his orange juice. He placed his carton back down and looked up at Ozpin. "There was a rumour going around that you were pretty anxious to get those devices back, so I'm guessing you know more about them than we do." He stabbed his second pancake with his fork and shovelled the whole thing into his mouth.

Ozpin's brows twitched, barely furrowing, while he blinked, seeming incredulousness in his face, at Zidane. "Only the story behind them. I doubt it's all that important, but I suppose it explains why the container is important for transporting them." He stayed quiet for a moment, glancing between them. "Do either of you perhaps plan on following in Squall's footsteps?"

Zidane could only offer a shrug of his shoulders at that. He'd thought about it when Star first told him about Squall and Shaye's deal. After all, since himself and Bartz tended to enjoy a good adventure, and also liked to look out for their friends, it'd been a bit of a let-down to hear Squall had gone off to do both without them. Still, if Zidane had to pick someone to go in his place, Squall would've been one of his first choices, anyway. Zidane trusted his friend's abilities.

But how would Ozpin have known that? Last Zidane checked, Squall and Ozpin rarely ever talked, and even then it was just Ozpin randomly appearing at his side and offering him advice. He'd seen Ozpin do the same thing with Ruby.

Zidane looked over at Star. Her eyes were wide and staring towards her left.

…Ah. So, she did plan on following Squall.

Ozpin seemed to notice Star's expression and silence, too, and with an exasperated shake of his head, he told her: "When do you plan on going?"

Star's gaze trailed back towards Ozpin. "This Tuesday. If Squall and Team RWBY haven't returned by then, that is."

Zidane finished eating his pancake, and paused, staring at Star. He... didn't exactly know what to think.

If he went with Star, it'd be a good opportunity to go on that adventure he thought he'd missed out on, and he'd get to look out for Squall and Team RWBY, too. Even so, when was she planning on telling him she was planning to leave? Hell, had she even been planning on saying anything at all?

"Are you planning on taking anyone else with you?" Ozpin asked, offering a genuine, slight tilt of his head.

"Not at the moment, but I was planning on going to Pyrrha with it. Pyrrha and I had scheduled training sessions with Ruby and Yang on Tuesday. Yang and I had plans to practice close-quarters combat, and Pyrrha was going to help Ruby with training to control her Aura better, mainly so that Ruby can use Aura Spells." Star gave him a sheepish shrug. "Shaye's also gonna follow Squall in a few hours. She said she needed to pack everything she thinks she might need, since she doesn't really know what to expect when she uses those devices. And... I also can't guarantee that Noctis won't decide to follow after her later on in the day, once he finds out that Ruby's missing."

"...I see," Ozpin said, words slow and voice quiet, as he gave Star a look that Zidane couldn't read. "Well," he breathed a deep, almost-silent sigh, "I suppose none of us are going to be able to stop any of you. I'm sure you'll all go on and do this regardless of what anyone says. Still, can I at least ask you to promise me one thing?"

Zidane and Star shared a curious look at one another. Coming to an unspoken agreement, they both turned back to Ozpin and nodded.

Ozpin glanced between them, with a conflicted, somewhat saddened look carried in his gaze. "Then please, if you must go, then do your best to come back, both alive and in one piece. And, please, make sure Squall and Team RWBY are able to do the same."


Squall Leonhart


The back of the head to the nape of the neck. It seemed a strange weak-spot for a giant, humanoid monster, but at least these Titans had a weak-spot. Plus, he found it mirrored how a person's nape acted as a pressure point, which, if hit just right, had the power to knock that person out cold. He felt it strangely fitting, given these monsters looked eerily human-like, and they, for some reason, possessed a weakness that would often remind him of the one weak point on an average person's body that happened to be capable of rendering even some of the strongest fighters vulnerable.

A silent sigh slipped from his nose. His eyes ever-so-slightly narrowed at the ten-metre Titan stumbling toward him, coming from the road to the right of where he sat on the now-clean windowsill of the shattered window. It probably wouldn't be able to reach him; not without moving its long, emaciated-looking arms. Then again, it'd be a minute or two before the Titan could arrive so close to him.

And, not to sound a bit like a sadist, but he found himself in the mood to experiment. After all, the people here were plenty limited in ways to kill the Titans – chances were, they likely hadn't tried freezing and shattering a Titan into hundreds of thousands of pieces, the weak-spot at their nape also ending up in several shards of ice.

And so, Squall called on the one entity that could prove his theory.

Shiva. I have an idea. Do you think Diamond Dust would be able to take out a Titan, despite their high body temperatures?

"I'd like to think it should be able to take out any such fiend," Shiva started, voice gentle yet sharp as she spoke telepathically. "Though I must admit, I am interested in proving that my power can kill one of those abominations. If only so I can stop asking myself the same thing."

Squall raised his open, empty hand out in front of him, his palm facing the ground. Go out there and raise hell. That said, the least I can ask of you is that you try and keep your attack limited to the Titan. I don't want to know how many problems it'd give all of us if we cause any unnecessary damage to this city, he told her, with his palm lighting up, an icy-white, sparkling glow giving off small, thin clouds of glittering frost, which gently blew upward, between his fingers.

"Sounds good to me."

Three bolts burst from his palm, flying downward and twirling around one another, all while they drew closer together. They met as they touched the ground, and from there, an icy-blue glyph opened up. A tall, ten-metre ice crystal sprouted from the centre of the glyph, a five-metre tall Shiva suspended inside the crystal, clad in just a strapless, indigo-with-silver-accents swimsuit-looking piece bearing a tall diamond-shaped cut along the abdomen, a pair of black, violet-soled, gladiator-style high-heeled boots which reached up to her calves, a pair of skin-tight, royal-blue arm-warmers reaching from her elbows to the heels of her hands, and finally, a silver tiara with spikes shaped like icicles, attached atop a silver metallic band holding Shiva's long, royal-blue hair in a central ponytail. The blue gradated to a soft-violet close to her fringe, which she wore split near the middle, several thick, relatively short strands coming together at either side to frame both sides of her face, while the strands reached her jawline.

Her eyes snapped open then. The violet of her irises matched her fringe, as well as her glossy, deep-purple lips, which often accompanied her usually pale, often (and currently) icy-blue skin.

The ice crystal and the glyph shattered, the shards fluttering around her flying figure before they dissipated into nothing.

Two hands landed on Squall's shoulders. Then, directly at his right, Mina stuck her head out, over his shoulder. Her gaze laid straight ahead, at Shiva. "What... is she? Did you—" she tilted her head at Squall—"I mean—where did she come from? Is she some sort of Titan?"

She was hovering too close. Squall angled his head away from her. "She's not a Titan. She's called Shiva. In the world I came from, before I was given a place to stay in Remnant, creatures like Shiva are called Guardian Forces." And that was all he was going to tell her. He gave her a brief, half-assed glare, his eyes barely narrowing at her, only for him to look at Shiva again. "I'd appreciate it if you backed off a little. You can watch without getting clingy."

Mina's expression fell into one of slight dejection, but she removed her hands from his shoulders anyway and stepped back. He knew she was still hovering just a little behind him, though, as he could feel her breathing on his shoulder.

With a swift grace and elegance, Shiva raised her arms above her head, her frosted palms shining with a snowy, white light. She swung her hands forward, releasing a beam of cold, white, magic energy at the Titan – Diamond Dust. The beam barely skimmed the ground while it encompassed the Titan whole. The stone pavement, as well as the building walls lining either side of it, sprouted frost and thin layers of ice which stuck to each surface. The beam glimmered, before dissipating in a flurry of glittering snowflakes.

The Titan stood frozen from head to toe in a thick casing of ice, coated in added frost.

Over his shoulder, Mina let slip a quiet, abrupt gasp.

The ghost of a smile crossed Shiva's lips. With a swift, yet gentle, wave of her arm, she held her hand out, level with her face. She snapped her fingers.

The ice casing, as well as the Titan within, shattered. Countless shards rained down. Some further shattered as they hit the ground, while others lightly thudded along the still-somewhat-frosted pavement.

The shards which held pieces of the Titan soon began to melt. As puddles formed under the bits of flesh, and water dripped from the quickly burning ice shards, steam rose from the pale, cold-touched skin, which was starting to warm up, the skin soon flushing red.

Looks like all the parts of the Titan are starting to decay. Huh. So, flash-freezing a Titan and breaking it apart does kill it. He looked at Shiva, only to give a brief wave of his hand. "It worked," he called out, as Shiva turned toward him. "It's decaying. From what I've seen so far, Titans only decay when they're dead."

With a nod, Shiva floated up towards his perch. She stopped once her face was level with the window. "Since our experiment was a success, would you like me to stay out here and take care of the fiends surrounding the tower?"

Squall considered it. Sure, Shiva's powers would definitely help them out, but if Squall could do it himself just as easily, then she might just be wasting her power, and they didn't know if more Titans would show up later. Currently, there didn't even happen to be all that much of a horde. That said, until they found a way to fill up the hole where the gate had been, or until the surviving soldiers had resupplied and evacuated, more Titans were bound to show up. Squall shook his head. "You might be better off saving your energy. Since the ones around us look like stragglers, we'd be able to get more done if we left your power for taking out groups of them at once instead of using Diamond Dust on each of them individually."

Shiva offered him a steady nod of her head, apparently more confident in his answer than even he was just seconds ago. As if sensing the unease he carried, she then offered him a soft smile, and told him: "I can feel that you don't want me to exhaust my power. You worry that we are not even halfway through this battle, or if there will even be an end to it that doesn't end in losing this city to the beings flooding in. I understand." With care and cold but gentle hands, she grasped either side of his head, before guiding his face toward hers, pressing her forehead against his. "I will support your decision, and should you call for me again, I will not hesitate to come to your aid."

He placed his empty hand on one of hers. With nothing else to say, he could only give her the words, "Thank you," with a vaguely-hopeful tone that must've probably been the reason why her smile grew ever-so-slightly bigger.

A snow-white glow lit up her entire form, and in a blink, the glow and Shiva both shattered into glittering glimmers of light. As the glimmers faded into thin air, Squall felt the familiar, gentle and cold presence of Shiva return to the back of his mind.


Ichigo Kurosaki


"Come to think of it, how do you know where their dorm room is?" He crossed his arms, raising a brow at Byakuya.

Ichigo had been following behind him for five minutes now. They'd spent even longer wandering around Beacon Academy, with Byakuya leading him on the tour, given he'd already visited this place a few months back, apparently. Ichigo figured his reasons involved that Ice Queen, Weiss. He also figured that Byakuya already knowing the location of Ruby and her team's dorm room had something to do with Weiss, too.

"That mercenary boy, Lionheart, showed me that Team RWBY's dorm room was directly next to the one in which he and his friends stay. As we come up to the door to his room, the door to Team RWBY's room should be just ahead." Byakuya glanced at him over his shoulder.

Ichigo tilted his head. Did he forget Squall's name or something? "His name is Squall Leonhart, not Lionheart. How would we know which door leads to Squall's room, anyway?"

Byakuya stopped, and with an open hand, gestured to a pale, wood door standing to his right. "Last time I was here, the names of him and his friends were scribbled on the front of the door." And sure enough, probably around thirteen names decorated the front of the door. Some of them appeared to be written in black marker ink, while a fair few others had been scribed in different colours.

'SQUALL LEONHART' was written in black marker, higher up the door, just under the gold-piped peephole. Under Squall's name, 'Noctis Lucis Caelum' was written in thinner black ink. 'TIDUS' had been written below it in deep blue marker, and finally, 'Star Valkalily' had been written last, in thin, pink ink, with a five-point star being drawn next to either side of Star's name. The drawn stars were coloured in, also in pink. A thick, scarlet, square outline had been drawn around all four names.

Around the rest of the door's front, other names, with a few mononyms here and there, had been scribed. Some of them were written at an angle. 'ZiDaNe TrIbAl', in pink marker, had been written near the bottom-right of the door, and seemed to be one example, slanted upward towards the left; and also the name 'BARTZ', written in blue to the left of Zidane's name, as well as 'Terra Branford', scribed in thin, pink ink higher up the door, towards the left.

"You and me have very different definitions of 'scribbled'," was all Ichigo could say next, as he looked back up towards Byakuya.

Byakuya was already standing before the blank, pale wood door a few metres ahead of Squall's. With a quick Flash-Step, Ichigo instantly approached Byakuya's side, and planted one hand on his hip, grabbing the gold-coloured doorknob. He tried to open the door. It didn't budge. He tried the door again, once more to no avail.

"Must be locked, then. Guess that means they're not in," Ichigo sighed, before releasing the door handle. He straightened his back and crossed his arms.

"They won't be in for quite a while. I'm also fairly certain you need a Scroll in order to unlock the door."

Ichigo's shoulders spiked while Byakuya merely blinked and spared a glance over his shoulder. Ichigo followed his gaze, twisting halfway. He found Shaye, Ruby's and Blake's Assassin friend with eyes that'd occasionally reminded him of a hawk, standing behind him and Byakuya. She had to look up at them, due to herself being 5'4" in height, and with them being quite a bit taller than her.

She was dressed pretty casually aside from the bandages around her hands. Despite her casual look, she held a matte-black container in one hand, which she held up for them to see. "In this box are devices that caused Team RWBY to be transported to another world. I had Squall use these same devices to send himself to wherever they ended up. He called me not too long ago, while I was still outside. Apparently he and the girls are all relatively fine."

Ichigo dropped his head, releasing a breath he hadn't even known he was holding. So, they're okay. That's good to hear, at least. Plus, now we know where they are.

"I see," Byakuya replied before Ichigo could. "Do you know the name of the world they were transported to?"

Shaye shook her head. "I don't think Squall or the others know, either. That being said, he did mention that they were all in some kind of place where there were fifty-metre-high walls, giant humanoid monsters known as Titans, and a military which fights those Titans. Also, apparently the Titans have invaded one of the cities within those walls, and the other girls have already banded together with the Cadets from that military in order to stop the Titans from flooding the city."

If he knew Ruby as well as he thought he did, then he'd bet his entire life on the fact that she would've been the first one to jump headfirst into that kind of fight. The other girls – or at the very least Weiss and Blake, since he didn't really know Yang and hadn't met her in person – probably would've only followed Ruby's lead given it had to seem like the right thing to do: that is, helping some sort of military combat giant monsters that, from the sound of it, must be hellbent on killing whoever had to be living inside those walls.

"How did he contact you? Through your Scrolls?" Byakuya looked as detached and nonchalant as he usually did, but Ichigo couldn't help but notice the faintest hint or two of concern laced through his words.

This time, Shaye nodded. "I was surprised that he could use his Scroll to call mine, since such communications would theoretically be impossible, unless a CCT tower happened to be within whatever land he's in. And even then, assuming this situation is occurring between worlds, even being able to communicate thanks to one CCT tower being on the other end would be a long shot – again, theoretically speaking. That being said, I'm relieved that he was able to get through to me."

Ichigo spared another glance at the box in her hand. "So... why send Squall there, anyway? Why didn't you go yourself?"

He must be missing something here. Why would she have had Squall go to that world, but not go with him? And why was she still holding on to those devices anyway, unless she planned to give them to someone else, or perhaps put them back where she'd presumably got them from. What was the deal with her and those devices?

Shaye met his gaze. To say he didn't like her staring being aimed at him would be an understatement, but he shoved that feeling of discomfort down, and crossed his arms as she spoke: "I didn't know what we would be getting ourselves into. I made a judgement call based off a theory that these devices would send the person who activated them to somewhere that was also Dust-friendly, meaning that the girls and Squall would've ended up in the same place, which they did. I'll explain it to you later – my theory, I mean – but I wanted to pack everything that I believe I'll need for when I use these devices to transport myself to the world that Squall and Team RWBY are now stuck in.

"And as for why I chose Squall to go, I thought it would be better if I sent someone whose skills I could vouch for..." She hesitated, then, and briefly averted her eyes, before offering a shrug. "And I know him well enough to have a fair amount of trust in him." And just like that, her mask of nonchalance had been put back in place.

Why did she hesitate? Is she embarrassed? Why? You shouldn't really be embarrassed about trusting someone. Ah, whatever. "Well, if you say so," Ichigo sighed and offered a noncommittal shrug in return. "How long do you think it'll take for you to get your stuff packed, anyway? Since we're here, we may as well go with you."

"I told Squall that packing my things should only take an hour or two. That being said, I also want Star to heal my hands before I do anything, since they're still a bit injured from a training session I had with my teammates, Amara and Celaena." Shaye offered an emotionless glance down at her hands before looking back up at him and Byakuya. "Why do you want to come with me? And how did you even know Team RWBY was in trouble in the first place?"

"Madoka told me," Ichigo answered, meeting her eyes. "Apparently, she almost lost connection with them when they were transported to that world you talked about, and she's been having trouble trying to contact them ever since. The only thing she's been able to do so far is locate the world they ended up in, but she told me that she'd try to help them from the background in any way she can, since she feels like something's trying to stop her from reaching out to them directly. She said that it was almost like another entity was trying to block any attempts at communicating with them and nearly preventing her power from reaching that world."

Shaye blinked, her eyes briefly narrowing as a flash of what appeared to be incredulousness danced in her purple irises. But then it disappeared, replaced by a slight, curious glint in either eye, as her face remained impassive. "Then, do you think that world is governed by another God? One that's of a similar power to Madoka, and doesn't want her interfering with its world?"

"I guess so," Ichigo told her, scratching the back of his head.

"The only person I can think of who would do that is the former Captain, Sōsuke Aizen," Byakuya finally piped up. "However, just because he would, it does not mean that he could. Even with the powers of his Zanpakutō, and the power he would've gained from the Hōgyoku, I highly doubt Aizen would've amassed the kind of power necessary to be capable of restricting Madoka's reach, which in itself relies on magic – something which Aizen likely still doesn't have, given his attempt to take Ruby away with him when he found out she was a Silver-Eyed—"

Shaye's free hand landed tightly over Byakuya's mouth (a pretty impressive feat, considering her height, and the fact it didn't look at all straining despite her standing on her tip-toes). Moving the same hand from his mouth, she balled her hand into a fist but flexed her forefinger, which she held in front of her lips. Then, her hand fell open and she waved it around, vaguely gesturing to the doors spaced out across either wall running along the corridor.

Byakuya nodded, as if he understood what she was silently implying.

Meanwhile, Ichigo tilted his head at Byakuya, and then at Shaye. "What? Why do you want us to be quiet?" He asked, his voice hushed. He bent down slightly, as his eyes darted, with clear suspicion, to the other doors. So, talking about these devices – and the fact that she and Squall's friends were keeping hold of stolen property – happened to be absolutely fine, but Ruby's magic Silver-Eyed Warrior powers could only be talked about in hushed whispers? The hell was this girl thinking?

Shaye shot him a look that just screamed 'Are you serious?'. Whether she was reacting to him bending down to her level, or to his question, he didn't know, nor could he really tell. "At this hour, the other students would still be in their rooms," she explained, her voice barely above a whisper. "They all have Aura. They could hear you just like they could hear me, if they happen to be listening in." She glanced down either end of the corridor, before meeting Ichigo's eyes again. "Plus, if anyone hears about the power of Ruby's silver eyes, they could target her in an effort to get that power. Well... when we manage to get her and her team back here, at least. Still, I wouldn't trust all that many people here when it comes to keeping a secret that big."

"Would we be able to talk more in your team's dorm room?" Byakuya's voice sounded a bit quieter as he blinked at her.

Shaye looked at him and nodded. She twirled on her heel, beckoning them to follow with a wave of her free hand. "Our room is back here. Just across from the room that belongs to Squall and his friends."

Soon, Shaye stopped in front of a pale door, which stood directly opposite the one decorated with the names of Squall and the others. The front of this other door had been decorated with a number of hand-sized stickers, in the style of four different kinds of emblems. First, he noticed five black-lined stickers featuring a pair of hawk eyes with golden irises, over the top of a pair of royal-purple hawk wings, connected between the eyes, with each wing stretched wide open behind each eye. Stuck at each corner of the door, four of the five stickers sat at an angle. The fifth sticker sat in the centre of the door's front.

He found two golden-lined stickers next, one above and one below the sticker in the centre. The two golden-lined stickers both bore two swords, crossed over a set of three consecutive rings of chains, layered and ordered in terms of size, behind the swords. The swords and chains were both outlined in a golden colour, while the rest of the crossed-swords-and-chain-rings design had been coloured in royal-blue. The outer chain ring lined up with the pommel of each sword.

Thirdly, he caught three stickers placed almost randomly in the large spaces across the door's front. These three stickers all featured a black, circular shield, and over the shield, sat four red, thin kite shapes, laid central on the top, bottom, and right and left sides of the border. A straight, silver line connected each kite shape to each kite shape sitting directly opposite. On both ends of the horizontal silver line were two shapes that seemed like they were supposed to look like weights. In the centre of the line between the weights, a crimson fist gripped the line. Its wrist, ran halfway down the lower vertical line before it cut off with a slightly-curved-downward red line.

Then, lastly, he noted four other stickers placed in other, seemingly random blank spaces across the door's front. All four of these stickers bore a golden-coloured five-point star in the centre, with maybe ten or more thin black lines spreading outward from behind it. Behind both the lines and the star, a royal-yellow star shape made up of at least ten points. The shape reminded him of how most people (including himself) used to draw the sun, if they'd ever drawn it when they were little. The thin black lines each ran between each of the yellow points, all of the lines stopping upon reaching the same height as the yellow points.

Aside from the hawk emblem likely belonging to Shaye, Ichigo wouldn't really know who any of the other emblems were supposed to represent until he met the other girls on Shaye's team. He was also curious to know how they ended up with such emblems, and if the design of their emblems were meant to represent anything.

Shaye grabbed the brass doorknob and ever so slightly pushed the door open. Angling her head to one side, she peered through the gap. Then, she pulled away from the door, and turned to meet Ichigo and Byakuya. "None of my teammates are in. They've probably gone to one of the gyms on campus in order to train, so we might have more time to talk about this situation further." And with that, she lightly shoved the door open, releasing the doorknob. "Make yourselves comfortable. I'll get to packing my things."


Ruby Rose


Ruby planted her chin in her palms, her hood pulled up over her head. She threw a glance at the sky above. "Well, at least it's stopped raining. Maybe we should head to that hole where the gate used to be?" Her eyes flicked to her left.

The Eren Titan's teal-green gaze met Ruby's silver one, their eyes almost level with one another, as she sat on his right shoulder.

They'd stopped somewhere between the Vanguard and the Middle Guard, judging by their distance from said hole in the wall, after at least a full few minutes of being unable to find any Titans. Hell, ever since Ruby had reunited with Eren (after the debacle at the inner gate with that businessman and his wagon), they hadn't seen all that many live Titans that weren't still flooding through the hole where the gate had been. In fact, in the five minutes prior to the last few minutes of getting nowhere, they'd only managed to find four Titans, with Eren killing all four of them with little to no effort. In the midst of her disappointment with how their hunt had turned out in the end, she'd closed Crescent Rose and stuck it onto the back of her belt, deciding that she may as well try and get in a bit of practice with using some Aura Spells in hopes of not seeming completely useless.

Plus, she'd planned to have a training session with Pyrrha two days from now; so, since that might not be happening anymore, she figured she could use the Titans as extra target practice. It'd also help her preserve the amount of ammo she currently had packed for Crescent Rose, which she didn't want to waste. So, it might end up being a win-win for her – that being her chance to hopefully get better at Aura Spells and Aura control, as well as saving some of her supplies so that she could still be able to use Crescent Rose later on, or for however long she'd be staying here until she found a way to go back home.

"You don't think so?" She eyed him curiously, cocking her head to one side. "Did you really want to tear apart the Titans, like I thought you did?"

He exuded an air of vicious confidence as he nodded. He gave her a look as if he was disturbed that she would ask him something with such an obvious answer – as if he'd already told her once before of his intention to wipe out the Titans.

"Then why aren't you going straight to the root of the problem? We'd find more Titans at the gate, since that's where they're all coming in through. Besides... I doubt anyone's gonna be there." Ruby blinked, lowering her gaze, before turning to face forward again. "Chances are, the Vanguard's been annihilated, given just how many Titans there have been in the Middle Guard, and even the Rear Guard."

Some kind of noise between a low growl and a whine reverberated from deep within his throat. Years of looking after and somewhat training Zwei had given her some sort of understanding of what he had to be trying to tell her. Besides, she didn't want to ignore his attempts to communicate with her – especially since he'd become a lot more responsive after she'd reunited with him.

Sometimes she even felt like he was trying to talk to her, though, sadly, the structure of his jaw prevented him from doing just that.

"I know, this situation sucks. And I'm someone who usually thrives on the battlefield, fighting against actual monsters that kill people for sport," she told him. "Still, I want to know why you're hesitating to go to the gate. Is there something else? Something you're worried about?"

To be honest, she wanted to know if he had any other way to communicate. It'd clue her in more to his level of intelligence if he could also possibly use some form of sign language. After all, while he seemed to understand her verbal communication, he also seemed to understand that the structure of his mouth and jaw, along with his lack of lips, wouldn't really allow him to communicate back in the same manner, outside of making different noises in varying tones, much like certain animals did.

After a full minute of him staring directly at her, a strangely unreadable look in his eyes (given she'd been able to read him fairly well until now), he tilted his head low and his gaze fell to the ground.

A burst of steam tore from the skin of his nape. Spots of blood followed the steam, only to evaporate into thin air, while the squishy noise of muscles being pulled and ripped from something in small bits seemed to come from inside the new, shallow hole in the nape of his neck.

Ruby planted her hands on his shoulder as she crawled closer to the crook of his neck.

Eren – the real Eren, the human Eren, the boy her own age who she'd first met upon arrival here and fought the Colossal Titan with and who she'd thought to be dead only a while ago – flopped backward from the cartilage making up the nape, heaving a long, heavy sigh, as if he'd been unable to breathe until now. The lower half of his body remained stuck inside the flesh of the nape, as well as his fists and forearms. Thick, crimson strings of muscle wrapped around him from the waist down and seemed to have attached themselves to his forearms. His left arm happened to be somewhat visible from the elbow down, as the long left sleeve of his tunic shirt was missing just below the elbow, the fabric apparently having been ripped off near the top of the forearm.

He whipped his head – his human head – from side to side, drops of what she assumed to be sweat flicking away from his brown locks, still just as effortlessly parted down the middle of his forehead. Then, he lifted his head, meeting her gaze with his shining, ever-expressive teal-green eyes that glistened like the water of a coastal sea, only for him to blink at her, his brow line crumpling as his expression softened.

"Ah, crap, you're crying!"

"Huh...?" Ruby blinked this time, before reaching her hand up to her face, palm brushing across the whole of her left cheek. Pulling her hand away, she found that the fabric of her fingerless glove had become a little wet. "Oh. Sorry. I didn't realise..." She actually felt the next set of tears roll down her cheeks then. She scrubbed her scrunched-shut eyes with her fists, hurrying to wipe away her tears and any evidence of the sadness and grief she'd first felt upon hearing that Eren was eaten earlier.

"Hey, hey, no need to apologise. If you're embarrassed about it, then don't worry, I'm not gonna go blabbing." Eren gave her a reassuring smile. "I mean, you haven't seen it yet, but I can be a bit of a cry-baby sometimes, and it's pretty embarrassing, so I understand."

"It's—it's not that..." Ah, shit, it was coming out in her voice now. She could hear her own small cries and hiccups. She dropped her head, keeping it low, so she could avoid having to look him in those eyes of his. "It's just... I thought you were dead... Blake told me how Weiss tried to save you but you still got eaten and then when I saw you come out of the Titan that ate you I thought I could feel your soul inside this Titan that you're controlling and I'm not even gonna ask how you're doing it—"

"—Probably best you don't; it's a long story and now's not really the time for it."

"...I'm just glad to have you back," Ruby admitted as she met his gaze then, her own silver eyes probably bloodshot but still just as honest – simply because she may as well just fucking lay it out there, given she'd actually started crying in front of him, which was something she'd only done a sparse few times in Yang's presence, let alone anyone else's.

Aside from Ichigo, that is; but that'd been back when he'd walked in to visit her temporary room in Squad Four's barracks, after Aizen had betrayed everyone and left Soul Society, but not before singlehandedly demolishing pretty much everyone who'd tried to put up a fight and stop him. It'd been his demolishing of them that'd had her holed up in her room, fretting over Izuku's and Momo's lives – because they not only could've died, but because she'd also really fucking felt useless and helpless and so much like a failure because she'd failed to protect them – only to realise Ichigo had come to visit her to see how she was holding up. She'd been wrapped up in a cocoon using the bed covers, and she'd sobbed her heart out, before being honestly quite surprised when Ichigo had scooped her up into his arms and just held her in his embrace in an effort to try and comfort her.

It hadn't really worked. Not until Blake had came in and told her that Izuku and Momo were both going to be fine. They hadn't held each other like that since.

That being said, she'd been tempted at least once before to try and get Yang to hold and embrace her like Ichigo had done, since it'd felt so much like something Yang would've absolutely done if she'd been there at the time. She'd not gone through with it though, because she knew she was likely just a little touch-starved, and she'd only end up encouraging herself to keep being a bit clingy until she'd no longer find herself so starved for physical contact, and she just didn't want to end up being so dependent, or to seem that desperate.

"Oh, I see, so those are just tears of relief and joy," Eren sighed, his own relief on full display, showing in the sagging of his shoulders and the way he almost seemed to deflate. He met Ruby's gaze directly, lips curled into a simple smile. "I didn't realise you'd care for me so much. I mean, we only met this morning. Not that that's a bad thing—or anything, really—it's just... I wasn't expecting you to be so..."

"...Weirdly emotional about it as if we've known each other for years?"

"A bit, but I was thinking more just... devastated. Grieved. Probably inconvenienced, at the very least."

"Oh." Ruby briefly averted her eyes. "Yeah, that makes more sense. It's just that you remind me of... well, a few people, actually." Ichigo. Me. Izuku. Maybe Momo. "I almost lost those people, too." And every single one of those times, I've considered it a miracle that I haven't.

"I guess that explains a lot." Eren's smile faded, though his eyes still remained as bright as if it was still there. "I'm guessing you don't like dwelling on bad memories. Still, I'm here now, right? And I'm alive! I've got my arm and leg back, and I'm gonna kill as many Titans as I can, for as long as I can hold this form. Especially since I'm pretty sure I lost my ODM gear when I transformed, and I didn't even manage to take out one Titan with it."

"You didn't?" The tears stopped flowing at that point, as she blinked blankly at Eren. She wiped the tears from her eyes and dried her now-flushed cheeks. "How come you didn't manage that? I thought you'd have a good shot at taking out a few before going down, considering the way you took on the Colossal Titan with us."

"That makes two of us!" Eren told her, his vocal tone sounding light-hearted, but his eyes glinting with hints of slight irritation, probably at himself and the fact that he hadn't been able to meet or match his own expectations of himself. "I thought I'd do better!" His gaze dropped to where his hands sat inside the Titan's nape, his eyes narrowed and his brows furrowed. "But then I saw Thomas get his legs eaten by that Abnormal, and I just lost it..." he admitted, his voice breathy. He sharply inhaled and steadily exhaled, as if he was trying not to cry. Then, after a beat, he quietly continued: "You know, just a bit before you guys showed up, Thomas... he said that he was gonna join the Scouts, too. Apparently some temper tantrum I had last night convinced him and Connie to join up with me. And now, Thomas won't be able to really continue on as a soldier, much less go on expeditions to take back the world outside the walls..."

"...Ohh. So, you... I think I'm starting to get what's going on with you, a bit," Ruby made mention, not really in any mood to stop herself. She rose to her feet, before wrapping her hand around a few locks of the hair belonging to Eren's Titan form, holding the dark strands in a firm grip. "This morning, when the Colossal appeared, I realised you were pretty quick to get angry. But now, I think I understand. You're only so angry because you care so much about everyone else. You didn't just go off and fight it to get revenge for your own suffering, but you did it for everyone else who had to suffer five years ago, when Wall Maria fell, and with the hope that others like Thomas wouldn't have to suffer today, either. I bet you were thinking that if you could kill the Colossal, then everyone else might be able to finally feel safe inside these walls, and attacks like this hopefully wouldn't happen again. After all, if the Colossal was dead, then we probably wouldn't be stuck in a battle like this, with a lot of us feeling like sitting ducks."

Eren stared at her with a wide-eyed gaze, his eyes almost shining, while the reflections of light inside them danced in his irises, those tiny lights gleaming. He stayed like that, for a few slow, quiet seconds, until a shaky smile, his lips pressed together, broke out across his face. His brows slanted as he blinked rapidly. "Ah—" And his voice cracked. He paused, took a deep breath, and met her eyes. "I just don't want anyone else to die like my Mom did. I don't want to lose anyone else to the Titans. I want me and my friends to one day see the ocean and be free to go and live outside these walls, without any fear of being eaten alive. I want to take back the world that was stolen from us when the Titans appeared a hundred years ago. Those things are all I've really wanted since that day. They... they keep me going."

His smile had crumpled and tears were rolling down his cheeks now. Each tear dripped from his jawline, dropping on the stitched-together scarlet flesh laid out before him, between where the Titan's skin split. Each water droplet landed with a sizzle, burning and evaporating as soon as it touched the flesh.

You lost yours too, huh? Her brows slanted. She made to reach her hand out toward him. "I..." Come on, say something! Anything! "I—"

She heard shuffling, like a giant body moving. Then, the slight clanging and creaking of rooftop tiles. Both sounds came from her left.

Ruby dropped her arm and quietly huffed. Looks like old habits die hard. I don't even know what I was gonna say, but I guess it's gonna have to wait. She turned her head left, toward the origin of the noises.

Laid across the rooftop directly beside them, a Titan that had to be at least ten metres. Its body looked lanky and pale, its thin legs and arms bent at the knees and elbows, while its feet seemed to be struggling to find balance on the tiles, its toes slipping on ceramic. Its held its head upright while it stared at them from the corner of its wide eyes. Its skinny hands grasped at the ridges of dormer rooftops, which sat down either side of the main rooftop ridge, which the Titan had perched itself on only to seemingly find itself unable to climb back down.

"I'll take care of this one," she said, glancing sidelong at Eren, and jerking her head at the new Titan.

Well, maybe now would be a good time to exercise her Aura Spells.

With a tall leap, she sprang from the shoulder of Eren's Titan, flinging herself high up in the air, towards and above the Titan on the roof. Performing a sideways twirl, she faced downward, eyes latching onto the Titan's weak-spot. With her left hand, she grabbed her right forearm.

I'd best start off with the basics.

Keeping her arm straight, her palm faced the back of the Titan's neck. She gathered her Aura into a glistening, spinning, scarlet, head-sized orb at her palm.

"Support Style, Basic Offence Art One: Single Cannon Burst," she called, deadpan and honestly unimpressed with herself. It was embarrassing that she still had to call the names of the most basic spells, all in order to keep herself focused enough to be able to control and execute them well enough that they wouldn't prematurely explode and blow up in her face. And push. The head-sized ball of her crimson Aura launched towards the Titan's neck, leaving trails of scarlet streaks in its wake. The trails dissolved into her signature red rose petals – runoff from her Aura.

The ball of energy blasted the Titan's weak-spot, point-blank, and exploded on impact. It burst with even more red rose petals. The Titan collapsed, flat and limp, atop the tiles.

Ruby landed on her feet, on the centre of the Titan's back. Now dead, the Titan was beginning to rapidly decay, scalding wafts of steam rising from its skin, as well as the scorched hole across the back of its neck. Almost as if, once the Titans were dead, the heat from their extremely high body temperatures burned their bodies from the inside out, due to the heat and energy being released from the corpse.

When the heat began to burn and chip away at where Ruby's Aura coated her feet, a red sheen pulsing around the foot of either boot, she hopped off the Titan. Ruby briefly landed on the rooftop's eaves, before hopping onto the shoulder of Eren's Titan again. The red sheen on her feet soon faded away.

"You can directly use your Aura to attack, instead of using your weapons?" Eren piped up. She turned to face him again, only to find that he'd stopped crying. His eyes looked a little bloodshot and his cheeks were flushed. He blinked and tilted his head at her. "What was that attack just now?"

"It's an attack spell. The first one in the Basic-Level Tier of spell arts relating to offensive manoeuvres and attacks. For plenty of people willing to learn Aura Spells, it's one of our default attack spells, and one of the first spells we learn."

For people with red Auras, like Ruby, Pyrrha, and Amara, Basic-Level attack spells were generally the only spells that they could use – that is, use with some degree of confidence, because, as the tier name implied, the basic spells were the easiest to learn. For people with red Auras, unless you practiced and you trained hard enough to use more impressive attack spells, then you'd be advised against trying to use any attack spells higher than the ones in the Basic-Level Tier. If you did try to use an attack spell in the Advanced-Level Tier or above, without a great deal of training, your spell would probably end up blowing up in your face, which an attack spell only did thanks to the person's Aura being red. With red being an intense colour, any Aura that happened to be red would only be intense, and somewhat hard to control in some areas, in terms of a person's abilities. Aura Spells were usually one of those areas.

"Oh. Do you not like using Aura Spells, or something? You just didn't seem very happy at using that attack spell. Do you find them boring, or anything like that?"

"I have to call out the entire spell art and name. This isn't specific to just me, or anyone else with a red Aura, but when it comes to Aura Spells in general, calling out the spell name is used to help with maintaining and enhancing your focus and control over the spell you're trying to do. For people like me, though, it's actually pretty vital to making sure executing our spells doesn't turn dangerous, since we're the most prone to having our attack spells accidentally self-destruct."

"...So, it's embarrassing for you?"

Ruby nodded.

Eren gave her a smile. "Well, I'm the only one here, and I'd be a complete ass to judge you for doing something that I don't even know how to do. So, there's no real need to be embarrassed! Not around me! Besides, the other Titans are pretty much mindless too, so it's not like they're gonna be paying attention to you if you screw up. All I'd really ask you to do is try to stay away from my nape when you're using one of your attack spells, just in case your spell blows up in your face."

Ruby couldn't help but smile and nod. She hadn't expected to be uplifted, but what he was saying... it made sense? Besides... she couldn't say he was wrong in saying that he'd rather not risk her accidentally blowing him up with her. In fact, she'd say he was only showing a bit of common sense.

Grabbing a few strands of the hair belonging to Eren's Titan, she turned and looked toward the hole in Wall Rose, where the gate should be. "You still haven't told me why you didn't want to go to the gate, by the way," she pointed out. As she glanced back at him, she tilted her head.

Eren closed his eyes and shook his head, and for a second Ruby figured she wasn't gonna get an answer out of him, but then he opened his eyes and met Ruby's gaze directly. "I just get the feeling that it's not the right way to go right now. Actually, I was thinking about finding the others earlier, anyway."

An idea struck Ruby then. It sounded so obvious, she wanted to kick herself for not thinking of it sooner! "Didn't you say that Titans could locate big groups of people by their sense of smell? Since you can turn into one, you can do the same thing, right? Sniff out our friends."

Eren blinked, his eyes snapping wide open. "Holy shit! I can!" He moved to lay his front against the flesh of the nape. As strings and threads of scarlet tissue rose out of the nape and wrapped over his neck and back, he angled his head to look up at Ruby again. Three thick, connected scarlet veins sprouted up before him, attaching themselves to his face, just under the bottom of his eyes. "Once I get back in this, we can get going. I can name more than a few Cadets that should still be alive."


Jean Kirschtein


His ass was starting to go numb from sitting on the ridge of the same rooftop he and the other surviving Cadets had gathered on. His hands hung over his feet as his elbows rested on his propped-up knees.

At least the rain had stopped. The dark clouds looming overhead still hung in the sky, though.

He couldn't even be sure their situation would be helped at all, if a bit of sunlight shone through those clouds and graced him and the others.

How could this happen?

Only yesterday – hell, just earlier this morning – had he been acting like he was hot shit, believing he was fated for a lovely, (hopefully) unproblematic life, inside the safety of Wall Sina; serving as one of the Military Police, and housed far away from a Titan-infested battleground such as this. He wanted to have a family, and be able to sleep peacefully with his future spouse (which he'd hoped would be Mikasa, one day), raise his future children, and die peacefully at old age...

…instead of being eaten by a Titan before he even got shipped out.

At the very least, if there happened to be any sort of bright side in this situation, the retreat signal had already rung, which meant the civilians had been evacuated, and that meant his mother had to be safe, too. The soldiers' jobs should've been complete now that the inner gate was sealed shut. But the next step of the plan? Out the window.

The next part of the plan had been for any of the surviving Cadets to be resupplied at HQ before retreating behind Wall Rose. The soldiers that had been posted inside HQ were also supposed to fill up the gas canisters and come out to find any stranded soldiers that were still, by some miracle, alive and in one piece.

Both tactics had been doomed to fail the moment HQ was swarmed by Titans. After all, they all knew they didn't stand a chance in hell.

Worse was the fact that everyone's canisters were almost empty. They were unable to operate without using gas as it was, but if they used what little amount of gas they still had left, they'd only end up suffering the equivalent of suicide by being stranded and left vulnerable to the Titans still coming into Trost. And even if they did happen to have enough gas to successfully get to HQ, all that would be waiting for them were the Titans – so, again, that'd just be suicide.

Connie approached him, his haste only proving his restlessness: "Hey, Jean! What are we gonna do?!" he asked, temper flaring in his tone. He turned towards his left, gazing sidelong in the direction of HQ.

"We can't do anything," Jean replied, the bitter tone of his voice betraying his despair. "They finally gave us the order to withdraw, and we're all out of gas," he mused – if only to himself – as he held his temple. "I can't believe this is how it's all gonna end. Because of those damn cowards..."

"You mean the supply depot?" Connie pivoted to face him. He made a few low, sharp, abrupt flicks of his arms, hands far too energetic for the situation as they flexed and clenched into fists before opening and flexing again. "What is going on?! Where are they?!"

"They all lost their will to fight, and I can understand why. But they abandoned their duty to supply us, barricading themselves inside HQ. And of course Titans have swarmed the place, which means we can't get the gas ourselves. And while Yang's friends in there are strong, and, according to Weiss, might have the highest chance of survival compared to the rest of us, it's all too possible that neither of them are getting any help from the supply team."

Connie's eyes widened. "Then why are we waiting?! We gotta go! Start thinning their numbers so we have a chance, just like Blake's been doing!" If Connie was trying to sound more like Eren here, it really wasn't working. While Jean would usually find himself encouraged if Eren started yelling the same sentiment in his face, Connie trying to do the same thing and channel Eren's energy, all in order to get Jean up off his ass, no less, just... it didn't have the same effect. "Sitting here on this roof is totally pointless! Eventually the Titans are gonna come for us! We don't have much gas left. We'll just waste what little we have if we try to run," Connie softly hit one of his canisters with the side of his fist. "And without our mobility, we're completely screwed!"

"You're using your head for once, Connie. Nice going." Jean turned his head to his right, staring in the direction of HQ. Connie followed his gaze. "But I'm just not sure if we've got the numbers needed to pull this thing off. The veterans in the Vanguard force have all been killed. Now how exactly do a bunch of rookies pull off a suicide mission like this?" Whatever gears had been in Jean's head weren't even spinning at this point. "I mean, let's assume half of our force even survives the initial assault. Then what? The supply room's probably crawling with Titans in the three or four-metre range. I don't see us accomplishing much in there."

A few beads of sweat rolled down the sides of Connie's face. He sucked in a breath. "It's hopeless..."

A heavy sigh escaped Jean's mouth as he lowered his head. He ran his fingers through his hair, resting his hand atop his head. "God, what a dull life this turned out to be. I never even got to tell her just how I feel."

A huff left Jean's nose and he threw a glance to his right. Several feet away, near the rooftop's edge, the golden-eyed girl from earlier that morning, who wore a black bow and who'd yelled at him for his attitude towards her, back at HQ, landed near-soundlessly on the tiles. He still didn't know the girl's name. Hell, ever since leaving his encounter with her, he'd continued to think himself as a bit of a dick for his attitude, let alone the fact he'd not taken any chance to even get to know her.

And, since then, she'd apparently decided to switch out her attire, now wearing an almost entirely different outfit. Even so, she still appeared to be equipped with her cleaver-like sword, her pouches, those devices on her wrists, and the black ribbons wrapped around her forearms. Plus, it had been raining earlier, and even Yang and Weiss had been trying to dry themselves off and warm themselves up only moments ago, so she'd likely only changed clothes because she'd been fighting in the rain, just like Weiss and Yang said they'd had to do on the way here.

Speaking of Yang and Weiss, the boots of both girls were pounding across the tiles. When they approached the girl wearing the bow, Yang engulfed her in a hug, while Weiss skidded to a halt close to the girl's side.

After a few seconds, Yang pulled herself away, grabbing the girl's upper arms and holding her close. "Glad to have you back, Blake," she said, with Weiss nodding next to her. "You didn't get hurt on the way here, did you? And what about Squall?"

The girl, apparently the one called Blake, offered a soft smile and shook her head. "Squall's been fighting just as well as he always does, and last I saw of him, he was unharmed. He summoned Shiva just before I got here." She threw a look towards HQ, only to meet Yang's gaze again. "I'm good, too. I only encountered a few Titans on the way here, and I handled them all without any problems. Speaking of, there don't seem to be many Titans approaching this place. Given how many people there are here, it's surprising the Titans are still surrounding HQ instead, especially when the only people still in there are Squall, the supply team, and Thomas and Mina. I mean, I was told that the Titans can locate people via smell, and because of that, they tend to gather in places where they can smell a lot of people, so why the Titans are over there instead of over here should be pretty unusual."

"It doesn't matter right now what the reason is," Weiss piped up, placing a hand on Blake's shoulder. "As long as the Titans are drawn over there, we have time to try and form a plan of action. We shouldn't waste this chance we have. The more time we waste, the more Titans get in, and I know for a fact that we all want this entire situation to be over and done with as soon as possible."

Blake nodded in return. Then, she blinked and glanced between Weiss and Yang. "Ruby hasn't arrived yet," she pointed out. Not a question, but an observation.

Yang's gaze fell, her expression crumpling as her lilac eyes narrowed at the tiles. "No," she breathed out, her voice quiet and perhaps a bit strained. Was she... trying not to cry? Yang's hands clenched, her grip seeming to tighten around Blake's arms, prompting Blake's eyes to dart to Yang's hands. "No," she repeated, voice clearer and more stable this time, "she's not here. I could feel that she's not with Mikasa anymore, either, so now I don't know where she is."

Blake shared a look with Weiss. If the glints of realisation dawning in their irises had to be any indication, they seemed to be thinking the same thing. They both faced Yang again, only for Weiss to then speak up, as she placed a gentle hand on Yang's forearm. "Why didn't you say so sooner? I can just use my sensory abilities to look for her, no problem."

"She's right." Blake nodded, before pulling Yang's hands off of her upper arms. Holding the backs of Yang's hands, Blake held her and Yang's hands in front of her, low but clasped together. She turned her head toward Weiss. "It might be worth going to higher ground. You'll have more open space there to use your abilities."

Weiss nodded. Then, darting away from Blake and Yang, Weiss sprang from one of her glyphs, flying up the window and wall of the attic, which stood behind Armin as it extended upward several feet from the rooftop. Once she landed on the attic's roof, she jogged toward along the ridge, until Jean could no longer see her from down where he was still sitting.

He looked back towards Blake just as Connie and Sasha were making beelines toward Yang.

Blake gave Yang's hands a brief squeeze before letting go. As she and Yang turned to face Sasha and Connie, Sasha enveloped Yang in a bear-hug, the gesture visibly catching Yang off-guard. Yang soon recovered, though, closing her eyes and managing a somewhat shaky, small smile, while she returned the hug, wrapping her arms around Sasha.

Meanwhile, Blake offered a barely-there smile as she tilted her head at Connie. "I'm guessing you guys haven't really come up with a plan yet."

Connie shook his head. "Not really." His hand reached up to rub the back of his neck. "Sasha and I spent a bit trying to motivate everyone to get going as soon as we saw you and your friend Squall take out a few of those Titans earlier, back when it was still raining. But it's been a no-go so far." He shrugged. His gaze briefly fell to the tiles, before he looked back up at Blake. "Jean mentioned how the supply room must be crawling with some of the smaller Titans, but since you were there, you'd know for sure if there were any in there, right? So have the Titans invaded the supply room, too?"

Blake spared a glance past Connie, at Jean himself. Once their eyes met, she blinked, her eyebrows barely rising for a second, before she schooled her features into a more neutral expression. She lowered her head slightly, as she met Connie's eyes, and nodded. "Unfortunately, they have. Last time I had to go into the supply room, I saw several Titans roaming around in there. Despite my abilities, if I were to fight in such a cramped space alone, while heavily outnumbered, I would've only gotten hurt and possibly would've ended up trapped, either by the Titans or by the support structures in the room." She planted one hand on her hip as her other one rubbed the back of her head. "I still haven't come up with a way to get them out of there, either."

Connie's brows slanted. "What about those spells you guys can do? Can't they help?"

"They could – in theory. Unfortunately, if we used one of our naturally large-scale attack spells in order to obliterate every single Titan in that supply room, then we'd most likely end up obliterating the supply room itself, and everything in it. Besides, Squall and I somewhat agreed that we didn't want to cause more issues here by needlessly destroying parts of the city, including the houses and HQ. Especially if there are other ways for us to clear out a group of Titans. And, I'm sure I don't have to tell you this, but recklessly destroying your strongholds and equipment in the crossfire would do nothing but just screw you guys over even further." With a short shrug, Blake folded her arms, holding her elbows. She turned to Yang beside her, Yang having pulled herself away from Sasha. "Anyway, weren't we planning to trade places?"

Yang's eyes snapped wide open. "Ah, shit! We were!" Yang's yellow, metal bracelets opened up, extending into a pair of gun gauntlets filled with scarlet rounds. Then, planting her hands on her hips, she swivelled in place, facing Spring, Christa, and Ymir. "Hey! Christa, Spring, Ymir! You mind coming with me to HQ?"

"You're taking only three of the Cadets?" Blake raised a brow, leaning slightly towards her left, as if to peek around Yang's side.

Yang turned halfway, meeting Blake's eyes from the side. "I can take Connie and Sasha too, if they don't mind. We all wanna reach the same destination, anyway, and I don't plan on letting any of them die on the way there. That said, not only would it be a bit less risky to take a smaller group, but I don't wanna leave you and Weiss and Mikasa without anyone that could offer any sort of backup. I mean, a good number of these guys are too scared and devastated to even move or get going, so I'd rather not take Annie, Reiner, or Bertholdt, who seem to be the only other people here that look like they're handling themselves well enough to function. Plus, Mikasa also told me earlier that those three managed to make the top five along with her and Eren." Yang gestured, with a vague wave of her hand, towards the trio, all three of them standing beside Marco.

Blake blinked, her jaw falling ever-so-slightly slack. "Oh. So, they're—" she cut herself off, her gaze landing on the trio as well. After a beat of silence, her gaze briefly falling to the tiles, Blake piped up again, looking back at Yang: "I'm sure they'll understand your decision." Her hold tightened on her elbows. "I'll tell Weiss that you're going to HQ, and that you're taking a few of the Cadets with you. Speaking of which," she glanced between Connie and Sasha, "do you two plan to go with her?"

Sasha nodded instantly, eager and rapid. "Of course! I wanna meet this Squall that you guys keep talking about!"

"Same here," Connie answered, giving Blake a grin. "Besides, it sounds like that with Squall, Yang, and Spring, we might get to the tower just fine! Right, Spring?" His eyes landed on Spring as she approached, stopping at Sasha's left, while Christa and Ymir stopped beside Yang. "Spring...?"

Spring merely offered a half-assed shrug in response, noncommittal and seemingly uncaring. She'd stopped crying, at least, but Jean really couldn't be sure if Spring's change from emotional to emotionless would turn out any better than her earlier state – especially given the practically lifeless look in her eyes. They would usually be bright and wide and full of life; but now? Her eyes were dark, and narrowed at the ground, and full of all-too-obvious pain and grief.

Not unlike nearly every other unfortunate bastard here.

As if sensing the questions Connie was bound to have about Spring's current demeanour, Christa decided to speak up for her: "Spring's not feeling like herself. I don't know when she'll be alright again, but let's keep our hopes up that she'll be able to reignite her fire sooner rather than later." She wrapped her arms around Spring's shoulders, both hands gently grasping Spring's upper arms. She sent an almost shaky, soft smile in Spring's direction. "We're all at the end of our tether. We're seeing our friends being slaughtered like animals. Even so, I'm sure we can find some way to help her, at least once we're at HQ, where we'll be relatively safe."

"I sure hope so," Yang told her, voice quiet. "It's unnerving, seeing her look so dead inside."

"Also," Blake piped up, though her tone sounded apologetic, as if she felt sorry for her next words, "She's one of the only links we've got to our world of Remnant, as far as we know. She also made friends with Ruby earlier, and I don't want to devastate Ruby even more. I'd rather we don't let her die, out of care for her, for Ruby, and for our chances of returning to Remnant. I'm aware that some of this sounds selfish." Her gaze fell to her feet. "The short of it is that she's important to us, for a number of reasons, and I don't like the fact that she doesn't look like she'll be in any mood to save herself if a Titan grabs her, so I'll be trusting you guys to save her if she needs it. Just... make sure she gets to HQ, and that she's alive, safe, and able to function, both for her own sake and for ours."

Hold on, what was that about Spring being a link to their world?

He'd always thought Spring to be a little weird, in the sense that it always seemed as if she didn't really belong with them, in this world, inside these walls. The same could be said for that Captain in the Scout Regiment, who bared such a similar resemblance to Spring that it'd been a surprise to find out neither of them happened to be related. If it hadn't been their weapons and equipment, so different to the gear the other soldiers carried and used, then it would've had to be the fact that Spring still only had a bare understanding of the written language inside the walls. Hell, whenever she had to write just about anything in the written language, she'd done so at such a slow pace that he and the other Cadets had often wondered what had to be her problem with their language. After all, she normally appeared to have a fine time writing when she was doing so in her own journals and notebooks and sketchbooks.

So, when he thought about it, it would make sense for Spring and that Scout Captain to have originally come from Remnant. Maybe Wall Maria's famous "Evolutionary Inventor", who just so happened Spring's father, also belonged to that same world, since his somewhat quiet fame – his existence itself, in fact – had seemed to come from pretty much out of nowhere until six years ago.

Ymir planted one hand on her hip and the other on the side of her head. "Just add the pressure on, why don't ya?" She sighed, momentarily closing her eyes. "Still, I can't fault you for asking something a little selfish of us, especially when you've already been so selfless towards us. I mean, you've already been fighting to save a lot of people who have little to no intention or motivation to repay their debt to you, and yet you've still been doing it. I'd say you're more than welcome to act at least a little selfish every now and then."

Blake nodded. Still, she appeared uneasy.

Yang gave a quiet, soft huff, planting her hand on Blake's upper arm. Her face softened into an expression of understanding. "There's no need to worry," she offered, giving Blake a small smile. "We'll take care of Spring. Besides, don't we still have Athena?"

"We do. She's resting down there." With a quirk of her thumb, Ymir gestured to the edge of the roof, a few feet behind the group. Letting her hand fall to her side, she headed over to the edge, stopping there. She planted her hands on her hips, leaning forward, and peered down the side of the building. "Rise and shine, Athena! Time to get up off your ass! We're going to HQ!" she called as she stood upright again.

It still weirded Jean out that a Titan seemed to be on their side. He assumed a lot of the others felt the same. The only person that even appeared to be cool with the arrangement happened to be Annie, surprisingly, but he didn't know why. Even Reiner and, more-so, Bertholdt had given off the feeling of being a bit hesitant to trust Athena, and Jean couldn't fault them. Since she could talk, he found it odd that she hadn't used any opportunity to give them any insight into her motives for wanting to help them survive the current onslaught from the other Titans.

Some quiet, vaguely rumbling noises could be heard as Athena stood to her full height of fourteen metres, her head and shoulders soon rising above the height of the roof. Her large, wide-set blue eyes darted from Ymir to the rest of the group. Her gaze lingered on Blake, though, and as she blinked, she cocked her head to one side in question. "You are... Blake?" she asked, her voice quieter than it'd been earlier. She looked more tired now, and sounded just as drained, too.

For a second, Blake appeared to tense up. But, upon sharing a glance with Yang, she soon nodded at Athena. "Yeah, I am. Blake Belladonna."

Athena only nodded in response before meeting Ymir's gaze again. "We are going to HQ?"

Ymir nodded. "Yep. We need to look after Spring. She's looking pretty dead inside, so we don't trust she'll have it in her to defend herself from other Titans. Think you can look after her while we're on our way?"

Athena's eyes trailed toward Spring, who still appeared to be pretty much unresponsive and more than likely caught up in her head. Athena then seemed to press her lips together in a small pout as she tilted her head at Spring. Looking back at Ymir, Athena nodded. "I will cover her. Keep her protected." She lifted her hands up, her open, flat palms stopping level with the rooftop's edge, the sides of her hands pressed together. Her palms faced the sky.

Christa gently, carefully, walked Spring over to Athena, and guided her to sit in the centre of Athena's left palm. Once she sat, Spring pulled her knees up to her chest and wrapped her arms around her legs. She dropped her head, her face falling onto her kneecaps. Christa spared a moment to crouch in front of her and offer a sweet and gentle stroke of her hand on Spring's head. Then, Christa pushed herself to her feet and hopped off of Athena's hand, stepping back toward Ymir.

Athena pulled her left hand – and by extension, Spring – towards her chest, her fingers curling inward as if to add a border that would keep Spring there in her hand. She then laid her right hand over and around her left hand. As her right palm and fingers settled around either side of her left hand, her clasped hands drawing closer to the centre of her chest, everyone's view of Spring was completely blocked.

"Well, uh," Yang started, both looking and sounding a bit awkward, while she scratched the back of her head, "I think it's about time we got going, anyway. To HQ."

Connie offered a wry smile and a nod. "Right."

"Before we all lose our nerve," Sasha quickly added.

Yang nodded and pulled out the sword from the upper sheath on the small of her back. Then, spinning on her heel, she headed toward Athena. Hopping onto Athena's left shoulder, she turned to face the group, gave them a bright, trying smile, and raised her sword to the sky. "We'll stick together and form an arc around the front of Athena." Using the sword, she drew a horizontal arc around the front of her own legs. "Doing it this way means Athena and I can keep track of you all. Also, hopefully, no-one should get left behind that way."

"Sounds good to me!" Sasha took out her sword grips and unsheathed a pair of blades. "Let's go, guys!"

Sasha took off toward the rooftop's edge, followed by Connie, then Ymir and Christa. Immediately after the four burst past Yang and Athena, Yang's free hand caught onto a strand of Athena's hair, and Athena turned on her heel, soon following after them.

Once the group had left, Jean's gaze trailed back to Blake, only to find her eyes drawing towards him in the same moment. Their eyes met, for only a few seconds. He blinked, his eyes barely, briefly widening, as his brows flicked if only a bit higher up. She appeared to stiffen, if only a little. Then, she pressed her lips together, as her gaze fell to the tiles, breaking the awkward eye contact by averting her eyes, almost as if she seemed to be unable to even look at him.

After only a second or two, she closed her eyes and her shoulders grew tense. Then she opened them. Immediately meeting his gaze again, she took off towards him, walking at a steady pace.

Tilting back his head, looking further up at her as she approached him, he managed to catch a glimpse of a glint in her eyes, offering something akin to regret. Blake soon stopped directly beside him, her expression a picture of something like shame.

"I... want to apologise. For this morning. Back at HQ."

Ah, hell. She thought she needed to apologise? Yeah, she'd yelled at him, but he'd been the one acting like a complete asshole in the first place. He gave a quiet scoff. "Like you're the one who needs to do that. I was the jerk back there, and I wish I could say it was just due to the stress of the situation. I lashed out at you, and even though it isn't uncommon for me to butt heads with Eren, I lashed out at him too." He ran his hand through his hair, letting his left temple rest on his palm.

"...Oh. Well... I guess I should be glad that you can admit when you're an ass, but... going off at that Captain Woermann guy twice and nearly getting killed by a Titan back at HQ has made me realise that I was no better, to you or to him. Turned out this entire situation's had me on edge, too. Especially after everything I saw when I was with Weiss and Eren's squad."

Made sense. When she and her teammates had showed up at HQ claiming they planned to help the Cadets and the Garrison battle the Titans, the small spark of hope they'd offered was based on an optimistic view that the battle ahead would be easier for them than the Cadets. After all, she and her teammates possessed an arsenal of skills and abilities, some of which, to him and plenty of the other Cadets, seemed almost fantastical enough to be comparable to some kind of magic – the colourful crystals and vials and cartridges and rounds of what they referred to as "Dust", for example; or even the individual abilities unique to them, called "Semblances", with Weiss' glyphs being a fine example of just how magical those abilities could look.

And yeah, they'd been somewhat right, what with Blake, Yang, and Weiss having accomplished a higher kill count than any of the Cadets Jean could vouch for (Mikasa being currently absent and all). That said, given Blake had just confessed to nearly getting killed, the fact Athena seemed to be growing tired, and the idea Spring was starting to lose her motivation to fight and survive this battle, as well as the fact Weiss had been sobbing earlier, and then the rising concern over Ruby's whereabouts since she was still unaccounted for... well, any one of the girls would've been bound to realise by now exactly how screwed this situation actually was.

How screwed the world really was.

And how much he'd tried to minimise or escape the horrors of it, using his dreams of joining the Military Police, and his dreams of a full, peaceful life behind Wall Sina, as a scapegoat.

"You didn't know the full extent of what you were getting into. Not your fault; us tiny humans are pretty much programmed to fear the unknown, and that fear is what controls a lot of us. There are few things scarier in this life than encountering an extremely imposing, unknown creature that looks like an average human being... and realising that it's a monster you can't expect to reason with," Jean told her. "A lot of us just didn't want to stare that truth in the face before today. Myself included."

"No-one wants to have to face that truth," Blake offered in response, as her hands grasped her knees and she lowered into a crouch beside him. "It's just a fact of the world. Unfortunately, as much as there are people who grow up having to stare at the horrible truths of the world and the creatures inhabiting it, there are also people who get by on refusing to acknowledge those facts, those truths, simply because it's not convenient for them."

For some seconds, Jean could only gaze at her, trying to gauge anything from the tender, knowing look, deep in her golden irises. All he could tell was that she had to be speaking from experience, though her words sounded as if someone else had originally said them to her, and she'd just decided to hold onto them. He soon offered a half-assed smile, and a slow nod. "Sounds about right, honestly."

"Mikasa! Weren't you with the Rear Guard?"

Jean and Blake both perked up. From his peripheral, he barely caught a glimpse of Blake's bow appearing to stiffen. He ignored it as he hurriedly scrambled to his feet and his gaze darted about the rooftop until he found Mikasa.

She'd just arrived, alone, and was currently sprinting towards Annie, who stood next to Reiner, Bertholdt, and Marco. From looking at Mikasa's sheaths, the blades she currently had equipped were her last pair. The slots in her sheaths were all empty, holding the swords low in her hands.

"Annie!" she called out, almost sounding frantic. Annie only glanced over her shoulder in response, though as Mikasa approached, Annie soon turned to face her fully. Mikasa stopped at Annie's side. "I know how bad things have gotten. It's selfish, putting personal matters in the forefront, but have you seen Eren's squad?"

"Some squads made it back, but I don't know about Eren's," Annie answered, her voice ever so monotone. Her eyes darted in Armin's direction.

"Weiss brought Armin back earlier. They were with the group that Yang just went off to HQ with." With a quirk of his thumb, Reiner gestured to Armin.

Mikasa whirled in Armin's direction as a quiet gasp slipped past her lips.

"Armin!"

Armin tensed, stiffened, almost in fear, at her call.

Kneeling down in front of him, one of Mikasa's now-empty hands rested on her sheath, her other hand hovering just above the tiles. "Armin, are you okay? You're not hurt, are you?" she asked, tone gentle.

Armin only offered a soft huff as a response.

Blake approached her, speaking up in his place: "Physically, he's unharmed. Weiss... and Eren... made sure of that."

Armin's head lowered further.

Mikasa pulled back and straightened her posture, before rising to her feet. She turned her head in either direction, gaze undoubtedly scouring the rooftop for Eren. Or, at least any indication Eren had been here. "Where's Eren?" She pivoted, facing Blake. "Do you know?"

Blake's gaze fell, but she nodded. "Unfortunately..."

Armin gritted his teeth. Jean caught a lone tear slipping down his cheek.

Mikasa's eyes were wide now, and she turned towards Armin again. "Armin..."

Armin raised his head in an instant, fully revealing the streams of tears running down his face. Mikasa's eyes widened further. Frozen, absolutely in shock, at what she was seeing. "They were—" Armin dropped his head again. His hands fell to his knees. His fingers tightly curled into his palms, his hands clenched. His nails more than likely dug into his palms. "The Cadets of Squad Thirty-Four: Nack Tierce... Milieus Zermusky… and... Eren Jaeger. These brave three upheld their duties, and they died valiantly on the field of battle..."

…Jean would be lying if he said it wasn't extremely upsetting; to hear that Eren hadn't even made it to the Scouts before dying. He was also quick to realise that their situation probably dictated that, if he and every other Cadet here died today, Eren probably wouldn't even get a grave, least of all one with his name on it. Their would hardly be anyone outside of them that would know Eren's name, be bothered to know his name, or learn the effect he'd had on them.

He'd just be one more on the death toll. One more reminder of the cruel reality in which they lived. At worst, one more unnamed soldier, and one more unrecoverable corpse.

"Thomas lost his legs, too. He's still alive, but he won't be on the battlefield for the foreseeable future," Blake quietly offered. Her shoulders hunched. Even as Mikasa turned her head toward her, staring wide-eyed at her, Blake couldn't seem to meet her eyes.

"His whole squad was wiped out?" one Cadet asked.

"The same will happen to us if we try to take on those Titans..."

Blake shook her head. Scrunching her eyes shut, she crossed her arms, holding her elbows. "No... it wasn't all of them. I managed to save Mina. Just barely. She's the only Cadet aside from Armin who's still relatively alright."

Armin nodded, his head still low. "I'm... so sorry, Mikasa..." Armin was trembling. "It should have been me that died, not Eren... I couldn't do a thing!"

"Please don't say that."

Weiss was peering over the rooftop above them. Her hands were gripping the edge. Her eyes were trained on Armin while he gazed up at her, his head tilted back. As a new round of tears began slipping down his cheeks, he dropped his head again, and her expression only softened.

"Please don't say that," she repeated. "It's not your fault. He chose to save you." A quiet, soft huff left Weiss' nose, before her gaze met Mikasa's blinking stare. Weiss stood up and hopped down the attic wall, landing upright, directly beside Armin. Her eyes didn't leave Mikasa for a second. "Why's Ruby not here with you? I could tell she's still alive and doing well, since I could sense her making her making her way around Trost, but she's with someone else. Did Ruby tell you anything about what's going on with her, or what she's doing?"

Mikasa's form seemed to ever-so-slightly relax. However, her expression had turned to stone, empty of any emotion. Her eyes looked darker, too, and her gaze looked steady yet empty of any light or life; like she, too, had just lost her will to live, to fight, to survive another day. Even so, she answered evenly: "I'm not sure. After she and I got the civilians evacuated, she said she had a friend waiting for her and promised me we'd meet up again later, when she feels like she's done hunting Titans."

Weiss sighed. She crossed her arms before pinching the bridge of her nose. "Of course. So she's just looking for a fight and monsters to kill. Should've known."

"It's good to know she's alright, though," Blake piped up, placing a hand on Weiss' shoulder.

Then, Mikasa crouched down, placing her hand atop one of Armin's. "Armin. Calm yourself. We haven't got time for you to get emotional right now."

Armin met Mikasa's gaze, his eyes wide.

Mikasa rose to her feet again, pulling Armin up with her. "On your feet," she commanded, sounding soft but stern at the same time. Mikasa spun on her heel and drew her swords from her sheaths again. Each step she took across the tiles seemed certain, and filled with purpose. "Marco; if we eliminate or bypass the Titans at HQ, we can there refuel our gear, allowing us to get back over the wall. Is that assessment correct?"

"Well, uh, yeah, I guess so, sure," Marco answered, his gaze following every step Mikasa took towards the edge of the roof. "But there's just too many out there. Even with you, Weiss, and Blake on point."

"I can do it." Mikasa shot an over-the-shoulder glare at him.

The sudden ferocity of it seemed to unnerve Marco. His voice was barely above a whisper: "What...?"

"I'm strong. Real strong. None of you come close, you hear me?" Mikasa stopped at the edge of the rooftop, foot either side of the ridge. She pointed her sword up at the sky. "I am a warrior!"

Mikasa then aimed that sword at the Cadets.

"Know this: I have the power to slay all of the Titans that block our path. Even if I have to do it alone. As far as I am concerned, I am surrounded by a bunch of unskilled, cowardly worms. You can all just sit here, and twiddle your thumbs, while you watch how it's done."

"But Mikasa, that's insane!"

"You can't possibly hope to beat them!"

"If I can't beat them, then I die. But, if I win, then I live." She spun on her heel, facing the street ahead. With her back facing the group, she told them: "And the only way to win is to fight!"

Hopping from the rooftop, Mikasa launched her wires, gas firing her forward.

Now, she could call the Cadets weak and cowardly because for the most part, it was true; but Weiss and Blake? They'd probably only stayed here in case they had to defend the group from any Titans that could've approached. Still, the Cadets were all sure the girls would help them here, too, if only they were given the opportunity.

And it looked like Mikasa had given them that chance.

"Well, we can't let her go alone!" Weiss shouted, gloved hands swiftly wiping Armin's face free of his tears. Once done, she grabbed his hand, and took off towards the spot where Mikasa had just been standing, with Blake and Armin in tow.

Blake pulled her sword off her back, pausing beside Jean. "In my world, I was raised outside the safety and comfort of the kingdoms." Her eyes briefly met his. "If you can't fight, you can't survive. If you don't wanna die, then fight!"

And with that, she took off again, leaping from the rooftop alongside Weiss and Armin.

…Well, better late than never to start fighting back, right? At least he'd die being brave.

"Y'know, I was expecting something more motivational. I blame everything about this on you, Eren." Jean found himself almost trembling. Then composing himself, he soon unsheathed his swords, hoisted one above his head, and shot a glance at the Cadets, over his shoulder. "HEY! Don't just stand there! We weren't taught to let our comrades fight alone! Unless you are a coward, in which case, stay out of my way!"

Determined to show he wasn't a coward, he sprinted toward the edge of the rooftop, taking off in a leap. Firing forth his wires, the hooks pierced the wall of a building at the end of the street, and he burst onward, propelled by his gas.

Behind him, a chorus of roaring cheers soon bellowed from the other Cadets.

As they caught up with him, it became apparent that they were ready to fly into hell with him, after all.